October 30, 2022 – Sunday Service Live Stream

Jeremiah Warns Against False Hope in Jerusalem

Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us, for they shall not depart. For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they arise up every man in his tent and burn this city with fire.

And it came to pass that when the army of the Chaldeans was broke up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army, then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people.

And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Uriah, the son of Shalamiah, the son of Hananiah. And he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans.

Then said Jeremiah, It is false. I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him. So Uriah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison.

When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days, then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out, and the king asked him secretly in his house and said, Is there any word from the Lord?

And Jeremiah said, There is. For he said, Thou shalt be delivered into the land of the king of Babylon. Moreover, Jeremiah said unto the king Zedekiah, What have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?

Where are now your prophets, which prophesied against you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land? Therefore here now I pray thee, O my lord the king, let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee, that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.

Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the baker's street, until all the bread in the city were spent.

Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

The Apostles' Creed and Hymn Preparation

Let us continue our worship by the singing of the Apostles' Creed.

Please take up the Trinity Hymnal once more, and open up to hymn number 92,.

A Mighty Fortress is Our God, hymn 92. Let us make preparations for the prayers of the people. Let us pray together in unison. Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we live and move,.

We, your beloved children, humble praises for having preserved us from the beginning of our lives, especially do we praise you for having delivered us from the dangers and uncertainties. With these mercies we bless and magnify your glorious name, humbly beseeching you to accept this, our morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

For it is Satan who lay down in the grave and rose again for us, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions, as they may be best for us, granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come, everlasting, everlasting.

I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world, for our denomination, especially for Ascension Reformed Church and Pastor Ray Simmons, who celebrate their first worship service today in our denomination.

For this church and for all ministers and missionaries, pray for the church. I ask your prayers for the poor, the sick, the bereaved, the burdened, and for the widows, orphans, and prisoners. Pray for those in any need or trouble.

And as you feed us, we pray that you would send us out to the mercy and grace that you've shown towards us, that we would go find our neighbors who are in need of Christian ministry, and that we would be that person in our neighborhood who helps the poor and the sick.

We ask God that you would impress this upon our hearts. We ask this in Jesus' name.

I ask your prayers for those who do not know Christ and for those who seek a deeper knowledge of him. Pray that they may find and be found by him. I ask your prayers for our children and future generations, which will be born to them.

Pray that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth through them.

All our children here present in Ascension, give them your spirit. We pray as you worked in David and his mother's womb for your purposes and brought him into government, we pray that that would be for our children as well.

We have faith in that, that they would come to the knowledge and true faith through repentance and faith and trust in Christ. We pray that you would give us strength as parents, wisdom as parents, knowledge through Jesus Christ our Lord to raise up our kids faithfully in the moment that they are born in the faith.

We pray that you would bless this work as parents, stand firm on the word, not be fluctuating back and forth by the pressures of the world in regards to how we parent, but that we would always be looking to you, to you, O Lord, and to your word.

We pray that this—.

Pray that we may have grace to glorify Christ in our own day.

In Christ, and to worship you.

Being in agreement of all these things, we join our voices together and say, Amen. Please stand and take up the insert once again and turn sadly for the last time to our Psalm of the month, Psalm 115.

Not to our names, thou only just and true. Psalm 115. Please take up your Bibles with me and open to Psalm number four. The fourth Psalm. Psalm number four. To the chief musician with string instruments, the Psalm of David.

Psalm 4: David's Prayer for Help

Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. How long, O ye sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?

Selah. But know that the Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly. The Lord will hear when I call to him. Be angry and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord.

There are many, you say, who will show us any good. Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. I will both lie down in peace and sleep.

For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we are so thankful for your word that you have preserved it for us throughout these many generations and that we have good and reliable translations in our own language.

But most importantly, Father, we are thankful for the living word, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. And we pray that as your word is faithfully preached, that we would hear you, Lord Jesus, speaking to us.

We ask that you would be with us now as we consider this psalm. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, many of you know that today, in some traditions, is called Reformation Sunday.

Tomorrow is Reformation Day. I'm very thankful to my brother and sister as they are preparing for a gathering tomorrow to celebrate it. Tomorrow, 505 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, sparking what we now call the Reformation.

And in many pulpits, there will be men expounding, perhaps Romans, and taking a look at the great doctrines that have come from the Reformation. And if I were more clever, I might be doing the same thing myself.

However, you cannot put in what God left out. And so we're going to continue our consideration of the psalms, picking up where we left off on Psalm 4. But I think it's very fitting for us to look at the psalms on Reformation Sunday.

