Thank you so much, Brother Otis. There's just nothing like being in the congregation and lifting up the name of the Lord with joy in our hearts. It's just wonderful and it's pleasing to the Lord. I have repeated that several times in our study of the book of Psalms here about how much the Lord wants us to worship him in his house and to sing to him with joy. So I appreciate that. But I did have an unusually long message tonight, but that's OK. That's OK. I heard that. Brother Kenny, you just keep on preaching. We're going on home now. Oh, goodness. Let's go to Psalm number 104. Psalm 104. Since Jesus came into my heart, I just can't help but every time singing that song, thinking back to November of 1970, And remembering being on my knees beside my bed in our little duplex that my family lived in on Persimmon Street there in Rogers, Arkansas, and having just read Matthew chapter 11, where Jesus said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And as a young man that was loaded down with sin, rebellion, cynicism, hatefulness, and all of those kinds of things. And being under conviction, you know, now I understand and can explain all of those things, but being under conviction and having a desire to just go to God and be forgiven and get connected to Him and to really live life the way that God intended for it to be lived with Him and to have spiritual life and confessing to Him and accepting His gift of eternal life and then just experiencing that flood of the presence not of God in general, but the presence of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ there, and just such a strong sense of his presence. I remember I started a diary the next day, and the first words I wrote in it is, whoever reads this, you're never going to believe what happened to me. And so, since Jesus came into my heart, what a wonderful change in my life has been wrought. So I'm so grateful for what he did those years back, and for the fact that he's present every day. Every day. Psalm 104. Psalm 104. is such a magnificent psalm. It is praising God for his wonderful order in creation. It's praising God because God knows what he's doing. God knows what he's doing in this present creation. And as he says in verse 24, his manifold works, the manifold works of God. And manifold means many. many different kinds of works that God is doing in the world. And we see his hand, we see his glory, we see his wisdom, we see his craftsmanship, we see his fingerprints all over his creation. And so this particular psalm is praising the Lord for his creation. And it's really just a list of all of the wonders of the Lord in creation. And it's good, it's good to stop and consider the wonders of God in creation. Those of us that have met Christ as our personal savior have experienced the wonders of the Lord in his new creation in us. But as we as we look out, you know, lift up our eyes and look around in the world around us, we see his magnificent wonders in creation as well. And it's fitting in this book of the Psalms, these songs of praise to God, it's fitting that there would be one that praises him for his wonders of creation. And this is it. Let's bow for prayer and we'll take a look at it. Dear Father, we come to you tonight thanking you, Lord, for all of the magnificent person that you are, and all of the magnificent and wonderful things that you have done in the creation of this world, and the great work that you have done in our lives personally, working in the circumstances of our lives, working through the Word of God in our lives to draw us to you, that we might truly come to know you through Christ and have a relationship with you. Father, we want to ask that as we're opening up your word tonight, that you would send your spirit into each one of our minds and hearts to show us the things that you want each of us to see, to see your magnificent wonders in what you've done in this world, that we might learn to simply rest in you and trust you. Because no matter what our problems or difficulties may be, you've got it. You have it. You who can sustain all of this magnificent universe and all of the life forms and all of the biological systems and physical systems and astronomical systems For you, the issues in our lives are nothing. It's a piece of cake. So help us to just rest in you and allow you to truly be the Lord of our lives, the Lord of our hearts. And we ask your blessing now in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, he begins here, Psalm 104, with a simple, another call to worship, isn't it? As in 103, bless the Lord, O my soul. And now he's going to say, bless the Lord, O my soul, and he's going to come at that desire for his soul to bless God from a different perspective. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. So bless the Lord. Again, get down on my knees. That's what the idea of bless is. It's to get down on the knees and lift up the hands in praise, adoration, and obedience to him. