Amen. I turn in the word of God to Psalm 9. Now when I began this study in the Psalms, I really only expected initially to do the first two Psalms. But then I quickly realized that I had to do Psalm 3 because of the title. It was a concrete historic example of what Psalm 3 was talking about. And then I equally quickly realized I had to go to Psalm 7 because it's a parallel to Psalm 3. And that of course meant I had to do Psalm 8 as well because they were both connected in themselves. So why Psalm 9? Well, I have to do Psalm 9 because the last verse of Psalm 7 is the first verse of Psalm 9. So that's why I'm doing Psalm 9. I will have to do Psalm 10 as well, of course, because They're both connected. Psalm 9 is basically the first half of the Hebrew alphabet. Psalm 10 is essentially the second half of the Hebrew alphabet. So I'm going to have to do Psalm 10. They're both connected with the one title. Psalm 10 doesn't have a title, but Psalm 11 does have a title. So at the very least, I'm going to head to Psalm 10. What happens thereafter, we wait on Providence. But the title does matter. We always read the titles because they're part of that text of scripture and it is striking how those in the first six centuries of the church tried to wrestle with the significance of the title of the psalm. Here's one who stated in the fourth century that the Hebrew is to be read for the death of the son. Another refers to the Septuagint translation of the title which has the hidden things of the sun. And then Cassiodorus states on Psalm 9 that here you have God's rebuke of the nations and a prophecy of the coming Antichrist. You see what they're trying to do. They're trying to grapple with the Christological position of each psalm and that includes the title. So we must look at Psalm 9 from a Christological perspective as Paul shows us when we were doing Psalm 8. We can never avoid the Savior in any of these psalms though there are many other subjects woven into each of them. The psalm begins. I will praise. I will praise thee, O Lord. So you now see the connection with the Psalms that we have been singing. They've all had that same emphasis. Thomas Watson said, praise is a soul in bloom, a soul in flower. So you begin to see how wonderful praise is. If only we had the sort of same Spiritual disposition is Watson we might say. Because sometimes we just don't feel like praise and we become pretty miserable. And we trust that in the course of praise, that misery is taken away. But it's a soul and flower. Thomas Manton, self-love may lead us to prayer. Love to God excites us to praise. So do you love God? How much do you love God? I trust you appreciated the words that we sang a moment ago when we're moved and failed. There are many things that move us and many things that show us we are failures. But always our trust is in the Lord who is unmoved and unfeeling. So we look at this first three verses read a moment ago under the simple heading sung praise. First of all, we note the nature of praise. I will praise you, Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvellous works. So the first thing you have is the disposition. What does this praise look like? Well, let's start with the worshipper, the disposition, with my whole heart. Now, when the Bible seeks to describe that which is sincere, true, and real, it refers to the heart. So we are to love God with all the heart. We are to seek God with all the heart. We are to serve him with all the heart. God's complaint of the Israelites was they did not have a heart. Deuteronomy 5, 29. Oh, that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me. They did not have a heart for God. Remember the condemnation by Isaiah, Isaiah 29, 13. This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And the Savior added to that in Mark 7, in vain. Do they worship me? Because they don't have a heart. They're all lip, they're all mouth, but their inner disposition is not present. They're physically present at worship, but their heart is elsewhere. Remember the prophet's condemnation. Oh, when will the Sabbath be passed that we will get back to robbing our neighbor? that we will get back to our labors making a fortune. They were fed up with God. They were fed up with the Sabbath, that they had a whole day to keep from God. They couldn't wait until the Sabbath was passed till they get back to their skullduggery and everything else they wanted to get off. They didn't have a heart. One of the great distinctions of the cause of Jesus Christ is that people come to worship God with their heart as well as their body. They want to be present. They long to be present. There's a drive and an energy to be present. I was listening to a man record the other day He was saying how when he went to go to the meeting house, the road was closed, the police had it all cordoned off. So he parked, he thought he would take the footpath, they had cordoned off the footpath, and he decided, well, he'd climb over the wall and he'd walk along the seashore just to get to that place. But he was wondering, he said, will there anybody else be there? And sure enough, others had