to the chief musician of Psalm of David, a song. Praise is waiting you, O God and Zion, and to you the vow shall be performed. O you who hear prayer, to you all flesh will come. Iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions, you will provide atonement for them. Blessed is the man you choose and cause to approach you, that he may dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, of your holy temple. By awesome deeds and righteousness, you will answer us. O God of our salvation, you who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth and the far off seas, who establish the mountains by his strength, being clothed with power, you who still the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the torment of the people. They also dwell in the farthest parts, are afraid of your signs, You make the outgoings of the morning and evening rejoice. You visit the earth and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide the grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its ridges abundantly. You settle its furrows. You make it soft with showers. You bless its growth. You crown this year with your goodness and your past drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks. The valleys are also covered with grain. They shout for joy, they also sing. Thank you, Anthony. Where's Matthew? OK, I dropped this little thing, but the sound should be OK, right? I just want to make sure. All right, thank you, thank you, thank you very much. In South Africa, we get all the American movies that's produced in this country, and the drawback, of course, is that we are exposed to all the filth and degeneracy as well. But some movies have left a lasting impression on me. And growing up in the 90s and early 2000s as a kid, I used to like the movie Sweet Home Alabama. I liked it even more when I realized afterwards what the Lynyrd Skynyrd song is all about. But there's a line in Sweet Home Alabama where the guy talks to the girl who's engaged to the guy from New York, and he tells her, just because I talk slow, it doesn't mean I'm stupid. So I just want to say, just because I talk weird, I'm still thankful the crowd showed up. We read from, Anthony read from Psalm 65 this morning. It's one of the classical psalms of praise we find in scripture. And the core message of this psalm is that God is to be glorified for He is gracious and good and He is all-powerful and omnipotent. This psalm highlights these two core characteristics of God in particular. In verses 2 to 4 of this psalm, God's goodness is described, while verses 6 to 13 focus more on his power and omnipotence. Now, the word omnipotence, as many of you may know, is derived from the two Latin words omni, meaning all, and potens, meaning power. all the power. And in the Apostles' Creed, we translate the word omnipotence as almighty. But when we say in the Apostles' Creed that we believe in God the Father Almighty, we do not mean in the first place that God is able to do anything, which He of course is. But we describe God's ability, not only God's ability, but the fact that he actively sustains creation by his power. and that nothing can exist independently of Him. He is all-powerful in the sense that all power, all energy, and all life is completely dependent upon His active and continual exercise of His power by which He sustains all of creation. Now if God were to even for a split second withdraw himself from creation, all things independent of him would cease to exist. Now these two characteristics of God His power and then his goodness has also been recognized as central to his revelation of himself throughout church history. In the very first article of our Belgian Confession, the Confessional Standard of this church, it is said that we believe in our hearts and we confess with our mouths that there's a single and simple spiritual being whom we call God. He is eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, unchangeable, infinite, almighty, completely wise, just, and good, and the overflowing source of all that is good. So the very first article of this confession lists a number of key characteristics of God, including His power and His goodness. Yet because our words cannot convey and our mind can never comprehend the fullness of God's being, we must bear in mind that all attempts to describe God including those in our confessional standards, are always going to be limited. Therefore, we as believers must, in our descriptions of God, always emphasize those characteristics of God which are most clearly revealed in Scripture. And then power and omnipotence and goodness and grace are always, always mentioned. Psalm 65 is a perfect example of why this is. For the same reason that our mind cannot fully comprehend God, God himself chose to reveal to us those characteristics of him most necessary for us to glorify him, and to obtain salvation. So when God reveals Himself to us, therefore we must always bear in mind that He does so for this exact purpose. Primarily for His own glory and secondarily for our salvation, which of course also serves to glorify Him. But what is striking about this particular psalm is the fact that the author starts off with the glorification of God in the very first verse. So even before getting to the description of the characteristics of God, in the very first verse it is said that praise is to be given and vows are to be paid to God. before the psalmist then proceeds to describe God as the one who cares for creation, for his church, and his children. Now, the way the psalm starts is by no means coincidental. You see, the psalmist realizes one thing vital that all of us need to understand. God is, in himself, absolutely self-sufficient. The creator, independent of his creation, is completely self-sufficient and independent in the same manner and the same degree to which the creation is dependent upon him. He simply wills something and it is done. He said, let there be light and there was light. By his will he created the heavens and the earth. At