God our strength and our salvation (Ps. 50, 60, 62)
ID
are007
Sprache
EN
Gesamtlänge
00:37:50
Anzahl
1
Bibelstellen
Ps. 50; 60; 62
Beschreibung
n.a.
Automatisches Transkript:
…
The letter I'm going to read, the Bible of Psalms, we read this morning, Psalm 50,
and then later, Psalm 60 and 62.
First, Psalm 50.
Psalm 50 is the psalm of Asa.
The mighty Lord, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down of the earth.
Our Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence.
A fire shall be gathered for him, it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
He shall call the heavens from above, and to the earth.
He may judge his people.
Here are my sins to get unto me, those who have made it come to me by sacrifice.
And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself.
Here are my people, and I will speak of Israel, and I will testify against thee.
I am God, he is my God.
I will not reproach thee for thy sacrifices, or thy long-burnt offerings will be continually before me.
I will take a book, and at my house, more heath goats, and my foals.
Every leech in the forest is mine, and the kettle upon a thousand hills.
I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine at the fullness of it.
Will I eat the flesh of foals, or drink the blood of goats?
Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vow unto the most high.
And call upon me when thou hast trouble.
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt join mine people.
Now the wicked, God said, what hast thou to do to declare my statutes?
Or thou shallest take my trouble to thine own house.
See, thou hatest instruction, and castest my word behind thee.
When thou saw'st a thief, thou hast had this with him, and hast been partaker of the doctrines.
Thou givest thine own appeal, and thy tongue bringeth deceit.
Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother.
Thou swallow'st thine own mother's son.
These things hast thou done, and I kept silence.
Thou thoughtest thou ought to carry such a man as thyself.
But I will approve thee, and set an order for thine absence.
Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I kill you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
Whoso offereth praise, nor like me, and giveth order of his conversational right,
will I show him the salvation of God.
Now Psalm 16, verse 1.
Psalm 16, verse 1.
O God, thou hast cast us on.
Thou scattered us, thou fiend'st peace.
O turn thyself to us again.
Thou hast made the earth to tremble, thou hast broken it.
Human creatures are all shaken.
Thou hast shown thy people hard things.
Thou hast made us to drink the wine of asponsion.
Thou hast given a banner for them to feel thee, and to make thee displayed because of the truth.
That I could now go and be delivered.
Say it with thy right hand, and hear it.
God hath spoken in his holiness.
I will rejoice.
I will be thy shepherd, and reach out the band of suckers.
Gilead is mine, Nasser is mine.
Ephraim also has the strength of my head.
Judah is my Lordgiver.
Moabah is my washpot.
O Edom hath cast out my shame.
Philistia triumphs now because of me.
Who will bring me into the strong city?
Who will lead me into Edom?
Who but thou, O God, which hast cast us off.
And thou, O God, which didst not go out without our means.
Give us health from trouble, for pain is the health of men.
Through God we shall do valiantly.
For he it is who will tread down our enemies.
Psalm 62, verse 1.
To him my soul waited upon God.
From him cometh my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation.
He is my defence.
I shall not be plainly moved.
How long will ye imagine this ship against a man?
He shall be slain or what of him?
As a bowing wall shall he be, and as a propping fence.
They only consult to cast him down to his excellency.
They delight in lies.
They bless with their mouth.
But they curse inwardly.
My soul waited out only upon God.
For my expectations from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation.
He is my defence.
I shall not be moved.
For God is my salvation and my glory.
The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, ye people.
Pour out your hearts for him.
For God is a refuge for us.
Surely men of low degree are vanity.
And men of high degree are a dying.
Related and balanced, they are altogether vital and vanity.
Trust not on oppression.
Become not vain in pottery.
If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
God has spoken once.
Twice have I heard this.
That power belongeth unto God.
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy.
For thou bendest to every man according to his work.
I know this is a long and powerful thing to say, but
it's always interesting to cut anything out of it, because
each verse
is so precious.
And I'm just thinking of my expressions we had in the
third verse.
I remember my sister saying,
we saw what was in the first and last verse of this hymn.
