Psalms 33, 36, 37

Psalms — Steve Gregg

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Psalms 56, 34, 57, 142, 108, 60

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Psalms 33, 36, 37

PsalmsSteve Gregg

In this talk, Steve Gregg explores three psalms and their messages. He highlights the importance of rejoicing in God and praising Him with skill and loud noise. Gregg also emphasizes the power of God's word and His ability to deliver those who trust in Him during times of need. He contrasts the ways of the wicked, who do not fear God, with the righteousness and wisdom of God, which can lead to peace and inheritance of the earth.

Transcript

Let's turn to Psalm 33. And this is a very happy psalm. It's a psalm about singing and worship, exuberant worship, at least at the beginning.

And near the end, it's got a much calmer tone, where near the end there it actually talks about waiting on the Lord, which of course speaks of more quietness of heart before the Lord and patience and this sort of meditation. So we find that both moods of worship are in this psalm, the exuberant and the contemplative, I suppose we might say. Well, let's just read it and then I'll go back and make a few comments about it.

Now, this psalm is a song of praise to God for His great attributes. And a number of His attributes are mentioned, and particularly His sovereignty and His creative genius. But there are a number of things about God that are brought out.

The opening statements tell us how we are to worship and appreciate God. In the first three verses, we're supposed to be rejoicing in the Lord. That means we're supposed to be happy.

We're supposed to be expressing gladness. And there's a lot of ways we express gladness. One of those ways is by smiling, something that Christians sometimes forget to do.

And when you have to remember to smile, it's not very genuine. It's better if you don't have to remember and you just smile because you're happy. But you're supposed to be expressing happiness as a Christian.

If you find yourself scowling a lot or if other people mention that you're not smiling, maybe you need to look at your heart and wonder whether you're contemplating these facts, the greatness of God. Because there is much to rejoice about, really, when you consider how great our God is and what He has pledged to us of Himself. It says we're to rejoice in the Lord.

Now, that means, of course, that we're not necessarily limited in our rejoicing to times of blessing. We can rejoice in the Lord at all times because we're always in the Lord. The Lord is always there to rejoice in.

There are times when we would naturally rejoice in our circumstances because they're the kind of circumstances we would choose. But then there are times, of course, when our circumstances do not incline us to rejoice. But we're told to rejoice anyway because we can rejoice in the Lord at all times, regardless of our circumstances.

God is always there and the promises He's made and the relationship that we have to Him is always available. So, there's never any reason that we should not be able to rejoice because it's not in our circumstances but in the Lord that we are rejoicing. This is a command or an exhortation to the righteous.

That would be, of course, those who want to worship God must be among the group who would be classified as the righteous. You can't really give God acceptable worship unless you have clean hands and a pure heart, according to Psalm 24. And so also it is the righteous who are exhorted to rejoice in the Lord, for praise is comely for the upright.

That is, it's a beautiful thing. It's appropriate. It's proper for upright people to praise God.

It's the normal function. It's the normal work of human beings. If people are upright in heart, then the normal, comely, suitable thing for them to be doing is to be praising God.

We don't do that for which we were suited when we were made if we don't praise Him. When you think about it, though upright here certainly has moral connotations of being upright in the sense that we walk rightly. The term upright also pictures for us, though I don't know that David intended it to, or the writer of the Psalm, those who walk upright.

There's a difference between us and most mammals in the animal world because we walk upright. And even the apes don't walk completely upright. And man is the upright creature.

And in that respect, he is made in the image of God. God is righteous and upright. And God made man in His image to walk upright too, both morally and physically.

And those who are made in God's image, those who are upright human beings, their proper function is to praise. And His praise is comely for those who are upright. And I'm reading into it not what David intended when I use upright that way.

But the point is that since we are human, and especially if we happen to be those human beings who are righteous and upright in our behavior and in our hearts, then how appropriate it is that we should offer to God the sacrifice of praise, which is the very thing that He made us for. He's looking for a people unto His praise, the Scripture tells us, and that's what He's called us to. It says in 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10, that we're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that we should show forth the praises of Him that has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

So it's only proper that we are to see ourselves as that peculiar people who are to show forth the praises of Him. Praise is comely for the righteous, for the upright, and actually it's proper for all men. Even though God cannot accept the praise of wicked men, nonetheless it doesn't change the fact that they were designed for praise.

Even though they have not lived up to their obligation nor qualified themselves by a righteous life, nonetheless because they are human and made in the image of God, it is proper and comely that they ought to praise God. Of course, it's also a prerequisite that they modify their living so that their praises are acceptable, because it says in Proverbs that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord, and how much more when He offers it with an evil heart. So, praise is what we are called for and what is comely for us or appropriate, suitable for us.

In verse 2 it says, Praise the Lord with the harp, sing unto Him with the psaltery, another kind of musical instrument, and an instrument of ten strings. And continuing on that theme of musical praise, sing unto Him a new song, play skillfully with a loud noise. Now, these expressions tell us that worship music is to be fervent, it's to be lively, it's supposed to be loud.

It doesn't say just noisy, however, although some people are fond of quoting Psalm 100, make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands, and they feel good about themselves because they can sing loudly if they can't sing well. And making a joyful noise, they figure they can at least do that. Yet, it says here that you're supposed to play skillfully with a loud noise.

So, worship music is to be fervent and skillful and fresh. Sing unto the Lord a new song, not just the same old songs all the time. Now, the old songs have a lot of good stuff in them, but our relationship with the Lord is supposed to be producing new fruit all the time.

And since the Psalms represent the kind of singing, the kind of songs that were sung by the people of Israel, and it's clear that the Psalms were brought to birth, really, by experience, by human experience, when they were experiencing something to write a psalm about, especially David, and some others too. That as we have new experiences, there should be new psalms, new worship songs coming out of it. Because our worship should be something relevant to our real life.

And as we are supposed to have a continuing and increasing relationship with the Lord, new experiences should characterize our life as we go along, and therefore new songs should come forth. Some have felt that new song, as it appears here in many other places in the Scriptures, especially in Isaiah and Psalms, where there's a lot of references to a new song, that it refers to spontaneous song. I've heard quite a few teachers, mostly Pentecostals, tell us that new song refers to spontaneous singing, something that has never been written.

It's new at the very moment you're singing it, brand new, where you're just kind of bursting out into a new spontaneous song. We do that occasionally. Whether that's referred to here or not, I couldn't say.

And that's reading into it something, though certainly to do such spontaneous singing, and such would be classified as a new song, but whether that's what's meant here, we don't know. What we are told is that it shouldn't be just the same old song. We should be able to have newness and freshness and relevance to our present circumstance.

In all of our worship, it shouldn't be something that becomes cold and formal and traditional. But alive and fervent, skillfully done, and fresh and new all the time. Now it says, why? Why are we supposed to do all this? Because the word of the Lord is right, and His works are done in truth.

We have reference to both His word and His works. His words are right. Now this may mean His laws, which are the primary form of His words, known in the Old Testament were the laws He gave, His words.

Saying they're right in the sense that they are just and righteous, that His declarations, His laws that He gave are legit, that they're fair. Or it might simply mean that His words are always true, regardless of what His promises are, or what His statements about facts are. He's never wrong.

