Series: Psalm
Title: Praise to Whom Praise is Due
Text: Psalm 28: 6-8
Date: August 20, 2017
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Psalm 28: 6: Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
The Psalmist has been praying to the LORD, Jehovah. But the LORD has been silent.
Psalm 28: 1: « A Psalm of David. » Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Who comes to your mind when you hear this one who has been crying out to the LORD but the LORD has been silent to him? Christ on the cross.
In the garden, Adam disobeyed God and by his transgression was made a sinner. Christ obeyed God and by his obedience he made him sin itself for us. There is a huge difference.
Adam was dishonoring God by dishonoring his law, making his people sin, thus making his people guilty, thus causing death to pass upon them. Christ was honoring God by honoring his law, bearing his peoples crime itself, paying the punishment for his people’s sin, thus blotting out our crime from God’s record, thus making his people righteous, thus making eternal life to pass upon them.
When Adam became a sinner by disobedience, immediately, the holy and just God took from Adam his Spirit and the glory of his presence. That was when Adam first felt the shame of his sin and the guilt of his sin—when he no longer had the abiding presence of God’s glory.
Hell is everlasting destruction cast out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” (2 Thess 1: 9) The Psalmist said, “In thy presence is fulness of joy.’ (Ps 16: 11) That is why the righteous pray, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” (Ps 51: 11) But the worm that never dies—the second death—comes when God says, “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” (Lu 13: 27)
If we read the Psalms with an eye to Christ then we see that when Christ was made sin the holy and just God forsook Christ on the cross and took from him the glory of his presence. This is why Christ cried, “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me.” When he was made sin for us, God took from him the presence of God’s glory for three hours on the cursed tree. The glory of God removed is why it went dark for those three hours.
Yet, in those three hours, we see Christ’s perfect faith in that he never ceased praying to the Father in perfect, holy fidelity.
Now we know that Psalm 40 is prophetic of the Lord Jesus speaking—Psalm 40: 8: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. The Hebrew writer tells us plainly those are the words of our Substitute. Now, listen to Christ in verse 11:
Ps 40: 11: Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. 12: For [bearing our sin thus our separation from the presence of the LORD, he says,] For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; [he endured the cross despising the shame, he said mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up to thee God] they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. 13: Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
Do you remember when God first made you know your sin? Do you remember how you could not lift up your head to God? Do you remember how your heart failed within you? But God only made you know your sin in a little glimpse. Had God laid on us all our iniquity it would have crushed us! But Christ bore the iniquity of all his people at once!
When God separated himself from Adam and Adam felt the shame and guilt of his sin, Adam hid himself from the presence of the Lord. So did we while left to ourselves. God was our enemy in our minds because our own works were evil.
John 3: 19: And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20: For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
When God separated himself from Christ, when Christ bore the sin and shame and guilt and punishment, HE THAT DOETH TRUTH, CAME TO THE LIGHT AND NEVER CEASED COMING TO THE LIGHT, EVEN WHILE HE HUNG IN THREE HOURS OF DARKNESS AND SEPEARATION FROM THE GLORY OF GOD’S PRESENCE HE CONTINUED PRAYING TO THE FATHER,
Psalm 51:11: Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
At last, he satisfied divine justice, God raised him as he promised and Christ cried out a new cry: Psalm 28: 6: Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
My brethren we learn all from looking to Christ.
Proposition: Beholding the Father answer our faithful Redeemer, we have assurance that for the sake of Christ and by Christ himself working in us, God will hear the voice of our supplications and help us in and by Christ!
Isaiah 65:24: And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
CHRIST OUR INTERCESSOR AND MEDIATOR
Be sure to get this. By the faithfulness of Christ who bore our sin away, justified us and made us righteous, as we groan trying to pray, Christ our Mediator comes to the Father on our behalf. This Psalm is Christ’s own perfect praise and glory of the Father on our behalf.
Christ says to the Father on our behalf in praise of him, Psalm 28: 7, “The LORD is my strength and my shield.” Can anyone praise God more experimentally, more knowingly, more perfectly with these words than Christ? When God raised him and sat him at his own right hand, he said,
Psalm 20: 6: Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
Christ trusted the Father perfectly with his heart, saying “the LORD is my Strength and my Shield.”
