Dennis Tuuri

Psalm 138. Psalm 138. I will praise thee with my whole heart. Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. In the day when I cry, thou answerest me and strengthenest me with strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth.

Yay, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine own hands.

The portion of scripture I read this morning, Psalm 138, follows well on Joel 2 and 3, subject of our last couple of sermons as we went up to Christmas time in the Advent season. It’s very important to recognize that of course we only spent a week on each of the three chapters of Joel and there’s much more in there that could have been drawn out. It’s a very important thing to remember about Joel chapters 2 and 3 specifically in relationship to the New Testament church as we pointed out last week.

Many people of course talk about the church as a parenthesis in God’s program and no hint of it in the Old Testament or whatnot. I believe either Dr. Bahnsen or Mr. Gentry pointed out in the latest book called “The House Divided” that Joel 2 is an important and critical passage. Here you have the opening days of the New Testament church, day of Pentecost, and immediately Peter cites Joel 2 as being a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

And then as we said, the victory talked about in Joel 3 and how those then formed major themes for how the Christian church understood what Christ had accomplished and what the future would bring as the gospel was preached. So we gave it somewhat of a short shrift, spending three weeks on the book of Joel, but very important passages of scripture. And with those two particular themes—one, the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the church, the empowerment of all peoples’ prophetic gift, and then two, with optimistic look toward the future.

Optimistic eschatology is part of our talk for this morning as well. We’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes. I decided that the next series will begin next Sunday on the seven deadly sins. And I decided that rather than go right into that with this sermon, it might be good at the end of the year and at the end of the ’80s as we look into the ’90s to pause before we get into a series of sermons on sin with some very comforting—some of the most comforting words in the scriptures I think are found in this psalm.

Probably the next couple of months will be convicting for many of us as we look at sins that the scriptures describe as deadly in life and having bad consequences for ourselves and our world. And I want us to remember that series is governed by the principles that we will draw out in today’s message, the title of which is “The Lord Will Perfect That Which Concerneth Me.” The conviction we get from sin from God is not to drive us into despair, but rather as part of God’s perfecting of us.

And I want us to have that firmly in mind as we go into a series on the seven deadly sins.

Now, in terms of the outline, I’ve chosen three statements that strike me as remarkable statements from this psalm as the three essential points of the outline. The first being taken out of verse 2: “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” I call that God’s wondrous condescension to man. And then another beautiful statement: “All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, oh Lord”—God’s marvelous promise of the future that David talked about in this psalm.

And then finally out of verse 8: “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” David in this psalm looks back at God’s faithfulness to him in the first part of the psalm, verses 1-3, and God’s actions. Then he looks forward in terms of the nations in verses 4 and 5. And then he looks forward to God’s actions toward himself in verses 6-8. And in each of these three sections as we’ll go through this, we’ll see that there are specific attributes of God that are cited.

Those attributes then lead to certain actions on God’s part and that leads to a certain response on the part of David or the nations or God’s creation. And although the order is not drawn out that way, I’ve kind of rearranged the verses somewhat to show you that’s the way it works. In the first section, for instance, start with David praising God. David praises God for what he does, which comes out of who God is.

And so that’s the way David flows through this thing. So throughout this psalm, we have God’s essence and then God’s events cited and man’s response. God’s attributes and God’s actions. God and who he is leads to God in terms of what he does and then yielding praise on the part of his creatures. And that’s the way this psalm is written out. And that should help us to understand one of the things we do in this church regularly in terms of the worship service is to have that dialogue where God initiates things.

He calls us to worship and then we respond. And the whole order of service follows that basic model. We’re always responding to God and to what he has done and who he is.

Okay. The first section: God’s wondrous condescension. We have here a couple of attributes listed in verse 2 of this particular psalm. In the middle of that in verse 2 of Psalm 138 we read that David worships God “for thy loving kindness and for thy truth.” And so the two attributes of God are sketched out here: first loving kindness and then truth.

Now the word loving kindness in the Hebrew is “hesed.” And those of you who have been at this church for a year or so, remember that we went through the book of Micah and this was one of the three requirements that God has for man. I don’t know if you can maybe do a mental quiz on yourself here to see how well you remember those three requirements that God makes of man. If you remember correctly, it was to do justly, to love hesed or loving kindness, and then also to walk humbly with God. Humility before God, justice in terms of our actions with other people, and then loving hesed—both God’s loving kindness, his covenantal faithfulness to his people and our covenantal faithfulness to other people as well.

