Psalm 92, a psalm or song for the Sabbath day. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High, to show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. Upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the psaltery upon the heart with a solemn sound. For thy Lord has made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works, and thy thoughts are very deep. A prudish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this. When the wicked spring of the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish It is that they shall be destroyed forever. For Thou, O Lord, art most high forevermore. For lo, Thine enemies, O Lord, for lo, Thine enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn shall Thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. My eye also shall see my desire of my enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing. To show that the Lord is upright, He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. Amen. May God bless the reading of his word tonight for Jesus sake. Now before I preach I'm going to close the window because it's giving me a nuisance. I don't know if you find it hard to concentrate when the outside noise is going but it puts me off completely. So Psalm 92 is where we're reading and the first thing I think which is good to get is to try and catch a feeling of this passage or of any bible passage when we come to read or study it and I think as we read it and take it overall that we find it's an intensely personal psalm the writer here from the very beginning to the very end is speaking to God directly and not direct and constant intercourse with God Almighty certainly amongst other things it implies a tremendous confidence I suppose it's true to say in every relationship that we have we must have confidence to address somebody personally and directly. We must know a person well enough and that person must have conveyed to us that they are approachable and that we can come to them. Otherwise to speak to somebody directly, personally, intimately which we do not know, who we do not understand on occasions may be taken as presumption. And I suppose that's especially so when we address a dignitary, somebody who has a higher or is in a higher position in society. However, it is the height of presumption to address God in that way, in a face-to-face friend kind of a way without knowing him and without knowing him well enough to speak to him so personally and intimately. And yet tonight the wonderful thing is that when we address God in our praises, And when we address God in our prayers we can be confident God's love in Christ gives us tonight both the faith and the feeling that we can speak to him as a friend, that we are on personal terms with him. That means tonight we are most intensely privileged people that this world has seen. We can speak to God directly through our mediator. I think the feeling of the psalm is brought out even more by the use of the personal pronouns In verses from verse 1 right down to verse 10 there are various personal pronouns that are used, the word thy, the word thy, thine and so on. And you will find I think no less than 12 times the psalmist speaks of God in those terms of the personal pronoun. So he seems to be one, in fact he is one who is absorbed with God, he is taken up with the object of his faith, he is taken up with the object of his feeling and his love. That's a wonderful position to be in. It's in that position that we get a fresh experience of the goodness and greatness and love of God. Do you remember the writer of the Revelation said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. This is what it means to be in the Spirit. When we're in the Spirit we're taken up with Him personally. That's why I said a moment or two ago, it's an intensely personal psalm. And of course the writer couldn't be absorbed with God, the praises of God and so on. If he hadn't some kind of personal experience of God Almighty. Sometimes people think the talk of personal experience gives glory to man rather than glory to God. Well if it's the right kind of experience it does nothing of the sort. The reason I suppose for people speaking like that may be ignorance of the scriptures, maybe an attempt to avoid the issue of one's own experience or maybe perhaps an overreaction at times to the apparently experience centred attitude and approach of the charismatic movement. But nevertheless here in the psalm, the psalmist praises God, he is absorbed with God because of his own personal experience with God. Here is a man who is talking about his experience. Was his religion therefore necessarily an experience centred religion? Could we really seriously lay that charge to the account of the man who God describes as the one after his own heart? Is his religion experience centred simply because he talks about his experience? No, it's nothing of the sort. His relationship with God is deeply personal. The Lord had worked for him mighty works of goodness and grace in his life and when he talks about his experience he's not eulogising himself, he's not praising his feelings or so on, he's praising the God who had done so much for him. It's a wonderful thing to talk about our personal experiences of the goodness of God. And it's really that, you know, with the psalmist and with us as well, it is really that. It is personal experience with God that fuels confidence and that fuels worship. We see that very clearly in verse 4. The psalmist