A Song of Victory After Battle

Hello, everybody. Welcome to our continued series on the Book of Psalms. We are going through each chapter line by line as best as we can. It's an expository, devotional look into the Book of Psalms, into the heart of David, and really, most importantly, into the heart of God. It's been already well over a year that we've been looking at this. I appreciate you taking the time with me to devour the Word of God. Jeremiah the prophet said, Thy words were found, and I ate them, and they became to me a joy. We pray that this series has been a joy to you. If you've not checked out some of the previous videos, I want to encourage you to go to World Challenge or YouTube, and you can find all of these psalm series there. Let me pray for us, and then we're going to be talking from Psalm 33, a song of victory after the battle. Father, we pray that this Word would speak life into our ears, into our hearts, into our minds, and into our circumstances, and that no matter what we're facing now, we would realize there's a song coming. There's a day of rejoicing coming. There's an end to the battle. There's a victory that you have already won, and we're just there sort of mopping up now the residue of what's left of these wars that we're in in our life. And I pray for those who are right now in a battle. They're facing a difficulty. It could be medical, relational, financial, spiritual, and we pray that this message would be a word of encouragement to them in Jesus' name. Amen. A song of victory after the battle. Maybe you have just come through a battle, and you've seen the faithfulness of the Lord. Or maybe you're in the middle of a battle, a difficulty, a struggle right now, and you're feeling confused or distraught. And I don't want to say this in a negative form, but most likely, if you're not in one now, just hold on. One more is coming down the road. Why? Because we live in a fallen world. We live in a sin-saturated world, and there's all kinds of struggles and difficulties that we all face. And so this is a word of encouragement that tells you no matter what your past has been like, your present is like, or your future may be like, God orchestrates things where ultimately there's a song of victory no matter what you have been through or going through. Let me read this. It's 22 verses, and it's quite a long read. I pray that you don't tune out or fast forward to get to my comments. The most important thing said today will actually be in these next few minutes as we read these verses. Get this into your heart, into your mind. Ask the Lord to allow you to absorb this so that we are hearing the very words of God. Psalm 33, verse 1. Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise benefits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. It's a musical instrument. Make melody to him with a harp of 10 strings. Sing to him a new song. This is really what we're going to concentrate on today. What is this new song? How do we get a new song? Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts for, or you could say there because. So verse 4 says there's a reason for, verse 1, 2, and 3. There's a reason we can shout. There's a reason we have joy. And here it is for, or because, the word of the Lord is upright. All of his work is done in faithfulness. He loves the righteous and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. Verse 6. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by his breath, excuse me, and by the breath of his mouth, all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap, and he puts them in deep storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people. The counsels of the Lord stand forever. The plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees all the children of men. From where he sits enthroned, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The warhorse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them in a time of famine. Oh, our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us even as we hope in you. Go back to the beginning of this, and I want to concentrate to start with, not that we'll skip over verse 1 and 2, but verse 3 to me is the core of the message of this passage. It's at the very heart of why we would rejoice, and later on in this chapter it goes on to discuss some difficulties that the writer is facing. There's war going on, speaking of a warhorse. There's the king not being saved by a great army. He talks about the false hope of salvation that great might can't rescue. This is a battle chapter. This is a conflict chapter, and anytime the writer of scriptures uses this phrase, sing a new song to him, oftentimes we think of that and we go like, oh, you know, maybe God's just tired of the old songs. Maybe he wants something fresh, or he's like, I heard that song a thousand times. Let me have you sing something new. Be creative. No, this phrase, new song, I'm about to share with you through that scripture. We're going to do a short survey of scripture. Psalm chapter 40. Turn with me if you have your Bibles open. Psalm chapter 40, verse 2 and 3, also speaks of this new song. He drew me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog. He set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. In verse 10, he talks about the deliverance of the Lord. You're seeing here almost