O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD. Psalm 117.
Open your Bible’s tonight to Psalm 117. Mark your Bible please tonight. We’re Bible study time so let’s treat this like a class. I’d like for you to mark the fact that this is the shortest chapter in the Bible. Isn’t it interesting that it’s followed after Psalm 118 by Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. There are thirty-three words in this chapter. Those thirty-three words were not put there by mistake. I understand (and I do not know the Hebrew language) that my understanding of Hebrew, that those thirty-three English words are sixteen words. I do know, that though it’s short, it’s powerful.
The first lesson I want us to see in Psalm 117 (and I’ll see several lessons quickly tonight) is the brevity of the Psalm. I’d like to say this. There’s a time for brevity, and there’s a time for longevity.
In child rearing, there is some time for brevity. Some parents think that they need to talk all the time at and to their children. You don’t need to be talking all the time, parents. Children should not be amening, because it’s not your job to figure out what your parents should do. You should figure out what your job is, and it’s one word, and it’s called obey.
Mother and dad, I watched a lady several years ago, and what she did nonstop for her son – day after day after week after week after month after month after year after year, through the entire life – she talked, talked, talked, talked, and she drove her son crazy. There’s something to be said about brevity of time once in a while in child rearing. Sometimes you want to hold your mouth. My wife and I discuss this from time to time. Our daughters are married. We have a granddaughter, and we have two kids in college – a sophomore and a junior in college. There are a lot of things we’d still like to say, but sometimes we just need to hold our mouth.
My mother and dad are members here, and I’m sure my parents in the last twenty-five years would have liked to given their opinion to me in thirty-something years of marriage and just say some things. But it was time for them to be quiet because when you leave your father and your mother and cling to your wife, you have a new responsibility.
There are sometimes you want to be quiet in brevity and short things. I can recall when I was sixteen years of age, and I had an almost brand new Volkswagen beetle bug that I was buying. I was getting ready to go off to college. I had the reverse chrome rims on it. The thing had ten and a half inch Goodyear low-profile tires on the back. I couldn’t do anything, but it looked good. You know – it was a little four-cylinder Volkswagen bug. I can recall my dad, who had brought home from his work a garden tractor – it had a little plow on the back. He was going to deliver it. This was on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And on Monday, he was going to deliver it to the person who bought it. He had it there on the tractor, on the trailer.
I said, “Dad, I’d sort of like to drive that thing around”.
He said, “That would be fine”. He said, “But now son, just drive around here on the street”.
We lived on the end of a street – on a cul-de-sac almost.
He said, “But now, don’t put it in fourth gear, and don’t put the throttle down all the way. You’ve got that plow on the back, and you’ll do a wheel stand. You’ll not have control of it”.
Man, I’ll tell you what. He was probably an old man at that time – I’d say fifty-two. Fifty-two’s not very old, folks! I was sixteen, or whatever I was – sixteen or seventeen. The first thing I did (and I tried to obey my dad, but I knew how to control a vehicle. I knew how to control a tractor). I put it on fourth gear. I put the throttle all the way down; and I let that clutch out. When I let that clutch out, sure enough, I lifted that front off. But the problem was my foot went flat, and I couldn’t get the clutch down. There was also another problem. There was a British racing-green Volkswagen bug in my way. I plowed into that thing and bounced that car up over the curve.
I’ll never forget my dad was standing on the driveway. That’s all he did. Then he did something else that was awful. He just sort of tipped his head, not in disgust – in sort of like a “you let me down, son.”
If he would have came and beat the daylights out of me, it would have been much easier. Then as he dropped his head, I remember I could see him spinning and turned around slowly and walked into the house.
I walked in – sixteen, seventeen year old stupid kid – and said “Dad, I hit my car.”
He saw it.
“I know, son. I was supposed to deliver that tractor tomorrow morning, but you’re going to have to pay the money to get it repaired first.”
That’s what you call brevity.
Parents, we cannot always be giving opinions. I’m not saying not to train your children.
Ecclesiastes 5: “A time to speak, and a time to refrain.”
There’s a time also, parents, to have some longevity. “We need to sit down and have a talk about some things, son or daughter.”
By the way, not only in child rearing, but in marriage. There’s a time, sir, there’s a time, lady, to be quiet. There’s a time in your marriage that you better take time to sit down and talk.
In your business, there’s a time to be quiet, and not always micro-manage and harp on your people. There’s a time to sit down and say “We’re going to deal with some things today.” Or, do so in a positive way. “Here are some exciting things that are happening. I want to share them with you today.”
I find lesson one the brevity of the Psalm. Let’s learn when to be brief. Ecclesiastes 5:1-13, if you’ll write that down.
Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands? For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
Learn to be brief, and learn when to speak.
You say, “But people love to hear me speak.”
Not as much as you think.
