Title: What He Hath
Done for Me
Text: Ps 66: 1-20
Date: June 18, 2020
Place: SGBC,NJ
Psalm 66: 16: Come
and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my
soul.
Come and hear, all ye that fear God—through the gospel, God gives his child reverence for
God. His people never stop coming and
hearing.
What is the message?—I
will declare what HE hath done for my soul.”
The self-righteous say, “I will declare what I have done for my
soul.” God’s child says, “I will declare
what HE hath done for my soul.”
Psalm 66: 1: Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: 2:
Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious. 3 Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy
works!
That is what we
preach and sing—"the honor of his name”—his terrible works are his great
and mighty awe-inspiring works! They are
works which create a fear of God in our heart so that we reverence the
Almighty. The word “glorious” means make
his praise “rich, full of honor and reverence, weighty.” That is why we are careful about the songs we
sing, the message we preach and how we conduct the service—everything must reverence
and honor God.
Subject: What He Has Done for Me
Proposition: What
has the triune God done for me? He has
done it all; He is all my salvation.
Divisions:
There are five works in this Psalm that our triune God does for each one he
saves—this is what God has done for me and for you who believe.
REGENERATION
Psalm 66: 3…through the greatness of thy power shall
thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. 4: All the earth shall worship thee,
and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.
God has made his child willing to believe on Christ. We see this by contrast with rebels in this
verse. Notice, this is said of
“enemies.” The word “submit” is
“deceive, lie, be found liars.”
The greatness of God’s power—not his effectual power working
within—just the power of his presence makes enemies bow down before him. Remember how when the soldiers heard his name
they fell backwards? Many do so in vain
religion.
Matthew 7: 22: Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and
in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23:
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that
work iniquity
But for his elect, God’s works his great power inwardly
in spirit and in truth. He did something
for me that no one else could do. He
made me willing to bow down to worship him in spirit and in truth.
No other sinner could this for me: a preacher can guilt
men into reform outwardly but they have not experienced true power of God.
I could not do this
for myself. That baby cast out into the
field that had not been swaddled, who was polluted in its own blood, could do nothing
for itself. Those dry bones could not
give themselves life and form. Lazarus
could not give himself life. I was
blind—a blind man cannot give himself sight.
I was deaf—a deaf man cannot make himself hear. But thanks be to God, he brought me under the
gospel and spoke in effectual power and gave me life
Psalm 110: 2: The
LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of
thine enemies. 3: THY PEOPLE SHALL BE WILLING IN THE DAY OF THY POWER, in the beauties
of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
Christ declared that he is the power by which we are made
alive.
John 6:63: It is
the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
When he speaks he gives life. We are made willing to
worship and praise him in the day of Christ’s power.
When I was a teenager, I sat as far back from the
preacher as I could. I tried drawing,
making paper airplanes, anything to keep from hearing. But one day God spoke. I found myself hanging
on every word and rejoicing in Christ.
REDEMPTION
Psalm 66: 5: Come and
see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the
children of men. 6: He turned the sea into dry land: they went through
the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him. 7: He ruleth by his power for
ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves.
Selah.
All God’s elect can say truthfully, Christ has redeemed
me from my enemies. The Psalmist speaks
of the Red Sea. God did two things at the
Red Sea—he saved his elect and destroyed his enemies. That is what God did on
the cross. Pharaoh and his army had
Moses and Israel trapped. But God said through
Moses,
Exodus 14: 13:…Fear
ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to
you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again
no more for ever. 14: The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your
peace.
God brought Israel
across on dry ground then he drowned Pharaoh and his army.
On the cross, God the
Father stretched forth the rod of the law, the rod of justice, which fell upon Christ
our Sin-bearer. When Christ cried it is
finished and gave up the Ghost, the sea of justice opened and God’s elect went
across on dry land.
All God’s elect died
in Christ—we were crucified with Christ.
We were buried in Christ—our old man of sin was buried out of God’s
sight forever. We rose again to newness
of life in Christ. We confessed it in
baptism when we committed to Christ like they came out of the Red Sea committed
to Moses.
But on the cross,
since Christ died only for his elect, at the same time judgement was settled
toward our enemies. The prince of this
world was cast out. God saved his people
while he crushed the devil’s head and left his enemies to face judgment alone;
both at the cross.
Now in that same
righteous judgment Christ is judging in this earth to protect those he
redeemed—He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let
not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.
PRESERVATION
Psalm 66: 8: O bless our God, ye people, and make the
voice of his praise to be heard: 9: Which holdeth our soul in life, and
suffereth not our feet to be moved. 10: For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou
hast tried us, as silver is tried. 11: Thou broughtest us into the net; thou
laidst affliction upon our loins. 12: Thou hast caused men to ride over our
heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into
a wealthy place.
