Psalms 92:1
Psalms
92:1-3, “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: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in
the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, Upon an
instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn
sound.”
These verses in Psalms are talking about praising God. Praising God is
one of the ways in which we worship God. To worship God is to server God. There
are many ways to worship God and to praise God. The way mentioned in these
verses is through the use of music.
Concerning praising God, worshiping God and serving God there are 3
important truths taught in these verses. The first truth is found in the
phrase, “To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the
morning, and thy faithfulness every night.”
What is mentioned here is day and night. In other words the idea is
that of a 24/7 attitude, in other words every hour of the day, every day of the
week, every week of the month, every month of the year and so forth. A very
similar thing is taught in Psalms 1:1-2 which says, “Blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of
the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is
in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
When it is appropriate to praise God and to serve God and to worship
God? Is it when you go to church on Sundays? Is it only when your at a building? When is it
appropriate to have fellowship with God? Is it only when you go to a religious
service? No its not but it is day and night.
Most people that are involved in Christianity make the mistake of only
praising God when they go to church service. Now this certainly is a good time
to praise God when you are fellowshipping with other believers but what about
the other 23 hours of the day and the other 6 days of the week?
Think of it this way. God is everywhere. God is always toiling and labouring. God is always involved in your life blessing
you, reaching out to you in fellowship and there is always an opportunity to
accomplish a work for God. Serving God, worshiping God, praising God should be
done moment by moment each hour of the day and not just when you go to religious
service.
In heaven the greatest thing about heaven is that Jesus is there for
us to fellowship with. In heaven there will not be a moment we do not spent
fellowshipping with the Lord, praising the Lord, serving the Lord. So it would
be wise to learn to live this life just like your
going to live it in heaven walking every moment of time in fellowship and
praise with the Savior, Jesus Christ.
In talking about praising God the truth that we learn is in these
words which say, “Upon an instrument of ten strings,
and upon the psaltery; upon the harp.” In other words a variety of
musical instruments are used here to praise God. What we learn from this is
that there are many ways to praise God. When it comes to music there are many
different kinds of musical instruments that can be used and many different
kinds of music that can be made.
God has given us great freedom. God loves freedom. God wants us to
enjoy that freedom especially when it comes to expressing our love for the Lord
for what He has done for us.
For example when it comes to the issue of music in regards to
worshiping God some Christians are taught that the guitar is evil or that rap
music is evil. If you wanted to be very strict and go by what the Bible says
then you would realize in Biblical times there was no such thing as a piano.
That would mean maybe you should just stick to using a harp or a psaltery or an
instrument of ten strings when you make music to praise God. The Bible never
mentions using a piano. Pianos did not even exist in New Testament times. I
mention the piano because in conservative Christian denominations that is their
chief instrument of music. Of course there is nothing wrong with the piano. The
piano is a great instrument that makes beautiful music. I am just pointing out
what the bible says about praising God and about music.
The point is it is important to understand the freedom that we have in
Christ. There are many ways to praise God and not just when it comes to music.
If you understand the freedom you have in Christ then you will suddenly find
many many more opportunities and ways in which you
can serve God and bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost
of the world.
The third truth learned about praising God in these verses is found in
the phrase, “with a solemn sound.” In other
places in the Bible such as in other places in Psalms for example the Bible
says in reference to music to praise God with a joyful sound. Joyful of course
means happy and thankful. But what does the word solemn mean?
The word solemn has the idea of to muse or
to meditate. In other words the music that you are listening too and that you
are using to praise God should result in affecting your mind in such a way that
it makes you think and meditate on God’s truth, God’s Word, God’s promises, and
even on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is very important what you think about. It is very important how
you use your mind. Romans
God gave you a mind and He wants you to use it. If I am thinking about
the right things then I will be serving God. Thoughts always come before
actions. It is very important what we think about. It is very important what we
meditate upon. If I am not thinking about God’s Word then how am I going to
serve God? When you praise God it should be, “with a
solemn sound.”
Now think about the word solemn you might say well if the word solemn
means to meditate, to think heavily upon then why doesn’t the Bible use the
word meditate here. And the answer is this, the word solemn is a good word, it
is a good translation here. Solemn also has the idea of to be serious,
something that is serious something that has weight and importance too it. That
is why you would be meditating on it in the first place because it is important
because it is serious.