Lesson two from the Psalm – lets take a look at it. The first one is the brevity of the Psalm. The second one is the praise of the Psalm.
I want you to notice praise is the theme.
“O praise (underline it) the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.
In thirty-three words, he says three times “praise.”
(singing) “I will praise him.” Sing it. “I will praise him. Praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory all ye people, for his blood can wash away each stain.”
Every day we ought to praise Him. Every day we ought to get up and just praise the Lord. There’s so much to praise God for. Did you notice about three, four, five days ago that beautiful full moon? Did you see it? Man, that thing was coming up over here. I tell you what. It was just like you could almost touch it. It was so beautiful; so round; so gorgeous. And to think that the big bang theory put it there (laughter). God put it there!
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” Psalm 2:3,4.
Hey, we have so much to praise God for. Watch yourself this week. Won’t you this week catch yourself every time you gripe?
I know a man in my church that’s been a real blessing to hear what he’s doing. Every time he says something of a note of criticism or says something that might be construed criticism, or says something that might not be so positive about another person, he puts a dollar in his till. That spoke to my heart. Hey, won’t you every time that you say something complaining, won’t you put a dollar in the till? We could build the building rather fast, I think.
God did not create our voice box to complain.
(singing)
When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed;
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost;
Count your many blessings. Name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done!
Count your blessings. Name them one by one.
Count your blessings. See what God hath done.
Count your blessings. Name them one by one.
Count your many blessings. See what God hath done.
Oh, my goodness! People say, “Ooohhh, I live in the Silicon Valley, the asphalt jungle.”
I love it! Man, I go to cities, and they don’t even know what Starbucks is! They don’t know what java juice is! They don’t know what the commuter lane is. They don’t know what it is to knock on doors where people say, “I don’t go to any church.” Hey, you don’t see a traffic jam around here on Sunday.
I was in Washington D.C. I got the telephone book out a few months ago, and counted three hundred and twenty two Baptist Churches in Washington D.C. Brother Baldwin, what’s the population of Washington D.C.? Eight hundred thousand – and there’s three hundred twenty two Baptist Churches in Washington D.C. proper. Wait a minute. In our city, there’s a hundred four thousand – small Santa Clara. It’s not eight hundred. There are five Baptist churches, and one I can’t find. So there are four. One is a Korean. I don’t understand what they say. One is a church that’s been in existence since we’ve been in existence. I have never seen one person there. I have never seen a person there. I go by it often. I have never seen anybody there. I’ve never seen a car there. It’s a most amazing thing. It’s just a little, tiny house. I’ve never seen anybody there, ever. One’s an American Baptist Church and one’s a Southern Baptist. To my knowledge, we’re the only Baptist church in this city open on a Sunday night. Hey, there are 900, almost a million people in the city of San Jose, California right around us here. There are just a handful of Baptist churches. You talk about open territory! Man, this is a church’s paradise dream, to be here!
To think that all around us, the field is ripe unto harvest! Hey, you bus workers – you ought to go with me to some churches, where they run their bus in, and then the other church runs in, and the other church runs in, and the other church runs in, and the route that has the most is the route that gives away the biggest thing this Sunday – and we play musical routes from church to church to get the nicest thing. You go to a door, and there’s no other bus coming that direction. Man, I tell you what. I love living here! I love the weather – average temperature 72 degrees; no humidity; no mosquitoes! Hey, I’m talking about no ticks! Once in a while, I get ticked off, but other than that… I’m talking about the fact I’m glad I’m alive, saved, Baptist, on the way to heaven, live in the Silicon Valley! It fires me up.
It just excites me to think that God let us live here. I’ve got so much to be thankful for.
You know a few months back, we went over our 2 millionth person to come to Sunday School? You know that just recently, we had our fifty thousandth person to walk the aisle at this church to trust Christ as Savior? Do you know just a few months ago, we just baptized our thirteen thousandth person? Do you know we are building a three thousand-seat auditorium – and there’s not an acre left in our city, and we are building the building of buildings? Man, I’m so excited to be alive.
I’m thankful I’m not in a rest home tonight. I’m thankful I’m not in a hospital tonight. I’m thankful, to my knowledge – and I’m certainly not making fun – please, don’t – my own mother-in-law has this – I’m thankful I don’t have Alzheimer’s as far as I know. I’m thankful I’m a member of the North Valley Baptist Church. I’m thankful that we have in this church something that’s so wonderful called North Valley Baptist Schools, K4 through 12. I’m thankful I’m a Chancellor of Golden State Baptist College. I’m thankful tonight we have bus routes – over here twelve and over here another twenty-eight bus routes running all over this area. God’s so good to us.
This short Psalm tells you, “I want some praise.”
The brevity of the Psalm; the praise of the Psalm; but then I want you to see the people of the Psalm.
