Well, we're working our way through the Psalms. We've looked at 14 of 15 categories of Psalms. We're in the last category, Psalms of Thanksgiving. And I would say that those who have the very least, think of this, those who have the very least and yet who are given the very most, should be the most thankful. Doesn't that describe what is the truth for Christians? William Law, who was born in 1686 and died in 1761, he was an Anglican minister and he wrote this, quote, It is not he who prays the most or he who fasts the most. It is not he who lives the most, but it is he who, listen, he who is always thankful to God." Amen. Amen. Well, as I said, we've looked at many categories of Psalms and we've looked at eight of the Thanksgiving Psalms. We want to consider a ninth one. This evening, I think we have four more after this, and that is Psalm 116. So if you have a Bible and you want to open up to that, as you're turning, this is one of those Psalms that has no title in the text. There may be a title in your Bible, but that's added by the publishers. It also has no name assigned as to who wrote it, but that's okay. The text is so rich, we don't really have to have a title given, and we don't need to know who wrote it. The text is rich in and of itself. Why is this a psalm of thanksgiving? Well, only once does the word thanksgiving appear in this psalm. It appears in verse 17. But here's what I want you to note, that the psalmist's thanksgiving was not restricted or limited to words only. It wasn't just how he felt and what he said, but we're gonna see in this psalm that he put his thanksgiving into active practice. It's the things that he said, I will do these things to give thanks to the Lord. If we were to outline this, it's a simple outline, actually there's four points, but the first in verses one and two, if you're looking at your text, the psalmist expresses love and gratitude, both, because of the Lord's mercies, That's kind of an introduction. And then in the second section, verses three and four, the psalmist remembers his miseries. He remembers, he recollects what shape he was in before he received the Lord's mercies. The third sort of section of this psalm, the psalmist meditates on the Lord's mercies. He just, the emphasis in these verses, verses five through 11, Or just, this is what God has done. This is what God has done. It's wonderful for us. And then lastly, the fourth section, the psalmist purposes in his heart to give thanks, listen to this, in a number of active ways. I will do this. I will do this because of what God has done. And that's in verses 12 through 19. I took the time to go through this psalm and take out every section of what the psalmist said, this is what I'm gonna do. And here's what we read. I love the Lord, verse one. I will call upon him, verse one, verse 13, and verse 17. I will walk before the Lord, verse nine. I will take up the cup of salvation, verse 13. I will pay my vows, stated twice in verse 14 and verse 18. I will serve you and I am your servant. verse 16, and I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving in verse 17. And why does he do this? Why does he do this? Because of what God has done for him. Always remember, what we do is always in response to what God does. And look at the list of things, it's interesting. There's seven things that he says he will do. There are 10 things that he points out that God has done. Verse one, he has heard me. Verse one, he has inclined his ear. Verse five, the Lord is gracious. Verse five, the Lord is righteous. Verse five, the Lord is merciful. Verse six, the Lord preserves the simple. Amen for us simple folks. Verse six, he, that is the Lord, he saved me. The Lord, verse seven, the Lord has dealt bountifully with me. Verse eight, the Lord has delivered my soul, my eyes, and my feet. And then verse 16, the Lord has loosed my bonds. 10 things that are listed that God has done, only seven that we do in response. And that just reminded me, listen, God has done more for us in saving us than we could ever give back. in our thanksgiving. The greatest thanks we have pales in comparison to how much God has done. So let's take a look at the psalm. The first section, verses 1 and 2, the psalmist expresses love and gratitude because of the Lord's mercies. Verse 1, Here's what he says he's gonna do, I love the Lord, why? Because, here's what God has done, he has heard my voice and my supplications. Verse two says much the same thing, changes the word order, he begins this verse with because, because, here's what God has done, because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore, here's what the psalmist says I will do, therefore I will call upon him, note this, as long as I live. Key word in these two verses, I think, is the word because. I think it's a very important word. Why? Because what? Because of what? Because of what the Lord has done. He says, I'm gonna do this because he's done this. Because he's done this, I'm gonna do this. It's always God is the initiator, we are the responders. Why does anyone love God? Why does anyone call upon his name? Because of God's mercies. What does God do for us? Well, in these two verses, he hears us. Why does He hear us? Because He cares. It's not limited to the fact that He hears. Why does He even listen? Because He cares. And because He's powerful and merciful, He acts on our behalf. How long does the one who loves the Lord, as the text says, continue to call upon Him? He says, as long as I live. You know, The Christian life is often likened to a race. The New Testament, Paul talks about that more than once. You know, it's not how well you start the race, it's not how well you run the