All right, you can be attorney Bible to Psalm 140 I believe it is, but we're completing our series. We've done two quarters on the Psalms. And putting that today, there are new books available for the new quarter. We're moving back to the New Testament. So make sure you get a copy of the new quarterly. They should be in the foyer. See Brother Gary Galt if you don't have a copy of that. Thankful for our auditorium class. Thankful for your faithfulness and giving not only for projects like Operation Christmas Child, a shoebox ministry, you gave $150 for the shipping cost there, and then also your support of Baptist Faith Missions. End of year Thanksgiving to the end of the year is always a very crucial time for Baptist faith missions. I think perhaps 20% of the support for Baptist faith missions comes in around Thanksgiving time into the year. So pray for that Thanksgiving offering for Baptist faith missions and thank you for your faithfulness in giving to Baptist faith missions over and above what our church sins. We appreciate this class's faithfulness. All right. the series where we're going to be looking at the last Psalms of the book. It's the hymn book, the Hebrew hymn book it's sometimes called. The Psalms cover a period of time from Moses. Psalm 90 is written by Moses, so that would be about 1400 years before Christ. And then Psalm 137, is written about the time of the Babylonian captivity, which would be about 500 years before Christ. And so it's about 1,000 years of writing, collecting Psalms. Obviously, the most famous author of the Psalms is probably David, but it's very clear David could not have written the Psalms before him, and certainly not the Psalms after him, but they are collected together in these five books. Each of the five books concludes with a doxology. Book one ends in Psalm 41, ends with a doxology. Psalm 72 ends the second book with a doxology, Psalm 89, Psalm 106 and then from really from 145 to 150 the whole book is ended with a series of doxologies. Doxology means a word of praise to give glory. We think of course about giving glory to God. In the Ryrie Study Bible, we're told there are many different types of songs. There are messianic songs, songs about the Messiah. Many study Bibles put a star, a five-point star, by the songs that are considered messianic or by the verses that are considered messianic. Some of them are very obvious, like Psalm 22 about the crucifixion. There are lament songs where the psalmist, the writer, is weeping poetically, crying out, asking for help, sadness, funeral dirges, you might say. Lament, there's actually a book of poetry in the Bible called Lamentations, written by Jeremiah. He writes a prophetical book, but he also wrote a book of poetry about lamentations. And then there are testimonial songs, sometimes called biographical songs, songs about events in somebody's life. There are pilgrim songs, songs that the people would sing on their journeys from wherever they were to visit the holy city of Jerusalem. There are what Probably the most difficult Psalms are what we call imprecatory Psalms. That's the Psalms that God's people are crying out for God to judge someone or to punish someone or to remove some enemy of the people of God. It's a very difficult subject, but it's part of the Bible, so the Holy Spirit put it there. We have to try to study it and understand it. There are penitential psalms. That means psalms of repentance. I guess maybe the most famous is Psalm 51 when David writes a song after he's committed adultery and murder. And he has repented and been restored. And he writes a powerful, powerful song of repentance. There are wisdom psalms. They sometimes sound like the Book of Proverbs. There are Psalms about Israel's history, about the exodus, about creation. Those are historical psalms. And then there are psalms about nature, the stars, the sky, the trees, and the rivers, and they're psalms that celebrate the handiwork of God in his creative effort. Psalm 148 verse 13 is our key verse. Verse 13, let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth and heaven. We're going to find out that giving glory to God is not just a good thing to do. It's not just a religious ceremony and an appropriate thing, but actually giving glory to God is at the very Center of whether you have a right relationship with God or not Now it isn't giving God glory that saves you but if you are saved you will you're created newly created and intended to give glory to God and the people who are lost are The most significant thing about being lost and being unsaved is that people do not give glory to God. Romans 1 says that the very seed of sin and rebellion against God is nature and conscience tell us there's a God. It doesn't tell us about His love and His mercy and His grace, but creation And our own conscience tells us there's a God. And the natural man, apart from Christ, rejects that. He represses that. He resents that. They know there's a God and they refuse to acknowledge and they refuse to give glory to God. All sin, basically, is a rebellion against God. replacing the glory of God with our own interest. God's glory is very, very important. This chart's not perfectly displayed here, but this is my master theme of the Bible, the great circle theme. The God of glory creates and