And this particular verse you found very precious.
Help us to cling to thee,
our strength
and our salvation.
Help us to find in thee the one eternal truth.
And this
is something that I
have seen in these three psalms that we read together.
It's interesting that
these were written under very difficult circumstances.
It appears
two of them are
by David.
One is
the chief physician, one leading off.
So the chief physicians are again with them.
A son of David.
The one before that was a meeter, or an instruction,
or a precious thing,
for David to teach
when he spoke
with Emma and Harry,
and so on.
This comes back from a successful battle
against
what we have in the past
experienced in the beginning of this
psalm, the first few verses.
And he's thinking of what
they've been through,
what a difficult time it's been.
But we find
in each of these psalms a particular expression
that we have to draw attention to.
The other one we just noticed
was mentioned
a son of Asaph.
Asaph was the
chief of the sinners of David.
We read about him in the Chronicles.
The Chronicles
where they
were instructed to sing,
and Asaph was the leader of his singers.
He collected together, I spoke of the psalms
of David and of others,
and perhaps even to music.
We see some of the
tunes at the end of some of these
psalms.
And there was a son on particular
occasions.
What different
psalms they are, how different is the character.
The one thing
I ask you what I tend to do,
to get all the rest,
that's one expression
that comes in as you may think of.
The first verse of Psalm 50,
The mighty God
in the Lord hath
spoken.
Psalm 60 verse 6,
God
hath spoken
in his holiness.
Psalm 62
verse 11,
God hath spoken
once.
Asaph, I hope it is,
the time has come to God.
God hath spoken.
This is really the whole subject.
But the Bible, isn't it?
The very first page of the Bible
was very struck
not many years ago at a printing exhibition
at Earl's Court in London
where I learned
that
a particular section of this in the gallery
is printing
of the Bible of man.
It was very noticeable
they had
an enlarged page
the first page
of the first printed book
certainly the first printed book
of Europe
which happened to be
the Bible,
the Latin Bible.
Then we find
the first spoken
words of God.
Two words,
fiat lux
were carried out into
an enlarged version
the big stele
was looked at to a large mass
dozens of words in
old Gothic letters
fiat lux
may there be light.
The first spoken words of God.
So the very first
page of that Bible
was the first verses of the Bible
of God speaking.
What did he say? May there be light.
Throughout the Bible
we find God speaking.
He spoke to Adam
in the third chapter
we find him speaking.
In the third chapter we find him speaking to Adam.
We find him speaking to Noah.
We find him speaking to Moses.
This is the subject
for this psalm of Asaph.
The mighty God, even the Lord
Jehovah, hath spoken.
The interesting thing
about this first one is that he
has spoken here
out of Zion, but he has spoken
not only to the heavens
from above, but to the earth.
He spoke to the heavens from above
and to the earth
that he may judge
his people. God has spoken to the earth.
Isn't it wonderful? Not only to the heavens
but even in the
first chapter of Genesis
God spoke.
We read this in the
commentary of Psalm 33. He spoke and it was done.
By the word of God
the heavens were.
But
he spoke
to the earth.
There was the inhabitants of the earth.
God spoke. It's very important, isn't it?
Because
we might have an excuse if it was not so
to say, well, God is so far away
and God has made so many
worlds.
Remember how it took Abraham
to look at the stars and say, can you count them?
No, you can't count the stars.
People thought they could. One time
they got the registered stars
and there was God in there.
And then somebody made a telescope and saw a lot more.
And then they did a telescope
and saw still more. And now they admit
that the stars cannot be
counted, the multitude.
There are too many to count.
And God made so many
wonderful worlds. I should give you
just one tiny speck
of the universe called
earth. But he is interested
in that. And in the inhabitants
he spoke
to the earth
that he may judge
his people. It's very solid, isn't it?
God's message to the earth
is a message of judgment.
You will tell me
to sit down to hear the gospel of the grace of God
as we preach today. Yes, it is.
And yet this very gospel of God
begins with his message
that God is a holy God.
God is a righteous God.
God cannot tolerate sin.