Love, compassion, charity, mercy is another way to think of this particular characteristic or attribute of God. Grace is another way to translate it. God’s grace to his creatures. The second word there, the word for truth, means faithfulness. It has the concept to it. Underlying the particular word is the sense of certainty, sense of dependability, and as such is applied in the first sense as an attribute of who God is.

He is truth and he is faithful. He is dependable and he has certitude to his actions. And so that word there translated truth can be translated faithfulness or truth, of course, and talks about an attribute of God, his faithfulness in terms of his covenant to his people. Secondly, this term is used both in the New Testament and in the Old Testament to apply to God’s word. His scriptures are true altogether and faithful.

They’re efficacious always. And then third, this particular word is used to describe then men who act this way as well—are called to be truthful. Again, we know that man is made in the image of God. And when we are redeemed and brought back into the covenant, into relationship to God, we’re to exhibit this same truth as God is loving kindness, as he is hesed. So we are to exhibit that to other people and to the world.

And as God is truth, truthful and dependable, we are to be truthful and dependable as well. Now these two words, loving kindness and truth, are found in combination throughout the Old Testament. Some 30 or 35 times they are linked together as it were. John Calvin, commenting on this, noted some of the verses and I’ll just read out of his “Institutes of the Christian Religion.” Some of these verses.

Psalm 40, verses 10 and 11 read: “I have declared thy truth and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy goodness and thy truth. Let thy goodness and thy truth preserve me.” Linked three or four times in that particular psalm. In Psalm 36, we read: “Thy mercy extends to the heavens, thy truth to the clouds.” And it’s these same two Hebrew words. Psalm 25: “All the ways of Jehovah are kindness and truth.”

These same two words to those that keep his covenant. Psalm 117: “For his mercy is multiplied upon us and the truth of the Lord endures forever.” Calvin commenting on these verses said that on this basis the Psalms commonly yoke these two words mercy and truth as if they were mutually connected. For it would not help us at all to know that God is true unless he mercifully attracted us to himself. Nor would it have been in our power to embrace his mercy if he had not offered it with his word which is altogether true.

One of the verses we just read there was Psalm 25:10 and it brings out a very important part of this word, this phrase grace and truth. J. Alexander, on his comments on Psalm 25:10 where we read that “all the paths of Jehovah are mercy and truth,” notes that it goes on to say they’re mercy and truth to the keepers of his covenant. And so that is a conditional aspect of God to his creature. To those that keep his covenant and his testimonies, God is indeed mercy and truth. Truth meaning veracity or fidelity.

Alexander quotes on this verse. He says: “The last clause shows that the preceding promises are limited to those who are in covenant with God.” And in covenant meaning those who obey his testimonies as well.

So loving kindness and truth are these two attributes. They’re linked together. We’ve seen them in other portions of scripture. They’re quite important and they have a conditional aspect to them. God’s loving kindness and truth is demonstrated to those that he has elected and brought into the covenant of salvation and they then are to exhibit these as well to other creatures. Now before we move on to this I want to take a slight diversion in terms of these two words.

Alexander noted in his commentary on Psalm 25 that this same combination is found in the New Testament and he talks about—he mentions briefly John 1:17. There was a recent article published in Moody Monthly in December, I think ’89 issue, by Ronald Allen who is a professor I believe of Old Testament theology at the seminary here in town of Western Conservative Baptist. It was an excellent article and Allen looks at this particular verse John 1:17.

Now in case you don’t know that verse, it talks there about how the law was given through Moses and then some people would like to say “but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” and so they draw this distinction between the law of Moses and the grace of Christ. And that’s the basic one of the basic proof texts for the dispensationalist position that grace and law are diametrically opposed. Ronald Allen does a very good job of tearing that argument to shreds.

And this is a professor from Western we’re talking about. He notices first of all that the word for—the law was given by Moses. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean the word for. I meant the word “but.” The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. That the word “but” is not in the Greek. It is a translator’s addition to it. And if you have a New American Standard Bible, for instance, that word isn’t in there at all.

So first of all, there’s no “but” indicated in the text. Secondly, he noted that it doesn’t say that the law is Moses’ law. People talk about the law of Moses versus the law of Jesus. It’s God’s law given through Moses, okay? But it’s still God’s law. And then third, Allen notes the connection of these two terms in the New Testament. The way they were connected in some of these verses we just read in the Old Testament, and I’ll quote his article at this point in time.