His words can be trusted, and all of His works are done in truth. Which means that we can never use untruth as a tool to bring about the works of God. It's true that sometimes God will work in spite of sin, or even use a sinful situation to bring about His purposes, but it never means that that was God's intended use, or that it was His intended way of getting something done.

It may be true that by you lying about something, as the case that's come up sometimes of say Christians in Russia, and they're being tortured and asked to tell where their secret meetings are held, and they lie and give a wrong answer in order to protect their brethren. They feel like they're doing the work of God that way, but all of His works are done in truth. And of course, it may be God's purpose to save the Christians in such a meeting from exposure, but it would not be His purpose to do it through lying.

He could do it through other means. The same may be true, the Scripture says, God shall make even the wrath of man to praise Him. But in James it says that the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God.

That means that when man does something out of wrath, it may bring about God's purposes, but it doesn't mean that that's the way God preferred to do it. The wrath of man is not God's preferred way of bringing about His works, though He can use anything. He can use our sins, but all of His works are done righteously and in truth, and therefore we shouldn't think that ever by compromising the truth or by anything that would be less than 100% truthful, that we shouldn't think that that's going to be serving the interests of God.

Because His works are always done in truth. Now His word and His works are linked together. They are related, because of course His words are never empty.

His words are active. Most of His works are done by His word. When He created the heavens and the earth, among His greatest works, well, I don't know if that's among His greatest or not, but certainly among the most astounding works, creating the universe, that was all done by His word.

His word was His agent, and therefore His word and His works are bound together. And it's because of His words being right, and because His works are done in truth, that we are so exhorted to praise Him. Now, first, there is a focus on His works, of creation particularly.

We're being told now in this psalm why we should praise God. The best reason to praise God is because of what He is, and what He has been able to do. And His works show what He is, how great He is.

A lot of times we might be inclined to praise God because He's done some particular nice thing for us, but if that's the only time we praise Him, then we won't be praising Him when He isn't doing some particularly nice thing for us, or when we're not focusing on the nice things He's done for us. But He is always praiseworthy, whether our circumstances are happy ones or not. And therefore He needs to be praised, and I don't say He needs it, but He ought to be praised, at all times, regardless of the circumstance.

So praise, the highest and purest praise, is not based on thanking Him for some given blessing, but for what He is, the unchanging nature of Him. And the first thing that we're told that He is, is that He's the Creator, which suggests, of course, obligation to Him. He's created us, as it says in another place, I guess it's Psalm 100, isn't it? Yeah, it is Psalm 100, I guess, where it says, We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

It's He that has made us, and not we ourselves. That is, He made us, therefore we are His. And so the creation speaks of His ownership and of our obligation to serve Him.

It also speaks of His great wisdom and His power, so that the attributes of God are reflected in the things that are said about His creation, particularly the power of His Word is spoken of here, how that He created everything by His Word, which verses 6 and 9 are quite clear about. Verse 6 says, By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. So just by speaking it, they all came about.

And in verse 9 it tells us, For He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. That is, He gave the command that light should come forth, and light came, and it stayed.

It was something that was a permanent change that was wrought. Now, as we study the book of Genesis, and as we did study Genesis chapter 1, we found that all the changes that came about in the creation over a six-day period were brought about by His Word. We saw that the Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians particularly, made a number of references to a correlation between the work of God in creation in Genesis chapter 1 and the work of God in our lives.

Because he says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, Paul says, We are a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. And in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, he says, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So, he points out that God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, originally in Genesis chapter 1, is the same God who has shined in our hearts. That is, He has called us out of darkness and shined in our hearts the light of His knowledge through Jesus Christ. Now, you can see that Paul makes sort of a correlation there.

What happened in Genesis 1 to the natural world, to the original creation, happens in us as the new creation. We are a new creation and God is at work in us similarly. And when we studied Genesis chapter 1, we went through point by point each of the six days to show how that there was a correspondence in the work of God in our lives and His work in the original creation of the world.

Point by point. The fruitfulness that came, the division of light from darkness, and many other things that we talked about at that time. Now, we see then, if we want to make the connection complete, that the changes that were brought about in the creation of the world in the successive six days were brought about strictly by the power of His spoken word.

It follows that the changes that are going to be brought about in our lives, bringing us into His image, because that's what He came to at the end of the six days. He had something in His image. Man.

Let us make man in our own image. And that's what God's trying to do in your life. He's trying to make man into His own image.

He's trying to bring you into the image of your Creator, into the image of Christ. And the changes He made were strictly by the power of His word and that's how He makes the changes in your life. He speaks to you.

He commands. And if you receive that command as readily as the inanimate creation did in Genesis chapter 1, then change will come. And change in a positive direction.

Change toward the final goal. And so we find that the power of the word that spoke the universe into existence, which elsewhere we're told is the very power that holds everything together. The very power that holds the atoms together is His word.

He upholds all things by the word of His power, Hebrews 1.3 says. That power is the power that is at work in us. Changing us.

So we are told in 1 Thessalonians 2.13, which I'd like to read. 1 Thessalonians 2.13 He says, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is indeed, or in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. The same word that was at work in the creation of the world that called light out of darkness and made the other progressive changes, that same word, he says, is at work in you.

It's effectually at work in you, meaning it will accomplish its desired effect. And therefore, God has shined the light of the knowledge of Him in the face of Jesus Christ to you. That means He's begun.

That's what He did at the beginning of His creative work in Genesis 1. And He will continue the work in you, and it will not be done by your own strength. It will not be done by your own resolve. It will be done by your reception of the spoken word.

And as He speaks the word, He with it gives you the power to change. Which is very evident, that He would never speak something unless He would never require something unless He also bestowed the power to do it. Which is why when Jesus came walking on the water, Peter said, Lord, if that's You, You command me to walk on the water.

Instead of just leaping out of the boat and trying to walk on the water Himself without a command from Christ, which He knew would be futile. He had no power to do that. He said, Lord, if it's You, command me to walk on the water.

And so when the Lord should come, Peter knew he could do it because if Jesus commanded it, then there must be a power given at the same time to do it. That's why he required that Jesus command it before He tried. And when God commands, there is power in it.

When God told the earth to stand up out of the waters into dry land, the earth had no power to do that. In one of the Psalms, that act of creation is figuratively spoken of as God forming the land with His hands as though a potter was molding the earth. But in Genesis, we're told He spoke and it was so.

So, what really happened is that God gave the command and while the earth had no power to make the changes itself, the very giving of the command carried with it the power to bring about the change. And this Word is at work effectually in you, which believe, bringing you into the image of Christ. So, this is one of the praiseworthy things about God is the tremendous creative power of His Word.

The life-changing power of His Word. He spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast, says verse 9. Now, as we consider, of course, the responsiveness of the created world to His Word and how that every time He spake that the creation responded and obeyed, we are thrown back on the sad fact that man doesn't always respond as readily as the inanimate creation does.

The inanimate creation had no will to resist. Therefore, God spake and it happened quickly. God has been trying to change the church for a long time, change you for a long time, and the only reason it takes longer than six days for Him to do it is because we've got more of a will of our own to resist that Word.

So, He's looking for people who, as it says in Psalm 110, will be willing in the day of His power. When His Word is given, our willingness will bring about the change. But the psalmist reflects on the fact that not all are willing.