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. It's noteworthy that he says, oh my soul, isn't it? He's not just saying, bless the Lord. He's not just saying, praise the Lord. And there are times in Psalms where he does that, but there are times where he also says, bless the Lord, oh my soul. I'm not talking about doing something from the lips out. We're talking about doing something in the heart, something in the soul, something in our thoughts. So I was thinking the other day about the passage in, I think it's in Proverbs, where he says, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. What we are in our heart, that's what we really are. What what we think about is what we really are, what our motives and feelings and desires are. That's what we really are. And so bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. Oh, Lord, my God, thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. And then he's going to go on and describe how the Lord is clothed with honor and majesty, who covers thyself with light as with a garment. who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind. So, you know, I've had opportunity like I never thought I would, you know, as a child, but to be able to ride in a jet. and go up above the world and to see the clouds from up above. And I'm reminded of this verse a lot. These are, as he says here, the clouds are his chariots who walketh upon the wings of the wind. And of course, the picture of that is that God is exalted high above us. That's not to say that the Lord is not everywhere in the universe, and that's not to say that he is not everywhere present and with us, but it is to say that we need to think of the Lord as highly exalted, above the fray, above the chaos of this world. Verse four, who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. And of course, we've seen that in the book of Hebrews. The Lord does have ministers. The Lord does have myriad, thousands, well, the Lord of hosts. He has the host. In fact, if you look at the previous Psalm, Psalm number 103, verse 20, it says, Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his, that do his pleasures. That's about the angels. The angels, there are hosts of angels. that serve the Lord. So the Lord is surrounded by who knows how many millions of beings, billions of beings, that are at his beck and call. Powerful hosts, the angels. And now he's going to go on and begin to describe what God did in creation. who laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed forever. And let's continue here. We're gonna read on down through verse 13. Who laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed forever. Thou covered it with the deep as with a garment. The water stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke, they fled. At the voice of thy thunder, they hasted away. They go up by the mountain, they go down by the valley to the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth. He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches. He watereth the hills from his chambers. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works." So let's stop right there. You can see the emphasis here is on water, isn't it? The waters. The waters. The Lord laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be moved. So the earth is stable. The earth is stable. It's not going anywhere. But the Lord has covered the earth with the deep, with the deep, the oceans. The oceans cover the earth and the waters stood above the mountains. And of course, this is at the at the creation. But at God's rebuke, they fled at the voice of his thunder. They hasted away. they go up by the mountains, they go down by the valleys. So they go up, of course, they go up in the sense of the condensation, you know, or evaporation. They go up and then they come back down in the form of rain, which he's going to mention a little bit earlier. unto the place which thou hast founded for them." God's the one that has put the dimples in the face of the earth, you know, the lines. One of the things that as you, maybe if you've been in a plane before and you look down, it looks like somebody has taken a carpet and smooshed it up together and you see all these bumps in it. Well, the Lord did that. The Lord put all these ridges exactly where He wanted all the ridges and mountains to be. And of course, so the water comes down on it and it goes down into all of those crevices and valleys. And that's the Lord's plan. You know, I'll just open up some of my surmisings from time. But, you know, I've often thought about why didn't the Lord, you look at the, continents. Why didn't the Lord just make it like a pancake? You know, why do all the continents have all these tiny little bumps and crevices and all that? Have you ever looked at a map and thought about why did the Lord do that? You don't need medication. I'm teasing you. But the Lord has a reason for having made the surface of the earth like that, you know, and having made all of those, all the little mountains and all the little bays and rivulets and inlets and all of that in all of the different continents. So there's a reason for that. Probably has something to do with the weather. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the weather. It has a lot to do with giving people more variety of places to live. So anyway, it's gonna be interesting to be with the Lord in his science class throughout eternity and get answers to things like that. So that'll be cool. Anyway, they go to the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over, that they turn not again on the earth. Does that remind you of anything? Reminds us of the flood, doesn't it? How about Genesis chapter 9, verse 11? Actually, let's go to Genesis chapter 1 to begin with. Genesis chapter 1, verses 9 and 10. In Genesis 1-9 he says, and God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place. And let the dry land appear, and it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he seas. And God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. And you know, that's what we're seeing here in this psalm. We're looking at how God made the surface of the earth, and he's praising God for the way God made the surface of the earth. When God made it, God said, it's good. And in a way, isn't that what David's doing in this psalm? David's looking at what God said, and David is, in effect, he's saying, it's good. Bless the Lord, O my soul, for this thing that