I want to thank the auditory class for your gifts for Baptist Faith Missions. August, the gifts were $169. Total so far for the year 2024, $1,714 for Baptist Faith Missions. That's over and above what you give to the church and for our regular giving, but that's our Sunday school class mission project. So thank you for your faithfulness. All right, today we're starting a new year, but really we're staying in the same section of the Bible, Psalm 73. We're actually in book number three. I think Brother Gary mentioned this last Sunday. I hope you can see this. Yeah, let's see. You can't see it, move closer. That's the book of Psalms, the five books of Psalms, really. Book one, we looked at books one and two, Psalm one through Psalm 72, and as Brother Gary read last Sunday, it seems to conclude King David's contribution to the Psalms, although the book of Psalms actually covers the entire history of the children of Israel from Moses, Psalm 90 is Moses, written by Moses, the prayer of Moses, and then Psalm 137 was actually written by the Israelites as they were taken captive by the Babylonians, that would be It's about 600 years before Christ. So some would say that about a thousand years of Hebrew history covered by the Psalms. And of course, David writes a lot of them, especially in Book 1 and 2, and then other authors later on. This chart from Chuck Schwendahl is a Bible survey. He sees an analogy, as most people do, with the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Psalm, Book 1, Genesis, looking today at book three, and that corresponds to Leviticus, on to book four, Numbers, book five, Deuteronomy. Those are the sections. If you have a good study Bible, a good help server Bible, you'll probably have these books identified for you in the column or in the heading of your Bible. Spindolf says the first book is personal, second book devotional, third book is liturgical or worship, and historical. That's what we're going to see today about praise. Then the general theme in the book four. And then prophecy. A lot of prophecy and things about the future in book number five. Each book ends with a doxology. Psalm 41, Psalm 72, Psalm 89, Psalm 106, and Psalm 150, of course, used with the doxology for the entire book of the Psalms. It was really their hymnal, the Hebrew hymnal, the book of the Psalms. is about this poor, we worship God for who he is and what he has done. Key verse, Psalm 1914. It's one of those things, Christ in Psalms is anticipated, portrayed, and prophesied as the coming king, the redeemer, the loving shepherd, and the righteous sufferer. This quarter we're going to look at the qualities in God's holy character that would prompt us to praise Him. Our focus this Sunday is Psalm 73 through Psalm 78, focusing in Psalm 76. Psalm 76 verse 4, our key verse, Thou art more glorious and excellence than the mountains of prey." Up in the mountains where the lions and the mountain lions would stalk their prey, the psalmist is making a picture of how glorious God is, more powerful and more defeated than the mountains of prey. Celebrating God's greatness and sovereignty over his enemies. Simple outline. The God of Israel, verses one and two. He protects his people, verses three through nine. And that makes us, should make us want praise the Lord. Psalm 76. To the chief musician, on Neganoth, Neganoth. Does anybody have a marginal note that explains what Neganoth is? What is Neganoth? Does anybody have any suggestions? Does anyone suggest it's a musical instrument? A stringed instrument? That's what mine says. Mine says, stringed instrument. Some kind of musical instrument and that was best suited for this song. So sometimes these titles refer to a particular event, like some of them are biographical or autobiographical, in the case of David, some event in his life. It may have to do with some other worship event, but most of what I've seen is Nekanoff is saying, play it on this instrument. Just like some songs are better for a guitar than they are for a piano or for reeds or trumpets and so forth and so on, perhaps this song was best suited for this particular stringed instrument. a song or a song of Asaph. In Judah, in Judah is God known. His name is great in Israel. In Salem, and I think this is referring to Jerusalem, in Salem also is his tabernacle. There break ye the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. We run into this notation many times in Psalm, this word silah. Some people thought it was a musical notation. I've read some who say it means like to repeat. like to read that again. Some people say it's well similar to Amen, or think about this, or isn't that wonderful, or this is good news. But it calls for some thought meant to have a moment of silence where people can think about what you just read. It does cause us to come to a full stop. Verse number four, thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. Our English Bible here, our King James Version, helps us because the thou is singular. It's not talking about a lot of people or others. It's not talking about the nation of Israel. It's talking about God himself. God is glorious and excellent. The South Arctic are spoiled. They have slept their sleep, and none of the men of might have found their hands." In other words, men who think they're strong, men who think they're capable, men of war, they've been defeated. that slept their sleep, that's probably a euphemism for they have died, and they cannot rise up against God. If I rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep. The most dreaded instruments of warfare in the Old Testament would have been, along with the weapons of iron, would have been the chariots and the horses that