This is a very essential
part of the gospel. We find in the
Roman epistle, the epistle
of the Romans, where the gospel is set
forth, it's not ashamed
of the gospel of God.
He goes on
to say, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Righteousness.
What's that?
Is that good news?
That God is righteous and the world is
guilty? He goes on to say,
for therein is wrath revealed
from heaven against all
ungodliness. He goes on to say
the whole world is guilty of God.
Is this good news?
Well,
you sense all the good news when we go to the doctor.
We
may think something is wrong
with us. He puts his finger on
the spot straight away and says, yes, there is
trouble. God's diagnosis
is necessary if it's
going to be cured.
And so often people
do not go to the doctor because
they're afraid there's something wrong
with them. They're afraid there's something wrong.
They'll probably go, maybe too late, to put it right.
What a good man he is. The doctor
can put his finger on the spot and say,
that is what is wrong.
And prescribe medicines or
whatever treatment is necessary
to put it right. We must know
why God
speaks here. He's called to the heavens
from above and to the earth,
that he may judge. Later on in
verse 6,
the heavens will declare his righteousness, for God
is judge himself.
God doesn't entrust
judgment to anyone else.
God
is judge
himself. And we
read there how God spoke to
particularly Israel,
the nation of Jerusalem and all the nations of the earth
to reveal himself. He spoke
to them. His voice was heard.
You remember they entreated
Moses that they would not hear
his voice again. It was too terrible
for him to endure that voice.
God spoke.
And I believe this is something you really
ought to hear. The mighty God
even the Lord has spoken.
I believe this does refer in a certain way
to Sinai. When God's voice
was actually heard, there was a sound of
thunder. So now
the people entreated Moses,
speak now
to God.
Speak to us. They want some
of the clean men and gold because
God's voice was too terrible
for them to hear.
And God's message
too was too terrible for the world.
And God spoke to the earth.
After sin came into the world,
God's message was too terrible for men to bear.
And yet
it was in the grace of God.
One day we saw that this word that comes
in here, the word we're singing about now here
was salvation.
In the
Psalm 150, God speaks
of his all-sufficiency.
People,
I suppose, all kinds, all
races
have sought to propitiate
a deity.
We know that even
in countries where it seems they have
no sense of right and wrong,
they all now feel that there is some
power that has to be propitiated.
They have to bring some kind of gift
to this god of theirs.
And we've heard of the
kitchen god in China
stuck up in the kitchen.
And
it was rather embarrassing sometimes because
he would see what went on in the kitchen.
So he just put a little bit of sweet
toad in this
idol's mouth
just to keep him sweet.
And he would tell on.
This is the idea that they have of God.
God can be sweetened by a little
sugar and spice
and a few sacrifices.
Sometimes human sacrifices,
we know in many countries.
God says here,
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee.
For the world
is thine, and the woman's
thine. Would I give a fresher fruit or drink
a drunk milk?
No, God doesn't want to do that.
He will be answering him. God made
it all in the first place. God made man
and beast as we saw yesterday.
God created man and
beast in the world.
He will be answering him. What can we offer to God?
What have we got to offer? There's none of that in our hymns.
What can we offer?
He said here simply,
Call upon thee
in a day of trouble.
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
joy find me.
God can say to me,
and you can understand, it seems reasonable,
I feel I'm in need.
To call upon God, now that I'm in need.
Now that I see that I'm in need,
I feel mean to call upon God.
God watches very first.
God wants you to call upon him
when you're in need. God expects you
to call upon him when you're in need.
The very factor of calling upon God
when you're in need.
Glory to God, it's not here.
Call upon me in a day of trouble.
I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glory find me.
Because God is a saviour God.
God doesn't want us to say
our sins. God doesn't
want to take up
his strange work as
a judgment. God doesn't want
to judge you. He's not willing to let you perish.
He wants to save.
He wants people to call upon him
in a day of trouble.
He wants them to call upon him.
It's not 100% but it's so beautiful
that it doesn't keep on saying.
All the men will turn to the Lord
for his goodness.
He's wonderful in the works of children and men.
Then it speaks of those that call upon
all the various characters
and categories of men there.