says, Thy Lord has made me glad through thy work. Do you realize tonight, I'm sure you do if you're a Christian, that you are part of that work. Bible says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works we are part of the work of God and we know it within we know the chains that he's wrought within and others can see it and they understand it and therefore we have to say that that's the thing which fuels our confidence and our praise and our worship that's the thing which gives us hope when we pray right down from verse 10 to 15 he's again talking about really personal experience he says my horn shall God exalt I shall be anointed with fresh oil, my eyes shall see my desire on my enemies, and I shall flourish, verse 12, I shall flourish in the courts of my God, verse 13. He is my rock, verse 15, there is no unrighteousness in him. This is personal testimony. The psalmist knows God intimately. Thank God and the Lord Jesus we also know Him intimately and therefore this means something to us. This is an intensely personal psalm. not only a personal psalm but of course a psalm of praise and when we come to verse 2 we have that very interesting words which say to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. I took out my wee computer to look up the expression every morning and every night to see where it occurs in the bible and it only occurs two or three times the two expressions together in the morning and evening or every morning and every night. This is one of them. To show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. In this psalm of praise you will notice firstly the season of praise. Of course the psalm opens as a psalm for the Sabbath day and it is expressly for the Lord's day. It is quite a unique title. In fact you don't find it in any other psalm in the book of the Psalms. And even though the other Psalms were used by Jews in public worship and on the Sabbath day, yet we are told here directly that Psalm 92 was specifically set aside, specially set aside for that occasion. What makes this title and this Psalm even more unique is that it contains the only reference in the whole of the book of the Psalms to the word Sabbath. So that makes it special and it means that the Sabbath day, the Lord's day when we meet on the weekends or rather the beginning of the week when we meet on the first day of the week we devote that time to worship and to praising our great God and our Saviour and yet while this is set aside for the Sabbath at the same time our text also shows us that really this is the Christians activity for every day to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night not just in the Sabbath but every day following Every day following the Sabbath, leading into the new Sabbath and on to the next new week we are experiencing God's loving kindness and His graces are showered upon us day by day. We are daily as the Bible says loaded with benefits. We are heavy with the grace of God. We are loaded with benefits. And because of that, every day is a season of praise. Verse 2 first of all it says, Let's show forth His loving kindness in the morning. Perhaps there is no more time of the day more favourable to worship than the morning when body and mind are refreshed by our sleep and we are fitted to praise God with freshness of spirit. And then of course before we enter into the day's duties and responsibilities we can praise God if we have the right place, praise him without the nuisance of interruption. And praising God at the beginning of the day of course prepares us for all the difficulties that we have to encounter, the calmness All that strength which accrues from worshipping God early in the day enables the believer to meet with those fresh challenges and those fresh trials which come his way. And I think that's borne out by the life of Jesus. Remember the example of our Lord, the Bible says, In the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. So note the words, he did it in the morning. In the morning, before day he went out and departed to a solitary place and there prayed. So the season of prayer is outlined in verse 2 and in the title of course. And then verse 2 also speaks about God's faithfulness every night. Although the Lord has set aside one day and seven for worship as the title of this psalm brings out to us, yet our praise of him isn't limited to that day and our experience of the faithfulness of God isn't limited to that day. There is cause for beginning and ending the day in the same way with thanksgiving and with adoration. The praising of God, I think, in the night season brings refreshment to the soul after the toils of the day. The stillness and the rest of the evening are favourable for reflection. The blessings of the day and the needs of the night demand of us and command the praise of God's people. Think of all that the Lord has done for us this day. He's put breath in our body. He's put food on our table, He's put clothes on our back, He's put warmth in our homes, He's put a shelter over our head. He's done not only that for us personally, He's done that for our loved ones, our wives and our children. He's supplied the money to get the things that we need to make life comfortable and easy. He's done all that and He's given us grace when the trial has come and He's opened our eyes to see our sin and He's brought us to a place where we've recognised our own way. He's done those things. And he does those things day by day. There's mistakes that we make along the way and the Lord opens our eyes and reveals them to us and we ask him for pardon and he gives us pardon. And every day he continues to fulfil his word to us. The sun rises on the just as well as on the wicked. And the rain that refreshes the earth, that's to our benefit as well. Everything that God does is a token of his faithfulness to his people. In fact the reason why we're here is not really so much because we are faithful to Him, it is because He is faithful to us. The Bible says we are of His mercies that we are not consumed. