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[0:00] So back to Psalm 9. I just want to set up this book for you so you understand kind of from a perspective of where we're going and everything. Because I got four points, we've got 20 verses. Many of you are probably already thinking about maybe checking out to see how the weather is outside and waiting till I come back in in about, you know, 40 minutes. So before you check out and everything, I want to take a look at this psalm and actually break it up into various sections of two to four verses each and go section by section through it. But ultimately, I want to actually look at this psalm, stand back a little bit, and observe two separate sections in this psalm.

[0:37] This psalm is actually split up into two parallel sections, a first section and a second section. And the first section is where David praises, note praises, looking back, surveying what God has done.

[0:51] And the second section is David praying, only looking forward into what God will do, because he knows he will do it. And starting these two sections, there's an interesting and unique intro and a conclusion as well that we're going to highlight today. So hold tight. Let's pray to allow the Holy Spirit to help us read David's praise and prayer in the ninth chapter of Psalms.

[1:17] Please join me in prayer, church. Father God, we are grateful to be gathered under your Word, to receive your Word, to receive instruction for our lives, for some of us to meet you, to allow yourself to be revealed to us through this perfect Word. And Lord God, we are trying to look at this and apply it to our lives, but also we want to look at it and preserve the historic holiness of this Word and what was drawing up to David's mind when he's writing this stuff down and why he wrote it down. So let's look at that today, Lord, and Lord, bring your Word to life as this has transcended through many, many ages. And we ask for your help through your Holy Spirit in that endeavor. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 9. Turn with me.

[2:20] It says, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exalt in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause. You have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations and have made the wicked perish. You have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins. Their city, you rooted out, the very memory of them has perished. But the Lord sits enthroned forever. He has established His throne for justice. And He judges the world with righteousness. He judges the peoples with uprightness.

[3:11] The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you. For you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

[3:24] Sing praises to the Lord who sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples His deeds. Verse 12. For He who avenges blood is mindful of them. He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

[3:38] Be gracious to me, O Lord. See my affliction from those who hate me. O You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all Your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I may rejoice in Your salvation. The nations have sunk in the pit that they made. In the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made Himself known. He has executed judgment.

[4:05] The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. The wicked shall return to shale all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord. Let not man prevail. Let the nations be judged before You. Put them in fear, O Lord. Let the nations know that they are but men.

[4:35] So as this psalm opens up, I want to talk about my first point, which is praise to the sovereign God. Praise to the sovereign God.

[4:47] It mentions in these two verses, let's look at verse 1 and 2. It says, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all Your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exalt You. I will sing Your name. I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

[5:06] As we mentioned in the introductory section of this entire series of psalms, it's on the website if you want to catch up on it, or if you're listening right now on the audio, you know, just click back.

[5:17] We talk about structure and emphasis a lot to understand psalms because, you know, it obviously it's a complicated book. It seems like there's a lot of repetition. There's various themes that are hard for a culture like ours to understand what was going on in this at this time. However, we understand that structure sometimes equals emphasis. And so when we're looking at this psalm, we can look for things like repeated words. We can look for sometimes the indentation that the text, sometimes the Bibles have an indentation that you say, why are all these spaces? They could have actually probably bound this in like 30 less pages of a chapter if they would have just kept the spacing.

[6:02] It's spacing is important. It's themes and topics. Sometimes there's parallel statements and phrases that we need to identify. And in this, in this particular psalm, in verse 1 and 2, what we see is a repeated word or a phrase in this. Within four lines of these two verses, David begins making an oath to the sovereign God. Four times he begins with defining direction of his focus and his attention.

[6:30] This actually sets the tone of this first psalm, this psalm in Psalm 9. Let's reread with a little bit more emphasis to understand what's being communicated here. He says, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you. I will praise, sing praise to your name, O Most High.

[6:59] He's giving praise to a sovereign God. He's acknowledging it with his lips. And I don't think it would be a false analysis of looking at our modern day culture that this is kind of difficult for us to praise God like this with our own words. It seems like we get stuck in like a half-heartedness.

[7:19] We get so engulfed by our immediate situations and shortcomings and things that are going on in our lives that we forget totally of who God is or what he's done. We're absolutely clueless at times when God allows things to come into our lives that are even the least bit stressful and difficult.