And they call upon the Lord in their distress
and in their hurt and deliver them from all their fears.
That's not God
that's revealed in the Bible.
This is a God who has spoken to the world.
A God who wants us to call upon
him in trouble. He doesn't want us to
bear our own burdens.
He wants to bend the cross.
He is the mighty God.
The Lord.
The creator of all things.
You can't give him anything.
Even the praise that we utter.
The voice that's been given us by God.
The intelligence
to know God has been given us by God.
The very thoughts that we utter.
The very
ability,
the very breath
that we draw is all
given to us by God.
So we have nothing
that we've not received.
And so,
the hardest thing I've always had to take
is to accept something for which
we cannot pay. It's just what God says.
Call upon me in a day of trouble.
I will deliver thee.
And I shall glorify thee in the last verse.
For thy son who sought praise
glorified thee.
And to him the Lord and his conversation of love.
In other words, one day of
Egypt,
I will show the salvation
of God. That's a lovely word.
Salvation. The salvation of God.
The expression comes several times in the
scripture. The salvation of God.
It's been the main
message that I was given.
And
it seems a very difficult
sort of message, but
it was for the future day when
the Messiah
would come.
It was 700
odd years
in being fulfilled.
And yet, we see in the
Gospels, the quotation
again, this chapter of Isaiah,
it adds a little thing, it says
all flesh shall see it.
It says in Isaiah 40.
But in the quotation he uses, it says
all flesh shall see what?
It. The salvation of God.
Because it was
revealed. All flesh will see it together.
That's what it says in the Old Testament.
But when it comes to those who are new,
we see what
and whom they have seen.
Because it's not
just something.
Salvation is something, of course. Something very
real. Very real thing to say
to the individual.
That's also a person.
You think of Simeon
who took the veil off his arms.
I will get it down by serving a part
in peace, according to my
word. For when I shall
be held by salvation.
By salvation, this is what they do.
God's salvation.
That's what he's speaking of here.
Do you know what this conversation is about?
Should I show
the salvation of God?
So what God wants to give
to each other is the very
title of himself. I will show
this blessed one who
is the salvation of God.
Because we cannot have salvation outside of Christ.
The Old Gospel
centers upon Christ.
And this is the salvation
of God, which you read in the
Psalms.
We read together.
We saw there in Psalm 60
for example, God speaking.
And just as we
borrowed up the thought
of the stone of the earth,
in verse 2 of Psalm 60,
we see the effect of it.
The earth crumbled. It's broken.
It was really
something that was dangerous.
God was shook the earth.
The very speaking of God
in Psalm 60, I was shook the earth.
As God said
in Haggai,
there's no way those men shake the earth.
You can shake the heavens as well.
You've got to shake, shake and shake
the heavens.
Yes, and what's wrong?
God has spoken and shaken the earth.
But
He's going to
shake the heavens.
He's going to shake the heavens.
What a voice that is.
The very heavens are going to be rolled up
and put away like old diamonds.
They're going to be put away.
There's going to be a new heaven, a new earth
where Christ is going to dwell.
And this is the God which is revealed here
in verse 6 of Psalm 60.
God spoke
in His holiness.
In His holiness.
As God spoke in His holiness.
Psalm 22
that
wonderful expression of the Lord Jesus
possibly the very words He used
on the cross, certainly some of them were.
He says, but thou art holy.
Thou that inheritest the treasures of Israel.
But thou art holy.
Thou knew it.
So was the Lord Jesus.
We're reading this morning,
17th John.
The sanctity of the holiness.
Holy Father.
He said, Holy Father.
To address His Father.
The Holy Father.
And we sang this in our hymns.
No quotation from Psalms.
The worship of the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
The beauty of holiness.
We think of the vision of Isaiah.
We think of the
living creatures in the fourth revelation.
Holy. Holy.
Holy is the Lord.
Christ holy is the Lord.
We must not forget
the holiness of God.
People don't like this word.
It doesn't...
so many words have another
meaning.
We speak of holiness of people who are
too holy to live.
People are too holy to live with.
And holiness in the sense of
being awkward
and different.