the exact same things we see in Psalm 33, that in the midst of a battle, the Lord is calling upon his people to put together, to write, and to then sing a new song. Go ahead a little bit further to Psalm chapter 96. Psalm 96 continues this same theme. Take a look at that if you'll open up your Bibles. Psalm 96, verse 1 and 2, oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Verse 3, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among the people. In verse 11, it talks about the seas and roar, the fields rejoice, and the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. Judgment, warfare, battles, conflict are going on, and God is saying, no matter what you've experienced in the past, no matter what you're right now, or whatever happens in the future, put some words down, the words of a new song, a victory song, because that victory is the Lord's, and the victory is coming. Just a few chapters later in Psalm chapter 98, verse 1, oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Why? For he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for us. He's worked salvation. He's saved us from our enemies. Go on ahead, if you don't mind, taking a few more moments with me in this survey. Psalm chapter 144, and we'll see in Psalm 144, you're probably going to already get the point of what I'm after here. Verses 9 and 10, I will sing a new song to you, oh God. I will play upon a 10-string harp. That's exactly the same thing that David is saying in the 33rd chapter, who gives victory to kings, and who rescues David, his servant, from the cruel sword. Man, you see, it's beginning to form in your mind, isn't it, that this idea of a new song isn't just something that keeps us active, or creative, or gives us something fresh. It has to do with a demarcation in time, a monument, if you will. The song becomes a monument to something particular in your life. I want to talk to you about that in our own life in just a little bit, but I want to finish this survey. Psalm chapter 149, verse 1 says this, praise the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly. Go in verse 6, let the high praises of the Lord be on their throats, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the people, to bind the kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written. This is the honor for all of his godly ones, praise the Lord. The new song is an honor that God gives to us, to say, record what I have done, show my power, show my victory, show my breakthrough, show that the circumstances that surrounded you, show that the waves crashed against you, show them that I have overcome, that I have given you a breakthrough, that I have given you power, show them through the words of this song, and through the singing of this new song, show them what God has done, what God can do. It's not just in Psalms though, it's also in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 42, this is exciting, isn't it? Isaiah chapter 42 begins to show us that it is throughout all of scripture. Verse 10 tells us, sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, who go down to the sea, and all that fills the coastlands, in all their inhabitants. And then in verse 13, the Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war, he stirs up his zeal, he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes. It's interesting, it seems almost like the psalmist and the prophets here are saying, God will deal with your victory, and all that's required from you is to stand still, and at the end of it, record your testimony of God's faithfulness, your song that he has given to you, write a song about it, record it. One of the most favorite songs that my wife and I have loved for the past decade is a song written by a acquaintance of ours, who was going through a very difficult time in his own life, and then he wrote these words, these lyrics, and the song, and when our son was involved in a horrible form of addiction, and actually became homeless living on the streets, we heard this song, we just began to sing it over and over. I wish I could sing to you, I wish I could sing, but the lyrics of the song say, it's not over, it's not over, it's just beginning, the battle belongs to the Lord, we're going to see his victory, and we would sing that song over and over again, it's not over, the circumstance that we're in seems like we've been defeated, it seems like we've suffered loss that can't be changed, and then we saw our son come to the Lord in a miraculous form of salvation, and that's been a decade now that he's been serving the Lord and happily married, two lovely children, and now when we sing that song, we were singing it in the battle, it's not over, and now it's a memorial to us, we look back and say it's not over, and now we have the actual reality of things are changing, God is on the scene, God is moving situations, God is remedying those things that are broken in our world, in our family, and in our life, we see the glory of the Lord, and then we shout praises by this, you probably know one of the most famous songs of praise after a battle victory, does your mind go where mind goes immediately? Maybe so, the Exodus chapter 15, the song of Moses and Maryam, it's after they had been in bondage for 400 years, could you imagine singing a song, it's not over, the story's not finished, the bondage