turned up. One way or the other they were going to get to that meeting house and worship God. We hit a roadblock at all of any kind and well, God will give it a pass and we'll try it again some other time with my whole heart. If I have my legs chopped off, somebody can push me in a chair and they worship God with my whole heart. But secondly, the means. I will sing, he says. Praise to thy name, verse two. So here you are reminded that praise is a verbal activity. It is by using your voice, you, Give praise to God. God has made you with a tongue, with a voice box that uses words. And so you give praise to God by singing. I will sing praise, he says, or elsewhere to sing praises. And you note the resolution, I will sing praise. I'm going to do this. In other words, here is a very pointed reminder, the singing isn't done for you. You do the singing. and we are all to engage in singing, not a part of us. Ultimately, of course, the psalmist tells us, all the earth shall sing, Psalm 66, verse 4. Nations shall sing, Psalm 67, verse 4. You know, we look at the nations. The nations aren't just angry. and violent. They are miserable. The nations of the world are angry in their misery. And we pray and long for the day when nations will be glad. Not glad in some political, economic, or military sense or in any other sense. but that they will be glad in the Lord. God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us, that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O Lord. Some people think the great goal of the church is mission. It's not. That may shock you until you understand what the goal is. The goal of mission, of evangelism, is prius, to turn rebels into worshippers. That's the objective. The objective is not merely that the unconverted will come to faith. That is an objective indeed. But the grand overarching objective is that there will be worshippers of the Triune God. That's the great goal. And I think perhaps the church in its enthusiasm for evangelism has lost sight of the great purpose of it all. It's that these sinners will become saints evidenced and demonstrated in their singing praise to God. Is that not a grand goal? After all, what shall saints do in glory? We shall praise God. Let's not lose sight of the great objective. And I do not want anyone going away thinking I don't believe in evangelism. That's not what I'm saying. I don't want anyone going away thinking that I'm saying mission is irrelevant. What I am saying is everything is but a means to the greater objective to praise God. So Psalm 67 is that reminder of the importance of being glad and sing for joy for Now comes a warning, for thou shalt judge the people righteously. It's the Day of Judgment coming. We want men and women, young people, children, all to be brought to worship God, to know His salvation, because that Day of Judgment is coming. Third element here, we're still on the first point, the content. The content. He speaks of praise. Who decides the content? The Reformed position has always been God decides the content of some praise. And that was the line of division at the time of the Reformation. between, shall we say, Geneva and Wittenberg. I suppose you might say between Geneva and half the Christian world. The reform position is, it is God who decides on the praise on its content. You see, what has happened over the years, there's been a shift to this more pragmatic, humanistic position. without much attention being given to it. Well, there have been great struggles here and there throughout church history over the matter. You know, of course, of the history in the Irish Presbyterian Church. But in 2010, the residual free church decided in one sitting, we're just going to abolish the regulative principle. And many others have done the same over the last 100 years. So I say to the younger ones this, Every element of worship must have its own work. That is to say, there must be a command, and then we must ask, what is the provision? So there is a command to sing prayers. Now comes the next question, what has God provided to enable that command to be fulfilled? He has given you a book of prayers that is called Psalms. That's why within the book of Psalms it does actually say to sing Psalms unto him. So it is God who determines and decides and commands what exactly will be done in the service of worship. And this is so very important. because this is not the general position nowadays across the evangelical world. The position today is that, well, the church will decide, or the Oberon's congregation will decide, man decides. Well, God, remember, has not commanded any one of you to write songs for the church to sing, and you are not required to sing the effusions of any person, not of John Wesley or of Isaac Watts or anybody else. I know about the attacks. In fact, there's about half a dozen that are repeated constantly, decade after decade. And one of the most common attacks is, what about Sam's hymns and spiritual song? So this is why the titles are important. Take, for example, Psalm 67. It is both a psalm and a song. In the Septuagint, it is translated a psalm, hymn, and song. So