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. Our God is a faithful God. And the praising of God in the night season is important. As I said a moment or two ago, the blessings of this day and the needs of the night demand that we praise God. and those things command the praise of God's people. We are going to go to sleep later hopefully, have a good night's rest hopefully and we do it only because God is faithful. The Bible says he giveth his beloved sleep, he gives his beloved sleep and he did that of course for Jesus didn't he? Even in the storm there he was in the hindered part of the vessel asleep on the pillow because the Lord gives his beloved sleep. The Lord was faithful to his own son and those of us who are in Christ he is equally faithful to us, he never fails us, never leaves us, never forsakes us. So here we have the seasons of praise, the morning and the evening. The second thing I want you to know is the subject of praise. We have already touched upon that a little but the first subject of praise in verse 2 is God's loving kindness. Again I got out the concordance and looked up the use of the word loving kindness and interestingly It never occurs in the New Testament. Not that the New Testament doesn't talk about the loving kindness of God in other ways, but the word loving kindness is never used in the New Testament. It's used however no less than 29 times in the Old Testament, once in the book of Isaiah, once in the book of Hosea, four times in the book of Jeremiah, but the overwhelming number, 23 references to God's loving kindness are in the book of the Psalms. It's a very beautiful word. Sometimes we think about people's kindnesses or gifts. But there is a fine difference between gifts and kindnesses and loving kindness. I think loving kindness describes not only what God does, but the way in which he does it. Not only that he gives, but the manner and the spirit with which he gives. When he opens his hand, it's not begrudged to us. In fact the gospel expresses it perfectly. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? That is kindness, but more than that it is loving kindness. The Hebrew word for loving kindness signifies a kind of sense of benignity. It indicates love, desire, ardor, zeal, mercy, pity to the poor and needy. So whenever God shows kindness, he shows it not because he's been constrained to do it, but because he out of his own free will desires to do it. Not only because he desires to do it, but when he shows it, he does it zealously. Anything God put his hand to, he didn't put his hand to half-heartedly. And when God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world out of his loving kindness, he did it zealously and willingly. And every other expression of His mercy, every other expression of His goodness to His people is done in the same way. Think of a Spurgeon maybe that said when he was referring about God's loving kindness to the cross, the manner of Christ is grandly gracious. He saves us rejoicingly. That's the loving kindness of God. Love, desire, ardor, zeal for its objects. benevolence, mercy, pity to the poor and needy and in the case of God's loving kindness to unworthy sinners it is mercy and it is pity to the undeserving. What's the only thing that can give us assurance when we are convicted about something that we have done wrong? What's the only thing that can comfort us when we feel our guilt and understand what we are before God who is holy? The only thing that can comfort us and help us is his loving kindness Psalm 51 verse 1 after being guilty of blood guiltiness as he describes it and after his other sins related to that David said have mercy upon me O God not according to my faithfulness and attendance at your house or anything else have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness the loving kindness of God is inextricably linked in the Bible to his mercy to according he says to the multitude of thy tender mercies Blot out my transgression. The reason why we are born again tonight is again, not because of the church sacrament, but because of God's loving kindness. That's why the psalmist in Psalm 119 says, quicken me, that is bring me to new life, quicken me after thy loving kindness. You are the only way that you can obey God. It's not so much because of your love for God that gives you the power to obey Him, it's His love for you that gives you the power to obey Him. Again David says, quicken me after thy lovingkindness, so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. Then God's lovingkindness is the thing really that has planned and devised our whole redemption from beginning to end. It's that lovingkindness also which effects God's eternal purpose towards us. Listen to these words of Jeremiah. He says, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee? I was reading a statement by Billy Graham some time ago and he said this he said I willed myself to Jesus Christ well men may