He says: “The words grace and truth form a pair. Indeed, they are the New Testament recasting of one of the most common pairings of words in the Hebrew Bible: hesed and emet, grace and truth.” The very two words we’re talking about from Psalm 138. He says: “These words work together to form what is called a—and I’m not going to pronounce this right, folks. If you know what it is, you can tell me afterwards how to pronounce it. The word is hendiadys. In any event, what the term means, Allen tells us, and I’m glad he does, is a concept where one concept is portrayed through two words. So the two words, the two different words, define what the other half mean. So they go together as a unit. That’s the point he’s trying to make here. So they go together.

And he then goes on to say that here’s the rub. If we wish to say that John 1:17 contrasts the grace of Jesus with the law of Moses, we need also to say that the law of Moses is devoid of truth because you see, it’s “the law of Moses and then grace and truth through Jesus Christ.” But he said nobody would want to say the law of Moses didn’t have any truth to it. And so obviously these two cannot be put in counter distinction one to another.

And Allen points that out very well, very well. Now ultimately John 1 also tells us that when we read about God’s attributes of grace and truth, the best place to look for those first is in the law of God, but it’s also then in Jesus Christ and his coming. And John 1:14 says that Jesus was full of grace and truth—these two attributes that we’re discussing from Psalm 138.

Now I took that little diversion to help you understand the relationship of the testaments and also to see the very importance of these two attributes tied together in this particular psalm before us. It’s a very important concept in scripture and it’s also linked then in terms of the covenant and the covenant law as well. I also quoted from Ronald Allen because we’re going to be talking about a couple in a couple of minutes here about optimism toward the future.

Well, this quote from professor of Western—and in the middle of the article he criticizes the Scofield Reference Bible and he tears down the wall between law and grace that dispensationalists have erected over the years. That is evidence from the situation we live in of an optimistic eschatology because we see former dispensationalists moving closer and closer to seeing a whole Bible approach and that could cause our hearts to rejoice.

We’re going to give textual evidence from optimistic view of the future in a couple of minutes, but this is evidence from the world around us that indeed things are progressing according to God’s plan.

Okay. God’s attributes lead then to certain actions by God in terms of what he does. He is grace and truth. These things go together. And that then leads to the actions that are displayed in verse 3. David says that “in the day when I cry, thou answerest me and strengthenest me with strength in my soul.”

God is faithful. He is dependable. He is loving and gracious toward his people. And as a result, when they cry to him, in the very day David said when I cried to him, he answered me. And it’s very important to notice that. Notice the speed of God’s actions as a result of his attributes, of his character. But let’s notice one other thing from verse 3. Let’s look at the answer to the prayer that David cried out.

And it’s interesting. He doesn’t just say he prayed to God. He cried out to God. Very dire circumstances. David says that he answered me. And what’s the form of the answer? He strengthens me with strength in my soul. Now, what I want you to notice here is that the answer is not a change in David’s external surroundings necessarily. The answer is a strengthening of David to go through what God has in mind for him in terms of the circumstances David finds himself in.

Okay. Matthew Henry talking of this answer to this prayer says the following: “If God give us strength in our souls to bear the burdens, resist the temptations and to do the duties of an afflicted state. If he strengthens us to keep hold of himself by faith, to maintain the peace of our own minds and to wait with patience for the issue, we must own that he hath answered us and we are bound to be thankful for his answer.”

He strengthens us, you see, in the midst of trials. Often times he doesn’t change those trials. He gives us strength in our souls, which is what the term means, to go through those trials successfully and obediently, relying upon him for the end of the matter. Derek Kidner in his commentary on the Psalms says that the following: “It’s not always the situation which most needs changing. It is as often as not the man involved in it.”

Very important as we look forward to a year filled with temptations, trials, and tribulations that God uses to strengthen us. That our prayer should recognize that often times the answer is not a change in the external situations. It’s a change internally to us to strengthen us and give us strength and confidence to go through what he has given to us.

Okay. So God’s attributes leads to action by God and that then leads to praise on the part of David for what God has already accomplished for him. And David says he’ll praise God with his whole heart.

