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Psalms 28-30
Psalm 28:1-9
A Psalm of David
“Unto thee will I
cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like
them that go down into the pit. Hear the
voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward
thy holy oracle. Draw me not away with
the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their
neighbours, but mischief is in their
hearts. Give them according to their
deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands;
render to them their desert. Because
they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his
hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up. Blessed be the LORD,
because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am
helped: therefore my heart greatly
rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed
them also, and lift them up for ever.”
“Be Not Deaf To Me”
“We
have come as far as Psalm 28, it tells us this is “A
Psalm of David.” We are not certain of
the background of this particular Psalm. Certainly there are highs and lows in it, certainly there are lessons
about prayer, and about struggle, about dealing with, it has a whole interlude
about the wicked and the unjust, and how do we relate to them, how do we relate
to what’s going on in the world?---those things that might really grieve
us. We’re exposed more in some ways than
David, because we have a TV screen every night that tells us not only things
that we might want to enjoy, but there’s other things
on the news, on the TV that constantly bombard us that drive us out of our
minds. What do you do about those things
as a Christian? How you’re going to
maintain peace, and understand how to relate to those things, and how to
pray? So, these songs,
very important. Let’s read
through this 28th Psalm, this song, “Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to
me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the
pit.” doesn’t
sound good, “Hear the voice of my
supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy
oracle. Draw me not away with the
wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their
neighbours, but mischief is in their
hearts. Give them according to their
deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands;
render to them their desert.” what they deserve, it’s not what they have
after dinner. “Because they regard not the works of the LORD,
nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them
up. Blessed be the LORD,
because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in
him, and I am helped: therefore my heart
greatly rejoiceth; and with my song I will praise him. The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.” So this song goes through a number of
phases. The first two verses, David is
imploring the LORD, he’s begging the LORD, he’s beseeching the LORD, and he says, “Unto thee will I cry,” there’s great
emotion here, “O LORD my rock;” or ‘my
fortress,’ and the King James says “be
not silent” the Hebrew says “be not deaf” and the idea is
“unable to hear,” the Hebrew’s actually “be not deaf to me,” the idea is, ‘be
not unlistening and far away from me.’ But it’s “be not deaf to me.” “lest, if thou be
silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” And he’s
assuming ‘if you don’t hear me, neither will you speak to me, and then I’ll be
like those who go down to the pit, if LORD I speak to you and you’re not
there, you’re not able to hear, if I lift up my prayer in vain, and you’re deaf
to me LORD, then obviously you’re not
going to speak to me, if I have no living relationship with you LORD, I’m going to be like those
who are lost and go down to the pit.’ And very
interesting, too, it’s telling us, obviously, you know, the LORD hears, and the LORD speaks. Don’t ever be confused, primarily the way he
speaks is through his Word. We have lots
of times people in church, they’ll come up and say ‘The Lord told me to do this, the Lord told me to do this, the Lord
told me it’s ok to sleep with my girlfriend, the Lord told me it’s ok to smoke
pot, it’s natural,’ all this stupid stuff. What do you mean ‘It’s natural’? Lead’s natural, shoot each other, uranium’s natural, blow each other up with nuclear bombs, what’s not
natural, is it something from another dimension? Cut me a break. The main way we know the voice of the Lord is
through his Word. But he does hear. Isaiah says ‘Is the maker of the ear unable
to hear? Is his arm so short that he
cannot save?’ And, you know, it
says ‘If
my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, and turn from their
wicked ways, and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven.’ He’s not hard of hearing. He can hear us. So David says here, ‘LORD, I’m going to cry unto you, O
LORD,
my rock, my fortress, be not deaf’ the idea is, ‘towards me, from me, away from
me, not listening, lest, if you’re going to be silent,’ “that you may not be
silent” literally, ‘to me, and then I become like those who go
down into the pit, I’m like the lost, I have no relationship.’
David Wasn’t Afraid To Be A Little Charismatic---Where’s
The Balance?
“Hear the voice
of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy
holy oracle.” That is, “when I lift up my hands toward thy in-most
sanctuary.” That’s the
“oracle.” The Hebrew says “thy
in-most sanctuary.” David says
when he prays he lifts up his hands. So
David doesn’t have any hang-ups about lifting up his hands, as we follow his
career. Some people are really freaked
out by that, you know. Some people come
to church here and they look around, and they see you lift up your hands,
they’re like ‘I knew it, we’re in one of those places. Wait till you see what happens next. Watch this.’ There isn’t anything wrong with lifting up our hands, you know. People say ‘Well, what does that mean?’ Well look, when somebody says ‘Stick
‘em up!’ What’s that mean? It means “Surrender.” So it means that, ‘Lord, I surrender.’ Ah,
I’ve got grandkids, my granddaughter was over here the other day, she ran
across the living room, and went like this, it means ‘Pick me up! Take me.’ What does it mean when we lift up our
hands? ‘Lord, I praise you, Lord I surrender, Lord, pick me up, hold me.’ So,
there isn’t anything wrong with that. Sometimes, when we watch worship, there are people, and they’re not just
lifting up their hands, they’re hand signals, ducks quacking, and they’re
dancing, and first of all, some people just shouldn’t dance, because they just
don’t have it, you know. Ah, some
Christians can, some Christians can’t. But, you know, there’s a time when everybody stands, everybody worships,
everybody lifts their hands, and there’s a unity to that. Then there’s a time when there’s one person
putting on a show, and that person distracts everybody else whose worshipping,
whose supposed to have their attention on the Lord. There’s a wonderful time of unity for us to
worship, to lift our hands, and then there’s also a time when somebody’s kind
of got the stage, you know. And if you look at the scene in heaven, if you go to Revelation
chapters 4 and 5, that’s when the Lord has control of everything. There’s not a single thing out of order
there, not a single thing. The Cherubim
around the throne are saying ‘Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty, who
was, and who is and is to come’ and not one of them says ‘Amen!’ and the rest of them all look
at him, you know. It says they all fall
down at the same time, they all cast their crowns at the same time, it is
completely ordered. You know, even with
spiritual gifts it says ‘Let everything be done decently and in
order.’ David is crying to the LORD, David’s heart is broken,
David’s worship is sincere. He’s saying ‘God,
I want you to hear, God I want you to answer,’ and he says ‘When
I cry to the LORD,’ and he says ‘I
lift up my hands,’ it’s a beautiful form of worship. So there’s abuse on both sides of that, some
people, they think that you’re a charismaniac if you lift your hands. Well, I’m a charismatic, so I lift my hands. But there’s a way to do that that isn’t cool
either, that’s just between you and the Lord. Wednesday nights they never do that, it’s like 3rd service on
Sunday morning, so don’t worry about it, nothing any personal. So he says ‘So I lift my hands toward your
in-most sanctuary,’ (verse 2b) he’s worshipping, he’s thinking as he’s
lifting his hands, about of course the Ark, the presence of God, the in-most
sanctuary.