[7:40] We carry on sometimes in our praises about our personal needs, desires, and sometimes gossip, or maybe even accusing God of injustice. Like, why is this happening to me, God? What did I do?

[7:53] We almost feel like Job. If you can recall Job, he was a righteous man who endured great affliction in his life. His kids were killed, and the Lord allowed all of this to happen. It was within the Lord's control. And how often we almost empathize with Job, like, why is this even happening? This doesn't even make sense. What have I done? Well, it's not always it. Affliction in our lives are not always, you know, a direct reflection of the sin that we've committed. Sometimes a refinement process.

[8:24] And the reality is that within these four short lines, David is tapping into a deep, authentic worship that was known in ancient Israel, and we should too in our modern-day culture today.

[8:38] Look, verse 1, it mentions wonderful deeds. The Hebrew word here refers to the great acts of God's intervention in this life, and specifically points David back to the exodus, back to the exodus out of Egypt, where God divinely intervened on their behalf. This is how wonderful deed is used in its Hebrew context. The historic meaning of this word is, of what's being said here, is not contingent upon, like, what David gets or what anybody got from him, but it's focused on who God is and what God has done, his wonderful deeds.

[9:26] Boyce mentions that it's kind of like a psychological conditioning, and I would totally agree with that. That when we come to God almost using this as a guideline for our prayers and praises, when we say, I will exalt you, and even if your life is a mess, just say, I will exalt you, God. And when it comes out of your lips, it's almost as if you're reminding yourself at the same time of who God is. Many preachers across the nations and the globe call this preaching to yourself, because you think sermon prep, you think all those hours that us pastors spend in the week is for you guys specifically? It's actually for us too. And the more that we're preparing, if God's word can't change us, then how can we expect it to change you? It changes us first. We preach to ourselves, we minister to ourselves constantly. Imagine living life this way, church, no matter what comes your way, regardless of how you feel, you know, our good old feelings that we have in our lives. By acknowledging truth before feelings, we should be able to rest, knowing that nothing catches God by surprise. Imagine thanking God, church. Think about this. Imagine thanking God for your distress. Imagine how that would just reverse the whole aspect. Like, Satan's like,

[10:51] I'm going to get you good. Well, guess who? Guess what? Satan is confined by God's sovereign plan anyhow. So whatever he is, whatever's happening in your life, you know, God, you know that God is ultimately in control. We recall Romans 8, 28, that it says, in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. David knew this very well. And David, if anybody had anything to complain about, it was David. I mean, like, people were after him. He was the king of Israel. David knew this very well, and it was clear what he was doing as he opened this Psalm 9 and set the pace for the remaining contents. But as we go into the next verses here, in this next section, what is it that David is praising God for? We need to ask ourselves this question because it's not really too clear at this point within two verses. Now, we could stop, you know, being a modern-day preacher, it's like you could stop anywhere in Scripture. You can pluck out, you know, oh, these two verses will serve my agenda good.

[11:57] Yeah, I need to get the offering going. So I'm going to preach on these two verses and take the complete context out of it. I could stop here, and we could talk about, you know, this, like, health and, like, wealth and, like, the winning lottery numbers. Man, you know, you can live your best life now, but of course not. This would be limiting the grand picture of Scripture as a whole and what David is trying to communicate through this Psalm. He had a big comprehension of who God was, especially being a man who was made king over Israel. So let's look into this first section. I mentioned at the beginning two sections. Let's look at this first section of verses, and I'm going to break it up, hopefully, to help us all guide through these verses so it's not just a jumbled mess of words and phrases on a page. So let's look at point two, which is David's praise, surveying all that God has done in verse 3 through 11. Look at verse 3 with me and just go to 6. We're going to take this in a small chunk of content. Verse 3 says,

[13:02] When my enemy turns back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause. You have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations.

[13:19] You have made the wicked perish. You have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins. Their cities you've rooted out. The very memory of them has perished.

[13:35] We see a certain theme in here, and it's David's praise for past victory. David's praise for past victory. There is a strong emphasis on God in these verses. I tried to draw it out by saying you, because it's all about God. He is the subject matter as David surveys all that God has done.