race in the middle. Listen, what counts is do you finish? It's finishing the race, that's what matters. The scripture speaks about those who persevere to the end will be saved. He who overcomes will be saved. He who is faithful to the end will be saved. Folks, listen, don't despair because maybe you had a few false starts, maybe because as your Christian life began, it was spurts and halts and stops, and maybe even in your Christian life, it's been difficult and you've had struggles. Listen, persevere to the end. That's what matters. Now, the second section, verses three and four, the psalmist remembers his miseries where he was when God poured out his mercies. So that's an important thing. Where was it? We shouldn't forget that. It's a great reminder of how much we need the Lord and how much we should be thankful to him. So look at how desperate, look at how desperate the psalmist's situation was. Verse 3, the pangs of death surrounded me. And the pangs of Sheol, another word for death, laid hold of me. And then he sums it up real simply, I found trouble and sorrow. Now, this is not merely about a specific instance when this psalmist was in trouble and God did something specific for him. It could have been, that might have happened and that may have spurred him to write this psalm. We don't know that. But you know what? What this psalm is really about, death and sheol and trouble and sorrow, it's about, listen, it's about the state of the spiritually lost person. That's true for every person who is lost in sin. The pains of death surrounded me and the pains of Sheol laid hold of me. I found trouble. This is what you find with sin. This is what you find in life. You find trouble. You find sorrow. How does God describe this condition of being lost? Does he call it weakness? Does he call it a disease? No. Those aren't strong enough terms. He calls it being spiritually dead. You can't have a more serious situation. That's why verse three talks about the pains of death and the pangs of Sheol. It's because the person who doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ is spiritually dead. Whether he or she knows it or realizes it or not, they are spiritually dead. You know, Satan told Eve a couple lies. He said, did God really say that if you did this you'll die? You know what? You're not going to die. Satan lied to Adam and Eve and said you'll not die. And you know what? Satan has been lying to the children of Adam and Eve ever since. Not only saying, not only saying you're not going to die because of sin. But even possibly more importantly, you're not dead. You're very much alive, and the way to be alive is to continue in sin. See, Satan just gives that lie over and over again. But you know what? No matter who tells us that kind of lie, what does God say? It doesn't matter. God calls Satan the father of lies. It doesn't matter who says you're not dead spiritually. It doesn't matter who says you're not gonna die spiritually. experience God's wrath for eternity. That's not gonna happen. It doesn't matter who says that. What does God say? God calls him the father of lies, father of liars. Well, what does God's words say about our natural state without Christ? And you know, I'm gonna just give you just a few. There's many, many more, but I'm just gonna give you a few. In Ephesians 2, verse one through five, we're said to be spiritually dead in trespasses. 1 Corinthians 2.14 says we are unable, unable to understand spiritual truth. at all, completely numb to the reality of spiritual truth. Ephesians 2.12, he calls it being lost in the world without hope. That's a pretty bleak description of what it means to be lost. One more, Romans 5.6, without strength. Not just weak, not needing a boost, no, without strength. Altogether, without strength to do anything to help ourselves. And there's many, many, many more verses and many more ways that the Bible describes what it is to be lost. Let me ask you this question. Why do we stress this? Maybe you wonder this. Why does this church stress sin as much as we do? Listen, it is not to beat people down. It is not to beat people down. It is rather to demonstrate the magnitude of the grace of God. It's only as we understand how desperate our situation was, how bleak, how hopeless our situation is without Christ, that we can begin to comprehend and be grateful for all that Christ has done to deliver us out of that and into life and into spiritual understanding, into hope, into being strengthened and empowered by the Holy Spirit. This was the psalmist's condition, and you wanna know what else? It's the condition of every single man, woman, and child in history since Adam and Eve. who were not born again and saved by the grace of God. It is true of every single one of us. And we do well as Christians to remember we were there. We look at the world and we say, oh, those people. We were those people. We need to be reminded of that so that we do not become self-righteous. This was the psalmist's condition, and this is the condition of everyone who is without Christ. But the good news, verse four, in spite of this pangs of death, pangs of Sheol, trouble and sorrow. Verse four, then, only when he realized that, then I called upon the name of the Lord. And here's what he said. Oh Lord, I implore you. That means I beg you, I plead with you. Deliver my soul. He doesn't say, help me to fix myself. Help me to be a better person. Help me to have purpose. Help me to be happy. He says, deliver my soul from what? from the deadness of being lost in sin and from the hopelessness of our condition. You know, when we are aware, listen, whenever a person is truly aware of the hopelessness of their condition