‘Deliver Me From The Fate
Of The Wicked’
And
then he makes a request, this is his burden, his supplication, and it’s in
regards to the wicked. He says, “Draw me not away with the wicked, and with
the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.” (verse 3) What he’s going to say is, ‘Deliver
me from the fate of the wicked.’ He’s
in some kind of difficulty. Everybody in
this room at one time or another, has been, and will be in some type of
difficulty. In that difficulty he says
he’s crying to the LORD, and he said ‘LORD, I don’t want you to be deaf,
I want you to hear me, I don’t want you to be silent, I want you to speak to
me, I’m lifting my life towards the in-most part of your sanctuary, LORD, the deepest place of your
being.’ And he said, his idea is ‘LORD, don’t deliver me to the fate
of the wicked, don’t draw me away with the wicked, don’t let that come upon me,
they say one thing and they mean something else.’ He says, he asks for retribution, it’s not an
imprecatory Psalm, but he’s asking ‘LORD,’ “Give
them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their
endeavours: give them after the work of
their hands; render to them their desert.” (verse 4) i.e. ‘what they deserve,’ he’s asking for
retribution. Look, the New Testament is
different, we’re supposed to pray for our enemies, pray for those who
despitefully use you, we’re supposed to have a different
attitude. David is saying here, ‘LORD, give them what they deserve.’ Now look, even though the New Testament asks
from us a different attitude of us, here’s the truth. The wicked who won’t turn from their ways,
will suffer his retribution. That’s
unavoidable [you don’t think so, read Revelation chapter 19 and Zechariah
14:1-15]. The wonderful thing is, any
sinner in any condition, can come to Christ in repentance and faith, and be
forgiven, and be saved. [That’s even in
the Old Testament, Isaiah 1:18-20, which shows this whole sequence, yes, come
and repent. Why will you die? But if you
don’t, retribution is coming.] David
doesn’t see the complete picture that we see, in many ways. [Comment: And most of Christianity still doesn’t see the complete picture of God’s
overall masterplan for the salvation of mankind. See http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm.] So he says, ‘LORD, give them what they deserve,
I’m glad I ain’t getting what I deserve,’ “Because they
regard not the works of the LORD,
nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.”
(verse 5) David’s saying, ‘This is what bugs me about them,
they don’t regard you, what you’ve done, nor the operation of his hands, so he
shall destroy them, he’s not going to build them up, they’re going to get what
they ask for, and according to their behavior and their doings.’
‘God Is Not Deaf, He’s Heard My
Supplication’---Trust, Help, Joy
And then he breaks into
rejoicing, “Blessed be the LORD,
because he hath heard the voice of my supplication.” (verse 6) Alright, God is not deaf, he has a great sense that God is hearing him. “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my
heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise
him.” (verse 7) He takes us through the process. Are you really down and out tonight? If this is applying tonight, you’re going
through a terrible situation, you feel like the Lord is deaf, he’s not
listening, not speaking to you, you’re not sure what to do? [yup] ‘But I
don’t want the same fate as the wicked, Lord, I believe in you, I’m just one of
your own,’ here he says, he says in fact it comes to him and he realizes,
and that always turns to us, because God is gracious, ‘LORD, you have heard my voice,’ he says plainly, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am
helped: therefore my heart greatly
rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.” (verse 7) and because
“my heart trusted in him,” he says “and
I am helped”, when we trust in him he does help us. Trust, help, joy, it always runs that
way. And he says because he’s rejoicing,
because God has helped him because he’s trusted in him, he says ‘I’m
rejoicing,’ and he says he does that “with my song will I praise him.” So, again, David has no inhibitions, he’s one who would always write a
song, sing a song, lift his voice, singing to the LORD. He says in this, as he’s recovered, as his
heart is lifted up, as he rejoices, he says he lifts a song of praise to the LORD.
Four Short Requests: ‘LORD, Save Them, Bless Them, Feed
Them, Lift Them Up’
And then he does that as, and
as he does it he ends the Psalm, verses 8 and 9 now, with an intercession,
praying for the LORD’s own. Realizing what God’s done in his life, he says “The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.”