pulled them, great, powerful war horses and maybe several horses that would, their very presence, their very size would have cast fear into men on foot, fear of being trampled by the horses, fear of being run over by the chariots. The horses would have worn some armament and the chariots would have been some protection for their soldiers that were in the chariots. Chariots and horses in the Old Testament are just like state-of-the-art weaponry. And from the chariots, the archers could fire, or they could wield swords, or they could just use the horses to advance. They were like the cavalry of the Old Testament. And so when the chariots show up, usually men on foot are dismayed. That's why the Hebrews would often find shelter in the mountains, in mountainous terrain, not just so they had the high ground, but also because it was much more difficult for the chariots and the horses to maneuver up into the mountains. So the Israelites would often take shelter in the mountains because then the enemy would have to dismount, the enemy would have to come afoot. And with God, he says, God's not impressed by a chariot and horses. There's another place in the Old Testament where God actually rebukes the Israelites because when they were disobeying God and they were being threatened by enemies, for some of them the solution was, well, we'll go to Egypt and we'll get some horses and chariots. We'll get some better weapons. And what they needed to do was turn back to God, repent, ask God to help them. God is not impressed by a horse and a chariot. Thou, God, even God, is to be feared, and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? The wrath of God is sometimes a very hard truth for us to accept, especially our culture and our Western mind. Even Christianity has sometimes tried to pose a contrast between the God of the New Testament, whom he's loving, he's gracious, he's merciful, and the God of the Old Testament, he's wrathful and angry with the wicked every day, and to greatly be feared, so as though we're two different gods. The problem with that theory about God is, we've been reading the Psalms, And it's very clear that God in the Old Testament can be versatile and gentle, kind, and helpful. I mean, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. That sounds like a gentle, loving, caregiving, helpful God. And in the New Testament, if you read the entire New Testament, even Jesus warns about the day of God's wrath, the day of God's judgment, judgment coming for Jerusalem and judgment coming for the Israel of God as they rejected him. And then you get into the epistles and the letters warning about the wrath of God coming and the book of Revelation is full of judgment and the day of God's wrath is described My point being is there's only one God. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. The God of the New Testament is the God of the Old Testament. can be merciful, God can be gracious, God can be loving, God can be forgiving, and God can also and must be holy and righteous. And yes, He does have wrath for the wicked. The good news for believers is God's wrath is all poured out on Christ on the cross. God made Him to be sin for us. Thou, even thou art in fear, and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven, and the earth feared and was still. When God arose to judgment to save all the weak of the earth, see mine. So, you'll remember here, quickly, the outline. God of Israel is described in verses 1 and 2. Verse 1 says, He is known. God can be known. God can be perceived. Now, we can't understand everything about God, but then again, we don't always know everything about another person. It may not be a profound illustration, but... Sometimes you say, well, I didn't really know them that well. You can know a person's name, and you can work with them, or be their neighbor. And you come to a point, you say, yeah, I really don't know them that well. I didn't know that about them. I didn't know this characteristic. I didn't know that was part of their life. We can't fathom. and everything about another person, why would we be surprised that we can't know everything about God? For one thing, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, his ways are above us. But still with all that, God can be known. God can be understood. your friend, God can be your father, God can be your savior. Judah's great ministry, sometimes he says Judah here, sometimes he talks about Zion, and he talks about the God of Jacob in verse six. Sometimes God is identified as the God of Israel, Sometimes he's called the God of Jacob. The fact is Jacob was Israel's name. He was the father of the Hebrew children. Jacob is that one who's had the sons, the 12 tribes of Israel. His name was changed from Jacob Deceiver to Israel Prince with God Prince of God I will sing praises to the God of Jacob here in verse 6 chapter of psalm 76. He's called the God of Jacob. It's the same God The same God is known His tabernacle, at this time when this psalm was being written, his temple, I think this was written after, well, you really couldn't say. The word tabernacle refers to, sometimes it refers to the temple that Solomon built. Our first understanding of the tabernacle, of course, is the one that Moses was given instructions in Exodus. And that portable tent was carried around for a couple of generations, actually. Matter of fact, in the entire reign of King David, there is no temple like we see in the reign of Solomon. Solomon builds the temple. There's a tabernacle. David conquers Jerusalem about seven years into his reign. and moves his capital to Jerusalem, and then he makes arrangements for the tabernacle, that tent structure, to be removed. A lot