controls all things. He saves by grace through the gospel of Christ and two good works to the glory of God. Everything begins with a God of glory, everything Returns to the glory of God Ephesians chapter 2 says we are saved by grace through faith Not of ourselves, but we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Jesus said live so that people see your good works and glorify your father in heaven when a Christian does a good work God gets the glory. You think, well, shouldn't a Christian get the glory? No. God's grace and God's work in us gets the glory. He's the artist. He's the potter. We're the clay. We should be thankful that we're part of God's economy. Criswell, W. Criswell, a long-time famous pastor, before, as he neared death, he says, Lord, as I grow older, Anybody here growing older? Anyone? Okay, a few of us. I have news, all of us are growing older. Some are farther along, but anyway, growing older. As I grow older, may I not become cynical or bitter, but may my love for you be deeper and wider. May my faith in the things of glory be clearer the nearer I approach them. As we grow older, God's glory should become more evident to us and more expressed by us. And I may be sweet and kind, full of faith and full of hope in you. The student will join heaven and earth in praising the Lord. That's our author's desire for what the celestial should be to us. Here's our outline, Psalm 148, verses one through six. Let the heavens, there are three heavens. The first heaven is the atmosphere, the clouds, you might say, immediately above and around the earth. That's the first heaven. The second heaven is space, that's where you find the sun, the moon, the stars. That's the second heaven. There's a third heaven, the Bible says. You say, how do you know there's three? Because the Bible says there's a third heaven. So if there's a third heaven, there has to be a first and second. So we think the first is the atmosphere, let's say. Second is space. Third heaven is God's dwelling place. We do not know exactly on a star chart or a map exactly where that heaven is. I suspect that it's in a different dimension, not to be too science fiction about it, but I know it's there. I'm not sure it's accessible directly. I don't think you can fly a spaceship into the third heaven, let's say, or send a rocket into the third heaven, but the third heaven's there. It has never changed. God's throne has always been in the third heaven. The first and second heaven are going to pass away, the Bible says. They're going to be burned up with fervent heat and recreated, renewed. All things are gonna be made new. But the third heaven, that's a different matter. So we're gonna talk about the heavens praising the Lord, the earth, praising the Lord, verses 7 through 10, and then the people. So, verses 7 through 10 may be talking again about nature itself. The earth itself is a creation of God. God made the earth and caused it to be land and water, and he caused it to bring forth life. There's life in the sea, there's life in the air, there's life on the land, all the animal, plant, creation praises the Lord. Those creatures, animals, were cursed by sin through no fault of their own. The animals did not disobey God, but they are suffering the effects of the curse, and someday that animal and plant creation are going to be restored as well. So, you have the heavens, the earth, and then people themselves. Psalm 48, verses 1 through 6. Psalm of David Praise ye the Lord you're going to notice in these last several songs Psalm 145 through 150, that phrase is repeated over and over and over again. Every good Sunday school child knows this phrase in Hebrew. You've sung it many times. It's one of the favorite songs of the children in Bible school. Not my favorite song in Bible school, but it's their favorite song. And they love to sing, what do they like to sing? which means Crazy Lord. Just make sure you're awake. Make sure you're with me here. Pretty simple. Everybody here knows that that Hebrew word. So when you say it, hallelujah, you're saying, praise ye the Lord. Look how prominent it is in these verses. Praise ye the Lord. That's a command. It's an imperative. It's not reporting that we praise God. It's not announcing that we praise God. It's commanding that we, plural, praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens, Praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all His angels. Praise ye Him, all His host. We do not know the number of the holy angels. We do not know the number of the elect angels. Those angels that did not fall with Lucifer. They are an innumerable host. Many things we don't understand about the dimension in which they serve. Somehow they interact with us. Somehow they are ministering spirits to us. Somehow they are in charge of God's creation. God's preachers. I love to report what the Bible says about angels. I always warn people about don't become obsessed with trying to figure out what the angels are doing. You've probably got enough with your job. You've got your hands full being a human being. Don't be worried about the angels. They got their job description. They know what they're doing. Don't be looking over your shoulder wondering what the angels are doing. They're taking care of business. They're faithful. They are doing