Now the word praise here—there are different words in the Old Testament for praise. This particular word means to acknowledge, to make confession that God is God and by way of implication to give thanks to God as well that he is God and has done all these things. So the particular type of prayer that David is mentioning here is agreeing that God is doing these things. Agreeing that God is gracious and loving kind and is loving kindness and is dependable and faithful.

And that’s the sort of praise that David uses here. In the New Testament and the Old Testament, the Greek word that’s normally translated the Septuagent from this particular word, in the New Testament and then this Hebrew word in the Old Testament—both these words are frequently used in terms of confession, not just of God but confession of sin is the same essential word. It’s to agree and to acknowledge or declare that sin is what it is—sin.

And then third, also it’s used in terms of calling them then to acknowledge God’s works and to make confession of those works.

Okay. Alexander defining this term says that this means “to thank thee” in the strict sense of praising for benefits received or in a wider sense acknowledging God as God. That’s what the word praise here means and notice that David doesn’t praise God with just his external actions.

David says he praises and acknowledges God to be God with his whole heart. With his whole heart. It is important to recognize that the whole heart means all of who we are and in all of who we are to acknowledge God as who he is. We have talked before—some of you who may be visiting today may not realize—I, when I prayed the prayer of confession this morning, why my hands are up and apart. That is a symbol of the spreading forth of the hands in the Old Testament of a brokenness before God, tearing apart of one’s garments and confession of sin. And I bring that up now to say that until we can get to a whole heart of praising God, we must go through a broken heart first of contrition and repentance to God for our sins. The broken heart is then healed and put back together by God. We’re made whole as it were by him and we’re given that wholeness again to praise him for who he is.

And notice that David praises God with his whole heart and he does it before the gods. He says “before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.” Now the word God here is the Hebrew word Elohim. You should remember we talked about the term. “El” meaning Yahweh is Elohim. The covenant God of Israel is the strong one, is the only God. My oldest boy’s name Elijah means the same one. It’s a contraction of “Eloh” and “Yahweh.” And so it means that the covenant God of Israel is the strong one, is the mighty God of all gods, and is the only God.

But the word Elohim is also used in a couple of other senses. And here it doesn’t refer to God. Obviously, it refers to other gods. It’s in the plural. And in this particular passage, there’s much disagreement as to what it means. Calvin thought that the word Elohim here meant, as it can mean in certain places of the Old Testament, angels.

And Calvin in his institutes again talked about how in worship we ascend to heaven. Remember, we’ve talked about that concept in this church some. How Hebrews tells us when we worship the angels are in some way with us. We’re all worshiping around the same throne room of God. And so Calvin says that’s what David is talking about here.

To read now from Calvin’s commentary on the book of Psalms. He said the noun means angels and sometimes can mean kings and either meaning will suit with the passage before us. The phrase David speaks of is that which is of a public kind. The solemn assembly is, so to speak, a heavenly theater graced by the presence of attending angels. And one reason why the cherubim overshadow the ark of the covenant was to let God’s people know that the angels are present when they come to worship in the sanctuary.

Going on, Calvin said that he preferred the use of angel as opposed to king. He says: “And this because believers in drawing near to God are withdrawn from the world and rise to heaven in the enjoyment of fellowship with angels, that they find Paul enforcing this address to the Corinthians upon the necessity of decency and order by requiring them to show some respect at least in their public religious assemblies to the angels. 1 Corinthians 11.”

Remember Paul says that for the angels’ sake certain things should be done in terms of public worship. He says that in 1 Corinthians 11. And so Calvin says that since the angels are with us and worshiping and David is going to praise God with his whole heart and before the gods he will sing praise to God, that he’s saying—for the angels. That could be what David is talking about here.

Other people have said that instead of angels, the term Elohim here means idols, people that would be gods. And then still another interpretation of this is that the Elohim mean kings or princes of the earth. I think that probably is the better interpretation because he’s going to go on in the middle section of this psalm to tell us the impact of God’s attributes and God’s actions not just on him and not just on the church, but on the nations of all the earth. And so I think it is likely that David was speaking of the authorities not in terms of angelic or false idol authorities for other religions but rather the authorities who are civil.

And I think that’s what David is talking about. In a way in our context in America in 1989 either of these last two translations will work because in our day and age the earthly powers, the civil magistrates as it were, have become false idols of people. It is the civil magistrate that is looked upon to give salvation from all ills in our world. And so in a very real sense, if you translate it either idols or kings here, it doesn’t make any difference today.

