All right, Psalm 111 in our study through the word of God and this wonderful long hymn book that God gave to the people of Israel. These are 150 inspired hymns, some longer than others, but tonight we come to Psalm 111. Follow with me. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart in the company of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has made his wonders to be remembered The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear him. He will remember his covenant forever. He has made known to his people the power of his works and giving them the heritage of the nations. The works of his hands are truth and justice. All his precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments. His praise endures forever. The great pastor and theologian of the Great Awakening period in the 18th century by the name of Jonathan Edwards was an incredibly brilliant mind of a man and a thinker in America. Utterly consumed with the glory of God. Consumed with the worth of God. Consumed with the beauty of God. In fact, he was consumed with the delight and joy of God in himself. He spent time, even as a young man, Jonathan Edwards did, considering the character of God and how the word of God and the glory of God and the attributes of God should affect everything about the way you and I live our lives. Edwards was consumed with how the works of God show the character of God. Edwards was known to walk in the woods and walk in the forest and do it for days and praise God and worship God because the works of God reveal the character of God. Edwards had an exalted God, a big God, a powerful God, a sovereign God, a mysteriously awesome God, and a glorious God. I love the way one biographer put it. He said, Jonathan Edwards encountered his creator when Edwards walked in the creation. You know, when you encounter the creator, and you behold the attributes of God, and you behold the worth of God, the glory of God, the beauty of God, it drives us to wonder. It drives us to worship because we see the works of God and how praiseworthy our God is. Psalm 111 does that. In fact, maybe even as I read it a moment ago, you saw the repeated word. It's repeated through the psalm. It's the word work. God is a God who shows his works. We see it in verse two. Great are the works of the Lord. Now you have a few introductory comments there in your outline that I give you, and there's much that could be said, and I don't want to get lost in it, but Psalm 111 is what is called an acrostic. I like to think of it as an ABCdery. That's a real word, an ABCdery. Because in the Hebrew, the first line of the psalm begins with like their letter A, as it were. The next line would begin with B, the next line C, and so on, but in the Hebrew alphabet. And I give you the reasons why the ABCderies were often used, but it was like a school book that was often used to teach the worship of God because of his works. Look at who God is, and look at what God has done, and learn in the school how to worship the worth and works. and wisdom of God. What I want to do is walk through these 10 verses with you tonight and really sort of prepare us for the prayer meeting. We're going to, we're going to spend time praising God and worshiping God and thanking God as a, as a church family and rightly so. But I want to, I want to sort of set the table tonight, which will prepare us for that time of prayer. The opening phrase is the phrase, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. We are called to praise God. Now I'm gonna give you three compelling reasons. We praise God, number one, because of his worth. Praise God because of his works. And then praise God because of his wisdom. Verse one begins, praise God for his worth. Look at this, praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart in the company of the upright and in the assembly. Did you know praising God is perhaps one of the most heavenly activities you can do in this life? Praising God. It is the highest and the noblest and the most heavenly activity that you and I can engage in. In fact, let's just hear it again. Time is never wasted in the praises of the Lord. It's never, ever, ever a waste of time to sing to God, to praise God, to worship God. David said it in Psalm 18, I will call upon the Lord for he is worthy to be praised. Worthy. Hallelujah. That's how the Psalm begins. You see it in Psalm 111, praise the Lord. Look at Psalm 112, verse one, praise the Lord. Look at Psalm 113 verse one, praise the Lord. Look at Psalm 117 verse one, praise the Lord. Psalm 111 all the way to 118 are these great praise Psalms. We praise God for his worth because he is Yahweh, he is Jehovah. We're gonna see all that he's done, he is worthy. Do you see in verse 1 the resolve? I will! I will give thanks! It's not if I feel like it. It's not if my life is free from trial. It's not if things are going well according to my plan and my agenda. The psalmist just says, I will give thanks. Or the King James, I will praise. Or the NIV, I will extol. or even another English translation, I will shout praises. Not only the resolve, I will give thanks, but notice the strength with all of my heart, all of my heart. Kind of like David, dancing before the Lord with all of his might. You know, that's a good thought to think about. is your praise, and my praise, and your shouts of honor to God, and our thanksgiving to God. Does it come with all of our hearts? With a full heart? With a cheerful heart to God. And then verse one ends, in the company of the upright. In the company, in the congregation. Oh, we love