and the beautiful singing that we heard. And then again on this morning, the great message we heard out of Jeremiah and as Brother Bitty preached, you just heard the sovereignty of God dealt with without dipping into Calvinism. You heard it the way it is. I appreciate the good Word of God, the privilege we have to be here. So many of you that I know, and then we're getting acquainted with some whom we did not know. But I praise the Lord for His goodness and grace to our life, allowing us to be in this great meeting. We're gonna be in Psalm 34. If you'll open your scriptures there, and we're gonna read our passage. We're gonna say a few things about it, and then we're going to ask you to pray with us. If you will notice in Psalm 34, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. Now here is my text. O magnify the Lord with me. Let me begin by saying we can magnify him because he found us. I'm thankful for the day how well I remember when the Lord found me. He found me sitting on a church pew hearing the Word of God preached. He found my daddy on the battlefield in World War II. He found my mother in a cottage prayer meeting. He found my wife in the living room of our home. He found my son in a revival meeting in Valdosta, Georgia when Brother Sammy Allen was preaching. He found my oldest daughter at a camp meeting in Tampa, Florida. He found my youngest daughter in the kitchen of our home as I led her to Christ. But the important thing is he found us and we can magnify him. I don't know where you were when he found you. Perhaps he is still looking for you. Why don't you answer his call unto you? The greatest step I ever took is when he called me to come unto him. But the Lord found us. We can magnify him also because he favored us. when we think about who we are and what we are. It doesn't take us long to determine or distinguish rather what we would have been had the Lord not found us. Even saved by his grace and the old Adamic nature still hanging on, given us a battle day after day, what would we be had God not found us and favored us? Then we might magnify him because he freed us. I said just recently in a meeting, the world looks upon the Christian as our being in bondage, that we have to go to church three times a week, that we have to tithe our income, that we have to come to special meetings like this. And on and on the list goes. But what they do not realize is that the Christian has been set free by Jesus Christ to do what he determined in his mind for us to do. But the poor worldling is yet under bondage. Not only has he found us, favored us, freed us, but as we so wonderfully heard, he is fashioning us. And there's been enough said about that already, but it doesn't stop there. He is furnishing us. What we need to accomplish, what God would have us to do, he is giving unto us. And then sixthly, I would say, one day, thank God, he will finish us. We will be the finished product and how we rejoice in the song I suppose written for the kiddies, he's still working on me. But I think that will take place until we step off on the distant shore. And then you take all of that and add the seventh one, thank God he has a future home for us where we will be with him forever and ever. Now, I wanna borrow a statement that I've heard Brother John Morgan make at least 50 times. Here is a statement, to God be the glory. Now, the songwriter writes, to God be the glory, great things he hath done. May I say great things he is, great things he is doing, and great things he will do. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Will you please pray with me and ask the good Lord to help me. Father, how we thank you for your presence, how we thank you for how our hearts have been fed and nourished in the good things coming out of thy word and out of the mouths, Lord, of your songsters, and even from the musical instruments themselves. Thank you for how you've ministered to our heart in the few moments that we've had also of fellowshipping with our brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray for your divine grace and help to be upon us that we may preach thy truths, oh God. We ask our prayer in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen and amen. Now the setting for this psalm, as you are aware, when the Psalter was compiled, the headings, superscriptions of the psalms were with them. This is not the work of the compiler himself. They were with the psalm. And every psalm does not have a superscription. In fact, we do not know who wrote some of the psalm. We know who wrote this one, David wrote it. And we know the condition under which it was written. The setting for this psalm finds David fleeing from Saul. and he stops over in the land of Nob and goes to the priest there seeking something to eat and a weapon. Both of these he obtains. Then he goes on over onto Gath and he submits himself under the king there. and the king is rather fond of him. But all of a sudden, the lords, the Philistines, begin to speak to the king, and they tell him, is this not David? Their own words, the king of the land. and also the women sang that Saul had slain his thousands