[0:00] Psalm 107, verse 43, Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.
[0:13] Whoso is wise and will observe these things. This text, this verse, of course, we cannot take in isolation. It is a comment on the whole psalm that has preceded it.
[0:26] And as we will see as we look at the previous sections of the psalm, the contrast with whoso is wise is with those who are fools. Now, fools are made mention of earlier in the psalm.
[0:40] Fools, verse 17, because of their transgression, because of their iniquities are afflicted, their soul, a whore of all manner of meek. They draw an eye unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord and so on.
[0:51] Now, of course, it doesn't mean, oh, anybody who suffers is thereby a fool. They are exposed in the context of what it says elsewhere in the book of Psalms, Psalm 53, Psalm 14.
[1:03] The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. But whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.
[1:16] And that is the second point here as well. Not just a contrast between the wise who recognize the reality and activity and involvement of the Lord in all that they see around them and in their own lives.
[1:29] But also that this is not something that has to be investigated with deep doctrines of philosophy or with dry, dusty tomes and massed shelves of libraries that only the erudite and the scholarly can investigate.
[1:46] This is something which mere observation, if we will simply take the time to look at what is around us, to see at what is experienced in the world and in life, we will see the hand and the work of the Lord.
[2:02] Whoso is wise, is prepared to acknowledge the reality and the involvement of the Lord in the world and in individuals' lives, will observe, will see, will recognize these things, even they shall understand, not simply that there is a God, and yes, He's involved, and He does this and He does that, but rather the loving kindness of the Lord.
[2:29] One of these wonderful words that is really two words, but put together into one because there's no other way to describe how good and kind and merciful and loving God is for this huge, long, single word, loving kindness.
[2:43] They will understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Now why is God so full of loving kindness? What makes us say this in the context of this psalm?
[2:55] Because we find that all that the Lord does, everything that He does, that we see throughout this psalm, is that which is designed to induce men to cry out to Him in their time of need, and then that He delivers and saves them.
[3:14] And the plea is that they would recognize this and that they would return to Him in worship and in faith and in giving Him His due.
[3:26] What are the things that are to be recognized? Whoso will observe these things? It is not just the immediate foregoing section before verse 43 in this psalm, in which section we see.
[3:41] For example, if we take from verse 33 onwards, we see God glorifying in doing opposites. That which is, God does the reverse.
[3:51] Verse 33, He turned the rivers into a wilderness, just a dry, dusty riverbed, and the water springs into dry ground, a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
[4:04] Now this is a point I've made many times in the past on previous occasions, that when a people turn away from the Lord, it is not just that their spiritual life begins to wither and perish, but all other aspects of their lives will begin to be adversely affected.
[4:20] And even the very ecology and surroundings of their environment will begin to be affected when a place and a people become distanced from the Lord.
[4:31] And the converse is also true, that as a people become reconciled to the Lord, things begin to happen. Waters begin to flow. It may be one thing to turn a fruitful land into barrenness in a desert, but the Lord can just as easily do the opposite.
[4:49] He turned the wilderness, verse 35, into a standing water, and dry ground into water springs. So suddenly it's bubbling up from underneath again. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation.
[5:04] Now building cities is not just time consuming, it is expensive. It takes a lot of effort, it takes a lot of people, it takes a lot of resources. The implication is that the Lord has turned a desert and a wilderness into a place of such prosperity that people are able to build cities of habitation and to dwell there and sow the fields and plant vineyards, none of which is the work of an afternoon.
[5:33] It is the work of days and weeks and months of preparation, of years of getting the soil right and fruitful and preparing of it in order to maximize its fruitfulness, which may yield fruits of increase.
[5:46] He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly and suffereth not their cattle to decrease. But, lest they should then think, oh, mine own hand hath gotten me all this wealth, they can just as easily be brought down again.
[6:01] They are minished and brought low through oppression. He poureth contempt upon princes and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way. Yet, seteth he the poor on high from affliction.
[6:14] You see, he's doing opposites the whole time. That which we think is, oh, well, this is the way of nature, that's the way it's always going to be. God is glorified, he delights, to do the opposite and to demonstrate he is not bound by anything.
