This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. OT Sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 10, 1991.

This song is interesting in a number of respects. There is that aspect to it that grasps to me as something of the beginning of the song, the very first song. You may recall that we sang the first song this morning as we opened up our worship service.

But you’ll know how the psalm ends, who it was that gave you the key to these things, and consider the public kindness of the Lord. The theme of wisdom is struck there in the psalm, in the last verse, and moves the psalm into the company, then, of the wisdom psalms. You ought to be wise. and take into account the things that have been said here. Matthew and Wisdom, of course, this is back in the very first psalm, is it not? The fear about how God makes a division between the righteous and the unrighteous, that God will make a difference. The first psalm stands with the imprint of wisdom.

But not only that, this psalm reaches out to the conclusion of the Psalter as a whole. Maybe you recall that the last five psalms of the Psalter are what we call Hallelujah psalms. They are filled with praise. And though the matter of praise is put somewhat notoriously here in this psalm, it’s filled out marvelously as you come to the conclusion of the Psalter. I wonder if you could recite for me the last part of the 150th psalm with every finger and every breath. Praise the Lord. Now, you see, it’s a wonderfully placed psalm, reaching back to the very beginning and reaching ahead to the very conclusion of the psalter. Now, it’s unmistakable, is it not, as you run through the psalm, what is stated before the people are the mighty works and wonderful deeds of God, what he has done for his own.

And these deeds, these acts, are to convince. How can there be any question in the mind of those who have been delivered, those who have been rescued? They are convinced by the actions, the activities of God. These activities stand as symptoms. They stand as symptoms in the past, so that people’s mind races back to these events, and in recursing those events one more time, again, again, And they gained consonance and silence. They lived in the shade of those acts, those mighty deeds of God. And after these deeds had happened, after they had been set as a spectacle, the people of God must never behave as if those acts or those events had not transpired.

Now, the psalm itself is divided and divided into five parts, actually. You have an introduction given in the first three verses of the psalm, and verses four through one is the first of four illustrations that are given. The dominant image in these verses is that of the wilderness and of the wasteland. We can apply all that. Moving on to the second illustration and the third portion of the psalm, verses 10 through 16, you have the image of a prison or a dungeon. And there follows a striking illustration in verses seventeen through twenty-three. And here the language is filled with the vocabulary that concerns health, well-being, contrasted with disease, physical illness. And the last illustration, removing the powerful, detailed picture given to us, verses twenty-three through thirty-two, life at sea.

And before we go on and mention the conclusion of the psalm, speak of it. I want you to note, and I’m sure you picked this up as you were listening to the psalm, or as you were reading it, there is something of a pattern given here in each of these successive illustrations.

The psalmist begins in each of them by describing the state of the people as utterly desolate. There is no hope. But then, you see, they are told they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, These words are used repeatedly. It’s seen on there in verses 6, 13, 19, and 28.

God hears them, God and they’re saved. having completed, then, with the exhortation that he’s given, or the exclamation, depending upon your approach to it, that all good men would thank the Lord for His goodness, that is, for His grace, that is, for His unmerited favor, and for His wonderful acts to the children of men. That’s in 8, 15, 24, and 30. That pattern is repeated. You never have to understand it. The summary statement, verses thirty-three through forty-two, followed by a brief exhortation with respect to this verse, is really usually over.

Now, one other thing that is important for us to keep in mind as we move through the psalm is this. There are multiple illustrations here of the grace and the mercy of God. They’re wonderful illustrations to give you, and you can imagine that behind what the psalmist is saying, he could number any number of others. He could list any number of other instances that are words of consideration.

But all of these issue from the singular grace of God. Multiple occurrences, but issuing from a singular grace. from God, God redeeming His own. He might even go so far as to say that in the final analysis, the mercies of God are reduced to one, one supremacy, as if it were a fountain out of which other mercies flow, so that these occurrences of mercy can be seen in light of the singular mercy of God. That’s what he has done. before his season. You know, at this peak in the history of salvation, there will be that singular grace, that singular demonstration of God’s loving kindness and mercy, that singular event, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And how will that happen when there flow multiple graces, so that the deliverances that we experience, for which we are called then to praise God, are but explicative of that moment’s wondrous grace that is found in Him come through?