is not our future, and then finally seeing the breakthrough, and then being caught on the edge of the Red Sea, and feeling like what happened, I thought we had the victory, I thought it's over now, our past is over, we have a new beginning, and then all of a sudden feel crushed again, feel overwhelmed again, and then God opening up the Red Sea, and all he asks is you just in faith, cross over to the victory I've given you, and when you get to the other side, write a new song, and sing a new song, here's the song of Moses, the song of Maryam, then Moses and all the people of Israel sang the song to the Lord, saying I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, if you don't remember anything else that I say today, or the scripture says to you, memorize, underline, capture this verse, and sing it when you're in the battle, or the battles that are to come in your life, if you have this song ready, sing it as a I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and the rider, the enemies that are coming against you, he has thrown into the sea, you didn't do anything, all you did is cross, all you did is step out in obedient faith, and he won the victory for us, the Lord is my strength, and my song, he has become my salvation, this is my God, isn't that a powerful phrase, this is my God, this is how my God works, this is how my God moves, this is how my God orchestrates the events of my life, this is how my God provides breakthrough and victory in every area of my life, it begins to show us the very nature and character of God, that he is powerful, that he is omnipotent, that he is glorious, that he is present, that he is caring, that he is merciful, that he's on the scene right when we need him, even before we feel like we need him, he's there, he's present, he's doing his great and mighty work, this is my God, I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him, the Lord is a man of war, he's doing the battle, he's bringing the victory, and he wants us to sing the songs of praise as a result of what God has done for us. Let's take a few more moments now that we've done the survey, and now that you see how biblically clear it is, and we could have gone into other verses in Revelation, the book of Revelation has two different times where it says sing a new song, and all of that has to do with coming out of conflict as well, but having moving away now from the survey, let us look at the verses line by line in the scripture of Psalm 23, because this can teach us how to confidently put together a new song, whether we're in the battle or whether we're seeing the victory, it starts off by saying, shout to the Lord, shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous, it's truly the righteous people, the ones who, and it's not a self-righteousness, it's the people who have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ, cleansing all of our sin, then imputing his righteousness into us, that we can now look to heaven and say, my righteousness is not what I see in my behavior, my righteousness is not what I think in my mind, my righteousness is seated at the right hand of God in heaven, and therefore we can shout for joy, we feel unclean, no, I'm clean, we feel worthless, no, he's made me worthy, we feel unacceptable, no, seated at the right hand of heaven is a righteousness that Christ won by his perfect obedience to all the law of God, and then he paid our penalty of death, the wages of sin, it was our death, and he paid that for us, and now we are seated with him in heavenly places, that's the ultimate song of victory, that's a bigger victory than a financial breakthrough, that's a bigger victory than a marriage restoration, that's a bigger victory than your church growing, this is the ultimate victory, we shout for joy because of what Jesus has done for us, and as a result of that, the next phrase says, praise benefits the upright, sometimes we think our praise is, Lord, we want to bless you, and certainly he is blessed by our praise, he loves our praise, he loves that, but part of the reason he loves our praise is because he sees it benefits us, when we praise, it gets our mind off the battle, if you're in a battle right now, I want to encourage you to begin to praise the Lord, begin to look at the song we just sang in the book of Exodus, and see that the Lord is mighty in battle, he's a warrior, he's fighting for you, and there'll be a benefit from that, there's a confidence that comes from that, there's a peace, there's a rest, a glorious rest for the saints, that the world can't understand, that the world doesn't know, and so not being able to come before the Lord righteously, a sinner could stand in church and try to sing the songs of praise, but it doesn't do the same benefit, it doesn't have the same benefit, because they haven't seen the Lord's work for them, and they can't see the righteousness that God has imputed to them, and they need to be saved, they need to know Jesus, need to come to him, and then verse two says, give thanks to the Lord with a lyre, a musical instrument, make melody to him, interesting, our worship service, or our times of worship, if we're listening to worship music, it is meant to be to him, it's not to each other, it's not him doing something primarily for us, although there's, as we just said, there's a benefit to us, it's us