Well, there is a difference in that holiness.
There's a difference
of a positive
holiness.
A positive sanctity.
Not having this negative.
It's not only that we don't do this,
we don't do that, we don't go with them,
we don't listen to that doctrine.
We don't do all so many
things that other people do.
It's not that at all. Holiness
as we read in the
First Application, as well as I know
in the
early books of the Bible,
the holiness unto the Lord.
The priests were
consecrated to the Lord.
Positive.
Now set aside for God's service.
That's holy.
In the same wonderful way as God is holy
and cannot bear unholy nature.
So those I serve
must be holy.
That is saying
internally
brought to His use.
We read under various
vessels in the New Testament.
We find
there are certain inferior
vessels that are used only in the kitchen.
They never come upon the table for the Master.
Others are
clean vessels,
fresh vessels, neat, for the Master's use.
That is
through holiness.
God has spoken in His holiness.
Holiness.
Holiness here,
we read of,
which is, yes, for
the people of God even,
something that's quite beautiful,
a holiness of God.
Just think of David himself.
He wrote this psalm
and you must have thought
at the time when
he acted patiently,
he acted sinfully.
Times when
he, for example,
with the best of intentions,
tried to bring the ark back
but nothing comes away.
And what would that have meant to me?
God spoke in a very serious
way. He had the foot on His hand
to extend the ark.
He was a bit dead.
David fell
on the water.
He was displeased that day.
He couldn't stand the thought of the holiness
of God. Can we?
And yet,
this wonderful Holy God
who has spoken in holiness,
He says in verse 4 of this
Psalm 16,
God has given a banner to them that fear me
which may be displayed
because of the truth.
God has given a banner to them that fear me.
As though God says,
look, you fear me.
You obey my word.
I'll give you a banner that may be seen.
It may be seen by all
because of the truth.
And the point is,
how can they be delivered?
Salient with thy right hand
and hear me. Salient.
God speaks
of delivering. The one who delivers.
The one who leads us.
In the last verses,
give us help from trouble,
for then is the help of man.
Through God we shall be bountiful.
Immediately we shall tread down our enemies.
Our enemies.
You're thinking here of the
nations of the time we've mentioned here,
the nations round about.
God's able to give them
victory over all these enemies.
Then we'll
experience this. Only God,
He says, is able to give us victory
over all these enemies.
But over the great enemy of all, over Satan,
God's able to give us
the victory through the finished work of the Lord Jesus.
By death,
He died.
Yes, this is a victory.
God has spoken.
God has spoken.
The way we think,
in the
first chapter of
Hebrew, that God has spoken.
In times past,
unto far through the prophets,
He sent messenger after messenger.
That's how it is
when we read of the
end of the book of
Kings and
Jeremiah.
How God
speaks there, having sent His
messengers, rising up early
and sending.
God's got up early in the morning, especially to send a messenger
to them. But it wouldn't
happen. Again and again
He sent His messengers, prophet after prophet.
The Lord Jesus wrote this in the
parable, didn't He? They sued some.
They stoned others.
They booted others and drove them out.
Last of all,
He sent
His Son. Having one son
as well as others, He sent Him
in the divine Hebrew one.
Having His last days opened
by His Son.
Really, very personal, His Son.
It is God
Himself who has come.
Just as God is judge,
so God
too is a saviour.
God, just as God
is saviour, in the
final revelation of life,
the Lord Jesus Christ, we see there,
God has spoken.
And we think that's
perfect by itself. We say God has spoken
in holiness.
Isn't it interesting that it's connected with
rejoicing,
it's connected with
triumph, it's connected with
help from trouble,
it's connected with
the envious of God.
Holiness
is involved with all these things.
Holiness is not just something being pushed up into a corner.
It's not something, someone being
shut away in a monastery where
nobody can see anything
for what's being done. No!
Holiness of God is an active holiness.
We see this in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy One of God.
Even the demons recognize Him.
We know who they are.
The Holy One of God.
The Holy One.
And yet just see
how mighty
a conqueror He was. Conquering,
giving up the power of death,
setting free His captives, those who
would fear death for their last time
suffered in bondage. The mighty
victory He gave.
