Our Hope Is In The God Who Reigns Forever - Psalm 146 - Andy Cain

God Centered Theology

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One of the best -loved hymns of the faith it is well with my soul

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Written by Horatio Spafford Mr. Spafford was a wealthy businessman in Chicago He lost much of his real estate holdings in the

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Great Chicago Fire After the fire, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to Europe Intending to join them later, but the voyage was struck by disaster and Spafford received a message from his wife with the painful reading saved alone

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Spafford quickly made arrangements to join his wife and when they reached the spot where his daughters had drowned

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Spafford Marked that sad event with words of hope When peace like a river attendeth my way when sorrows like sea billows roll

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Whatever my lot thou has taught me to say it is well it is well with my soul

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See these powerful words written in the midst of such pain or a reminder to us today

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That even though we may at times endure great suffering and hardship. It is not the end of God's plan for us

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Sometimes God's children get discouraged because it appears that life may be going better for those who are doing wrong

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We certainly seem to live in times like that Don't we yet the end result of both paths are already settled those who fear

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God will be able to say it is well Those who oppose God will quickly find that the end of their path is death and destruction

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Keeping the end result in mind helps keep us doing right. I Have probably heard that Example story read in some capacity 50 -60 times in my lifetime.

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It's one of my favorites It's a good reminder of who

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God is and who we are a song for 146 Our hope is in the

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God who reigns forever It says praise the Lord praise the

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Lord in the Legacy Standard Bible It says praise y 'all or praise

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Yahweh. Oh my soul This first line praise y 'all or praise.

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The Lord is literally hallelujah for the word praise here means shine or to make to shine to be

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To praise something to praise someone or praise something we are boasting in it

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We are making it shine. We are Celebrating it. Is it no mystery then why

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Paul talks often about how he boasts only in Christ The Old Testament authors and the

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New Testament authors are in agreement Praise y 'all praise

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Yahweh Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. I will praise the

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Lord. I will praise Yahweh throughout my life Meaning this phrase here throughout my life means throughout the duration

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It literally means age or so in other words it's saying throughout the age of me, you know

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We talked about generation and generation We talked about this age We talked about what is your age?

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The years of life you've had on this earth whether it's 20 40 60 80 120 Don't think

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I'm making that far, but it's always hoping so that's what it's saying I will praise Yahweh throughout all the ages of me

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Throughout all my life I will sing praises to my God while I have my being

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What he's saying here when he says while I have my being he's saying while I persist while I am alive

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While I have breath in my lungs Should make you call back to this morning. One of the songs our song leaders.

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Let us in it says it's your breath in my lungs Never make the mistake that when you inhale and exhale you do that on your own

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You persist and you live because the great God of the universe Puts breath in your lungs.

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That's what he did with the first man Adam He creates him out of the dust of the ground and he breathed life into him

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So I need to remind myself at times you need to remind yourself at times that we need to be praising celebrating shining light upon Revelation of who

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God is and who we are and that we will praise him in our lives throughout our lives and We sing praises to him while we persist while we live

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Now notice here. There is no exception clause There is no well,

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I'll praise God as Long as things are going well for me or as long as he is doing that which is approved by me

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Now I say that semi sarcastically because I know there was a time in my life where that wasn't said in Sarcasm by me.

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It was you're not doing for me. Therefore. I won't do for you. Oh The arrogance of the sinful heart that would think we know better than God So we praise him we sing praises to him because our hope is in him

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Now I want to look tonight this evening at two types of people found in this psalm now

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The first type of person is only talked about in verses three and four

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While the other person is talked about verses five through ten The first type of person you're gonna see in this psalm is the one that puts their hope in man and in false gods

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Notice in verse three after he says I'm gonna sing praises to God throughout my life

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He has the negative here do not Trust in nobles some of your translations might translate this princes nobles do not trust in nobles or princes in a son of man or it's literally say a merely a son of man in Whom there is so no salvation so what it's saying merely a son of man here what is referring to is a man of the dust a man of flesh

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This term here what says a son of man It's not in the same way when

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Jesus would refer to himself as the son of man Which was a title for himself.

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This is literally saying don't put your trust in a son of mankind

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Meaning flesh and bones you say well You saying I'm not supposed to trust my parents or trust my friends or my preacher.

