Psalms 65:4
Psalms 65:4 says, “Blessed
is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may
dwell in Thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even
of Thy holy temple.”
This verse in Psalms is another great gospel
verse which teaches us something very important about what in the world is
going on between God and man. Remember that in the previous verse of Psalms 65
we were told just how weak and sinful we as human beings are in the phrase, “iniquities prevail against me.”
Well this verse expounds on that truth when it
says in the first half of the verse, “Blessed is the
man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee.” Thou is speaking of God. God chooses and God causes.
This puts an emphasis on God and the work that God is doing, the use of
God exercising His will and His plans. This is not to say that man does not
have a free will. But remember man is weak and sinful. Man is enslaved to sin.
The free will of man is not more powerful than his sin nature.
I John 4:19, “We love
Him, because He first loved us.” Another way of understanding this is by
looking at the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of
Eden.
After
Adam and Eve sinned and then realized they were naked they hide themselves from
God. And God came seeking them. Genesis 3:8-9, “And
they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the
day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said
unto him, Where art thou?”
Their nakedness of course symbolizes the lack of
righteousness. In the same sense all men being sinners have a
certain awareness in their own conscience of their own spiritual
nakedness. And just like Adam and Eve all men have sinned and come short of the
glory of God and all men have sought to hide themselves from God. But God comes
to them. Adam and Eve did not come to
God seeking forgiveness God came to them and taught them about their need for a
sacrifice for sins.
In the same sense God has come to us to teach us
and to try to get us to repent. God uses nature to teach us. God uses the
conscience that He gave man. God uses His Word that has given the world. God uses
everything you can possibly think of to try to bring a person to Him.
It does not matter what your particular strengths
and weaknesses are as a person without Jesus you are lost in sin. You are a
slave to evil. It is just the same as if you were locked in iron chains in a
dungeon full of darkness. There is no way of our own strength you are going to
be able to free yourself from those chains and escape into the light.
Man is not just weak and sinful but man is so
weak and sinful and so lost in his sins that He does not even come to God to
seek God, to seek truth, to seek righteousness, not until God first comes to
Him. This is how sinful men are. And this is how loving and gracious God is.
This is a very important truth to understand
about the gospel for several reasons. One reason it is so important to
understand that we are actually that sinful, that we don’t seek God until He
first seeks us, is so that we can understand the concept of being led by and
controlled by the Spirit of God and recognize when God is working in the heart
of a lost person.
It is very easy for a human being to make the
mistake of focusing on the flesh, on human effort, human will, and not being
led by the Spirit.
God is a very gentle, loving God. You could say
He often works very delicately in peoples lives. The
Great, Almighty, All knowing, Glorious God whose face is as the sun shinneth in
its strength understands that we are but dust and He approaches us delicately.
1 Kings 19:10-12, “And
he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children
of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy
prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my
life, to take it away. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before
the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the
mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was
not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was
not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was
not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
God works in mysterious and tender ways, speaking
to us in a still small voice; with the inaudible voice of truth which rings out
in nature itself and in His written Word. God could thunder from the heavens
with the same power of speech by which He created this World but He does not do
that. Man however is very opposite. Man however is very strongly self-willed.
It
must be that the all powerful God is so gentle with us because of how much He
loves us and how much He desires for all men to be saved. So He works very
carefully in peoples lives. He is the potter and we are the clay. He treats us
like fine china; creatures that are delicate and easily broken. If God wanted
He could rain down hell, fire, and brimstone into everyone’s lives. And it is true He is going to do that to the
world during the great tribulation but we live in what is called the age of
grace.
It
is important to understand How God does His gospel work in this age. And
understanding that begins by understanding that it is God who seeks us first
not we who seek God first. Psalms 65:4 says, “Blessed
is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee.” Jesus
said John
The other reason that it is important to
understand this truth is so that you will not become prideful. It does not
matter if you were saved when you were 4 years old and someone else was saved
when they were 19 years old or 30 years old or 50 years old. The principle is
still true. In any of those cases all were lost in sin. None came to Jesus until Jesus first came to
them. In addition to this fact is the fact that this principle is really still
the same throughout the Christian life.
When we are saved we are given a new nature in
Christ. Without that new nature, without the Spirit of God inside us to empower
us we could not overcome sin. God is most certainly in our lives working and
toiling in His labour of love and lovingkindness, blessing us and blessing us,
forgiving us and forgiving us always drawing us back to Him. Without God doing
all of this work we would go astray from the Lord, we would stop serving the
Lord, we would fall into sin and never rise again.
Way too many
Christian organizations have made the same mistake that the people of
the world make the mistake of not understanding just how sinful they really are,
not understanding how weak the flesh and the human will really is, not
understanding just how dependent they really are on the power of God through
His Spirit and through His Word. If you don’t see how weak and sinful you are
how are you going to realize and then rely upon God instead of yourself and the
strength of your own will?
The Apostle Paul understood this and he wrote in
2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made
perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am
weak, then am I strong.”