the simple point is, come wholeheartedly to use your voice in singing the psalms, hymns, and songs that God has divinely given to you. He has given you the content of the praise that he has commanded you to offer. You don't need to go looking for it. You don't need to sit down and write a book. Remember, this is what has happened so you have a Methodist hymn book. Anglican hymn book, Presbyterian hymn book, Baptist hymn book, Unitarian hymn book, everybody's got their own. But what about the one God has given? Well, some say we'll put it at the front, others say we'll put it at the back, and just to keep themselves comfortable with the rest of us, oh, we'll sing a psalm, well, one psalm, and then the rest will be whatever. God has not said, sing some Psalms. He said, here's a book of Psalms for you to sing. So I trust, boys and girls and young people, you will have a holy jealousy and that if you're anywhere and they're not singing a Psalm, you will say, well, I'm not going to sing. Even if everybody else looks at you odd and thinks you are odd, you say, well, I'm not singing that because God didn't give me that. The author gave me that. God hasn't told me to sing. God has told me to sing this. And so I'm sticking to that. You don't need a long, complicated argument. Very simple, keep it simple. This is what God has commanded. This is what God has given. What's your problem? I'm sticking to that. Secondly then, moving on. The object of praise. Again, this is obvious, but it needs to be stated. Look at the language. I will praise thee, O Lord. I will rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name. How fundamental this is. And yet it might surprise you that while many claim to subscribe to this point, Everything they do suggests the opposite. Why, after all, do we have choirs and soloists and recitals? They all exist for the entertainment and delight of the audience, that's you, if you're present, so that you will sit back and admire the soloists and their voice, their tenor, all that they have sung, Or perhaps it might be a choir, and for five or ten minutes you're entertained by that. And astonishingly, it's called a ministry ensemble. Vast numbers of people actually believe they have such a calling. Well, let's consider what the psalmist is telling you. If God decrees praise and decrees the content of praise, decrees the activity of praise, that is because he and he alone is the object of praise. You see, when all of you are singing together, You haven't got time to be entertained. Because you're looking at the words, you're following the tune, and you're singing heartily to God. But if someone's doing the singing for you, you can say, hmm, I didn't think their voice was great and wasn't sure about that piece they sang. But the second one was better than the first. And you become critics of the soloist or the choir or the duet or whatever. and your focus is on the performer and their performance. But when you're all doing the singing, how different it is. You see, everything we touch, we always want to turn it around to focus on ourselves. We always want a part of everything. Our disposition is such we just can't allow God to be the center. We have to take a little bit of that for ourselves. We have seen something of that shift in preaching over 100 years. Historically, all preaching was about God, what God has said. And from that vantage point, every topic is covered. But preaching shifted. In man-centric, it's all about making people feel at ease and preaching about man's problems and man's difficulties and how to handle things. We're all familiar with that shift, but the shift occurred in singing. And so few seem to notice. In fact, you can see the shift because in church announcements, The singing has a separate line. It has its own line. In the advertising, next week, praise will be led by, or the soloist will be. It has its own separate line. As if some way or other, that part of worship is so incredibly important, you gotta come for that at least. And then we hear ministers stand up saying, well, I'm not going to keep you very long, I'm just going to perhaps bring you a word for 10 minutes or whatever. Because I spent 45 minutes yodeling or listening to all of this going on, and they think, well, you know, I'm such a wonderful preacher and pastor and understand everything, I'm just going to, well, just for a few minutes, bring me the word. Because the singing is so important. And the church makes it all worse by having a separate line for it. Maybe it should say this singing will be done by the people, their congregation. Well, that's not very attractive. Sure it isn't. In other words, inadvertently, you have the evidence before your eyes that God is not the center of worship. The most incredible thing about the Lord's day is that the Lord's people, they gather together as one people to worship the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is the most incredible, the most magnificent thing about the Lord's day. because God is the object of praise. And because he is the object of praise, God dictates, as John Owen puts it, according to