[13:57] Or in other words, verse 3 says, As David looks back at all that God has done, he sees God intervening on his behalf to make his enemies stumble and perish. What God has done. He also looks in verse 4, The Lord has established David in positioning, empowering his judgments. Verse 4 says, You have maintained my just cause. You have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. You know, the odd thing is, David also had a throne too. And he's not concerned about his throne. He's concerned about the eternal, divine throne of God. In verse 5, we see through David, God used his army and nation to carry on God's judgment to rebuke them, to make them perish, and to blot out their name forever.

[14:39] Which is interesting, because in contrast to verse 2, a little bit earlier, we know whose name lasts forever. God's name. And here, we know whose name will actually perish. It is the wicked. And also, verse 6 says, God made David's nation victors through his intervention. As the enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins, their cities you rooted out, the very memory of them has perished.

[15:06] David, in his current mindset and point of view, he's looking back and seeing success and victory through his kingship over Israel. Nowhere is there an ounce of self-righteousness.

[15:22] Nowhere is there an ounce of self-entitlement, anything that, any title, sometimes in our American culture we can get all stuck up on titles and things like that. He wasn't worried about that.

[15:33] But as we go into the second chunk of Scripture, David continues to survey more of what God has done as well in verse 7. However, his focus and attention is twofold. He first focused on God's judgment, which destroys, and also God's refuge, which protects. So the second section, read with me just to, just to, from 7 to 10, which will see a theme of praise for God's righteous judgment and provision. Let's look at verse 7 and 8 real quick. It says, but the Lord sits enthroned forever. He has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with uprightness. He judges the peoples with uprightness. Verse 7, David looks back and acknowledges the Lord, the Lord's high-honored eternal position on his throne. This is a throne established for judgment. This is sometimes a contentious topic in the modern-day church as well, but his throne is for judgment. God's eternal throne is for judgment. And interestingly enough, when we're talking about, you know, David's sitting on his throne too over Israel, you know, it's probably a pretty nice throne that he's sitting in as he is king over this nation. He could have leveraged this text. This could have been a slam dunk in his favor.

[17:02] He could have, he could have said, man, God, you have used me, and it was all of, it was all me and my army that you use to conquer and to, to execute your judgment over these nations.

[17:15] But he doesn't. He draws attention to the eternal throne. David was literally known, Boyce mentions it as the CEO over the judge of Israel. He was the judge of Israel. He oversaw, he was involved with many civil affairs, you know, just like our, you know, what our local government does, and just like, you know, the national government, things like that. David was part of this, and David was used by God for the purpose of, you know, handling civil matters. That includes when somebody does wrong, that they get the proper penalty. So that we see this balance, this law that was established through David's kingship over Israel. And we see that today too, church. We see, obviously, we have laws, we have speed limits, things like that, and there's a penalty for breaking those, those types of laws. In verse 8, we see God's judgment as well of the world, of the world is based on righteousness and uprightness. So there's a standard that is set, which is based on righteousness and uprightness. The tone of verse 8 is actually quoted, Paul quotes it back in Acts, Acts chapter 17, verse 31, where he talks, God will judge the world with justice on the last day. And yeah, while this verse is not contextually speaking of like an eschatological end times judgment, it could be implied, he's actually speaking about like an immediate judgment in his governing over the nation of Israel. And it actually gives a great tone of importance and highlights the reality and significance of both present judgment on earth and eternal judgments at the end times. C.S. Lewis drew the importance of this present judgment and eternal judgments being significant out of a chapter called

[19:19] Judgment in the Psalms in C.S. Lewis' book's Reflection on the Psalms. He mentions, we, who think largely of an ultimate heavenly judgment, fear justice and seek deliverance from it through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. However, the Old Testament figures, like David's time, who thought largely of an earthly judgment, rightly pleaded for immediate justice. This is something that they pleaded for. Lewis continued to state, without forgetting the higher Christian conception, the final judgment, the higher Christian conception, we should all nevertheless be concerned for the other two earthly judgments. That we should be encouraged to have that standard, to know that, you know, rules and laws are good, you know, having these bounds, that we're not living lawless lives and everything, that we're bound by a certain standard. And God sets a standard of righteousness and uprightness in these verses here. Verse 10 continues, and David recalls those who know the Lord and put their trust in Him and the great reality of God's care for those who seek Him. David was one who understood Hebrews 13, that the Lord will never leave you and He will not forsake you. And David would also understand in the great commissioning in Matthew 28, verse 20, as he said, as Jesus commissioned the disciples, surely I will be with you to the end of the age.

