Let me ask you a question. What is, or how would you describe your personal worship life? Your personal worship life? I mean, what does it look like in your personal interactions with the Lord? Whether it be a quiet time or devotional time or whatever it may be, what does it look like in your life when it comes to the worship of God? Are you a worshiper? Sadly, I think sometimes when we, when I think of the idea of personal worship, I have this pervasive feeling that there's a, I don't wanna say majority, but there's a large number of believers who don't know what it means to worship privately. That is, we read the scripture, we may pray, we attend church and a lot of the services that revolve around church, but when it comes to personal worship, we're really, lacking. What does it look like in your life when it comes to worshiping God? What we're going to see here in Psalm 147 is that worshiping or praising God goes beyond simply saying, Lord, I worship you. Lord, I praise you. What does it look like to worship God? In Psalm 147, what we have is we have the occasion of the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. And so in Nehemiah 12.27, it says, "...at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites in all their places to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgiving, with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres." And so there's a celebration over what God has done at the rebuilding of the wall. And we see part of that celebration in Psalm 147. This very likely could be what was being sung there at the rebuilding of the wall. And so verse 1, Praise the Lord. It says, For it is good to sing praises to our God. For it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. This is a good thing. This is a fitting thing. This is right. This is the right thing to do. God is deserving of it. It is good for us to do it. It is pleasant. It is fitting. And so I would say to us this morning, it is good and right for us to learn to praise God. Which has to go beyond just coming here on a Sunday morning and singing the songs that are on the screen. It must go beyond your public worship. And so we say that public worship is to be the overflow of the personal worship that exists in our hearts. And we say it, but I don't know if we believe it, and I don't know if we actually live it. And so each one of us ought to have, as an aspect of our daily lives, a worship life. When do you take time out to praise God? When do you take time out to worship God? This goes beyond reading the compulsory few chapters of scripture and then citing or reading off a list of needs, your needs or the needs of others. How about adoration, thanksgiving, praise? And so the psalmist says, praise the Lord for it's good to sing praise to God. It's pleasant. A song of praise is fitting. And then he goes on to give some reasons. And so, if you have a Bible where the verses are split up where every verse starts a new line, some of you have that, some of you don't. Some of them are solved. I guess in the Psalms you probably do. But if you notice in the left-hand column, especially when you get down to verse 14, what you see at the beginning of each line is he, he, he, he, he. What is this? This is a list. It's enumerating the reasons why it's good and fitting to praise God. The idea being that the psalmist has taken the time to meditate. I'm going to praise God, I'm going to worship Him, and here's the reason why. So he says, the Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars. He gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble, He casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, make melody to our God on the lyre. Why? He covers the heavens with clouds, He prepares rain for the earth, He makes grass grow on the hills, He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of horses, nor His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love. Then another stanza, Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! And we ask, Why? For He strengthens the bars of your gates, He blesses your children within you, He makes peace in your borders, He fills you with the finest of the wheat. He sends out His command to the earth. His word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool. He scatters the hoarfrost like ashes. He hurls down His crystals of ice like crumbs. Who can stand before His cold? He sends out His word and melts them. He makes His wind blow and the waters flow. He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and rules to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation. They do not know His rules. Praise the Lord. And so here we have a psalm of praise that goes far beyond simply saying, praise God or worship God, or even far beyond is fitting or right to worship God. He enumerates the almost innumerable amount of reasons to worship God. This ought to be a pattern for the lives of believers. I said to you, I don't know if it was Wednesday night or some other night, I don't know, my memory, all the sermons merge together sometimes in my mind and all the lessons, but I know I've said at some point in the past, when we pray, say, I don't know what to pray, if you simply start with the character of God, who He is and what He's done, you will fill your prayer time and never get to your requests. At least it should be that way, if you actually know who God is. And so the psalmist says it's good and it's fitting to sing praises to God. It's right and appropriate for us. And so Jesus says that God is seeking worshippers, those who worship in spirit and in truth. And so the question is, He has sought you out. In what way have you then become a worshipper? It's right and appropriate. for God to be praised and for us to offer that worship. And the psalmist backs it up. He doesn't just make the statement, he backs it up. Because God has done this. And so yes, God is worthy of praise. And it is fitting to offer such praise. Yes, simply for the fact that He's the Creator, and we hit that there. Yes, Revelation 4.11, worthy are you, O Lord, and God, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things. And by your will they existed and were created. Just by virtue of the fact that God is Creator, He deserves worship in its fitting. But the psalmist goes far beyond this, and he makes it very personal. So we're going to see some reasons. I'm going to encourage you in your prayer time, in your personal worship time. Say, I don't have much of a personal worship time. I read the Bible, I pray, I have prayer requests, sure. But personal worship? I don't even really know what that means or what that looks like. Well, maybe here's a pattern for you to start with. First of all, the psalmist says that it is fitting and right to praise God because, verse 2, He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. Now, this speaks primarily of God gathering those of Israel, coming together for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, saying that they've been scattered, and He gathers them together. But it goes beyond that, too, because it speaks to the very character of God. God the Father is one who looks, and He finds the downtrodden, and He gathers together a people for Himself. That is His nature. We could say that is His shepherding nature. In Isaiah 56.6, we see a prophecy really looking forward to the Messianic Kingdom, and it says this, It says, And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast to My covenant, these I will bring to My holy mountain. That is, God is gathering to make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar. For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel declares, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered. And really this is reflective of Christ in the New Testament saying that he had another flock. That is Israel, yes, but I have another flock that I'm going to gather together. He's saying that I'm gathering outcasts from Jew and Gentile from the world at large. This is the nature of God. He is a shepherd who gathers the outcasts. We're going to look a little bit at the character of God as shepherd, Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 verse 12, speaking of God, says, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens with a span, and closed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? He's talking about the immensity of God. Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows Him His counsel? Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding rhetorical questions? Obviously, no one. Nobody could. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, He takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him. They are accounted by Him as less than nothing, an emptiness." And so here's obviously an exalted picture of God the Father as Creator. Measure the waters in the hollow of His hand. There's 326 million trillion gallons of water on it. marked off the heavens with the span of his hand. The universe is 156 billion light years wide. He measured out the soil and weighed the mountains. The earth has a mass of 5.9726 trillion metric tons. I don't know what that means. No idea. All I know is it's a lot. It goes on to say that his power cannot be compared. It says in Isaiah 40 that his wisdom is unmatched. He is all-powerful, yes, but he's also wise. And so who has counseled God? Nobody. Who taught him the path of justice and knowledge and understanding? No one. And it goes on to say that we are nothing before Him. The nations are but dust on the scales. It says He takes up the islands like fine dust. All the trees on the mountains of Lebanon are not enough for fuel, for fire, for an offering for God. You get the idea. We're not going to belabor the point. The immensity of God, the all-powerful nature of God, that's who He is. But this follows something amazing in the passage of Isaiah chapter 40. In Isaiah 40, verse 10, it says this of God. Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and His arm rules for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. God rules with might, His arm rules for Him, but then in verse 11 it says, He will tend His flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in His arms, He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with YAH. Do you understand the contrast? God is Almighty, He is the Creator, the oceans are nothing, the mountains are nothing, all the inhabitants of earth are nothing, He is supreme, He is sovereign, He is all-powerful, and that is intimidating, and that is fearful for us, Isaiah is quick to remind us in what context all this power rests. He's all-powerful, but he is the all-powerful shepherd. And so it says, he tends his flock like a shepherd. He looks after, he oversees, he provides, he protects for his flock. And He gathers the lambs in His arms. And you have this visual of God, and any visual you have of God is wrong, because God is a spirit. But still, the Scriptures use the personifications to help us. And so the idea of the all-powerful God who creates everything, whose might cannot be compared, gathering up little lambs in His arms. gathering the lambs in a tender, caring, compassionate, protective way. He carries them in his bosom and gently leads those that are with young. Not only tending to the sheep, but tenderly caring for the sheep who are with young and caring for the young as well. This is the all-powerful shepherd who gathers outcasts. This is the God that you worship. You say, why should we praise God? Why is it fitting to worship God? The all-powerful God of the universe has reached down to gather tenderly those who are His, to gather them in His arm to provide protection and care and tender compassion. Something even more amazing about this shepherding nature of God is that there came a time in human history when the shepherd of the universe, the shepherd of heaven, came and set foot on earth in human form. And what do we see in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as he walks this earth? We see the shepherd. His entire earthly ministry was this. And so the idea of set up a kingdom, dominate, seek political power, that's not what he came for. What did he come for? To gather. And so he goes and he gathers who? The outcast? The downcast? John 10? Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. The stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. And he says this, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd." The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He's saying, I am Isaiah 40. I am the Almighty God of heaven. I am the one who measures the heavens with a span. I am the one who can take all the waters of the ocean and hold it in the hollow of my hand. I am the Almighty One who has come to earth. And how does He manifest Himself? With thunder and lightning and smoke and the shaking of mountains and so on? That's not what He does. That's what He will do. What He does is He comes and He shows the shepherding character of God. I'm going to gather the outcasts, tenderly bring them up into my arms to provide and to protect them. So he sang that song, Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God. That's the idea. John 10 verse 25, Jesus answered to those who did not believe in him. Those who rejected. And anytime you reject Christ, anytime somebody rejects Christ, really what they're doing is they're exercising authority over Christ. Christ, you're trying to assert your authority on me. I reject you. And so what I'm saying is, you are claiming to be Lord, but through my rejection, I'm Lord. That's really what it is. It's saying, I reject you, and in my rejection, I'm establishing myself as authority over you, and I reject and deny your authority. Okay. So Jesus responds to those who have rejected Him, in John chapter 10, Verse 25, it says, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe. And he says this, because you are not part of my flock. You're not part of my flock. That is, Christ has some, that he has come purposefully with names to gather together into his arms. He says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one." Let me ask you, how does God's shepherding, searching, gathering nature inform your praise life? Have you ever stopped and praised God for your salvation this way? Lord, I thank you that you sought me. I thank you that you came after me to gather me together into your arms. Thank you that while I was wandering, exercising my own volition, and I think this is the testimony of most of us here, it's going about your business, it's going about life, right? Really not many thoughts of God, certainly not good thoughts of God, but then what happens in our hearts and our minds, things begin to change. God opens the heart and He gives us sensitivity to the gospel and He implants in us that faith by His grace and we believe. What is that? That is how we experience this shepherding ministry. And so Jesus comes, He says, My sheep hear My voice. You have heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and you've responded. Why? Because you are His sheep. So practically speaking, that's how this plays out. Christ comes, the shepherd of the universe, comes and steps into his creation, he speaks the word of the gospel, calling men to repentance and submission to his lordship, and some respond, this is Christ, by his grace, gathering his sheep, and he's worthy to be praised for this reason. Now, I said he gathered, but I said he gathers the outcasts. He's worthy to be praised because he gathers, yes, as the shepherd, We're going to compound that by saying He also gathers the outcasts. 1 Corinthians 1 says, For you see your calling, brothers. For you see your calling, brothers. What is that? Well, Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me. What is that? The gospel goes out. That internal call of God inside of you that engenders the faith and brings you to Christ. That's what we're talking about. For you consider your calling, brothers. I mean, look around at all those who have answered. this call. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Those are the outcasts. And so he says, understand, God is to be praised because He gathers. Yes, He's a shepherd. He seeks, and He must seek because there's none who seek God. And so He must be the seeking shepherd, and He is. So He seeks out, and who does He seek? The outcasts. He's to be praised. It seems like it would diminish from God's loving, compassionate character if He came to earth and sought the best of the best. That's not what He did. Far be it from us to think that's why He chose us. Jesus desired for those who followed him to get, and this is so much of what preaching is, just get it. If you can just get it, if you can just understand who God is and have that concept capture your heart. Christ, in talking to his disciples, wanted them to understand the shepherding nature of God. And so in Luke chapter 12, he gives a series of comparisons and metaphors, and he just wants them to get it. Just understand who God is. And so in Luke 12, 22, he says to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat, nor about your body, what you'll put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Don't be worried. And he gives some analogies. Consider the ravens. They don't sow or reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. You're of much more value than the birds. In which of you, being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life, if then you are not able to do a small thing as that, why are you so anxious about the rest? It's completely out of your control anyway, right? Trust God for who He is. Don't be anxious about provision. He provides for those who are His, and even if it was up to you, you have no ability to do it anyway. He continues. Consider the lilies, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, how much will He clothe you, O you of little faith?" So God does this, that's the comparison. God provides that way. How much more then will He provide for you? Do not seek what you are to eat, what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek the kingdom, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. But then he says this, Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. You