Psalms Mixtape, It's Good to Give Thanks - Psalm 92

Thanksgiving was Thursday. Does anyone have their Christmas decorations up yet?

Yeah, that's awesome.

That's what we kind of spent the last couple of

days doing, getting everything prepared for Christmas while listening to

Christmas music, because it is officially the time where you

can do that, and no one is going to be

mad at you for listening to Christmas music. It's a

correct time. Some might say, I love Christmas songs. They

really are amazing. One of the reasons I love them

is because each song. There's a lot of different Christmas songs, right,

There's so many different types, and each one can make

me feel a different range of emotions. Right. We got

the Little drummer Boy. That's a vibe, right, Jody, the

world that kind of has a vibe. All I want

for Christmas is you. That's kind of a vibe. And

love them or hate them, Hearing these songs can reawaken feelings,

remind you of memories, or overall help you in the

season all the more. What if I told you that

there was another set of songs that were designed just

to do that very thing. What songs not just for

one specific season, but songs for every season? And I'm

referring to what is known as the Book of Psalms,

the Book of Psalms, with over one hundred and fifty psalms.

There is a song for every season of life, songs

for rejoicing, songs for repenting, songs for remembering, songs for help, trust,

broken heart, inness, and the list goes on and on

and for the month of December, we're gonna be taking

a break from the series that we have been in

going through the Gospel of Luke to look at a

few of these psalms, to give us kind of an

introduction to the variety, to the wealth and benefits contained

in the psalms. Being that there is one hundred and fifty,

we're gonna cover about twenty each Sunday over the next

couple of Sunday. I'm just kidding.

We're not gonna do that.

We're gonna go over the different types of psalms, the

major six types contained in the Book of Psalms, which

is the psalms of Thanksgiving, lament, praise, wisdom, royal, and trust.

Just a little bit of history on what the Book

of Psalms is. It was the hymn book, not just

for the Jewish people, but also for Christians since the

beginning of the church, lots of modern day songwriters will

take influence or maybe rewrite or even find creative ways

to just sing these God inspired songs today.

I don't know if you know this.

They didn't have recording studios about two thousand plus years ago,

so we don't have the original tune or melody to

these songs. But as we know that God's word will

never pass away, we're lucky and blessed that the beautiful lyrics, poems,

and prayers have been reserved, preserved to remind us, teach us,

and move our affections and emotions to love, no trust

and worship our great God. So though it's widely accepted

that Christmas music should be left for Christmas time, the

Psalms are songs for all times and their songs for

every season, and that's kind of what we want to

go through showing in this series. So we've named this

series the Psalms Mixtape. Right who all's made mixtape? You

can ask my wife. She has quite a few, and

they're they're incredible. To say, no, they're incredible, they're CDs,

but all the same. Today we're gonna be looking at

Psalm ninety two. That's gonna be the song we're looking at.

So if you want to turn there with me, it'll

be in the Old Testament is where you're gonna find

the Book of Psalms, and it's just about in the

middle of your book.

So if you open.

There, if you do not have a Bible, you can

follow along with us on the screen, or you can

even go get one.

We have them at the table of available for you

back there.

One last note before we read this chapter and pray

while you guys turn there, I just wanted to say

that on the screen, I'm going to be preaching out

of the ESV translation today and moving forward, we're actually

going to be preaching from the ESV going forward, And

so one of the reasons is that we just like

that it's a little bit more of a word for

word translation compared to the other translation that we've used before,

which is more of a thought for thought.

Do I personally primarily read out of the ESV.

I do study out of both. Both are good, both

are helpful. But anyways, I just don't want you to

be distracted when you're like, this is a different translation

on the screen. Okay, that should have given you enough

time to turn there Psalm ninety two. I'm gonna turn there.

Be here on the screen, all right.

This is God's word.

Psalm ninety two a psalm a song for the Sabbath.

It is good to get thanks to the Lord, to

sing praises to your name almost high, to declare your

steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,

to the music of the lute and the harp, to

the melody of the lyre. For you, O Lord, have

made me glad by your work. At the works of

your hands, I sing for joy. How great are your works,

O Lord, Your thoughts are very deep. The stupid man

cannot know and the fool cannot understand this, that though

the wicked sprout like grass, and all evil doers flourish,

they are doomed to destruction forever.

