Psalm 92:1-5                        What God Has Done For Me                   9/9/2001                   

 

 

 

#1.       When Do We Give Thanks? (Psalm 92:2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#2.       It Pleased the Lord to Bruise Him (Isa 53:10)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#3.       Thy Thoughts Are Very Deep (Psalm 92:5)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please open your Bibles to Psalm 92. Today I would like us to focus on "Thanksgiving". I know that the day that is officially called Thanksgiving Day here in America is still 2½ months away. But do you realize that we are commanded by God to give thanks every day, all the time, for everything?

Let us read Psalm 92, and see "What God Has Done For Me".

Psalms 92:1  This psalm is called: <<A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath day.>> It is (a) good (thing) to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:

Psalms 92:2  To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

Ps 92:3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.

Ps 92:4 For thou LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

Psalms 92:5  O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

Psalms 92:6  A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

Psalms 92:7 ¶ When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:

Psalms 92:8  But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.

Psalms 92:9  For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

Psalm 92:10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Psalms 92:11  Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.

Psalms 92:12  The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Psalms 92:13  Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

Psalms 92:14  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing (green);

Psal 92:15 To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

What a wonderful song to sing on the Sunday Sabbath. It is good to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High, because He is my Rock, My Savior. To whom do we give thanks? To the LORD. And when you see all four letters capitalized: LORD, you know it is a synonym for the Hebrew letters JHVH, which means Jehovah. Who is Jehovah? The N.T. informs us that God the Father is Jehovah, and God the Son is Jehovah, and God the Holy Spirit is Jehovah. To whom do we lift up our prayer of thanksgiving? The Lord Jesus was asked this same question, and He answered: "When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven". We lift our voices to the Father.

#1.       When Do We Give Thanks? (Psalm 92:2)

What do we read in Psalm 92:2?

Psalm 92:2  To shew forth thy lovingkindness (mercy) in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

Actually the Hebrew word for "lovingkindness" is much better translated "mercy". This Psalm says:

It is good to give thanks unto the LORD, to declare His mercy in the morning and to declare His faithfulness every night. Is it only in the morning and at night that we give God thanks for His mercy and for His faithfulness? Well, think again. If our gratitude for His mercy and His faithfulness is not demonstrated between morning and evening, then most likely it is not present at all. This matter of thankfulness is extremely important in the life of a Christian. If we are not living a life that is filled with gratitude to God, then we should seriously consider if we have been saved.

What is God's mercy that Psalm 92:2 speaks about? Technically, God's mercy means that God is withholding what we do deserve. That is the definition of mercy. We all are born as sinners, and we all deserve to go to Hell for our sins. If God is withholding the penalty of Hell from us, what did God do with that penalty? Did God just wave His hand and make our sins disappear? Did God just wave His hand and make this penalty disappear? NO! God is Righteous; He cannot do that. God declared in His Law book that the wages of sin is death, and the death that God has in view is the second death. The payment for our sins is spending an eternity in Hell. If God has mercy on us, it means that God is doing something with our sins, and God is doing something with our penalty.

The Bible declares that God loaded our sins on the Lord Jesus Christ, and He suffered the penalty for our sins. Did Christ then spend the equivalent of Hell for our sins? Well, look at all the O.T. animal sacrifices. The Bible declares that all the O.T. animal sacrifices were shadows of Christ's atonement on the cross. The cross was His altar. Were all the animals brought unto the altar and killed? YES! Were the animals then buried? Was that the end of it? NO! The animals were always burned with fire as a picture that Hellfire was necessary to atone for the sins of the people. When we look at the cross of Christ, where is the fire? The fire was not outwardly visible, but it was inside. That was the reason why Christ had to be fully God, so that He could endure what no human being could endure.

If the penalties for our sins only need to be endured in the flesh, then God could have raised up a perfect man, and nailed him to a cross. That would be sufficient. Then Christ Himself did not need to come down in the flesh and suffer for our sins. If only suffering in the flesh is needed, then just human flesh would have been sufficient. That is what the Jehovah's Witnesses believe. But they have no Savior, because the suffering in Christ's atonement was so great that no human flesh could endure it.

The faithfulness of Christ in going to the cross and enduring the penalty for us, the equivalent of an eternity in Hell, that is the faithfulness that Psalm 92:2 speaks about. How can we not be grateful for that between the morning and evening? It is impossible not to be grateful!

Let's move on in Psalm 92. Verse 3 says:

Ps 92:3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.