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No, that's not what he's saying here It doesn't mean that you don't have a level of trust in your spouse or in your pastor

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Or in your boss at work or in the bank teller or whoever it is You're working with or in front of there's gonna be a certain level of trust that may be higher with some

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Lower with others what we're talking about here is this trust that we're not to put in nobles and princes is our ultimate trust our

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Trust in hope that gets us up every morning that keeps us moving forward

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We are not to put our trust in just a son or daughter of mankind

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Notice it says in whom there is no Salvation in psalm 118

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Verse 8 9 it says it is better to take refuge in Yahweh than to trust in man

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It is better to take refuge in Yahweh than trust in nobles

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You are better off Trusting the God of this universe that you are trusting any man's what this means is ultimately

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We're not to trust any person or any created thing Equal to or above Yahweh and it says here

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There is no salvation found in this man or in mankind. That's what's being saying here

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You don't put trust in son of man or in mankind Because they cannot save you this word translated here says there is no salvation.

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It means there's no deliverance There's nothing that could deliver you from your sins in mankind because mankind himself is sinful

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That's why when we speak topically about how we are not works based salvation There's nothing

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I can do to earn my salvation. There's nothing I can do to earn it for you Your works cannot overcome my sin.

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My works cannot overcome your sin The only works that can save a man is the works of Christ his death bear on resurrection on the cross

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Which is why we are saved by the grace and mercy of God through faith and not through works lest any man should what boast?

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We're not to boast in our works were to boast in God Where it says there's no salvation in man in Psalm 6011 it talks about how the salvation of man is useless.

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It profits nothing Why do you think it's so interesting if you look at every single religion on the planet?

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minus Christianity the Christian worldview Every single religion has some element of works -based salvation to it every one of them

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The Roman Catholics Rome's gospel cannot save the Mormon gospel cannot save the

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Islamic gospel cannot save There is no gospel found in any religion

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But the religion that comes from the pages of Scripture the one that says you are a sinner and You need to be saved.

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You need to be delivered and you will not find it in man But this type of person that puts their hope in man and their false gods

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They think that the mortal the finite the dust can save them

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Well, it says in verse 4 his spirit departs He returns to the earth

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You're gonna put your trust in a man Who's not eternal? Our lifespans are but a vapor

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They're finite they have a beginning a middle and an end

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Some people's in comes far younger than others We call this tragedy

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Some people's in comes really late in life Death should not shock us, but it does it seems to shock us more when it happens to the younger

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Versus the older in some cases, but death as a rule should not shock us

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One out of one people. This is the most tried -and -true statistic in the history of statistics one out of every one person dies

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There are no exceptions. It is appointed on the man wants to die and then judgment

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So Why would anyone put their faith and trust in their hope for their future in anything

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That has an expiration on it Be kind of like if you had a milk jug in the fridge and had no

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Expiration date on it and you go to get some of it Oh, it's alright And of course the intelligent wise wife behind us is saying

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I wouldn't drink that. I'm bad. I wouldn't drink that I'm sure it you have you see the date on ain't got date on it

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Also, you just gonna trust it's okay. It smells. All right pass the smell test and she's like, all right

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And then you're sick three hours later. He's drank bad milk didn't listen to your wife We tend to put so much trust in things people get on airplanes all the time

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Don't even think about it. We get in our cars and drive down the road if you're on a two -lane highway You've got one coming the other way.

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You're about 13 to 24 inches away from death every time they pass you

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One little slip of the wheel you're done and yet the one that deserves our trust

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We don't often put it fully in him the spirit of the one

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These nobles these princes this mankind this son of man that you want to put your trust in Their spirit departs and when it does they go back to the ground

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From dust we came to dust we return and says in that very day his plans perish all the cult leaders in the world

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I'll give them this much they do. They're very persuasive in some cases You always wonder don't you if you're anything like Gina and myself?

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We like to watch these documentaries and Netflix stuff on cults and things like that and almost every time inevitably we pause at some point like Really?

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There are none so blind as those that they refuse to see right if you don't have the spirit of God residing in you

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It's very easy to get caught up in stuff and they have plans.

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They have desires They have determined what they're gonna do and what's interesting. They'll suck you in and think oh,

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I'm following this person They're great. They're all these things and they'll always be here.