But you, O Lord, are on high forever.

For behold your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies

shall perish, all evil doers shall be scattered. But you

have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox.

You have poured over me fresh oil. My eyes have

seen the downfall of my enemies. My ears have heard

the doom of my evil assailants. The righteous flourish like

the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

They're planted in the house of the Lord. They flourish

in the courts of our God. They ill bear fruit

in old age. They're ever full of sap and green

to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock,

and there is no unrighteousness in him. Let's pray, Lord,

we give you this time, and we lift you up.

We just asked that as we go through this beautiful

song preserved in your word for us, that it would

raise our affections to see the greatness of who you are,

and that would lead us and cause us to worship

and response. So we love you, we thank you, and

we give you this time.

And Jesus name, everyone said amen. All right. So this

last week we said it was Thanksgiving, the.

Day we all gather around together to enjoy food and

football and family. But I don't know if you guys

know this, but that day isn't called food, football and family.

It's called Thanksgivings Day. And there's a reason for that.

There's the original purpose of this holiday was to set

aside a day where we can all come together and

give thanks to God for the things He's given us.

Though Thanksgiving is now something generally celebrated by everyone, it

is interesting to know I was looking into it a

little bit this week that the history of Thanksgiving has

a lot of its roots in Christianity, but as time

is gone on, it's kind of become a day where

we used to be thankful to the God of Christianity,

to a day that's kind of just thanks to a

God in general, to now just a day or I'm thankful,

I'm just thankful. But for Christians, we need to be

careful that we don't follow this trend, not just for

Thanksgiving Day in particular, but for every day and for

Sunday when we gather to worship. As Christians, we've been

called to be thankful always. We actually see in First

Ethelonians five eighteen it says, give thanks in all circumstances,

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus

for you. Or how about colostions a little bit longer,

we'll see it here on the screen. Three point fifteen

says this, and let the peace of Christ rule in

your hearts, to which you indeed, to which indeed you

were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the

Word of Christ dwell in you, richly, teaching and moonishing

one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and

spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And

whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in

the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks.

To God the Father through him.

So here we see the apostle Paul writing to Christians

to be thankful, and he follows it up with instructing

them to do what sing psalms, to sing songs with

thankfulness in their hearts. So today the category that we're

looking at this is the psalm that we're gonna be

breaking down is a psalm of thanksgiving, one of the many.

If you're taking notes, today's message is titled it's good

to give thanks. It's good to give thanks now in

our text today, right off the bat, it tells us

what this song was written for, which is really helpful.

It says, this song or this psalm is a song

for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the day that the

Lord commanded his people to set aside for rest unto

the Lord. And so I may not realize that the

Sabbath wasn't just a day for rest. A lot of

people go like, Oh, I'm practicing my Sabbath, or I

really need my rest, I really just need my day off,

but they actually don't realize that there's a whole other

part of it. You had that day off for a purpose,

not just for rest, but it was also a day

set aside where the people would come together to worship

under the Lord, a day set aside, just like we

do on Sundays for church to gather in the the

Lord find and find rest and worship and praise and

pray and be renewed by God's word.

So really, this song is a song for church.

This song is a song for the gathering of God's

people when they get together to worship Him. And every

Sunday when we before we hear God's word here at church,

we start off with singing praises and giving thanks to God.

And I want to note that if you are hesitant

to be involved in the time of worship, I hope

that today you're challenged and you're encouraged and moved by

this text to how we respond and to take notice

of the instruction here and take notice of the pattern

that's given to us, because this psalm starts by telling

us that it is a good thing to give thanks.

It's a good thing to sing praises and declare the

wonders of who God is.

Let's look at it.

Starting in verse one, a psalm a song for the Sabbath,

it is good to give thanks to the Lord, to

sing praises to your name almost high, to declare your

steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night,

to the music of the lute and the harp, to

the melody of the liar.

Here we are literally.

Told it is good to give thanks, to sing praises,

to declare God's steadfast love in the morning and his

faithfulness by night, and all of that to a musical tune.

When it says that it's a good thing, the word

for good is this word for appropriate or becoming. It

is a fitting thing to do. It is fitting to

give thanks to the Lord. It is a good thing

to sing and declare and give thanks to the Lord.