the Lord did. in Genesis chapter 9 verse 11. He makes a statement here after the flood. He says to Noah, I will establish my covenant with you. Neither shall all flesh be cut off anymore by the waters of a flood. Neither shall there anymore be a flood to destroy the earth. So the Lord set a bound as to where the seas are going to be and the seas are not going to overflow the earth. The Lord has set that and that's what he's talking about here in this Psalm. Verse 10, he sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. Isn't that beautiful? Have you seen those before? Yeah, it's just magnificent to see that, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild asses quench their thirst. And by them the fowls of heaven have their habitation. Of course, the birds are singing, which sing among the branches. He waters the hills from his chamber. There's the rain. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. So as we're just looking at the natural systems, the water system on the earth, the rain, the evaporation, and how the rain comes down and waters the earth and all of that, God did that on purpose. That didn't just happen. The Lord set up the system of the earth in his wisdom, and it's a wonderful thing. Let's go just a little bit farther here. Verses 14 and 15. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man that he may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart. And I'd like for us to look at a couple of scriptures in reference to this. Again, let's go to Genesis chapter 1. In Genesis 1, 11 and 12, note what he says here. And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb bearing seed, the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass and the herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. And that's what David is echoing here, looking at how he causes the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth. And in reference to the wine that maketh glad the heart of man, oil to make his face to shine, bread that strengtheneth man's heart, let's take a quick look at the Apostle Paul's ministry there in the book of Acts chapter 14. In Acts 14, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas are in Lystra. And Paul healed a man there, and the people of Lystra came to worship Paul and Barnabas. And they brought forth oxen and garlands, embellishments to honor Paul and Barnabas. And they told them, no, don't worship us. And look what they said here in Acts chapter 14, verse 17. Paul says, nevertheless, he, God, he left us, he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Let's see, that's the work of God. And the Lord does this all the time, doesn't he? He does all the time producing food for us out of the earth. And that's God's plan. That's God's way of providing for man. And God wants us to receive those things and to be happy that we have those satisfactions from God. But as much as we rejoice in the fulfillment of our physical needs, don't we have a need in our soul We know the Psalm number 42, as the heart panteth after the water brook, so my soul panteth after thee, my God. And that's talking about a thirst that we have inwardly, isn't it? So we do have a thirst outwardly for the water. We do have hunger for the physical food, and God provides that. He wants us to take that and he wants us to enjoy it. He wants us to be healthy because it says he gave us food, bread to strengthen man's heart. It doesn't say he gave us bread so that we could, well, be unhealthy from imbibing too much. So he gave us enough to make us strong, to make us healthy. And that's the physical bread, but we have a hunger for spiritual bread also, don't we? Yeah, where do we find the spiritual bread? Yeah, we find our spiritual bread through the Lord Jesus Christ. We find our spiritual bread through the Word of God. So so the Lord provides physical bread and he provides the spiritual bread that he provides for us to be fully satisfied, fully at peace. The Lord does that because he's he's wonderful. Just a quick word about the wine here. The word wine in the scripture is a generic term and sometimes it refers to grape juice and sometimes it refers to alcoholic wine. We know from the book of Proverbs that the Lord doesn't want people to drink wine and get drunk. In fact, he says, look not on the wine whenever it moveth itself aright. in the cup. You know, who has woe? Those that linger at the wine, etc., etc. So the scripture really discourages us from taking wine as a source of happiness. So the idea of the wine is also the idea of juice. And I'll tell you, we enjoy the juice. Apple juice, grape juice, anybody like grapefruit juice? Yes, so you know, and all of those qualify to be called wine. So the Lord, in other words, the Lord gives us a variety of things to enjoy. Does anybody remember space food sticks? I know that's going way back. Way back when the astronauts first started going up, some food manufacturing company started manufacturing space food sticks. And yeah, it was about as good as it sounds. But, you know, they were about this long, you know. And you could eat it and it tasted, well, I think they made them either peanut butter or chocolate. But they proclaimed that this is what the astronauts are eating, space food sticks, you know. I don't know how long they were on the market. I noticed they're not on the market today. But Snickers are still there. But it's a wonderful thing that the great variety of food that the Lord gives us to enjoy. and drink as well. Let's continue on here, Psalm 104. Let's go to verse 16. It says, The trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted, where the birds make their nests. As for the storks, the fir trees are her