and David his 10,000 and also that David had slain their champion, Goliath. And so learning of his being discovered, David presents himself before the king as we would say, And so as he's there scrabbling on the gate, the wall and the spittle running down into his beard, then Achish says, what need have I of a madman? And so David escapes out of their hands and goes over and finds himself in the cave of Dolom. And when he is there, he is joined with his family And the scriptures say, everyone also that was in debt, in distress, and discontented. And one expositor wrote it like this. Here is David surrounded by his family and 400 DDDs. Everyone in distress, everyone in debt, and everyone discontented. How would you like to pastor that crowd? Well, here David is in this situation. And out of this matter emerges this psalm before us. In this psalm, the Lord's constant care is noticed throughout. Let me just quickly look at some of those with you. In verse four, I sought the Lord and he heard me. Five, they looked unto him and were lightened. Six, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him. Seven, the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them, 10, they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Verse 15, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. 17, the righteous cry and the Lord hear it. 18, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of the righteous. a broken heart, 19, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. And so over and over again, we have seen the constant care of the Lord toward his people. Now I'm going to reread my text and you can follow along with me. please, if you like. Notice here how it begins, I will. David is saying, I have determined to do something. And my determination is I am going to bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. And ladies and gentlemen, if we are going to praise the Lord at all times, in every situation, we're gonna have to determine to do so. Because the outward circumstances are not going to permit it. Our family is not gonna look upon it in a lacking manner. And those of the world cannot understand how God's people can go on and love him and serve him and praise him in dark times. And so we're going to have to determine. Also there's something here, David is expressing faith when he says, I will bless the Lord. Now we must remember where David is. He is in this cave. He's fleeing from Saul. He's been rejected by the Philistine and all of everybody about him has a problem. They're in debt. They're in distress. They're discontented. Sounds like some Baptist congregation. I mean, he is really in a, in a fix here, and so, but out of that, he says, I will. Doesn't matter what it looks like, doesn't matter what everybody thinks, I'm gonna praise the Lord. Because in faith, he knows the constant care of God, that he is going to take care of him. Now notice with me please, in our text, I will bless the Lord. He knows whom is due praise. He knows what praise is due unto the Lord. He knows why the praise is due unto the Lord. And he knows when the praise is due unto the Lord. Now all that is found here in our first verse. Notice here what he said. I will bless the Lord at all times. That means when the sun is shining brightly and the bright days. I will bless the Lord in the twilight times. When the sun is setting and darkness is approaching. I will bless the Lord when the sun has gone down. and I can't see anything. I'm still going to bless the Lord. Here's what David is saying. At all time, there is never a wrong time to praise the Lord. Now there might be wrong times to do other things for the Lord, but there's never a wrong time to give praise unto him. So I'm gonna praise the Lord at all time. And then he says, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Now to me, here's what this means. David is saying, I'm just gonna keep on praising the Lord. There will never come a time in my life that I'm satisfied that I have prayed him sufficiently. So all I can keep doing is just giving praise and honor under his name for who he is and what I know he's going to do. Notice also in the verse, he says, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Now, a lot of people says, well, I praise the Lord in my heart. That's all right, that is very commendable, but no one in here can see our heart, so no one knows what's going on, but he says it will be in my mouth. I'm not gonna only praise the Lord privately, but I'm gonna praise him publicly. I'm gonna even praise so everyone will know what the Lord means to me. Never will there come a time that I will feel I'm satisfied, I'll never be done praising the Lord. Oh, how good God is unto you and me. Then notice also here in verse two, he says, my soul shall make her boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Now, remember this, The humble will hear things the proud will never hear. And the humble will be permitted to enjoy things that the proud will never be permitted to enjoy. Here is the humble, bless his wonderful name. Now, notice with me please, each of God's children, if we'll just think a little