WWUTT 1064 Seeking the Sanctuary of God?

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One of the greatest things that we can experience, in fact I'll say it is the greatest thing that we can experience here on this earth, is worshiping

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God with the people of God. After all, that's what we'll be doing forever when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

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Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gate. Thank you, Becky. We come to our study of the

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Psalms today and we begin in Psalm 63, make it through a few

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Psalms here today. This Psalm is a Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

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We begin My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when

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I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night.

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For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.

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But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth.

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They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be a portion for jackals.

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But the king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

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This Psalm has some similarities with Psalm 42. You probably remember the beginning of this one.

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As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

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My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

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And what do we have at the start of Psalm 63? O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you.

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My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

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In both Psalms, Psalm 42 and 63, the theme is the same.

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What David misses, what he longs for the most in both of these circumstances is to be able to praise

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God with the people of God in the sanctuary. Look at Psalm 63, verse 2.

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So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power in glory. And in Psalm 42, we go on to read, these things

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I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

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In both circumstances here, David longs to be able to go to the presence of God and praise him with God's people.

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The highest honor, the greatest thing that we can experience on this earth is to worship

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God and know that our worship is pleasing unto the Lord. There really is not anything better that we can experience in this life except worship unto

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God that we know pleases the Lord. And being able to worship with the people of God is exactly the way that we've been meant to praise.

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You can certainly pray, you can certainly praise God or worship him by yourself.

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In fact, you are commanded to. We're even told to give our bodies as living sacrifices unto the

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Lord, living holy and acceptable before him. And this is our act of worship, according to Romans 12, 1.

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But we are most of all meant to worship together as a body of Christ, as a church.

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This is exactly the way we are seen worshiping God forever in heaven. When we look into the book of Revelation, you don't see, you know, a person taking a stroll with Jesus by himself down streets of gold.

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That picture is never given in the book of Revelation, but instead it's multitudes and it's a countless myriad of people that are surrounding the throne of Jesus Christ and praising him for all eternity.

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As I've said before about church, this is heaven practice, going to church on Sunday, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in our hearts to God, hearing the word of God proclaimed, praising him for the promises that he has given to us in his word and all that he has accomplished through his son,

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Christ, worshiping him in light of all of this. This is what we're going to be doing for all eternity when we get to heaven.

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So David desires this and he especially desires this as he is running from those who mean to kill him, who mean to strike him down.

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What great pleasure it is to be in the sanctuary of the Lord praising his name.

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That's paradise for David. That's where he wants to be and being in a dry and arid land, which the wilderness of Judah certainly was, just makes him long for that all the more.

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So we go on in Psalm 63 to verse 3, because of your steadfast love, I'm sorry, because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

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Again, there's nothing that David wants more than to be in a place where he can worship

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God. So I will bless you as long as I live. In your name

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I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.

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Now that metaphor there, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. I'm a southern boy.

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I was raised in the south. We know good fattening food that sticks to your bones.

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If there's anything that a southerner knows, it's it's how to cook those hearty meals.

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So I was raised on those kinds of meals and I totally relate to this.

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My soul will be satisfied as with that fattening and rich food. That food that just makes you want to lay on the couch and fall asleep after you eat it.

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And my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, with a mouth that has enjoyed such succulent flavors and dishes.

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When I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you have been my help and in the shadow of your wings

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I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me.

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That statement there about remembering you upon my bed and meditating on you in the watches of the night.

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This is the time of night when most people would be asleep. But in restlessness, a person who loves the

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Lord will meditate on God for peace that they may sleep peacefully.

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Verse 9 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth.

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They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be a portion for jackals.

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But the king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

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It's uncertain here whether David wrote this psalm when he was fleeing from Saul or fleeing from Absalom. David fled from Saul into the wilderness and it's unlikely that he would have referred to Judah as a wilderness when he was fleeing from Absalom.

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So it's more likely to think of this as being a psalm that David wrote when he was running away from Saul.