Many of you know that Martin Luther had a great fondness for the psalms. And when he was in deep distress or trouble, and there were many, many days when he was, he would turn to the psalms. He and his companion, Philip Melanchthon, would sing the psalms together.

So as we continue in this tradition of the church to take a look at the psalms, we'll dig into Psalm 4. Church tradition, and many of the commentators tell us, that the subject of Psalm 4 is the same subject that we saw in Psalm 3.

You may remember a couple months ago, we considered Psalm 3, and it was during the time of Absalom's rebellion. And David had to flee Jerusalem. We spent some time looking at that event in history, and then looking at the psalm.

And tradition tells us that this psalm is related to that, so we'll pick up that theme. That Psalm 4 was written about the same occasion, during Absalom's rebellion. So it's intended that these two psalms may go together, and we will take a look at that in that vein.

The psalm has three parts. The first part is verse 1, where David pleads to God for help. In verses 2 -5, David turns his attention from God to what he calls the sons of men, and discusses with them his extreme displeasure, we might say, at their attitude and their actions.

And then it closes with a comparison of the godly and the ungodly. And that would be in verses 6 -8. And one thing that I think we should consider, as we read through this psalm, that great thing, and if you've hung around me for very long, you know that one of my favorite set of verses is Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

It says, trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. And I think as we think through this, that will come through in this psalm.

As we start, I would like to start with the title, the inspired title. We won't spend much time here, but it says, to the chief musician with stringed instruments, a psalm of David. Sometimes we look at these titles, and maybe we don't even pay any attention to them.

We gloss right over them. But I think sometimes we should take a moment and just think about that. The author of this psalm, David, is the one who set the musicians in order for the house of God. Prior to the building of the temple, he set apart certain Levites to perform worship in the form of music.

And these men, the sons of Asaph, we have some psalms by them, were instructed to perform worship with instruments. And here we have the chief musician with stringed instruments. And you can read all about this in 1 Chronicles 6, 15, and 25.

But one verse I'd like to call out specifically. It would come from 1 Chronicles 15, 16. Then David spoke to the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers, accompanied by instruments of music, stringed instruments, harps, and cymbals, by raising the voice with resounding joy.

David Ever, the military man, even set them in order. And there were 288 of these men who led the worship in singing. We know the importance of singing. We will be doing this in eternity. But likewise, we should look for the importance of music, and especially even musical instruments, in the worship of God.

Let's now turn our attention to the psalm itself in verse 1. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. Here David is crying out to the Lord in his present distress.

David knows that God is faithful, that he is always faithful. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And him alone can be our trust. David knows that when he turns his attention to God, he can expect an answer.

But notice how he addresses God. God of my righteousness. Sometimes we come across different phrasing in scripture, and it doesn't encourage us to take a look and see how often this phrase is used. It is used in only one place in all of scripture, right here.

But the theme, God of my righteousness, is throughout the entire scripture. The world of men are constantly looking to themselves for their righteousness. But not David. He knows that his righteousness comes from God and God alone.

Paul echoes this theme in Philippians 3, 9, that our righteousness is found in him, the Lord Jesus. For we have no righteousness in ourselves, Paul says, by the works of the law. But that would be true for anything that we do.

He, God, is our righteousness. David says that you have relieved me in my distress. That word translated relieved can also be translated enlarged. And if you have some older English translations, you will see this.

It has a military connotation. The word implies that a soldier, perhaps confined in the line of march, or by some confinement of the battle itself, now has room to maneuver. And in our modern warfare, the necessity for rooms of maneuver may be not as important as in the days of sword and shield, of pike and arrow.

But in David's day, in order for a soldier to fight, he needed a lot of space. So here, David's saying that he is thankful to God that he has given him the space that he needed. He has relieved him in his distress.

He's saying, I have called upon the Lord. I felt hemmed in by my enemies. I felt surrounded by cares and sorrows. I was oppressed by my sins, but you, O Lord, have given me room to move. You have shown me how to maneuver.

You have relieved me of the oppression. David goes on to say, have mercy on me and hear my prayer. We talked about this the last time. During Absalom's rebellion, there were some who may have thought that David deserved to have that happen.

We considered that David, although I would say the godliest man recorded for us in the Bible, apart from the God-man, the Lord Jesus, had sinned greatly in many cases. We know, of course, famously, the sin with Bathsheba.

But also, as we considered what led up to this rebellion, Absalom killed his brother, and David did nothing. Well, why did Absalom kill his brother? Well, his half-brother, Amnon, raped his sister, and David did nothing.