And genuinely, I had to stop this week, and I

encourage you to do this as well, like stop and

actually think about what that means. It is good to

give thanks to God. God's word tells us that it

is a good thing to thank God, and I believe

that that statement stands true all by itself. But if

you were to answer the question of why it's good

to give thanks, what would your answer to be? You

think about that, if you were to answer why is

it a good thing to give thanks to God?

Here's the deal.

There are actually a lot of good answers to this question.

You could say, well, because he's worthy, It's totally true,

because he's God, fair enough. But I want us to

see what the Psalma says is the reason why he

gives thanks.

He says it in verse four. He says for.

You, Oh Lord, have made me glad by your work,

at the work of your hands, I sing for joy.

This is amazing.

It's amazing because we see the human element, we see

the human part of these songs. He's not just giving

lip service, he's not just giving the right answer to

his creator. But there's a real relationship, in a real

response that is going on here. That he speaks out

of his emotion, that he speaks out of the outpouring

of what God has done for him. You see him

move and thank God for making him glad. It is

good to give thanks, to sing to declare God's goodness,

because the Psalma says, you have made me glad, and

I love how personal these songs can be. And this

is written for a corporate setting. That God has made

me glad, and therefore it is good that I think him.

It is good that I sing for joy. But that's

not all that the text says, is it. It's not

that God just made him glad by just being God

and just existing.

The Psalmist tells us.

Is that God made him glad by what God had done.

It was by the works of God that it made

this writer glad.

It's by the work of his hands.

It's by the things that God has done that has

made him glad that it is now. Therefore, now that

he is glad by what God has done, it is fitting,

it is good.

It is right to thank the Lord.

And we're all taught this right, hopefully, Lord willing, we're

taught good Man is when we are children, right, someone

gives you a nice gift, someone blesses you in some

kind of way. And what does your parents say, What

do they tell you? We just went we just had

Halloween like a month ago. Right, And if we go

knock on the doors, they get candy and walk away,

and all the parents are like, say thank you.

Right, it's the fitting response.

It is the right thing to do, and it's fitting

that we show gratitude to those who bless us, to

those who make us glad.

And I think that there's primarily three reasons.

There's three reasons that we were told as kids to

say thank you. One is because, first of all, we

didn't know any better. Right, There's that you're two year old,

You're like, I didn't know what's going on.

They just keep telling and knock on doors. I'm getting candy.

That's fine. So the first one is we don't know

any better.

The second one is because we get so caught up

in the new gift. We get so excited about this

new gift that we forget to thank the person.

Right.

You give a kid they unwrap their present on their

birthday and they just want to take it to the

room and go like play with it immediately. They forget

to thank the person that even gave it to them in.

The first place. Or three, and worst of all, we open.

It more ungrateful. Right, we open the present and we

are disappointed with what's been given to us. We don't

like what we've been given. But here the Psalmist is

expressing something more than that he's dwelling on. He is

reflecting on the things that God has done and has

overcome with emotion, saying, after seeing the work of your hands, Lord,

after experiencing the gladness that it has brought me, the

most fitting thing, the good thing, is to give thanks

to the Lord and sing. And I don't know about you,

but you may have a person in your life that

when you think about that person, all you can do

is just be grateful for that person. Some people in

your life you're like, I don't want to think about

that person. I don't have anything good in my heart

towards that person. But there's some people in your life

that you go, this person has really helped me in

a bind. So when they come to my mind, the

gratitude that swells up. I'm just thankful that that person

even exists, and I'm thankful that they're even in my life.

Thiss Almist is expressing a song made for just that. Say, Lord,

when I dwell on, when I think on, when I

see the work of your hands. When when I'm made

glad by what you have done, the only thing I can.

Do is say thank you.

Is to respond with gratitude in thanksgiving. Not only that,

but to sing and sing for joy, that is rejoice.

It literally causes him to sing.

And what the psalm is teaching us and what kind

of a reoccurring theme in thanksgiving psalms is a pattern

that goes something like this, God has moved in such

and such a way, and therefore I should thank him.

That's what those psalms are there for the heart of

the thanksgiving psalm is this, when we reflect on what

God has done for us, it should lead us to

worship him.

