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I want to preach Psalm 108, singing
to our victorious God. I want to read the psalm. It's
actually a little bit of a change in the last few psalms. This
is a much shorter psalm. It's only 13 verses. So I want
to read the entire psalm, and then I'll briefly preach on it,
and then we'll pray together. Psalm 108 from the title. A song, a psalm of David. My heart is steadfast, O God.
I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul. Awake, harp
and lyre, I will awaken the dawn. I will give thanks to you, O
Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among
the nations. For your lovingkindness is great
above the heavens, and your truth reaches to the skies. Be exalted,
O God, above the heavens, and your glory above all the earth,
that your beloved may be delivered. Save with your right hand, and
answer me. God has spoken in his holiness. I will exult. I will portion
out Shechem, and measure out the valley of Sukkoth. Gilead
is mine, Manasseh is mine, Ephraim also is the helmet of my head,
Judah is my scepter. Moab is my washbowl, over Edom
I shall throw my shoe, over Philistia I will shout aloud. Who will
bring me into the besieged city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have
not you yourself, O God, rejected us? And will you not go forth
with our armies, O God? Oh, give us help against the
adversary, for deliverance by man is in vain. Through God we
will do valiantly, and it is he who shall tread down our adversaries. For the choir director. A Christian is a warrior. The Christian life is war. Maybe you've not heard that today
or been reminded of that today, but as a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, as a child of God, you are in war. You're in war. It was 1844, Archibald
Alexander, who was a professor and theologian at Princeton Seminary,
he wrote this. The Christian is a soldier. and he must expect to encounter
enemies, and he must expect to engage in a severe conflict. The young convert may well be
likened to a raw recruit just enlisted. He might feel joyous
and strong, full of hope and full of courage, but let him
never forget, he is in war. You and I, Christian, are in
war. We never want to underestimate
the reality of this war. We never want to underestimate
the enemy that we are up against. In fact, you see there in your
notes that quote by J.C. Ryle, the Christian warfare is
no light matter. And yet, Christian, what I want
to do is encourage you tonight, from this psalm, Psalm 108, I
want to preach about our victorious, our sovereign, our warrior God. But, theologically, I have to
tell you, we are living in this weird reality right now. It's
kind of like an already and a not yet. It's an already and a not
yet, meaning we already have the victory. We already have
the triumph. We already have the salvation
because of Christ. But we've not yet been glorified. We've not yet been perfected. We have not yet received the
reward of our inheritance with Christ forevermore. We are waging
war as soldiers, not to try to get the victory, but we are waging
war because he's already won the victory. We are longing for
the full rest for our souls to come one day in the future. Psalm 108 is a wonderful psalm. It is a
unique psalm because guess what? The whole psalm is a compilation,
a combination of two earlier psalms. It's a combination of
both Psalm 57 and Psalm 60. It is a remarkable combination
of these two earlier Psalms which bring us to the reality that
God is warrior. He is a warrior. He is the sovereign
warrior. But, but why have Psalm 108 when
it's kind of like copying and pasting two earlier Psalms? If you look in your outline there,
I give you seven reasons why. And I, I want to read them because
I think they're really practical. Why would God give this Psalm
when you could read it in Psalm 57 and you could read it in Psalm
60? Number one, using and reusing
scripture. Number one, it shows the timelessness
of scripture. It was good for the situation
of Psalm 57 and for the situation of Psalm 108. Number two, it
also shows the importance of Scripture, not just to be said
or read once, but repeatedly. Third, it shows how Scripture
enhances our praise. Fourth, it shows the blessed
comforts that come from Scripture. I think it shows our tendency
to forget. God just repeats it again because
we can forget. Number six, it also shows the
relevancy of scripture to different situations of life, and it shows
the centrality of God's character and the supremacy of Christ.
Times may change, cultures may change, different circumstances
of life may change, but what God has spoken in His holiness
remains inviolable and always true. What Abraham believed is
the same truth that you and I can believe right here today. What
David wrote in a thousand BC in these Psalms is the same truth
about God that we can believe right here today. So I want to preach Psalm 108. This is a psalm that will teach
me and you to sing to and to praise our victorious God. We are gonna be taught to sing
to and praise our victorious God. And I wanna show you this
in a couple of headings. You have it there in your outline.