Man is able to cope
with sin
and death.
God is.
And so through God we shall do valiantly.
It is He who will clear down their enemies.
And so this again is
deliverance, salvation.
This is what we found in Psalm 62
again, wasn't it?
This we have this
to give them
another of His mighty
men of song.
The son of David.
He's quite different
in character from the others.
His soul is waiting
for God.
Why? Because from Him
cometh my salvation. He only
is my rock
and my salvation.
We have to say it again because something has to be repeated.
Let's say it again. God is my
salvation and my glory.
The rock of my strength.
Yes. Verse 6 again.
He only is my rock and my salvation.
God has spoken.
Verse 11.
God has spoken once.
Twice have I heard this,
that thou art the only one to God.
Maybe if we find here a reflection.
God spoke
once. In a way
you see
with the shining of light.
A reflection.
In two directions.
God has spoken
in the
Old Testament.
All these messages
sent by God
were focusing on one point.
The coming of the Lord Jesus.
The New Testament begins at that point
and goes on shining
back upon the coming
of the Lord Jesus.
The focal point in both cases
is the Lord Himself.
The one who came to be the salvation of God.
So here again we find
that God has spoken.
God has spoken
once.
Yes or no?
Do you think God has spoken this way?
Do you think?
Yes?
There's one message.
One gospel. One saviour.
Now I've gone on to repeat this
history.
Moses
in his rock there
should have checked him.
We can't do the
plenty of numbers.
He repeats
and that the God told him to
right back in the
17th of
the 16th of Exodus
by the very beginning of Exodus
when they first came into the
wilderness without water.
God told him to smite a rock.
He did it. He repeated it.
And all those
years afterwards
when they were
well on their way
when they had learned much
from the way of God
and God had indeed learned very much to him.
God said speak
to the rock and it shall give you water.
But he didn't. He didn't speak.
He spoke it twice in his rock.
He said must we
give water? Must we
give you water?
And God didn't
do that because
Lord Jesus was not to die
two or three times.
By one offering
he was perfected forever.
His work was complete.
God spoke once.
What is the message?
This. Power
belongs to God.
Not only power.
We need a power in the
power
that Lord Jesus had.
He conquered a strong man.
He spoke of a strong man who keeps his goods.
Stronger than he comes
and delivers his captives
and takes his goods. That was he.
Stronger than the strong. Powerful.
But he got power.
He had power.
Power to take again.
Raised from the dead by the glory
of God. He had that
power. Not only power.
The last verse of the
Psalm 62 says also unto thee
O Lord, love and mercy
for thou lovest every man according to his
work. There's one more
we can say.
In God is my salvation. He wants to
reveal his salvation to us. He wants to make
it known. His power
and his mercy.
If we look at power,
the power
of his voice shook the earth.
We read in the same
first chapter of Hebrews again
that he maintains the worlds
by the word of his
power. Not Jesus.
But not only
power, but mercy too.
All thanks to God.
Mercy is undeserved. We don't deserve
anything we have in God.
We've rebelled against him. We've sinned against him.
Many of us
indeed are so ungrateful
for God's wonderful gift.
But mercy also belongs to God.
He loves every man according to his work.
Let's look at it again.
Mercy. You can see how there was
no need of the
relation of mercy. But it is.
One more thing.
The day is coming when
God is going to say, and the Lord is going to
say to the one who has been faithful
even a little.
Well done.
And yet
all they have done, the very power
to do it, is very
great. To carry
out their good work
is only given by God. It's all of us.
And yet, even that
tax reward for our reward is
our remuneration to a man according to his work.
And the Lord, of course, has
to see to it. So the Lord
here below, when it's for him,
we seek to hold fast
to his hand
and his word
to know that they are coming when
he will.
And yet, that was a big of a mistake.
Reward according to that
which he has brought in us.
God
has spoken. He's spoken
to the earth. He's spoken to the heavens.
He's spoken once.
Try and have faith.
May the Lord bless my husband and you
with power and mercy
and unto God. …