Sometimes we tend to think that God should deliver to us or give us what we deserve, and he would be just to do so. But we worship a merciful God, and we can turn to him in our great sin and cry out to him, God, have mercy upon me.

Hear my prayer. Our God is rich in mercy. David is calling on God in prayer, far from thinking of prayer as the last resort. I don't know if you've ever thought about prayer in that way. It reminds me of a story I once heard of an old man and his wife, and the man turned to his wife and said, I think we should pray.

And the wife said, has it come to that? Well, that's not how we should approach prayer, as if it's the very last thing. It should be the first thing that we do. It should be the thing that we do without ceasing, that we should always be coming to God in prayer.

For God says to us in one of my favorite verses, Jeremiah 33 .3, Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. The great and mighty things which we do not know.

We may be tempted to lean on our own understanding and expect little things from God, but God shows us great and mighty things. Let's move on to verse 2. How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame?

How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? Selah. Notice that David speaks to God first and then speaks to men. And then when he does so, he speaks very boldly to them. Do you wish to speak boldly to men?

Do you wish to have a boldly witness in front of a lost and unbelieving world? Speak to God first, then turn to speak to men. Fear God and not man. Remember that this psalm is connected to the one that we had seen before and to the events.

He's speaking to the men engaged in that rebellion. With Absalom. We see this term, sons of men. And it's not just that he's referring to men, males. The term son translated implies dignity, lineage, nobility.

He is talking to powerful men, mighty men, men of renown, great men. This only underscores his boldness. It shows that his fear was not to man. Again, these men. He's not referring to the physical state, that they're males, but their spiritual state.

They were mere men. They were driven by emotions, driven by man-pleasing. They were driven by their own understanding. They were reading the events that were surrounding them and seeing what looked like the obvious success of the rebellion.

After all, David had been chased out of Jerusalem. All Israel had gone after Absalom. They were being very pragmatic. In their minds, they were dealing with things sensibly, realistically, being practical.

David was out. Absalom was in. Perhaps they thought it was fashionable to go along. Martin Lloyd-Jones talks about men getting into a great sin. He calls it the thing to do, that people are just swept up by it.

They're not thinking. They just go along. David is calling them out. He's saying to them, how long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long? How long will they do this? The psalm was written in and around the events.

We don't know exactly when it was written. Was it during the time like the last psalm at the beginning of Absalom's rebellion or after the rebellion was on its way out and there were some things that were going on with Israel at that time?

We do not know. But he calls them, how long will you act foolishly, O you sons of men, and turn my glory into shame? My glory. We may be tempted to think of the glory of the kingship. David had some glory to an extent.

He had honor and rank and majesty. The scepter and the crown were his. He was God's chosen king, anointed, God's anointed. He trusted in God throughout his entire kingdom and his kingship. Yet even his trust for God, even showed his great trust for God, rather, in his sin with Bathsheba.

You remember the account there. He was confronted by the prophet Nathan. And David recounted his thoughts and feelings and his repentance for us in Psalm 51. And he says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

This is his glory, his trust in the living God. And they were mocking that trust. Where is your God now? Where is your salvation? How long, he says, will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? This may be an example of what we considered back in Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. David was pointing out that they were being foolish.

Did they not know in their foolishness and their seeking after worthlessness and falsehood that they must fail? Not that they could fail or that they might fail, but that they must fail. How long will you engage in an effort that is futile?

Incapable of producing the end that you want. It is pointless. They were under a delusion. They were seeking what could not be accomplished. They were living a lie. They were going up against the Lord and his anointed king.

The last word in this verse is selah. As we noted last time, C. H. Spurgeon, the great 19th century preacher, suggested when we reach selah in one of these psalms that we should pause for a moment and look around.

As we had done the last time, we'll do so now. Let us consider the verse which we just looked at, verse 2. How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?

Now let's see what comes next. Verse 3, but know that the Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly. The Lord will hear when I call. What a contrast. The sons of men, the so-called mighty men, those in on the know, were acting foolishly.

They were mocking the Lord's anointed. They were living the lie that David would be overthrown. But God, the sweetness of that term, but God. The Lord had set apart for himself him who is godly. He has sent his king on his holy hill.

They mocked, but the Lord will hear the prayer of the godly. Well, let's consider verse 3, but know that the Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly. The Lord will hear when I call to him. David is continuing his address to the sons of men.

This should remind us that he has to continually say something to them. Fools will not learn. They must again and again and again be taught the same lesson. Have you ever noticed this in your own life?

In your observation of the ungodly? That they do the same things over and over and over again, expecting different results, but always getting the same thing. Hearing, they do not perceive. Seeing, they do not understand.

