Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleBy Christ's Name JAH
Bible TextPsalm 68:1-6
Synopsis Christ is Jah, the existing One, who has, is and shall save his people from all our enemies. Listen
Date23-Jul-2020
Series Psalms 2011
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: By Christ's Name JAH (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: By Christ's Name JAH (128 kbps)
Length 44 min.
 
Title: By Christ’s Name JAH 
Text: Ps 68: 1-6 
Date: July 23, 2020 
Place: SGBC, NJ 
  
This 68th Psalm is gospel beginning to end.  Tonight we will look at the first 6 verses.  But first let me show you who this Psalm speaks of.  In the original Hebrew language this Psalm gives different names for God. 

  • Verse 1: Let God [Elohim] arise—often used with reference to God being our Judge 
  • Verse 4:…extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH—the existing one. 
  • Verse 11: The Lord [Adonai] gave the word—sovereign, controller, supreme ruler 
  • Verse 14: When the Almighty [Shaddai] scattered kings—almighty, most powerful 
  • Verse 16: the LORD [Jehovah] will dwell in [his holy hill] forever—the long form of Jah, the existing, eternal one 
  • Verse 19…the God [El] of our salvation—strength of our salvation 
  
Who is this God?  Verse 18 says "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.”  Ephesians 4:8 declares this is the Lord Jesus Christ.  This entire Psalm is concerning Christ Jesus our God our Savior. 
  
From the beginning Christ has been the one Mediator between God and men.  From before the foundation of the world to the garden after the fall until the last elect child is gathered in, Christ is the One through whom God deals with his people. 
  
Christ is the fulness of the Godhead bodily.  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit dwell in ChristHe said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (Jn 14: 9).   He said, “I and my Father are one” (Jn 10: 30).  Christ is God.  He is Elohim our Judge—all judgment has been given to Christ of the Father.  Christ is Jah, Jehovah—the existing, eternal One, God eternal.  Christ is Adonai—the sovereign, controlling, supreme ruler.  Christ is El Shaddai—the Strength, the Almighty of our salvation. 
  
Now, the time at which David wrote this was when they were moving the ark of the covenant from the house of Obed-edom up to Mt Zion.  The ark was a type of Christ.  I see David looking at the ark and, by faith, beholding Christ.  As they began to move the ark they sang, 
  
Psalm 68: 1: Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.
  
These are the exact words Moses spoke when the ark moved. 
  
Numbers 10: 35: And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. 
  
Psalm 68: 2: As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. 3: But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. 4: Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him. 5: A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. 6: God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
  
Proposition: Christ is Jah, the existing One, who has, is and shall save his people from all our enemies. 
  
JAH AROSE IN ETERNITY
  
Psalm 68: 4: Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him
  
When it says “he rides upon the heavens by his name JAH” it means he existed before the heavens; he created the heavens; and he controls the heavens.  Christ is the self-existent, everlasting "I AM", eternal God, the second person in the trinity.  
  
Revelation 1: 8: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. 
  
When Christ appeared to Moses in the burning bush, 
  
Exodus 3:14: God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 
  
Before time was created, Christ was the Wisdom of God: 
  
Proverbs 8: 22: The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23: I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 24: When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. 25: Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: 26: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. 
  
Christ is the Word who is God. 
  
John 1: 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2: The same was in the beginning with God. 3: All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 
  
When scripture speaks of Christ being “begotten of the Father” it does not mean he was created or born but that the Christ was in the bosom of the Father.  He was One with the Father and the Spirit.  Christ is the second person in the trinity.  He is the Word of God, the Wisdom of God.  Of course, in eternity and throughout the old testament period Christ has not assumed the body of a man which God formed for him.  But each of those preincarnate appearances were Christ. 
  
Our prayer is “let God arise.”  We need Christ to arise to save us from our enemies.  He arose for his elect in eternity before as yet time or creation existed.  In Christ, God the Father chose a people and purposed all his acts of grace towards his people.  Christ is first in God’s thoughts, first in his purposes, first in his decrees concerning our salvation.  In Christ, the covenant of grace was made and all fulness of grace was treasured up.  Notice, God’s election was “in heavenly places in Christ.” 
  
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 
  
From eternity, God the Father ordained that Christ have all preeminence and that all fulness dwell in him.  In Colossians 1, Paul clearly declares that Christ is from the beginning, that he is the image of God and that Christ is the creator and sustainer of creation. 
  
Colossians 1: 15: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18: And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 
  
In the Revelation of Christ, he said, 
  
Revelation 3:14: And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 
  
Christ has always gone before his people.  He name is JAH: the self-existent, everlasting "I AM", who is eternal. Even before we fell, he arose for us “before the world began.” 
  
2 Timothy 1: 9: Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10: But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: 
  
JAH AROSE IN TIME
 
Psalm 68: 1: Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. 2: As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
 
Seeing that Christ arose for his elect in eternity, we can be sure he has and shall arise for his people in time.  He arises to scatter our enemies.  Those who hate Christ, and who hate Christ’s people, are Christ’s enemies.  The devil and his seed are the enemies of Christ and his people.  But Christ makes the enemy flee like smoke and melt like wax because Christ always arises for his people.  
  