That's the pattern that's set here.

When we reflect on what God has done for us,

it should lead us to worship him. And specifically, in

today's text, the writer is saying, it's good to give

thanks to the Lord because he has made me glad

by his work. As this writer has been made glad

by God's work, it leads him to worship. So I

think a fitting question and a fair question for us

is does what God has done?

Does what God has done for you lead you to worship?

And how do you let what God has done influence

and drive your gratitude in life, because I think there's

a lot of us. It's very potential that a lot

of us fall into one of the three categories that

we spoke of earlier. Some of us don't realize that

we needed to be grateful. Oh, I guess I never

really thought about it like that. Oh everything I have

from God. Everything I have is from God. And when

he takes care of me and meets my needs, it's

also from him. And he answers my prayers, and that's

also from him. He gives me Jesus, that's also from him.

Maybe I should recognize that and have gratitude. Or maybe

we get caught up God blesses us massively and we go,

this is awesome.

That's where it stops. We don't return to say thank

you God.

Right, I can remember that there's the story where Jesus

cleanses the lepers. He heals every single one of them,

and all of them go to show themselves to the priest,

but only one comes back.

To show his gratitude.

Maybe we get caught up in the gift and the

stuff that He does give us, or once again, worst

of all, maybe we're ungrateful for what He has given us.

Maybe we look at what God has done and we

got that's not enough for me. I would have really

liked it if you'd added these things to it. But

this text is a reminder, or it's a wake up

call for us to remember what God has done for

us and rejoice and let it show. After this proclamation,

the songwriter is now going to go on to actually

a list some of these amazing works and truths about God.

And if you're taking notes, we're gonna look at this

next section, this next portion of the of the song.

For this next section, you can just write God's great works.

He's gonna go over God's great works. And in this

next portion there's a contrast between the wicked and the righteous,

but most importantly, the work of God's hand in both.

So this first section you can write this, the wicked

will wither, but God will remain. Let's read it starting

in verse five, How great are your works, O Lord?

Your thoughts are very deep. The stupid man cannot know.

The fool cannot understand this that though the wicked sprout

like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction.

Forever, but you, o Lord, are on high forever.

Here the Psalmist once again declares the greatness of God's

works and the depths of his thoughts.

And now we get to the raw part of the Psalms.

We're gonna encounter this through this series where the Psalms

kind of come alive and you see these people start

to speak how they really feel.

Right.

That's one of the things that we get to learn

from the Psalms is that like, you'll read a psalm

and go like, wait, you can talk to God like that.

And not only that, but we remember this is how

people were singing to God. This was in a song.

He says that the stupid man and the fool cannot

know and cannot understand something. And what is that thing

that they cannot know? What is that thing that they

don't understand? That the thing that they don't grasp. It's

that though the wicked sprout like grass, and that's kind

of a creative way of saying, there's lots of them,

and that all evil doers flourish, that is, seem to

be doing well in life. Things are going well for

the evil. What the foolish or stupid person doesn't understand

is that the wicked and evildoers, though many and flourishing now,

are doomed to destruction forever. That's what they don't understand,

and that rather it's the Lord who's going to be

on high forever.

And here we're shown a sad but.

Real truth about how so many people in this world

and sometimes even how we think. It shows a mindset

or a worldview that the world teaches, the world shares,

and sometimes we can even be tempted to adopt or

go back to as having been saved out of that.

And that is that we can look at the wicked.

We might look at the evildoer and say they're doing

just fine. They're not hurting anybody, and not only that,

but they seem to be doing pretty well, and we

might even come to envy that lifestyle. But the problem

with the fool is that he has his eyes fixed

on the here and now. If you would only look

up into the future and see what's in store for

the wicked, he might have second thoughts on just being

okay or settling with everything being all right for just

right now, because he sees that the end of those

who are wicked and flourishing now have a distrust that

is coming that will be forever, and that is an

eternal judgment in hell. But the Psalmists shows that contrast,

that the wicked are going to wither, the wicked are

not going to remain, but that God will remain forever.