[6:30] God is so great, he can make nature go into reverse, he can overrule, he can work above or beyond or despite his laws of nature. He can set the poor on high, he can bring the princes and mighty ones down.
[6:43] The righteous shall see it and rejoice. What will they rejoice in? They will rejoice in the righteous works of God in seeing that all that the Lord does, he does rightly, he does well.
[6:55] All iniquity shall stop her mouth, not because she agrees with what the Lord has done, because they dare not speak a word. Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.
[7:13] Now, that closing section from verse 33 onwards, you could make a series of sermons out of that, but we're not going to, you'll be glad to know, or not just now anyway. But that's, it's not just referring, this verse 43, not just referring to the immediately foregoing verses.
[7:29] If we would be wise, if we would observe and understand the loving kindness of the Lord, it is declared far more fully than just these closing verses.
[7:41] The whole psalm is full of it. The psalm has a recurring theme, as every one of you will be aware, I'm sure, an obvious refrain that recurs at verse 8, verse 15, verse 21, verse 31, O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.
[8:04] Now, some weeks ago, or months ago, however long it was, we looked at briefly in one of the services the distinction between the single letter O, as we have, for example, in verse 1, the beginning of the psalm, and the sort of exclamation O, O-H, which is a yearning cry.
[8:23] The O is just a form of address. If you're speaking to somebody, O, give thanks unto the Lord, O, so-and-so, lead on, or O, so-and-so, do this. It's a wee bit of an old-fashioned expression.
[8:35] It's almost like the kind of punctuation of putting capital letters at the beginning of a sentence. It's a form of address to put the O without the H is a vocative.
[8:47] It's a form of address. The O-H is a yearning expression. O, that man would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men.
[8:58] It's a yearning. It's a desire. It's a longing there. It's not just a vocative. It's not just a form of address. It's a longing there that man would give the Lord the praise that's due to his name.
[9:12] But what perhaps we don't notice quite so readily is that each of these refrain verses, verse 8, verse 15, verse 21, verse 31, is each of them matched by a preceding cry of need.
[9:29] From verse 8, a couple of verses beforehand, verse 6, then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them out of their distresses and led them forward by the right way.
[9:42] O, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men. When it occurs at verse 15, we see a couple of verses beforehand, then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses.
[9:57] Again, when it occurs at verse 21, a couple of verses beforehand, you see at verse 19, then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. When it occurs at verse 31, we see a couple of verses beforehand, verse 28, then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble.
[10:11] The recurring theme is not merely a plea that men would recognize God's goodness, but they ought to the more so because he responds to their cry.
[10:23] This always comes after he has responded to their need, to their cry, to their suffering. They cry in their distress. He answers their distress. And they ought to give him praise and glory.
[10:36] The sense is of God's consistent faithfulness. The leading of the Lord in all that he does in response to man's cry.
[10:47] In verse 7, for example, he led them forth by the right way. God desires us to walk in right ways. He desires us to be led in right paths.
[10:58] Proverbs chapter 4, verse 11, I have taught thee in the way of wisdom, who so is wise and will understand these things. I have led thee in right paths.
[11:09] Likewise, Jeremiah chapter 6, verse 16, we read, thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see. And ask for the old paths, where is the good way?
[11:21] And walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. Now, of course, we have to treat such a verse as that with a certain degree of wisdom, of caution.
[11:35] It's not just a case of, oh, the old days were better. Look for the old ways and the old paths. It's rather a case they were better if we were near to the Lord. It is better, for example, when the Reformation came, for example, they didn't say, oh, well, this is us in the 1500s.
[11:51] Let's look back to how it was in the 1200s. No, they went right back to the apostles. Let's begin in how it was in the New Testament. Let's go back to square one.
[12:02] Something isn't good just because it is old. Paganism is older than Christianity. Christianity, that doesn't make it better. If we go back the ways that are like the Dark Ages which our country seems to be hastening on towards, that doesn't make it better than the light of the Gospel.