The point is that God’s people should sing God’s praise in front of false idols and in front of civil magistrates. And so there’s an open acknowledgement here on David’s part. There’s a boldness. God has strengthened him in his inner man to speak forth who God is in terms of those who would deny that he is the God of all gods, including the civil magistrates.

I remember going into lobby for a particular bill this in, uh, this last year early on in this year and one of our position papers quoted some scripture references and it wasn’t just you know a bunch of scripture references—it was quoted in the context and we explained what the word of God had to say about this particular issue. And couple of the representatives that I spoke with were really very taken aback and offended that one would make reference to an exterior source such as the Bible that claims authority over them.

See, legislators have been taught to think that they are the ultimate authority and for you to claim a higher authority they will have no use for you in that case. But they need to be reminded that there is a higher authority and we’ll talk about that more in a couple of minutes as well.

Briefly in verse 2, David’s praise goes on to say he says: “I’ll worship toward thy holy temple.” The word worship there means to kneel down, to bow towards God’s holy temple and to praise his name again. So God’s attributes leads to actions toward David. It leads to salvation and grace extended to him. And David in response to that sings forth God’s praises.

And in the midst of all this, we have that wonderful phrase I want to talk about for a couple of minutes: “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” Now it may not seem like it to you, but that to me is one of the most incredible pieces of scripture in the whole Bible. It is interesting that if you take a series of translations from the King James forward, the newer the translation, it’s not totally this way, but the newer the translation, the more this verse is changed in its translation until I have seen some fairly contemporary translations say just the reverse. They say that God has magnified his name above his word. When the Hebrew text very clearly according to most people says just the reverse, that God has magnified, exalted, caused to be greater, his word above all his name.

Now the name in scripture speaks to the person. And so when God talks about his name, he’s talking about his very person, who he is. The word of God, of course, is his revelation—who he has spoken himself to be—that we now have recorded in the holy scriptures. And so this verse says that God has taken his covenant word, the scriptures, and magnified them above his very person. Well, now, that is an incredible concept.

It’s a troubling concept. It’s a concept that most people, if they were to say, would be accused of heresy and bibliolatry. Indeed, it is just this charge of bibliolatry that led Derek Kidner, normally a very good commentator I think in the Psalms, to say: “This cannot mean what it actually says it means.” Kidner writes in his commentary on this phrase: “It is a strange statement if thy name has its usual meaning of thyself revealed as it was—has in the first half of the verse. So it already has the connotation of God being revealed in the first half of the verse. But Kidner says this would be very strange. He says: For all its high claims, scripture does not encourage bibliolatry, the worship of the scriptures. So the meaning of such a sentence could only be that God has fulfilled his promise in a way that surpasses all that he has hitherto revealed of himself. So he’s saying that what it means is God has revealed himself now in a greater way than he has revealed himself in the past—to change the meaning of the two words used.

He says this the only thing it could mean—unless he said, and this is probably a better answer. There’s a copious insertion of a character here that we’re going to amend and take out of the text. And you see, I know it’s a little bit technical, but the point is this: People have been so distressed by the meaning—the plain meaning of the Hebrew translation of this verse—that most commentators will twist it and turn it and change it.

But the point is God’s word is holy and is inspired. And what we have is God’s word and there is no reason to amend the text when God has told us this is what it says. A better commentator on this particular portion of scripture is Spurgeon. Spurgeon says the following. He says: “Indeed God lays all the rest of his name under tribute to his word. His wisdom, power, love and all his other attributes combined to carry out his word.

It is his word which creates, sustains, quickens, enlightens, and comforts. As a word of command, it is supreme. And in the person of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, it is set above all the works of God’s hands. The sentence in the text is wonderfully full of meaning.”

In Spurgeon’s notes on his commentary on this in the Treasury of David, he also quotes from Joseph Philpot. And Philpot also has some very good thoughts on this particular verse, and I will read them. Philpot says: “This is one of the most remarkable expressions in the whole book of God. The name of God includes all the perfections of God. Everything that God is and which God has revealed himself as having—his justice, majesty, holiness, greatness and glory and whatever else he is in himself—that is God’s name.