Let's begin where the psalm begins. It's called by the heading, a
song and a psalm of David. So, number one, let's begin with
the songs of God. All attention is now given to
the heart of the worshiper. Look at David in verse one. My
heart is steadfast, O God. Okay, maybe if we're thinking
in modern terms, my heart is cemented deeply. That's the idea
of the Hebrew word. I am cemented deeply. I am rooted deeply in you, O
God. This is the offering of praise. My heart is steadfast. I will sing. I will sing praises
even with my soul. We have every reason to take
the resolve of David and make it our own daily resolve. When
I rise up in the morning, I will praise God. When I rise up tomorrow
morning, I will thank God. And the next morning, I will
sing praises to God. He says, look in verse two, awake,
harp and lyre. I will awaken the dawn. That's the psalmist's way of
saying, I want to bring up the sun with my worship. I don't
want to let the day go on without me beginning my day in the worship
of God. Number one, I think we learn
from this, we can praise God early. We can praise God early. Even before the sun rises, we
can be in the praises of God. Number two, we can praise God
first. Before you engage in other activities,
we begin our day with the praises of God. That's what David is
saying. My heart is established. I want the harp, I want the lyre
to be awakened because I want to begin my day in the praises
of the Lord. And third, we can praise God
earnestly while you have vigor, while you have strength. My hero
in church history, Joseph Aline, his wife, Theodosia, wrote a
biography about him. And she said about her husband,
Joseph, that he would often say, I don't want others to wake up
and begin their vocational duties to their master before I arise
and begin my worshipful duties to my master. If people rise
early to serve their master, I want to rise earlier to serve
my heavenly master. And that was his own personal
resolve. My God deserves my best. And for him, that meant, I want
to wake up early. And I want to devote my day to
God like David, awakening the dawn with praise. So very simply, boys and girls,
you can remember this as well. Never forget this. Number one,
begin your day with God. Number two, continue your day
with God. And number three, end your day
with God. Very simple. Begin your day with
God, continue your day with God, and end your day with God. That's
what David does here in Psalm 108. Now, very quickly, don't
overlook. The I wills. Do you see it in
verses 1 through 3? Verse 1, I will sing. I will sing praise. Verse 2,
I will awaken the dawn. Verse 3, I will give thanks to
you and I will sing praise. May it be that you and I would
live our lives with this kind of resolve. Not living by feelings,
not living by emotion, not living by the whims of this world, but
living by our resolve. I will worship. I will sing. I will come to God and praise. Why? Why? What's the reason?
Do you see that in verse 4? He gives the reason for, here's
the reason, verse 4, because, because your loving kindness
is great above the heavens and your truth reaches to the skies. You and I have every reason each
day to begin our day with God, to continue our day with God,
and to end our day with God because His love is great and His truth
is unfailing. So great is our God. And then,
verse 5 and 6, he gives these requests. Verse 5, "'Be exalted,
O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be above all the
earth, so that your beloved That's a very tender word. So that your
choice, elect one that you've set your love upon. It's a, it's
a tender word. The psalmist is saying, God,
you've, you've loved me. He's overwhelmed with the tender
love of God so that your beloved may be delivered. Save me with
your right hand and answer me. You say, Jeff, I know this. I
know I ought to have the songs of God and the praises of God. I know that. But may I encourage
you, if you're like me and you ever battle with morning devotions
with God and keeping that fresh and lively so that you don't
sort of fall into a rut and fall into kind of the same old routine
over and over and over, how do you, how do you keep it fresh
and lively and exciting? And what can you do? Here are
a couple of recommendations that may be a help to you. Number
one, get a good hymnal. Get a good hymnal. For me, I
think the best by far is the Gatsby hymnal. 1,000 hymns, actually
1,150 to be specific. The hymns are profound and theological
and rich and deep. Perhaps get a hymnal and maybe
get your hands on a good Psalter as well, so that as you're reading