[12:20] But if we are to go for the old paths and the good way, it is because it is those which are nearer to the Lord. And that which is nearer to the Lord is always the good way.
[12:32] Stand you in the way. Look around you. See which direction the roads are going in. See and ask for the old paths. How did we used to organise ourselves as a nation?
[12:44] How did we used to frame our laws and our legislation in accordance with the Word of God when in accordance with the inventions of men and the neo-paganism of the age?
[12:56] Where is the good way and walk therein? And you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. This is the faithfulness of God in contrast to the unfaithfulness of men.
[13:11] In response to man's cry, God is always favourable. Verse 6, they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them out of their distresses. Verse 13, they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses.
[13:26] Verse 21, big part, verse 19, they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses. Verse 28, they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and he breathed them out of their distresses.
[13:38] The Lord always answers but the implication in the refrain, oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness to the children of men implies, when he says, oh that they would, it implies they're not actually doing it as they should, doesn't it?
[13:56] Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men. You don't say that if they're already doing it. It's a yearning, it's a longing that they would because they ought to because he has done so much that it's good for them.
[14:12] It implies that there is a need for men to return to the Lord. The ultimate needs of mankind is the need of his soul.
[14:23] Remember what we read, we read just now in Jeremiah chapter 6 where it says that if you walk therein you shall find rest for your souls. Now walking along any road or travelling any journey is never usually a restful experience, it makes us weary, it makes us tired, it makes us fatigued, but we may have rest for our souls because we may be at peace in our souls.
[14:47] The need of the soul is man's greatest need of all because if he is at one with the Lord, if he is at peace with God, all else will fall into place.
[14:59] If he has the picture before him constantly, he has a chance of putting together all the pieces and he just chucks away the picture and he only has his own mind and imagination to go on.
[15:10] It's like being lost in a mountain in the midst. You can be convinced you're going the right direction. Your compass tells you something different. You think, no, no, I'm sure I'm right, I'm sure the compass must be wrong. You can't see, you're going blind.
[15:22] We walk by faith, not by sight. It is the needs of the soul. Verse 5, we read, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
[15:34] Now again, this would imply, it's not merely, oh, they were hungry, they were thirsty, so their bodies were clean. It's not talking about their body. It is the soul that is in need here.
[15:45] It is like when Jesus speaks to the crowd in John chapter 6, verse 35, Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.
[15:59] Now it doesn't mean if you become a Christian you'll never ever be physically hungry again. It means that the need of your soul will be satisfied. You will be fed constantly by the Lord.
[16:10] Verse 48, likewise, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate, they eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. It was physical food and they died in the fullness of time.
[16:22] This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat that of him, not die, not die eternally. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.
[16:39] Likewise in chapter 7, in the last day of that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
[16:55] But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because the Jesus was not yet glorified.
[17:06] It is the needs of the soul. It is the needs of the Spirit. If we would know the way that we should walk, again we go to Christ. John 8 verse 12, I am the light of the world.
[17:18] He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. It is the longing soul which hungers and thirsts which is fed.
[17:30] Likewise in verse 9, he satisfied the longing soul and filleth the hungry with goodness. Again in verse 18, their soul, this is the fools, the unbelieving fools, who say there is no God, their soul abhorreth all manner of meat.
[17:50] They will not feed their souls. They neglect their souls. They think it's all about the body, all about the flesh. They drew near unto the gates of death. Now most people are not exactly brave as they draw near the prospect of death and think, oh dear, what's going to happen next?
[18:06] Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he saveth them out of their distresses. How does he save them? Not by saying, oh, well, you're hungry, thirsty, here's lots of food, here's lots of drink, have a good feast, have a good drink, sleep, you're thirst.
[18:20] No, he sent his word, verse 20, and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. Now the fact that he responds to their need by sending his word indicates again it is a spiritual hunger.
[18:36] It is the needs of the soul and it is the unbeliever's neglect of his soul which causes him to hunger and thirst but to refuse to deal with it and to draw near to death in that terror which may cause some eventually to cry unto the Lord.