in sin, that person, every single one of them, that person will call upon the Lord. and the Lord will deliver. You could count on it. But we first must understand. We first must understand the hopelessness of our condition. And part of the problem about being dead in sin is that we don't understand it. We don't know, we don't care, and there's nothing we can do about it. And why is that? Because we're dead in sin. God has to do something. We've got to come to the awareness of that in order to experience what God is going to do for us. But how can we when we're dead in sin? Well, it happens as sort of a one-two punch. The first punch is that the truth needs to be declared. The truth needs to be declared. And the second part is that the Holy Spirit needs to give understanding to the truth by doing what? By regenerating, by having a person born again into new life, new understanding, no longer dead, and they say, oh my Lord, have mercy on me. It takes both. But we need to understand that all the good preaching in the world about sin won't convert anybody. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, but He will only do that as the truth is proclaimed. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, Paul says in Romans. How shall they call upon Him in whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher? Someone needs to declare it. It doesn't need to be a preacher standing behind a pulpit. We all as Christians, we need to tell people the truth. The sad part about it is we don't do ourselves and we don't do other people any favors by playing down the seriousness of sin and its catastrophic consequences. You know, when we do that, when we play down the depths of our sin and how much we need to be born again, why should anybody cry out to God? We're lying to people, we're joining the enemy in saying, oh, you're okay, you're okay, just be a better person. It is our job to tell the truth. Again, no one will understand the truth without the Holy Spirit. but the Holy Spirit only converts as we proclaim the truth. You know, the problem so often in many people's attempts at evangelism and even many churches' lack of preaching the gospel is it's not so much that we say anything wrong or that the preacher preaches something that is wrong. It's not what is said that is wrong. It's what is not said. Where's Christ? Where's the gospel? Where's the reality of our sin, which will bring us to the place where we will cry out to God? We don't do people any favors if we think it's evangelism to tell them, you know what, if you accept Jesus in your heart, you can have purpose. You can have fulfillment. You can be happy. You can kick this habit that you've been going through. God will heal your marriage. Listen, all these things, that's not the gospel. Jesus Christ didn't come to this planet to give us purpose. He didn't come to make us happy. He came to save His people from their sins. So if we're gonna be about the Father's business, we need to proclaim the truth about sin, pointing people to Christ. You know, the truth is just this simple. All are lost in sin, number one. Number two, good news, Jesus saves sinners. Martin Luther one time is quoted as saying, he loves it when the devil accuses him and says you're a sinner. Martin Luther would think this, and he says, when the devil tells me I'm a sinner, I say, thank you very much, because Jesus saves sinners, and that's a good thing to be reminded of. Well, the third section of this psalm, the psalmist meditates on the Lord's mercies. He's talking about the mess he's in, he's talked about how God has heard his cry, but then he talks about the mess he's in, and then number three, the psalmist meditates on the Lord's mercies. This is verses five through 11. Verse five starts off with the good things that God has done. Gracious is the Lord. God is gracious. What is grace? It's giving undeserved blessing. It's giving us something good that we didn't earn, that we couldn't ever hope to get on our own. The Lord is gracious, it says, and righteous. That means he only always acts justly. People say they want justice in this world. There's people marching in the streets saying, we demand justice, we demand justice. Listen, only a fool wants justice with God. Only a fool wants justice with God. We want mercy, we want grace. That's what we want from God. The justice that is good for us is the justice that God has poured out on someone else in our place. His name is Jesus. Justice is served, but that's the only justice we want. He says, gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. We said that grace is giving and receiving undeserved blessing. Mercy is God withholding from us what we deserve that, trust me, we do not want. And that is God's justice and God's judgment He goes on to say, our God is merciful. I particularly like this. wild ideas about myself being some sort of an intellectual giant or an educational giant or anything like that, but I fit right in. The Lord preserves the simple. You know, who are the simple? The simple are those, the way we would look at it, as those who have limited understanding. Is that fair? A person who has limited understanding is simple. But you know, 1 Corinthians 2.14 talks about people who are unsaved, and he says something much more than limited understanding. He says in 1 Corinthians 2.14 that the natural man, the person who's not been born again, cannot understand the things of the Spirit. He doesn't understand them, their foolishness. He can't understand them because they must be spiritually discerned, and he can't understand them because he's spiritually dead. We're not just simple. We're hopeless. Our ability to understand the