And yet he has magnified something above his name. His word is truth. The written word is the scripture of truth. He has magnified it above all his name in the fulfillment of it. God’s faithfulness being so dear to him. He has exalted his faithfulness above all his other perfections. We see this in nature. Here is a man to be depended upon. He’s faithful to his word so much so that he will sacrifice anything rather than depart from it. That man will give up his property or life itself rather than forfeit his word.

So God has spoken of magnifying his word above all his name. He would sooner allow all the other perfections to come to naught than for his faithfulness to fall. He has magnified his faithfulness so that his love, his mercy, his grace would all sooner fail than his faithfulness, the word of his mouth and what he has revealed in the scriptures.

What affirms salvation that is ours which rests upon the word. When God has magnified that word above all his name. What volumes of blessedness and truth are contained therein? So that if God has revealed his truth to our soul and given you faith in another in the word of promise, sooner than that would fall, he would suffer the loss of all. For he has magnified his word above all his name.”

The point is that God’s faithfulness, his veracity to the covenant, is in this verse said to be magnified above his name.

Now I think that it probably is a bit of hyperbole here which God often manifests in the scriptures, but he wants us to understand that the word that he has given to us in the scriptures is highly valued by himself. Psalm 15 says that “who enters into the temple of God?” One of the requirements for entering into worship of God and into his holy dwelling place is “he who swears to his own hurt.” Who puts his word, as a man, above his own well-being.

And indeed, that’s one of the requirements that every citizen of the kingdom has put upon him. Well, you see, God gave us the picture of all that in Jesus Christ. God swore to be faithful in terms of the covenant of grace to his own hurt, to the end that he sent his own son, Jesus Christ, to die, to lay down his life, his name, all that he was, and suffer the pains of hell that we might be exalted and be given life.

Now, if God so honors his holy word, how much more can we then realize that we must turn to that word for comfort, solace, and encouragement? And how much more then should we in our own lives this coming year and into the ’90s manifest that regard for his word that he has in our own lives? What I’m saying is the word of God is given a great value by this statement and it should be given a great value by us in our lives.

We should attend to it faithfully and carefully and lovingly. And then secondly, by way of application, our word, as Psalm 15 makes so clear, should also have that kind of value put to it by ourselves. God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross and in so doing magnified his word above all his name. An amazing verse of scripture on which we could spend lots of time, but we’ll move on now to the rest of the outline.

God’s marvelous promise for the future. The second portion of our outline: “All the kings of the earth shall praise the Lord.” We have here again some attributes of God spoken of. Verse 5b says: “Great is the glory of God.” God’s glory, his weightiness, his value in and of himself, is an attribute of him. It is his gloriousness. And that attribute then leads to certain actions by God. The kings praise God when they hear the words of his mouth.

And so God being glorious sends forth his word into all the earth as an action of his. The Psalms as liturgy. That particular book that I have in my library says it this way: It is the law which represents God to the world. And God sends that law into all the world as a result of his attribute of his gloriousness. And then third, the result of all that is praise from the nations. “All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, oh Lord. Yay, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord.”

So we have in this verse, in these couple of verses here, the future of the nations, the future of the whole earth sketched out for us. As David acknowledged—and that’s what the word praise meant there, remember—and it means that same thing here—to acknowledge as God. As David acknowledged Yahweh as God, so the kings shall also acknowledge and sing praises unto God as the result of God’s attributes and his actions in their life.

Micah 4 and Isaiah 2 (we should be familiar with those passages of scripture) say that all the nations of the earth will go up to the mountain of God to receive his law and speaking in the word of his mouth. The ways—the term ways there means a well-worn path. One commentator has called it “the ruts of righteousness.” And these ways are the ways in which we’re to command our children to walk. First Kings 2:3 says that you’re to “command your children to keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways” and then tells us what those ways are: “To keep his statutes and his commandments and his judgments and his testimonies as it is written in the law of Moses.”

So this says the kings will acknowledge God for who he is when his word is preached to them and then secondly they will actually walk in conformity to God’s law as it applies to their particular person and their particular calling. So the future of the nations is given for us quite clearly here and just to make sure that we don’t think of this as some sort of thing that will happen as a result of Christ’s second coming and a physical forcing of these kings to do this.

We are told the means that will bring about this future for the nations. When will they praise God? When they hear the words of thy mouth—when the Scripture is proclaimed, taught to them, preached to them throughout all the earth. And those are the times in which we now live. The Numerical Bible puts it this way: “Now all the kings of the earth when they hear the sayings of Jehovah shall also confess him.

