I invite you to take the Word of God and turn with me to Psalm 146. With Psalm 146, we are entering into the final section of the psalter. The last five psalms, and they all have one single subject one single topic. They all begin and end with the same word. And that word is, it's actually a two Hebrew word phrase which is from the Hebrew word Halel, which means praise. And the abbreviated form of Yahweh or Jehovah, Yah. So put the two together, Halel and Yah. and you get hallelujah and so each of these psalms begin with praise ye the Lord which is that word hallel, praise, yah, the Lord hallelujah Praise ye the Lord. So if you look at Psalm 146, it begins, Praise ye the Lord. And if you look at the end of it, Praise ye the Lord. If you look at Psalm 147, Praise ye the Lord. If you look at the end of Psalm 147, Praise ye the Lord. And the same is true with Psalm 148, 149, and 150. So if you have any doubt as to the subject matter of these last five Psalms, They're one and the same. Praise ye the Lord. You would think that it may get a bit monotonous having the same topic, the same subject matter for five consecutive weeks. But at least it's only five weeks, unlike Psalm 119, in which it was 22 weeks of taking one stanza per week. And still we discovered each one was completely different. Each one was unique. Each one had a particular point to bring before us. This is the Word of God and God does not waste words. So if we can glean anything from these final Psalms, it is that God desires to be praised. And so the beginning and the end of each of these psalms is basically hallelujah. It's a shame that this word has been so perverted in our generation from being used in common language all the way to pop music. Hallelujah. People toss the word all around. They find a dollar on the street and they shout out, Hallelujah. And they have little in mind regarding the praise of God. But for us, this is a high expression. We do not just simply toss it around lightly. This word Hallel. Now there are several Hebrew words translated praise. There are many in the Psalter. In fact, one of the ones that we see often in the Psalter is the Hebrew word Yadah. And it's often translated Thanksgiving. And so we know that Thanksgiving and praise are closely tied together. But Hallel is different. Hallel literally means to shine. So you can begin to catch just a glimpse as to what this word means, to shine. It directs our eyes upward into the majesty and glory of God, to shine. God dwells in life. unapproachable. No man has seen God at any time. He dwells in infinite glory. The wonder of God's condescending grace is He sent forth His own Son, the second person of the Godhead, in human form. And in looking upon Christ, we see the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And so John says, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so in Christ we behold the fullness of the glory of God, but yet in a way in which we can comprehend, because God is infinite. He dwells in all of the universe and beyond. The universe is finite, I don't understand that. Scientists like us to believe that it goes on and on and on, but no, it's created. And all of God's creation is finite. Only God is infinite. And so whatever that means in the universe, God created it. And since it is finite, it has boundaries to it. And if we consider the universe and its vastness with billions of galaxies, just like our own Milky Way galaxy, it's just mind-boggling. The immensity of God. but yet He fills all in all. And so, as we consider the great praise of our God, this word halel means to shine and it points to the splendor and the majesty and the glory of God that is beyond expression. This God that we serve. It demands a heart to love and adore Him, so that a lost person will never understand the praise of God. There are churches that try to bring the worship to a level in which a lost person can come in and experience the worship of God, but they cannot. For a believer, it is of the essence that we begin to say, O God, who can worship You? Who can express praise unto You, O God? But we must never reduce worship to the point in which a lost person can come in and pretend they are praising God. And let me add this. There are many today that equate praise with music. And so they believe that praising God means music. And so there are praise teams. There is praise music. There are praise bands and praise leaders because they hold that praise must mean music. It includes music, and remember the Psalms were, this was Israel's hymn book, and the Psalms were sung. And so we do not diminish the importance of music in worship. The praise is not just about music. Praise is adoring God in thanksgiving and adoring Him in the fullness of His divine being. which is beyond our comprehension. So truly, to praise God demands to have a heart, a new heart, a transformed heart, a heart that is able to comprehend who our God is. And the more we know of Him, the more we are in awe of Him. and the more that our mouths are agape concerning him, and the more we will enter into this place for worship with a sense of awe and holy reverence, because we have come to an understanding of who our God is, and our hearts are filled with godly praise and adoration of this great God that we know. And so these psalms are expressions of this heart that God's people have for God. This grand word that simply means to shine. Now the psalmist begins, and instead of reading the entire psalm in its entirety, we'll just go through it and read it as we go. And so the psalmist begins, by declaring the priority of praise. Now, verses 1 and 2, he says, Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live, will I praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God, while I have any being. Well, he's telling us the priority of praise. What he is saying, The first