Is this how we mechanically should give God thanks for what He has done for us? But our God does not look upon outward display. Our God looks upon the heart. Christ said: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh". How does the thanksgiving come out of a person? O yes, sometimes we want to sing out loud and accompany our singing with musical instruments. But our thanksgiving really shows in our obedience to His commandments. This is clearly demonstrated in the example that Jesus gave in John 21. Please turn to the Gospel according to John, chapter 21.

In John 21 we read about an event that happened after Jesus' resurrection. Peter and six other disciples were having breakfast with Jesus. They were eating bread and fish. Then we read in V.15,

John 21:15 ¶ So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him: Feed my lambs.

First of al, the Lord Jesus is reinstating Peter who denied Him a couple weeks earlier. Now Peter is again an Apostle, which means he is chosen and is sent by Jesus with a special commission. What was his commission? Jesus said: Feed my lambs! Feed my little ones the spiritual food from the Bible, which is nourishment to their souls. Don't feed them heavy doctrine. Feed them the food that they will not choke on. Feed them first the simple stuff until they grow up. Tell them about Christ crucified, and tell them why He had to be crucified. Tell them about sin and God's grace and mercy.

But Peter, don't forget the bigger sheep. Then the Lord Jesus said in verse 16,

John 21:16  He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him: Feed my sheep.

Allow me to paraphrase what I am reading: Peter, don't forget to teach them the whole counsel of God. Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". You must be born from above. You must teach the bigger sheep that: "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy". And then Jesus said in V.17,

John 21:17  He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him: Feed my sheep.

"Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me?" Did Jesus intentionally grieve Peter? NO! Paraphrased Jesus said to Peter, and He also said it unto us: "Are you sure that you love Me? Can you examine yourself if you really love Me? Does your life really show that you love Me? And if that is so: Feed My sheep."

This is how we give thanks to God. Do our actions reveal that we are feeding His sheep?

Please turn back to Psalm 92. What is it we have to thank Him for? Look at what we find in Psalm 92:

Psalms 92:4  For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph (rejoice) in the works of thy hands.

In this verse, the Hebrew word for "triumph" could be much better translated by the word "rejoice".

LORD, Thou hast made me glad through Thy work: I will rejoice in the works of Thy hands. Does God have hands? The Bible says: "God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth". A spirit does not have hands. But when God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, came down to earth 2000 years ago, He took on a human body. Christ has hands, and from that time forth we can say that God has hands. What was the works of Thy hands that makes me rejoice? The Lord Jesus stilled a storm, He healed the sick, He healed the eyes of the blind, He even raised up the dead, but all these things were not the primary reason why He came to this earth. The first and foremost reason why the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth was to atone for our sins, and to be nailed to a wooden cross. The nails were piercing His hands. Therefore, when we read: "I will rejoice in the works of Thy hands", this primarily refers to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. And when He completed suffering for our sins the equivalent of an eternity in Hell, He cried with a loud voice: "IT IS FINISHED". We can rejoice in that, because it means that all those people, for whom the Lord Jesus paid their sins on the cross, do not have to go to Hell any more. All their sins have been paid. What a great rejoicing this is. And Jesus said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life".  That is certainly reason to rejoice. That is certainly reason to give Him thanks.

What has God done for me? Personally I can give Him thanks for lifting me out of the country of Indonesia and giving me a home here in California through a strange assortment of circumstances. Personally I can give Him thanks that He has given me a lovely wife, 2 children and 8 grandchildren and one great granddaughter. But all these things are insignificant compared to what Christ has done for me on the cross at Golgotha, and for what God has done for me in confronting me with the Gospel of salvation, and for giving me a little understanding of the Bible, and for teaching me that my name is written in heaven, and for giving me a ministry at the tail end of my carrier. I am delighted for God's guiding hand throughout my life, and I pray that everyone here may receive such a favor from God.

Please turn with me to the Prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 53 (2X). Most of us here can give thanks to God that He has saved us through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But do we realize what it takes to bring one sinner into God's holy heaven? Do we realize that the Creator of the universe had to come down to earth, take upon Himself the body of a man, and become subject to the wrath of God?

#2.       Yet It Pleased the Lord to Bruise Him (Isa 53:10)

These are strange words that we find here in Isa 53:10-12. But when we study those strange words they give us precisely the meaning and the reason behind the atoning work of Christ on the cross. This is what it takes to bring one sinner into God's holy heaven.

Isaiah 53:10 ¶ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; He hath put him to grief: when Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Allow me to paraphrase the situation.   We read in verse 6:   "All we like sheep have gone astray".