And weary at last of their own ways in which they have so long been walking, they shall sing of the ways of Jehovah, that great is his glory. Thus the misrule of the earth shall cease.” John Morrison in his commentary on this verse says that “in its completed sense it shall realize its accomplishment in the future conquest of Messiah when the princes and potentates of the earth receive his word, learn by divine grace to celebrate the glorious methods of his love and see in the light of faith the greatness of Jehovah’s glory as the God of salvation.

All the kings of the earth shall yet praise the Lord and shall hasten with their numerous subjects to hail the triumphs of his grace.”

This idea of the ways—I thought of this yesterday in the religious section of the Oregonian. I don’t know if you know or not, but I think this morning at 3:30 a.m. this morning, some people met at the Village Conference Center or something like that out in Beaverton and they participated in a worldwide prayer or meditation rather for peace. They were all meditating at the same time all over the world coordinated in—here in Beaverton it happened to be at 3:30 this morning. And this is their means. What they’re trying to do is usher in an age of peace by meditation and you know kind of going inward as it were. And their way then of accomplishing peace in the world is this meditation. Whereas the scriptures say the way to accomplish peace in the world is through the preaching of his word.

And the kings then repent of their ways and believe the word. Spurgeon again in his commentary on this verse says the following: “Kings have usually small ears to hear the word of the Lord. But King David feels assured that if they do hear it, they will feel its power. A little piety goes a long way in courts, but brighter days are coming in which rulers will become hearers and worshippers. May the advent of such happy times be hastened.

What an assembly—all the kings of the earth. What a purpose—gathered to hear the words of Jehovah’s mouth. What a preacher—David himself rehearses the words of Jehovah. What praise when they all—when they all in happy union lift up their songs unto the Lord. Kings are as gods below, and they do well when they worship the God above. The way of conversion for kings is the same as for ourselves. Faith to them also cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Happy are those who can cause the word of the Lord to penetrate palaces. For the occupants of thrones are usually the last to know the joyful sounds of the gospel. David the king cared for king’s souls, and it will be wise for each man to look first after those who are of his own order. He went to the work of testimony with full assurance of success. He meant to speak only the words of Jehovah’s mouth, and he felt more than that the kings would hear and praise Jehovah.”

And so today, we are told to pray for those in authority in 1 Timothy. And it goes on to tell us the reason for that is that God would have all men to be saved. We’re to be praying for the salvation of the kings of the earth and we’re to put feet to our prayers by taking the words of the scriptures and preaching them to kings and the scriptures give us the assurance—in these verses David does—that the kings will hear and will repent and come to saving faith.

What is the goal of all this? The future of the nations based upon the work of the preaching of God’s word. The goal is the glory of God. Isaiah 49:5, which we read responsively last week, God says: “It is a light thing that I should give you simply to the house of Jacob. You’ll be a light to the Gentiles as well.” The beginning of that in verse 5 says: “Yet shall Christ be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.” You see, God does all this to bring all the earth to singing his praises for his own glory, to manifest his gloriousness, that attribute of his in a magnificent way in which the world will all see it and acknowledge and confess it.

And so the salvation of all the nations is promised in this psalm before us.

And then third, there is one final passage here. God’s comforting task for the believer: “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” Here again, we have God’s attributes. In verses 6 and 8, God is nigh unto those that are bowed down and humble before him; the proud he knoweth afar off. Next week, we’ll start with the seven deadly sins with the sin of pride. We’ll have more to say about verses such as this next week.

Then in verse 8, it says: “Thy mercy, oh Lord, endureth forever.” And that’s that word hesed again—”Thy loving kindness”—that we see so often in the scriptures. And so God’s attributes lead toward God’s actions. David says: “Though presently I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me.” Sounds very much like Psalm 23: “Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I’ll fear no evil.”

God will revive David in the midst of whatever trouble he finds himself. God will stretch forth his hand against the wrath of his enemies. Thy right hand shall save me. Remember we talked about the right hand of God, his covenantal promise. He entered into covenant with his people with his hand raised and covenant affirmation. And that’s the hand that moves in terms of obedience to that covenant and its law to bring blessings and cursings into the earth.

And so when David says that God will save him with his right hand, it brings to mind all those covenantal associations that the raising of hands does. And then the result of this—again is slightly different. It yields present prayer for deliverance. In spite of David’s sure assurance that God will do all these things for him, David yet moves to pray saying: “Forsake not the works of thine own hands.”