while, if we can get our minds fixed enough upon the Lord, Each of us possess a sense of gratitude for his mercies, his divine goodness, and his divine grace toward us. I wrote down seven things. Let me relate them to you. There are many more. Not enough can ever be written or said. If you remember John said, in the closing of his book, gospel that if all the things were written that the Lord had done, the world itself would not contain the books. And we take the text, we take the text, it's preached from by many of God's servants, but always something new comes out of it. Amen, we'll never exhaust what is written in this book. And you get to thinking about the goodness of God, you can never Think enough about how good the Lord is. Amen. Have you ever gotten up in the morning and you were able to dress yourself? Are you able to walk about? Are you able to think? Are you able to talk? Do you have breath? As our brothers run two miles already this morning. Amen. Who keeps your heart beating when you're sleeping at night? What keeps the spittle from draining down your throat and drowning you? Hey, I'm telling you, there's a God. Amen. We may not know what's going on around us, but if we'll put our faith and trust in Him, He knows what's going on. He's able to keep us no matter what is taking place. Amen, and we have no means of self-preservation. We are, as they would say, dead to the world. We do not know who's in the room with us. We do not know who's about our house. We know nothing, but there's a God in heaven, amen, who ought to be praised for his goodness and his grace to my and your heart and life. Can you see? Can you hear? Amen. Can you smell? Can you taste? Can you touch? Amen. How good God is to us and how much praise he is due under his wonderful name. Isn't he wonder? that the psalmist said, I will bless the Lord at all time. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. No matter if I'm with my family, I'm going to give him praise. If I'm on the workplace, I'm going to give him praise. If I'm on my throne, I'm going to give him praise. If I'm on the battlefield, I'm going to give him praise. Everywhere I am, Every opportunity I have, I'm going to glorify God. Oh, how wonderful the Lord is to me. Amen. The psalmist said, and he brought me up out of a horrible pit and set my feet upon a rock and established my going and put a new song into my heart, even praise unto my God. One preacher back in the mountains said it like this. He picked me up. and he set me up and he tuned me up. And God has put a song of praise in mine, your heart, and he deserves the praise that we ought to give unto him for his goodness and his grace unto our lives. Oh, listen how wonderful the Lord is. So here we go with these seven things. Number one, And this humbles my heart and it brings me low when I consider it the wonder of his pity. Have you ever thought about if you had a friend that treated you like sometimes we treat God? Hey, look up here. I'm gonna say what Ed Ballou said. I don't see any angel wings or smell any angel dust. Nor do I see any halos, any head. We're all creatures made by the Creator. And we all have problems and shortcomings. Have you ever failed someone when you didn't mean to? Has someone failed you and you rebuked them, as the Bible said? And so they said, I didn't mean to, and proved to you they did not mean to. Were you pitiful toward them? Were you piteous, is the word, toward that person? How pitiful God is toward you and me at time. Boy, I can go, oh, I could just spend a lot of time here talking about the goodness of the Lord. I remember something, ladies and gentlemen, amen, somebody said, you're not supposed to tell on yourself, but I just feel like doing it. I got up one morning, there was something, I really felt like the Lord, brother Giddens, I was supposed to do, and I didn't do it. And I went on and went my way and I came back home that night and that thing was left undone. And I knew I was gonna be in trouble over that thing that was left undone. And I remember putting my hands on it and I said, oh God, I'm sorry. And he just fixed it that quick. I'm telling you, God, amen, is piteous towards you and me. And I wonder at that. about him, how good he is, and how many times I should have been kicked out, and how many times I should have been laid aside, but God has picked me up and had mercy on me, and blessed me, and put up with me, and put up with me, and put up with me. Oh, the wonder of his pity, amen, overwhelms me. Then, the witness of his power, Have you ever witnessed the power of God? When there's a situation you can't fix, when there's a situation nobody else you know can fix, and you just find your place somewhere and call upon the Lord, and he fixes it in a way you didn't know was possible to fix. He just comes through some way, and the prayer is answered, and God has accomplished a great thing for your good. and his glory. And then I thought about the working of his providence, how God works behind the scenes. And we don't see, I heard a preacher say one time, and I thought about it a while, but I'm inclined to agree with him. He said some