understand that the idea of God's character, what aspect of God's character does Christ want to bring to bear upon his disciples? God is your shepherd. He gathers the outcasts together in His arms, and His all-powerful arms are there to provide and to protect His sheep. And you say, I don't know if I'm one of those sheep. You know if you're one of those sheep. Have you responded to the Gospel? Jesus Christ came proclaiming. His gospel. Repent and believe in Him. You respond to that. What is that? That's evidence of the fact that you are His sheep. His sheep hear His voice, and they follow Him. So, if you have responded to the gospel, you are His sheep. If you are His sheep, Christ is your shepherd. And what is He? He's the perfect embodiment of the shepherding character of God the Father. The all-powerful God of heaven has come to earth to shepherd us. We are that flock. In fact, if you come into the New Testament and you see the pastoral ministry, the pastoral ministry can be summarized that way as being overseers of the flock that's among us. We are under shepherds. That's our entire ministry. Caring for God's flock. Fear, anxiety, loneliness, feel like you're the outcast, don't fret. God is the shepherd who gathers his sheep under his loving, watchful care. We need to understand this aspect of God's care. And so, He's worthy of praise. Why? Because He gathers the outcasts. You and I are those outcasts. You say, well, that's insulting. It's one of the most glorious truths you can encounter. We are nothing, yet He sought us. We were wandering, yet He sought us and brought us in. And so he gathers the outcasts. Kind of continuing with the shepherding analogy, he gathers the outcasts and he heals the broken. A shepherd goes and gathers his sheep, yes? What happens when you find those sheep and they're wounded? Well, a good shepherd heals them. He cares for them. He tends to them. He binds up their wounds. That's the idea. He heals the broken. He gathers the Al-Qassi, in verse 3, He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Now again, primary application is Israel. I mean, all the brokenness that they face during exile. Jerusalem is destroyed and so on. However, this is a statement of the character of God. Psalm 34, 18 says, The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. You know, we collectively can fall prey to the performance trap. You have this idea, and sometimes, you know, like when we preach, here's the thing as a teacher or preacher. I always want to preach beyond myself, and I want to preach beyond you to a degree. And so we are always preaching a standard that we have not yet attained. You don't want me only preaching the standard that I've attained. I want to stretch myself in what I preach, and I want to stretch you in what we preach. So we preach the ideals of Scripture, and we all together are on a journey towards those things. We can all fall into the performance trap where we look at the idealistic view of what a Christian ought to be, and then we feel we fall short, and so our Christian life is almost characterized by a constant beating ourselves up for falling short. Please understand the character of God. He binds the brokenhearted. These are those who are brokenhearted because of circumstances. Life's hard. You've been hurt. You've been wounded. He binds the brokenhearted. These are those who are broken through contrition. I'm humble. I'm repentant. I'm broken before God on a spiritual level. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. God will not despise, David says. Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 2 Corinthians 7.6 says that God comforts the downcast. You don't have to come to God and shy away because you fall short. Like, come on! God wants you to be fully aware of the fact that you are nothing. So that's 1 Corinthians 1. He gathers the outcasts. That's who we are. That's our identity. We're weak and frail, independent, and we fail all the time. Don't lament that and struggle against that and be so concerned that you fall short. Therefore, how could I ever come to God because I'm so weak? Admit it. Confess your dependence upon God and praise Him for gathering people like you and me. Just confess. Lament, yes, be contrite, but then praise Him for His grace in calling somebody like you who can't even read your Bible consistently. Praise God for being so gracious to somebody like you who, in light of all the blessings that you have, you don't even pray like you ought to. I mean, praise God for saving and gathering and caring and providing and protecting for people like us, who fail to show the fruit of the Spirit in even the most minor of situations in life. You understand that God's character is one where He binds up the wounds of the brokenhearted. You come to Him and you just confess your brokenness. The scourge on the church is this idea that Christian people can't be broken. If people know that I'm broken, then they'll think there's something defective in my faith. God has promised to heal the heart of the broken over sin, those who are broken over circumstances, so that we can pour out our heart before Him. And one of the things that we've been trying to emphasize at Calvary Baptist Church is we need to continue to develop. This past Wednesday was a huge blessing to me because we were talking about marriage, but one of the things that happened in that discussion is there was a lot of openness in sharing about our own faults and failures. So we've got a husband sitting next to a wife, and the husband admits his failures, and the wife admits her failures, and so he doesn't admit his failures, and then she's, that's right, you know. She admits her failures, and he admits his failures, and this happens across the room as people are sharing their weakness. That's the culture that we want. Why? Because it's the very nature of God who creates an environment of safety where you can come to Him and just cry out in brokenness without fearfulness that you're going to be judged for falling short of some standard that we all say we