the volition of Christ, the wind ceased and there was great calm. By an act of the will, Christ healed the sick. He opened the eyes of the blind. He raised the dead. The triune God can, without effort and by mere will, by mere volition, accomplish whatever he wills. And he also necessarily does this. God sovereignly foreordains whatever comes to pass. Some events are necessary, and that is brought about by necessary causes. Some are the acts of free agents. Some of human acts are morally good. Others are sinful. But the Bible teaches that all events and all human actions, whether necessary or contingent, good or sinful, are included in the sovereign decrees and the all-encompassing counsel of God. So being omnipotent, God is to be praised regardless of anything else, regardless of what happens in your personal life, regardless of what happens in our families, regardless of what happens in our country, or of anything else that may or may not occur. God is to be praised always and everywhere. And in a lot of conversations I was involved in this past week, we spoke about the decline of our civilization and the devastation of our nations. And I suppose that topic is not surprising when you're staying with the Maccabees. And we see that here in America, and we see it with even greater intensity in South Africa, where I'm from. And as much as this breaks our heart, as much as we would have loved to see this trend of decline reversed, not today, but decades ago already, even our time, even the difficult time we live in, is a time for glorifying God, for His sovereignty, because His decrees are always good, and His plan is perfect. After all, in today's text, the psalmist clearly says in verse 5, by his awesome deeds of righteousness, he will answer us. God answers nations and civilizations in righteousness. And he's currently answering the West's disobedience. He's answering South African disobedience. He's answering America's disobedience and unfaithfulness in judgment. His covenantal judgments are inescapable, and they are just. Every judgment the West is experiencing right now is one we deserve. One we deserve as nations, judgments we deserve as a civilization. Because in spite of all the blessings he has bestowed upon us, our people refuse to repent. Our churches, our wastelands, our families are broken. Why? Because we have chosen to indulge in godlessness as a people. And we will continue to suffer the consequences thereof for as long as we refuse to kiss the sun and actively proclaim his lordship and live in obedience to his law. of how I pray and I assume all of you pray that that day may arrive. Mind you, We can talk about Christian nationalism all we like. And it's good, I'm a Christian nationalist myself. And I like the fact that these ideas are being promoted on social media and in some churches even. But in practice, without repentance, without families, communities, churches, and ultimately nations repenting, all of this talk of Christian nationalism will remain a purely theoretical exercise, an edgy topic we can talk about on eggs or Facebook, but it will mean nothing for us. It will mean nothing for our children. It will be a fruitless waste of time and energy if unaccompanied by governmental repentance. And we can talk about it all we like, but our reality will remain the judgment of Deuteronomy 28, which we see playing out before our very eyes today. And yet, it is precisely in divine judgment that we ought to find hope. It is precisely because the sovereign God of heaven and earth is covenantally judging nations that we can and we must continue to fight for our people and our posterity. For in judgment, as unpleasant as that judgment may be, there is also promise. There is a promise that the same God who holds men and nations in His hand, that same God deals with us according to His sovereign purpose and His governmental promises. And that same God will deliver us in a most glorious manner if we repent. If we repent as families, as churches, as clans, as communities, we can expect God's deliverance. If we repent and be the salt and light needed for national repentance, and if we repent as a nation, God will surely deliver us from evil. And we can and we must hold on to that promise. And for this reason, we keep fighting the good fight. And we keep praising Him. For His promises are infallible. And from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. And to Him be the glory forever and ever. And yet we must remember that He does not need to do anything for us. He does not need to save our nations in order to be glorified. We needn't even exist for Him to be honored and praised. The angels in heaven praise Him already. And when Christ said in Matthew 3 verse 9 that God has the power to raise up stones as the sons of Abraham, You emphasize God's self-sufficiency even without us as human beings. He created us and He sustains us because He is good, not because He needs to. But then, if God does in fact adopt us as children, and if He is good and kind and gracious to us, then He has to be sheer, undeserved, unmerited grace. It is perhaps because of this reason that David, after describing God as self-sufficiently praiseworthy in the first verse of this psalm, directly proceeds to describe His goodness and grace in verses 2-4, precisely to emphasise the unmerited nature thereof. The text of Psalm 65, after describing God as gracious God, emphasizes His omnipotence and the fact that He is almighty. One would be able to summarize this psalm as describing firstly God's works of grace and then secondly God's works of providence. In terms of his works of grace, David describes God in verse 24 as the one who hears prayers, the one who forgives sins, the one who saves souls from damnation, protects us from evil, and declares us holy. In terms of his works of providence, he describes God as the one who leads justice abound, orders and maintains creation, and blesses the earth with fruitfulness. Although these works of God can be divided into