come willingly to Jesus that's a lot different than saying I willed myself to Jesus Christ God says therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee? The old hymn writer put it like this was thy great love which spread the feast, and gently drew me in, or else I had refused to come, and perished in my sin. And then it's love and kindness which unites us eternally with Jesus. Hosea says, I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yeah, I will betroth thee unto me, listen to this, in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving kindness and in mercies. In loving kindness and in mercies. William J. the Great Puritan comments, He says notice here the permanency of our relationship with God. Christians can never be in a widowed state. They can never lose their defence or glory. Nothing is precarious in God's transactions with his people and how delightful in a world of changes to know that Jesus does not change and therefore we shall not be consumed because of his loving kindness. No God is a God who delights in loving kindness. And he exercises it every day with pleasure. Jeremiah says this, let him the glory of glowingness that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercises loving kindness. Loving kindness. When you are depressed, know the best medicine for the downcast soul. It's a loving kindness of God. The psalmist, well he had his ups and downs too. It wasn't always a bed of roses for David. And yet when he was able to look at himself and say, oh, be not cast down, oh my soul, hope thou in God. Psalm 42 verse 8 he says, yet the Lord, listen, will command his loving kindness in the day time and in the night time my prayer shall be unto him, the God of my life. In fact, in the final analysis, there is nothing more important than God's loving kindness. That's why he says elsewhere, thy loving kindness Well it's not just better than silver, it's not just better than gold, it's not just better than temple things, it's not just better than the things that we can see and feel, the tangible things. Thy loving kindness is better even than life. God's loving kindness will carry us from this life into the next life to be forever with Jesus which is far better. Tonight we're here in this meeting because of God's loving kindness. We have today freedom which we have enjoyed for a long time. In other parts of the world our Christian brothers and sisters are being put to the death and terrible tortures for their faith. Not that God doesn't love them because he is taking them to heaven but that God should give us the peace and the freedom to worship him in this country when our country has largely turned its back on God despite all his favours. All we can say is the reason why we have freedom tonight to come to this place is because of God's loving Kindness is loving kindness. But we've also caused to rejoice when we remember the faithfulness of God. And I like the way these two things are united here. You're not only of God's loving kindness, but you've got his faithfulness. To show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. So those two things are to be taken together as reasons for worshipping. Loving kindness and faithfulness. Those two things are very important with regard to our security. Spurgeon says this, he says, Eternal love, the loving kindness of God and his immutable faithfulness are the bodyguards of Jesus' throne and they are both the providers and preservers of all those who are in him and made kings and priests unto God. We cannot keep ourselves And nothing short of divine mercy and truth can do it, but these both can and will, nor shall the least of God's people be suffered to perish. So we've got cause to remember the faithfulness of God. The word faithfulness is also an interesting word. It means in the original firmness. Determination to keep one's promises. It means to stay, to support somebody with the arm. accused of a father or mother carrying a child. It means also to be perennial accused of a covenant, an unfailing covenant. And it describes what God is in his very nature. He is the faithful God. Have you not found that tonight in your own personal experience with him? Have you not found that God is faithful? Have we not all found that God has been faithful to us when we have been afflicted? The Bible says, Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, and he remembereth that we are but dust. He is faithful when we are afflicted. He is faithful to us when we are chastised. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, saith the book, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. He is faithful to us when we are tempted. when we have fallen into trial he says God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it you know when those temptations come which are intense and strong and apparently insurmountable and yet you have got over them the reason why you have got over them is because God today has been faithful to you and then he is faithful in signifying us having finished his work for us on the cross he is going to finish his work in us by the Spirit of God he is faithful to us when we confess our sins in fact he is bound himself to do it if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins he is faithful to us in our assurances his assurances of our standing in Jesus every way he is faithful stories told about a mother and her son who were both converted in gospel meetings and sometime afterward the mother was having