uphold but nobody ever meets. So, Psalm 62.8 says, "...Trust in Him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before Him." Why? God is a refuge for us. He's a refuge for us. There's safety there. There's protection there. And so God's character is such that we run to him confessing our brokenness and understanding, there's not judgmentalism. If I tell God this, he's going to be upset with me. We're so, we're so, I was going to say stupid, but I probably shouldn't use that word, but I just said it. So, you know, we're so stupid sometimes. To understand, there are times that you pray to God and you are guarded praying to God. I mean, you are withholding information from God. Because you're guarded with other people. You might be somewhat vulnerable, but you're still guarded and you hold back full truthfulness, right? One of the comforts of knowing who God is, is He knows you better than you know yourself. So confess to Him and confess in absolute honesty. Don't use euphemisms. Don't use platitudes. God, I struggle with this. This is my problem. I know it of myself. I'm an angry, bitter person. Lord, I am a bitter person. Lord, I am an angry person. Lord, I am a lustful person. Lord, I am a faithless person. This is who I am. You know it. You know it. You know it better than I know it. I struggle with this and I need your help. I'm absolutely dependent upon you to help me overcome my anger, my lust, my faithlessness, whatever it may be. Why are you holding anything back? You think that if you're not fully honest with God, He won't know? What God's waiting for is for you to come with absolute dependence and confession and contrition and brokenness. And you know what happens is the admission of brokenness. And bringing our brokenness to God leads to what? God binding up the brokenhearted. He heals the brokenhearted and He binds up their wounds. Lamentations 2.19 says, Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the night, watch as you pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord." So many of us are going about all these different avenues trying to find different ways to fix ourselves. Come to God with absolute brokenness. Pour out your heart before Him. Don't hold anything back. He knows who you are before you say a word. He's gathered you together as an outcast into His arms, and He's there now to bind up your wounds. Reminded of Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 1, and she goes in to pray, and she's so overcome with prayer, she doesn't care what anybody around her is thinking, and she's just praying, and she's praying silently, and her lips are moving, but you can't hear anything. And Eli comes and, oh, are you drunk? No. She says, I haven't drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. God is to be praised. Why? This is exactly what we need. Why? Because we're constantly wandering. We're constantly rebelling. But He gathers the outcasts, brings them up in His arms, and He binds the brokenhearted. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 25 says, "...to whom then will you compare Me?" that I should be like him, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these. He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God." Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. Why in the world would you say anything's hidden? Why would you say that He has forsaken you in any way? When you understand who He is, He continues, He gives power to the faint. And to him who has no might, He increases strength. Even you shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. And so here it is. God is the shepherd of the universe. He gathers the outcasts. He binds up the brokenhearted. What does that look like for us? Well, in part, it looks like praise. Praise Him. Having a biblical conception of who God is and what He's done for us, you turn that into praise. Lord, thank You that You saved me. I didn't deserve it in any way. I was wandering from You. You came and gathered me up. Not only that, but You provide for me the ongoing ministry of Shepherd. Binding up my wounds, hearing my cry, being empathetic and compassionate towards my struggles. So these are the dominant character qualities of God. This helps us to establish, too, our identity. We are the outcast, we are the brokenhearted, yet we are safe and secure in the arms of the shepherd. He gathers the outcast and He heals the brokenhearted, and related to this in verse 6, He exalts the humble. The Lord lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the ground. I won't say much here because we just hit it, but the idea is you come to God with contrition and humility. You humble yourselves before the Lord, James says, and He will exalt you. Check your superficiality at the door. The reservedness that you have dealing with your fellow believers, that we're trying to tear those walls down in the culture of Calvary Baptist Church, get rid of any of that. There's no place for pride in the presence of God. There's no place for image or reputation or esteem in the presence of God. Only brokenness and dependence. And so, he lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the ground. That's the whole idea of salvation. You come as a child. You come with childlike humility. 