these two categories, namely works of grace, of goodness, of providence, and of omnipotence, these works of God cannot be separated from each other as if we are dealing here with two separate realms or kingdoms. In fact, the fact that both these aspects of God's works are so easily mentioned alongside each other, even integrated in this psalm, shows us something about the interdependence, interaction and integration of God's works of providence and God's works of grace. And this is important to note for the following reason. Our lives are not to be divided into two separate realms or kingdoms. There is not a kingdom of grace which we somehow enter when we come to church or we attend a Bible study, and then a natural kingdom when we are active in our daily lives or at work. No, every aspect of our lives, whether we're listening to a sermon or whether we're at the office or whether we're having a barbecue with friends, every aspect of our lives falls under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. if we call him Lord. If we call Him Lord, we acknowledge His authority, absolute authority, over every single aspect of our lives. His legitimate claim to Lordship is a claim of universal and all-encompassing significance. Therefore, we must do everything in complete dependence upon Him and in obedience to Him. For He is the One who not only saves our souls from hell, but He is the One who designed the laws of nature. It is He who sustains creation. He who protects us from evil and tragedy every day. And it is He who provides the necessary energy for creation to continue to exist. He is completely independent of us in every regard. But we, on the contrary, are completely dependent upon him for everything. Not only does He sustain us through His providence, He delivers us by His grace. Jesus Himself proclaimed these very truths, highlighted in Psalm 65, when in Matthew 5, when Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount, He proclaims right off the bat in verse 3, that blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, of course, Jesus is not glorifying spiritual poverty. The original Greek, the word translated as poor, literally means to cower like a beggar. That is, to reach out for help while being in a completely helpless state. The translators of one of the editions of the Bible in my native language, in Afrikaans, translated this verse as follows. Blessed are those who are knowingly spiritually dependent. Blessed are those who are knowingly spiritually dependent. In other words, blessed are those who know that Christ and Christ alone is the source of all spiritual blessings. So what Christ is saying here is that the kingdom of God belongs to those who are spiritually lacking. Because everyone is spiritually lacking. There isn't a single person who ever lived since Christ who isn't spiritually lacking. What Christ is saying here is that the kingdom of God belongs to those who recognize and confess their complete and utter dependence upon God. Those who crawl before Him like a beggar and know that from Him alone comes salvation. For without His providence, like without His providence we would cease to exist, so without His grace we would be utterly lost. Christ then echoes the message of Psalm 65 in Matthew 5. It is by the providence of God alone that we are sustained, and it is by the grace of God alone that we are saved. And yet again, it is vital to remember that God accomplishes both, that is, His works of providence and works of grace, Through the power of His Holy Spirit, Psalm 109 verse 30 teaches that God sends forth His Spirit so that all things can be created and sustained and renewed. And it is for this reason that the Nicene Creed calls the Holy Spirit the giver of life. So God acts through His Spirit when accomplishing works of providence and works of grace. And it is by His Spirit that the gospel is proclaimed. It is by His Spirit that we are regenerated and come to faith. And it is by His Spirit that our mind is enlightened and we come to understand and embrace the gospel. And so the divine works of providence and the divine works of grace described in Psalm 65 leave us in awe of the power, the glory, the sovereignty, and the goodness of the triune God of Scripture. For He alone is the one who created all things, and He alone is the one who saves us as helpless sinners from eternal damnation. Therefore, we are to dedicate our lives, every aspect thereof, and everything we do, to His glory alone. Sole Deo Gloria. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your Word, which you have infallibly preserved for us over thousands of years. We thank you for the psalm written by David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that continues to inspire and to guide and to admonish us today. Help us to never become discouraged and to never give up hope in the midst of trials and tribulations we may face as believers, as Christian families, as Christian communities, and as nations. Help us to trust in your works of providence and your works of grace So as we dedicate our lives to glorifying Your name and advancing Your kingdom, there will You providentially place us, and there will You always provide us with grace sufficient for our calling. Lord, we thank you for the gathering here today, that we are united in our faith in Christ as our only Lord and Savior. To Him alone we look for our deliverance and our salvation. We thank you that you brought all of us here together safely, including those that have traveled far. We thank you for the fellowship that we can have in your name. We thank you for the sacrament that we are about to receive. Lord, bless us throughout this Lord's Day as we continue to fellowship and protect us when we return to our homes and our families later this evening. Lord, bless our families and the faithful churches all around the world where your word is faithfully preached and the sacraments faithfully administered. We ask all of this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.