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It'll always be like this. I don't know He's dead this type of person that puts their hope in man and false gods will always be disappointed by mankind and by these false gods

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But the second type of person The last type of person we're going to talk about this evening is never disappointed because their hope is not in themselves

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It's not mankind. It's not anything created because it's in the Creator Their hope is in the one true

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God who reigns forever Notice it says in verse 5. How blessed is he?

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Whose help is the God of Jacob? Psalm 1 has the contrast of the blessed man and the unblessed man

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So many places throughout the Psalms you see talk of blessed is this person? This person is not blessed.

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This person is blessed. This person is not blessed it's a constant theme running through it and the psalmist always gives you a

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Definition of who is blessed and they do it here. You are blessed meaning you are happy You are content you have a positive outlook you have hope that does not make you afraid why?

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Because your help is in the God of Jacob Your hope is in Yahweh his

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God Who notice here made the heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them who keeps truth forever

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Now let's pause there just for a second because there's a little bit of a clunky translation here Some translations will say he keeps faith forever

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Some will say like in Legacy Standard will say keeps truth forever the word here that's translated either truth or faith

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It just simply means faithfulness endurance being firm and faithful, so When you look at Psalm 117 verse 2, it talks about how the faithfulness of God is everlasting

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Everlasting it this verse here when it says that the God who created the heavens the earth keeps truth or keeps faith forever

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It is a qualitative statement of the eternal nature the faithfulness of God If you want to read a psalm that is completely dedicated to the faithfulness of God It's Psalm 118 it repeats a line over and over your faithfulness

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Endures and lasts forever your faithfulness endures and lasts forever or something to that effect

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It's a repeated theme in many of the psalms So what he's saying here is the God who made heaven and earth the

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God who made the sea and all that is in them who is faithful and remains and keeps faithful keeps true remains true forever

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There's never a point in time which time is a created thing God exists outside of time and space, but he created time

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There's no point in the timeline where it can be said that God is not Faithful or true that is what's being said here.

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Think about the contrast you have a God that is permanently faithful and true versus mankind who may display

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Faithfulness at times who may conduct himself in truth at times

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But ultimately is a finite creature who will go back to the dust of the ground He cannot do it eternally and it isn't just that God is able to be faithful and true as he engages in those things

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Qualitatively, it's part of who he is It's his attributes. It just simply is who

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God is. He is Faithful. He is Truthful he is all things he created all things and he is these things he is who he is eternally

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Notice also the contrast of the mankind These princes nobles that were told not to put our trust in don't put your trust in mankind.

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There's no salvation in them. It's useless Contrasted with God he created everything

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We've spoken before about how with idol worship. They're having to rely on created materials like wood to fashion an idol

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That they fall down in worship in Isaiah the great discourse on idol worship at the end of it around verse 20

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I think it's Isaiah 44. It talks about this person that's made this You know wood for the fire to make to heat himself.

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He does food He has some to make his idol and he's like I'm falling down before a block of wood like Yes, you are it's wood it's not anything to be worshipped

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You should be worshiping the God that made the wood and that's what's being said here You want to worship man?

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You want to worship golden calves? You want to worship money? You want to worship your job or your children or whatever it is?

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God made all that Cut out the middleman go straight to the source

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Notice here verse 7 the one this God who does justice for the oppressed gives food to the hungry

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Notice here these Categories, we got two different sets of things. I want to look at first I want to point out to you notice the categories of people that benefit in our blessed from God We have the oppressed we have the hungry we have the free or the prisoners that were set free

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Verse 8 you've got the blind those that are bowed down Those that are righteous the sojourners the orphan the widow all the way down Why Do you think?

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the psalmist here Takes all these categories of what we would call weak people not weak in the sense of they

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You know don't have any faith or hope or strength weak in the sense. They're either in a weak position

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So you think about a widow? She's lost her husband. That'd be a weak position to be in because you don't have your helper with you an orphan with no parents

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It's a pretty weak position. Why is it there's so many weak Categories and positions listed here that Yahweh the

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Lord is raising up loving keeping giving helping because in 2nd

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Corinthians Chapter 12 verse 9 after Paul pleads and begs

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God to take his store in the flesh away. I don't know about you guys, but I mean,

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I Pray a lot. I Don't think I've ever prayed like Paul can pray

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Maybe I can one day but he prays and pleads and begs and God says I'm not gonna do it

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He says my grace is sufficient for You because my power is perfected in your weakness

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People all the time say why evil why bad? Do you have now look don't

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I Take this lightly and I don't mean this as literally as I could so don't get your pitchforks out

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But if everybody was running around perfect be a little boring Why do you think movies are so interesting?