Singular character, then, of the grace of God is focused towards an introduction to the song of verse two. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. The singularity of their experience with God focused in the fact that they have been redeemed, they are saved. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Who he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered from the four corners of the earth.

For that verse, the second verse of the psalm, brings before us even wider considerations, doesn’t it? And the four corners of the earth, now having been mentioned, sing to the praise of the four corners of the earth. For you see now, as the psalmist speaks, he brings before us the universal character, expanse, dimension of the redemption that is being accomplished by God for His people. The psalm is bursting in categories.

Jewish people read it. Many of the illustrations and images arise out of Jewish history, but the language itself is suggesting something broader, something more expansive, something more magnificent still, as if when the psalmists were writing, he has the final work of God in view, how in fact God was going to gather his oath from the four corners of the earth. Saving them, yes, universal in proper scope and dimension, comprehensive, very least, let’s put it that way. Whether or not we can understand how in the Old Testament, too, David’s speech of God’s full redemption, His worldwide universal salvation, has been already accomplished five years, he talks in this form, we should at least understand this.

The certainty of our faith, the greatness of our faith, the depth of our appreciation of the infinite mercy of God, are directly related to the accomplishment of redemption in its singularity. Focus on what God has done in laying the foundation for us in His great and mighty works. In the Old Testament, we think of the Exodus. In the New Testament, we think of Christ’s exodus. And Jesus’ words for the cross, these things.

This Jew could see God’s redemptive works as totems of the coming grand final redemption and be praised to God in this manner. How much more should we who see that grand final work of God standing out past as an unshakable monument praise God? If this man has reason to praise God, you have all the more reason to praise Him.

This man but dealt with shadows. The reality itself has been given to you. You are the beneficiaries. We might make excuses for him, He didn’t have the fullness of it yet. But what excuse can be made for us? Oh, that you praise the Lord for His marvelous kindness, for His wonderful words to us children. Well, we now turn to the body of the psalm, looking at the first picture there given to us, verses four through nine. As I said, the image that dominates is that of the luminous or the graceful.

The psalmist, in this section, sees the people of God wandering about the desert. Now, these are not ordinary pilgrims. Understand what the psalmist is saying. These are not ordinary pilgrims. Ordinary pilgrims know where they’re going. And these pilgrims don’t know the way to their destination, and they have not made provision enough for their journey. But people, therefore, are described here as lost and do not know their way to the city. Being too long in the desert, they have run out of food. They don’t know where to find the water. Their quarrel is with God because God alone can help. No one else can. So they pray, and they are answered by God’s mercy who saves them by shepherding them into a city of safety. Now, think of it. Think of it as this sorrow is wed in the days of Jesus in synagogues.

In that day when Israel lives in the land and in the city of Jerusalem, in that time God reveals just how much a wasteland their home is. Having come out of the wasteland of the wilderness, these people are still in a wasteland, they are still in a wilderness. In that situation, he will reveal to these people just how lost they are, even though they’re living securely in their homes and their buildings, in their towns and their cities. Having enough bread, these people are hungry. Having enough water, these people are thirsty. Knowing the way to Jerusalem and to the temple, they are lost.

But Jesus says that he has come to seek and to save that which is lost. For I am the people of God that brings one who himself is the eternal spring and everlasting breath, and this one provides sufficient portion for the multitude that will come of me.” He says on one occasion, I am the way, the truer living way, and no one comes to my Father’s house, to my Father himself but by me. Therefore, when the sons of men are called upon to thank the Lord, they now must do so He has made plain to them just how lost they are, but sought them out in their lostness, and is the means of their deliverance.

Such a picture sees the people confined in darkness, sees them confined as keeping a dungeon and in prison. We’re talking here about verses ten through sixteen. And in this instance, specific mention is made concerning the reason for their imprisonment.

They have rebelled against God, bringing to mind the captivity. They are walled up in darkness. A darkness that is permeated with the honest threat of death, and that death is imminent. People are terrified, they’re chained, they’re helpless. Due to the powers of their own presence, and now in this hopeless and helpless state, they cry to God. And yet again, their crowd is more piercing, more filled with anguish than any herd in Egypt or in Babylon.