most important things in life, which are the things of the Spirit of God, is null and void because of sin. But, praise God, he doesn't leave us that way. He doesn't leave us that way. He doesn't leave us to ourselves in our simplicity and in our spiritual fogginess and ignorance. Instead, he preserves us. The Lord preserves the simple. He preserves us by doing what? By saving us. He preserves us by saving us. in spite of our ignorance, in spite of our inability to understand, in spite of our simplicity to the nth degree. Praise God. He says, and by the way, it takes humility to swallow this. Christianity, they say, is the only religion where you have to recognize that you're not qualified to be in in order to be in. You don't do anything to qualify to be a Christian. You just recognize that there's nothing you can do to qualify to be a Christian. And when we recognize that, we call out to God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He says in the text, I was brought low. He preserves the simple, he says, I was brought low and he saved me. You know, we think about being brought low, and that sounds like a bad thing, doesn't it? Boy, that guy's really going through tough times. He's really been brought low. But you know what? It is essential. It is essential for us spiritually to be brought low so that we will look up. As long as we are satisfied in ourselves, as long as we don't realize how far we have sunk in our sin, there's no reason to look up. But thank God, thank God that he loves his people enough to bring us, listen to this, he brings us as low as it takes to get us to a place where we can look up and then by his grace be lifted up as he saves us. This is what the Christian life is all about. It's not about finding purpose and being strong and you just gotta live a better life. You know, that's a bunch of, that's not Christianity. It's not Christianity. Verse seven. He says, return to your rest. Return to your rest. And who's he speaking to? Oh my soul. Return to your rest, oh my soul. Why? For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. You know, salvation, even in the lips of Jesus, is likened to entering into a rest. What does he say? All you who are heavy laden, come to me and I will, what, give you purpose? No, I'll give you rest. I'll give you happiness, no, I'll give you rest. Rest from what? Rest from trusting in ourselves, which is a fool's errand. Rest from trusting in our religion, which is a fool's errand. Rest from trusting in our own ability to be good enough that somehow, you know, as people say, well, God and I have an understanding. No, God has an understanding, and his understanding is that you're lost and you need his son to be saved. You say, well, God and I have come to an understanding, and I'm fine. You haven't come to understanding with anything. You're still lost in your ignorance about the truth about who God is. Salvation is resting from all of that and instead trusting solely. Do you hear that word? Solely in Christ alone, in what he did for us. He left. He's God. He left heaven, became a man, lived a perfect, sinless life, gave up his life on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. He rose from the dead to prove he is who he said he is. And then he ascended into heaven where he ever intercedes for his people. He has done all of this. There's rest in that. There's no rest for those who are trying to get there on their own. It's not gonna work. He says, the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. He's speaking to his own soul. How bountifully has God dealt with you? How bountifully has God dealt with you? You say, well, I've had a lot of problems. Okay. How bountifully has God dealt with you? Where would you be without him? What would those problems be without him? You say, What has God done to deal bountifully with me? How about this? We say this so often, but on my last breath on my lips, I pray that I'll be saying, He forgave my sins. God forgives our sins. See, to people who don't think they're sinners, that doesn't mean anything. But Christians know, I'm a sinner in need of God's grace. And guess what? He has forgiven my sins. He transformed, listen to this, in light of this chapter talking about coming to give thanks and to give praise and worship to God for all that he's done. Listen, he transforms rebels into worshipers. Has God dealt bountifully with you in that? He gives us new hearts. He gives us new minds. We see everything differently through the lenses of the gospel. He writes our names in the Lamb's Book of Life, and He writes it in a manner that it can never be blotted out. He promises to come and abide in us. The Holy Spirit abides in those who are saved, and He promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us. Has He dealt bountifully with you? He is preparing a place for us. Yes, Jesus ascended into heaven, but he's preparing a place for us, and guess what? He's coming again. Jesus is coming back to take us to himself and from this world of sin, to be with him in heaven forever and forever. You know, that's not all he's done for. That's just a reader's digest. That's just skimming across the top of the water. But if that were all that he had done for you, my friend, would that be not enough reason to give thanks and to praise the Lord and to give him for being so bountiful with us? Verse eight, you have delivered my soul. Again, this is what God has done. You have delivered my soul from death. You know, it's interesting, God does deliver our physical bodies from death. I mean, this may not be true of everybody, but I think if you've lived long enough, you can maybe think back to various times when you said, I