[18:57] Indeed, one of the features of this psalm is the use of all three tenses, past, present, and future. And when it comes to speak of fools as it does here, verse 17, fools because of their transgression because of their iniquity are afflicted.
[19:17] You'll notice that having talked in the past tense, it now begins to talk in the present tense. It's not fools used to be stupid and because of their transgressions, their soul used to abhor all manner.
[19:28] I mean, it's talking in the present tense if you look at it. Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquity are afflicted. Their soul abhor it, present tense, all manner of me. They draw near, present tense, the gates of death.
[19:41] Then they cry, present tense, in their trouble. He saibeth them, present tense, out of their distresses. It's all present tense. Jesus said, the poor you shall always have with you.
[19:52] You can help them with any of you like, but it's also true. The fools, we will also always have with us. To the end of time, there will always be unbelief. There will always be those who will deny the truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus.
[20:08] No matter the evidence of their eyes and the facts of science and even to this day, the facts of prominence and creation are all around us and yet you will have those who will insist that not only must it be denied, it must not even be spoken.
[20:24] We cannot have the facts in the classroom. We cannot have the facts of science broadcast in our national networks. We must feed the lie. The evolution, the millions of years and so on.
[20:36] We cannot have the truth as the facts of science declare. The present tense describes fools and it will always do so because the fools are always with us.
[20:49] Unbelief will always be with us right to the end of time. And we know that because, you know, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7, those will say on the last, oh Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in your life?
[21:02] Haven't we done this? Haven't we done that? Haven't we been good people? But Jesus will say, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. There will always be unbelief and self-congratulatory delusion.
[21:16] I'm a good person. I should be okay. That will be the case right to the end of time. The fools are always described in the present tense. But this psalm has other tenses as well.
[21:30] Much of it, in fact, after that stage is into the present tense. After we've got verse 20, he sent his word, which is almost like it's a once and for all.
[21:41] It's in the past tense. He healed them. This is what he has done. Those whom he has saved, he has saved from all eternity. Delivered them from their destructions. If I am delivered, if I am saved, it's not because I myself had enough faith and I myself decided to believe X many years ago.
[21:59] It's because from all eternity in the heart of the Father, I and whoever else is saved is elect in his heart and then Christ did ordain from all eternity to die upon the cross at that particular date in history, 2,000 years ago.
[22:14] It is done. It is finished as he cried upon the cross. Past tense, he sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.
[22:25] Oh, that man would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Verse 20 is almost like an exception in the midst of what is by and large a present tense.
[22:39] So that equate thereafter to be almost to the end of the psalm. Most of the psalm is present tense because it's not just fools who are a present reality.
[22:51] But it's also God's great mercy which is a present reality. Think of probably the most famous section in this psalm that they that go down to the sea and ship that do business in great waters.
[23:04] Not the did, past tense, but the do, present tense. These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep for he commanded and raised the stormy wind and lifted up the waves thereof.
[23:16] This is all present tense. He's doing it even now. He does it day by day. He does it ongoing. The works of nature, the works of creation, the vastness of the ocean, the unpredictability thereof.
[23:29] It is always testifying present and ongoing to the reality of God. It has been said by some commentators that one reason why what we now call Calvinism but really biblical Christianity and a recognition of the doctrine of the doctrine of election that God chooses some and not others is often most readily grasped by seagoing communities, those who make their living on the sea, is because those who go to sea in ships have seen for themselves how unpredictable can be the ocean itself, how it can be no other exploration, how in olden days for example where extended families would all go out in one big boat and in the same storm one family would all be wiped out and all go down and some would live and some would die.
[24:22] Two men would fall into the sea, one would be pulled out alive, the other would be pulled out and he'd be dead. The unpredictability, the unpinnable down nature of the sea and of what it does and that those who witnessed this found it easier, some commentators have said, to recognize the absolute sovereignty of God in election, how it is they see with their own eyes that he chooses some to live and some to die in physical terms, how much more than in spiritual terms that there are some who will live eternally and some who will die and that is the truth of God, that is his sovereign nature, that is the grace of election but God does not consign any to a lost eternity without at least giving them justice, without at least giving them the opportunity, the invitation, the chance to come to him and be saved.