O praise the LORD, (what’s that next word, class?) all ye nations: praise Him, (what’s the next word, class?) all ye people.
Everybody is to praise Him. How can these people in foreign countries praise God? They’ve got to get to know God. How can the people of the United States of America learn to praise God? They have to come to know Him. In 1970, eight percent of the United States claimed salvation. In the year 2000, two percent. From 1970 till now, in the last thirty-three years – here’s thirty-three words – in the last thirty-three years, we have gone down six percent. There are two percent that claim, “I know Jesus Christ.”
Ladies and gentlemen, do you see a lot of our people in this nation praising God? I sure don’t. Schools out for the summer, but if you go to the average bus stop and watch kids, they’re mad. They’re mad. They’re angry. They’re upset. Yet, all the people that brings to God – Why? He is worthy of all praise.
Our fourth lesson – for His merciful kindness is great toward us and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Mercy and truth.
Here’s the theme of the Psalm – not just simply praise, but mercy and truth.
Mercy is God’s attitude toward those that are in distress. Mercy is God’s attitude toward those in distress. Grace is God’s attitude toward the rebel. I experienced grace at salvation, and day by day His wonderful mercy when I am in distress.
Psalm 89, verse 1: I
will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever…
Mercy (write in your notes here, please) is pity. It’s compassion. It’s sympathy for another, and how I ought to have pity and sympathy and compassion for another. This church has an opportunity to try to minister to this young boy that was baptized last Sunday night, and this little ten-year old, and the six-year old that lost their 43-year old mother this week. Hey, we have an opportunity to show some mercy. This lady just got in by four weeks. She knows Christ. She’s in Heaven. She’s experiencing that place we just sang about: I Shall Know Him. She didn’t get a long time to read the Bible. Just the day before her death, Brother Thompson was at the hospital. She was coherent. There was talking, and then her life was extinguished and gone. But she’s not gone. She’s home. Thank you, bus workers become some bus worker – route seven – Brother Wesley, Mrs. Wesley – extended some mercy. They said on Saturday morning, “We’re going to get up, get to the bus meeting, go on the route, reach a dear lady – single mother – get her on the bus…” They saw to it she got saved, brought her into the preaching, saw that she was baptized, got her here… hold it! That’s mercy.
Let me ask you a question. Were did we show mercy today? God showed it to us.
Mercy there was great, and grace was free.
Pardon there was multiplied to me.
There my burdened soul found liberty,
At Calvary.
Oh, thank God for the mercy! Mercy is compassion. It’s pity.
Keep your hand right here please. Let’s go back to Genesis 39. In Genesis 39, we find that Joseph has been arrested because of Potiphar’s wife that lied against him. In chapter 39, verse 20:
And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.
Oh, verse 21:
But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
Here is Joseph experiencing mercy.
Go with me to the Ten Commandments: Exodus chapter 20 please. Joseph discovered mercy. Exodus chapter 20 tells us in verse number 3: no other Gods; verse 4: don’t make them; verse 5: don’t bow down to them. Verse 5 and 6:
“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing (what’s the word, class?) mercy (pity, compassion) unto thousands of them that love me…”
It’s because of God’s mercy that we’ve not been consumed. God saw us with compassion.
Go to Exodus chapter 25 please. In Exodus, God is telling Moses about the tabernacle, about the materials, and how to make an ark. Now the Ark of the Covenant was a square box. That square box had round holes on the sides where they could put the stave and carry that through rods. You know all about that. Inside that was the law – the Commandments. But what was on the top? What was the lid? The Mercy Seat. Those two cherubs faced one another. The lid was called the Mercy Seat. Now wait a minute.
“ And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold…”
The Mercy Seat was the lid of solid gold. It’s a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus is the propitiation of our sin.
Go over to Romans chapter 3. I know I’m getting you to turn, but you have to see it with this in mind.
In Romans 3, and beginning in verse 23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified (What’s justified? Declared righteous.) freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Watch it now.
The word “propitiation” is the same word as Mercy Seat, and Mercy Seat is a covering. Jesus Christ, the propitiation is the covering of all my sin! As you study the lid of the Mercy Seat in the Old Testament, it is a type, it is a picture of Jesus who will come and cover us from all our iniquity.
Calvary covers it all, my past with its sin and shame.
My guilt and despair,
Jesus took on Him there,
And Calvary (Propitiation, Mercy Seat) covers it all!
Mercy Seat means “covering”. Propitiation means “covering”. It’s the Mercy Seat. It’s the covering.
The church can’t cover you. The offering plate cannot cover you or me, but Calvary can because He became the covering of our sin.
See, immediately after the sacrifice was made on the brazen altar, the blood was taken and poured and sprinkled on the Mercy Seat; and the lid with the blood over the Mercy Seat is the symbol of what Jesus did as He covered us with His own blood.