expression, praise ye the Lord, and it's that word hallelujah, and it is a plural imperative. And so it's a command, but it's a command in the plural, so it's commanding the people, praise ye the Lord. And so it begins and it ends, both of them are plural imperatives, which says it's a command to the group. Praise ye the Lord. And so it's not an option. The people of God must praise God. It's a command. And it's really, this is the Word of God. So it's a command from God to the body of Christ to praise Him or to the congregation or to the corporate body. Praise the Lord. But then he brings it down to the personal. So it begins in the plural as an imperative. Praise the Lord. But then you return once again to the self-talk that the psalmist often does throughout the Psalter. Self-talk. We do it all the time. And it's a healthy thing. You're not crazy when you talk to yourself. And we all do it. We don't like to admit to it, but you do it all the time. You're driving down the road and you're talking to yourself. You're dialoguing with yourself. Sometimes you become frustrated with yourself. Sometimes you say, I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I said that. And there are some times that we become very proud of ourselves. Good job. You know, way to go. Maybe not quite that arrogantly, but we talk all the time to ourselves. Sometimes our feelings may be hurt and we'll say, I can't believe they did that to me. This is all the times we're talking to ourselves. And we should. But the highest degree of self-talk is praising God. Encouraging ourselves to praise Him. Now again, the psalmist does this self-talk several times. In fact, in Psalm 16, Oh my soul, he says, Thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord." That's good self-talk. Oh, my soul self, you've declared that God is your God. And sometimes during times of adversity, it's good to talk in this way. When it seems that everything else has failed and no one else is around you, to say, self, you are the beloved of the living God who controls all things. He loves you with an infinite love and He will never let you go. He has promised you that He will never leave you nor forsake you. And so trust Him. That's good self-talk. To remind yourself, trust Him. He has never failed you in the past. He will not fail you in the future. Trust Him. Or Psalm 42 verse 5. It's the wonderful psalm of one who is depressed and downcast. And he talks to himself. He says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the health of his countenance. Well, again, the highest degree of self-talk is simply reminding ourselves God is so glorious and so grand. He is worthy of all praise. Self, praise Him. Praise Him. He's worthy of praise. You're driving down the road. Praise the Lord. Praise Him continually. Praise Him when you wake up. Praise Him when you go to sleep. And so, this psalm here, Psalm 146, verse 1, the psalmist, we don't know who the psalmist is, by the way. It's not necessarily a psalm of David. But he simply says, Praise the Lord, O my soul. Or, as he says in Psalm 103, he doesn't use the word praise there. There he uses the word for bless. And there He says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits. Don't forget all of the things that He has done for you. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Or Psalm 104, verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, Thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. And such self-talk as this will lead you to praise Him. God, You are clothed with all majesty. I must bow before You and worship and adore You, O God. And so verse 1 is simply self-talk, praise the Lord, O my soul. And then you get into verse 2 and talking about the priority of His praise. He recognizes that his life is finite, and it's limited, and it's passing quickly. And it'll be over before you know it. Every one of us. Some of us are older than others. I look out among the congregation and I'm seeing children that are 6 and 7 years old or earlier. Older children that are 8 and 9 and 10 years old. some that are 12 and 13. The nature of youth is that we tend to believe that life goes on and on and it never ends. And so the very nature of young people is the reason they take a lot of risks and chances because they really don't think that death is a reality. But the reality is it passes quickly. And every day, you only have a certain number, It's kind of like sand in an hourglass. And it seems like there's a lot of sand in that glass, but you turn it upside down and you watch the sand start pouring out. And it goes pretty quickly. And such is the days in which we live. And they will be over before you know it. Which tells us that each one of these days are precious. How do you spend them? How do you spend them? You know, the New Testament principle The Apostle Paul refers to redeeming the time, buying it up, because it's a precious commodity that you only have so much of, and you can't get more. When your days are over, you can't go to the market and say, I'd like to purchase, here's my credit card, I'd like to buy 365 more days. No, it's over. You get no more. So how do you spend your days? The nature of this world and this life is spend it for yourself. Buy up all the pleasure and all the things that this life can give. But the psalmist says, while I live, while I still have breath, while the days are still with me, I'm going to praise you. Then he repeats it in a different way. I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. In other words, while I'm alive. The indication is, it's not that we won't praise him after death. We will. Paul says, for me to live is Christ, but to die, oh my goodness, that's gain. I will be with him. The difficulties of life will be no more. That is glorious and grand. But it is true that it's in this life that we have particular duty