Not all willingly obey God. Therefore, it would seem to fly in the face of God's sovereignty. He may be sovereign over the inanimate creation, but is He sovereign over all men? After all, don't they have a free will? Doesn't that mean that history may progress in the way that man wants rather than the way that God wants, since man has a choice either to obey or disobey God? Does His Word have sovereign power over men? That's what we come to next in verses 11 through 13, or maybe we should say 10 through 12.

That would be better. It says in verse 10, The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nothing. He makes the devices of the people of none effect.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. Now what this says is that God thwarts the counsel of wicked people when it happens to go against His purposes.

It shows that though man does have free will, God remains sovereign over history. Because if man's free will is exercised in opposition to God, God has the power to let man not execute His free will or His plans. You remember in one of the psalms we studied earlier, and now that I want to find it, I don't remember offhand which one it was, but I can probably find it pretty quick here.

It talked about the wicked who wanted to do something, but they could not perform it. Where was that? Let me see. I'll find it here.

Here it is. It's Psalm 2111. Psalm 2111.

It says, For they intended evil against thee, that is against God, or maybe against the king if the people are speaking to the king. They imagined a mischievous device which they are not able to perform. The wicked men had evil plans.

They exercised their free will against God, but though they exercised their free will against God, and He didn't make them think His way, nonetheless, He retains the right to restrict them and not give them success in the exercise of their plans or the execution of their plans. So we see that God is still sovereign over history. Man's free will doesn't change that because man can't do anything except what God releases him to do.

Man physically cannot carry out his plans unless God permits it. Therefore, even though men may make wrong decisions, if those decisions are something that God cannot use in order to further His purposes, He can simply bring to nothing the counsel of the wicked. He cannot allow them to perform the things that they plan to do.

And that's, again, another aspect of His sovereignty spoken of here in Psalm 33. After mentioning that His Word had sovereign power in creation, we're told He also has sovereign power even over the heathen, even over the wicked, even over the ones who do not willingly obey His Word as the inanimate creation did, yet He still maintains full control of history because the Lord brings the counsel of the heathen to nothing. That is, their counsel is their plotting, their plans.

Remember Psalm 2? The kings of the earth have gathered together and the rulers, and they plotted against the Lord and against His anointed. And they say, Let us cast His cords from us and break His bands from off us. They try to defy His sovereignty, but what does He do? He sits in the heavens and laughs and says, Yet have I set my King upon my holy hills Zion.

All their attempts have not been able to change God's ultimate purpose, His eternal purpose. And one of the things that we can praise God for is that that sovereignty has not been used against us, but in fact to draw us to Himself. Jesus said, No man can come unto Me except the Father which sent Me to draw him.

And God, who exercises sovereignty over the affairs of man, has chosen to call you to be part of His program instead of calling you to be one of the people that He has to thwart at every turn. He has put every good desire and every good decision in your heart. Now, you didn't have to obey them, but the Bible does say it is God who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Philippians 2.13 or 2.12, one or the other. 2.13, I think it is. So, we find God's sovereignty.

This is what we're praising God for, His power and sovereignty and creation over the inanimate creation, also over history in spite of the deficient or defective counsel and plans and plots of the wicked men. God still gets His way. Then verse 13 talks about His all-seeing gaze which has a lot to do with how just He is when He judges.

Another aspect of His greatness and of His character to praise Him for. The Lord looketh from heaven and beholds all the sons of men from the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike.

He considers all their works. Notice, all, all, all in each of these verses. Meaning, of course, that's in contrast to the way we see things.

We look down and we see some things. We don't see all things. We see some works.

We don't see all men's works. We see some of the inhabitants of the world, but we don't see all the inhabitants of the world. Therefore, we will be faulty in our judgment.

We'll make decisions based on partial data because we don't see it all as He does. But He sees it all. He sees all men.

He sees all the inhabitants of the earth. He sees all their works. therefore, of course, His all-seeing eye is one of the great attributes of His character.

It's His omniscience, as the theologians call it, which means all-knowingness. But it leads to another of the attributes, which is His correct judgment. When He judges, He takes all the data into consideration, which we, when we make temporal judgments, fail to do because we don't have all the data.

Now, it goes on to suggest that safety is of the Lord. This is fairly much like what we read in chapter 20 and verse 7, which says, Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. David might have had horses and chariots, but he didn't trust in them.

I believe that there are times when David deliberately avoided weapons in battle. When he came against Goliath, he didn't even take a sword or a spear. He even made reference to that.

He says, You come against me with a sword and a spear, he said to Goliath. He says, But I come to you in the name of the Lord God of Israel, the Lord God of hosts of Israel, whom you have defied. That is, I'm not coming with weapons, as you are.

I'm coming in the name of the Lord. I'm not trusting in horses and chariots. I'm remembering the name of the Lord our God.

Here, he's pointing out that horses are, which represents military power in the Psalms, whenever there's reference to horses. Military power is not security. It says, There's no king, save by the multitude of a host.

That means an army. A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. And a horse is a vain thing for safety.

Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. Horses were, of course, considered to be one of the strongest things that an army could have going for it. Strong, swift horses.

I mean, fast and reliable transport is always important in war. And so, an army that had a lot of horses was considered to be strong. But, he says, these things are vain.

If you're trusting in those things for safety, the God who sees everything and controls everything, you're not going to be able to defend yourself against him. The picture of Armageddon in the book of Revelation, whatever that picture means, depicts armies against the Lamb, against the Lord. But, of course, their efforts are futile.

In fact, without reference to Armageddon, in Revelation chapter 19, there's a very powerful picture of the all-conquering Word of God against the armies of the heathen. In Revelation 19, beginning with verse 11, it says, And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture, dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God.

And the armies, which were in heaven, followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Now, how does he do this warfare? Has he got guns and ammo and tanks? Or does he have horses and chariots? That's not how he does it. It says, And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, which is always a symbol of his word.

The fact that it's coming out of his mouth confirms this. That with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.

And so forth. But he smites the nations with his word. Now, this perhaps would speak of the fact that though the nations rise up with their horses and chariots against the Lord and against his anointed to prevent the spread of the gospel, and many military governments have sought to prevent the spread of the gospel within their borders, nonetheless, the word of God prevails.

The apostle Paul was put in prison by the emperor Nero. But Paul wrote to Timothy and says, I'm in prison, but the word of God is not bound. The word of God is still going forth and spreading abroad.

When the Romans were trying to stamp out the spread of the gospel later on in the 2nd and 3rd century, the gospel only spread the more. And the more the church was persecuted, the more it grew. And it came to a point where Christianity had conquered in the sense that it had converted half of the population of Rome.

So it is said by some church historians about half of the population of Rome was converted. And that happened in the time of persecution, not in the time of peace. So the horses and the chariots and the weapons and all that man can bring against the Lord and against the armies of the Lord of hosts, which are his missionaries, cannot really stop it.

Can't stop it. And they will not, in the last day when Jesus comes back, those weapons will not be able to protect them either. A horse is a vain thing for safety.

Now, by the way, without regard to apocalyptic fulfillments and the coming of Christ and all, it still remains true in any nation, in any war, that safety, the issues of battle, do not fall into the hands necessarily of those who have the biggest weapons. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, the race is not to the swift and the victory is not to the mighty necessarily. It's strictly a matter of God's sovereignty.