1 Peter 5.5 says, Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. It's the same ideas. The mighty hand of God. Understand the might of God Respond to that with humility, come to His mighty hand, and do what? Cast your cares upon Him. Why? Because He cares for you. Because He is the mighty Shepherd of the universe. It's right and fitting to praise God because He gathers the outcasts, because He heals the brokenhearted, because He exalts the humble, the number four, because He provides for and delights in those who fear Him. Verse 7. sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, make melody to our God on the lyre, he covers the heavens with clouds, he prepares rain for the earth, he makes grass grow on the hills, every stanza is talking about his creative, sovereign power, he gives to the beasts their food and to young ravens that cry, his delight is not in the strength of the horse nor his pleasure in the legs of man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love." The amazing privilege of being part of God's flock and having him as our shepherd is that we have access to Him. To understand that God actually, we are the outcasts, and we are dependent, and we are frail, and we fail, and we are the brokenhearted. But the Bible says He delights in us. He takes pleasure in us. Why? Listen, don't listen to contemporary Christian music that tries, hey, young ladies, women here, you're not a princess of God, okay? You're not a princess of God. God does not look at you and say, oh, you're so beautiful, you're so wonderful. You know, the lyrics always go, you know, when I, whatever, when I was, the idea being that I was down on myself, and I thought that I was nothing, but then you came and said that I was this, and I was this, and I was this. Okay, you know what? If you hear a song like this, and it does not in some way allude to our position in Christ, which is the reason why God looks at us, then throw that out, right? Because anything that is trying to build up our personal esteem in ourselves, and God looks at us and just could not resist how wonderful we are, there's a problem there, right? So you chuck that out. But, the Bible does say that He delights in us. He takes pleasure in those who fear Him. His delight and His pleasure in us is the consequence of the fact of the work that He has done in us. He makes the worshippers. He gives the grace. He gathers. He's the one who has made us to be those who worship in spirit and truth. And so when God rejoices or delights in us, He's delighting in the work of His own hands. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him and those who hope in His steadfast love. Psalm 149.4, For the Lord takes pleasure in His people, He adorns the humble with salvation. And there you see both truths united. The Lord takes pleasure in His people, He adorns the humble with salvation. And so God is to be praised. Why? Because He provides for and delights in those who fear Him. The fact that you can come to God in prayer, praising and worshiping Him, and He accepts that, is all because of the Lord Jesus Christ and His imputed righteousness. And so it is right and fitting to praise Him because He delights in those who fear Him. Number five, it is right and it is fitting to praise God because He defends His elect. Verse 19, He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and rules to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation. They do not know His rules. Praise the Lord." Well, what do we have here? You say, well, it's just talking about Israel. Jacob. Yes. That's the point. The idea being, God is to be praised because He has a people. That's the idea. And so the psalmist actually says it. He has not dealt this way with any other nation. Praise God because He has a people whom He has chosen and taken out to show His special divine care and provision and protection and salvation. So praise Him for the fact that He cares for His elect, His chosen. Deuteronomy 7.6 though, we're quick to add, God says of Israel, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. And so that's the shepherd's prerogative. He doesn't go and gather all. He gathers those whom he chooses. And then he says this, and you say, well, on what basis does he choose? Well, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. It's not because you're the biggest nation. For you are the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. and repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes of the rules that I command you this day." He's saying, you're my people. Why? Because you're my covenant people. What is the covenant? Well, it's the covenant that I made with your fathers. God chose to show love to a certain people, and on the basis of that love covenant, he is faithful to the people that he's chosen. Okay, that's Israel. What we find though, again, is that this speaks simply to the character of God. The character of God is such that in His shepherdly character, He comes and He gathers together those whom He chooses. And when He makes that love covenant with those whom He chooses, it is indivisible, it is unbreakable, and He defends those who are His. And so 1 Peter 2.9, speaking of Christians, Peter says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. What is he saying? He's saying the shepherd has chosen you. You're his, right? He purchased you. He bought you. You're his possession. He chose you. So then what? Well, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Praise Him. But now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So what I'm saying to you this morning is, you ought to have a worship life. You ought to have a life of praise. A time in your life where you meditate upon who God is and what He's done for you. And you articulate that. It's not, Lord, I praise you. What does that mean? Don't say you praise Him. Praise Him. Enumerate the things that you are praising Him for. Worship Him. As a lady sang this morning, worship is more than a song. It's a life. It's a lifestyle. It's who we are as people. And so we praise God and we praise Him because He gathers the outcast. That's us. If you believe, divest yourself of any notion that you believe because of anything inherently good in yourself. You believe because you are His sheep, that He has chosen, therefore you heard the voice of Christ. Praise Him because He gathers the outcasts. Praise Him because as He gathers the outcast, the imagery there is of the mighty God of heaven with the arms that created and so on. That imagery there in Isaiah gathers together the outcast in His arms and binds up the wounded. God understands human nature. He understands human struggle. He understands your faults. He understands your failures. He understands the things that torment you in life. He understands how you have been so damaged by the sin of others. He understands how you've been damaged by your own sin. He understands all of this, and He binds you up. He gathers the outcasts, He heals the brokenhearted, He exalts the humble, He provides for and delights in those who fear Him, and He defends the elect. And so, I hesitate to do this because I've done this many times, but I'm going to finish the message by reading Romans 8, because it is so fitting. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined, He also called. That's His gathering. And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If all of this is true, then nothing can dominate us. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, is the good shepherd laying down his life for the sheep. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Not only does this have eternal significance, it has temporal, earthly significance. If he has done that, how much more will he do this? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn Christ Jesus as the one who died? More than that, who was raised? Who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Why? Because we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered, but the reality is we belong to a shepherd who has a covenant love for us from which we will never be separated. Distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword cannot touch us. Why? Because we appear to be sheep ready to be slaughtered, but in reality we're safe in the arms of our shepherd. Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This does not say that we can never be separated from relationships. It doesn't say we can never be separated from finances. It doesn't say that we can never be separated from life on this earth. What it does say is that we can never be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. There's reasons to praise God. It is pleasant to do so, and it is fitting. Let this inform your personal praise life. It goes beyond songs. It goes beyond scripture reading. It goes beyond Sunday morning. It informs your daily life. You are to be an avenue of praise. You are to be a vessel of praise. And so meditate upon what he's done. Be like the psalmist. Meditate upon what he's done. Think deeply about it. Think then how that applies to you personally. And so you're spending time thinking about who God is and what he's done, and allow that to erupt over into praise. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for who you are and what you've done for us. Lord, I don't think we spend nearly enough time meditating, thinking upon who you are. Instead, we get bogged down with our wants and needs and our own personal struggles and difficulties of this life. We begin to look at you and your person through the lens of the tyranny of our present problems or struggles. help us to regain an exalted view of who you are. As we see in Isaiah, and the psalmist, who just ascend to the heights of heaven to think about and enumerate who you are, your greatness and your majesty, your sovereign power. They're not doing it as professors of theology, they're doing it as those who understand that who you are as practical impact upon their lives. Lord, help us to do the same, to be reminded scripturally of who you are, to take that to heart, not to use the scriptures as something to search through to find quick fixes for our heart problems, but quick, quick fixes to our circumstance problems. Instead, to spend time dwelling upon who you are. to the exalted view of your nature, but then also understand how you've condescended to us, how you've brought your shepherding character to bear upon us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you, from your exalted position, have, through the voice of the gospel, called us to be with you, to gather us together in your arms. Help us to get it. Help us to just catch the biblical picture of who you are. I pray to have a real impact on us. Lord, we pray that you deliver us from our small worlds, dominated by our struggles and our problems, and just bring us up into the heavens to get a glimpse of who you are. And I pray that we could bring that understanding of who you are down to bear upon our lives. Pray that be true in my life. Help me to be a better worshipper. Help me to be a bit better praiser. Takes your word and my understanding of you and just spends time confessing these things. Help me also to not fall into the performance trap when it comes to my spiritual life. Help me to be broken before you. To willingly confess without any filter my struggle. my failures before you, understanding that you delight in your people coming with brokenness, independence. You don't respond in judgment. You respond with care, binding up the broken. So I pray you'd help us to be honest and be vulnerable in our spiritual lives as we pray you, praise you, and worship you. And then Lord, I pray lastly that you just help us as a church body, as each of us pursues our own spiritual life, worshiping and praising you, that we also would develop a culture amongst ourselves where we can be honest with each other, confess our faults to one another. We can encourage one another, pray for one another, to be vessels of you doing the binding work, binding up the broken. And I pray that it would just develop amongst us, that you would just make this a place of safety for your people to grow and to mature together and to overcome struggle. Deliver us from superficiality and shallowness. Protect the culture of our church. Help us not to develop that type of superficial expectation where nobody feels safe to express faults and failures. Help us to model your character with one another. Lord, we thank you for this. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we believe it is right, and it is fitting, and it is pleasant to give you praise. And we do praise you, and we do worship you for who you are. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who's gathered us together. And that's what we are this morning, is we're a flock of your sheep, whom you have gathered together through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you and praise you for this. We do it in his name. Amen.