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The verse 11 where it says but the king shall rejoice in God. David would not have been a king yet but he certainly would have clung to the promise of being a king because he had been anointed by Samuel to become the next king of Israel.

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As David desired to be with the people of God and praise God and this was his rescue.

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This was his sanctuary from the trouble and tumult that he was in. So we should desire the same thing.

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Our sanctuary from the craziness of this world. The false teachers that try to lead us astray.

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All of the the stress and anxiety and the betrayal and the uncertainty.

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All of these things we find rest and relaxation in the house of God. That's certainly where we should find it.

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Being able to go to church and be with the people of God and rejoice in the

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Lord and and be at sanctuary. That's what David longed for. We should long for the same.

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There is no greater privilege for me than to be with the people of God praising God. Especially in my own church.

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We go on here to Psalm 64 to the choir master a psalm of David.

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They hold fast to their evil purpose. They talk of laying snares secretly thinking who can see them.

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They search out injustice saying we have accomplished a diligent search. For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep.

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But God shoots his arrow at them. They are wounded suddenly. They are brought to ruin with their own tongues turned against them.

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All who see them will wag their heads. Then all mankind fears. They tell what

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God has brought about and ponder what he has done. Let the righteous one rejoice in the

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Lord and take refuge in him. Let all the upright in heart exalt.

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This psalm is split into two parts. The first part is verses 1 through 6 and this is the request of God for deliverance from an enemy.

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Verses 7 through 10 is therefore praising God knowing that he will answer and will deliver from the enemy.

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You might have noticed something regarding this enemy here in Psalm 64.

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How is it that this enemy fights? This enemy fights with words spreading gossip, slander, being deceitful.

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We look first at verse 1. Hear my voice O God in my complaint.

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Preserve my life from dread of the enemy. Now Philippians 2 .14

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says that we must do everything without complaining or arguing. Here David says hear my voice

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O God in my complaint. So is David doing something wrong by complaining before God? No, this particular word means to be translated as a trouble or an anxiety that David is bringing before God and this is most certainly a godly thing.

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He wouldn't be complaining to people or spreading gossip but he is taking it before the Lord and doing so with a spirit of thanksgiving because we see the thanks that he gives to God toward the end of the psalm.

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That's something else that Paul lays out in the book of Philippians chapter 4 that we present our requests to God with thanksgiving.

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In 1st Peter chapter 5 it says we are to cast all our anxieties on him because he cares for us and that's what

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David does here casting his anxieties upon the Lord. Verse 2 hide me from the secret plots of the wicked from the throng of evildoers who wet their tongues like swords.

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Wetting a sword means preparing it to strike, preparing it to to kill somebody. So this person, this enemy is preparing his tongue to speak evil against somebody else.

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He's got a plot. This isn't like a in the heat of a moment sort of a thing where somebody is asked a liar a question and a liar comes up with a response on the spot.

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This is a person who has such evil in their heart against the the Lord's anointed one that he is preparing.

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He is ready. He has in his heart a desire to speak evil against him.

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Verse 4 shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear.

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Again lying in wait preparing for an opportunity to speak slander against somebody else and I've been in this position before somebody that I would have called a friend who speaks slander against me things that I am not guilty of but but just because they can because they are so malicious in heart to tear down another person who is not guilty of the things that they accuse them of so they shoot from ambush at the blameless without fear no fear of God even though the scripture says

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God is the one who searches mind and heart and will give to each one according to their works yet they have no fear of God they hold fast to their evil purpose they are determined to do what is in their heart to do they hold fast their evil purpose they talk of laying snares secretly thinking who can see them it's not like it's a it's not like it's something that's kind of out there in the open that you can identify and avoid but rather a malicious plan that is stored up in the heart nobody can see this plan that I am laying out and I'm ready to just drop it on on a person they search out injustice saying we have accomplished a diligent search for the inward mind and heart of a man are deep and this is in reference to darkness the heart and mind of a man are deep darkness it's sinful it cannot be trusted