He raises up kings and he puts down kings and he can cause a smaller army to defeat a larger army, as the story of Gideon made abundantly clear. Having a lot of weapons does not guarantee security, but being on God's side does. And so I wish our own nation, by the way, would put more trust and more effort into being on God's side than into ignoring God and trying to find other means of security.

Now, it says in verse 18, Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. So, there's been reference already to the eye of the Lord searching the whole earth and seeing all men. And as He sees them, of course, it's implied that He must react to them.

As He sees wicked men, He must judge them. And their horses and their chariots will not help them when God decides to judge them. On the other hand, His eye is also upon those who fear Him, on the godly.

And His gaze upon them results not in something to defend themselves against, but actually He delivers them. He delivers their soul from death to keep them alive in famine. Which means that even though we may be facing death or in the midst of famine or any other kind of need, financial or otherwise, even though at those times we are not as consciously aware of the presence of God as especially we are when God comes through with a tremendous deliverance or provision.

At those times of need where His presence is not so much felt, nonetheless, His eye is on us at that time. He knows the number of hairs on our head. He knows the number of pennies in your pocket.

And He knows far more than that. And because He sees all, there is security for us though we face death or though we face famine or any other shortage or need. His eye is upon them that hope in His mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.

Now He says, Our soul waited for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His holy name.

His holy name. Many times the name of the Lord stands for His character, all that is known of His character. And so it is used sometimes in the Scriptures to speak of the name of the Lord.

Very frequently a person's name indicates more than just the sound of the word that is attached to him when he is born or that he is christened with. It has to do with who he is and what he is. And that's why God often would change people's names to indicate that He was going to make them into something else.

He told Abram to be Abraham, changed his name to Abraham, meaning father of multitudes because He intended to make him just that. He told Jacob He was going to call him Israel from now on, a prince with God. Not because Jacob was a prince with God at that time but because He intended to make him that.

And so when God changes a person's name, He called Simon Peter a rock because that's what He intended to change him into. The name signified what the person was and a new name signified what the person was to become. In fact in Revelation it says that to those who overcome, Jesus said I'll give a white stone with a new name written on it and no one will know the name except the person who receives the stone.

But He gives a new name to every one of His overcomers which indicates that He makes them into something and no one knows what that's going to be. As it says in 1 John 3, it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall seem as He is. At any rate, we have trusted in His holy name probably means we have trusted in what He is, who He is, His character and all these things we've been talking about so far, His great power and His great wisdom and His sovereignty.

Then this prayer, let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in Thee. Now, Psalm 34, we are not going to cover now. We'll cover tomorrow morning because it belongs to a group of psalms.

You notice it has a historical title that tells when it was written. Well, there are four psalms that have such titles that are associated with about the same period of time in David's life. And we want to take them all together because they belong to the same point in time and the circumstances of David's life relate to all four of them.

And we'll cover them together tomorrow. So, we'll skip over them for now. Psalm 35, we will cover also tomorrow in another group.

It's the first of the imprecatory psalms. So, we'll skip over both of those for now and cover them as parts of larger groups in tomorrow's lessons. So, we now jump to Psalm 36.

Psalm 36. And this is a short psalm. And for all its shortness, it has a few problems.

Most of them are in the opening verses. Especially the first verse. You'll see it immediately.

It says, The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before His eyes. What does that mean? The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before His eyes. What that means is a mystery.

In fact, commentaries only... Commentaries struggle with it also. And in fact, some of the translations have sought to change it. There is apparently a case to be made, though it's not a strong one, for changing the word my to his.

So that the transgression of the wicked saith within his heart that there is no fear of God before His eyes. Well, that at least gets a little closer to being sensible. But still the wording is irregular and a little bit unnatural.

At any rate, without trying to iron it all out entirely, I think we can simply say that this is a description of wicked people. And the first line, the transgression of the wicked saith, actually in the Hebrew, literally should be translated an oracle of transgression. Now that might not enlighten you much, just hearing that.

But when you think about what an oracle is, usually an oracle is a prophetic utterance, a word given. And we have expression in the Scripture of an oracle of David. That is a word given by David.

Or the oracle of the Lord is sometimes the expression found in the Old Testament, which would mean a prophecy or a word given from God. When it says an oracle of transgression, it means that as God gives oracles or words to His people, so transgression itself is a God to some. Sin itself is a God, worshipped by some, and which gives oracles and speaks to them.

Now what we have in the first verses of this chapter, and I mean the first four verses, is a description of the worst kind of men. So bad, in fact, that transgression has become a God to them. Sin is not just something they do because they're weak and because they lack moral wisdom or something, but they worship evil.

And the intention of the psalmist here is to paint the darkest, lowest, slimmiest picture of the evil in man, and to contrast it in verses 5 through 9 with the loftiest description of the goodness of God. To make a very clear picture in the reader's mind of the difference in the goodness of God from the depravity of man. And so the verses 5 through 9 talk about the goodness of God in such lofty and flowery terms as to set about a stark contrast from that description of man's wickedness.

And the final three verses, 10 through 12, are simply a prayer, a prayer that God will continue to bless righteous people and to deliver the psalmist from the tendency to be like those wicked men that he's described. So that's how this psalm develops. And we'll read it.

But as I said, the language of the first verse is enough to throw you for a loop. And then you can get so caught up on that that you never get any further. We'll just read through the psalm and you'll notice what I was saying here.

The transgression of the wicked, or an oracle of transgression, within my heart or his heart, whichever you prefer, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. As I said, that's unnatural even with the changes suggested, and so it's not clear how it would more smoothly read. But it's clear what's being said, that wicked men don't fear God.

That's an easier way of saying that, a little more understandable. For he flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.

He hath left off to be wise and to do good. That is, he has given up entirely on wisdom and goodness. He devises mischief upon his bed.

He setteth himself in a way that is not good and abhorreth not evil. Now, this wicked man is said to be flattering himself in his own eyes. Well, since there's no fear of God in his eyes, his eyes are not going to be seeing things correctly anyway.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And if a person doesn't have the beginning, he certainly doesn't have the middle part or the end either.

And so, if he doesn't fear God, then he doesn't have any wisdom or any knowledge. And if there's no fear of God before his eyes, it's obvious that his eyes are not going to see things correctly. So, when he looks at himself, he doesn't see things the way God sees them.

He doesn't see himself correctly. He sees himself in a better light, really, than is legitimate. He flatters himself in his own eyes.

He looks at himself and thinks he's rather cool, thinks he's rather wise, rather witty. And almost all sinners think this way about themselves. But, in fact, the Bible paints a very different picture of them.

They're just flattering themselves blindly They see themselves incorrectly. They don't have the fear of God before their eyes. Therefore, their eyes can't correctly evaluate anything, especially themselves.

And they're not clever at all. They're fools. They're blind.

And he says that they continue to flatter themselves, which means, of course, that they congratulate themselves for their wickedness, rather than seeing it as a reproach to be repented of, so that their wickedness gets so bad that it's found to be hateful. Now, I don't know if it means hateful on their side, that they get so bad that even they're sick of it, or whether it just means that they get to a place where their wickedness is more and more abominable in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the righteous. Anyway, the words of his mouth are a problem.