(verse 8) and
now four short requests here, look in verse
9, and this is a great way to pray for people, “Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for
ever.” Save your people, bless your
inheritance, feed them also, and lift them up, that’s a great way to pray for
anybody. ‘LORD, save them, bless them, feed them, lift them up.’ You guys can pray that for me, everyday. Save your people, bless your inheritance, the
word “feed them” there is “shepherd them”, ‘LORD, shepherd your people,’ David, who had been a shepherd
understands all of the care that’s involved in that. You and I, because we’ve never raised sheep
don’t appreciate it in some ways [but if you’ve raised children you do. But for a good article on shepherding,
pastoring, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/wwcofg/AShepherdLooksAt%20Psalm23-short.htm] He says ‘Shepherd
them also, and lift them up’ is ‘carry them,’ and it’s a word that’s
used of a father carrying his child. You
know, you go to Isaiah 40 where it says ‘He shall carry his lambs in his arms, carry
them in his bosom, he’s going to gently lead those that are with young,’ the idea is the LORD would take up a young lamb in his arms and carry
it, and then the chief ewe, the lead mother would follow him, because he had
her lamb, and he could lead them all to higher ground. It’s kind of the picture here, the shepherd, ‘LORD be that, and take up your
people in your arms, and carry them,’ is what he’s saying here again, remarkable.
Psalm 29:1-11
A
Psalm of David
“Give
unto the LORD,
O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of
holiness. The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters [or great
waters]. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He
maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young
unicorn. The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire. The voice
of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The
voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory. The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea,
the LORD sitteth King for ever. The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with
peace.”
Introduction: ‘The LORD OF STORMS’
“Psalm
29, ah, we’ll read it together, we’re going to take note of this, there’s
eleven verses, and in eleven verses it uses the word LORD, Jehovah, eighteen times, and
several other words for God, all-told God is mentioned 25 times in 11 verses. His glory is mentioned 4 times, you’re going
to take note of those. His voice is
mentioned 7 times. It’s just a very,
very interesting Psalm. The Jews today
sing this Psalm during Pentecost, it’s interesting, during the Feast of
Pentecost, we’re not sure how far back that tradition goes. And it says “A Psalm of David.” He says “Give
unto the LORD” many of you
know this, there’s a song we sing with these first few verses, “Give unto the LORD,
O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of
holiness. The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters [great
waters]. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He
maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion [Mount Hermon area] like a young unicorn. The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire.” the idea is digs up or digs out flames, we’re not sure if it’s talking about volcanic activity of fire. “The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The
voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve,” if he shakes the wilderness, and
he breaks the trees, the cedars of Lebanon, got the whole world rockin’ and
rollin’, it says when he speaks, the wild ibex, they give birth, they go into
labour, “and discovereth the
forests: and in his temple doth every
one speak of his glory. The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea,
the LORD sitteth King for ever. The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with
peace.” So, two verses of introduction, two verses of
closing, and then verses 3 to 9 mention the voice of the LORD, and it’s relative to the
storm, this tempest. And if he’s
mentioned 25 times in 11 verses, what it’s telling us is he’s the LORD of storms, as he is in our lives. And as we look at this, in the next Psalm
again, this is all something he allows, something he’s involved in. I remember when he sent the disciples out in
the boat [onto Lake Galilee] and he’s told them to go to the other side, they
got in the boat, they headed to the other side, and they end up in a storm, and
they weren’t in that storm because they were disobedient or sinful. They were
in that storm because they obeyed him, did exactly what he said. So there are storms of correction, you don’t
want to be in one of those, Jonah ended up in one of those. But there are storms of instruction, and
those are mandatory courses, not electives. But what it’s doing is it’s giving us a divine
picture of our Lord as the one who is sovereign over the storms and all of
these things. So it speaks of his glory
being in all of this.
The LORD’s Glory In Heaven
First
he gives us a picture of his glory in heaven. It says “Give unto the LORD,” Jehovah, “O ye mighty,” it’s interesting, it’s bene elim, it’s literally not O ye
mighty, it’s ‘ye
sons of God,’ he’s speaking of the angels. Ah, Genesis 6, we have the bar
elohim, you have bene elim, you have different forms,
this is evidently a scene in heaven, around his throne, his glory is in the
heavens, it will be his glory is in the tempests, and it will be his glory is
in the temple. So “Give unto the LORD,
O ye mighty ones,” ‘bene elim,’ “give
unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due his name;” and then it says “worship the LORD” King James says “in the beauty of holiness.” It literally says “with the adornments of
holiness.” So you have a picture
of the angels of God around his throne, giving him glory, adorned, with the
adornments of holiness. God, you know,
his mighty angels, you know, whatever they’re bathed with, with light, whatever
they’re robed with. First of all, it
starts, he’s the one whose sovereign. Now look, we’re going to go into the storm,
because all of Israel’s neighbours felt that Baal was the god of storms, the
god of sun and rain and wind and lightning. And there’s something very clearly being said here about, ‘No,
no, our God is in and above and through all of these things.’ Heaven looks at earthly circumstances
much differently than we do. In fact
when it finally says “the LORD sits upon the flood,” (verse 10) in this Psalm it uses the word for “flood,” it’s used 13 times in the Old
Testament, in verse 10 here, it’s used 12 times in Genesis 6 to 11, the only
other place in the rest of the Bible it’s used is here in this verse, and it
speaks about the flood of Noah’s days. So God takes this picture to the extreme. He’s the one who sits over it all. Baal? These other gods, you think something else is
in control? You think when there’s
thunder, when the ground shakes, you think when these things are going on it’s
one of these dudes? No, no, the LORD is sovereign over all of
this. In heaven, they’re giving him
glory (cf. Revelation chapters 4-5), “Give
unto the LORD,
O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the
glory due his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” (verses 1-2) you know it tells us in the Bible that there’s joy in the presence of God when
one sinner comes. You know, when we’re
here on Sunday morning or Monday nights, or Wednesdays we’re here, you see
people saved, or somebody walks into the office, the Bible tells us then when
that happens, this scene around the throne of God explodes in their
rejoicing. There’s joy in the presence
of God, because an eternity has just been changed. One individual’s eternity has just been
changed. Heaven and earth [the first
ones] will pass away, that individual no longer is going to pass away. [Comment: now there are differing beliefs within the greater Body of Christ about
the “once saved, always saved” doctrine.] And Jesus said, ‘What does it matter if you gain the whole
world and lose your own soul?’ If you gain the whole cosmos, the entire universe, and you lose your
soul? What Jesus says, ‘Ya,
the earth is great, North Cascades, you know, those are great, Grand Titons,
the Swiss Alps, the South Seas, the Caribbean is all beautiful, it’s majestic,
I made it all, it’s just a stage for the plan of redemption to be played out
upon. What does it matter if you gain the
entire universe and lose your own soul?’ because in his opinion, a
single human soul is worth more than the entire universe, a single human
being. You know, if you’re here tonight,
and you don’t know him, Satan will always give you the thought ‘You know, he don’t care about you, he’s not
thinking about you, he don’t care about you.’ And we sit around thinking, ‘Ya, he don’t care about me.’ And we listen to him, but the Bible calls
him a liar. He [God] cares about you,
your life, your soul, to him is more valuable than the entire created universe. And here is this scene in heaven, when one
sinner comes, when one person gets saved, all of this in heaven explodes into
rejoicing. Here, David’s writing under
the Spirit, he says “Give unto the LORD.