that way which he has appointed. Now John Owen wrote a work, it's entitled Communion with God. It's become something of a niche in publishing over the last decade, something that finds something new to write about. And it's hailed as a masterful piece because it deals with communion with the Triune God. And because the Trinity has been debated so much in the last 25 years and become a point of controversy for those who want to reshape the doctrine. And so Owen's work has come into prominence. But you know, it's interesting. When you read all of those, he'll applaud it. They overlook its core principle. Talk about sidestepping the issue, there it is. Because the core principle of worshiping the triune God is this. Here's Olam, we worship as he commands. And then he has this, Pointed Statement The principle that the church has power to institute and appoint anything or ceremony belonging to the worship of God, either as to matter or to manner, lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstition, idolatry, confusion, blood, persecution, and wars that have spread themselves over the face of the Christian world." That's some statement, isn't it? He said, here is the single explanation for all the troubles in Christendom for the last 2,000 years. It's this idea. that man can determine and decide anything or ceremony in relation to worship. And people have been put to death for refusing to grant that authority to the church. And then he adds this, the wiles and fancies of men under the name of order, decency and authority imposed on the worship of God is a chimera. The whole thing is fake, he says. It's false. It's a pretense. You're having the will pulled over your eyes. You're being fed something that isn't true. You're being told order, decency, and authority requires it when it doesn't. So the basic fundamental principle, again I say directly to the children is this, you along with your parents and everybody else, you come to worship God. That's the most staggering part of the Lord's Day, to worship God. And God who is in heaven sees and hears Your word, he sees your heart. Do you have a heart for worship? He sees your very lips. Are you really singing or pretending to sing? We are to give our verbal praise, our sound praise to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And if we have that grasp, Children, you will not tolerate anything being done in worship that God does not require. Do not wait until someone comes along and says, oh, well, it isn't forbidden. No, your answer is as God required it, as God commanded it. If he hasn't commanded it, then I will take my coat and go, and if not, I lift my stool like Jenny Geddes, throw it at the priest, well, we don't have priests, but the preacher, and say, away with it! We're not having it. Thirdly, the themes of priests. There are essentially two great themes that the psalmist speaks of. Firstly, the works of God. I will show forth all thy marvellous works. What is the Bible about? The marvellous works of God. What is the history recorded in the Bible about? The marvellous works of God. What is the basis of our confidence? The marvellous works of God. Why do the works of God matter? Well, because they are marvellous. That's why they matter. And so you will find throughout the Psalms, we will take a quick dash through some. This particular point being referred to, Psalm 26, 7, that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works. Psalm 40, verse 5. So you can see I'm skipping over a part because you can do all that homework yourself. Psalm 40, verse 5. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. And of course, Psalm 66 and in verse 5, come and see the works of God. He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. Psalm 77 and verse 11. I will remember the works of the Lord, surely I will remember thy wonders of old." Well, Psalm 78 verse 7, that they might set their hope on God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. Verse 11, and forget his works and his wonders that he had showed them. And on down to verse 32, for all this they sin still and believe not for his wondrous works. Now, Sam 107 is fascinating for many reasons, but one particular reason is that refrain. Mercy on all that man, but praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. And of course it's repeated, verse 15, and then 21, and then again, down in verse 31. All that man, but praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Now, we often summarize the wonderful works of God under three heavens. Creation, Providence and Redemption. So all the children you can remember all of that. Creation, Providence and Redemption. The three great summaries of the wonderful works of God. Now let's stick with Psalm 107. It begins with goodness and mercy. Give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Well, where, when and how can you see all of this? Well, in verse 2, he redeemed his people. Redemption. Verse 6, he delivered from trouble. Here you have that. Providence of God. Verse 7, He led them. He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation. Verse 9, He satisfied. He