There is certain seriousness to life, a certain seriousness and
importance and weight to truth to the gospel of Jesus Christ to serving God.
You see a lot of people especially in our day an age because of technology have
much easier lives then they use to. People use to have to work 18 hours a day 7
days a week just to survive. But because of technology life is a lot easier.
Therefore people have more free time. A lot of people don’t take life serious.
A lot of people spend their lives in the pursuit of pleasure and fun and play.
That can get a person in a lot of trouble. God wants Christians to be solemn
people. That doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. There is a lot of fun in serving
God. But life is serious. Truth is serious. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the
eternal destiny of men is a solemn thing. Music has a huge impact on what a
person thinks about. Even if the music you listen too is just pure music
without words that music is going to effect your
emotions and your thoughts. That’s why this verse in the Bible says “with a solemn sound.” The music you listen too should have the result of you
thinking about truth. And of course the most solemn truth in all
the world is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So best music
in the world is music that preaches and teaches and sings about the gospel.
Psalms 92:4, “For thou, LORD, hast made me
glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.”
Why do we praise God? We praise Him because of His
works. Notice that this verse says there is triumph because
of God’s hands not our hands. What a mistake it is to praise men. If a
Christian accomplishes some great work for the Lord it is only because of the
Lord and His grace not because of that person’s own strength. Praise belongs to
God not to man. We triumph because of God’s hands. It’s God’s hands that formed
us of the dust of the earth. It was the work of God that sent Jesus to the
Cross to die for our sins and that rose Jesus from the grave.
Psalms 92:5-6, “O LORD,
how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are
very deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a
fool understand this.”
God has
done many great works from the creation of the heavens and the earth to the
work of Christ on the cross. So in a way you could say there are two kinds of
people those that understand and see the works of God and those that do not.
If an all powerful God created a heaven and an earth, established
the earth put man on it, created man in His image why that is a very marvelous
thing. Something as great as that it would be obvious that God did it. And it
is obvious but to many people it is not obvious.
Take a
watch for example. What if a person studied a watch for say 20, 30, or 40 years. They could take it apart and put it back together
many times, they could study the materials that it is made out of, they might even be able to get an idea of how old the
watch is. One thing would become obvious to them to have a watch you have to
have a watch maker. Any one who takes a watch apart
and looks at it will say well this designed by someone, Intelligent
design. A watch is a very simple object compared to the human body. Watches
don’t evolve from rocks. Human bodies don’t evolve from rocks or monkies for that matter. A watch doesn’t just appear out of
thin air. It has a watch maker. The earth is a much more complex object than a
watch is. The earth didn’t just appear out of thin air. In fact you can stare
at empty space as long as you want but nothing is going to just appear there
and become created or evolved. Life comes from life.
Just
simple human logic proves there is a Creator, an all
powerful God who created the world and gave man life.
You see
the truth is the reason a person would chose to reject reason and to lie to themselves and ignore the evidence and ignore the logic and
choose to believe that there is not a God is because if there is no God then
you do not have to answer to God for your sins. Now it stands to reason that
there is a God and even if you turn away from this truth you are still going to
die one day and stand before God and be judged for your sins. But a person who
lies to themselves and tells themself there is no God
actuallys believes that by believing their own lie
there are escaping the judgment of God without repenting of their sins. That is
foolish.
You see
there are two words used in this verse to describe a person who does not know
or understand the works of God. Psalms 92:5-6, “O
LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts
are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither
doth a fool understand this.”
The two
words used here are the words brutish and foolish. Now this is not name calling but this is simply fact. There is just no way
to butter up the description of a person who does not know and does not
understand the works of God. The word brutish actually has the idea of food
that a cattle eats. In other words its
associated with animals.
If you study animals can learn something very interesting about human
beings. First of all humans and animals are very
different. Humans are a much higher creation than animals are. Animals do not
read and write, animals do not build buildings. But at
the same time animals always understand and know their God given place in the
world.
Jeremiah
8:7, “Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth
her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the
time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.”
Isaiah
1:3, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but
You see
animals have understanding of their place in the world. They know that mankind
is superior to them, their even afraid of man. A zebra sees a lion or smells a
lion it knows to run away. When mating season comes around animals do not mate
with the same sex they mate with the opposite sex. You see animals understand
their place in the world. And they understand basic things about how life was
meant to function the way God created them to be.