God's work. You say, well, I would like to know more about the angels. Me, I'd like to know more about how to do my job. And I'm thankful for the angels. I'm thankful that they are God's, what Billy Graham called them, God's secret agents. I'm content to leave that with them. But I do know there is a great host, a heavenly host, of angelic beings and they do praise the Lord. Sometimes when God pulls back the veil and lets us see the throne, we get a glimpse of some of the angels and there are different ranks and classes of angels. There are cherubim and seraphim and I've read a lot of interesting books about those jobs and you know, Some angels are very famous like Gabriel and Michael. They're mentioned by name in the Bible. So, we get a glimpse of the throne of God and apparently there are angels whose chief responsibility. They stand, I guess, as an honor guard around the throne of God. And they basically announce morning, noon, and night, continuously, I think, holy, holy, holy, praising God with their presence and with their voices. Praising Him, all His angels, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all ye stars of light. I love the way the Bible, when it talks about creation and the detail it gives about the creation of the dry land and the seas and the sun and the moon. And then the Bible just sort of adds, and he made the stars also. Now, if you know anything about astronomy, I have any interest in it. Don't confuse that with astrology. You can ignore the astrology, but the astronomy is fascinating, and studying the heavens declaring the handiwork of God. There are innumerable galaxies, there are innumerable constellations, there are innumerable stars. God sometimes uses the stars to represent an infinite number that can't be counted. And I don't know how many of you have ever given somebody a star at Christmas. Nobody's going to raise their hand now, I guess. A while back, they were selling, you could name a star after a loved one. Apparently, that's a deal. I'm not sure who has the property rights there or who has the right to sell it. But anyway, there are innumerable stars. And you say, what is their purpose? They praise God. You say, how do they do that? They do it by shining. Well, we'll get to that in a moment. But the stars, just by the expression of light, they honor God. They bring glory to God. The heavens declare his handiwork. We look up at the stars, and what should we conclude? God is great and powerful and a wonderful creator. God loves beauty. We've learned some things by the evidence, like the Hubble telescopes, the telescopes that go out into space and are able to see distant stars and photograph them, evidently there is great color in the stars that we can't see. They appear to us just as pinpoints of white light, as it were, but apparently there is great color, kaleidoscopic colors in space that we can't see. Apparently, I'm told, and I'm not a scientist, apparently there's also Sound. Say, well, we can't hear it. There's no way to carry the sound waves. But apparently, the universe is God's orchestra in some way. And it literally does praise God. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens. and you waters that be above the heavens. We're not always sure what the waters above the heavens are. Maybe that's the firmament. Clearly, the hydrological cycle of Earth, all of our water gets recycled. It eventually gets evaporated back up into the clouds. And I guess in some way, recycled, and then it rains down upon the earth, it falls on the earth, it flows across the continental divides, down the various streams and rivers, back into the bodies of water, and then we take out our needs, and we put it back into the river, and then it goes and gets evaporated back up into the It's really an amazing system that God has, how he stores that water in the firmament, in the clouds, and then he causes it to rain. Sometimes he causes it to snow. Think, where does snow come from? God sends snow and ice. Part of it because our Earth has It's not the paradise before the fall, so now there are seasons, and now there are warm and cold, hot and cold days and seasons, at least for points of the globe. The area in which we live, We get all four seasons, sometimes in the same day. We have a recognizable spring, usually a recognizable summer, fall. How many of you, autumn's your favorite? Anybody? Autumn, fall, your favorite season? Three? I was going for a bigger one. How many of you are spring people? Enjoy your hay fever. No, that's all right. Spring's great. How many of you love the heat of summer? Ed. How many winter people do we have? Greg's not in here, so. John likes winter. But anyway. So anyway, the waters, when you hear rainfall, You need to listen because you can hear the rain praising glory. Sometimes it shows His power, the winds and the rain. They are servants of God. You think, really? Does God control the weather? Yeah, we're gonna see in the Gospel according to Mark that Jesus has absolute control over the wind. He can say to the wind, peace, be still. The wind blows because God commands it to blow. The rain falls. When you hear rainfall, when you hear a waterfall, when you hear a babbling brook or a river rushing by, if you listen carefully, you can hear it praising God. It takes some faith to see