And notice here he doesn’t say “don’t forsake the work of my hands”—what I’ve done. He says “don’t forsake the work of your hands”—what you have done. Augustine in quoting on this verse said: “Behold in me thy work, not mine. For mine if thou seeest thou condemnest. Thine if thou seeest thou crownest. For whatever good works there be of mine—for thee are they to me. And so they are more thine than mine. For I hear from thy holy apostle, by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Very important that God will be called upon and prayed to perfect and forsake not the work of his own hands, which we are. And then David has great confidence that God will answer that prayer because as he said earlier: “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.”

Psalm 57, verses 2 and 3, is a parallel passage to the one we’ve just read. God, David says in that verse: “I will cry unto God most high unto God that perforth all things for me.” God perfects that which concerns me. He performs all things for me. And then back to Psalm 57:3: “He shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.”

So we have the same things echoed there. God perfects that which concerns us. He performs all things for his people. And those all things—indications of his grace and his truth, his hesed, and his dependability and faithfulness. And so he rescues those who are in distress.

Philippians 1:6, that we’re to be confident of this very thing, that “he which began a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.” Romans 8:28: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose.” God makes many such wondrous promises in the scriptures that he will perfect that which concerns us.

Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are his workmanship. We are the work of his hands, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Philippians 2:13: “It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Next week, we’re going to sing the song by Augustus Toplady, written by him: “A Debtor to Mercy Alone.” Part of that song reads: “The work which his goodness began, the arm of his strength will complete. His promise is yea and amen and never was forfeited yet.”

Now, David had troubles in his life, troubles that caused him to cry out to God. And as we look forward to 1990 and into the future, we’re going to have troubles. We’re going to have times of distress. David found himself encouraged by God’s past actions and God’s covenantal promises to him to fulfill and perfect him into maturity. David took great consolation and comfort in that and so we should take comfort and encouragement in that.

Now look at the last—this is the time where we mark years as it were. We look back at the ’80s and think of where you were 10 years ago in relationship to where you are today. Yes, week by week we can get discouraged. We can fall short and we can get chastening by God. But over the long haul, I’ve known many people in this congregation for most of the last 10 years.

And I’m telling you, everybody that I know in this church for that long has much to be thankful to God for. There are miraculous things that have happened in the lives of the people of this church. I remember Judge Beers before he died saying on various occasions as we got together for Bible studies and started to form this church, he was just filled with excitement. His eyes would tingle and he’d say: “Look at what God is doing here. Look at what God is doing.” And we thought: “Well, having a Bible study? We’re starting a church. What’s the big deal?” You know, but God is doing a marvelous thing.

As we’ve said before, yes, the walls separating East and West Germany came down, and that is a glorious thing in God’s hands and in his providence, giving freedom to people that have had no freedom. But the walls—we said earlier—between law and grace, which the churches erected many years ago and has kept churches really under God’s judgment and persecution, those walls are coming down now. And that is a miraculous thing.

This article that I quoted earlier by Ronald Allen from Western. It’s an amazing thing for Western to be criticized in the Scofield Reference Bible and the law/grace distinction. You wouldn’t have seen that 10 years ago. The last 10 years have been years of blessing from God. They’ve been years of blessing to us personally as David was blessed.

And so, praise God for what he’s done. And as you think back over the last 10 years in your life, your heart should be filled with thanksgiving and praise to God. And if there’s no other application out of this morning’s talk—if there isn’t none other, there has been, but if there wasn’t—simply to get you to go forth from this place praising God for his loving kindness and perfection of yourself over the last 10 years is enough.

Look at the blessings we have in this church in terms of children and in terms of the next generation that are growing up understanding a whole Bible approach to things and not just a part Bible. And God’s moving in the lives of nations as we said last week. I heard on the TV news on Christmas day that Christmas day was the first time in I don’t know 20 years or something where Christmas carols were played on the radio in Romania.

In Romania, I talked to Gary North this last week. And I think he’s right. He said certainly the Soviet government had certain plans for some of this to happen, but it’s gotten out of their control because in back of everything else, God is the grand conspirator, if you want to look at it that way. And as a result, what some people may have planned for Romania and some of these other countries for their own purposes, God has taken over and directed for him.