O bless our God, Christ holds—puts and sets—our
soul in life. He is the Life who
enters our hearts putting Life in us.
And Christ sets our soul in him so that we are held in Life. He will not allow our feet to be moved. He will not allow his redeemed to cease
believing him. The Holy Spirit will not
allow us to be turned from Christ. He keeps
us looking only to Christ
God does this preserving work through trials. Notice the “thou”—For thou, O God, hast
proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the
net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over
our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out
into a wealthy place.
Believer, when the trial comes, don’t you wish you could
remember this? God sent this trial. It is his net. He is ruling the men who are opposing
me. He takes the loved one away. He lays off the worker. As painful as it is, he is doing it for my
good.
Christ is removing our
dross and purifying, purging, cleansing the new heart—thou hast tried us, as
silver is tried.
Proverbs 17:3:The
fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the
hearts.
Malachi 3:2: But who
may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he
is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: 3: And he shall sit as a
refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge
them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in
righteousness.
The trial is a fire to
purge our dross, to turn us from us, to turn us from anything that will
separate us from Christ. Christ sends it
to purify that new heart that God has given.
He sends the trial to draw us closer to himself. By purging our dross and increasing our
faith, we come to God with one offering, Christ Jesus alone.
Zechariah 13: 9: And
I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is
refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I
will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The
LORD is my God.
A refiner has to be incredibly
careful. He sits and leaves the gold in
the fire until it becomes like a mirror.
Then he takes it out at that precise time so that he does not’ ruin
it. Do you know how he knows it’s time
to remove it? The refiner sees his image
in it. Christ puts us in the fire until he sees his
image in us then he removes us from the trial.
We are proud in our
flesh. When we are strong in our flesh
then we are weak spiritually. We are not
trusting Christ but our flesh. That is the
dross Christ must purge out. If he left
us with that dross we would not persevere in faith. We would turn to our own selves.
So God sends a fiery trial
to humble us, to bring us down, to turns us from the dross of our flesh, to
remind us our need of Christ. Then he
brings us to Christ feet—that is the wealthy place he always brings us to—back
to Christ feet.
The apostle Peter experienced this refining. There was too much dross in the boasts he
made. So God tried Peter to bring him
down. Listen to Peter connect God’s
keeping power with the trial of our faith.
1 Peter 1: 5 Who are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6: Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for
a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7: That
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom
having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9: Receiving the end of your
faith, even the salvation of your souls.
In a small way, at the end of every trial we receive the
salvation of our souls. It is a
foretaste of Christ’s return.
Brethren let us thank God that he preserves us in faith
and removes the dross that would make us perish in our sins. He knows just when
to take us out of the trial. Peter said,
1 Peter 5: 10: But
the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen,
settle you.
GLORIFICATION
Psalm 66: 13: I will go into thy house with burnt
offerings: I will pay thee my vows, 14: Which my lips have uttered, and my
mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble. 15: I will offer unto thee burnt
sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with
goats. Selah.
Every child of God can say that Christ made me give all
the glory to the triune God. Under the
new covenant our burnt offerings are praise and thanksgiving to God from a
heart of love.
Hosea 14:2: Take with
you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and
receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
God is not interested in our sacrifices—only in the
calves of our lips. He brings us to give
all praise and glory and honor to God for his mighty works from a purified
heart of love.
Mark 12:33: And to
love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the
soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more
than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Hebrews 13:15: By him
therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the
fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
INTERCESSION
Psalm 66: 17: I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled
with my tongue. 18: If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
19: verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my
prayer. 20: Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor
his mercy from me.
Christ continues to hear my prayer and intercede on my
behalf—and that is what he is doing for you believer.
He will not hear us if we regard iniquity in our heart. But that is why he refines us. He puts down the old man and renews the new
man so that from a true heart his child prays and glorifies Christ with the
tongue. And Christ hears us and makes
intercession to God our Father on our behalf.
He never turns away our prayer, nor his mercy from us.
That is what God has done for me, how about you? He regenerated me to life and
faith by his power. Christ put my sin
away and made me righteous in him by accomplishing redemption for his people. He preserves me through trials. Christ makes me glory only in him. He ever lives to intercede for me so that the
Father hears my prayer and showers me in mercy.
If God has done this for you then he says,
Psalm 66: 1: Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:
2 Sing forth the honour of his name:
make his praise glorious. 3 Say unto
God, How terrible art thou in thy works!
Amen!