They're iniquity and deceit, or lying. Now, Jesus said, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. So, if the words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit, then that's what his heart is filled with.

And if his heart is filled with that, then not only his words, but his actions are going to be affected, because it says in Proverbs 4.23, Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4.23, that was. Keep your heart with all diligence, because out of it are the issues of life.

If your heart is corrupt, well, then all the things that issue forth from your heart, your words and your actions, will be corrupt as well. So, he's full of iniquity and deceit, and therefore, his actions show it. He is left off to be wise or to be good.

That is, he's given up on it. He's stopped doing it. Stopped being good or wise.

He devises mischief upon his bed. He's not content just to be sinning all day long, but even when he goes to bed, instead of going to sleep, he just thinks of other mischievous, evil things to do. His mind is totally obsessed with evil.

He sets himself in a way that is not good. Setteth himself means that he establishes himself in it. It's not as though he just kind of wanders into the wrong path once in a while, like most of us have been known to do.

And even people, even a lot of people who aren't Christians, are not quite as depraved as this. This is the most depraved man. He has actually set his path in cement in the wrong way so that he can't really turn out of it anymore.

He's set. He's set in that wrong path. And he does not abhor evil.

Evil is something, in fact, that he likes. Now, by contrast, we see the goodness of God. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains, and thy judgments are a great deep, O Lord. Now, those are the very verses that we get one of our songs from, though we've modified them for the music. Thou preservest man and beast.

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. That's part of the same song.

You might recognize it. Thy steadfast love extends to the heavens. That's from thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens.

Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. That one hasn't changed much. Thy righteousness is like majestic mountains, and thy wisdom, where it says here judgments, like the depths of the sea.

And then we sing, filling my heart is your lovingkindness. There's reference to that in verse 7. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! I find my peace in the shadow of your wings. It comes from, therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

When we sing, I eat my fill of the abundance of your household, that's clearly taken from the first part of verse 8. And I drink from the streams of rejoicing. That's from the latter part of verse 8. So if you ever wondered where that song we sing comes from, it's from verses 5 through 8 of this song. But it's a description of the various attributes of God, of His excellent goodness.

It tries to focus on all the best things about God. Not that anything is bad about Him or worse, but just the highest thoughts that man can have of God to be set in contrast with the things He's just said about the wickedness of men. For with thee is the fountain of life, verse 9. In thy light shall we see light.

Now that statement, in thy light shall we see light, sounds to me like it has a lot of depth of meaning. And almost so much that I, to tell you the truth, that I kind of recoil from trying to investigate it. Not because there's anything scary about it, but just because I feel like it's so deep that once we get into it, that we'll never get out of it again.

It's like it'll take forever to get into it. So I must say I've refrained myself from wanting to comment, at least very much. In thy light we shall see light seems to be saying that as we are in the light of God, as we're walking in the light, we will be able to see those things which pertain to spiritual good and which pertain to godliness.

Now some commentators have pointed out that light in the Old Testament sometimes has symbolic reference to something like joy or something like that. But we are told in 1 John 1 that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. And if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin. That's 1 John 1, verses 6 and 7. So that God is light, He's in the light, and if we are in His light, then we will have fellowship with Him.

We'll actually see Him. We'll see God. In thy light we shall see light.

Now to me it's an unusual wording and the very unusualness of it suggests to me that there's a lot in there that I haven't cared or dared to probe yet. And it's not because of fear so much as just the feeling that I might get beyond my depth. Now maybe you say, I don't know what you're talking about.

That statement doesn't sound that way to me. But that's just the way it hits me. Since I'm teaching here, that's just what you're... You're going to be subject to the way things hit me once in a while.

So we're going to move on there. Maybe it has some clear meaning to you that doesn't go very deep. You can just apply it in a surface way and you're welcome, of course, to do that.

Now His prayer at the end, having laid out a graphic picture of man's depravity and put that over against the goodness of God, He now responds, knowing Himself to be a man subject to such depravity, and yet a man who has been called to goodness and to virtue like God, He sees that what He'd better do is pray. And He says, O, continue Thy lovingkindness to them that know Thee, and Thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against Me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove Me.

There are the workers of iniquity fallen. They are cast down and shall not be able to rise. So He's saying, Continue to bless righteous Me, or the righteous people, which He must mean Himself included, and keep Me from being drawn away or removed, verse 11, by the workers of iniquity, perhaps referring to being tempted because He in His own nature as a human being has all those same tendencies.

You know, even though He's a righteous man living for God and no doubt is including Himself among the righteous, this is David who wrote it, He sees that there's always that, there's always the potential for falling. There's always the potential of being drawn away. We should never think ourselves to have progressed so far as Christians that we're totally incapable of falling away.

Some of the most frightening things have happened to Christians I've seen who seem to be doing very well, even for years sometimes, but who have fallen into just the same sins that the worst of sinners get into and sometimes end up drowning in them. And I don't, I don't know, it just puts the fear of God in me because we realize that even if we're living a righteous life, there's always the possibility if we don't trust in the grace of God and if we don't keep our step on the right path that we can be removed by the hand of the wicked. Not removed in the sense of hurt by them, but more like seduced by them into the wrong path.

The next psalm, Psalm 37, is interesting in that it reminds us a lot of the book of Proverbs. It is in fact a group of wisdom sayings. When we started talking about Job and the poetic books, I mentioned that of the poetic books, a few of them are also called wisdom books.

The poetic books are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Five books. But of those five, three are also called wisdom books.

Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. They are called wisdom books because they contain the distilled wisdom of wise men on various practical subjects. Occasionally, you'll run into some wisdom literature in other parts of the Scripture besides those three books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.

You find some of it in the Prophets. You find some of it even in the Pentateuch. And you find even in this place some of it in the Psalms.

This is the kind of stuff, now David wrote it, but this is the kind of stuff that Solomon would later say in his Proverbs. And Solomon was David's son. And no doubt he got a great deal of his understanding and of his common sense from his father David.

And you'll find that some of the themes in Psalm 37 are echoed in the Proverbs. One other point to make about this particular psalm is that it is yet another acrostic psalm. Now most of the acrostics have 22 verses because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

And each verse usually starts with one successive letter of the alphabet. In this case, there are two verses for every letter of the alphabet. And the verse numbering in our Bibles breaks down a little bit.

But in the Hebrew, there are two verses beginning with each letter. So, that's why it's longer than the other acrostic psalms. Okay, let's read this psalm.

By the way, this psalm and Psalm 34 stick out in my mind as being so full of promises to lay hold of to the Christian that you would probably do well to memorize several verses from this psalm. There's promises about providence. There's promises about all kinds of things.

As I said, this one in Psalm 34, which that is Psalm 34 we're going to study tomorrow also. Just full of tremendous promises to the Christian. And the promises of God are something by which we become partakers of the divine nature according to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1, I think in verse 3, it says, whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be the partakers of the divine nature.

That's actually 2 Peter 1.4. So by these promises we can be partakers of the divine nature by applying, laying hold of, resting in the promises of God. Now, there's a lot of people who say you ought to claim the promises. It's a very common thing to hear certain kinds of preachers say that you just got to claim the promises, brother, just claim your healing, claim this, claim that, and the other thing.

Now, I don't really see I don't see us in a position to be claiming things exactly. Now, that doesn't mean that we can't confidently receive something. If God has promised us something, then it's ours.