For even one sitting in Judea, beneath one’s own fig tree, one is in prison. He is in Greek bondage. Even there, the stifling threat, the ominous darkness are felt. While proclaiming himself to be free, we have gained bondage to no man. He is chained, and how great is his slavery. But Jesus is coming. to set the prisoner free. For freedom, we have been set free.

Galatians 5.1. If the sun makes you free, then you shall be free indeed. The darkness then vanished, light pouring in. No earthly or spiritual oppressor can restrain this liberation. Gates of bronze shatter, bars of iron snap. He sets the prisoner free. The third picture, verses 17 through 22.

And here the people are described as sick, but it’s worse than that. They are sick fools. They are sick unto death, but they are devoid of wisdom in their illness. They have brought upon themselves their own condition. And now, rather than there being images with respect to oppression from that, we are faced with a description of the rottenness within. Just as disease rots away the body, so the foolish wickedness of this people takes its toll on them. So sick are the people they can’t eat. Food itself is noxious. Death this time around is not portrayed as lurking in the darkness.

Instead, it’s a great and mighty city whose gates are even now opening to receive its citizens. The people are drawn to those gates as by a cart, as if they were opening courses. and cries himself to God. He sends his word. My answer is, therefore, this wildness, this death that takes its toll from the heavens, this decay. He sends his word, the word of life, and they are cured. We know who the Word of Life is. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

He came to a peaceful manner whom imagined themselves to be well, but Jesus says, come for the sake of the healthy. They don’t need this issue. I have come for the sake of the sick. And he claims, then, that sin sick terminates, makes his people well with spiritual dying, so that all the appearances that pertain to this life are reversed.

You may be cherishing in the outward man, but you are gaining grace in the inner man unto the day of Jesus Christ. Jesus makes us live. The last verse is 23 through 32, maybe the most famous. Here the people of God are portrayed as accompanying saviors and worshipers.

For them, these sailors and merchants, if you will, for them the sea cannot be avoided, and war and life can be avoided. Sailors and merchants of this divine cannot avoid life on the sea. We can avoid life. These have no choice but to face it and to cross the sea.” But what of the sea? The sea is the place of chaos, instability, uncertainty, disruption. Never is man’s life so tenuous as when he’s on the sea. And in this sea-like existence, the people of God then meet all life’s fury.

It’s a fury unmatched by anything in creation. In fact, it is a supernatural fury that is unleashed, like that of Philip’s son. Chaos and uncertainty are then raised to their power. God’s people are the rest men of their senses. Although land-bound—the Jews weren’t a sea-carrying people—although lands bound with their feet well anchored on terra firma, these people, the people of God, are adrift. The abyx self gapes around them. Hell opens its mouth beneath them. The raging powers of the deep rise to indulge them. But God rules the sea, and he stills the storm. He conquers the chaos and shoves aside uncertainty, doubt, fear, trouble, distress. He buries his people’s sin with the host of hell and seeds, and in his eternal kingdom These sins are never known again. Do you remember Jesus in the boat? The boat was on the sea, but it raged against him and his little church. His disciples said to him, don’t you care that we perish?

And the raging monster dies away. And God’s people are brought to their desiring end. With Christ in the Lord, the little church sails for home and rides safely against all that it wants. A company of widows Testament planets, little children. Accompany the weak, forsake them, be amazed.

The song now sung by the faithful magnifies the grace of the Lord. Such a song the elders wish to hear from the people of God. They are mentioned here, the verse 32. For such a song exhibits the wisdom of the kingdom of God and demonstrates that those who sing it have experienced God’s goodness.

Truly, for these people, The Lord whom they hymn, about whom they sing, the Lord whom they praise, the Lord whom they extol, He, at reveal, finally, fully, Christ, is their chef, their livery, their physician, their pot. The question is, do we know Him? And will we praise Him? for his marvelous works, his incredible demonstrations of grace and kindness. If we know him, if we know the shepherd, the livery, the physician, the pilot, let us give thanks to the Lord for his mercy and for his wonderful gifts to his people. Amen. So, that’s it.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.