He shows in the last part of the text says,

for behold your enemies, O Lord, for behold your enemies

shall perish, all evildoers shall be scattered. He shows the

fact that God is going to have victory over his enemies,

that his enemies shall perish and be scattered. He shows

that God's great work of justice and judgment is going

to bring upon the wicked and all of his enemies,

that he is going to bring judgment and justice on

the wicked. We see that God's enemies will perish and

that God is going to have victory in the end.

This is something that he's singing about. This is one

of those great works that he is singing about. And

I think it's fair we put ourselves in there in

this writer's shoes, like how many of us want to

see justice show up?

We can look in the world.

It's not really hard to look all over the world

and go like that's not how it's supposed to go.

That's not the right way of doing things. That's wrong

that they're teaching. That that's wrong that they're pushing that

we say, and they're like, I can't do anything about this.

We pray, we say, Lord, bring justice, bring justice, bring

your judgment. We all long for a day where God

is going to deal with and do away with all

the wickedness in this world, to bring justice and peace

that would come with it.

And this Aalmist is.

Reminding that there is a day that is coming that

is going to do just that, where God will execute

his judgment on the wicked and on his enemies. And

this is something that should bring us gladness, whether we're

living in the now or we're looking to the future,

knowing that there is a day that's going to come,

and because of that, it helps us get through the

now and it also is able to result in us

being able to praise Him right if we think about it,

we're living in a time where if I were maybe

just to turn on the news, if maybe just to

turn on the TV or my phone or look outside,

I go like, I don't know, if there's a lot

of things.

Thank you for right now in that area.

But when I look at its end, I go, Okay, God,

that's right, you have this. That's right, you got this.

That's right.

You're going to take care of it and deal with

the issue. And that can lead us to praise him

and sing for joy. He's gonna go to the next part,

and you can write this down in your notes, says

the righteous remain because our God saves. The righteous remain

because our God saves. And we're gonna see two incredible

things here. Just like the Psalmist recounts the fact that

God's enemies will be brought under judgment, he also shows

us that God.

Saves, and so look at it.

Starting with verse ten, says, but you have exalted my

horn like that of the wild ox. You have poured

over me fresh oil. My eyes have seen the downfall

of my enemies. My ears have heard the doom of

my evil assailants. There's a lot of imagery in this text,

imagery of a horn. I almost have to look it

up every single time they use this image of a horn,

because it's just a little confusing, a.

Little weird to me.

And it is this symbol of strength or it can

represent a person. And so this idea is is this,

just as a head is lifted, that the horns are

raised when the head comes up, that there's this idea

that he has been exalted, He's been lifted up, just

like a horn that's lifted when a head is raised.

He says, you've poured over me fresh.

Oil, and that is a way of saying like that

he's been refreshed or being renewed. Says, your enemies will perish, Lord,

but you have lifted me up. You have refreshed me.

Not only that, he says that he's seen the downfall

of his enemies and.

Heard the doom of those who wish to do him harm.

And this writer is singing for joy that God has

exalted him, lifted him up, and refreshed him. And not

only that, but he's going to have deliverance from his enemies.

That he's also heard of what their end will be.

And this portion of the text is revealing how God saves.

And then he goes on even further than that to

show on you. He just showed what's going to become

of the wicked, and now he's going to show what's

in store for the righteousiful.

Let's look at verse twelve, it says.

The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like

a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house

of the Lord. They flourish in the courts of our God.

They still bear fruit in old age. They're ever full

of sap and green. To declare that the Lord is upright.

He is my rock, and there is no one righteousness

in him. We're seeing the stark contrasts of the righteous person.

It says he flourishes like a palm tree and grows

like a cedar of Lebanon, and palm trees where the

symbol of life cedars, and specifically the cedars of Lebanon,

were these massively large, strong, durable trees, and so you

get this. It's actually a crazy contrast to see that

he compares the wicked to what grass. He says, the

wicked are like grass, they flourish like, but the righteous

are like trees. Do you guys know that there's a

difference between grass and trees?

You guys know that, I know here in Washington. I

think it's a good example.

As the summer comes around and your grass has been

green for most of the year because it's just so

wet all of the time, but like literally a couple

months in the summer, it's cooked.

Mine is Mine's cooked. It's always cooked.

I try every single year, and it gets cooked every

single time. And then it's the same thing. It all

sprouts back up. We start this process over and over

and over again. Grass is so fleeting. It comes up,

it spreads, it dies quick. We live in the evergreen state.