that and to hear that. Yeah, I know it's not, we're not in tune to that with our natural mind or our natural ears, but a Christian can hear that water praising God. The wind rustling in the trees. here praising God let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were Created he also established them forever and ever he has made a decree which shall not pass Verse 7 through 10 is let the earth praise the Lord praise the Lord from the earth he dragons in all deeps this is one of those almost obscure references in the Bible to This dragon. Now, some people laugh and some people mock, but of course, they laugh and mock a lot of things in the Bible, so not surprised when they take this phrase and they say, oh, the Bible talks about dragons. You know why the Bible talks about dragons? Because there were, and maybe still are, dragons. I don't know. I've not been everywhere. I don't know everything. But these great beasts, I think there's historical evidence. There's certainly other evidence that these great creatures existed. Job talks about Behemoth. He talks about Leviathan, and I don't think it's any, you say, when were the dinosaurs created? Of course, they weren't always called dinosaurs, great lizards, until the 1840s, but that's just a made-up word which means great lizard. So the dragons and the dinosaurs, the Creation Museum has a wonderful exhibit about this if you'd like to read more about it. But why does God make such a variety of creatures? Well, it has to do with His creatorship, his love of variety and beauty. God didn't just make one kind of bird. There are lots of kinds of birds. So we were driving to church today. A bird swooped out of the low-hanging tree limb there on US 50. I thought it was going to hit us. It was huge. I concluded it was an owl. It was big. I'm thinking, man, that's going to crash through the windshield. But it didn't. Owls are not very good at flying, by the way. But anyway, it flew on. But I'm thinking, well, you've got the great big owls. And then you've got birds of prey. You've got eagles. You've got turkey buzzards. And then you've got the little songbirds. Do we have any bird watchers? Anybody okay Actually when you hear the birds singing they're praising God They are God provides for them their food God is aware when a sparrow falls We were walking the other day and we found that It's that little scene at the foot of a utility pole that was small to a woodpecker. And it was lying there dead. I picked it up appropriately and bagged it. buried it, not appropriately, but I'm thinking it was unharmed. It didn't look like it had been hit by a car or it was not disfigured in any way. I concluded that maybe it electrocuted itself up there on that utility pole. I don't know. They're dangerous places. So I assume that that The fellow was someplace he shouldn't have been, and maybe killed himself. But I'm thinking, as I was, we noticed it, trying to keep our dogs away from it, and I'm thinking, you know, God took note of that bird falling to the ground. That's why I took note and picked it up, you know, and disposed of the body, because, well, for one thing, I didn't want to leave it there children to play with or other pets to be distracted by. I'm thinking, ah, God knew when that bird fell from the sky. You think, does God really pay attention to those things? The Bible says he does. But dragons and deeps, fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling his word. The earth is in apparent chaos. But it's not beyond the control of God. The earth does groan and travail because of the sin curse. But it's not groaning and travailing. It has not spun out of God's control. You think, well, does God use tornado and hurricane and stormy wind to fulfill his word? Yes, he does. He determines their boundaries. He determines their patterns. Now, recognize this, that God's sovereign control over creation is way above our We're never going to be able to figure it out. It's like, well, how come God does it this way? How come God does it that way? How come he arranges this? We're not going to be able to figure out. We can't figure out the how of it. Brother Steve was laughing about predicting the weather. I don't know if you noticed. Which day did it snow? Thursday? Thursday. That was supposed to be a dusting in our area. It wasn't bad or anything, but I'm thinking, we set a record that day. I don't know if you're proud about those things. We set a Cincinnati record for snowfall on that day. How many of you knew that? Did you get a certificate or anything? A record. Nobody saw a record-setting snowfall. Nobody predicted that. Except maybe Gary Rutherford said we could get from one to four feet or something. He was joking. He was joking. So his prediction was actually pretty close. It was somewhere between that. But I'm thinking, they didn't predict a record-setting snowfall. You know why? Because they have models. It could happen, and sometimes they're very close to being right. I really like Brother Steve's plan. If it's cold, put a coat on. If it's raining, get an umbrella. That's a flawless plan. All I know is Kim told us Wednesday night, she said, let's stay away from Kroger because they're predicting snow. But mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl. Do what? Praise the Lord. Verse 11, here