house. The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies. So the Lord provides a habitation for all living things, for the birds as well as for the animals. You know what he's doing here in this psalm is he's not giving us an exhaustive list of every habitation of everything that God did. He's just going and just grabbing a piece here and a piece there and a piece there just as bits of evidence to show the marvelous handiwork of God. And here he's talking about how God provides a habitation for all living things, whether it's birds or animals, the conies. There's a little animal over in that part of the world that we call a hyrax. And if you can just imagine a rabbit with its ears cut off. That's basically what a hyrax looks like. And that's the coney. And they live in the rocks. They live in the rocks over in that area. So those are the coneys. And they're about the size of a rabbit with its ears cut off. But anyway, so even the coneys, even those insignificant, unimportant little animals that people don't see very often, the Lord's provided a place for them. And then we come to verse 19. He appointed the moon for seasons and the sun for his going down. Let's go ahead and look at when the Lord did that. Let's go to the book of Genesis chapter 1, Genesis 1 verse 14. In Genesis 1.14 it says, and the Lord God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven. to divide the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. So again, what we have going on here in this Psalm is simply praising the Lord for his marvelous works for day and night. And the fact that we have day and night, and not only that, but it's for seasons. It's for seasons as we're spinning around the earth here, we are experiencing the seasons, aren't we? Oh boy, we are experiencing the full blast of summer heat right now, aren't we? But you know it's not going to last long. It's not going to last long. Typically by September 21st, which is the equinox, the temperature changes dramatically. and begins to cool off. And those are the seasons. And we don't have too much experience with that in our particular culture. I see Brother Ron back there, he may be very much up on this, but there was a time whenever farmers looked to the moon to see what phase of the moon it was, to determine when it's time to plant those crops. And so the moon told them what the season was and exactly when it's time to get the crops in and take the crops out. Verses 20 through 23. Thou makest darkness, and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the field do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, and they gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening. So again, this is God's plan. God's plan is that there are going to be nocturnal animals or animals that go out at night and seek their prey while we are locked safely in our homes from the animals. But then it's man's time to get out. and go to work. And this idea about getting up and going to work, that's God's plan also for man. Genesis chapter 3 verse 19, I think we're all familiar with that. That's a part of the a part of the curse, but I want you to notice something here. In Genesis 319, the Lord said to Adam, after Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the Lord is now telling them what the consequences of that decision was going to be. One of the things that he tells them is this. In verse 19, the Lord tells Adam, in the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. But you notice he said here, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Work itself was not the curse. Remember, whenever God made Adam, he gave him a job to do, didn't he? What was that? To dress and keep the garden. That's why I'm thinking maybe one of the first inventions that man ever came up with was limb loppers. You know, because if Adam's going to dress and keep the garden, he's going to have to have some way to cut those branches and sticks to make that garden look nice, you know, to look dressed. So that's just a little surmising there. I have no idea what the actual invention was, but the Lord gave Adam a job to do. He gave him the job to do to name the animals. He gave him the job to do at creation to have dominion over the earth. So Adam had plenty to do. So it's not the idea of labor that's the curse. The curse is that the ground is not going to cooperate with you. You're going to have to work hard to get your food out of the ground because the Lord said he cursed the ground. So the idea that man is working, that's God's plan. Come with me to Ecclesiastes chapter three. Ecclesiastes talks about this also. Ecclesiastes three verses 13 and 14. Also, that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God. It's the gift of God that we work and that we through our work, we get our food, we get the things that we need to sustain our life. That's God's gift. That's the way God set things up. So we don't need to fight against it. We don't need to gripe about it. We don't need to sit down and say, well, I just I'm just tired of work and I think the government should give everybody a handout and we just kick back and play video games, you know. No, that's not God's plan. God's plan is that we be is that we be productive, that we be actively engaged in in labor that's productive and then enjoy the fruit of that. Enjoy the provision that comes from working. And then that brings us to verse 24, where he says, Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works. In wisdom has thou made them all. The earth is full of thy riches. And then he goes back. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping and innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships. There is that Leviathan whom thou has made to play therein. So he goes back into the sea for the sake of time. We won't go there. But Genesis 1, of course, 20 through 22 talks about how the Lord created the animals in the sea. And then in verses 27 through 30, he says, These wait all upon thee that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That Thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled. Thou takest away their breath, they die and return to dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created, and Thou renewest the face of the earth. So the Lord is constantly bringing new life into the earth, new animals, new people, new sea creatures, new vegetation. The Lord is constantly renewing the face of the earth. Verse 31. The glory of the Lord shall endure forever. The Lord shall rejoice in his works. So as the Lord looks at the earth, the Lord set it up the way it is. It's been distorted by sin, hasn't it? As he told Adam and Eve after they had sinned, he said, the ground is cursed for your sake. In the sweat of your face, you're going to bring forth your bread. And we also see diseases. and we see the natural disasters. In speech class today, I had some of the students were acting as newscasters. What I did was I went online and clipped some news stories and printed them off and wanted to see if some of the kids would be the next Walter Cronkite or something. Some of you all have no idea what I meant by that. But the next great newscaster, He or she may be there, but they're still in training. But one of the news articles that I got talked about the hurricane that hit Southern California, and it described it as a climate disaster. The hurricane hitting California was a climate disaster. Well, a hurricane similar to that hit Southern California in 1938. I wonder if they called it a climate disaster back then. Even in reading just a factual news story, the people are going to get their agenda in there. But that was interesting. But anyway. In spite of all of the things that show that the earth is really hostile to mankind, the way the Lord originally set it up was good. and the general way that it operates is still good. And whenever the Lord destroys this earth and creates a new earth, Isaiah chapter 65 verse 17 tells us that the Lord is going to create a new earth and he's going to rejoice in that new earth forever. It will never be distorted like this one was. But don't be surprised if it's a lot like this one. Because whenever the Lord made this earth and set everything in order on it, he had a good plan. He had a good plan. And in fact, on the seventh day there, the scripture tells us, the Lord looked at all that he had created and made and behold, it was very good. It was very good. So David's response here, well, let's go there to verse 31. The glory of the Lord shall endure forever. The Lord shall rejoice in his works. He looketh on the earth and it trembleth. He toucheth the hills and they smoke. In other words, God is so powerful, he can adjust things on the earth with just a touch or with a breath. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet. I will be glad in the Lord because I can look around me and see the magnificent wisdom and provision of God for everything. Doesn't that remind you of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount? If God so clothed the lilies of the field, shall not he clothe you? O ye of little faith. So as we look and see God's magnificent provision, we can trust that he will take care of us. But how is he going to take care of us? Well, let's see. I think it says right here, man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until evening. Just a quick thought on that, I know we're out of time. I was taking a look at what Spurgeon said about this psalm today, and he said, you'll notice that it says, man, goeth forth. And he said, women should never have to go forth and labor during the day like a man. They should be able to take care of their homes and rest, but it's up to the men to provide. So I thought that was interesting. Boy, he would sure feel out of place in the world today, wouldn't he? But that was a different time. But David says, I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet. Is your meditation of the Lord sweet? And seeing how the Lord has magnificently provided for us and looking at all of his manifold works, yes. Verse 35 though, Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more. You know, the sinners, the sinners are those who look at the wonders of God and look at the wisdom of God, look at the creation and the greatness of God and shake their fist at him and say, I want to do things my way. Get out of my way. Let me live the way I want to. I don't care what you've done. OK, and David is saying, let them be consumed. Let them be consumed, those people that will not yield to the love of God, those that will not yield to his grace and and repent and seek his forgiveness. Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more. And of course, that time is coming, isn't it? That that because the Lord said, Jesus himself said, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And then he ends up, bless thou the Lord, oh my soul, praise ye the Lord. Amen. The Lord is wonderful. We see his his handiwork every place about us. And because we see his handiwork every bit every place about us, we can rely on we can rely on him. This song is a heart that rejoices in God's order, God's way of doing things. People said of Jesus, he has he doeth all things well. That's the perspective we need to have as we look out on God's creation and everything God is doing. He doeth all things well. He's got this. We can trust him. Amen. Amen. Brother Pat, would you come?