making melody to him, making sure our praise is not just, I like that kind of pop song, or I like this kind of instruments in church, or I like it when they have lights, or I like it when they don't have lights, or I like when they have smoke, I don't like it when they have smoke, it's our mind is set on him, and it's a song that is a victory song when he has helped us overcome the battle, and so our mind is on God's glory, our mind is on God's presence being near, and our mind is to honor him, and thank him, and praise him for all that he's done, it's not to judge and evaluate, oh the guitar player is pretty good, I like that new song that they're doing by that group, or I don't like singing songs from that particular group of people, it's not about that, it's about Jesus, will you be honored as I lift my heart in thanksgiving to you for all that you've done, this melody I'm giving to you, and then it says with the harp of 10 strings, this is in verse 2, this is your, I call this your 10-string testimony, and I know, I think you'll know what I'm talking about here, none of us as Christians have just one testimony, I have the testimonial son coming back to the Lord, but I have other children that were prodigals as well that have come home to Jesus, that's a multiple, I've been married 45 years, that's one of the strings that I could play on, and say this is a note to the Lord, and it's not just one note, you know, you maybe have met those one note Christians, well back in 1979 I got saved, I went to a Billy Graham crusade and everything, you know, that really helped me, that was a great day in my life, I look at that history, that's good, praise God for it, but that's a one-string testimony, and God is saying here, use all 10 strings, tell people about my wonderful works, tell them what I've done in your life, give testimony, give songs of praise for the powerful things that God has done, and this 10-string testimony is your testimony, and as we're talking about the victory that comes, the song of victory after the battle is won, these are your 10-string testimonies, and I know if you met Jesus, you've got something to sing about, you've got a song of praise in your heart, I tell you today, I praise Him for those 45 years of marriage to a wonderful wife, I praise the Lord that all four of my children are serving Him, that's one of my songs of praise, I praise Him that I have 10 wonderful grandchildren who, as soon as they begin to understand the concept of Christ, they immediately fall on their knees and ask Jesus to come into their heart, and any of them that are age-appropriate have all come to Jesus, and we know and trust that song will be all 10 of our grandchildren, Lord willing, even more coming in the future will come to know Jesus, my part of my victory song is that He sent me free when I was a young man from pornography, that's a song of praise when I won that battle, I had cancer and I wasn't sure what was going to happen with my life and my future and my family, and Jesus set me free, cancer free, I have a song of praise, my friend, do you have a song that you're ready to sing right now in your heart, do you have a song that wants to explode from inside of your soul? I was in a car accident and broke my back and my legs were numb, I wasn't sure I'd be able to walk, and the Lord orchestrated events in my life where, as you can see, I can stand, I can sing, maybe I could even add a dance to my song, my song of praise, a victory after the battle, I can tell you I have something to sing about, I have something to praise about, and I want to encourage you not to get stuck in a morbid, discouraged, downcast repetition of all the bad news in your life, the moaning, and the groaning, and the murmuring, and the complaining, and every conversation you have with somebody is, this is so bad, and this hurts so much, and why isn't God working? That's not your song of praise, and the Lord is going to deliver you through faith, and I want to encourage you to sing the song now, begin to rehearse all that He's done for you, throughout scripture we see the problem that people had when they forgot the works of the Lord. There are several psalms, and we'll get into them later as we study the book further, we'll see these psalms where it says, and the Lord healed them, and the Lord delivered them, but then they forgot the Lord, and they went back into sin, and then the Lord delivered them once again after judgment came upon them, and they rejoiced in the Lord, and they had a song again, but then they backslid, and went back into the things of this world, went back into murmuring, and complaining, and grumbling, wondering if the Lord is present, wondering if the Lord's going to really do anything in their life, getting bitter at God because of the trial that you're in, and forgetting this reality of what He's done in your past. I've gotten to the place now where when I start to feel myself wondering, will there be a breakthrough in this battle? Will the Lord come through for me? And it's just that slight bewilderment of, it's the weight of this thing, it's the pressure, it's the length sometime of it, it's the intensity of it, it's how it wakes you up at three in the morning, and you're just concerned over these situations, and begin to wonder, will the Lord ever set you free from that? I tell