[20:57] David understood this very clear. His life was endangered constantly, but God provided him a refuge. You know, many may think at this point, like, people are like, man, this is just like totally irrelevant to me. Like, like, great Brent, I'll remember this next time I'm the king of Israel, or maybe like the president of the United States. You know, well done, Pastor Brent. Way to, way to keep, keep this application going. Yes, there is a cultural gap that we have to bridge. We have to build that bridge from this text to today. But we must not look far, church. In this first section, we can understand that God has waged war for our lives as well, which has been won through Jesus Christ, and He defeated sin on the cross.

[21:56] Satan is the greatest enemy. He's ruthless. He's out to kill, steal, and devour. He's prowling around like a lion. Keyword, like a lion. He is not a lion. He is like a lion. And those who are in Christ can praise God like David that the victory and the refuge is in Him as well, in our salvation. As verse 11 states with great emphasis in this passage, it says in verse 11, sing praises to the Lord who sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples his deeds. So let's look back for a moment. As we analyze and survey the first half of the psalm, we see David directing his praise to God for things that he has done. His victory, his past victory, his past judgment, and his past provision in David's life. And based on the parallel structure in this psalm, we're going to go into the second section of this, where David now prays. His prayers, oh man, I'm screwing you up. His praise, which was previously praising for what God has done in the past, turns to prayers for God's future provision, his future victory, his future judgment, and his future provision in all his life as well. So let's go into the second section.

[23:19] Of point three is David's prayer now, trusting in what God will do. Trusting in what God will do. Look at me with verse 12. It says, For he who avenges blood is mindful of them. He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

[23:38] Be gracious to me, O Lord. See my affliction from those who hate me. O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I may rejoice in your salvation. We see in this section of Scripture, verse 12 to 14, we see a prayer for future victory in the third point of David's prayer. Look at me in verse 12. It highlights that God intervenes on behalf of those who are afflicted, that God is mindful of these people.

[24:17] And we arrive at verse 12, or at verse 13. If anybody of you want a good memory verse, verse 13 and 14 of chapter 9 is a great memory verse because Luther actually noted that these two verses can be referred to as a little prayer book in his life. He quoted, for it has in the soul and the marrow of prayer. In it is the soul and the marrow of prayer.

[24:47] And another commentator said, these two verses are the ladder that looks short, but it reaches earth to heaven. Let's look at these two verses. Verse 13. It says, Be gracious to me, O Lord. See my affliction from those who hate me. O you who lift me up from the gates of death. Verse 13 expresses David's humility and that he never approached God based on any of his own goodness, any goodness on his own for that. He was a sinner who sought out mercy in the time of affliction. This is actually the first sign in this entire psalm of distress as well. Distress from what?

[25:30] The great gates of death. Verse 14 continues. It says in this verse that this verse brings into context his plea for mercy in times of future affliction. Or in other words, he is not pleading for God to save him so he can have his best life now, that he can be fat and happy, but that he's pleading for God to save him so that the outcome can be David rejoicing and to glorify God. As verse 14 says, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation. And I don't want to go into it too academic-wise, but the two gates here are significant in this verse because David contrasts these two gates, the gates of death and the gates of the daughter of Zion. Or in other words, David, or excuse me, in other words, God lifted David out of harm's way in his affliction. And so David will praise God for this answered prayer in the most public of places, the gates of the daughter of Zion of Jerusalem. But contextually speaking, we understand this as the daughter of Zion.

[26:42] And this is such a, like, this resounds, this, within these two prayers, as Luther puts it, as another commentator puts it, when you put it in your memory bank, you recall the gospel of Jesus Christ, that just as God, as we have been lifted out of the gates of death as Christians, that the point of this is to recall and to praise and to glorify God in the most public places for the sake of the other, of those who God wants to reach with the gospel. It is such a strong two verses, chapter 9, verse 13 and 14. And as we cruise along, we get to four more verses in his prayer, but it's for prayer for God's righteous judgment and his provision in verses 15 through 18.