to praise Him. Now in eternity there will be no more sin. Satan will be gone. This world will be over. The warfare will be through. In this life we have the warfare and we are charged to battle And so we have to maintain the war, or not maintain the war, maintain faithfulness in the battle as the soldiers of Christ. And so to squander time is to lose it, but to spend it well is glorious indeed. And so the greatest way that you can spend your time is to the glory of God. And the psalmist says, I'm going to praise you. As long as I have life and breath, I will praise you. So the first thing we find in the first two verses is one, the charge to praise, and then the personal responsibility. I will praise Him. And as long as I have breath, I will praise Him. So you find the priority of praise, a determination. I will praise Him all my days. The self-talk on my soul. Praise Him. But then we begin in the following verses to find reasons why we should praise God. Now, because God is God, He is worthy of praise, period. He is intrinsically glorious. It means that when you speak of intrinsic, you're talking about value. And God has value in and of his divine being. And he is worthy of praise. But we always find in the Psalms over and over reasons to praise him. It demonstrates God's condescending grace. We don't have to have reasons to praise Him other than the fact that He's worthy of praise. But then we're always given reasons to praise. So, let's go through the reasons, because God gives them to us. So, first of all, He's worthy of praise because of the weakness of every earthly confidence. In other words, what else would you praise? God alone is worthy of praise because of the weakness of all earthly confidence. So he says in verse 3, put not your trust in princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help because his breath goes forth he returns to the earth in that very day his thoughts perish. Well by princes we're merely talking about the great ones of the earth. Perhaps it's the mighty, or the influential, or the wealthy. And the question is, where do you put your confidence? And then when he says, nor am the son of man, he's simply referring to humanity. And so he says, or he commands us, do not put your trust in princes, in other words, the mighty ones of the earth, those who are influential, the powerful, but not only them, but anyone else as well, the Son of Man, referring to humanity. And the reason being, verse 4, they're dying, they're temporary, their breath goes forth, he returns to the earth, and in that day, his thoughts perish with him. What a vain source of confidence, if you put your confidence in any earthly man. Because they're perishing, and they perish so quickly, and when they're gone, you wonder sometimes if there's any evidence that they were ever here. Because ultimately, even the most mighty fail to leave an infinite mark upon the earth, not a mark like the living God leaves. So James says in James 4.14, what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. That's life. It's like a vapor. It's like a wisp of smoke that rises up and then it's gone. You light a candle and there may be a little wisp of smoke at first and it kind of goes up and then it dissipates and you say, where did it go? This is really the nature of our life. You say, wow, what a horrible view of life. It's reality. We are but a vapor. We're here for a moment, and then we vanish away. We really think that we are special and important. But in reality, your life is but a vapor. It'll be over before you know it. Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, chapter 1, vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What prophet hath a man of all of his labor, which he taketh under the sun? One generation passes away, another generation comes, but the earth abides forever." And all he's saying is, human life comes and goes. The earth remains, but people come and go. And why would you put your confidence in a man that will be here for just a moment and then he perishes? Thomas Watson says, at death man sees all those thoughts which were not spent upon God to be fruitless. It's kind of the mark of Ecclesiastes. All worldly vain thoughts in the day of death perish and come to nothing. Which is what he says here in verse 4. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish." Thomas Watson continues, "...should not the consideration of this fix our minds upon the thoughts of God and His glory? All other meditations are fruitless, like a piece of ground which hath much cost laid out upon it, but it yields no crop." Well, with all of the weakness and folly of humanity, why would you ever trust in man? Now, you're sitting here tonight saying, but I would never. I do not trust in man. I trust in the living God. I know that we're not supposed to trust in princes. I know that human beings are frail. I do not trust in men. Really? What about your, when I say your, I mean our, what about our love of attention? What about the praise of men that we adore? And don't kid yourself for a moment to say that you do not have any concern about the praise of men, you do. Do you not like the compliment of the new dress that you just purchased at the store? Do you not like compliments for the accomplishments that you do? I know you do. Do you not want people to brag about your children? I know you do. Don't tell me that you have no regard for men, because we spend much time seeking the attention and recognition of men, position before men, the praise of men, It all demonstrates that we put far more confidence in men than we're willing to admit. Men who are failing and passing away before we know it. But not only that, it's much easier to put trust in the doctor than in God. And how often do we come to the infirmity and we become ill, and many times our first thought is, I must seek the doctor. I'm