"How Ugly is an Ingrate" Psalm 92

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

It is good to give thanks to the Lord. And it is ugly to live in ingratitude.

0 comments

00:00
at your Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 92.
00:09
The title of today's message is, How Ugly is an Ingrate? This Thursday, people all around our nation will continue a tradition which began in the 1600s, an annual tradition of celebration called Thanksgiving.
00:44
And though I am not normally given to a hallmark liturgy, and that is I don't always preach regarding holidays, with everything that's been going on recently I thought it was very important that we do be reminded of how valuable it is that we give thanks and how important it is that we do not cease to give thanks, even when times are difficult.
01:11
It's easy to give thanks when things are well, and our bodies feel good, and our bank accounts are full, and our cars are driving nicely, and everything just seems to be going well.
01:25
And when we go to church, everyone's healthy and happy.
01:29
It's easy to have a smile and to be thankful.
01:37
And yet the Bible calls us to be thankful even when we get the bad call from the doctor, even when we open up the account and it is in the negatives, even when we go to start the car and it doesn't start, or we come to church and find out that one among us has passed away.
01:57
We are still called to be thankful.
02:00
And so today's message is really a reminder that Thanksgiving isn't once a year, Thanksgiving isn't once a week, though we are going to focus today specifically on Sunday and coming together on Sunday and giving thanks, but Sunday is a daily...
02:20
or, excuse me, let me try that again.
02:22
Thanksgiving is a daily, a daily opportunity for every believer.
02:32
So with that in mind, I've decided to preach today from the 92nd Psalm, and it begins with a reminder that it is good to give thanks to the Lord.
02:43
And I know that we stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, but we do stand when we're going to read the passage, we're going to study, we stand for the Word.
02:51
So let us stand and give honor and reverence to the Word of God.
02:55
And again, we are in Psalm 92, and I do read the introductions, even though last week I said there is some question about whether or not this is part of the inspired text.
03:13
It certainly is part of the traditional text.
03:15
This goes all the way back to ancient times, or these headings that are in these psalms.
03:20
So I'm going to read the heading as well.
03:23
A psalm, a song for the Sabbath.
03:29
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night.
03:40
To the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre, for you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work.
03:48
At the works of your hands I sing for joy.
03:52
How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep.
03:57
The stupid man cannot know, the fool cannot understand this, that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever.
04:09
But you, O Lord, are on high forever.
04:13
For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish, all evildoers shall be scattered.
04:18
But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox.
04:23
You have poured over me fresh oil.
04:26
My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies.
04:29
My ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
04:33
The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
04:38
They are planted in the house of the Lord.
04:41
They flourish in the courts of our God.
04:44
They still bear fruit in old age.
04:47
They are ever full of sap and green to declare that the Lord is upright.
04:53
He is my rock.
04:55
And there is no unrighteousness in Him.
04:59
Father God, I thank you for your word.
05:02
And as Brother Mike has already prayed, I pray again, Lord, that you would use your word to teach your people, open their hearts to understand it, Lord, that it might bring forth the fruit of repentance in all of our lives, especially the sin of ingratitude.
05:19
And Father, I pray that you would keep me from error as I preach and keep me from cowardice.
05:25
That I might preach with boldness and that I might preach with accuracy.
05:33
Lord, may you be praised in the preaching of your word and may you save those who have come today who do not know the Lord.
05:41
That today they might see the foolishness of not praising God.
05:49
And Lord, that very thing for which we have been created to do, to praise you always, is our goal in this message and in our lives.
05:58
So Lord, we praise you with this.
05:59
In Jesus' name, amen.
06:03
Alright, you may be seated.
06:22
When Brother Mike came up to pray, he mentioned in the passage that Brother Andy had read something somewhat humorous from the Apostle Paul.
06:32
And it was funny.
06:37
I want to mention also that there's something that I have found humorous in this psalm.
06:43
This psalm has been where I've been waiting all week.
06:47
I've been swimming in it, studying it, reading it over and over, reading it in various translations, reading as best I can in the original language to try to discern its meaning.
06:57
And the one thing that I have noted in the study of this passage is the first line has to be one of the greatest understatements in the Bible.
07:11
It is good to give thanks to Yahweh.
07:17
Notice in your Bible that it's the capitals there.
07:21
Anytime you see the word Lord and it's capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's referencing the divine name.
07:29
And I actually this week listened to a Jewish Christian preach this psalm.
07:37
I wanted to see how he handled it.
07:39
And as I was listening to him I noticed that he didn't say Lord and he didn't say Yahweh, but he said Adonai.