But David is imploring them to learn this, to know this. Once again, but know, and he's almost saying you heart of heart, that the Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly. Clearly, this can apply to David.

He was the Lord's anointed, after all. He had been set apart by a divine decree. Even the way he was set apart was done so in a fantastic manner. You remember, we considered this some time back, that when Samuel the prophet came to the house of Jesse to have a feast, it was his intent by the direction of God, by the decree of God, to anoint the future king of Israel.

And when he came there, David was not in the initial company. He was left out in the sheepfold. Finally, he was called in, and the Lord said, this is the man whom I have chosen to be my anointed. Almost a living example of the last shall be first.

This is whom that God had set apart. David is saying to him, how can you prosper against the Lord and his anointed? How can you possibly succeed? The one who God has set apart and designated for a certain work, how can you overturn that work?

David was God's instrument. In a very real way, he was the king's man there. The Lord would protect him. The Lord would direct his paths and prosper his ways. David refers to him who is godly. David is referred to a man after God's own heart.

But it was not his godliness, per se, although he was involved. We can talk about that in sort of a manner of speaking our godliness. But David has said, and we've considered, that God was his righteousness.

That God was David's glory. The godly always point to the source of their glory, of their righteousness. The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not for David alone. But we too have been set apart by God.

The godly are precious in God's sight. They are like fine gold. The precious sons of Zion are valuable as fine gold. Lamentations 4 .2. The godly are God's glory. I bring my righteousness near, he says in Isaiah 46 .13.

It shall not be far off. My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory. The Israel of God, those set apart. Us are God's glory. We are the godly. We are like precious jewels to the Lord.

They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels. Malachi 3 .17. But David goes on to remind them that the Lord will hear when he calls. When I call him, he will hear.

Since David was divinely appointed and was called to a particular purpose, he could confidently turn to the Lord and know that the Lord would hear him. That the Lord would deliver him from their hands, from their evil plans, from their vain plotting.

We have been called by the Lord. This should give us great confidence that when we turn to the Lord, that he will hear us. That he will not only prosper our way, but he will hear our prayers. Be like David.

And with great confidence say, whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, I will praise his word. In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear. What can flesh or man do to me? We can be confident that when we call upon him, that he will answer us.

Let's take a look at verse 4. Be angry and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still. Selah. We have to remember that David is still speaking to those sons of men. Be angry and do not sin.

Older English translations have this be angry as translated stand in awe and sin not. The Hebrew word that we translate be angry means to quiver or to shake. Much like being afraid or standing in awe.

Or to be moved by violent emotion like anger or rage. The Septuagint and the Vulgate translated this word into angry. Paul quotes this verse in Ephesians 4 .26. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.

Paul is giving instructions on Christian living and he's quoting from the Septuagint. But what is David saying here? I think he's saying this. You are moved with strong emotion. It may be fear. It may be rage.

But consider yourself. Do not sin. Are you angry? If so, do not sin. He commands them. Meditate within your heart on your bed. And be still. That God is with him. I am God's anointed king. He has separated me for a purpose.

Consider these things. I am not sure where the saying that we have in our day go sleep on it comes from. It may be from here. It certainly implies the same thing, right? That we should go and consider what we are about to do or what we are doing.

But that's not all that David is commanding them to do here. He's commanding them to be still. They were trembling. They were quivering or quaking with fear or anger. But he was saying be still. Don't take counsel of your anger.

Do not take counsel of your fears. If you do so, you will never see clearly. You will not trust in the Lord but rather lean on your own understanding. If you take counsel of your anger or your fear. David is saying be still.

Focus on God. Consider his purposes as compared to yours. Or I would say, in short, he's saying repent from your deeds. We have another sealer. We'll pause here again for a moment and see the great contrast between verse 4.

Be angry and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. They were commanded to repent. They had sinned. They had been told to consider their ways, to look upon their evil deeds.

What is the right response to repentance? Worship and trust in God. That brings us to verse 5. Offer sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness. What is David pointing out here?

Perhaps he is thinking about the sacrificial system that was designated for the people of God in their act of worship. We can read about that in Leviticus chapters 1 through 7. And I think perhaps he was doing so.

Considering they had entered into rebellion against God and against his anointed, that they should take counsel and know that they're not only sinning against God, but all that God has given them. If they truly repent, they would manifest their repentance with appropriate sacrifices.

They were sinners. They were engaged in an unholy cause. They were to repent and offer sacrifices. Perhaps he was talking about the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart. David years earlier had written in Psalm 51, that psalm after his sin, being confronted by his sin with Bathsheba, and he wrote this, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart.