of drama and a lot of interesting history about that. But eventually the tabernacle makes its way to Jerusalem, and eventually there's a temple built there. And that's called the City of Zion. That's another name for Jerusalem. Another name for the City of David. It's a little confusing in the Old Testament because there are actually two cities that are sometimes called the City of David. One is Jerusalem, and the other is... What's the other city of David in the Old Testament? Bethlehem. Bethlehem. Anybody ever heard of Bethlehem? Pretty famous. Where Jesus is born. That's also called the City of David. So, first of all, God is... Francis Schaeffer wrote a great book now about 50 years ago. It said, God is not silent. God makes himself known. There are several different ways God makes himself known. He makes himself known, first of all, through creation. The Book of Nature reveals God. Perhaps you've heard the story of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Has anybody ever read those stories? It seems... When I had a luminous Sherlock making his walks, and he says, look up Watson, what do you see? Watson looks up, he says, I see the stars and the constellations, and I see all the beauty of creation. And he says, Holmes, what do you see? Holmes says, I see someone stole our tent. I've always thought that's funny. But the stars do declare a standing order, do they not? If you've ever been out on a clear night. But sometimes even the clouds can be masterful and mysterious to us. And clouds are as much a part of God's as even the stars are under the clouds or in our atmosphere. But the clouds, God is associated with the clouds throughout the Bible as well. The cloud is glory, the Shekinah glory, the tabernacle of the temple. When Jesus ascended up into heaven, he ascended up in a cloud. A cloud is often associated with glory, sometimes smoke and cloud associated together. But God can be known. We can know who God is. That doesn't mean we know God exhaustively, or we know everything there is to know about God, but we can know what we need to know. This first phrase in Psalm 76 is a very wonderful thing. In Judah is God known. What was the ministry of the Israelites? What was their primary purpose? To make God, no, to make other nations know the Lord, to tell them about God, to show his glory, to sing his praises. People were supposed to come to this city on a shining hill, shining city on a hill there in Jerusalem and being drawn to the glory of God's presence and God's power and God's protection. And we see some of that in the time of Solomon. A queen from Sheba comes and she's heard about all of this glory and all of this gold and all of this wonder and she comes and And this is where the temple has been constructed. And the choirs are there, and the choirs sing, and the musicians are there, and the musicians play. And it must have been a wonderful experience to go up to Jerusalem and see God glorified. For a brief time, Israel was that lighthouse on the king's highway. That's one of the reasons God put Israel on that land bridge between Asia, Africa, and Europe. So that the trade routes from the west to the east, from the north to the south, they all came through this land bridge. They came down this King's Highway along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. And they came down around through the mountains, and down through to Africa, and then to the seaports on the coast. Ezion Geber, Solomon had a naval base at Ezion Geber, where his ships would sail to India, maybe beyond, and bring back trade, and of course, people. So God put Israel in this strategic place. Far better in our day, God has put his people his lighthouses in all the nations of the world. That's what a mission is about. We no longer go and tell people, like, look, if you want to learn about God, you've got to get on an airplane and fly to Jerusalem. You've got to get on a ship and sail to this faraway country and come make a pilgrimage. No, the grace of God has taken that witness and distributed it among the peoples of the world. Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So, you see how much wider God's mercy is in the New Testament than in the Old Testament. The first truth is God is. The second truth, God protects His people, verses 3 through 9. And we're to admire Him. We're to be in awe of Him. And then that should cause us to praise the Lord. Verse 10. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath shall thou restrain." Now, I'll be the first to admit that verse 10 is, at face value, a difficult verse. We have to understand God has told us that he will make the wrath of men praise him. How does he do that? How does God take something that's evil and bring a good out of it? Well, all we really have are illustrations. The greatest wickedness ever done was the murder of the Jesus of Nazareth. Acts 2.23 says that wicked hands took Jesus who was innocent, blameless, sinless, and they crucified him. Perhaps the most heinous crime of history was the execution of Jesus, and the Romans conspired, and the Jewish authorities, and even the Jewish people conspired to murder Jesus. But God has taken that wickedness and sovereignly and gloriously and graciously made that to be the salvation of the world. The death of Jesus Christ actually pays our sin debts. Joseph's brothers selling him as a slave into Egypt. And God turns that to the salvation of Egypt and eventually to his own family by raising Joseph up as a prime minister who rescues the world from famine. Later on, Joseph will tell his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. That's perhaps the most amazing thing about God's sovereignty. God can overrule and govern