[25:23] This is present tense. Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, he bringeth them out of their distresses. All these cries to the Lord, all these four that we said preceded the refrain, oh that men would praise the Lord and praise him for his goodness to the children of men.
[25:42] Two out of them, verses 6 and verse 13 are in the past tense. And two of them, verse 19 and verse 28 are in the present tense. Notice that? Then verse 6 and verse 13 there, it says then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, he delivered them out of their distress.
[25:58] Verse 13, same again. You get to verse 19 and it's present tense. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, he saved them out of their distresses. That which he has done in the past, he is ready and willing to do in the present.
[26:13] His mercy is ongoing, it is present and future. It is, yes it is what he has done in the past, but it is also that which he continues to do, that which he desires to do, that which he keeps on doing for the future.
[26:29] Look at what some of the descriptions throughout this psalm of what the Lord has done. Verse 2, redeemed. Verse 3, gathered. Verse 6, delivered.
[26:39] Verse 7, led. Verse 13, saved. Verse 14, brought out and of what he continues to do in the present. He satisfied.
[26:51] Verse 9, he commanded. Verse 25, he maketh a calm. Verse 29, he maketh to dwell in cities. Verse 36, he blessed.
[27:03] Verse 38, he set up on high. Verse 29, verse 41. He continues his work of mercy in the present and ongoing state. And some of these verses, in this particular psalm, they are, if you like, mirrors of other ones.
[27:19] We talked about the contrast, the opposites by which God works. And we see, for example, at verse 35, is a mirror, if you like, of verse 33. Turneth the wilderness into a standing water, dry ground into water springs.
[27:33] It's the opposite of eternal rivers into wilderness, verse 33, and the water springs into dry ground. Likewise, in verse 40, when it says, he poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
[27:50] This is a mirror of verse 4. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in. Now, the implication is, to begin with, that it's the humble poor who are wandering and suffering and struggling, and God saved them.
[28:04] And then, at the end, he's bringing princes down to that situation. But it's almost like we can go back to the beginning again and see that even the princes, even the rich, even the mighty, need not be lost.
[28:18] It is far harder, Jesus said, for a rich man and a mighty man and a prince to enter the kingdom of God than it is for a blue man. A blue man has nothing to lose. A rich man has everything to lose.
[28:29] But the offer is still there for him. No justice, he calls it the princes to wander the wilderness where there is no way. He's done that already for the humble poor and he saved them.
[28:41] And he will save the princes too if they will come down. Likewise, we see in verse 16, he hath broken the gates of brass and cut the barns of iron and sunder. Why does he need to do that?
[28:52] Because at verse 10, we saw that such as sit in darkness and with death being bound in affliction and iron, he saves them. He breaks the wires of iron.
[29:03] He cuts the gates of brass. He opens the way for the prisoner. As Jesus himself said in Luke's account of the gospel when he read Isaiah 61, part of what he has come to do is to set the captives free, to bring the prisoners out of their cell, out of their dungeon.
[29:22] This is a call here that man would return glory and thanks to the Lord for what he has done, what he is doing and what he continues to do.
[29:33] And part, yes, of our response to that is not just to be in our hearts. Thank you Lord for saving me, now I get on with the rest of my life. But there is a call out also to outward faithfulness and religious duties.
[29:48] Verses 1 and 2, O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endure forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
[30:00] Likewise, verse 22, let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing. Verse 32, let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
[30:16] If the Lord really has done something in your life, then you have the obligation to testify to him publicly. And that doesn't mean you have to go and get yourself a loud hail of stand in a soapbox and then shout to everybody going past in the street and have a big plaque on it.
[30:33] People will soon know when there's a change in your life. They will soon know if you once were concerned only with yourself and your own affairs, now are far more sobered and some serious and now attending the house of the Lord and now seeking God and his word.
[30:49] Now you're reading your Bible instead of reading all the rubbish of the world. Now you're seeking the Lord and that outward conformity, that outward faithfulness in religious duty will be noticed, will be seen, will be recognized, will be a testimony and witness, however quietly in and of itself.