O bene elim, all you mighty ones, sons of God, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD with the ornaments of
holiness.”
The Voice Of The LORD, What It’s Really Like
Now
he says this, from verses 3 to 9 he gives us a picture of this tempest, this
remarkable scene, and it says the voice of the LORD
is ruling over
this 7 times, “the voice of the LORD,” of Jehovah, “is upon the waters:” is he thinking back to creation? We’re not certain. “the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.” or “great waters. The voice of the
LORD is powerful;” the idea is ‘it’s
awesome, it’s in power.’ “the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The
voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.” (verses 3-5) It
doesn’t say the wind, it doesn’t say the hurricane, it doesn’t say the tornado,
it says “the voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.” in
David’s day, Cedrus Lebanai, some of them were 200 feet tall. You just have to imagine these trees, and
there’s still a few huge ones left over there, they’re in that part of the
world, in Lebanon. But they were brought down, finally, to help build the Temple, David wasn’t
around when that was completed. But he
says ‘the
voice of the LORD snaps the cedars, yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of
Lebanon.’ They all thought Baal had his headquarters up
in Lebanon, because Herman and the mountains there, 10,000 foot, 11,000 foot,
they were the highest mountains around, so the pagans thought that’s where
their gods lived, and David said you know, “the voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars, yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf;
Lebanon and Sirion [mount Herman] like a young unicorn.” (verses 5-6) so that
the ground actually shakes and it actually moves. I don’t know if you guys have ever been,
anybody here been in an earthquake? A few of us. They’re
interesting, aren’t they. There’s nowhere to run when you’re in an
earthquake. If it’s a tornado you can
run to the basement, but when the ground starts shaking you kind of think, ‘Oh, rats, where to?’ “he maketh the
mountains of Lebanon to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Mount Herman like a young
unicorn.” “The voice of the LORD divideth” ‘digs out flames’ “the flames
of fire.” (verse 7) a strange idea. “The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The
voice of the LORD maketh the hinds” the
wild goats “to calve,” go into
premature labour, the calves come forth when the mountains are shaking, all
this. “and discovereth the forests: and in his temple” in regards to all of
this, “doth every one speak of his glory.” (verses 8-9) So, anybody whose got this straight understands God’s glory is involved in all of these things. So think, this is
the voice of the LORD. [And
looking back to Psalm 28, the last Psalm, where David said to the LORD, ‘be not deaf to me,’ this
might be the LORD’s inspired answer to David about being said to be
deaf. Just my
observation.] Aren’t you glad
that he doesn’t speak to you like that? I’m glad Elijah, fleeing, afraid of Jezebel and ending up in Horeb, you
know, it says there was an earthquake, there was a hurricane, there was a
tornado, all of that, and then it says, ‘but the LORD wasn’t in any of those
things,’ Elijah’s the prophet of fire, but the LORD wasn’t in any of those
things. Then he says ‘Behold,
a still small voice,’ isn’t it interesting? David’s going to say, as we move onto Psalms ‘Thy
gentleness hath made me great.’ ‘It’s not
your majesty, the fact that you could shake the mountains, not the fact that
you can freak out even the wild goats, no, LORD, it’s your gentleness that’s
made me great, you’ve stooped down to my life. And if your voice thunders, and if your voice rolls over the oceans and
the waters, if your voice snaps the cedars of Lebanon, if your voice makes the
mountains shake, if your voice does all that, you could just bend down to me
and say ‘Yo bub!’ and I’d explode, BLAM!’ Isn’t
it wonderful that he stoops down to us? Micah said, ‘Behold, a still small voice.’ You know, when the children of Israel heard the LORD speak, when you watch The TEN COMMANDMENTS, and I think
Charlton Heston did a great job, don’t get me wrong, but you know he goes up on
the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, and there’s kind of like this
lightning, and this kind of funky special effects that they had back then, this
fake fire thing comes out, and says ‘I’m
the LORD thy God, Thou Shalt…’ and it kind of carves it in there, and then when it’s all done, then one big
bolt of lightning comes down and cuts out the Tablets, and he’s got the Tablets
there, then he comes down and his hair’s all white, the whole scene, Den, Den, DaDen, you know, that
music. That’s not the way it happened in
the Book of Exodus. In the Book of
Exodus, when the LORD said ‘I AM the LORD thy God, thou shalt have no
other gods before me,’ it says all 3 million people heard him say it, and it shook the whole
valley. He gave the Ten Commandments,
they all heard it, and when Moses came down from the mountain, it says they
said to Moses, ‘Look, you go talk to him, and whatever he says to you we’ll
listen, but tell him ‘You don’t have to talk to us anymore.’ If he gives us eleven Commandments we’re
going to have a cardiac, you go talk to him.’ Just try to imagine what kind of a PA system you need so that 3