private devotions, yes, but corporate worship. What a heavenly activity that is. It's why the gathering together of the redeemed is so important in the Christian life, because it's a picture of heaven, where we gather together and extol the worth of God. The worth of God. You know, you and I can thank God together. You and I can thank God in health. You and I can thank God in sickness. You and I can thank God for creation. You and I can thank God in consummation. You and I can thank God for protection and provision and preservation. You and I can thank God for grace that he gives and for the cross of the Lord Jesus. Isn't this why we gather together? Isn't this why we gather to praise and thank God for what He does and how He provides? You know, when we gather corporately, Wednesday night, Sunday afternoon, you don't come and gather with Christ Fellowship Bible Church because you want to leave having inflated thoughts of yourself. You don't want to leave having been entertained with another funny story. You want to gather having met with God and having encountered God through the Word and through the preaching of the Word in the assembly of the redeemed, because that's what fits and prepares us for glory when we worship around the Lamb. We praise God. for his worth, but also for his works. Look at your outline in verses two and following. Look at how verse two begins. Great are the works of the Lord. Now, let me give you a little clue into the Hebrew here. This is far more than just God does a bunch of great things. That's true. And I'll talk about some of those in a moment. But the Word and the language of verse 2 has the idea that these are divine. These are supernatural. These are unique to God. Great works of the King. Okay. Let me illustrate for a minute. Like the cells in the human body. The brain. Millions, billions of selves in the human body. Consider the ear, the eye, the brain. Think of a leaf, a tree, a frog, an ant, an ocean. Consider all the animals, the animals in the sea, in the airs, in the land, and the millions of species that are out there, the plants and the fungi and all the different variations of them all. And then this planet and the rotation of the planet and the orbit of the planet and the geography and the plant life, all of the, amazing features of planet Earth. And then you have the sun and the moon and the stars and the galaxy, our Milky Way, and that's just one of many, many, many of them. Great are the works of the Lord. Great are the works of our God. You can almost imagine the psalmist saying, ponder these things, get lost in wonder. Think of the works of God. The reason I belabor that for a moment is because I think that when you and I are in heaven, we will sing Psalm 111. And the reason I think that is because Psalm, pardon me, Revelation 15 gives us a song of heaven. Revelation 15 verse 3, And they, the worshipers in heaven, sang the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb, saying, and they're quoting Psalm 111, Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God the Almighty. Even in heaven, the worshipers in the glory of heaven are remembering Psalm 111, saying, Great are the works of our God. And then, back to our psalm, these works are studied by all who delight in them. Christians are students. We are students of the word, studiers of the Lord, with earnest and devout meditation and focus. Amazingly, in verse 3, splendid and majestic is his work. This is kingly. This is royal. This is divine. This is not like what we can do. But then in verse 4, what I think verses 4 through 8 are doing is the author is going back to the Exodus event. And I think the author of the Psalms wants you to go back in your mind to the book of Exodus and say, oh yeah, I remember how God redeemed people out of Egypt with his own mighty hand. Let's ponder it together. Verse four, he has made his wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate like what you read in Exodus 34, how God reveals himself to his covenant nation, Israel. Verse five, he gives food to those who fear him. That's what God did. He gave food, manna, quail, to those who were his. And he remembered his covenant forever, his covenant that he made with Abraham, Genesis 12, and his covenant with the covenant nation of Israel in Exodus 19 to 24. Verse six, God has made known to his people the power of his works. Oh, the power of his works. Parting the Red Sea, bringing his people out, bringing water from Iraq. And then verse 6, God gives them the heritage of the nations. That's the book of Joshua. He leads them through the wilderness and into the promised land, the inheritance of the nations he gave to Israel. The works of his hands are truth and justice. Verse 7, all of his precepts are sure. That's the law. That's what God gave to his people in the book of Exodus. and they are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness. God has sent redemption to his people. Kind of like what we read in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy chapter 7. The Lord brought his people out of Egypt by a mighty hand and he redeemed them from the house of slavery. What is the psalmist doing? He wants you to remember, ponder the works of God, ponder the things that only God could do. And let's go back to the book of Exodus, that great event when you were in bondage and God liberated you. He freed you with his own mighty, powerful hand and he provided for you and his precepts are sure and he is powerful and faithful and he redeemed you. What a God. What a God. God redeems people. He redeemed Israel from