[27:34] It reads, The nations have sunk in the pit they have made. In the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. The wicked shall return to shale, all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. You've heard the phrase of shooting yourself in the foot. I've been married for eight years. I definitely know what that means, shooting yourself in the foot. You know, just, you know, something that you intended to be a good thing. You know, just, whoops, back up a little bit. You know, I do it often with gift giving, things like that. I'm the worst gift giver. Things that, you know, giving, who gives their wife a vacuum for Mother's Day. I've done that in the past. You know, I give it with proper, you know, my heart was in it, but totally, totally missed the mark there. I slept on the couch, for sure. No, I didn't. I've never slept on the couch. She's very gracious with me. My kids are cunning. They're very sharp, and often I try to build, like, mischievous plans to, you know, get them and play pranks with them.

[28:55] But, you know, I kind of just shoot myself in the own foot, and they somehow devise a plan and get back at me very quickly. I think in these verses, when I'm reading words like, the nations have sunk into the pit that they have made, and the net that they hid, their own foot has caught them. When I read this for the first time, I thought of that, you know, that old cartoon, back when, like, there were real cartoons, not this, like, real high-def, like, 3D cartoons, but, like, you know, the 2D cartoons, like, Looney Tunes. I thought of Wile E. Coyote back in the day. You know, poor Wile E. You know, him and Roadrunner are always at it, and he's always trying to set up these, craft these traps for, to catch Roadrunner. He'd set up these boulders up on cliffs, and at that right second, he knows when Roadrunner's going to come by, and sure enough, something malfunctions with this trap and comes crashing down with a boulder on himself. You know, explosives are not looked upon highly in this culture of children these days. You know, they kind of like to censor the explosions and the killing and things like that anymore, but back when cartoons were real, and we didn't really care about that types of stuff, you know, we weren't living in that soft generation. We had, you know, a Wile E. Coyote, who often had explosions blow up in his face.

[30:21] That is the first image. Just know that your pastor is thinking of Looney Tunes when he's doing his sermon prep. Just want to lay that out there for you. Okay, let's move on. Verse 15, it says, the nations have sunk in the pit that they have made. In the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. And verse 16 continues, the Lord has made himself known, he has executed judgment. The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. So we see in verse 15 that this verse has that very thing of Wile E. Coyote, that the enemies of God make their own bed and they lay in it, or also to be understood as their own wickedness, will come back to haunt them at one way or another, also known as they reap what they sow. The wicked on earth, known as enemies of God by biblical definition, not my opinion, Scripture's definition, the wicked on earth known as enemies of God are literally their own executioners. There are those cunning hunters like Wile E. Coyote who prepare pitfalls for the righteous, but they themselves fall into those very pitfalls. Wickedness will never prevail. As verse 16 continues, the Lord has made known himself, he has executed judgment. The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. And then as we look at verse 17, if there's any question to what happens to the wicked, and I want to hit it with grace and mercy, but I want to hit it because it's in Scripture, we have to teach it. If there's any question what happens to the wicked on this earth or back in

[31:56] David's day, David makes it crystal clear here. They return to Sheol. Does anybody know what this is referring to? Sheol. It's known as hell. The wicked will return to hell.

[32:12] It is a place known as a fiery lake. Revelation 20 verse 15 calls this, a fiery lake in a description, indicating a complete, you think of a lake, a complete submersion, that the wicked go into this lake. They're completely submerged, but it's a lake of fire, the most submerged in the most torturing of elements. Fire. The wicked are destined to hell based on God's perfect judgments.

[32:49] In verse 18, David turns his focus from that future judgment to protection for the righteous, to those who are saved. Verse 18 mentions needy and poor, which is a common phrase in Old Testament expressions. And we'll see it in Psalm as we continue. We see it in Job. We see it in Amos.

[33:09] Remember that sermon series, our favorite sermon series in Amos? Back in Amos, we saw needy and poor. We see it in Isaiah. It's a common phrase in Scripture, an Old Testament expression, literally meaning absolute poverty in need of total dependence upon God. God gives special attention to the cries of the oppressed. And David trusts in this truth. God remembers the needy and the hope of the poor will not perish forever, in verse 18. That is the end of section two. So let me remind you, back in section one was David's praise for what God has done, his victory, his judgment, and his past provision.