the book of Psalms, you can have a song book as well, and you
can sing the Psalms to a melody and a tune that you know. You
can reflect on God's attributes and perhaps even write them down
in the mornings and pray through them and praise God for them
and chew on them throughout the day, maybe as you're driving
or working out or on a walk. Enjoy that time reflecting on
God. One commentator said, here in
verses one through six is the secret of stability. It is the
secret of stability. Ponder that. That's profound
because we are living in a world that is longing for stability,
but they don't know where to find it. In a world filled with
chaos and confusion and worry and anxiety, where do you go
to get stability? The psalm says, well, are you
steadfast on God? Are you hearing the Word of God? Are you bearing fruit with the
seeds sown in your heart? Are you growing in the Word of
God and in the knowledge of God? When the sun rises and the day
begins, David says, I wanna already be in the full praises of God. So number one, Our God is the
warrior God. We need to give the songs to
him. Number two, in your outline,
and this ties so well with what Larry mentioned earlier, number
two, the sovereignty of God. We praise our God, number two,
because he is sovereign. I don't know about you. Anybody
tempted to, in the morning, open up your phone, check your email,
Go to the blog feed, go to social media, go to the news, turn on
the news, hear the headlines, hear what's going on. And when
all the apps and all the browsers and all the news sort of floods
your heart and floods your mind and you see the wars and the
rumors of wars and the kings and the rebels and the threats
and the global confusion and widespread brazen rebellion,
Do you know what we need to do in that moment? We need to preach
to our own heart God's sovereignty rules over all. Psalm 103 verse
19. God's sovereignty rules over
all. And that's what God wants us
to know beginning in verse 7. Look at what we learn about our
warrior God. Our God is the warrior God. What He says, He will do. Verse 7, God has spoken. God has spoken. And what does
God do? Well, He speaks in His holiness,
or in His sanctuary, so everything God says is always holy, always
perfect, always set apart. The very first thing God says,
you ever pondered this? God says, I will exult. The word in Hebrew means I will
rejoice with energetic strength. Now, ponder that for a minute.
God is overwhelmingly glad and rejoicing in his own holy kingship. More on that in a moment. He
is sovereign over all. What is it that causes God to
exalt that he is sovereign? He is sovereign. What does God exalt in? He is
the victorious. warrior, king. Look at it. Do you see it here in verse seven?
I will portion out Shechem. I will measure out the valley
of Sukkoth. That's, that's geographical language
for the area west of the Jordan river of Israel and the area
east of the Jordan, inside Israel. Verse 8 continues that. Gilead
is mine, Manasseh is mine, Ephraim is my helmet, and Judah is my
scepter. All language, Gilead, Manasseh,
are the northern tribes. Ephraim, northern kingdom, Judah
in the south. It's like God says, I own it
all. from the top to the bottom, from
the outer extremities of the land. I own it. I possess it. I can give it to whomever I want. God owns the world. He owns every
inch of creation. There is nothing in all of the
universe that God can't say mine. And it's not as though this is
so much a map, a geographical map that we were called to look
at all the pinpoints on it, as much as it is the magnitude of
the mighty kingship of our God, the faithfulness of our covenant
God. And I think there's a little
bit of the Abrahamic covenant in the background here, that
I will give the land to you and your descendants forever. Well,
somebody might say, well, that's the land of Israel. That's Gilead.
That's Manasseh. That's Judah. That's Ephraim.
That's Israel. I don't know. Keep reading. Look at verse 9. Moab is my washbowl. Well, first of all, Moab was
the people group to the east. And Moab is depicted as being
God's washbowl. What's that? You're my servant. You're my servant, like a servant
who would bring a washbasin to a house. Absolute submission,
humility, bringing the washbowl to the master. Here, wash, Moab,
the large and powerful people group. You are my servants. Verse nine continues. Not only
is Moab my washbowl, but over Edom I throw my shoe. Could you imagine a man? a warrior,
going out to battle. He comes back from battle. He
takes off his sandals and he tosses the sandal to the servant.