07:45
And it still is the tradition among many Jewish people not to use the divine name.
07:50
They consider that to be too close to breaching the third commandment, not to take the Lord's name in vain.
07:56
And so not to anywhere skate near the safety of that particular fear, they don't use Yahweh.
08:05
They will say Adonai.
08:07
But the most important thing that we need to notice here is not really the name of God, even though the covenant name is used and we should we should recognize that.
08:15
The most important thing here is what it says about Yahweh, what it says about the Lord.
08:19
It says it is good to give thanks to the Lord.
08:27
And what it does not say is just as important.
08:33
It does not say that it is only good to give thanks when times are good.
08:42
For that is the common trait among us, that we give thanks for the good when things are good, but we do not sit in thanksgiving when things are bad.
08:55
Rather we tend to be people who grouse, we tend to be people who complain, like Israel of old who in the wilderness could not find anything but what to complain.
09:06
We tend ourselves to be the same as it has often been said.
09:09
Heaven must have a suggestion box because some people will not be able to be happy unless they have something about which to complain.
09:18
That was kind of a joke, but it is okay if you did not think it was funny.
09:21
The point is the idea of there being some complaint, something about which to argue, something about which to say I just cannot be happy in this situation.
09:35
I just cannot be thankful.
09:37
But this passage tells us it is always good to give thanks to God.
09:42
You might say well pastor the word always is not there, but I believe it is implied because it says it is good to give thanks to the Lord and that word is without, there is no qualification there.
10:00
And somebody might say, oh but pastor there is the introduction and the introduction tells us this is a psalm for the Sabbath day.
10:08
And you remember in the ancient times prior to Christ the Sabbath was celebrated on the seventh day, that is the day of rest.
10:19
And some people will say, well see you only have to give thanks one day a week.
10:24
God only expects you to give thanks on the Sabbath.
10:28
I do not think that that is how we are to understand this introduction.
10:33
You say, well why does it say a psalm for the Sabbath? Well I have wrestled with that some and I want to be honest with you and say I can only give my opinion.
10:41
I have not found anything that I think is definite.
10:43
But I will say this, one of the most interesting things about this being a psalm for the Sabbath is that because this is from ancient times it does remind us that the Sabbath day in ancient Israel was not a day of idleness.
10:59
It was a day of rest.
11:01
But there was an expectation on the Sabbath and the expectation was that you would be thankful and praiseful to God.
11:11
That you would not just sit on your hands or as the Pharisees would later do count their steps and try to figure out if they had done too much work or not enough or whatever trying to figure it out.
11:22
As John Calvin said, this psalm reminds us that though Sabbath was a day of rest it was not a day to be idle.
11:32
Israel was to use the Sabbath to give thanks to God.
11:34
But I don't think it's limited to the Sabbath.
11:37
I just think that that's the most appropriate day.
11:40
And of course under the new covenant we worship on the Lord's Day.
11:44
We no longer worship on the Israel Sabbath day.
11:47
We no longer worship on Saturday.
11:48
We now worship on Sunday.
11:50
And if I could bring this into the new covenant for just a moment I would say it is just as appropriate to say it is good to give thanks on the Lord's Day.
11:59
It is good to be in church.
12:04
I'm so thankful to see you all.
12:06
Many of you are visitors today and praise the Lord that you are here.
12:09
And it's good that you are here.
12:12
It is good that you have come to praise the Lord.
12:16
It is a good thing to be in church.
12:19
For the last six months or longer now with all of the things arising from COVID and all of these things happening many people have been unable to do what we're doing today.
12:31
Or they have done so in great fear.
12:35
They have strapped masks on and they have come in fearful.
12:38
And I understand masks are important and that's not bad.
12:41
Some of you are in sickness and dealing with sickness and that's fine.
12:44
That's not the problem.
12:45
But in some places you can't enter the room.
12:49
You cannot sit among people unless you're six feet apart.
12:53
And we've grown very distant from one another in regard to that.
12:57
It happens.
13:00
And so here we sit among ourselves thankful to be here.
13:04
Are you thankful? I'm thankful that you are here.
13:13
So this passage tells us it is good to give thanks to God.
13:17
And as I said that's an understatement.
13:20
It's an understatement.
13:22
It's great to give thanks to God.
13:25
It's an awesome opportunity to give thanks to God.
13:29
It is an all-too-often forgotten thing to give thanks to God.
13:39
So what I want to do today as we go through this psalm and we're going to read and study through the whole psalm, Lord willing, time allowing, we're going to look at the whole psalm.
13:49
And what I want to show you is I want to show you that the psalmist here gives us three reasons why it is good to give thanks to God.