[33:59] Section two is David's prayer for future victory, for future judgment, for future provision. And we reach the last section, two verses of this psalm. A psalm of great motion, of great confidence that it is time. Now David takes what he has known from the past of what God has done and the future of what God is going to do. And he proclaims his orthodoxy turns to orthopraxy. It's not just sitting around, it's movement. He says in my fourth point, a prayer of praise to the sovereign God. You know what I did there? A prayer of praise to the sovereign God in verse 19 and 20. He says in verse 19, arise, O Lord!

[34:50] Let not man prevail. Let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men. Arise! I love that word. It's such a good word. It's such a powerful word.

[35:07] When Gideon went after he's thrown his fleeces into the grass, you know, with the dew, do you remember that? He was questioning, you know, are you really calling me to do this? Well, when God confirmed that through that act, immediately he's like, arise! He took his army into battle, his little 300 army taking this big old army on. Is that what this verse is saying here? Arise, troops! Let's battle this!

[35:34] Let's take what we've got on our own. It's our battle. It's for us. What does that mean here? Do we consider the possibility that Dave is praying for the destruction of the enemies, that he's cursing the enemies? Of course not. We see in this verse, arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail. Let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men.

[36:10] Augustine says on these verses, these are not the words of one who is wishing any mischief that may happen to his enemies. They are words of a prophet, of one who is foretelling, in scripture language, that the evil that must befall them on account of their sins.

[36:30] There's this great reality in God's judgments. So as we close, if there is one thing, if there's one thing that I want you to reflect on throughout this whole section of scripture, 20 verses that we just studied through, there's one thing that I want you to remember.

[36:55] It's, may the attention of our prayers and praises reverberate hope to a sovereign God, the sovereign God of the past, the sovereign God of the present, and the sovereign God of the future.

[37:10] I'll repeat that again. May the attention of our praises and prayers reverberate, echo, hope of a sovereign God over the past, the present, and the future.

[37:26] Through the past victories, the present victories. Through the past judgments, through the future judgments, through the past provisions, and the future provisions. Looking back over these two sections, if we can kind of like dial out a little bit and kind of look at this in sections, we see the first section of being praise, the second section of being prayer, of both, of what God has done and what He's doing.

[37:53] There's such a close relationship in what is saying being rooted in what is preached. Remember back in Colossians, back in the sermon series in Colossians, Colossians chapter 3, verse 16.

[38:07] Remember, recall this, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

[38:23] Isn't it interesting to remember during various periods of church history, during great revivals, great church awakenings, that like consider the Protestant Reformation, it's a big one.

[38:37] Luther's hymns were resounding on, like Luther was a singer. The men of God that he raised up were singers. He made, I think he made them sing, attend classes to learn how to sing.

[38:50] This is important to him. And so the songs of what he preached were on the lips of the German men during that Protestant Reformation. And it reflected identically with the truth that was in their hearts.

[39:05] Thinking about the Wesleyan revival in Great Britain, the recovery of the gospel truth was equally, equally united with the recovery of the gospel singing. There was a great revival of the gospel truth, but there was also recovery in gospel singing.

[39:23] You know, we got many hymns that we sing today in the modern church, John Charles Wesley and many other hymn writers of that time. And there is one verse, church, as we come to a complete halt today in the word.

[39:42] There's one verse which stands out in this passage as well. It's a verse that has so much implication. I didn't want to spend too much time. I wanted to get a very fast view, but I want to go back to verse 11 and provide the emphasis that it deserves as it is the section which is like the fulcrum, the balancing point of both sections of praise of the past and prayer for the future.

[40:07] Look back with me at verse 11. It says, Sing praises to the Lord who sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples his deeds.

[40:18] When those who hear the singing of God's people, not just hear repetitive, shallow words of, you know, you're a fluffy God, we love you, you know, whatever modern worship music, you know, sometimes is, it's just like, what are we even singing?