And the servant is to clean the sandal and dry the sandal and
prepare the sandal for the next time. I throw my sandal to Edom. Edom. Edom is my servant. Edom was proud. Edom would not
bow to the Lord. More on that in Obadiah here
in a few weeks. But God would still overcome
the Edomites. God is the warrior, the victorious
warrior who throws his sandal to the Edomites just like and
as if they were the servants of the Lord. And then verse 9,
there's a lot of debate about this, sadly, in our culture,
but it needs to be said about the Gaza. The biblical name for
that is Philistia. Look at verse 9, over Philistia,
I will shout aloud. Well, that's West, Western Israel,
right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It's the modern-day Gaza
area. On the North, South, East, West,
what is God saying? I own the nations. I possess the nations. I have given this to my people. To my people. In fact, God even
says in verse 9, over Philistia, I will shout aloud. Now, all of this, all of this
geographical language, all the colorful language shows God being
the sovereign victorious warrior. over all the nations, over all
the people groups, over every city, over every plot of ground,
the mighty sovereignty of God is extensive, it is global, it
is absolute, it is perfect, and I think the sovereignty of God
is undismissive. You can't ignore it. Oh, I know there are those who
rebel. You know that. You and I need to hear, though,
let me just tell you what you know, but hear it afresh. That
there is no nation on the face of the earth that will not have
to submit itself to the sovereign lordship of Christ. There is
no nation that will ultimately resist him and reject him. There
is no king that can dash him, no army that can thwart him.
There is no enemy that can surprise him, no rebel that can resist
him. Not even Satan can resist one
word of God. In fact, remember that great
hymn from Luther speaking about the downfall of Satan? One little
word shall And so the best way then, like
David, for us to prepare for worship, the best way for us
to prepare for corporate worship is to remember and reflect that
God is sovereign, that we can come, we can, as it were, kneel
before our God, we can kiss the sun, we can do homage to the
sun, knowing that he is high and exalted and glorious, sovereign. We read it at the beginning in
Ephesians 1. Jesus has authority over all
rule and dominion and power and authority. In Ephesians 3.10,
even the church reveals the wisdom to the cosmic powers. Jesus,
when he died on the cross, disarmed all of the powers. Christian, hear this. Believe
in the sovereignty of God. Be comforted, as it was well
said, in the sovereignty of God. Oh, there are those who rebel.
There are those who refuse it. There are those who don't want
to bow the knee. There are those who are angry
and loud and hostile. But one day, according to God's
very own word, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess
that Jesus is Lord. And that leads, third, in your
outline, to the salvation of God. So we've seen the songs
of God, the sovereignty of God, and then now as we conclude the
psalm, the salvation of God. Now David gets personal. He's
the king. Verse 10. Who will bring me into
the besieged city? Who's gonna lead me to Edom? David's gonna lead a military
conquest, evidently. He's going to lead a military
conquest. In verse 11, David says, God, have you rejected
us? Have you forsaken us, O God? Won't you go forth with us? David, the author, he comes to
God with a singing heart and a submissive trust in God, the
warrior. And he says, I need to go to
battle. And I know that God is sovereign.
God, are you gonna go with us? Have you abandoned us? Will you
go with us? Could you imagine David going
to battle? It's almost as if he hears God
say, David, all the nations are mine. All the nations are mine. I can do with every one of them
as I please. God, will you go with us? God,
will you fight our battles with us? God, you won't abandon us,
will you? You won't reject us. You won't
leave us, will you? In fact, look at the prayer in
verse 12. Do you see it in your Bible?
Oh, give us help against the adversary, for deliverance by
man is in vain. If I trust in my military, some
trust in horses and some trust in chariots. If I trust in man
and what man can engineer, all of our deliverance is going to
be in vain. No, no, no. I want, I want God
to help. I need God to go with me. I need God to fight my battle. Hold on. Not only militarily,
but even eternally. Deliverance by man is in vain.
Oh sure, maybe on a military plane for King David, deliverance
by man is in vain. How much more on a spiritual
plane is deliverance by man in vain? Worthless, worthless. No, I need you, God, to save
me. I need you, oh God, to give me
the strong salvation. I need you to go with me. I think there's a fitting gospel
call. A fitting gospel call. Has this
God given you eternal salvation? Has he given you this eternal
salvation? There is no deliverance in man. There is no deliverance
in man's ability. It is all futile. It is empty. It is false. It is worthless
to try to have salvation in man. You've got to come to Jesus.