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Because there's good guys and there's bad guys. There's drama. There's contention.

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There's mystery. There's something that has to be figured out In this world, we have all that and God is glorified by it

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Now, yes There will be a day when all sin is done away and no it will not be boring.

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I'm just using that as a Plot device here of sorts to make a point. It would not be boring.

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It will be great and it'll be wonderful But in this lifetime, we have all these things because God is glorified in all things that occur and it is in the weakness of human flesh

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It's in the frailty of human beings that God is most glorified

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So a better example than the one I just used would be Anybody ever gets

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I use this example all the time Anybody ever gets you think about the the example of the testimony that that Garrett gave this morning?

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That's great But if you take out all the drama all the

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I thought I was saved But then I was still sinning and he goes to his friend to play the worship me all the details of that It doesn't impact you as much

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Somebody gets able to give you a testimony. It's man. I ain't never had a problem all my bones work got plenty of money in The bank.

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Yeah when I put faith in Jesus, you know, hey, I just kind of got around to that Yeah, it's not gonna move me very much

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Somebody gets up here and they tell you about all the trial and struggle and hardship and they're still

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Faithful even in the midst of it That'll change lives and God is glorified by it

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People that are not prisoners have no need to be set free People that are full have no need of food people that can see have no need of someone to open their eyes

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That's why it says here this one that does justice for the oppressed is The God who gives food to the hungry he sets the prisoners free

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He opens the eyes of the blind God raises up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous

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He keeps the Sojourners. He helps up the orphan and the widow God does all that Yahweh does all that not mankind not leaders not presidents

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Whoever it ends up being in a couple weeks My friends there's always a president every four years

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Sometimes you like them. Sometimes you won't sometimes you won't like either one of them. Sometimes you'll be like this the best person since sliced bread

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That can change God doesn't and I don't care how powerful anyone is

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I don't care how bad things may seem that they are in the headlines

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It does not change the fact of who's in charge Who is reigning who is

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King It does not say Mankind does justice for the oppressed mankind

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Does and gives food for the hungry man sets prisoners free man opens the eyes of the blind

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It says Yahweh does these things the Lord does these things and he deserves our respect

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He deserves our reverence. He deserves our faith and he deserves our hope He alone is worthy of the praise that we see in verse 1 praise the

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Lord praise the Lord of my soul I will sing praises to God. I will praise

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Yahweh throughout my life That's why you see when

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God talks about how he is a jealous God It's not talking about a sinful jealousy, but it's talking about a jealousy that as God he deserves glory

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He doesn't want to see his glory given to anyone else and he takes it seriously The type of person that puts their hope in the one true

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God is a safe person It is a kept person and we cannot as some of our

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Christian friends may do misinterpret this and think that God always opens

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Doors or make things better Necessarily in your view what's being said here is not about, you know

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You'll see prosperity gospel say we'll see, you know, he feeds the hungry gives justice You know, you're all things are always gonna work out.

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You're always gonna have food. You always got plenty of money It's not what's being said here Remember the context

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Context is vitally important to biblical interpretation. This Psalm starts out with praising the

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Lord for who he is and Then it talks about how we're not supposed to put trust in man

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Ultimately why because there's no salvation in man. That's the context so everything that's said after that about who

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God is and what he does is in the context of how he saves and He delivers and man doesn't so when it says he does justice for the oppressed the oppressed sinner

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Justice for me justice for my sin was done at the cross We talked about how he gives food to the hungry the spiritually hungry are always fed

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He sets prisoners free Can you think of any worse prison than the prison of the bondage of sin?

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He opens the eyes of the blind there are none more blind than the spiritually blind

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Raises up those who are bowed down you think about you don't literally have to bow down and pray to be saved

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But if you think about someone that were to be bowed down or to be humbled before God, I'm a sinner

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I repent I need you to save me God says I raise you up in salvation

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He loves the righteous. He loves his people that work righteous. He loves sir. He keeps us sojourners

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He helps orphans and widows you say well, yes, literally Yes, he doesn't and helps orphans and widows, but spiritually speaking.