[40:36] Is there any, do these guys even read the Bible? When the essence of what we're singing is not shallow, but rich in truths of who God is and what He has done.

[40:48] The essence of why the church sings. If you ever wonder why we do this, why we sandwiched preaching in the middle of two sessions of singing, this is why. It's the essence of why we sing, to proclaim the rich truths of what God has done and what He's going to do.

[41:05] It is something which brings hope to a world just as much as our preaching. And the deeds which these verses speak about are truths of the gospel.

[41:17] It's not that God saves those who save themselves, but the simple revolutionary fact that through Jesus Christ, God saves. It is His doing.

[41:28] It's His sovereign choice. Remember the gates of death. The church, the church, if you're in Christ today, if you know that your eternal salvation is secure in Christ, He has raised you out of the gates of death.

[41:42] And He has also placed you at the gates of the daughter of Zion, the most public places, to proclaim His wonderful deeds as verse 11 speaks about. Sing praises to the Lord who sits enthroned in Zion.

[41:55] Tell among the peoples His deeds. Nothing we can do can aid God's grace. When the church sings this, and when the church prays this, like David, the world finds hope.

[42:09] Hope that lasts and hope that endures. So church, Christians, if you're hearing this message and you're just like, okay, this is good, you know, I can recall, you know, past, I can praise God for the past.

[42:25] He has saved me from that pit. He has brought me out of the gates of death. Praise the Lord. And He has not only, and He has judged in the past, but His judgment didn't rest on you to crush you.

[42:41] It crushed Jesus, the God, the God man, fully human, fully God. He crushed Himself. The very wrath of God was poured out upon Himself. He knew that we couldn't walk this earth and atone for the sin that mankind has committed since the garden, that He put Himself on earth to live the life that He desired, to live a righteousness that only He can achieve, and died a death that we all deserve.

[43:08] But His death qualified the complete removal. Our sins were placed on Him at the cross. The judgment has been served on Jesus Christ.

[43:18] It has been laid on the cross of Christ. Praise God for the past judgments. And thank God that He took it upon Himself to fulfill that, and the provision, the past provision of Jesus.

[43:31] So we praise, praise God for the continuation of the future victories and the future judgments, because we know that His grace is sufficient for us. And we're, we're messed up sinners. There's nothing that's going to change that.

[43:43] We're, we're not all of a sudden like, boop, made perfect, and all of a sudden our walk is in step with, with something that honors God. We're going to fall short of God's grace daily. And if you want to argue, even minute by minute, hour by hour, we're going to fall short.

[43:57] But God's future grace and His future judgments and victory and provision of, of, of grace is sufficient. And if you are not in Christ today, hold tight with me, I'm not going to go much longer.

[44:13] If you are not in Christ today, I don't know specifically if you are or not. Yeah, there is a reality of past and a future, but what matters in your life right now, if you are separated from God, if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are stuck in wickedness, you know, there's something that, that the Lord has been revealing to you through the preaching of His word, that is just not sitting right.

[44:37] You feel a friction with a holy God. You don't understand, you don't feel this forgiveness. You don't understand this forgiveness. There is something that is more crucial than the past and the future, and it is the present.

[44:51] It is the present decision that you make to trust in God. Put your faith in Jesus Christ and come to Him out of your faith and say simply, Lord, I'm a man of unclean lips.

[45:05] I am a sinner and I am stuck and I need you to lift me out of the gates of death. If you are at that point, praise the Lord for bringing that to you.

[45:17] And there is hope that will start right now at this moment for your past to begin and looking forward to your future. So may I sing a song of old. Let us sing on, let us preach on, and show the world who God is, what He has done, and what He can do for those who put their faith in Him.

[45:35] Church, please pray with me as we close. Father, we are grateful for Your revealed word, for the truth in Your word.

[45:48] And we thank You for making it known to us that while there is such harsh reality in the destination for those who don't know Jesus, regardless of that, we know that their destination is sure, but there is hope as long as there is breath in our lungs, as long as there is breath in the lungs of the wicked to turn from their sin.

[46:20] Father, proclaim that You are Christ. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and put their trust in You. Lord, let that be something that is resound on the lips of everyone in this church, sinners and saints.

[46:33]  We pray this in Jesus' precious name, the only name that can save. Amen.