Believe upon him by faith. and faith alone. That is the
word for all of us to hear tonight, boys and girls. There is nothing
more urgent and nothing more biblical and nothing more pressing
than for you to hear these words from King David, who knew it
militarily. If I trust in man, it's worthless,
but you also need to know it eternally. Salvation by man is
going to be worthless. I need God to save me. I need
Christ to be my Redeemer. I need God to save me from His
own wrath. Come to Him, trust in Him, repent
of your sin, believe upon Him, and He'll give you life. And
verse 13 is this great conclusion. Look at how David concludes,
through God, it's this affirmation of trust, through God, we will
do valiantly. And then this very sobering,
and we might say a kind of a bloody image here at the end, and it
is God who will tread down. That's a kind translation. God
will crush. is better. He will crush all
of his enemies. Oh, what a God! What a warrior
God! What a Savior! What a King we
have! It's this already-not-yet. If
you're a believer in Jesus, you already have the victory, but
you've not yet received the perfect eternal inheritance. So, what do we do? We keep fighting. We keep standing. We keep waging
war with the evil one. We keep resisting. We keep standing
firm against the evil one. We must abide in Christ. We must draw near to Christ. We must tighten our hold upon
Christ every day. No one can ever defeat this King. I have a word for the unsaved
here and a word for the saved here before I close. For someone
here in this place who has not fully submitted his life to Jesus,
you have every reason based upon this psalm alone to run quickly
and immediately and humbly to Jesus in faith, because Job 13
11 says, will not his majesty terrify you? Oh, for an unbeliever,
you can't be the first to defeat Christ. You can't. You can't
resist him and win. So for the unconverted, man or
woman or boy or girl. The Savior calls you to terms
of peace even here today. But for the believer, for the
child of God, you have every reason to trust and fear and
secure and hold fast and love your Savior because he is your
warrior who has conquered and given the victory to you all
by grace. Remember that, and don't forget
the already not yet. You have the victory in Christ,
though we've not yet experienced it all. You are already saved,
but you've not yet fully been glorified. So Christian, be a
good soldier. Stand firm in the faith. I want
to close with these great words. I bet you know them. In fact,
did I print them on the outline? You know where I'm going. I did,
on the next page. Written in 1864. It's the familiar
hymn, boys and girls, I know the families here know this song,
Onward Christian Soldiers. Do you know that this song was
written as a children's song? And it was written for children
as they would walk together and journey from village to village
to village. And as the boys and as the girls
would be walking, as they would be singing, as they would be
chanting together, the author of this hymn said, let me give
them something good to sing. Follow with me here. Onward,
Christian soldiers, marching as to war. with the cross of
Jesus going on before. Christ, the royal master, leads
against the foe. Forward into battle, see his
banner go. Next verse, at the sign of triumph,
Satan's hosts doth flee. On then, Christian soldiers,
on to victory. Hell's foundations quiver at
the sound, at the shout of praise. Brothers, lift your voices loud,
your anthems raise. Finally, onward, then, ye people,
join our happy throng. Blend with ours, your voices
in the triumph song. Glory, laud, and honor unto Christ
the King, this through countless ages. Men and angels sing, onward,
Christian soldiers, marching as to war. with the cross of
Jesus going on before. Christian, hallelujah, that in
Christ, our warrior king, the battle has been won. Father,
thank you for your word. Thank you for the time of study. We pray even now as we gather
for a time of of corporate church-wide prayer meeting, that you would
fill our minds and our hearts on the things that we have heard
in your word, and that we would pray in faith, and pray humbly,
and pray believingly, and pray biblically, that you'd be glorified
in hearing and answering these prayers. In Jesus' name.
Singing to Our Victorious God
Series Psalms
Teaching on Psalm 108
| Sermon ID | 652513314762 |
| Duration | 36:01 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Psalm 108 |
| Language | English |
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