Yet because mankind is so sinful so enslaved to sin that he will
believe the most foolish lies and become brutish. How foolish it is to think that mankind evolved from an animal.
People who do not want to repent of their sins and who do not want to stop
doing the lustful things that they enjoy doing in life will believe the
craziest things.
There
really is no other way to describe a person who does not know the works of the
Lord other than the words brutish and foolish: because the evidence is there.
The evidence for creation, the evidence for a world wide
flood, the evidence for intelligent design its therein
biology, in archeology, in geology, in all science there is plenty of evidence
it is just a question of how a person chooses to interpret that evidence. For a
person to interpret the evidence accurately and correctly that person has to be
an honest person and want the truth. Otherwise their going to facts of science
and explain them in such a way to make it sound like something that fits their
system of believes.
You see
evolution is just a theory it is a religious system. What you believe about
life about creation about life after death is your religion. That’s what it is.
Most people that are strong advocates of evolution are people that are very
opposed to Christianity and the truth. That is why there have been many man
people over the years both teachers in universities and scientists even who
have lost their jobs or been expelled from the scientific community because of
their belief in God and in creation and in intelligent design. As a matter of
fact a lot of organizations that are run by evolutionists including museums and
schools they will hide and destroy evidence that they find that disprove
evolution or they will fire people that point out errors in their text books.
People that do these kinds of things are not people that are open
minded or people that are interested in the truth. But they are people that
want to teach and force people to believe the theory, the religion of
evolution.
If you
think about the future though the philosophy that is going to dominate this
world in the end times is not evolution, nor is it the Muslim
religion nor the Buddhist religion, nor is it Christianity but it is
going to be the worship of the devil. This is what is going to happen during
the 7 year great tribulation when the antichrist comes to power.
Think
about this verse again Psalms 92:5-6, “O LORD, how
great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very
deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool
understand this.” The devil hates God. God is good God is holy God is
love. The devil is evil. The devil is a murderer. The devil wants to destroy
mankind. The devil wants all of mankind to go to hell not to be saved. Anyone
who worships the devil is brutish and foolish. It is foolish enough for mankind
to worship himself or to worship animals but
worshiping the devil is even more foolish.
How dumb
can you be to worship a being that hates you and wants you to burn in hell. You see this is how foolish people get. They get angry
at God for creating hell and judging them for their sins even though God sent
His son Jesus to die for them. God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell the devil
does.
It is
absolutely shocking, dumbfounding almost unbelievable how much truth a person
can turn away from and reject. A good
example of this is the nation of
Obviously
the devil and one third of the angels turned away from God and from all that
truth in heaven that they were surrounded by. Humans do the same thing. They
have creation and the knowledge of science, they have the bible and all of its
great details about God’s promises and God plan of salvation. But they choose
to not know and to not understand. That is brutish
and that is foolish.
When
live in an age when man has increased and increased in their knowledge of
science their understanding of the created world. Yet they don’t really
understand it because they reject the truth of creation and the Creator. Where
do all these incorrect philosophies, theories, supposed scientific ideas, and
lies come from? They come from the devil.
You see
in describing the time period of the great tribulation and in describing one of
the characteristics of the final kingdom of Babylon the great the Bible says in
Revelation 18:2, “And he cried mightily with a strong
voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every
unclean and hateful bird.”
The key
phrase here is the phrase, the habitation of devils,
and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful
bird.” You see one of the characteristics of that kingdom is going to me
demon possession. There is demon possession in the world today. As the world
gets more and more evil there will be more and more demon possession.
Demon
possession is very different than the way
The
devil generally does not advertise what He does. He is very subtle. If you see
a lion or a wolf running after after you are going to
run away but if think its a
sheep you just might think its cute and walk up and
pet it.
If you
study demon possession in the bible it does not really explain how a person
comes to be possessed. I think there are two possibilities one either God
because is angry at a person decides to punish that person by making them demon
possessed for turning away from the truth kind of like Jesus did when He cast
the demons into the swine and they ran off the cliff or either a person
willingly and knowingly with their own free will being involved in the process
somehow allows that fallen angel to possess them.