Egypt, through the Red Sea. But think of the gospel, how God has redeemed you. Not through a sea, but from the bondage of sin. Do you notice the language in verse 9? It's very careful. The psalmist says in Psalm 111 verse 9, he has sent redemption to his people. Notice God initiated this thing. The one who redeems is God. Like Ephesians 1, Christ redeemed us by his own blood. Not only did He initiate, He also sent redemption. It is an accomplished work. This is what our amazing God has done. This is what Christ has achieved. He perfected the work of eternal redemption at the cross. and he secures redemption. Notice at the end of our psalm, verse nine, he has ordained his covenant forever. God is the one who secures this redemption and it's bound to his holy and awesome name. Let me just remind you of a great verse in 1 Corinthians chapter one. The apostle Paul says, consider your calling. Remember who you were when God called you. Not many wise, not many noble. And Paul says, but it's all by God's doing that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that let him who boasts boast in the Lord. What does the psalm want you to do? Praise the Lord. Praise God. Why? Because of his worth and his works. Praise him for his redemption. Oh, praise him for his saving of your soul. I think it's a fitting reminder and a fitting point to learn that the early church, actually through the centuries of the church, Psalm 111 has often been read in connection with the Lord's Supper. What greater work is there to remember? This is my body given for you. Take this cup and drink from it, all of you. This is the blood of the new covenant given for you. We gather together in the congregation, in the assembly, and we sing together, great are the works of the Lord. He sent redemption to us. He is holy. He is awesome. And we remember him. We remember him. Next time you take communion, next time you take the Lord's Supper, we give thanks to the Lord for this gift, this work of redemption that he has accomplished for us. Oh, we praise God because He is worthy. We praise God for all of His great works. But look at the end here, verse 10. Look at the end of our psalm. Psalm 111, verse 10, third in your outline. Praise God for His wisdom. His wisdom. It's almost like the praise psalm now takes on a wisdom psalm flavor. Verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You think that sounds like Proverbs. And it does sound like Proverbs. And good understanding have all those who do his commands. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, Proverbs 1 verse 7. Although I should tell you, wisdom is not much desired in our culture. It's much needed, but not really desired. Proverbs chapter 2 tells us, get wisdom. Get wisdom. Because it will deliver you from the way of evil. And it will deliver you from the strange woman. Get wisdom. We read a little bit later on in Proverbs 16, verse 16, how much better is it to get wisdom than gold? Proverbs 23, verse 23, buy truth and do not sell it. At all costs, get the wisdom of God. What's the wisdom of God? It's the fear of the Lord. It's the fear of God. It's not, it's not an elevated lofty estimation of self. It's not a lofty, estimated view of others in our culture, in our world. It's the honor and love and respect and humble adoration for God. We fear the Lord, the psalmist says. The fear of the Lord, that is the beginning of wisdom. And good understanding have all those who do his commands. That's what the psalmist wants. He wants you to do. Obey. Wisdom is far from merely intellectual only. Wisdom takes the knowledge of God and the love for God, and then it translates quickly into a life of obedience. A life of obedience. And I suppose all of this means we need Christ. For in Jesus Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2 and verse 3. So, Christian, we have every reason tonight to praise the Lord. We have every reason tonight to forever praise the Lord. Another key word in the psalm is the word forever, forever, forever. We praise him for his worth. We praise him for his works. And we praise him for his wisdom that he gives. But have you been redeemed? Do you praise him? Do you praise Him that He has sent redemption and He has snatched your soul from the fire? Do you praise God that He has redeemed you and liberated you from the bondage of sin and brought you through the Egypt, as it were, of slavery through the redness of the blood of Christ? Have you been redeemed? Have you been washed? And praise Him. Praise Him and worship Him. Let's thank Him and let's adore Him together. If you're not redeemed, this can be the night you can go home redeemed by calling upon the name of the Lord, believing upon Christ, a faithful Redeemer. Ephesians 1 says that after hearing the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and having believed, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of truth. Believe upon Christ, and you can be redeemed from the power and penalty of sin. I want to end with this wonderful quote by Charles Spurgeon. You know, he preached in London, the 1800s, and when he began his preaching tenure, he preached his very first sermon on knowing God. Knowing God. In that sermon, Spurgeon said, the highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which could ever engage the attention of a child of God is the name the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls Father. We have, to use the language of Spurgeon, speculated about God. We have considered him tonight. But let's praise him and worship him and thank him in prayer together.