you, my history with God now is as such that even when I'm questioning, I know, and I say to myself, don't be a fool, Gary, because you're going to be ashamed of yourself, maybe is the word I want to look for here. You're going to realize that you wasted all that time and energy doubting and wondering and being uncertain about the power of the Lord when you know He's going to break through for you, when you know He's going to give you the victory, and He's done that so many times now. When the enemy comes in like that, the Lord really does raise up a standard and says, remember what I've done, and realize that if you get in the cycle of murmuring and complaining, you're going to be ashamed that you did that, because you already know that I'm going to be there for you, that I'm going to give you this powerful and mighty breakthrough. Verse three then goes on to the theme of what we're talking about today, sing to Him a new song. This is a warfare victory praise. This is coming out of the intensity of a battle and seeing the Lord do a mighty work, and it gives you a new song. And then it says, play skillfully on the strings. If we're talking about strings being a testimony, then he's saying, do this skillfully, craft your words, craft the song, speak in ways that honor God the most. In other words, if you've had a miracle in your life, don't just say like, hey, I was depressed, but now I'm set free. Some people are afraid to talk about their testimony. They may have been set free from drugs, and they go, I'm ashamed of that point in my life. So they don't really ever paint a picture anymore of their past. And we have to be careful. We don't want to glorify our past. But sometimes it's important to skillfully choose the words of your testimony. I would encourage you to even write them out. Take a piece of paper or your laptop and write out a page, just here's my victory song. This is not just some emotional sentiment. This is actually instruction. This is God saying to us, and we've read time after time through these passages of scriptures. He's asking us to do this. It's not just recording something that happened in the history. He's telling you and I, put together a new song. And if you don't know how to write a song or sing a song, then put together a testimony and let that be skillful of what you do. And then with loud shouts, I mean, proclaim it, write it, sing it, preach it, share it. Tell your friends at Starbucks, at the coffee shop, at the restaurants, on your job, don't be afraid. Let your lips go loose and tell people of the glorious things that God has done for you. Verse four, for the word of the Lord is upright and all his works are done in faithfulness. I love that the writer here says, we're giving praise and we're singing new songs because the Lord is upright. He does things the right way. His word is upright and his works are faithful. I love that he brings together the word and his works. He speaks something and then he works it out. He makes a promise and then he fulfills his promise. He speaks of his nearness and then his nearness accomplishes a battle victory for you and I. Both of these things are important. The word of the Lord, to trust in it, to believe that what God says always comes true, that God has never broken a promise, that all things work together for good, Romans says, to those who love him are called according to his purpose. That is a promise of God. That's an upright word and then his works accompany that. It's not just talk. He's actually accomplishing what he says he will do. And verse five says he loves righteousness and justice. This is the heart behind his word and his works, that there's a love there. In other words, it's a passion. It's just not like I'm God in heaven and I'm obligated to do these kinds of words and works. It's a soul thing. It's a deeper thing. It's a thing of the heart. I know I'm putting anthropomorphical pictures of God having a heart and things like that. He's a spirit. Nonetheless, the spirit of God clearly loves righteousness and justice and the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. Does this make you rejoice? Does this make you want to shout for praise? He loves righteousness justice. He's not begrudgingly there to help you. He loves it. He says to one of the minor prophets, let justice roll down. Man, let it pour out of heaven. The prophets would cry, rend the heavens and come down because they knew God loved to come down and give victory in the midst of the battles. And the earth is full of it. It's not just a part of it. In other words, your life should be full of songs of praise, victory songs from what the Lord has done for you. So that's verse one through five, which gives us the first context. And then verses six through nine speaks of the song being a song that we sing confidently because of the sovereignty of God over creation. He is sovereign over creation. It says here by verse six, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. And by the breath of his mouth, the host, he gathered the waters of the seas. He puts them in deep storehouses. Let the earth fear the Lord. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe before he spoke. And it came to be, he commanded, and it stood firm. Verse nine echoes verse four and five. The word spoke is upright. All his works were faithful. He loves doing it. And now in verse nine, he's echoing the same sentiments. He spoke, excuse me, he spoke, he commanded it, and it stood firm. I love that phrase. It stood firm. It's unshakable. It's unchangeable. The very nature and character of God, he's an unchanging God. He changes not, the Bible says. And so we see when he puts forth a word and he does his work to accompany it, and he asks us to write a new song, it's going to stand firm. In other words, do you fear? Well, right now my health has come back. Right now my marriage is good. Do you live in fear that that could transition? And I want to say to you, even if it did, even if your health gets worse, and even if your marriage falls apart, God is still faithful. His word is still working, and he still will give you a song. I know some people that, even though I have a testimony of my son coming back to the Lord, I know some close friends who lost children to drugs and addictions, and yet the Holy Spirit, this may sound strange to you, still gave them a new song, the faithfulness of the Lord. Some of them sing a song because they know that their children turn to the Lord in the last days of their life, and they can sing the song of praise to the Lord. God will give you a song no matter what your circumstances look like, and it will stand firm. So to understand the sovereignty of God is essential to be able to trust God while you're in the battle, waiting for this new song to be written. God is sovereign. He rules and reigns. He rules and reigns over the heavens, the deep waters. Genesis is a picture of Genesis 1. It was formless and void. It was chaotic, and this speaks of the sovereignty of God bringing order to disorder, and that he controls the chaos and brings chaos into peace, like he did in the New Testament when he was in the boat, and the winds and the waves were causing such fear of the disciples, and he spoke over those winds and waves. That's the sovereignty of God. He controls everything. Nothing's outside of his control. The deep waters, the deepest things of your life, he is watching over to perform his will and his way in your life. The song that we sing, this new song, is born out of awe, even the awe of his praise sovereignty over creation, that no storm happens, no earthquake happens without God understanding what's going on in the world today and allowing certain things to take place for a better and higher good, and we can trust him and his sovereignty, and that song is now a conviction that what he commands is going to stand form. In other words, it's an assurance that the battle is already won, that the battle belongs to the Lord, that he is a man of war, that he's fighting on our behalf, that he's going to give us this new song, and we can see that in all creation, and that gives us an awe of him, the beauty of the mountains and the woods and the forest and the river. We just see God's beauty in all that he's done and how he has created these things out of nothing, and he can do that in our life. Take what's chaotic, take what's falling apart, and bring it all back together. Then in verses 10 through 17, it's not creation now, but it's nations. He is sovereign not only over creation, but verses 10 through 17, which we've read already, so I won't read all of it together here at one point, but looking at these verses, verse 10 says, the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people. Underline your Bibles if you have in front of you the word counsel and the plans. These are words that the psalmist used in Psalm chapter 2. The people plot, the kings imagine vain things, they counsel against the Lord and his anointed one. In other words, the world, sin, Satan, devil, demons in hell, they are against Christ and his anointed ones, you and I. But God says here, even in advance, even when they are throwing their most fiery, wicked darts at you, at you and I, that God is already orchestrating things, that the counsel will be brought to nothing. In other words, their plans, and that's what he says, he frustrates the plan. So their counsel doesn't come to anything, it falls flat. And then there's a frustration in them. Oh, they had a plan against you, the devil had a plot against you, and it came to nothing. In Psalm chapter 2, it's so glorious because God's remedy to these plans and these plots are raising up his anointed one, his son, putting his king on the throne, the son of glory, Jesus Christ, is God's remedy to the counsels and God's remedy to their plans. He raises up Christ, and that power of their counsel and Christ is the one who frustrates their plans. And look at verse 11, how it contrasts verse 10, using the same phrases. If you underline counsel and plans, you'll see counsel and plans used again in verse 11. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, in contrast to the counsel of the nations, meaning nothing, having no significance. They have no power, they have no authority, they're not omnipotent, only God is. That's where the psalm prays and hallelujah for. In verse 11, the counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Man, having children, four children and 10 grandchildren, I'm so glad that he didn't just set me free. I'm just, I'm so glad he didn't just give me a new song, but it's to all generations. Think of your children, if you have them, or grandchildren, or maybe Lord willing, you'll have them one day. And just think the fact that the plans and the counsel of the Lord stand forever, the plans of his heart, his heart for you will stand forever. The plans of his heart for your children, for your grandchildren, for your mother, for your father, for your aunts and uncles. He takes families and generations of families and blesses them with his glory. Verse 12 says, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. This is speaking of Israel. There's no other nation who can claim this, that there is no other chosen tribe of people. Now, Gentiles have been grafted into this, and you and I are a part of this great blessing, but a physical, literal governmental nation, there's only one who can claim whose God is the Lord. And I know many of us say America is a Christian nation, and it can be said that way if the Christian influence in America historically has been so strong that much of the culture, much of the governance, much of the legal system, much of the morality is Christian based. But a Christian, a nation can't become a Christian. A city can't become a Christian. A Christian is a person who Jesus saves by his blood. His blood was not shed for a city, for a government, for a nation. He did not impute his righteousness into a legal system or a governmental system. He influences many, many nations. But it's not like God just looks at a world map and says, well, Israel, I have chosen to be my special people, and I'm also going to choose Germany, and I'm also going to choose Finland, and I'm also going to choose America. No, they're one nation stands. Now, you may be already pushing back on that and saying, no, I'm not in agreement with you there. Hold on until you see this next part. The people whom he has blessed. Speaking of the blessing of nations, now he's moving up beyond nations, and this is what happened in Christ. The people whom he has chosen as his heritage. So we are part of that people that he's chosen. The whole work that God has done to expand his work beyond Israel as being one nation that blesses many nations, now he has many people of many nations blessing other nations until all the world hears the gospel. How glorious we get to be a part of that. We are part of this chosen generation, a royal priesthood, part of his heritage. And that's why we can trust God for our generations of our children and grandchildren, because we're part of that family of God now called to be part of his heritage. It's not just our heritage. It's not just our generations as part of his generations were grafted into that. And the Lord looks down from heaven, verse 13 says, and sees all the children of men for his throne, and looks out, and the inhabitants of the earth. He fashions the heart of them all. The next verse says, his sovereignty is over created things. His sovereignty is over nations. And it goes so specific to saying now he fashions his sovereignty is even in the fashioning of the heart of men. He hardened Pharaoh. He hardened Esau. But Moses he chose. Jacob he chose. You see God having this sovereign ability to choose those whom he would make his own. And he observes all their deeds. He can watch over our lives. Verse 16, the king is not saved by his great army. We read this. This is these things coming against you. His sovereignty now is not just over nations, or creation, or your heart, or mine, or our deeds, but it's over the effects, the circumstances of our life. The king is not saved by a great army. The war is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by great might it cannot rescue. Two ways you can look at this. I think both could be correct. One is your enemies are assembling a great army against you, but that warrior is not going to be delivered by that great strength. You're going to have, even in your own weakness, you're going to have victory. It's the David over Goliath picture here. The war horse can't come against you. That won't save them when they come against you. Their great might can't rescue them against what God is doing. Or you could flip it around and look at this both ways. That's one of the great things about scripture. It has more than one string, so to speak, as we worship him. It could say, for us, we don't have to trust in a great army to be victorious. We don't have to be great warriors to be delivered. We don't need war horses for victory from the Lord. It's not by our great might that's rescued. That makes us realize that we can trust in God, not in ourselves. This is a beautiful picture as well. The last few verses, and then we'll close, are verses 18 through 22, verses 18 through 22. We see in these things, the Psalm now turns the focus off enemies and the war raging against you and onto you as a personal, powerful, loving care that he gives to you. Look at this. It says, the eyes of the Lord is upon those who fear him. He's getting very personal. Those who hope in his steadfast love that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. All these war motif pictures that we're describing here in this Psalm, all these war horses that are coming against us, know that the eye of the Lord is upon you and that he has a steadfast love. The word says we can hope in him and that the result of that is he's going to deliver us from death and deliver us from famine around us. Verse 20, our