No matter what time of the year it is. We

got a tree sticking out of the dirt somewhere, and

it's green. It's full of life and strong. Even with

the crazy windstorms that we have. Those things stand tall

and strong. That's the contrast that he makes. Yeah, the

wicked they flourish like grouse. They spread up and flourish,

but the crooked they get burned up by the sun

in a moment. They're here for only a season. And

contrast is the righteous who grows and grows and continues

to grow and then just stands strong and tall.

It's beautiful.

If we take note of where it also says that

these trees are planted, these righteous people are planted.

That's in the house of the Lord, in the courts

of the Lord.

That is they're planted and rooted in the presence of God,

the same Lord that is going to destroy his enemies

and remain on high forever. They're now remaining with him.

They're now with him. So we see this righteous that

the righteous are remaining, and the language continues to paint

this beautiful picture of this like everlasting vitality.

Right.

It's a song, right, so he uses all kinds of

colorful imagery. It's just talking about righteous people like their trees.

It says that they still bear fruit in old age,

that no matter how they're getting older and older and older,

but they keep producing. That they're ever green and full

of sap. That is that they shows that they're still alive,

that they continue to grow and they stay healthy and

continue to bear fruit. And I believe that it tells

us what that fruit is, which is the fruit of

their lips. That is the thing praises to God to

declare that he's upright, that he is righteous, that he

is a rock and foundation. So here we're seeing that

the wicked will wither and perish, but the righteous will

remain because they're planted in the presence of the righteous

one who's going to remain forever. God's enemies are not

with him, and there their result is to be separated

from them, from Him, from for ever, and.

That they're going to wither, They're going to be destroyed.

But then you have the Lord who's going to be

on high forever, and the righteous planted in his courts,

planted in his presence. And when we reflect on these

amazing things that the Psalmist recounts, I believe that they

should move our emotions to remind us and stir up

what within us a desire to thank our Lord and

praise our great God. We saw that the amazing work

of the Lord listed here are these to summarize.

When he says your great works.

We see that the Lord will have victory over his

enemies by destroying them. We see that the Lord saves entirely,

and we see that the Lord sustains the righteous. Those things,

those are just those are not all the things that

God has done, but those are kind of three of

the big ones that He's going to bring justice on

his enemies. And he saves people. He could just destroy

all of them, he could just do that, but he saves.

And not only that, but he gives them blessing to

remain in his presence forever, to remain with him forever.

It's amazing. It's a fitting song for people going to

be gathered on a Sabbath. It is a fitting song

to be for even a Sunday, to be singing and

remembering together, calling us to thank the Lord, reminding us

that it is good to give thanks to the Lord

for his great works and praise him because he's brought

us gladness by what he's done. It brings us gladness

to know that he is going to take care of

his enemies. It brings us gladness to know that he saves,

and it brings us gladness to know that it doesn't

stop there, that there's health and eternal life forever with him.

It's amazing. I need a band to come up. Please.

There is a lot to thank him for that He's

going to destroy the wicked and save and sustain the righteous.

This is an incredible text. But there is a problem.

There is an issue, and that is that the Bible

tells that tells us that there is no one righteous.

We just hear about we heard about the awesome things

for the righteous, But the Bible tells us that there

is no one righteous. And in fact Romans we see

a quotation from the Psalms that says this.

As it is written, no one is righteous. No, not one.

Just in case you thought maybe there was one, he says, no,

not even one.

And even worse than that.

We read today that God's enemies will perish. Let's look

at it again. In verse nine, he says, for behold

your enemy is o Lord. For behold, your enemies shall perish,

All evildoers shall be scattered. The Bible tells us clear

that all mankind is in rebellion against God, that we're

all his enemies and deserve to perish, all of us.

If you remember what the next part of that Psalm says,

verse ten, But you have exalted my horn like that

of the wild ox. You have poured over me fresh oil.

You remember who the Psalmist is talking to. He's talking

to God. This is a song meant to be sung

to God. And he's saying, but you, but you God,

And those are the two words there.

But you or but.

God are two of the most important words you will

ever read in the Bible. If you go do a

little word study, if you go do a little search

on that and read but God, and see what comes

after that. It is incredible. All throughout scripture, everything changes

when you get.