could have been dead. You know, I've got a few of those in my, maybe it's because I lived a reckless life for a while as a young man, but I can think of times when, man, I was this close. Sometimes I didn't even realize it until later. God does do that, but you know, so much more importantly, Ultimately, he delivers us from not just physical death, but from the second death. The second death that John writes about in Revelation chapter 20, the lake of fire, where people experience the wrath of God forever. You know, many people say, I'm not afraid to die. I'm just afraid of the dying process. Well, you know, it's you and everybody else. Well, you know what the second death is? It's a dying process that never ends. That's the worst thing that is our fears, and it goes on forever. You know, in this life, he says he delivers us from the second death, the dying that never ends, and then he says, my eyes, you've delivered my soul from death, you've delivered my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. In this life, we're often beset with tears. or often be set with tears. I had some real tears just yesterday as I was with some friends, and one of my friends was talking about, to this group of men, talking about the recent passing of his wife, and as he wept, several of us just wept with him because it was such a sad, there's a lot of tears in this life, a lot of tears in this life. But in the next life, listen, There are no more tears. Revelation chapter 21 verse four. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death. That's why there's no more tears. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, here it is, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." What former things? All sin, all rebellion, all anything that opposes God. He says, he's wiped tears from my eyes and my feet from falling. In this life, even Christians, we fall down. We fall down. And by the way, falling Even if it isn't good, it's frequently for our good because it teaches us valuable lessons along the way. Would you agree? Have you learned lessons from the difficulties you've experienced? But even though God purposes for us at times to fall down, he preserves us so that we never, we who are his children, will never fall away. Fall down, yes. Fall away, never. But guess what? In the next life, that's in this life, in the next life, there will be no more stumbling at all ever again. That's heaven. That's heaven, my friends. Verse nine, I wanna proceed reading verse nine with these little words here. Therefore, because of all of God's kind mercies and gracious blessings, therefore, now I've added that, I will walk before the Lord. This is why he's walking before the Lord. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I know most of you know this, but in the Bible, the word walking is a frequently used metaphor for living. It talks about my walk with God, it's my life with God. And here's, in essence, what the psalmist is saying. I will live my life before God, that is, in His presence. Why? Why? What motivates us to live the Christian life? What empowers us to live this kind of living? I'll tell you, two words. God's grace. God's grace. Titus chapter 2 verses 11 and 12, some of my favorite words in the New Testament. He says this, for the grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. And then it says in verse 12, the grace of God teaches us. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, verse 12, teaching us, grace teaches us. What does it teach us? Grace teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Only grace can teach that. The law can point out our failures. And then either we try self-righteously to fix ourselves up, which doesn't work, or we just despair and say there's no hope. But when we hear the grace of God, which the gospel begins with the law to condemn us so that we will flee to Christ who saves us, then grace teaches us. Grace teaches us. Grace motivates us. Why? Because grace fills us with what kind of psalm is this? A thanksgiving psalm. Grace fills us with gratitude and with thanksgiving. Grace empowers us to do what we never used to coulda, if you know what I'm saying. The things that we tried and we vowed and we resolved and we failed. Now that because of the grace of God, we can taste some victory and release as we rest in Christ. Verse 10, I believed, therefore I spoke, I am greatly afflicted. Paul quotes this verse in 2 Corinthians 4.13. The reason the psalmist spoke as he did, think about this and then I'm gonna read the verse again. The reason that the psalmist spoke as he did is because of God's grace that enabled him to believe. Listen, those who are lost do not realize they are lost. Those who are saved realize how lost they were, and they can say, I believed, and therefore I spoke of how desperately I was lost, because it was only once I was found. a bad illustration, but if someone eats nothing but dog food, they might get pretty accustomed to it, and it's like, it's okay, you know, Alpo, there's no cereal in it, not a speck of cereal in that Alpo. But then when you have a chance to eat steak, and this, I give my regrets to those of you who don't eat meat, you know, that's okay, eat what you want, but you understand the illustration, from dog food to a steak dinner. You don't realize how rotten the dog food was until you've had good food. You don't realize how lost we were until we understand how gracious God has been with us to save us and to do what he has done in our lives. It's only because of the work of grace that anyone knows how hopelessly lost they are and how deeply they need Christ. And then on the other side of that, how wonderfully Christ has poured