we do the third part. We have the heavens, the earth, and then the people. Kings of the earth, and all people, princes, and all judges of the earth, the mighty, the powerful, the potentates, Both young men and maidens, old men and children. What? Notice each of those verses ends with a colon because the thought's not finished. It's just saying these categories of people. You've got your kings, your princes, your judges. You've got young men and young women, old men and children. Someone pointed out, they said, does it mention the old women here? Why are you chuckling? It says, young men and maidens. We think that's young women. Old men and children. I'm not sure I should tell you this. Why doesn't it mention old women? Well, are you going to call women old? They're all maidens. Don't go around guessing women's ages. Amen. Are you one of the old women, or are you one of the? Apparently, no, I'm not sure why that is. But I'm sure the older women do get to show up in here somewhere. But they're just included in that maidens section. the women, the old men, and the children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is excellent. This is our key verse. His glory is above the earth and heavens. He also exalts the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints. God deals with nations. He made Abraham the father of the many nations, a blessing to many nations. There's actually a nation that comes out of the descendants of Abraham. It's called Israel. That's the nation that you see in the Old Testament. Eventually, it divides into Judah and Israel, but it's the nation of God. And then, of course, there are His saints. That's all the saved. All the saved are the saints of God. Saints are not special. Order of believers or Christian Saints are all the believers all those who put their faith in God. I believe the Saints include. believers from the Old Testament the New Testament all the same are the Saints the set-apart by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit to faith in the gospel that that's the Saints even of the children of Israel a people near unto him there is a physical Israel in the Bible the nation of Israel there's ethnic Israel there's also spiritual Israel There's a sense in which everyone who's a believer is, in that sense, the seed of Abraham, the descendant of Abraham. We are spiritual Israel. What's the command? Praise ye the Lord. Why did God make everything for his glory? Why did God create everything? For His glory. Why did God create man? To His glory. When man fell and refused to glorify God, the whole plan of redemption is God rescuing us so that we may be saved, so that we may give glory to God. Now, I think we give glory to God In two ways, we give glory to God by our words, singing, praying, preaching, teaching, saying hallelujah. We're praising God. Now only you know if it's coming from your heart or not. But we do praise God with our mouth. And we also praise God with our work. Christianity is not just sitting in church or standing in church singing songs and saying, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. It includes that. But Christianity includes being a good husband, being a good wife, being a good father, being a good mother, being a good worker at whatever Work God calls you to do in the home out of the home Artisans craftsmen workmen teachers lawyers Doctors nurses you say how how are they praising God? Well, they're praising God by doing everything they do the Bible says to the glory of God and Christian surgeons should be doing surgery to the glory of God. You say, well, I'm doing this to help people. I'm doing this to make people have better health. Yes, but everything you do should be done to the glory of God. Do everything to the glory of God. You build a house. Build a house to the glory of God. You say, well, people get to live in it, and people, you know, get to have a roof over their head. Yes, that's actually secondary. It's a blessing, but the glory goes to God. That's why God gives us talents. That's why God gives us our abilities. Because all these useful things, in that way we're not unlike of the creatures. Why does this songbird sing this tune? Because it gives glory to God. Why is it different from another songbird? Why is their voice different? When the cattle are crying in the field, Well, they're hungry or they they want to they want water or whatever but their voices give glory to God They fulfill their purpose for that which God has appointed in them everything I'm gonna close with Psalm 150. You're close there. This is the last song. This is the Hallelujah song. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the psaltery and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals. Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Father bless the Sunday school hour Bless this series. We've been Studied in the Psalms these two quarters now bless our attention as we turn to the book of Galatians and that study bless every Sunday school class every teacher every students every from the toddlers to the teens to the adult classes, and help us to praise you with song today, with prayer, with preaching, with teaching, with fellowship. Father, just give us the joy of the Lord in all we do, for we live to bring glory to you. In Jesus' name, amen.