These, O God, you will not despise. Most likely, David had both in mind. David had called them to repentance. We can imagine them. Maybe they were crying out after hearing this. What must we do to be saved?

Much like we read in the New Testament. You may be thinking of the Philippian jailer or the men on the day of Pentecost. What shall we do? How can we be saved? In David's day, offer the sacrifices of God would have involved the sacrifices of the temple.

Turning to God with a broken and contrite heart. In faith, God is never in favor of accepting faithless sacrifices. True repentance requires a broken and contrite heart. And David says, but that's not all.

And put your trust in the Lord. There may be two objects here in mind. One, a call to turn to God. Turn away from your evil ways. Turn away from your leaning on your own understanding. Turn back to God.

Trust in him. You trusted in Absalom. Do not trust in princes. You trusted in your numbers. You trusted in your holy cause. Now trust in God. But it could also be faith. They have shown a great lack of faith.

He had commanded them to repent. And they were commanded to offer sacrifices. Both of these were to be by faith. Let us consider verse 6. There are many who say, who will show us any good. Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us.

David is now turning. This is the third part of this psalm. He had first spoken to God. Then he had spoken to the sons of men, those mighty men. Now he is comparing the godly with the ungodly. And he's saying that there are many who will say, who say, who will show us any good.

This is the ungodly. Man wants good, does he not? He may not understand it, but he wants it. He doesn't want evil, pain, or suffering. Yet that is what we see on every side. The wicked could cry out, who will show us any good.

But I just want to note one thing. If you have the King James or the New King James version, perhaps the NAS too, you will notice that the word any is italicized. That means it was added by the translators.

The verse could read, who will show us good. This only deepens their despair. It's not any good, like I could get some good someplace. No, who will show us good. This is their despair. C .H. Spurgeon wrote of this verse, as for the worldlings, this is their unceasing cry.

Who will show us any good? Never satisfied, their gaping mouths are turned in every direction. Their empty hearts are ready to drink in any fine delusion, which imposters may invent. When these fail, they should yield to despair and declare there is no good thing in either heaven or earth.

Their gaping mouths, they turn to and fro. Either mouths open in astonishment for not finding any good, or perhaps in anticipation of finding good. We are often challenged sometimes, are we not, when we speak to the unbeliever.

And they say, if God is good, how do you explain evil? We should turn to them, and how do you explain good? For they cannot find it. Sometimes they look to idols. And as I mentioned earlier, I am sad to see that Psalm of the month go.

I have enjoyed that greatly. But we see man turning to idolatry, looking for good. Sin, in some way, is the pursuit of something good in a twisted way. And we can see this in our day. You can look across our culture and see it everywhere.

People looking for good everywhere. Looking for love and not find it. It's like that old country song, looking for love in all the wrong places. But David continues. And here's the contrast. Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us.

The believer doesn't cry out in despair, who will show us good. No. The believer knows where good can be found. Hearing this, we should think of that great Aaronic blessing, your countenance. The Aaronic blessing is found in Numbers 6, 22 to 27.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them. Pause for a moment. What is a blessing? Goodness. Prosperity.

Peace. And joy. The people could be saying, who will show us any good? But who shall bless us? Who shall give us that peace? Continuing in Numbers 6, the Lord bless you and keep you. Who will show us good?

The Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Who will show us any good? The Lord.

His countenance is a reference to his favor, his blessing. Spurgeon continues on this verse. The true believer is a man of very different mold. His face is not downward like the beasts, but upward like the angels.

He drinks not from muddy pools of mammon, money or wealth, but from the fountain of life above. The light of God's countenance is enough for him. This is his riches, his honor, his health, his ambition, his ease.

Give him this and he will ask no more. This is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, for more of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that our fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, may be constant and inviting.

That's what the blessing, that is what good implies. His presence, his love, communion with him and comforts with the Holy Spirit, the joys of salvation. We're familiar with that greeting that the Jews have that they say to one another, shalom, peace.

That's what that implies. A wholeness of body, mind and spirit, the blessings of God. Verse 7, continuing his contrast, but you have put gladness in my heart, more than in season that their grain and wine increased.

You have put gladness in my heart. This is that joy unspeakable and full of glory that Spurgeon talked about. Joy is not only happiness. Yes, it includes that. But joy is a deep emotion, like we read about before, but not an emotion of anger and quaking, but an emotion that is a peacefulness, a quietness, a consideration of present or assured approaching of possession of something good.

That is it. That is the blessing that is given in the countenance of God. It is gladness. It should make our heart glad. And then David contrasts it with this, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.