out his mercies. Verse 11, it's a curious verse. He says, I said in my haste, all men are liars. This is still a part of I believed, therefore I spoke, I am greatly afflicted, and I said in my haste, all men are liars. So he's saying, on the other side of being saved, I realized I was greatly afflicted in my sin, and I realized once I was saved that all men are liars. What is he referring to? Well, it is a curious verse. The commentators don't all, I won't say they don't all agree, They vary in their opinions. Let's be more gracious and put it that way. So we best not be dogmatic when it's not ultimately clear. But the sense that makes the most sense to me is this. The psalmist was saying that in the midst of his affliction that he only knew about because of God's grace, though many came and promised help to me, Think about how many things you tried before you were saved to try to find life and nothing could fulfill. He just couldn't trust anyone to deliver him. Think of how many things have presented themselves to us in our lives before Christ and even after Christ, but hopefully we're not paying attention as Christians. to the words of the world. But think of how many things promise us. You know, if you get on this diet, if you get on this exercise program, if you get this education, it's endless. And you know what? All of those are lies because none of them can deliver us. All men are liars. Everything that the world has promised comes out completely empty. He says he couldn't trust anyone but God. Then he finds out that he could trust God. There is no hope but in Christ. No hope but in Christ. No matter what the problem, the ultimate solution is always Christ. It's always Christ. Well, having meditated on God's mercies, the psalmist now purposes in his heart to give thanks in a number of what I'm gonna call active ways. This is verses 12 through 19. He says, in light of all of this mercy that God has given me, what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? Indeed. What could I possibly give to God for everything that He has done for me? Listen, not only can we not pay for salvation, you listening? We can't pay God back for salvation. We can't do anything for God except say, okay, we're even. Can you imagine that? He puts his son on the cross, allows him to die at the hands of sinful men, rises from the dead, and then he transforms our wicked souls of rebellion into the hearts of worshipers, and then we do a few things for him, and he goes, okay, we're good. No, we're good because of what Christ has done. That's the only way we're good. But because of what Christ has done, we say, how can I give my life to him who gave his life for me? We can never pay him back. Verse 13. Here's what he says he will do. He says, I will take up the cup of salvation. That means I'm gonna drink deeply in the gospel. I'm gonna live a gospel life. Why does anyone take up the cup? I'll tell you why. The grace of God that changes our hearts. He goes on, he says, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. Let me ask again, why does anyone call upon the name of the Lord? Very simple, the grace of God that changes our hearts. Verse 14, I will pay my vows. In other words, I'll pay what's owed. I'll pay what's owed to the Lord. Listen, why does anyone feel indebted to the Lord? Very simple answer. It's the grace of God that changes our hearts. It's all that he's done for us. And even though we could never hope or even begin to pay him back, we want to give him all of our lives because of what Christ has given for us. He says, I will pay my vows now. I'll pay my vows now in the presence of His people. Why now? Well, I'll tell you why, because delayed obedience is another word for disobedience. Delayed obedience is another word for disobedience. We need to do it now in the presence of all His people. We'll talk about that in just a moment in another verse. Verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. In Martin Luther's translation, he was quite a scholar on the Psalms, to have you know, before he was even leading the Reformation, he was a scholar teaching the Psalms in a seminary in Germany in the 1500s. He translated this verse, this phrase, the death of his saints is held to be of highest value before the Lord, close quote. Why is that? Why is that? I'll tell you why. Because those he loves, those he loves, who even after being saved continue to struggle and suffer and go through trials and tribulations in this life because those he loves will finally, are you listening? This is precious in his sight because those he loves will finally be with him. With him in heaven, in glory, and completely and totally free, not just from the penalty of sin, not just from the power of sin, but from the very presence of sin itself. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Verse 16, O Lord, truly I am your servant. He says it again for emphasis I am your servant, the son of your maid servant. Why does anyone want to be a servant of the Lord? Ask anybody on the street who's not a Christian, would you like to be a servant of the Lord? They'll look at you like you got seven heads, six of which are on fire. They don't even know what you're talking about. No, I don't wanna be a servant of the Lord. What does that mean? Why does anybody wanna be a servant of the Lord? Because the grace of God changes our hearts. We want to serve the Lord. We do it poorly. We bump into things, we drop things, we mess things up, but we want to serve the Lord. He is our Lord and our master, not merely our Savior. He changes our hearts. As a matter of fact, Psalm 84, verse 10, you might be familiar with this verse. Better