soul. Here's our response now. It almost goes back to this new song again. Our soul waits for the Lord, for he is our help and our shield. Once again, going back to the warfare motif, it's the shield he's putting on us against all these things raging against us. And we wait for the Lord. We wait for him. We have the song already prepared. We know we're going to be singing a victory song no matter what we're facing in the momentary circumstances that we find ourselves in. Verse 21, for our heart is glad in him. My friends, can I ask you this today? Is your heart glad in him? Or do you have some bitterness? Do you have some doubt? Do you have some discouragement? Are you questioning his goodness? The Lord has shown himself faithful. If you're saved, that's the greatest faithfulness he's already shown. No matter what chaos, if my cancer would have got me, if my back would have caused me to be lame, if my children wouldn't have come home to the Lord, if I didn't have a healthy marriage, I could still say my heart is glad in him because he saved me. That may sound selfish, but it's not. It's the greatest work that Jesus could do for any person, any being, any reality in our life is that he has set me free. He has caused me to trust in his holy name. And verse 22 closes with this beautiful exhortation. Let your steadfast love, oh Lord, be upon us, even us as we hope in you. It just ends in a prayer. It's basically the psalmist is saying, so be it. We've seen the battle. We've seen the armies arrayed against us. We've seen the conflict. We know the trouble that brings to our heart. We know the brokenness that that often brings to our mind and our soul, the confusion, the doubt. And even as times as we've been talking today, the bitterness, we know all those things, but we also know that God is a man of war. God brings victory and that we can hope and trust him. So the closing prayers is, is let us trust in you, God. Let us, let us come to you and know that you do all things well, that we don't need to doubt or fear that we can put our confidence in you, knowing that you are on the scene, your eye is on the sparrow and you will not fail us. You will not leave us. You will not forsake us. You will act mightily in the midst of any circumstance that takes place in our life. And you'll give us the grace to understand the difficult ones that we can't understand. And the things that seem like they didn't come to fruition as we hope they would, even in those things, we can still yet rejoice that you are doing great and mighty things. And we give you glory and honor and praise right now, Jesus. First of all, for saving us, that the blood has bought us and we are cleansed and righteous, that not only have you made us clean, but you put your righteousness, the perfect obedience to the law of God, because righteousness, we know God is just doing the right things according to the moral will and understanding in ways of God's heart. And we are not righteous in ourselves. So Jesus, you by grace, put your righteousness in us so that God sees that righteousness and accepts us as holy and just and right before him. So we give most of all thanks for that. And secondly, we give thanks for the circumstances, the things you've already brought us through. And thirdly, we say, we wait on you because a new song is coming for the battles we find ourselves in right now. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good and his mercies endure forever. In Jesus name, amen. Thank you for being with us today. Again, as we started this session, I invited you to take a look at some of our past Psalm series, other available items on World Challenge or our podcast, various sermons from other speakers here. Joshua West has been going through a series on the book of Romans. He's almost finished. I want to encourage you to look at that as well. We have a Truth and Grace podcast. You can sign up at World Challenge on our website for a daily devotion. And I want to encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube page and subscribe to our podcast as well. We pray that you're being fed by that. We work hard. We work diligently. We pray faithfully that these messages are going to be life transforming. We live in a culture today and it's not to elevate us and say that we have some corner on the market of strong messages, but we come to the word of God and say, we will not compromise it. God, we are asking for you to speak to us clearly and powerfully. And we want to avoid the culture of our churches today of the lightness, the triteness, the fluffy way of approaching the word, the entertainment culture. It is our desire to speak a rich and powerful word of God. We do it through our own feeble means, but the Holy Spirit, we believe, adds his power to speak deeply into the things of your life, the needs of your life, the areas of growth that he wants to put his hand on and touch you in. And so we do honestly pray. We're not looking for more followers. We're looking for people that we can speak the word of God, the uncompromising word of God, and see a revival happening in our nation and a spiritual awakening to the nations around the world. That is the cry of my heart and those who work with us together here at World Challenge. God's blessing on you, grace and peace to you. May the Lord be with you and bless you mightily.