million people are hearing you, and rumbling you as it goes on. That’s pretty impressive. You’d think they’d really take some time
before they started breaking the Ten Commandments, don’t you? Hear the LORD, I like some of these verses,
we’re going to look at a few verses. It
says this in Jeremiah, it says, “Therefore prophesy thou against them all
these words,” against the nations that are in rebellion against the LORD, “and say to them, the LORD shall roar from on high, and
utter his voice from his holy habitation. He shall mightily roar upon his habitation, he shall give a shout as
they that tread the grapes, against all of the inhabitants of the earth.” He
says this in Joel, “The LORD shall roar out of Zion, and
utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake. But the LORD shall be the hope of his
people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” Amos says, “The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter
his voice from Jerusalem, and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and
the top of Carmel shall wither away.” You know,
you’ll find this over and over, that ‘the LORD shall roar out of Zion.’ Just imagine it, his
voice shakes the mountains, causes the hinds to calve. You read of his majesty in this Psalm, in the
beginning scene it’s the angels in heaven giving him glory, there’s no
question. And then this is the
magnificence of his voice, then imagine when he
finally turns and he roars. The ACLU can
do whatever they want to do, they can put Bible reading out of school, they can
decide what marriage is, they can make fun of Creation, they can do all of
these things. All of that is going to
fall down in front of him, every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess. He is going,
one day, to roar. And the thing
that we have to watch out for, is that we don’t get an
attitude of ‘OK LORD,
give it to them! Turn up the volume,
give them the roar at 10!’ Realize, what terror this is going to be (cf,
Revelation 6:12-16-17). It should
move us to evangelize, to reach the lost. Because right now his voice is ‘Come unto me all ye who are under heavy
labour and I will give you rest.’ Right
now his voice is ‘Whosoever believeth shall not perish but have everlasting life.’ Right now his voice is reaching out,
but then,
when he finally turns, when he decides, you know, he measures time
morally. When it’s all done, and no one
else is going to turn, he’s going to roar. Just imagine what that’s going to be like, ‘the
LORD will roar from Zion.’
When It’s All Said And
Done, The LORD Will Rest Over Us With Singing
I
like what Zephaniah tells us, then
finally, when he sets up his Kingdom and he gets everything the way he wants it
to be, it says, “The LORD thy God, in the midst of these
mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his
love, he will joy over thee with singing.” Imagine
what that will be like, when the Lord finally has all subdued and he’s in his
Kingdom, it says then he’s going to rest in his love. He can’t rest in his love now, he loves us,
but he can’t rest in his love, because we’re in hostile territory, we’re in
enemy territory. His love never rests
now. But the day is coming, it says,
when he’s going to rest in his love, when he’s going to have us all
gathered. And then it says he’s going to
rejoice over us with singing. Imagine
his voice, that shakes the forests of Lebanon, that
moves the mountains and makes them skip, imagine, you know, this guy Flamingo’s got a voice on Sesame
Street? Wait until the Lord just bellows
out, just, whoever you think, Mario Alonzo, whoever you think’s got a voice,
wait till he sings. The day’s coming
when he’s going to joy over us, with rejoicing and singing. You’re going to hear the Lord, singing. And I just have an idea he sings a perfect
pitch, has to be that way, it couldn’t be any other way [and the columns in the
Temple better be shock-mounted].
The LORD Rules Over The Great Cataclysms
His voice, and it says ‘every one in his Temple, they
speak of his glory.’ And now it
says, “The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever.” (verse 10) “the flood” again, this word used 12 other
times in the Old Testament, and they’re all in the chapters of Genesis 6 to 11,
and every one is about Noah’s flood, so interesting, David even sees him ruling
over the greatest cataclysms that have ever come on the earth, “The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea,
the LORD sitteth King for ever.” heaven’s view of what goes on in earth,
vastly different. “The LORD will give strength to his people; the LORD will bless his people with
peace.” (verse 11) So, remarkable Psalm, Psalm 29.
Psalm 30
A
Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David
“I will extol
thee, O LORD;
for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and
thou hast healed me. O LORD,
thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the LORD,
O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning. And in my prosperity I said, I
shall never be moved. LORD,
by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. I cried to thee, O LORD;
and unto the LORD I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to
the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth? Hear, O LORD,
and have mercy upon me: LORD,
be thou my helper. Thou hast turned for
me my mourning into dancing: thou hast
put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and
not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.”