sin in such a way that when God's purposes are finished, He makes even the wrath of men to praise Him. And what doesn't praise Him, verse 10, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. God only lets the wrath of men go so far. He only lets man's evil go so far. Vow and pay unto the Lord your God Let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared." The Old Testament pictures of worship were much more practical perhaps than they are today, although we still give gifts. We give financial gifts, we give monetary gifts, or we can give gifts of service, or we can give gifts of ministry. We can still, sometimes they're not quite as obvious as people showing up with their goats and their sheep to give as offerings. When I was in Irvingsboro, we still had several farmers, and the custom was there. When they sold their cattle, they would, the farmers, in the history of the farmers would bring, I don't know the name of it, but they would bring a gift from the sale of the cattle. I like that much better than the cattle showing up. I can imagine what it would be like if, you know, it's not like a deacon's job. I mean, it's like, here, take these cattle and herd them down to wherever. As much better, they would actually take them to market. But they made a point of these are cattle sales that would sell earrings and so forth and bring, it would be a special offering, a cattle sale offering. I've heard older preachers talk about people still brought goods to the church to be dispensed or to be sold, grain or a bag of wheat or something like that. And people wouldn't bring what they had. Years ago, during the Depression, there wasn't a lot of money. I mean, literally, when people were poor, there just wasn't a lot of currency. People didn't have it. People bartered. People slopped. People traded. And they would bring their goods to the church and then somehow, I guess, Helpful people trustees and others would take those things and sell them and Many times I guess they would just swap out that for something else and maybe paint a creature with a Yearling calf or something, you know, you don't have slaughtered and and have meat from from that we still bring gifts It's very important that we make promises to God that that we pay your promises. It is a very normal thing for Christians to want to bring gifts to someone that we love, to someone to whom we are grateful. The basis of New Testament giving is gratitude, not guilt, not obligation, but free will offerings, giving as God has prostrated you, Paul said, as God prospers you, you should give. The Old Testament economy at the time was actually much bigger than a lot of people understand. It wasn't just 10%, probably based on the math, because there was not only the religious economy to sustain the tabernacle and so forth, but Israel is also a nation. were taxes to support the civil government of Israel. And then there was other requirements for helping the poor. So somewhere around 25%, maybe 30% under the Old Testament economy of obligation. Unless you be a gassed adaptor, in our nation, your taxes are probably, I better not tell you. I better not tell you what your tax rate is. And I'm not talking about income tax only or sales tax only. I'm talking about all kinds of other taxes that you pay. So let's talk about Europe. In European countries, some countries have tax rates of 80% or 90% if it's less. So actually, the New Testament economy, an economy of generosity and giving, actually the New Testament economy is people just give to meet their needs. That's a good system, good plan. Let all that be around about him be presence unto him that ought to be feared. I think giving does two things. Not only does it meet a need, but it also acknowledges your sense of God's provision and presence in your life. You just trust God. You trust God when you give. You trust God. to take what remains. Since he gave it to you anyway, you ask God to bless it. And God loves a cheerful giver. It shouldn't be done out of guilt or anger. It should be done out of generous heart. But it's a natural thing for a Christian to want to give, because God He said the last verse here is a very terrible pronouncement of judgment. God will cut off the spirit of princes. He is terrible or fearful to the kings of the earth. The Bible says that Jesus now is at the Father's right hand, and He is there until He makes the kingdoms of the earth submit to the rule of the reign of Jesus, and He makes all the kings of the earth His footstool. power for His provision, for His presence. God can be known. We know how to find Him by faith, and we know how to love Him and serve Him. Father, bless the Sunday School Hour. We thank you for a new Sunday School year as we go through this second, or third book of the Psalms. Bless the auditory class. We pray for the little ones. We pray for children, pray for the teenagers, the adult classes, bless them, bless the teachers and students. Father, as you are in a moment, help our students to overgrow, help us to invite and encourage others to come. Help us to pray for those that are absent from us today. Some may be traveling on a holiday weekend. Some may be hindered. We're thankful that Christians are better able to be in church today. We thank you for that. We pray for all of our special needs. We pray for the family and friends in the bereavement and the passing of Glenda. We ask you to bless those services this week. and comfort and health in him. Father, we pray for the needs of our missionaries scattered around the globe as they meet today to make Jesus known around the world. Thank you for your mercy and grace, your goodness to us in Jesus' name. th th th th th th th th th th