The Bible says: There is not one human being excepted. Everyone, even the little babies "come out of the womb speaking lies". Everyone who comes into the world is immediately under the wrath of God because they have sinned. Everyone is in need of being saved from this slippery slide into Hell. Only in the Lord Jesus is there any hope of not sliding into Hell. But who wants to hear this?

To all who want to hear and believe this, God says that He has transferred all our sins, past present and future sins on the Lord Jesus. He could not miss one. If He had forgotten one of our sins, then WE would have to pay for that one sin an eternity in Hell, because God's Law says that "the wages of sin is death", which means we would have to suffer the second death for that sin.

On Friday, April 3, in the year 33 AD, the Lord Jesus laden with our sins stood for the Judgment throne of Governor Pilate in Jerusalem. But spiritually He stood before the Judgment throne of God. How could He go back into heaven? He could not go back into God's holy heaven with all those sins on Him. Those sins first had to be paid in full. And so the Lord Jesus suffered, both in body and in soul, for those sins the equivalent of an eternity in Hell. That was the payment required, and that was what His Father inflicted Him with. That is why we have to read Isa 53:10 as follows:

"Yet it pleased Jehovah, the Father, to bruise Him, Christ." And then God repeats this message in Isa 53:10 with the words: "He, the Father, hath put Him, Christ, to grief on the cross. Let's continue in Isa 53:10: When Thou, the Father, shalt make His soul, Christ's soul, an offering for sin. Do you see that Christ did not just offer His body, but also His soul, which is His divine spirit? He suffered both in body and in spirit. Continue in Isa 53:10 with the words: He, Christ, shall see His seed. Christ shall know them for whom He came to atone for their sins. There are others in the world who never will become saved, and who never want such salvation, because they are too proud to admit that they have nothing to offer to God. Christ did not spend the equivalent of an eternity in Hell for those who themselves are going to Hell. Let's continue in Isa 53:10: He, the Father, shall prolong His days, Christ's days, and the pleasure of Jehovah, the Father, shall prosper in His hand, in Christ's hand.

This is how we must read Isa 53:10. This is why Christ must suffer in body and in soul. If we focus only on Christ's suffering in his body we go astray very quickly. For example: How many tens of thousands of people would have been saved for each second His body hung on the cross? Did He really pay the full payment for all their sins, or did Christ only pay a token of the required payment? Another example: The two thieves on the crosses hanging next to Him suffered in their bodies as much or more than the Lord Jesus. When Jesus died the legs of these two thieves were broken. Just imagine the pain when someone breaks both your legs with a baseball bat.

Therefore, now we can understand the words: "It pleased the LORD to bruise Him". Since the Lord Jesus suffered a great deal more than was outwardly visible, He died much sooner than Pilate or the Centurion expected. But He died exactly at the right time, at about 3:00 in the afternoon on that Good Friday, which was when the Passover lambs were killed in the Temple at Jerusalem. This was God's plan all along from before the foundation of the world. No one could frustrate God's plan. After Jesus, the Lamb of God, finished paying for our sins in body and soul, He also died.

Can we say: He died for our sins? NO! Our sins were paid in full before He died. But He had to die, because as the Testator of God's covenant He had to die. For where a covenant is, there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator.

But because Christ made a full payment for our sins, that is why:

The Father will be satisfied. God's righteousness will be untarnished. God's righteousness demands that every sin be paid by the equivalent of an eternity in Hell. And the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied that requirement for all those whom He came to save. God says in Isa 53:11,

Isaiah 53:11  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

If we substitute again the persons of the Trinity, verse 11 reads as follows: He, the Father, shall see of the travail of His soul, Christ's soul, and, the Father, shall be satisfied. The Lord Jesus Christ has suffered in His soul the equivalent of an eternity in Hell, and the Father is satisfied. No more will the persons who carried these same sins be required to pay the penalty of Hell.

How then is it that the Lord Jesus said: "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment"? Obviously, these must be sins that have not been paid at the cross. Obviously, this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ did not pay for all the sins of every human being.

Let us go on in Isa 53:11, by His knowledge, by Christ's knowledge, shall my righteous servant, Christ, justify many, not all but many; for he, Christ, shall bear their iniquities. The Lord Jesus Christ shall know whom He is justifying, for Christ shall bear their sins and shall bear the guilt of their sins.