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Jeremiah 17 9 the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick who can understand it verse 10

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I the Lord searched the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways according to the fruit of his deeds so we must fear the

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Lord we must know there is nothing in our mind in our heart that we can hide from God and we should submit all of our thoughts unto

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Christ lest we become like the one who has maliciousness and hate toward another verse 7 but God shoots his arrow at them they are wounded suddenly they will not escape the judgment of God the

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Lord says vengeance is mine we need to put these kinds of circumstances these cases in God's hands even when somebody has betrayed us we don't know what we're going to do somebody has made our situation very unstable and uncertain because they've been speaking such lies about us what's what's gonna happen to me is nobody gonna like me is everybody gonna listen to them rather than testing my character and believing me we need to place these things in the

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Lord's hand speak with wisdom in the places where we can speak but not responding to the malicious person with the same maliciousness that they are hurling at us verse 8 they are brought to ruin with their own tongues turned against them all who see them will wag their heads then all mankind fears they tell what

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God has brought about and ponder what he has done let the righteous one rejoice in the

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Lord and take refuge in him let all the upright in heart exalt trust in God continue to praise

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God even when things even when circumstances seem dire and and it's difficult for you to trust people because of something that somebody might be doing to you nevertheless we need to put ourselves in the hands of God and rejoice in him continuing to praise his name daily for he is still in control and he is taking care of us let's go to Psalm 65 to the choir master a psalm of David a song praise is due to you

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Oh God in Zion and to you shall vows be performed Oh you who hear prayer to you shall all flesh come when iniquities prevail against me you atone for our transgressions blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house the holiness of your temple those are four very powerful verses if you have an opportunity again later today dwell on those again

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Psalm 65 verses 1 through 4 praise is due to you

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Oh God he alone is worthy of our worship Oh you who hear prayer only

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God hears prayer the Saints don't hear prayer you know like the Catholics the

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Eastern Orthodox who say that Saints go up to heaven and they will intercede for us before God Saints don't hear our prayers we pray to God why would you even pray to anyone else other than God why would you think that it's better to pray to a saint who's then gonna take my request and intercede for me before Jesus when you can go straight to Jesus you can pray to the

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Father the Son the Holy Spirit because we have been united to God by his

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Son we go on to verse 3 when iniquities prevail against me you atone for our transgressions recognize that this was said at a time when temple sacrifice was still going on and yet David recognizes it is

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God who atones for sin not the blood of animals and God provided that atoning sacrifice through his

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Son Christ verse 4 blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts we are worshippers of God because he chose us to worship him verse 5 by awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness

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Oh God of our salvation the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas the one who by his strength established the mountains being girded with might who stills the roaring of the seas the roaring of their waves the tumult of the peoples so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs you make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy you visit the earth and water it you greatly enrich it the

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River of God is full of water you provide their grain for so you have prepared it you you water its furrows abundantly settling its ridges softening it with showers and blessing its growth you crown the year with your bounty your wagon tracks overflow with abundance the pastures of the wilderness overflow the hills gird themselves with joy the meadows clothe themselves with flocks the valleys deck themselves with grain they shout and sing together for joy let us conclude with prayer our

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Heavenly Father we thank you for your goodness that you show to us every day and I pray that we would recognize it we go through some difficult trials and circumstances day by day but even in the midst of these trials that come upon us those who we thought loved us that betray us even complete strangers that will levy accusations against us and when we whenever we feel vexed or uneasy because of these things that might happen to us let us not forget your goodness the grace and mercy that you have shown us through your son

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Jesus Christ so that we may praise you in a day of trouble and we may long for the sanctuary that we may be at peace with the people of God looking all the more toward that day when we will be together with you forever in Christ Jesus in glory keep us steadfast

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O Lord and deliver us from temptation forgive us our sins and lead us in life everlasting in Jesus name we pray amen

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Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues you can find a link to the blog through our website www .utt