Because in these kinds of situations Paul could
much easier see the weakness and the failures of the flesh and in these kinds
of situations Paul was more likely to rely wholly upon Jesus and not himself.
There are many more truths that can be learned
from understanding this verse. Psalms 65:4 says, “Blessed
is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may
dwell in Thy courts:
Another truth that we can learn more about is
just how much God loves us. We will never fully understand how much God loves
us because that love is perfect and eternal. It has no end and no beginning. But
the more that we see how weak and sinful we are and the more that we see how
much effort, and work, and sacrifice and suffering, and forgiveness God has put
into our lives the more we will see the love of God for us.
This is probably one of the main reasons so many
Christians fail to really rely upon the Word of God like they should, to study
the Word of God like they should and to allow themselves to be led by the
Spirit of God in what they do. It’s much more than just laziness or stupidity. It’s
a lack of spirituality, a lack of understanding and seeing just how sinful and
weak they are. Thankfully we will all have the opportunity at the judgment seat
of Christ to actually see and realize just how much God has done for us. That
will be a glorious time for the child of God, a time when he or she can accurately
and humbly look at his or her own life and have it surmised correctly with God
getting all the glory and the child of God having a full appreciation and
understanding of the forgiveness of sins.
It is no surprise then after talking about how
God chooses and God causes now the rest of Psalms 65 will go on to talk about
the works of the Lord.
Psalms 65:5-7 says, “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: Which by His strength
setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power: Which stilleth the
noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.”
The key phrase to notice here is the first part
of verse 5 which says, “By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us,”
Now why does it say that God will answer us? Was
a question asked? The question has to do with the works of man. The question is
what is the response of God to man’s actions? What is the greatest question
that man has? The greatest unknown? Is it the question
how old is the earth? Is it the question where the end of the universe? No the
greatest question that man always has is what happens after death or another
way of phrasing it is what is the summary of my life? Was my life meaningful?
Did I live the life of a good person? All these questions are really asking the
same question which is am I justified before God?
The words in this verse in Psalms answer this
question by saying, “God of our salvation.”
Once again Psalms has a very simple way of explaining salvation. Salvation is
of God. It is not of man. Of course the New Testament goes into even further
detail when it gives the gospel and tells us how Jesus did all the work. Jesus
fulfilled the law. Jesus suffered and died for sin. Jesus conquered and
defeated death. No wonder God is our salvation.
“By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us,”
The key word here is the word righteousness. Where does righteousness come
from? How does man acquire righteousness? The Word of God makes it very clear
that righteousness does not come from our own works but it is imputed to us
freely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Titus 3:4-7 says, “But
after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved
us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he
shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by
His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Men often marvel at the achievements of other men:
things like man walking on the moon, or man breaking an Olympic record, or man
building the tallest building in the world, or someone becoming a leader of a
nation, or someone discovering the cure for a disease. And I’m not saying these
are not significant accomplishments but consider the works of the Lord. The
works of the Lord are much, much greater than anything that man can ever
achieve.
The works of the Lord are terrible, wonderful, aweful,
fearful works of righteousness. In talking about the terrible things that God
has done the rest of Psalms 65 goes on to talk about His creation. That is
because there are great spiritual truths learned from observing God’s creation.
Psalms 65:8-13 says, “They
also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest
the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth,
and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the
Certainly one of the truths being taught here is
the faithfulness of God. God is actively involved in His creation. God takes
care of His creation. Year after year the sun rises and the sun sets. Year
after year water rain falls on the earth watering the earth and causing it to
grow. God is faithful. If you study nature year after year you will realize
just how faithful God is in taking care of His creation.
It should be obvious how faithful God is. But
most people in the world do not understand, do not think about, or do not
believe in the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God means that God
keeps His promises.
For example, God promised to preserve His Word.
How many Christians in today’s age actually have full confidence just in this
truth? So many have been misled by humanism and intellectualism
and peoples cunning lies about history and ancient Greek and Hebrew Texts.
You do not have to be an expert in textual criticism or an expert in Hebrew and
Greek translations or an expert in archeology in regards to ancient Biblical
texts to come to the realization that God has preserved His Word. There is
certainly nothing wrong with studying out these topics. But it is enough to
know that God promised to preserve His Word and we know that God is faithful.
If you ever doubt the faithfulness of God to keep any of His many promises that
He has made then take a brief glimpse at nature and watch How God faithfully
takes care of His creation.
What God does with His creation teaches us so
much about His faithfulness. Psalms 46:8 says, “Come,
behold the works of the LORD, what desolations He hat
made in the earth.”
In the earth there are many great deserts. There
are ice deserts of the North and South poles and there are the great sand
deserts of places such as the
Perhaps Jesus has come to you and knocked on the
door of your heart. Perhaps you have heard the still small voice of God
whispering gently to your soul and telling you to repent of your sins and to
accept Jesus as your Savior. If He has I hope and pray that you do not turn
away from Him and from His righteousness.
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Copyright; 2017 by Bruce
Creech
All Rights Reserved