Isaiah 50 6: I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. 7: For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. 8: He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. 9: Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
As the servant of his Father, he experienced the Father’s faithfulness who justified him, who raised him from the grave, who sat him at his own right hand. Now in God’s presence, he praises God on behalf of his people, bringing our prayers to God by his own intercession with perfect admiration saying to God, Psalm 28: 7-8: “MY HEART TRUSTED IN HIM, AND I AM HELPED: THEREFORE MY HEART GREATLY REJOIETH AND WITH MY SONG WILL I PRAISE HIM. 8: THE LORD IS THEIR STRENGTH, AND HE IS THE SAVING STRENGTH OF HIS ANOINTED.”
But not only does our Intercessor declare our name to the Father and praise God perfectly for us, our Mediator promised the Father, Saying, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.” (Heb 2: 12)
So at the same time that Christ praises the Father at his right hand in intercession for you believer, Christ enters our hearts declaring God’s name and singing God’s praises in our hearts. And by this he makes us know that our supplication has been heard and he fills our hearts and lips with the same song and we say, Psalm 28: 6-8, “BLESSED BE THE LORD, BECAUSE HE HATH HEARD THE VOICE OF MY SUPPLICATIONS. THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH AND MY SHIELD; MY HEART TRUSTED IN HIM, AND I AM HELPED: THEREFORE MY HEART GREATLY REJOIETH AND WITH MY SONG WILL I PRAISE HIM. THE LORD IS THEIR STRENGTH, AND HE IS THE SAVING STRENGTH OF HIS ANOINTED.”
So our Intercessor and Mediator, Christ Jesus, brings God our Father and his believing child together in harmony in him.
WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR ME
Now, let me praise God to you for what Christ has done for me.
“The LORD is my strength.” He upholds me and sustains me. The Lord is the strength of my life. He is the strength of my soul. The strength of my heart in trouble, distress, sorrow and trial is the Lord alone. And the Lord shall be my strength in death.
“And my shield.” I am protected and defended by God my Father and my Savior the Lord Jesus Christ at all times. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is my Shield and in him the Triune God is my Shield. All the infinite love, power and faithfulness, along with all the grace, truth and mercy of the Triune God is my shield. His blood, his righteousness, his salvation are my shield from God’s wrath. God has reconciled me to him and God himself is my shield. Oh, what a shield I have from every foe!
“My heart trusted in him.” I do not trust myself. I do not trust my works. I do not trust my own conscience. I do not trust my own heart. “My heart trusts in him” the Lord my God, my Savior, my Redeemer.
“And I am helped.” This is the fruit which comes to all who trust Christ, “I am helped!” Having trusted him, I am helped by him. We are helpless in ourselves; and when our souls are really troubled no man can help. Christ said, “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me.” (Is 63: 3) God brings his child to be helpless in ourselves to show us there is no man help, not even ourselves. It is to bring us to see HE IS OUR ONLY HELP!
Psalm 94: 17: Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
Psalm 121: 12: My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
“Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth and with my song will I praise him.” Have you noticed in each of these phrases there is something inward and then outward? Verse 7, “The LORD is my strength”—inward; “and my shield”—outward; “my heart trusted in him”—inward; “and I am helped:”--outward; “therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth”—inward; “and with my song will I praise him”—outward.
Everything Christ does for us and in us is to create a new heart within so that outwardly we might truly praise and honor him. Our joy is from a holy heart created by Christ in you the hope of glory—my heart greatly rejoiceth. It is not carnal but spiritual joy, not joy in the flesh but joy in the spirit, not joy in the material but joy in the Holy Ghost. When God has made the inward clean then the outward will be holy too--“And with my song will I praise him.”
When we sing praises to God, we should not care what we sound like. We should sing with all our heart. Because nothing pleases and honors our God like the praise of the lips coming from a believing heart.
Psalm 69: 30: I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31 [This] also shall please the LORD better than an ox [or] bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
CHRIST’S WORD
Let me conclude with the word of my Redeemer, verse 8, “The LORD [is] their strength. And he [is] the saving strength of his anointed.”
Christ is not only my Strength, he is your Strength too, if you are his and you are his. How do I know I am his? If you can trust him!
He is the saving Strength of all his chosen. Christ our Mediator is the LORD’s chosen and the LORD is the saving Strength of Christ. Jehovah God delivered him from the power of death and the grave, and raised him and gave him glory. And Christ said, “Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.” (Ps 20: 6)
Also, all who he brings to believe on him are his chosen. And the triune Jehovah in Christ is the saving strength of all his anointed because they trust in him!
Friends, trust in him and you shall know his help and you shall give praise to Christ to whom all praise is due!
Amen!