a hard time of it in life and was beginning to doubt whether or not she was a real Christian and a little boy came down with a bible to her and opened it up to John 6 verse 37 the text which brought them God's salvation and said look mummy it's still in the book, it's still in the book God is faithful to us in his assurances His loving kindness during the day assures us that he will continue to hold us during the night and when we go to rest tonight despite all the evils and dangers around us we can say confidently I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thy Lord only maketh me dwell in safety and you know for all these things God just asks us to do one thing in return to show forth his loving kindness and his faithfulness morning and evening. Not just to tell it out but to live it out. To have not only thankful lips and thankful heart but to live thankfully. Somebody put it like this, thanks living is even better than thanks giving. The final thing I want you to see here is the excellence of praise. Verse 1 opens with this wonderful statement. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. It's nice to find the good things in life. This is one of them. It is a good thing to give thanks. You know why it's good? It's good because God deserves it. It's what we owe to Him. He has a right to it. Only He. And He has a right to it because He's the Most High. The Most High God is not under obligation to do anything for us. Not the least thing. What are we? The Bible says the nations are just as the drop of a bucket. And that's what the nations are like. What's one individual not like in his insignificance? And yet this Most High God has been so kind to us. Doesn't he deserve praise? Praise is good not only because he deserves it, but because how it benefits us. Note here the psalmist speaks to God, he addresses him directly, he says, to sing praises to thy name, O thou Most High. It is clear that he's not bound by fear to the worship of God. He's enjoying this. He says by experience, it's good. I've found that it's good to give thanks to God and I've found that it helps me. If you're mindful of God's mercies you'll always have cause to praise Him and your gratitude will actually strengthen you personally for doing it. That's why he says it's a good thing. It's good for me. I will get something out of it myself. With reverence we say God will get something out of it. With reverence we say and with hope we say I'm going to get something out of it. It's good for me as well as for him. Praise is good when it has the sanction of God's word. Somebody put it like this. Singing is good because it's the music of nature. Praising is good because it's the music of ordinances or the practice of ordinances. It's the practice of angels and it's the practice of those who are in heaven singing praises and giving thanks. We not only have the sanction of God's word for our praise. But this psalm interestingly deals also with the music as well as the manner of our praise on him. In verse 3 it says, Upon the instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery, and upon the harp with a solemn sound. That instrument of ten strings is an old musical instrument known as a deca-chord. The psaltery was a kind of harp or dulcimer which is supposed to have been like the guitar said to have had twelve strings triangular in shape. The harp was an ancient harp which was played with a hand. What this verse is really saying is really that God's worship is something that deserves a variety of good music. A full range of everything should be brought into the worship of God Almighty. It should be a happy thing, it should be a joyous thing, it should be a pleasurable thing. And then one final thought, we've got the manner of our praising Him. The manner of praising God makes it excellent. to show forth thy loving kindness upon these instruments with a solemn sound. Sometimes Christian music can be raucous, then sometimes it can also be a dirge. There is nothing worse than the two extremes, raucous music or something that is a dead dirge. But when our hearts are in tune with Jesus for what he has done, then we can sing with full hearts to him and that that brightens up every aspect of our praise and devotion. Something happens to you when God takes the music of the musician to you. And it can't be explained scientifically, it's impossible to explain it scientifically, it's a spiritual thing. You remember that when Saul had that spirit of depression heavy on him, what did God use? He used the playing of the psalmist of Israel, David himself upon his heart. and the spirit of Saul was refreshed. Then we think about Elijah, 2nd Kings says and when the minstrel played the spirit of the Lord came upon Elijah. I can't explain that scientifically, neither can you. All we know is that there is a very definite connection between Christian worship, Christian music and the spiritual empowerment of God's people. No wonder he says it is a good thing to give thanks and to sing praises and to bring the instruments into God's house and use and worship with him. No wonder he says it's a good thing because it glorifies God and it benefits us. So may the Lord help us. May the Lord help us to be those that not only show for his death but also show forth his loving kindness and his faithfulness every night. It's a good thing that we enter into the goodness and the good work of praising and worshipping our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.