To the butt God. And it's right here.

The Psalmist is singing, how God is going to destroy

his enemies. He says, but you, God have exalted me

in the midst of these enemies. God has chosen to save.

And this is exactly the Gospel message, and it is

right here being sung in the Psalm in Ephesians.

It speaks of this very thing, we're gonna look at it.

It says that we were our God's enemies and that

God saved us.

Look at this contrast, Look at where it changes.

This is where we started, and you were dead, and

the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following

the course of this world, following the prince of the

power of the air, the spirit that is now at

work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all

once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out

the desires of the body and the mind, and were

by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love.

You see that that was.

All bad news. That was all bad stuff, it says

right here. But God, being rich in mercy, because of

the great love with which He loved us, even when

we were dead in our chreesstpasses, made us alive together

with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised

us up with Him and seated us with Him in

the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the

coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of his

grace and kindness towards us.

In Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and

this is not your own doing. It is the gift

of God, not a result of works.

So that no one may boast.

The text shows us how every single one of us

walked as children of wrath, as enemies to God. But

instead of destroying us, it says, but instead God, by

his love saved us and raised.

Us up with Christ.

Just like in the Psalm, He has now lifted us

up in Christ and renewed us made us alive. Now

we will be on high with Christ forever, the one

who is going to remain forever.

In this hope.

The salvation and future are only given to us in

Christ alone, that Jesus died for his enemies so to

save them and make them righteous, by taking their unrighteousness

on himself on the cross and giving them his righteousness.

That everyone who believes in Him will not do what perish.

We read that his enemies perish, they will perish, But

anyone who looks to Jesus will not perish, but have

eternal life, will be in the presence of God, flourishing forever.

Romans five six through ten shows us once again, for.

While we were still weak at the right time, Christ

died for the young godly. For one will scarcely die

for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person

one would dare even to die. But God shows his

love for us, and that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been

justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved

by him from the wrath of God. For while we

were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death

of his son. How much more now that we are reconciled,

shall we be saved by his life. Jesus laid down

his life while we were still his enemies, so that

for all who would believe in him, all those he

calls that he would save them.

And that they would not just flourish for a moment.

That they're flourishing, or their time would not just be

for now, but it would be forever. This is an

amazing work that God has done for us in Christ Jesus,

and this is the reason that we gather every single Sunday.

This is why we gather because Jesus died on our

behalf and was raised on a Sunday, and so we

get together to worship, to think, to praise, to sing,

to learn to grow because of what He did for us.

It's all in response. The salvation is the source of

our joy. There is nothing greater given to mankind than

the work of salvation accomplished through Christ. So if you

haven't put your faith in Him.

Then you need to look up. Stop looking at just now.

You need to look up and know that where you

stand right now will only last for a moment. You

might be doing just fine right now, but it will

only last for a moment. But when it is gone,

there is an eternal judgment on the other side, and

it is coming, and it will be executed swiftly because

He's righteous but that same God who's going to execute

that justice offers a way through Christ to make sinners

right before him, to reconcile them, to save them, to

lift them up, to renew them, to make his enemies

his sons and daughters, to make his enemies his friends.

And it's not by your work, it's not by your

blood being shed, but by the work on the cross

of Jesus shedding his blood for everyone who would believe.

And I implore you to see this gift and to

answer the call to repent and believe and receive this

great work.

It's too great to ignore. And for us as believers, I.

Pray that as we've reflected on what God has done

in Christ Jesus, as we've been reminded of the hope

and the many, many works done on our behalf, it

would stir up our affections to behold our great God

for the amazing savior and Lord that he is. And

the hope is that as we read our psalms, as

we open these up, as we reflect, that they would

move us to see his works and respond in worship,

that we would show him gratitude morning and evening. That

this wouldn't be something just for the Sabbath, but every

single day we wake up with gratefulness in our hearts.

Every single day we wake up with gratitude in our

hearts because we remind ourselves. We find ways to remind

ourselves of these things that God has done, so that

we would thank Him for the gladness that he brings

us on account of those great works. Our God is

so worthy and he makes us so glad, and it's

because of that that it's fitting and it's right and

it's good to give thanks.

Would you guys please stand