Series: Psalms
Title: Our Salvation and Confidence
Text: Ps 65: 5-13
Date: June 4, 2020
Place: SGBC, NJ
Title: Our Salvation and Confidence
Psalm
65: 5: By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of
our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and
of them that are afar off upon the sea: 6: Which by his strength setteth
fast the mountains; being girded with power: 7: Which stilleth the noise
of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. 8: They
also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest
the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. 9: Thou visitest the
earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which
is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.
10: Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof:
thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof. 11: Thou
crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. 12: They drop upon
the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side. 13:
The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with
corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
The Psalmist uses natural, earthly things to declare spiritual
heavenly things—God, in his holy sovereignty, is our salvation and our confidence. If you asked me to define sovereignty it is
this:
Psalm
115: 3: But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased.
Proposition: By
God’s sovereign power he not only causes us to cast all our care on Christ (as
we saw in the first half of the Psalm) but then he continues to protect and
provide for his people all our days.
FEAR
Psalm 65: 5: By terrible things in righteousness
wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of
all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:
By God’s sovereign power he
creates fear and keeps reverence in the heart of his child. He does this by answering his people “by terrible
things” which God performs “in righteousness.” “Terrible things in
righteousness” means fearful, reverend, awesome
things. God performs them in
righteousness. By these things God
produces fear, reverence, awe in the heart of his people and sustains it. The law of first mention: where a word is
used the first time in the scripture it usually means that throughout. This word is first used here:
Exodus 34: 10:
And [God] said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do
marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and
all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for
it is a TERRIBLE THING that I will do with thee. 11: Observe thou that
which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and
the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the
Jebusite.
Usually these terrible things are
performed in conjunction with God’s acts upon our enemies. These acts show God’s sovereignty over all his
creation and over all our enemies.
Psalm 68:7: O
God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through
the wilderness; Selah: 8: The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the
presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of
Israel 9: Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm
thine inheritance, when it was weary…32: Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the
earth; O sing praises unto the Lord; Selah: 33: To him that rideth upon the
heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and
that a mighty voice. 34: Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is
over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. 35: O God, thou art
TERRIBLE out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth
strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God.
Young
people use words like “epic” and “awesome” speaking of things not “epic” or
“awesome.” Only God performs epic and
awesome things—terrible things in righteousness.
First and foremost we see God’s
terrible, reverend, awe-inspiring works performed in righteousness on the
cross. Nothing is as holy, reverend as when Christ
suffered that living death as the Substitute for his people, crying, “My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In it we see the strictness of God’s
terrible righteousness—his holy, reverend righteousness. When sin was found on our Substitute, God
spared not his own Son. God unsheathed
the sword of justice on his Son because "shall not the Judge of all the
earth do right?” God is just. He will in no wise clear the guilty, not even
when it is his own son bearing our sins.
In righteousness every guilty elect child died when God made Christ a
curse for us. The righteous government of
God fell entirely upon Christ’s shoulder and by Christ’s blood he upheld and
honored it while he justified his people from our sins in one fearful act of
righteousness.
Then by “terrible things in righteousness” the Spirit of
God makes us cry out for mercy by making us behold our iniquities prevail
against us (v3). If God has made a
sinner pray to God for the first time then God will answer you with terrible
things. He will give you spiritual
discernment to hear the requirements of his holy law. You will see something of God’s holiness and
something of your own guilt, ruin and condemnation. Then he will make his child see his sins
purged by Christ on the cross. By this terrible
work in righteousness God creates reverence and fear, a broken and contrite
heart, in his child—causing us to approach unto him through the blood of his
only-begotten Son
Job 37:22…with
God is TERRIBLE majesty. 23: Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him
out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of
justice: he will not afflict. 24: Men do therefore FEAR [same word] him: he
respecteth not any that are wise of heart.
Psalm 66: 3: Say
unto God, How TERRIBLE art thou in thy works! through the greatness of
thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
God’s elect were enemies in our minds by
wicked works. But by his great and terrible
works God made us submit unto him in reverence. Then we see the result when God has created a
new heart in his people throughout the earth.
Psalm 66: 4:
All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to
thy name. Selah. 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.
That is what Christ did on the cross for
his people. He dried up the sea of
justice so that we went across on dry ground while that same justice slays all
our enemies.