But we are not claiming almost sounds like we're making some kind of demand. Where I believe that we are in the Scriptures, frankly, nowhere in the Scripture does it say to claim the promises. Nowhere is that term ever used.

But that we are to rest in the promises is something that I believe is probably more of a Christian and Scriptural attitude. To rest in God, to enter into God's rest because of His promises. We can stand on the promises.

And essentially it works out the same way. It's just that one statement seems to put more of an aggressive, self-assertive kind of a thought into it. You know, claim it, brother.

Whereas, if we're just resting the promises, it means that we understand the promises are there, we take God at His word, and we live as though we believe them. And therefore, we are at rest because we expect God to fulfill His promises. Because that's a matter of faith to us to believe His promises are true.

Well, let's read. Threaten not thyself because of evildoers. Now that means, actually it means don't be envious of them.

Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good.

So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord.

Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

Fret not thyself because of Him who prospereth in His way. Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath.

Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the Lord they shall inherit the earth.

For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider His place and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

The wicked ploddeth against the just and gnasheth upon Him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him. For He seeth that His day is coming.

The wicked have drawn out the sword. They have bent their bow to cast down the poor and the needy and to slay such as be of an upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart and their bows shall be broken.

A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken. But the Lord upholdeth the righteous.

The Lord knoweth the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time. And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

But the wicked shall perish. And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs. They shall consume into smoke.

They shall consume away. The wicked borroweth and payeth not again. But the righteous showeth mercy and giveth.

For such as be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth. And they which curse Him shall be cut off. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

And He delighteth in His way. Though He fall, He shall not be utterly cast down. For the Lord upholdeth Him with His hand.

I have been young and now am old. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor His seed begging bread. He is ever merciful and lended.

His seed is blessed. Depart from evil and do good and dwell forevermore. For the Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not His saints.

They are preserved forever. But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever.

The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and His tongue talketh of judgment. The law of His God is in His heart. None of His steps shall slide.

The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay Him. The Lord will not leave Him in His hand nor condemn Him when He is judged. Wait on the Lord and keep His way.

And He shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading Himself like a green bay tree.

Yet He passed away and lo, He was not. Yea, I sought Him, but He could not be found. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.

But the transgressors shall be destroyed together and the end of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble.

And the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in Him. All right.

As you can see, there's tremendous amount of promises and wisdom in this psalm. It would be impossible for us to treat every verse partly because there are so many and partly because they stand independently of each other so much. Like the Proverbs, they don't follow in every case just a logical train of thought.

It sort of goes back and forth between different thoughts. And therefore, it's like treating a chapter out of a Proverbs, especially after chapter 9 of the Proverbs, where the verses are quite unrelated to each other in many cases. It's like you have to give 30 Bible studies because there are 30 verses in 30 different subjects.

In this case, we don't have exactly 40 different subjects. We have several that keep coming back. The one thing that keeps coming back most often is the theme of the righteous or the meek inheriting the earth.

Now, this is like this psalm could be seen as a commentary on Jesus' statement. I believe Jesus' statement was made in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 5 where Jesus said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now, obviously, that wasn't original with Jesus.

He got it from this psalm, from verse 11, that the meek shall inherit the earth. So, Jesus was quoting, more or less, or alluding to this psalm where He said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. But it portrays a very different picture than what some people believe because some people feel that in eternity we're going to just be kind of ethereal, disembodied spiritual beings living in some kind of distant spiritual realm that's far, way beyond the blue as some of the old spirituals record it.

And that heaven is somewhere way out there that we're going to be spending our time in. But the Bible teaches, I believe, that there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. And the new earth is where we're going to live.

We're going to inherit earth, the new earth, I believe. And it's not that we're going to be some kind of spooky ghost floating around in space or in some other realm. We're going to be transformed into eternal, incorruptible bodies.

According to 1 Corinthians 15, our bodies are going to put on incorruptible-ness. That is, they won't decay, they won't age, they won't die. And in that condition, we will inherit an earth.

An earth like this one. In fact, it may be the same one with the top burned off. There's some dispute as to whether the new earth is a totally new planet made from scratch after this one is totally dissolved or whether the destruction of this earth is merely the destruction of the surface of the earth and then God replants it and remakes it.

In which case, it's this earth, this very earth that we inherit. Actually, from the various scriptures on the subject, I prefer that latter view. But that we are going to inherit the earth or that the righteous or the meek are going to inherit the earth is stressed so many times in this psalm.

In verse 9, we come to it the first time. At the end of verse 9, it says, They that wait on the Lord, they will inherit the earth. Then in verse 11, But the meek shall inherit the earth.

And then, there's not reference to the earth particularly in verse 18, but it does say, The Lord knoweth the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever. He's already said earlier what their inheritance is. They're going to inherit the earth.

And this says their inheritance is forever. In verse 22, it says, For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth. And verse 29, The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever.

Now, the land in the Hebrew is the same word as translated earth elsewhere. And why it's translated land here, I don't know. Though, it could be translated either way in each case.

And so, we see all these references to the righteous man inheriting the earth. In verse 34, it says, Wait on the Lord and keep His way and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land or the earth. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

Now, note that. It says that you will inherit the earth and the wicked will be cut off from the earth. Not the other way.

Sometimes people think that God's going to leave the earth to the wicked and just zoom the church off out to outer space somewhere and let the wicked have the earth. But it's just the opposite. It says you will see the wicked cut off from the earth.

But you'll inherit it. Now, this is stated very clearly in another place by David's son who must have read this psalm or else spoken independently by inspiration in Proverbs chapter 2. At the end of Proverbs chapter 2, the closing verses. Verses 21 and 22.

Where he says, For the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. That's Proverbs 2, 21 and 22.

So, he's saying the upright man and the perfect man shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from it and rooted out of it. So, it's sort of backwards the way some people think about the situation.

The earth is going to belong to us. Not the wicked. They will be rooted out of it.

We'll see when they're rooted out of it. It says in Psalm 37, 34. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

So, these promises of the righteous inheriting the earth are intermingled with other thoughts which are related to it. We might, as I said, say this whole Psalm is a commentary on Jesus' words, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Because many of the other things that are mentioned can be seen to have direct relationship.

For instance, the fact that we should not envy, the opening thought of the book, of the chapter, I should say, is that we should not envy evil doers. They seem to be prospering, but they won't be here long. We will, but they won't.

And we find repeatedly the word fret not. Now, in our language, in modern English, fret usually means something like worry or something like that. But unfortunately, the word has changed or is a poor choice of words in the King James.

It actually refers to not being jealous or not being envious. What does your living Bible say on the very opening words of this Psalm? Never envy the wicked. So, again, fret there means don't... It means envy.

Don't envy them. And that's also stated a number of times shortly thereafter where it says... Oh, let's see. I think verse 7. Yeah, it says, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently on Him.

Fret not thyself because of Him who prospers in His way. The wicked man is prospering now, but we're told later in verse 34 that he's going to be cut off and we're going to inherit the earth. In verse 8, Cease from anger and forsake wrath.

Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Don't let envy for the prosperity of evil men lead you to go their way in hopes of prosperity. Instead, what are we to do? Verse 3 tells us, Trust in the Lord and do good.