Now
there are several good example of demon possession in the bible. One example is
the man in the tombs. This example is recorded for us in the book of Mark and
the book of Luke. In this example the man said his name was legion because He
had a lot of demons in him. It says He lived in the tombs and he cut on
himself.
You see
it is not a good thing to be possessed a being more powerful than you which
hates you and wants to destroy you. Such a circumstance will cause you a lot of
suffering. But demon possessed people are not just crazy insane people who
cannot control themselves and who act wild and crazy all the time.
Another
good example of demon possession is at the betrayal of Jesus Christ. You can
read in Luke chapter 22 and it says that when Judas betrayed Jesus Satan
entered into Him and then He went and betrayed Jesus. This took cunning and
manipulation. Because the Pharisees were afraid of Jesus.
But the devil knew just what to say and just how to act through the body of
Judas to provoke them into taking the opportunity to arrest Him.
So you
see demon possessed people can act very cunningly and manipulatively. The truth
is there are a lot of demon possessed people in the world. Most of the leaders
of the world are probably demon possessed. The antichrist is going to be a
demon possessed person, a person possessed by the devil. So it stands to reason
that there could be a lot of teachers, scientists, religious leaders that are
demon possessed people. Angels are very intelligent beings. Fallen angels are
still intelligent beings even though they are fallen. They have been around for
at least since the beginning of creation which is at least 6000 years. That is
plenty of time to learn the Word of God and learn how to create a million
different lies and arguments against the word of God, that
is plenty of time to learn about God’s creation and come up with all kinds of
false interpretations of scientific facts. That is where all this stuff comes from,
this stuff like evolution.
In fact
the devil has a network of angels. They do what he tells them to do. In this
day and age with internet and satellites and telephones it is very easy to
believe that the devil has a network of people, demon possessed people on all
levels of government in all the countries of the world in all levels of
education and communication and this network communicates with each other
secretly like a secret society. It is one of the ways we can see the world
moving towards this evil one world government which will be controlled by the
antichrist.
There is
a saying, the eyes are the windows to the soul. This
saying is very similar to a saying in the book of Proverbs which says in
Proverbs 23:6-8, “Eat thou not the bread of him that
hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet
words.”
Some people
do have evil eye. In other words they are so evil, maybe even demon possessed
that you can just see it in their eyes. There is something unnatural about
them. Sin affects a person. Sin is destructive on a person mentally,
emotionally, physically even damaging to their personality. Now a lot of people
may not notice this especially lost people, people who are self
absorbed and who live their lives focused on themselves. But Christians
who know the word of God and because they have the spirit of God certainly can
discern this. Its like a child molester or a
homosexual or a serial killer, people like this are so evil so perverted so
corrupt that they cant hide it. If you are around
them long enough you notice the way they act, the way they look on their face,
and even the light in their eyes.
Anyway
the point is man is brutish and foolish. The reason man is so dumb and stupid,
which is what these words mean, is because man chooses to turn away from the
truth. If a person cant tell the difference between a
man and animal if a person cannot tell the difference between a man and a woman
if a person cannot tell the difference between a Holy all powerful loving God
and evil hateful murderous fallen angel that is dumb and stupid.
So the
world is heading toward a time in which all the world is going to worship the
devil. Satanism may not be a big religion right now but it is on the rise. Its
main raise is in the form of world religious unity. That’s what a lot of
Satanists promote.
We live
in the age of grace so we live in a time where God has given the Bible and a
tremendous wealth of scientific knowledge which both proves the Bible true and
points to the existence of God. But the day is coming when the world is going
to get what it wants. God is going to take all the Christians off the earth and
how easy it will be then for people to turn away from the truth and be a
brutish and foolish as they want.
Of
course its not going to end
well for them. It is going to end in the judgment of God. A wise person will
seek to know and to understand the works of the Lord so that they are not
deceived by the devil and so that they can escape the judgment of God. The
greatest work of God of course is Jesus work on the cross when He paid the sin
debt by shedding His blood and dying and then defeating death by rising from
the grave. This is the way to being to understand and to know the great works
of God by believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you have never turned from
your sins and turned to Jesus you can do so today and He will forgive you and
save you and give you eternal life.
___________________________________________________
Copyright; 2017 by Bruce
Creech
All Rights Reserved