The Eight “Thou Hast’s
Psalm
30, this Psalm, if you look there at the heading, you see it’s a little
longer. It’s a song of David, and it’s
the song that was used at the dedication, and it says “The
Dedication of the house of David”. You know, this was Solomon’s Temple. The truth is, David
cared more about that Temple than Solomon ever did. The truth is, David laid up all the building
supplies, all the gold, all the silver, he pre-fabbed the whole thing. God said ‘You can’t build it,’ he said, ‘alright, I can’t build it, I’m going to make sure it gets built though. By the time I breathe my last…’ And God gave to David the dimensions, the
drawings, all the specifications for the Temple, and for the courses of the
priests, and for the instruments, and for the way the whole thing should be
laid out. David said ‘God gave that to me,’ it tells us in
Chronicles that he passed it to Solomon. So this is a song that he wrote for the Dedication of the Temple, that
he didn’t live to see. So in faith, he
writes these things down, and in faith he’s moved by the Spirit to say these
things as we look into this 30th Psalm, and he says, first 5 verses
it’s praise, and look, as we go through, what you’ll find in this Psalm, 8
times you’re going to find this phrase, you’ll notice, “thou hast”. Let’s read it,
and count the thou hast’s. ok? Ah, there is one “thou didst”, but you’ll
count that as a “thou hast.” And if you
have one of those other translations that doesn’t sound Scriptural, but here, “I will extol thee, O LORD;
for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice
over me.” (verse 1) and he had a lot of foes. “Oh LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.” (verse 2) “O LORD, thou hast brought my soul up from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should
not go down to the pit.” (verse 3) “Sing
unto the LORD,
O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning.” (verses 4-5) Now he switches. “And
in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou
didst hide thy face, and I was
troubled. I cried to thee, O LORD;
and unto the LORD I made my supplication. What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to
the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth? Hear, O LORD,
and have mercy upon me: LORD,
be thou my helper. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou
hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and
not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever.” (verses 6-12) Now it’s a tough translation, you see the italics, “my” the idea is “my being, praise to thee, and not be
silent.” So this song now, at the
dedication of the Temple, to be sung, David isn’t there, Solomon dedicates the
Temple, and yet God gave to David, no doubt glimmers, he was allowed to look,
he was allowed to see things, foreshadows, foretastes, the way we are, of the
Kingdom of heaven, the way we have a witness. We’re sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and we’re given a witness
about what’s ahead of us. Just, you know
again, one of the things that is very strange to our unsaved friends, and we
forget about it, because we’ve been saved for so long, is if they ever hear us
kind of sounding excited about the end of the world, then they think ‘What are you guys smokin’ up there in that
place? what’s going on up there?’ Well I’m not excited, we’re not excited
about suffering and all that, but what I’m excited about is this, ‘The Lord’s going to descend, and there’s
going to be a blast of a trumpet, and we’re all going to disappear (cf. http://www.unityinchrist.com/corinthians/cor15-16.htm ), and you’re going to stay here.’ Like
that clears up the first level of confusion. Ok? So, there is something in our
hearts that the Lord has put there, about our hope, and we have a
foreshadowing, a foretaste, we’re sealed with the Spirit of promise, it ruins
us (for this present world), we have great and precious promises whereby we’re
made partakers of the Divine nature, whose inheritance is incorruptible,
undefiled, that fades not away. All of
this becomes real to us. David, the
Temple, the place of worship was real to him, he had foreshadows, foretastes of
this, so here he writes out this Psalm. The first three verses, now the first five are praise, the first three
are solo, verses 4 and 5 then kind of go into a chorus.
“Thou Hast Lifted Me Up”
So
David, looking forward to that day when the Temple is functional, he says as
though he’s standing there “I will extol
thee, O LORD;” Why? “for thou hast
lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.” ‘lifted me up, LORD, you have gotten under me LORD, underneath the everlasting
arms, LORD, you have lifted me up, and
you have not made my enemies to rejoice over me, you haven’t allowed that LORD. You know, I’m going to extol and praise you,
LORD,
I can’t wait till the Temple’s open, because you’ve got your hands around me LORD, you’ve lifted me up,’ and he’d been through lots of
trials. He had sinned, he had made
mistakes. And yet he says ‘LORD, you’ve lifted me up.’
“Thou Hast Healed Me”
He
says “O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.” (verse 2) It’s another reason he sung this song. Look, God has always healed us. Everybody in this room, you’re sitting here
breathing, you’ve been healed over and over again. Look, nobody here is going to die of good
health, understand that. And how many
times have we had bronchitis, we’ve had pneumonia, we’ve been sick with
something, and here we are, he’s always healed us, we’re here. That’s wonderful, he says ‘LORD, you’ve healed me, I just want to praise you about that.’ “O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave:” hasn’t he done that for all of
us? because that’s where we were headed. Everybody
in this room was headed for a hole in the ground. You can get nipped and tucked, and get your
hair dyed, get on Jenny Craig, and you can get skinny and look great when you
die, but you’re gone. And he’s lifted us
up out of the grave, he’s given us hope, he’s lifted us above that (cf. 1st Corinthians 15:49-56). Again, loved
ones, my father when my father passed, one of the overwhelming senses that I
had was, ‘What does an unbeliever do when
they watch this?’ When he took his
last breath I could see, his body was vacant, he left, he wasn’t there anymore. And it was a
powerful sense, but I thought, ‘If I
wasn’t a believer, and it was five in the morning, I’d go straight to the bar
and get a load on.’ How does an
unbeliever deal with this? And the more
terrifying thought, is I thought ‘How
does an unbeliever die?’ When an
unbeliever is in a hospice and an unbeliever is getting ready to take their
last breath, what do they think? Some of
them might be hard and think ‘Who cares,
when you’re dead you’re dead, you take your last breath you’re gone.’ That would be a terrifying thought to
me. Do I just cease to exist? Am I actually going to take a last breath and
there’s nothing? That’s it? All my memories, all my life, my kids, my
family, my parents, everything I’ve experienced, it just goes black like the
screen used to go? Any guys if you’re as
old as me, you’re watching TV as a kid, twelve o’clock, it was late at night,
and they’d sing the national anthem, the screen would go ‘blaaah,’ and there was just, it was done. Is that the way it is? That’s a terrifying
thought. [Comment: Within the greater body of Christ there are
various interpretations about the “unsaved dead.” To read some of these, see, http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm] He says ‘LORD, you’ve brought up my soul
from the grave, I’m gonna praise you and extol you. You have kept me alive,’ think of all of the enemies
that he had, all of the times, you know, Goliath, let alone so many others,
Saul and so forth, “thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” (verse 3b)
David Lists A Series Of
Contrasts About The LORD’s Holiness
And
then he speaks, the chorus begins, so this would be spoken to all those who
would gather in the Temple, “Sing unto
the LORD,
O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” (verse 4) you know, when you bring these things to mind, the song says “give thanks at the remembrance of his
holiness.” Look what he says, “For”,
and here’s the reason, there’s a whole series of contrasts here, listen to verses 5, “For
his anger endureth but a moment; in
his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” These are some of the things we remember about
his holiness, this is the way he is, and he contrasts anger, and favour, he
contrasts a moment and a lifetime, he contrasts weeping and joy, he contrasts
night and morning. This is an incredible
verse, all of these things. He says
this, “For his anger” when he thinks
of the LORD’s anger “endureth but a moment”, his anger is
momentary. Again, Micah 7:18 says ‘Who is like unto thee LORD? that you don’t
remain angry, you don’t always chide, it’s so remarkable.’ So it says here, “For his anger endureth but a
moment; but his favour is life:” King James, it says in the Hebrew “is for a lifetime” and it’s
comparing that. Anger,
momentary, favour, lifetime, great contrast. “weeping may endure for a night,” and the Hebrew is very
interesting, it kind of gives the idea of ‘it may come like a visitor at night, but
joy is like someone who comes permanently in the morning, to stay, and to abide
there,’ and it draws a contrast again, temporary, permanent. Wonderful contrast. So, the first five verses, ‘to
extol, to praise, here are the reasons why I do it, here are the reasons why
everybody should do it.’