not diminishing doctors. Doctors are a good thing. Doctors are a wonderful blessing from God. The advances in medicine are wonderful. Pharmacology is wonderful. It's great to have medicine that the doctor can prescribe. I'm not diminishing these things. All I'm saying, it's too often that we put our confidence in the doctor and what he says and what he can do and what the medicine can accomplish, even more so than we do upon the living God, is the go-to, the chief, the first place that we flee is into the bosom of our God. That's the point. And it's easier to trust scientists and politicians. We put so much, so much faith in politicians. So, you know, torn and bent when we see the difficulties that's going on in our nation as if this is our kingdom. And I'm not diminishing the importance of voting and I'm not diminishing the necessity of praying for kings. But this world is not our home, and nations come and go. And if the nation of the United States of America ceases to be tomorrow, that will have no effect whatsoever upon the kingdom of God. That's hard for us to imagine, isn't it? We're so proud as Americans that we think that if our country ended tomorrow, surely Jesus must come back, because the world could not exist without America. It did before. Nations come and go. People thought the Greek empire, the Greek culture would never end. People thought the Roman empire, the Roman culture would never end. And they come and they go. Where do we put our confidence? The greatest demonstration of our trust in men is found upon our trust in ourselves. And we do. Far too much. We put far too much trust in our own devices, our own plans, our own schemes, our own ideas, our own poor motives. We do. And the reason that lost people will not have Christ is because they trust in themselves. They will not bow before a king. They will not submit before a master. They will only continue to have trust in themselves. And ultimately, all trust that is not directed to Christ is a trust in ourselves, ultimately. Well, the implication is clearly, we have but one source of trust. the Living God. And the psalmist here says, do not put your trust in anyone or anything other than the Living God. Psalm 5 verse 11, let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice, let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them. Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For Psalm 20, verse 7, some trust in chariots. We would say some trust in our military and in our might and in our power. And we do so more than we are willing to believe. Some trust in chariots, some in horses. But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. I wonder what it was like during World War II when Germany was bombing England, Britain. I wonder what that was like to go to bed at night and then hear the siren go off and the bombs starting to fall all around you. I wonder what that was like. In times like that, where do you put your trust? Well, I'll imagine that the Christians during that time said within their hearts, I may not awaken tomorrow, but I will trust in the living God. Well, God is worthy of praise because of the weakness of every earthly confidence. Thirdly, God is worthy of praise because of the blessedness of trusting Him. Now, verse 5, he says, Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Now, the word for happy here, and I'm reading from the King James, and probably your translation is translating it blessed. It's from the word eser. And this is the last of the 25 times it's used in the Psalter. And we consider it a beatitude because usually it's translated, blessed are these. So we read the beatitudes in the New Testament. Jesus says, blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. And we refer to these as the beatitudes. Well, these are Beatitudes, and there are some English translations that translate the New Testament Beatitudes. Happy are the meek, happy are the poor in spirit. Not often, but you get the idea. So, the Psalter often uses this word, for example, Psalm 40, verse 4. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies." Or Psalm 144, 15, Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. King James, that's the New American Standard, by the way. King James says, Psalm 144, 15, which we just covered, Happy is that people that is in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord." Well, trusting in God is the greatest of blessings. That's hard for us to actually grasp and hold on to. The greatest source of happiness upon the face of this earth, the greatest source of blessing It's trusting God. And that's what the Psalter says here. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. There's no greater blessedness than that. Jeremiah puts it this way. Jeremiah 17, Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man. Well, that's a harsh statement. Cursed is the man that trusts in man. and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord, he shall be like the heath, a heath is a thorn bush, he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit parched places in the wilderness, in the salt land, and not inhabited. But blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, in whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh. For her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things." We know this last phrase. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Isn't it funny the verses that we memorize and know quite well, but we often don't attach them to the context of the passage to which they belong? The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So you get the context. There are some people that trust in men, and trust in the things of this world, and trust in riches, and these are the things of their hope. There are other people in this world that trust in the living God. But here's the problem. The kingdom of this age, this present age in which we live, in which the scripture refers to Satan as the God of this world, the God of this present evil age. He's under the dominion of the living God. It's just saying that the people of this age follow after the deceits and lies of Satan. The Apostle Paul refers to riches as the, or actually it's Jesus that refers to riches as the deceitfulness of riches. They are so deceitful and so cunning that the people of this world tend to trust in everything but God. And it seems so right. And that's what is so deceitful about it. It seems so right to go our own way. You know, you hear preachers that should, preachers that are preaching right, say such things as Christ needs to be the center of all things. And we hear it, but we don't believe it. And because this world teaches us You've got to have the latest of this and you've got to have this pleasure and this delight and you've got to trust in your 401k. Is that right? 401k? And I'm not against wise financial planning. I'm not preaching against that. I'm preaching against trusting in that. The people of this world says that you've got to seek after the things that the people of this world will respect and you want respect and you want people to look up to you and you want to rise to a position of authority and you want other people to admire you and they will not admire you unless this happens and that happens and so people pursue these things and they trust in these things and these are the things they delight in These are the things they strive for, and you've got to climb every rung of the ladder, because you've got to get to the top, because if you do not get to the top, people will not respect you, you will not be admired, you will not be in the esteem of people, and so you strive for these things, and these are the things you delight in. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? God says, trust in me. Now, you can enjoy and delight in the things of this world. That's the oxymoron. To the pure, all things are pure. And you can have nice things and enjoy them. I'm not preaching poverty. That somehow, God is pleased only if you're in poverty. Abraham was not in poverty. But his wealth was not his God. His trust was in the living God. Abraham was powerful. He was a man of means. He was able to raise up an army and defeat the five kings of Shadow Laomer. I mean, he was a mighty man. But he trusted the living God. The living God says, Abraham, rise up. Got something for you to do today. Take your son, your only son, your beloved son. Take him to the mountain and kill him on the mountain. That's not an easy command to receive. But Abraham did it. He was a man of means. He was respected by all the others. Abimelech comes to Abraham. I mean, everyone. is respecting Abraham, but his trust was in the living God. It takes a heart of wisdom to know who you trust. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Well, this present age swallows men up. It swallows them up and they do not even know it. I hate to always pound upon our young people who are still in unbelief. But this age will swallow you up because you are convinced in your heart that you really do not need to make Christ a priority. And the reason you're not making Him a priority is because you're being deceived by this present age that you really can get along without Him. This age will swallow you up God says, be not conformed to this age, this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's God's command to us. What God says here, that there is no greater happiness upon the face of this earth, verse 5, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, There is no greater happiness than that. Who is this God? Well, He's the all-powerful One. He's the God, verse 6, that made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is, which keepeth truth forever. Now, the word for truth here, and I'm going to bring this in real quick, because time is really getting by quick. I'm going to go ahead and move into the next point, verses 6 through 9. God is worthy of praise because of his eternal faithfulness. Now, wrap your head for a moment around this word truth. Verse six, which made heaven and earth, the sea and all that therein is, which keepeth truth forever. The word for truth here is emeth, and it's a fairly common word. It means truth, but more importantly, it refers to firmness. Faithfulness. And it's translated truth because truth is fixed. It's firm. It's unchanging. It's the nature of truth. Truth is not a relative term. It's absolute. There's only one truth. It's not that you can have your truth and I can have my truth. Let's just all get along with our own truth and you can continue with yours and I'll keep mine and I won't infringe upon yours and you don't infringe upon mine. It's not it at all. is one truth. Period. Jesus says, I am the truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. That's absolute. Unchanging. Fixed. One truth. And such is the nature of all truth. It's either true or it's false. There's no gray areas truly. There's a lot of areas that we don't yet know. There's only one truth. You can't have some truth and almost truth is either true or false. Well, the greatest demonstration of truth upon the face of this earth is one found upon God, who is the Creator, who formed all things, who fashioned all things, and who is unchanging. But this one God, who is unchanging and absolute and faithful, has ultimately demonstrated His faithfulness in sending forth His Son. in fulfillment of his eternal covenant, and in fulfillment of the covenant of grace in Genesis 3.15, and in fulfillment of the covenant that God made with Abraham, he sent forth his only Son. Now, notice the words in verses 7 and 8, which executeth judgment for the oppressed, which giveth food to the hungry, The Lord looseth