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.