So shalt thou dwell in the land. Again, inherit the land or inherit the earth. And verily thou shalt be fed.

If you just what? Trust in the Lord and do good. It's not just faith. It's faith and an obedient life.

An obedient life that springs from faith. Justification by faith is actually suggested in this psalm. Not only here, but in the end of the psalm.

The last line in it says, Save them because they trust in thee. Or because of faith. Because they believe in you.

Save them because they trust in thee. Some people think that the Old Testament teaches salvation by works. The Old Testament doesn't teach salvation by works any more than the New Testament does.

The only means of salvation that God has ever endorsed has been by faith. Just read Hebrews chapter 11 if you want confirmation of that. Hebrews 11 says, For by faith the elders, meaning the Old Testament heroes, gained a good report from God.

And it gives examples. By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice. By faith Enoch walked with God and was not.

By faith Noah built a house to the saving of his household. By faith Abraham. By faith Isaac and Jacob.

By faith Joseph. By faith Moses and so forth. And it says time would fail to give a complete list of all the men who by faith subdued kingdoms and turned to flight the armies of the aliens and so forth.

That's what Hebrews 11 is about. About Old Testament characters and how they found favor with God because of their faith. And the Old Testament teaches the same as the New, salvation through faith.

Here especially in verse 40. Save them because they trust or because they believe, they have faith in you. Also we see in verse 3 the same thing James tells us.

Faith without works is dead. We're saved by faith, but it's not a faith that doesn't change anything. It's a faith that changes us in the way we live.

Trust in the Lord and do good. So it's a faith that brings forth works. Probably the most often quoted verses in this psalm are verses 4 and 5 and especially 4. Delight thyself also in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

This could be taken two ways. Perhaps both are true, though maybe not both are intended. Delight thyself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart.

Could mean that whatever your heart desires He'll give you if you start delighting yourself in Him. So that if you desire a pink Cadillac with steam heated door handles and so forth and a wet bar in the back, if that's what you desire, if that's the desire of your heart, all you have to do is just start delighting in the Lord and He's obligated to give you that which your heart desires. That's how some people understand this.

I don't see it that way at all. For one thing, if it is saying that He will give you your heart's desires, the condition is much more demanding than they're taking into consideration that you must delight yourself in the Lord, which means that you make Him your whole delight. You don't actually delight in any other thing.

You're not delighting in the prospects of having any particular thing. You're seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. The only thing that really brings you pleasure is the thought of God and His will and His righteousness being done.

And if that really is the state of your heart, if you're delighting in the Lord, in that sense of the word, then the desires of your heart will be such things as He will honor. Your heart will be in the right condition to desire such things as He can afford to give you and that He can want to give you. Another way of seeing this, totally differently but equally valid, I believe, is that it's saying that if you delight yourself in the Lord, then you can follow your desires for the most part.

As one person said, love God and do what you want. Now that almost sounds irreverent. Love God and do whatever you want.

But what it's really saying is if you really love God, then what you'll want to do will be things that will please Him. And so the whole of religion is to love God and do what you want. But make sure you first love God before you start doing what you want.

Because if you don't love God, then the things you want will not be good things. But if you love God with all your heart, you're not going to want to do evil things. And the fact that some people want to do evil things shows that they don't love God.

They don't meet that first condition. I believe what it's saying here is something that will give us a lot of help in the issue of divine guidance. Delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart does not mean, possibly, it does not mean that He will give you the things that your heart desires so much as it means He will give you the actual desires.

The desires that are there will be put there by Him. Therefore, you can trust them and act in accordance with them so that divine guidance becomes a matter of following your holiest desires. Because you've delighted yourself in the Lord, those desires were put there by God.

He's put His desires in you and made them your desires. And so, He has given you the desires. Not He's given you the things that your heart desired, but He's given you the desires themselves.

And so, those desires are in line with His desires because you delight yourself in Him. And you can then follow your desires. You can do what you want as it's been said, if you really are delighting in the Lord.

And, of course, some people try to take advantage of that and say, well, I love God, therefore, I'm going to go out and do anything I want to. But if the things they do aren't the things that glorify God, then they haven't met that first condition. They are not delighting in the Lord and they don't love Him.

Therefore, they can't trust their desires. Their desires are likely to be the desires of their deceitful heart. The second verse to that, verse 5, Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass, shows that success does not come, or at least cannot be trusted to come from our own ingenuity or our own strengths or abilities or talents.

But when we have a task to perform and we're sure that it's the task that God has given us, then we can simply commit it to the Lord and trust in Him. Now, that doesn't mean we do nothing because He's already said trust in the Lord and do good, in verse 3. So when it says trust in Him and He'll bring it to pass, it doesn't mean trust in Him and sit and twiddle your thumbs and sit on your hands. It means trust in Him and do whatever is good, but trust Him to bring it to pass and He will.

Don't trust the fact that you're doing something. Trust the fact that God has taken it into His hands when you committed it to Him and therefore He will bring it to pass. I don't know if we're taking these concepts a little too fast, but I'm watching the clock right now and trying to get through.

Verse 7, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. This is, again, an attitude of heart that we've talked about with respect to some of the other psalms about waiting on God. Resting in Him, waiting patiently, means that we're not impatient, I guess is the best way to put it.

We're not worried about how quickly things are being accomplished or anything. We're just trusting in Him. We've committed our case to the Lord.

We're trusting also in Him, looking for Him to bring it to pass. We've got to wait until He does so. So we just rest and wait for Him to bring it to pass and not fret ourselves because of the prosperity of wicked men.

The statement that we're not supposed to envy wicked men is given a purpose or a reason behind it in verse 10, for yet a little while and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be. In other words, he's going to disappear.

He gives an example of that in verses 35 and 36. I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away and lo, he was not.

Yea, I sought him and he could not be found. So, he's pointing out the fact again that God is going to secure the earth for the righteous and for the meek and not for the wicked. Therefore, there's nothing to envy them about.

They might be prospering at the time and you might not be, but they don't have the promise that the earth will ultimately be theirs as we do. And furthermore, when it's given to us, it will not be as it was for the wicked because the wicked had it only for a short time, but according to verse 18, our inheritance shall be forever. The wicked have a temporary visa here on the earth, but we are permanent residents.

And therefore, it says in verse 16, a little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. Because the righteous man, though he has little riches at this point, yet he owns the world. The wicked man might have a lot of riches, but he doesn't even have security.

He's not even going to be here long. He only can enjoy them a short time. We will have eternity in which to enjoy the spoils that Jesus has provided for us.

Also, the wicked do not have the promises we have. They don't have the security we have in verse 19. It says that we shall not be ashamed in the evil time.

Now, ashamed means disappointed. Or, you know, our hope is not going to fail us. In the evil time, when things are going bad, we will not be disappointed because it says in the days of famine, we will be satisfied.

God will take care of that. The wicked shall perish. The enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs.

They're going to consume away and smoke. Again, another reference to the short-lived career of the wicked. A description of the wicked man, verse 21, is that he borrows and doesn't pay back.

I don't know if that convicts any of you, but if you happen to have borrowed anything and not paid it back, then you're lumped together with those people that are going to be consumed away as smoke. It doesn't mean you've lost your salvation if you haven't yet given back something you've borrowed. But it does mean that to be unfaithful in the matter of returning that which you've borrowed is to be... Well, it's a wicked habit.