13:59
Because that's what he says.
14:00
He starts with, it is good to give thanks to the Lord.
14:04
And then we are given three specific reasons why it is good.
14:11
And so let us look first at the first one which is found in verses 1 to 5.
14:18
It is good to give thanks to God because of His nature and attributes.
14:24
It is good to give thanks to the Lord because of His nature and His attributes.
14:28
Look as it says, it said, it is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and of the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
14:41
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work at the works of your hands.
14:45
I sing for joy.
14:46
How great are your works, O Lord.
14:48
Your thoughts are very deep.
14:51
We'll stop there.
14:53
What we see here is we see four attributes of God's nature which are mentioned and then three responses that come as a result of those attributes.
15:05
You say, I don't see four attributes there.
15:07
They're there.
15:08
If you look closely, you will see four attributes of God which are mentioned.
15:12
Number one is His steadfast love.
15:14
Number two is His faithfulness.
15:19
Number three are His works and that one actually is mentioned three times.
15:22
His works, the works of His hand, His great works.
15:24
That's mentioned three times.
15:26
And then His thoughts.
15:28
God's thoughts are mentioned.
15:31
So let's look at those very quickly.
15:32
Let's look first at His steadfast love.
15:35
It says in Psalm 92, it says in verse 2, to declare your steadfast love in the morning.
15:43
I want to ask you a question.
15:45
Does it ever strike you that you are an object of God's love? If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, if you have entered into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ and repentance unto God, if you have been born again, you are an object of God.
16:11
In fact, you were an object of the love of God before you were ever born.
16:17
You were an object of the love of God before the earth was ever created.
16:23
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and Jesus Christ was not slain for a nameless, faceless mass of humanity.
16:34
He was slain for all who would believe on His name.
16:38
He was slain for what the Bible describes as the elect, those God had chosen.
16:46
And so that particular promise, that particular hope, is given to us and when we come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, when we become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are then reminded God has loved me since before there was a me.
17:03
Might not be good English, it's good theology.
17:05
It's God has loved me before there was, before I was.
17:14
And not only has He loved me, but He has loved me with a steadfast love.
17:20
Notice what it says.
17:21
It says we are to declare His steadfast love.
17:27
Now what does the word steadfast mean? It means to be dependable.
17:31
It means to be loyal.
17:33
It means to be certain or sure.
17:36
To be steadfast is something that does not falter.
17:40
It does not fail.
17:42
It is absolute.
17:45
Think about Romans chapter 8.
17:47
You don't have to turn there.
17:47
Many of you know it in your own mind and in your own heart.
17:49
All I have to do is begin.
17:51
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or sword? You remember that? And it goes on to say nothing can separate us from the love of God.
18:10
Neither height nor depth, nor angels nor powers, nor things present nor things to come.
18:18
Nothing's going to come tomorrow and separate you from the love of God.
18:22
Nothing's going to come next week and separate you from the love of God because it is a steadfast love.
18:31
If there's no other reason to give thanks, that's one.
18:35
His steadfast love that is loyal, that is certain, that is sure, that cannot fail is a reason to give thanks.
18:45
Nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus your Lord.
18:52
Beloved, you should never you should never lose the sense of awe in that.
18:59
We have a God whose love never fails.
19:02
We have a God who doesn't try and fail but he does and accomplishes what he sets out to do.
19:10
The Bible says no one can thwart his purpose, no one can stay his hand.
19:15
He is God and there is no other, there is none like him.
19:20
And he determines the end from the beginning.
19:23
He is the sovereign God of the universe whose love cannot be thwarted, cannot be stolen, cannot be robbed, cannot be taken.
19:40
It is a steadfast love.
19:44
And following this we see the word faithfulness.
19:47
Not only is his steadfast love to be declared in the morning but his faithfulness is to be declared at night which tells us this is a this is an all day reason to be thankful.
19:57
Remember I said it's all the time.
19:59
In the morning we give thanks for his steadfast love.
20:01
At night we give thanks for his faithfulness.
20:04
God is faithful to those who are his.
20:07
Consider all those Bible verses that remind you how God is faithful.
20:12
1st John 1.9.
20:15
This should be a verse that is a favorite to many of us.
20:17
I know it's a favorite of mine.
20:20
The Bible says if we confess our sins he is what? Faithful and righteous.
20:27
To do what? To forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
20:34
If we confess our sins.
20:36
I know this.
20:38
I struggle at times.
20:41
Maybe you don't.
20:41
Maybe you have a very virtuous life and you never fail.
20:46
Maybe your failings are so minute that no one would ever perceive them but I perceive my own failings.