And God keeps this holy fear in the heart
of his child so that he is to us: “The God of our salvation!” True believers look nowhere but to God for
our salvation—for all salvation. He chose
us and caused us to approach unto him. Christ
purged our sins and intercedes on our behalf so that God answers us. He made us satisfied with the goodness of his
house so that we dwell under his gospel the rest of our days.
Therefore our triune God in Christ is “The
confidence of his people” throughout “all the ends of the earth and of
them that are afar off upon the sea.” Do
you have confidence in yourself for anything? Not if God has answered you by terrible
things..
Proverbs 14:
26: In the FEAR [same word as terrible] of the LORD is strong
confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.
Psalm 118: 8: It
is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
The rest of these things are
God’s terrible things that he performs in righteousness for his people all our
days.
IMMOVABLE
Psalm
65: 6: Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded
with power:
God’s sovereign power makes
his child immovably set on Christ. Think of the mountains—how immovable they appear. The strength
of God set the mountains; they are girded by God’s power.
Likewise, it is
by God’s strength that he makes his child immovable setting us on Christ our
Righteousness; By God’s power we are girded about so that we are
immovable from Christ. But as immovable
as the mountains, God makes us even more immovable.
Isaiah 54: 10: For
the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not
depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the
LORD that hath mercy on thee.
It is not only the power of God’s
sovereignty that sets us immovably on Christ, it is the power of Christ’s
covenant established in Christ’s blood and righteousness. God has made an everlasting covenant to save
us and God is holy and will not lie to his people. God’s holiness coupled with Christ’s righteousness
will not allow his redeemed to be moved.
Paul said nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ.
Psalm 55: 22:…he
shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 112: 6:
Surely [the righteous] shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting
remembrance. 7: He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting
in the LORD. 8 His heart is
established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his
enemies.
PROTECTION
Psalm 65: 7: Which
stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the
people.
By God’s sovereign power he protects his
people from the enemy. God literally
stills the natural seas. Christ did so
when he walked this earth. But a greater
display of power is seen in that the noise of the seas and the tumult of the
people speaks of enemies who speak against his people.
Psalm 124: 1:
« A Song of degrees of David. » If it had not been the
LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; 2: If it had not been
the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: 3: Then they
had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: 4: Then the
waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: 5: Then the proud
waters had gone over our soul. 6: Blessed be the LORD, who hath not
given us as a prey to their teeth. 7: Our soul is escaped as a bird out
of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. 8: Our
help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 89: 8: ;O
LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy
faithfulness round about thee? 9: Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the
waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. 10: Thou hast broken Rahab [Egypt,
Pharaoh] in pieces, as one that is slain;
thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm. 11: The heavens are thine, the earth
also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou
hast founded them…14: Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy
and truth shall go before thy face.
A man may be strong on land but in a great
storm at sea he finds out what a weak, helpless creature he is. So do we when the sea of proud enemies rage
against us with their noisome waves.
Why would God permit the devil and his seed to charge us and
persecute us? When we become too proud, too
strong, God permits enemies to rise like waves raging against us to humble
us. God blesses it revealing to us our
sinfulness and our weakness. He shows us
once again that we are helpless to defend ourselves, that we have no strength
at all, that we are less than nothing and vanity. And God reminds us again that Christ is our
Refuge and our Strength.
This past week we have seen the
tumult/riots of the people. God has
power to still the tumult of the people.
But even more God especially stills the enemy when they speak against his
people—the only thing God has to do is speak
Psalm 46: 6: The heathen
raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
Brethren, if someone professes to be a
child of God, never speak against them.
It is a dangerous game to speak against one of God’s people. God says, “touch
not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm” (1 Ch 16:22; Ps 105:15) Christ said, “Woe unto the world
because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that
man by whom the offence cometh!” (Mt 18:7).
But also, while God stills the enemy by
his irresistible power, God graciously stills our hearts, subduing the tumult
of our flesh. Only God can subdue our old
man of sin. The Demon-possessed man of
Gadara is us by nature. He was
constantly in a tumult. He was full of
raging waves within and without—naked, dwelling among the tombs, cutting
himself, and they could not even bind him with chains. Neither could religion with all its
commandments and traditions of men tame us.
But Christ spoke to that man. After
Christ spoke peace in his heart that man who was once a demon possessed sinner
was seated, clothed and in his right mind.
That is what God continues to do in the hearts of his people by his
sovereign, irresistible power and grace.
By these terrible things performed in righteousness God makes his child
fear and reverence God.
Amen!