of the greatest things God ever does, we never see. Amen. And I wrote a book on the doctrine of the Word of God. I just preached for a pastor Sunday, and the pastor told this story. He said there was an insurance man I had and said that, well, said I still have him, and said I'd go in his office, and he was from a church uptown, and he'd say, oh, you still hanging on that King James Bible? He said, I sure am hanging on that King James Bible. And he'd laugh and make fun of him and talk about one of the other versions. And he said, I went in there one day and he said, I just had it. I just had it. I said, I'm not taking any more of this. He's not gonna lambaste my Bible. And he went in there and the man jumped him again. And he said, I got angry. And the man knew I was angry and said, I left. And I went home and said, I came to a meeting over in North Carolina and the preacher was preaching and said, God smote my heart. And when God smote my heart, he said, I went to the altar. I got up the next morning. I went down to that insurance agent's office. I said, brother, he said, I'm sorry. He said, I'm sorry. He said, I got angry and you know that I shouldn't have done that. You were speaking your peace, I will speak in mine. But he said, I'm gonna tell you something, I'm gonna give you a book here on the word of God. And he left him my book. I didn't even know this till last Sunday. And he left him my book. And he said, after about a month, I got a call and it was him. And he said, can you come to my office? And said, I went down there. And he said, when I went in the office, he said, sit down. I sat down. He said, he pulled all the shades down and just went to balling. I mean, this man was way up in the insurance. I don't know who he was. Way up in the insurance agency. And he said, I've read that book. And I watched your attitude. And he said, God has smoked my heart. And he said, I read that book and I thought about your attitude. And he said, it broke me so bad. I went to our church Sunday night and I stood up and made my profession to the church what had happened to me. And our church voted that the King James Bible be the only Bible ever used in this church. Amen. So you just don't know what God's doing. And I was sitting at my desk, Brother Allen, many hours after hours. And I thought, is this doing any good? Is this doing any good at all? I'm not a good writer. It takes me forever to get anything out. I make and speak it, but it's a whole lot different when you're writing it down on paper. And so anyway, the good Lord helped me. And you know, God has worked providentially already. in my life this morning. Amen. Something I never even thought, and I'm not gonna say it, but something I never, I was just doing something I thought that I should do, and out of that, God did something great. It's amazing how God works providentially. Oh, if I could just go back a few years in my life and tell you how God worked in my life to put me where I was for 41 years pastoring that church. I'm telling you, he's wonderful. We don't understand, brother. We don't know what is going on. Amen. It's just like Jesus said unto Peter, what I'm doing, you don't understand now. But amen, Peter reached the day he did understand. And a lot of things that's going on in my life and your life, we don't understand. Can I tell us, Brother Tarver, God bless you. I love you and your sweet daughter and her family. All the tragedy, most of you are aware of it. Brother Tarvin told me last night, he said, this little boy showed me his little picture and said, I want to be used of God. so much when I want to be used of God. And the thought just came to me, God used him in a way to touch hearts that if he'd grown up, he may have never been able to touch that many hearts. I'm telling you, we didn't have a God who knows what's best. No, we don't understand. When my daughter was seven weeks old, I just, took the pastor of the church, and she was sick. My wife carried her through the house all night. She was crying because she was hungry. My wife would feed her and she'd throw it up. And at daylight, that morning, Sunday morning, I said, honey, I've got to go preach this morning. She said, I'll take her to the hospital. Took her to the hospital. The doctor said, nothing wrong with her. said, just send her back home. By 10 o'clock, she was no better. My wife said, I'm taking her to see the doctor who delivered her. And he did. He said, I'll meet you at the hospital at 10 o'clock. She had double pneumonia. And I'm telling you, here I am, a preacher, got faith in this book, faith that God's gonna meet my needs and take care of me. And all the way to the church that night, Satan was saying, that's what you get. That's what you get. That's what you get. And about two days after that, then you had double pneumonia, especially a baby seven weeks old. It was almost a two week stay in the hospital. And so another woman had a little baby that had pneumonia. And her name was Linda. And she brought that little baby boy, and of course, My little baby's seven weeks old, and her little boy, so they put him in a bed beside the bed of my