Overconfident In Circumstances---How God Deals
With It
Now,
verse 6 and 7 are a little tougher. He
talks about his prosperity, and it seems to be David boasting, he’s telling us
he became overconfident, and the LORD then dealt with him, by
design. It says “In my prosperity I said, I shall not be moved. LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong:” the idea is ‘you have settled my mountain or my habitation,’ “thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” (verses 6-7) David tells us ‘I
came to a point where I said, ‘Hey LORD, you’ve prospered me, and I’m
never going to be moved, you’ve settled my position, my mountain, by your
favour it’s there,’ but then he goes on, and he says “thou
didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” (verse 7b) So he seems to be saying here, and I see it
in my own life, and I see it in the lives of God’s people, it seems like
sometimes we come, we first get saved, we’re on fire, there’s nothing we
wouldn’t do for the Lord, we’re filled with wonder, we love to sing, we come,
we don’t care if the person next to us sings in tune or not, or knows how to
clap on the right side of the beat, we don’t care about how they’re dressed, we
come to church, we’re excited, ‘look,
this is amazing, look at what’s going on,’ and there’s just an
anticipation, and all of that goes on. And then sometimes as the years go on, there’s kind of this settled
confidence, ‘Well, the Lord’s established
me, ya I’m saved by grace, ya I know where I’m going, oh ya, I’ve studied that
book, oh I don’t need to go, I’ve heard Daniel,’ and we kind of get in this
place of ‘We’re comfortable, he’s
established me, oh ya I teach this Bible study,’ and we get in this
position where it’s a little bit wrong, because we settle there without being
dependent on God. We actually,
familiarity breeds contempt, we actually get so confident, and then settled
into his blessing, that we’re no longer desperate to seek him, and to go after
him. And it’s very interesting, David
ends this kind of stanza here by saying ‘LORD, I was like that, you
prospered me, that was in perspective, I got this
place, I’m never going to be moved, by your favour.’ Think of 2nd Samuel chapter 11,
when he fell into sin with Bathsheba. He
was over 50-years-old when that happened. Young guys, get ready for a lifelong battle. He was over 50. And it said it was the time of the year when
kings go forth to battle, and David stayed in Jerusalem. It’s not where he belonged, he belonged on
the battlefield. [He knew Bathsheba,
knew where she lived, had probably seen her bathing before. He’d watched Bathsheba growing up, she was the granddaughter of his chief counselor
Ahitophel. David probably lingered
behind in Jerusalem due to this hidden attraction that can develop within a
man. There’s a lot more to the story
than meets the eye.] When he was a
younger man he would have been out there, he would have been out there with
Joab, Abner, the rest of them, with his sword in his
hand. But he had become settled, like
he’s saying here, LORD, you’ve established me,’ and we can let down our
guard. We can become vulnerable. And it seems by design he says ‘but
LORD,’ “thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled” ‘you got my attention.’ You feel like the Lord’s ever done that to
you? You know, when we’re in desperate
situations we pray desperate prayers. And then all of a sudden, when things are going good we pray nice prayers, Lite prayers, Corinthian Lite or something. And then the Lord pulls
out the rug a little, and we go ‘Oh
Lord! Oh Lord!’ and he says ‘Nice to hear from you. You know, I sent my Son to die so we could
fellowship, you never come around, you never call, I never hear from you, nice
to hear from you.’ He said ‘You
hid your face, I was troubled.’ And then look what he says, and “I
cried to thee, O LORD;
and unto the LORD I made my supplication.” (verse 8) ‘and I said, LORD,’ “What
profit is there in my blood, when I
go down to the pit? Shall the dust
praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?” (verse 9) He just said ‘I’ll never be moved,’ well that’s all kind of got shaken. “Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy
truth? Hear, O LORD,
and have mercy upon me: LORD,
and have mercy upon me: LORD,
be thou my helper.” (verse 10) and then of course, God always answers,
here’s the change, it looks back in the right direction, there’s the “thou
hast’s” there’s two of them. He says “Thou hast turned for me my mourning
into dancing: thou hast put off
my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;” (verse 11) literally “thou
hast changed my mourning into dancing.” Look, it wasn’t his prosperity that did that. It wasn’t the favour, it wasn’t that the LORD had established his house in
the mountain so it couldn’t be moved. He
says ‘What
brought all that back again LORD was you.’ “Thou hast
turned” or “changed for me my mourning into dancing:” ‘you’re the one LORD. I had all this other stuff, and I started to
rest in it, instead of looking to you. I
became comfortable there, you had to wake me up. You withdrew your presence. When you withdrew your presence, I still had
my palace, I still had the mansion, I still had the gold, I still had the army,
I still had the throne, I had everything, but I didn’t have you, and I freaked
out, LORD. And I realized, you can go to the undertakers
with a whole lot of stuff on your will to give to everybody else, and it don’t do you any good.’ And
he said, ‘LORD, what profit is there in my
blood, if I go down to the pit, is the dust going to praise you? I won’t be able to praise you, I’m not going to be able to proclaim your truth. Hear me LORD,’ and he cries out, and he says “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into
dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth,
and girded me with gladness;” LORD, you’ve lifted me up again out
of my mourning, and now you’ve dressed me, you’ve adorned me with gladness,’ “to
the end that my glory may sing praise
to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.” (verse 12) “that my glory” ‘that my
soul, my innermost being may sing praise to thee, and not be silent.’ “O LORD my God, I will give thanks to
thee for ever” that’s a good long time, isn’t it?