The one thing that separates God’s elect from the rest of sinners and keeps us separated is Christ’s presence. 
  
Exodus 33: 14: And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. 15: And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 16: For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. 
  
He arises to go before us. 
  
Deuteronomy 20: 4: For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

Psalm 12: 5: For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. 

Isaiah 45: 2: I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 3: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. 
  
Isaiah 52:12: For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward. 
  
In the garden, after the fall, Christ arose.  Remember, there is one Mediator between God and men.  That means Christ is “the Voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in cool of the day” (Gen 3:8).  Having fallen in sin, Adam and Eve did what all unregenerate sinners do, they hid themselves from “the presence” of Christ.  But our great JAH found them and covered their nakedness.

Throughout history, Christ arose for his people.  Notice, verse 7 of our Psalm: 
  
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. 10: Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. 
  
Christ sent rain in the desert when they needed it.  He sent bread from heaven and quail.  Christ is the smitten Rock who gave them water.  Verse 12 and 14 says, “Kings of armies did flee apace:…when the Almighty scattered kings in it…” 
  
On the cross, Christ arose for his people and conquered all our enemies 
  
Colossians 2: 14: Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15: And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 
  
Now, Christ is risen to the right hand of the Father, with all power and glory as the Head over all things to the church—his body—who filleth all in all. 
  
Brethren, let our prayer ever be, “Let God arise!”  Christ promises to go before us, to be present with us always, to lead, guide and defend us. 
  
JAH RISES FROM HIS HOLY HABITATION
  
Psalm 65: 5: A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. 6: God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
 
Our risen Savior continues saving his people from his holy habitation.  All God’s elect, by virtue of our fall in Adam, come into this world “fatherless”.  By our sin separating us from Christ our Husband we enter as helpless as widows.  Sadly, we were also rebellious.  Nothing is more helpless than the orphan; none more easily oppressed as a widow; they represent Christ’s redeemed, powerless and alone while dead in sins. 
  
But through this very means—the preaching of the gospel—Christ also arises in the hearts of those he redeemed from his holy habitation in glory.  He finds us under the power of the prince of the air.  But he binds our enemy the strongman.  He subdues the enemy of our sinful flesh.  When Christ enters into us through the Spirit of God he creates a new man within, giving us life and faith in him. 
  
Then Christ reveals himself “a father of the fatherless.”  Adam sinned and left us orphans in sin.  But Christ, our last Adam, has always been and shall always be "the Everlasting Father” (Is 9:6).  He brings us to see his great love in laying down his life in our place so that we willingly confess, 
  
Hosea 14: 3: Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. 
  
He warns our enemies: 
  
Proverbs 23:10…enter not into the fields of the fatherless: 11: For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. 
  
When Christ arises in our hearts, he reveals that he is the “judge of the widows.”  In our widowhood we were oppressed by the curse of the law but Christ settled judgment for us.  He bore our sins and put away our curse by being made a curse for us.  Our Head, JAH, made us the righteousness of God in him.  When he arises in our hearts, he says to his bride, to each believer in particular:
  
Isaiah 54:4: Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. 5: For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called… 13  And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. 14: In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. 15: Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. 16: Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 17: No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. 
  
  
When Christ arises in our hearts he “setteth the solitary in families.”  
  
Luke 18: 28  Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee. 29  And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, 30  Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting. 
  
Brethren, we have a multitude of fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters: Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; Sarah, Rebeka, Martha, Mary, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel; Peter, Paul, James and John.  Verse 27 of our Psalm reads, “There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.”  We have families scattered around this country and the world.  God is our Father and Christ the Firstborn among many brethren: 
  
Ephesians 3: 15: [we are members of]…the whole family in heaven and earth… 
  
It is because “Christ bringeth out those which are bound with chains.”  Christ created a new man within us opening the bars of our sin-nature through the gospel to behold the law declares we are set free. 
 
Isaiah 61:1: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 
  
Isaiah 49: 8: [God the Father gave his Son] for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; 9  That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. 
  
Now, he says to us “You are no longer under the law but under grace” (Rom 6: 14).  Christ bringeth out those which are bound with chains.  
  
Now, you and I who make up his church are on the hunt for those lost sinners who are yet prisoners but who Christ has already redeemed.  God the Father says to you and I who are his church, for whom Christ has fulfilled our covenant obligations by his blood,
  
Zechariah 9:11: As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. 
  
He calls them “thy prisoners.” They belong to us, Christ’s church.  Christ has delivered them “out of the pit” by his accomplished redemption.  But they are yet lost.  Therefore, he charges us to send forth the gospel to tell them it is done.  I pray there may be some here who Christ has delivered and tonight the Spirit might reveal the good news to them and turn them to Christ our Stronghold.  God says, 
  
Zechariah 9: 12: Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee 
  
May our great JAH come and open the prison for someone now and cause you 
  
Isaiah 55:6: Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.  
  
Isaiah 40:2: Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. 
  
Brethren, now, we see why verse 4 of our Psalm says, “Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him.”

Amen!