little daughter. And so I got to talking to Linda. I said, Linda, you saved? She said, no. So I witnessed to her, and a few days, our children went to their separate places. One Sunday morning, about three or four weeks after that, the door opened, and Linda come marching through. Later on after that, Linda came down the aisle and gave her heart to Christ. And I was privileged to baptize her. God said, now you understand. We just don't know what he's doing. But he knows what he's doing. He works in providence, working his wonders, amen, over and over again. And then the wealth of his provisions. Boy, when you think about how good God has been to us. I was talking to Brother Tarvin this morning, Uncle Buddy Robertson, he's a Nazarene preacher. And I read in his life story, one day he was out chopping his potatoes out. Had a poor crop, drought, I don't remember what all happened, but no crop did any good. And Uncle Buddy, he's hammering out. chopping out his potatoes. He said, the devil came by and said, that's what you get, buddy, for serving God. Nobody said, shut up, devil. When I served you, I didn't have any potatoes. At least I've got some now. When you think about how good God is and what God can supply and what God can do for you. And then I think of the worth of his protection. I almost got killed the other night. And it just seemed like something pressed on my heart, said, look again. About that time, a car buzzed by me. I'm telling you, I'm giving him the honor. I'm not wise enough to know what's going on, but he is. And I praise him and I blessed him. And then I think about, oh, listen, the way of his patience. You talk about long suffering. and just putting up and putting up and putting up and the warmth of his presence. Can you sense it? Have you sensed it this morning? When these singers were singing and when the preacher was preaching and God took you back down memory lane and worked with you in those hard places he had to get out of your life, Did you sense his presence when he said, I knew what I was doing all the time. You may not understand, but I know what I was doing. There's nothing in all the world, I love good singing, I love good music, I love good preaching, the word of God, testifying, but there's nothing in all the world that would do for you when he just moves him and sits next to you and you realize his presence. by you, I'm telling you that'll help you run another mile. Amen, that'll help you give another smile. There's something about the warmth of his presence that nothing in this world can compare with. Notice in verse one is the pledge of his soul. Oh, bless the Lord. In verse two is the pursuit of his soul. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. And number three is our text is the passion of his soul. Oh, magnify, can't you just hear him? When he writes this word, oh, his soul senses the inability to give him the praise and blessings that he knows he deserves. And so we see the promotion of his sovereign, magnify the Lord, which you know you're aware of. It means to boast and it means to bring up. It means to exceed, it means to promote. And then the plea to his saints, with me, hear my cry, honor my Lord, heed my call. Help me. I just can't do this. The job is too big for me to praise him and bless him. Come along. Help me that we can bless him together. Well, that's the introduction. Let me give you the four points and I'm done. I'm not going to preach them. I'm just going to get number one. Well, I'll preach the first number one. He determines to magnify the Lord. Seven ways he does that. Watch them with me. I will bless the Lord one by one. at all times, two. His praise shall continually be in my mouth, three. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, four. The humble shall hear thereof. I'm not just gonna sit around and mealy mouth it. I'm gonna praise him. They're gonna hear me when I give praise unto him and thank him. And then here is number six. magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. That's seven. So he determines it and he affirms it seven times. Verses four through seven, he discloses why he determined to magnify the Lord. God is a God that answers, in verse four. He abounds in mercy, in verse four. He avails himself to others, they he says, in verse five. He acknowledges the cry of the poor in spirit, verse six. And he abides near those that fear him, verse seven. Verses eight through 14, he describes how we may magnify the Lord. By tasting of him and trusting in him, verse eight. By fearing him, verse nine. By seeking him, verse 10. By hearkening unto him, verse 11. By refraining from evil, verses 12, 13, and 14. And then in verses 15 through 16, At the end of the Psalm, he declares the reasons why we should magnify him. Because of his regardfulness of the righteous. Verses 15 and 16. His rescuing of us, verse 17. His reassuring closeness and consideration of the broken and contrite, in verse 18. His refining of us, verse 19 and 20. His repaying of the wicked against us, verse 21. His redemption of us, verse 22. His reaffirming those who trust in him, verse 22. Thank you. No, thank you.