We All Have A Drive For
Worship---The Key Is Finding The Right Master To Worship
Ah,
we were made to worship, we are worshippers. And God has allowed us, we have certain drives
and desires. I mean, you have a drive
for water, you’ll dehydrate if you don’t drink, if you get thirsty it’s
wonderful to just slake down something. You know, if you’re thirsty enough even that rubbery water in the hose
is good, outside, just to drink some of it. You have a thirst for air. You
know, it’s terrible to feel air-starved. You have a drive for food, there’s hunger. God’s given us a sexual drive that’s to be
contained within marriage, certain drives. But there is a drive that you and I have, that drives us to
worship. The preeminent purpose of man
is to fellowship with and to worship God. And man gets that wrong, and he bows before alcohol, he bows before
drugs, bows before sex, bows before a Ferrari, bows before money, and all of
those things are cruel masters. People
are mastered by all kinds of things. And
the pursuit of life is not to find freedom, the
pursuit of life is to find the right master. And when you find the Master that left his place in glory, and came
down, and allowed himself to be spit on and nailed to
a cross, who bore your sins, when you find that Master, now you have found the
answer to everything. Your life is no
longer down in the pit, in the grave, he’s lifted you up, and the fulness of
your life is just in worshipping him, in being with him, in knowing his
presence. That’s why Christ died on the
cross, so what Adam had lost in Eden could be restored, man could come back and
fellowship with the Living God. Yes, he
wants us to bring our supplications, make all your requests known, cast all of our cares upon him. But the primary center of it is so we can
fellowship with him. We’re worshippers
and God made us that way. And David says
in this last Psalm, he said look, and he wants this to be sung at the Temple,
and he has this moving of the Spirit, he writes this out, and he knows man is
primarily a worshipper. And he says ‘This
is what God’s done for me, thou hast, thou hast, thou hast, I’m going to
worship,’ and he says, ‘I think all the saints, you guys should do
this,’ and he said ‘you know I was in a position where I had
great prosperity, everything was established, I said ‘LORD I’m never going to fail, I got
comfortable,’ and then he hid his face. When he hid his face I flipped out, I thought ‘What good is all of this
without his face, you go down to the grave, you go down to the pit, and he
cries out, and he said ‘When I cried out the LORD was there, and he turned my
mourning into dancing, he set me free, and he’s taken my sackcloth, and he’s
clothed me in garments of adornment and praise again,’ and he says ‘I’m
going to praise him forever.’ So
let’s do that. We can’t praise him
forever now, because the kids are in Sunday school, you know. But we can praise him for a minute now, we
can sing a song or two now, we can, right here in the Psalms it says I’m going
to praise him, and I’m going to do that by singing a song to him, offering the
fruit of our lips in sacrifice and praise. Let’s do that, and know that it’s just good, it’s just good practice,
because we’re headed to that place where we’re going to do it for a long
time. Let’s stand, let’s pray, let’s
have the musicians come. ‘Lord, we put
these things before you Lord, and just kind of zooming through these three
songs tonight Lord, but you know the person here that’s broken tonight, in
heart, Lord. You know the person that’s
cast down, you know the person here Lord that needs their mourning, Lord,
turned into rejoicing, Lord, their sackcloth to be changed to garments of
praise, Lord. Lord, you know those here
that are crying out to you Lord, in their hearts. You are always faithful, Lord, you are always faithful, Lord. And we’re
glad that you’ll bow down to us as your sons and daughters, and that you’ll
speak to us, Lord, with a still, small voice. And you invite us Lord into your presence, into your arms, Lord, of
love. Lord we pray as we sing this last
song, Lord, as we lift our voices, you would move among us, Lord, you would
bind up the broken-hearted Lord, you would renew and fill with the Spirit, you
would set the captives free Lord, opening the eyes of the blind, Lord, you
would be all that you are in our midst Lord, as we look to you, and sing your
praises Lord, Jesus we pray in your name, and Lord the earth is yours, the
fulness thereof, Lord, the world and those that dwell therein. All your glory is going to be manifested, we
believe that Lord. Help us to keep those
things before our hearts, we pray Lord Jesus in your name, amen.’ [connective expository sermon on Psalms
28:1-9, 29:1-11 and 30:1-12, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of
Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]
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