satisfied the longing soul. The whole spiritual work of God. Those whom He has redeemed, those whom He leads, He satisfies. Are you satisfied with God? Are you satisfied with the work of God? because we can be discontent, but are you satisfied with God? The psalmist says repeatedly, all that man will praise the Lord for his goodness and his wondrous works to the children of men. Are you satisfied with God? You see, a Christian, their soul is filled with God. Because only God can fill the soul. The soul has a capacity. No matter how much of the world you put into the soul, the soul can't satisfy. But when God fills the soul, the soul is filled. We are satisfied. Verse 12, he brought down their heart with labor, they fell down and there was none to help them, they cried. Verse 14, he brought them out of darkness. You see, in Providence, the Lord leads you into the valley of the shadow of death. The Lord as a shepherd leads you. God leads you. He brings you down. Don't we need to be brought down? You know, we can, it's like driving a car, you know, when you're an R driver, you're so very nervous of everybody. Well, give them six months, and we're like, as if we're on a Formula One racetrack, you know, zooming down the road, weaving all around the place, thinking, we can handle every single race. And then, of course, you come to a blank corner, and they've lost it, and you end up on R Avenue on the roof. And this is what happens, you see. We get so confident, we can handle it all. Let him that thicket be standed, thicket he lest he fall. The Lord must bring us down. When he brings us down, we cry to him. And then he brings us out. And so he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and break their bands and sunder. The works of God. The works of God are infinite, and we just have a snapshot, and yet they're marvelous. The second big thing is, of course, the being of God. I will be glad and rejoice in thee and in thy name. What is God? Well, children, you know the answer. What is God? God is a spirit. Infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. And I'm sure you know the origin of that answer came from Gillespie's prayer as they were struggling, how do we define God? Gillespie in the course of prayer. He gives them the answer. And as soon as he's finished praying, somebody's written down the words. And so you have the answer in the story of Catechism. And it's a wonderful answer. God is a spirit. He is invisible to us. That's the being of God. He is infinite. Infinite in all things. Infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being. He is infinite in His being. Eternal in His being. unchangeable in his being, there's a year's study on the being of God. And remember this, what is the sum and substance of eternal life? These words speak, Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life as many as thou hast given him. And this is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only true God. And how can we know the only true God? The Savior tells you. It is through Jesus Christ have thou ascended. What happens when God saves a sinner? We become fascinated with the being of God. Who is this God, you say? What is this God? It's the essence of eternal life. How can we know him? Only through Jesus Christ. So what is true piety? True piety is knowing the one true God and living that out in our daily life. That's true piety. To know God, to serve Him, to obey Him. The direction then of the Psalms, this whole book, is towards the knowledge of God. You know, you don't have a section in the Psalms, a section on assurance. Saxon on sanctification. Saxon on Christmas. Saxon on Easter. Saxon on birth. Saxon on death. We don't have these Saxons. Why not? Well, because we have the bigger Psalms. And everything's in the Psalms. There's no Christmas in the Psalms, mind you. No Easter in the Psalms. No Lent. We don't have that. Because the whole drift and direction of the Psalms is to drive you and point you to God. The being of God. We studied Samuel. Samuel is bounded on either side with the excellence of God. And in between is the worth of God in creation. So God is mentioned in every Psalm. That means every subject, every topic is to be understood in reference to God. You will want an example, I suppose. Psalm 40. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the Maori clay, set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. He put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust. and respecteth not the pride nor turn aside the lies. There's at least three topics in those four verses, but they all point you to God. There's the sadness and misery. So this whole situation is difficult, troublesome, What's the answer? God. God resolved the problem. So here you have these two great subjects, the works of God and the being of God. But let's come very quickly to a few points of application. I remind you first of all that God sings over us. So says the prophet Zephaniah 3 verse 17. Now, if God sings over us, we should sing over God, shouldn't we? God's own complacency, delight and love is seen in his singing. He rejoices with singing.