[31:11] And this, although we say, oh well you can be a Christian without wearing a church, yes you can be. But the context of that, yes you can be, is those who do love the Lord have been in this house, now they may be housebound, now maybe they can't get out to church, now maybe they can't worship with the Lord's people, or maybe they're in prison somewhere, or maybe they're confined and they can't be in church, and are they any less a Christian?
[31:36] Because of what's in their heart? No, of course they're not. But there is quite a difference between that and those who say, yeah I believe no matter how to be in church, no it's the Lord's Day morning, I'm sitting with a worldly magazine, watch the TV, make my coffee, sleep in, I can do whatever I like to, God's given me this day in which I can do whatever I want, I'm a free agent, God has set me free to do what I want, where is the love for the Lord, where is the witness, where is the testimony, where is that which will show the world whose we are and whom we serve?
[32:08] Yes, you can be a Christian without being in church, but if you love the Lord with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, why would you not want to be where the Lord's people are, in the Lord's house, on the Lord's day, if it is the Lord that you love more than anything?
[32:28] There's an awful other rubbish that gets talked when people try to cover such attitudes and such designs. Really it's the self that they are putting on the throne so many times, not always perhaps, but eight or nine times out of ten.
[32:44] It is the self on the throne instead of the Savior. God is glorified in doing the impossible. When he saves, when he redeems a soul from a lost eternity, he is doing that which is impossible for anyone else to do.
[33:01] It is the spiritual equivalent of the opposites that we talked about. It is the equivalent of turning the desert into a river and into springs of water.
[33:12] And when people think, oh, well, I'm okay, I'm pretty good. I'm doing well. I made this myself. It is the equivalent that he brings them down. He turns the pools of water into dry, dusty, barren lands.
[33:22] God is glorified in doing the opposites. We think of Gideon's fleece that he set out in Judges chapter 6. Remember how he asked a sign for the Lord.
[33:35] And he said, if thou wilt save us, we are by mine hand as thou hast said. Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the floor and if the dew be on the fleece on me, that be dry up on the earth, beside them shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand as thou hast said.
[33:48] And it was so, for he rose up early on the morning and thrust the fleece together and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, let not thy anger be hot against me and I will speak but this once.
[34:00] Let me prove I pray thee but this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the fleece and upon all the ground that there be dew. And God did so that night for it was dry from the fleece only and there was dew on all the ground.
[34:14] God is glorified in doing opposites. That which ought not to be possible, God is glorified in the doing of it.
[34:25] And when he is glorified, men see and they recognize. Even the heathen king Nebuchadnezzar of whom we read in Daniel chapter 4 when he was so puffed up with his pride and ability and then the same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar.
[34:43] And he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws.
[34:54] And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my eyes unto heaven and my understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the most high and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion in his kingdom from generation to generation.
[35:09] At the same time my reason returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom my honor and brightness returned unto me and my counselors and my lords sought to me and I was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty was added unto me.
[35:23] Now I Nebuchadnezzar praised and extol and honor the kingdom of the king of heaven all whose works are truth and his ways judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
[35:35] That is the heathen king Nebuchadnezzar acknowledging the greatness of God who brought him down low when he was puffed up high. This is the kind of reason, this is the kind of wisdom that the psalmist is encouraging them to have.
[35:51] Whoso is wise and will observe these things how God is glorified in doing the opposite of what nature might suggest, what men may be convinced will inevitably happen, God is glorified in doing the impossible.
[36:12] Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord for it is not only what he has done and how when the poor have cried he delivered them past tense but there is the present and ongoing work of the Lord and there is the future promise.
[36:32] Yes the fools are always with us. The present tense describes the fools who deny the Lord and it also implies and describes the humble poor who cry unto him.
[36:47] So the question for us is which are we? Are we the fools or are we the wise? Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand not the judgment, not the harshness, not the brutality or the fierce wrath but they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.
[37:09] Amen. Let us pray. simply by the God of Bord Sire now. applications in this morning.
[37:19] pas money will in this sustentate the explosion.ņ