to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. Better to have the job of a servant. The one who greets people at the door and probably washes their feet. Better to be a doorkeeper at the house of the Lord than to dwell, and it sort of means dwell safely in the tents of wickedness. Listen, in the world, people wanna dwell in the tents of wickedness. They wanna have everything. I want everything this world has to give me, but once you know the Lord, you say, you know what, I just wanna be a servant of the Lord. That's what it means to be a Christian. He says, you have loosed, continuing with verse 16, you have loosed my bonds. Once again, he's reminding himself of what God has done for him. Listen, by his grace, God has not only, not that it's a small thing, it's a big thing, but God has not only forgiven our sins, He has loosed our bonds so that we are no longer slaves to sin. This is one of the most overlooked and neglected truths of the gospel. He doesn't just give us a get out of hell free card to present when we die. He gives us victory and freedom over sin even now. Perfectly? No, because we'd still choose to do the wrong thing. But God has loosed us. He has loosed our bonds of sin. Verse 17. More of what he will do. Remember as I introduced this at the beginning of this session, we mentioned how he's not just saying, I'm thankful, I feel thankful, and I'm gonna sing praises. I'm gonna do things. I want my thanksgiving to be active. He says, I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving. We talked about this in the previous psalm that we studied, 107, I believe it was. No more sacrifices for sin, why? because Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for sin. He, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, has once and for all obliterated and taken away all need for sacrifices. His sacrifice covered it all. So we don't offer any more sacrifices for sin because He did. Instead, we offer the sacrifice of praise, the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Why? Because He has done it all. You see the difference between this and a religion of do better, try harder, be a good person? This is Jesus has done everything, and we respond by giving Him praise. He goes on, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will call upon the name of the Lord again. Why does anybody call upon the name of the Lord? Because grace has changed our hearts. We now recognize he didn't just save me. He's everything to me. I call on him for for everything. This almost repeats Verse 14, in verse 18, he says, I will pay my vows to the Lord. He says this in verse 14, and he repeats it again. And he says, now in the presence of his people, Spurgeon said this, a good thing is worth saying twice. That's what he comments on about the fact that this verse is the same in verse 14 as it is in verse 18. But he's gonna do it in the presence of all his people, verse 19, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem, praise the Lord." You know, our praise to God is wonderful when we're alone in our quiet time and we're worshiping the Lord, but how much more wonderful is it to praise the Lord with others of God's people, whether that's in your home and family worship or whether it's in the church, that's always a good thing. And of course, we long to worship together, all of us together. We're still separated somewhat because of this virus pandemic, but how wonderful to worship the Lord in the place that he has ordained with the people of God. We long for that in the here and now, just to be able for everybody to come back to church and enjoy being in church, singing and worshiping and praising God together with God's people. But you know the good news is, one day, We won't just be with our family. We won't just be with our church family. We will be with every person who is trusted in Christ for salvation from all eternity, from as far back in history and as long as history proceeds forward. All of those people will be gathered and put into the choir of God in heaven, where we will together worship the Lord forever, without hindrance, perfectly, forever and ever and ever. How wonderfully, how wonderfully the psalmist preaches the gospel in this psalm. I hope you've heard the gospel enough times in this to see that. And what is the gospel? It's real simple. Number one, all people are hopelessly lost, hopelessly lost. Number two, Jesus saves not only by forgiving, but also by changing our hearts. and liberating us from bondage to sin. Oh, how I pray that the words of this psalm thrill your heart so that you, too, along with the psalmist, want to praise the Lord now and forever. Amen. Father in heaven, we are so grateful for the salvation that you have brought to your children through your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for rescuing us from our hopeless situation. Thank you for changing our hearts, the hearts of we who are saved. And may we walk in this newness of life as you have transformed us and as you continue to transform us into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. Father, please, may we grow in grace and our knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we also pray, Father, that you would change the hearts of those who are not saved. We think of many who we know and who we love, who have no thought, no interest, no desire for you whatsoever, even as we did not, most of us, at some point in our lives, but you changed us. And we pray, God, that by your grace, you would give that same saving mercy to those who are yet lost in sin that you gave to us who have been freed from it. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ and for his eternal glory. Amen.