It's a wicked habit that we shouldn't be practicing. On the other hand, the righteous man not only does not borrow and then keep it, he actually shows mercy and he's always giving. For such as be blessed of the Lord shall inherit the earth.

And so he's always able to give. It was one of the promises made to the Jews in Deuteronomy 28 that if they kept all the laws of God as a nation, they would be blessed and they would lend to other nations and not have to borrow. But if they broke the laws of God, it was said that as a nation they would be cursed and they would have to borrow from other nations and not lend.

The position of being able to lend rather than borrow suggested that God's favor was upon them. The position of needing to borrow showed that God's favor was not on them. It was a matter of they had violated some of His principles and therefore had come into debt and were not being provided for by God.

Therefore, they were made dependent and subservient to their neighbor nations. But on the other hand, if they would obey God, they would not ever go into debt. They would in fact be made the ones to whom the other nations would come bow the knee and entreat them to borrow from them because God would be prospering them.

Now that doesn't mean that Christians can always be rich, but it might translate over across to our lives in that if we find ourselves unable to pay our bills, if we find ourselves having to borrow money, it is a sign that we have not observed all the scriptural principles. I believe that debt is not something that Christians should be in. Buying on credit, amassing debts that you can't pay or that you're not sure you'll be able to pay is just not a responsible way to handle finances and it's not what the righteous man does.

The righteous man has to pay off his debts for one thing, and if he's smart, he won't get into debt in the first place if he can help it. Now, I was talking this way to someone recently and they told me, well, our situation is different because we had to have surgery and we couldn't afford it and we had to have it anyway. I have to say there might be some cases where there are exceptions, though it could also be argued, well, if your wife pleased the Lord, He would have provided for you either by healing you without surgery or else by providing the money to pay for the surgery so that you wouldn't be in debt for ten years over it.

I wouldn't want to be too harsh on a case like that or try to be too rigid or too wooden in applying the principles of the cross like that, but I believe that it is, as a general rule of thumb, it can be said that while it is not a debt to be in sin, it's actually sort of a curse to be in sin, to be in debt. It's not a sin to be in debt, but it is something of an indication that not all the principles of the Word of God have been observed because God told the Jews that if they did observe His law and do all the things He commanded, then they would not be in debt. They would in fact be able to give or to lend and not have to borrow.

We find in verse 21 here the wicked man is in the position of borrowing and he doesn't pay back. Now, it's not because he's poor. It's because he's dishonest.

But the righteous man, we don't find him borrowing. We find him in the position of giving, continually giving to those in need, showing mercy and giving. Verse 23 is a wonderful verse and many have memorized it and claimed it as a promise.

The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord and He delights in His way. That is, God orders your steps. A lot of divine guidance is subconscious or unconscious.

There's a lot of times where you'll find yourself in a situation which you later realize was a divine appointment, but you didn't know it when you walked into it. You made a decision to go to a particular place and you had a spur of the moment decision and maybe a certain circumstance that arose caused you to make that decision or maybe it just seemed like a whim. And you go there and then you meet someone and it turns out to be just a divinely ordained situation.

And you later say, wow, the Lord led me here and I didn't even know it. There's a lot of people who are important in your life, probably. Important in different ways, perhaps, in your life.

Who have come into your life through what seemed like a real coincidence. You just happen to both be going to the same store at the same time and happen to meet or happen to sit next to each other on an airplane or something. Through some kind of a real apparent coincidence, a relationship was established that has become very significant and life-changing or important to you.

I can think of one of the major changes that God brought about in my life, of course, was bringing me into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He could have done it in a number of ways, I suppose, but the way he did it was remarkable in that he caused me, when my family moved to a new town, another man, Michael Moore, who was my age, his family moved to the same town that I moved to, but he moved from a different city. We didn't know each other before, but we both moved the same day to the same school and we happened to be not suited up for P.E. because we were both new that day.

And so we were in the same P.E. class and not suited up and we saw each other and got to know each other. It turned out he took me to Calvary Chapel. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and my ministry began.

And actually, he was in ministry with me for several years too. It was really... Actually, the relationship was not over and he's quite an excellent minister himself and our relationship may have more far-reaching things in the future for all I know, but it was a very significant relationship that the Lord established in my life through an apparent coincidence. I didn't... You know, my parents... I was living with my parents and I was in high school.

They moved to this town and his parents moved to this town and we happened to both be in the same class and the things that developed from that were just amazing, really. I mean, it changed my whole life. And as I said, the Lord could have found another way to do it to get me into that experience, but the way He chose only shows how things that seem to be coincidence are not.

The steps of a man are ordered of the Lord. The Lord directs your steps and orders your steps even when you're not aware He's doing it. And that's really a neat thing to look back on some of the steps you took where you didn't know you were doing anything particularly significant, but they brought about very significant results and you'd say, well, the Lord led me there and I didn't even know it.

I remember the servant of Abraham that was sent to find a wife for Isaac and he traveled many, many days or weeks to the land of Haran, I guess it was, and he sat down at this well and he said, Lord, the first woman who comes along who offers to water all my camels, I'll know that she's the one you've chosen. And so a girl came along and he says, would you give me water? She said, sure, I'll even water your camels. He says, oh, you're the one.

And he says, who are you? And she said, oh, I'm such and such related to so and so. It turned out to be a close relative of Abraham's. In other words, she was ideally suited to be married to Abraham's son because she was of the same family and the same convictions and so forth.

And the servant fell down and praised God on that occasion. He says, you have been merciful to my master Abraham because while I was in the way, that is, while I was traveling, you guided me to my master's kinsmen. That is to say, while I was traveling over those miles of desert for weeks, not knowing necessarily when I'd arrive at my destination or where I'd settle down, what city I'd land in, but you were directing my steps then and you led me right to the right encounter.

And he recognized the hand of God had been directing his steps, though he didn't necessarily feel some kind of a divine and supernatural urge, you know, directing him to turn left or right at that particular point. It was just sort of an unconscious sort of thing that God is always actively doing. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

In verse 26, where it says, he is ever merciful and lendeth his seed, is blessed. This is actually quoted in the New Testament about the righteous man. And it's not a reference to God, although, of course, the same thing could be said to be true of God.

I guess I should have read verse 25 too. He says, I have been young, now I am old. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, neither his seed begging bread.

Now, I've taken that promise very literally, although it doesn't look like a promise. It's just a statement. David says, I'm old now.

I've seen a lot of things. One thing I've never seen is a righteous man forsaken of God in the sense that he had to send his children out to beg for money. God has never brought a righteous man to David's knowledge.

He's never seen that happen. Never seen a Christian in the position of having to beg. If a man is begging, there's only been one time in my life when I've begged.

That was when I was a young teenager in the hippie Jesus movement kind of a thing. I just kind of thought it was okay to go out and ask for spare change when you needed gas money and stuff like that. I did it one time and I felt really bad because I remember this verse.

I said, uh-oh, if I have to beg for bread, I must not be the righteous. And so I haven't begged since. Never even asked.

Well, we've run out of time. There's so much more we could say about some of these verses, but as you can see, there's just not... We don't have time. We've run out of time and we've probably covered the main themes here.

So we'll cut it off right there.