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We are dead in sin. We're orphans We are very literally Adopted into the family of God We are sin orphans before salvation

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No family except sinful family and then we're adopted There are no orphans of God There are only adopted sons and daughters and he says all this about who

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God is and what he does and why his salvation is profitable and man's is useless and Then right here at the end

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He throws in one last reminder but he Bends the way of the wicked

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This word bends it might be translated in your translation made crooked The word means to you take a straight line in your mind and you you know

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You think about a straight line point A to point B now put a zigzag in it This way that way this way that way this way that you know, they always say the straightest point between two ways straight

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Shortest distance between two lines is two between Pause back it up The shortest distance between two points is a straight line

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That's what I was going for if you going from here to Raleigh you take every back back road imaginable

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It goes this way that way this way that way it's gonna take you much longer So the the wicked thinks oh my past straight and they can sell you a bag of goods man

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I'm telling you just go right down this way You do this and that and everything comes up roses and God says you're gonna try to take glory from me

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Let me throw a little bit of crookedness in there. Let me binge you out this way a little bit God raises up nations.

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He takes them down. He raises up rulers. He takes them down. Whoever is elected on November 5th is there because God wants them to be there

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Yes, God uses means Means M -e -a -n -s means he uses creatures

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Voting in our country. He uses other means in other places He uses all sorts of means to accomplish his purpose but ultimately make no mistake people are in power because God wants them there either as a measure of blessing and Righteousness on that country whose

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God is the Lord or as a means of judgment Because God Bends the way of the wicked they will not prosper if Someone in your life at your job over you is wicked or not treating you, right?

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if there's some situation you're dealing with even if it isn't dealt with in this life, it will be dealt with an eternity and The reason

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God may not deal with it now is because he's getting a lot of glory out of your reaction to it

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Why do you ever wonder why he doesn't just heal everybody with cancer? Because some people with cancer are used for his glory by how they spread the gospel in hospitals or with their helpers

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They're their comfort care and people that come to see them. There's a whole number of reasons for these things and That subject of suffering would be a sermon for another day

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So then lastly notice here verse 10 as we caught draw to a close here. It says Yahweh will reign forever

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The Lord will reign forever Isaiah 9 says of the increase of his government.

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There will be no end First Corinthians 15 says that Jesus must reign and to all his enemies have been defeated

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The kingdom of God that spoken up in the Gospels you talk about it as the mustard seed that small and grows gradually

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But then it grows to a lot very large Every single word in scripture that talks about the kingdom of God is about the sovereignty of the

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God The sovereignty over his kingdom and how it is reigned in rule and righteousness and the rule of truth

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Says your God Oh Zion from generation to generation

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Praise Yah, praise Yahweh. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord the two types of people

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Exodus 15 is a very interesting chapter, you know, they escape Egypt cross the

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Red Sea safely It's one of the first things they do

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In Exodus 15 verses 17 and 18 It says you Lord are the one that is going to put us in the land that you have marked out for us you reign forever ever

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So I leave you with this my friends whatever happens to you whatever you face

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Whatever man or woman mankind generally speaking Can do to you is under the sovereign watch of your king and your

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Lord Satan never put a finger on Job without God's permission Nobody can take your life unless God has decreed it

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Nobody can stop you if you're obedient to God and he makes that pathway straight God bends the path of the crooked was it say trusted

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Lord with all your heart soul mind and strength. He will direct and make your paths straight from the

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Onset or the onlookers of the world. They're gonna think your life is complete disarray Because it isn't working out the way they would work it out.

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But as you live it You'll say I praise the Lord Throughout all my life.

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I sing praises to my God as long as I have been easy to do on a mountaintop

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Very hard to do in a valley George and them's taking the stuff up to Western, North Carolina more, aren't you?

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There's a lot of people going through some valleys. I Want to be around the one that say praise the

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Lord in season out of season I hope that I can't I don't always do that that well

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Don't anybody look to my wife. You don't need to ask her. I'm telling you But I pray that as I mature righteousness,