Dr. Zachary, come for a moment. We’ve talked about mercy a little bit today. Take two or three minutes. Talk to us for a moment about mercy – what this thing mercy is about.
Dr. Zachary: In the old Hebrew culture, when people of different rank would come (Brother Webster, if you could come up here for a moment), they would have stylized ways of bowing. If I think of Brother Webster here as David when he first came as a student, he was one of my piano students, and taking classes in the college, if I was his teacher, I would have a higher rank, and he would have a lower rank. Then if I wanted to show him that I was being kind to him, I would bow from my waist if I wanted to be kind to him. But now David’s graduated, he’s gone through the Master’s program, and we’ve hired him on the staff. Now he’s a staff member, and I’m a staff member, so there’s not a student/teacher difference anymore, and we’re of the same rank. So it would not be appropriate for me to bow like that in the ancient Hebrew culture. What I would do since we are of the same rank is that I would just bow at the neck, just like a little nod – we’re buddies. The word that’s used here in Psalm 117, it comes in its root from someone who bows at the neck. In other words, there is an echo in this idea when God uses that word. He says “When you’re coming to me, and We’re dealing with you, I have every right to deal with you as an inferior, but I have chosen to deal with you as a person of equal rank. I’m not going to put you down, and treat you badly. I’m going to treat you as a person of equal rank. That’s the word “mercy” – merciful kindness. God is not pushing us down. He knows our sin. He knows our weakness, but He is treating us in kindness and mercy as someone of an equal rank.
Dr. Trieber: Now, that doesn’t mean we’ve become gods. That’s that theology that’s flying around today that I’m a god, and we’re little gods, or that we’re little Jesus’. No, that’s blasphemy. There’s one God, and one Mediator. No, we’re not gods, but He has accepted me as His child. I’m part of the family.
He’s been merciful. The theme of this Psalm: yes, it’s praise, but you can’t forget the mercy of God.
Let’s go back to Psalm 117. So mercy is pity. It’s empathy, sympathy, and concern. Don’t you love it?
Ephesians 2:4: “…He who is rich in mercy…”
Mercy for me. Don’t you like it?
I Peter 1:3: “…has
begotten us by His abundant mercy…”
Don’t you love Hebrews 4:16 that we the privilege to have boldness to come to the Throne of Grace to obtain mercy in the time of need.
See, the old devil’s going to tell us that “He’s not going to help you anyway. He’s not going to help you. You’re so lousy. You’re so no-good. You don’t deserve this.” That’s what he’s telling us. I believe right now more than ever he’s telling God’s people that all the time.
But I want to tell you something. He’s been merciful to me. I deserve the rocks. I deserve that. We sang tonight, “Fill my cup, Lord.” I’m glad that was on the cards. “Fill my cup, Lord. I lift it up. Bread of Heaven. Like the woman at the well, I was searching and seeking for things that could not satisfy. Then I heard my Savior speaking, draw from My well, that never shall run dry.” That’s mercy.
He says tonight, I have mercy. It’s merciful kindness. Let’s carry merciful kindness into our home, into our marriage, with our children, into our church. He’s coming again. Let’s be people of merciful kindness. And then He says, “…and the truth of the Lord endureth forever…” Truth is the agreement of fact – agreeing on fact. Truth tonight is correctness. It’s accuracy.
“I am the Way, the Truth…” Jesus said (John 14:6). He’s accurate. He tonight is agreement with fact. He is the one that can declare He is truth. The closer we get to the truth, the more we’ll tell the truth.
“So I’m having a hard time of telling the truth.” It’s because you’re having a hard time of staying near the Person of truth, the Originator of truth, Jesus.
“I am the Way, the Truth, the Life.”
So here’s mercy, and God deals with us in mercy, but he also deals with us in truth. Mercy thinks if we’re not careful, we can get away with it. Truth says, “I still deal with accuracy.”
As God’s people, we need to blend in our lives mercy and truth. In rearing our children, there needs to be truth. There needs to be mercy. In our marriage, there needs to be truth. There needs to be mercy. In our church, there needs to be truth. There needs to be mercy. The Bible says in Psalm 85:10 that mercy and truth are united as one. God is going to deal with the sum. Some Christians only expect mercy from God, and believe anytime God deals with us according to truth, we serve a mean God. Others believe that God only deals with us in truth. I’m glad tonight He deals with me in mercy, and he deals with me in truth. Truth announced, “I was a sinner, doomed, condemned because the accuracy of my life, my record – He kept an accurate account of me.” Truth said, “I’m a sinner.” But mercy said,
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”
Here’s a small, little Psalm tonight; a Psalm of brevity; a Psalm of praise; a Psalm of universality that all of us should be part of this; a Psalm of theology, mercy and truth.