The Bible says: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. If we are in Christ, then we were crucified with Christ, and then we have died with Christ, and we were buried with Christ and we were raised with Christ. Therefore, if Christ endured the equivalent of an eternity in Hell while we were in Him, then we have successfully passed through Hell with Him, and God would never require that we would go to Hell again. That is why "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus". Thanks to Christ we have:

Let us read about the victory in Isa 53:12,

Isaiah 53:12  Therefore will I divide him (a portion) with the great (many), and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Paraphrased God says: "Therefore I, the Father, will divide to Him, to Christ, with the many, whom

He saved, and He, Christ, shall divide the spoil with the strong, those who remained strong in their tribulation". Christ obtained the victory for us. That is why Christ is called the firstborn among many brethren. The reason why we remained strong was not because we were so strong, but because He is strong and He kept us by His grace. He obtained the victory "because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." To say it in reverse, He made intercession for us, transgressors, because He bare our sins, and purchased us by pouring out His soul unto death, the 2nd death, as the righteousness of God requires. Again, the suffering of His soul is the main issue in this verse, as it is in all the three verses of Isa 53 that we have looked at.

Let us turn back to Psalm 92. We have made this excursion to Isa 53 to get an understanding of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And after looking into Isa 53 we have to admit:

#3.       O Lord, Thy Thoughts Are Very Deep (Psalm 92:5)

That is exactly what we read here in Psalm 92:5,

Psalms 92:5  O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

O Lord, when we read about Your works in the Bible, for example, how you freed the children of Israel out of Egypt, and how you parted the Red Sea, and how these historical events are also pictures of our redemption, we have to admit, Lord, that Your works are very great. But these great works cannot even stand in the shadow of Your coming to earth as man and purchasing our redemption on the cross. We have not even begun to uncover the spiritual mysteries you have hidden in the O.T. and in the N.T. Of a truth, Lord, Your works are very great, and Your thoughts are very deep. Help us that we will not swing to the other end and imagine things that are contrary to the Bible.

When we think of the fact that God before the foundation of the world already worked out everything that we see and hear and read in the Scriptures, we can only stand in awe of this almighty God, who says: "I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure". And just to think that this great God calls us His children is incomprehensible. We cannot even understand that Christ died for the ungodly, as God says in Rom 5. We understand even less when we read that these ungodly are being raised to the status of sons of God. This is What God Has Done For Me. Is it then any wonder that we read here in Psalm 92:4?

If God be for us, who can be against us? We read in Psalm 92:4,

Psalms 92:4  For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph (rejoice) in the works of thy hands.

It is true that the first meaning of these words is: "I will rejoice in the works of Thy hands". And we do rejoice in the fact that Christ purchased us and saved us from this slippery slide into Hell. But if He saved us by His grace, should we not only expect that He would keep us by His grace? In other words, not only can we rejoice in His work of our salvation, but we can also triumph over besetting sins in our life, because Christ is also giving us that victory. We can certainly triumph over the works of His hands, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure".

But as long as we live in this sinful flesh we will remain subject to temptations and feelings of inferiority. It is good then to remember the words of Lam 3:22-23,

Lamentations 3:22-23  It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.      They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

If God would not hold us up, we would fall instantaneously. It is only because of the Lord's mercy and grace that we have become adopted as His children. We have not contributed anything to this blessed state. Therefore, since we have been:

We can be sure that we will also be nurtured in the house of the Lord. We read in Psalm 92:13,

Psalms 92:13  Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

Now, examine yourselves. Are we aware that we have been planted in the house of the Lord? Do we live like it? Do we live like children of the king? Or are we beset with feeling sorry for ourselves?

Let me dwell here a moment with those who might feel sorry for themselves. Did you know that this is the beginning of something very ugly? You end up in the office of a psychiatrist. He is not going to cure your self-pitty. Instead he is going to give you pills, and more pills, and all these pills have their side effects, which you cannot even fathom 20 years from now, because they keep on inventing more pills and stronger pills. The end result is that if you are still alive 30 years from now you are reduced to a vegetable. And it all started with feeling sorry for yourselves.

Turn it around. Throw this awful sin away from you. Read this Psalm a hundred times. Never stop giving thanks for everything that God puts in your path. Never take things for granted. Never forget that God has lavished on us His great and wonderful spiritual blessings. It is never normal what God has given to us. Just remember that in Rev 2 & 3 five out of seven Churches became lukewarm. Keep praising God if He has kept us faithful all these years, and never stop to be thankful for What God Has Done For Us. We are planted in the house of the Lord.

Let us remember the words of this Psalm 92, as we will sing it in a few minutes in Hymn # 180.

The first stanza clearly conveys the words of verses 1-4.

 

It is good to sing Thy praises and to thank Thee, O Most High,

Showing forth Thy lovingkindness when the morning lights the sky.

It is good when night is falling of Thy faithfulness to tell,

While with sweet melodious praises songs of adoration swell.