the prisoners, he openeth the eyes of the blind, raises them that are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous." Does that sound at all familiar to you? The work of Christ. In Isaiah 61, Verses 1 and 2, "...the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn." And it's the words of the Messiah. Jesus says, Remember when John the Baptist is starting to doubt. Are you the one? Jesus tells the disciples of John to go back. And Jesus answers and says, Go and show John again those things which you do here and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he whoever shall not be offended in me. Well, the ultimate demonstration of God's faithfulness and truth is He sent forth His Son. And his son has accomplished his purpose. He opens the eyes of the blind. Let me just touch real quick. I read this from Spurgeon and I thought it was really fantastic. So often in scripture, we read a passage and sometimes we get swallowed up in spiritualizing it that we miss the literal of it. And sometimes we become so literal in reading it, we miss the spiritual implications of it. And as we consider Jesus Christ opening blind eyes, we should see the literal and the spiritual aspect. So regarding the literal, Spurgeon records this. He says the large number of blind persons, literal blindness, and as you look at the Gospels, he's healing blind Bartimaeus. He was physically blind. It was an actual blindness. Interesting thing is he also healed him of his spiritual blindness. But Spurgeon writes regarding this physical blindness, a large number of blind persons to be seen feeling their way along the streets in Cairo and Alexandria has been noticed by Volney. Volney writes, walking in the streets of Cairo, out of a hundred persons whom I met, there were often twenty blind, eighteen one-eyed, twenty others with eyes red, purulent, or spotted. Almost every one wears bandages indicating that they either have or are recovering from ophthalmalia. Ophthalmalia is, in fact, one of the scourges of Egypt, as all physicians know. It is not, therefore, surprising to see anyone who knows the East to find the blind so often mentioned in the Gospel history, and to meet in Scripture with so many allusions to this infirmity. Jesus, indeed, healed the blind. And blindness was very common in the Far East during this time. Sand would often bring abrasions to the eyes that then would become infected and it was a problem. But while physical blindness was common, spiritual blindness was universal. And we all suffer from the malady. And we are born spiritually blind. And the reason that this present age swallows up people is because we are blind. The nature of the blindness is we are even blind to the reality of our blindness, because we have never seen. And so young people and children are born in this world of blindness. And it is so deceptive because they go through their years And the blindness is so extreme that they think all is well, because all they have ever experienced is the blindness. And the things that they see seem to be so appealing, and they're absolutely blind to the spiritual realities of life. They do not know God, and they do not know Him properly. And to make matters worse, They're born into this blindness and Satan comes along behind them and further covers their eyes. So that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. But then God sends forth His Son who opens blind eyes supernaturally by the Word of His power. And so we find in verse 8, the Lord opens the eyes of the blind and raises them that are bowed down and He loves the righteous. He loves His people and His people adore Him. And so the psalm closes in verse 10. The Lord shall reign forever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. So it ends by declaring that the Lord, and it's capital L-O-R-D, so it's referring to Jehovah, Yahweh, He shall reign And then he adds, even your God, Zion. Now, Zion in the Old Covenant was considered the city of God. It was actually an expression of Jerusalem. But for us, it's still the dwelling place of God, but it is a heavenly place. And it is a heavenly place that the reality has been brought to bear upon us. So we are the people of Zion and God is the God of Zion. So the Lord shall reign. He is the King. He is the King of Kings. And the full expression of this King is founded upon this One in whom our blindness was relieved, Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords, who sits upon the right hand of majesty, and He is our King. And generation after generation after generation shall praise Him, even forever and ever. And it is, so praise the Lord, a plural imperative. So all of the inhabitants of Zion, from generation to generation, praise God. We owe Him absolute trust. We owe Him absolute allegiance. We owe Him absolute love. We owe Him all worship and praise. He alone is worthy. And the command to us is, praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that as we hear these words, that our hearts would be lifted up. Help us not to become dull of hearing and dull of receiving these words. Hallelujah. And for it to fall upon dull ears or even deaf ears. Father, when we hear the words, may we be lifted up. May we praise you, O God. Hallelujah. Praise Jehovah. You are worthy of all praise and honor and glory. Father, we praise you because you are worthy of praise. Father, we are continually reminded of all that we have to praise you for. So tonight as we prepare to have a time of fellowship and sharing good food and good fellowship and the community of faith, the saints of the living God. Father, all these things are wonderful tokens of your blessings upon us. Blessed are those whose God is the Lord. And so we praise you, Father, and thank you for all that you've done. Bless this food to our nourishment. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.