Again, with an aside, really, and I want to read for you from Matthew Henry in the context of talking about the house of David, but he made these comments at this column. He said, the houses we dwell in should at first interest of them be dedicated to God as little sanctuaries. We must solemnly commit ourselves, our families, and all our family assairs to God's guidance and care. We must pray for His blessing and presence. We must devote ourselves in all hours to His glory, and we must resolve those that we will put away iniquity far from our homes, and that we and our houses will serve the Lord both in the duties of family worship and in all the instances of gospel obedience. I thought it was worth picking that out of the commentaries, to at least make the comment or challenge you in question form, have you done that? Have you dedicated your houses, dedicated your homes to the Lord? And more than just saying, well, I know God's given me this house, or I know God has provided me with this home. I'm in really, really, really dedicating that structure, that building to the Lord, giving Him every square foot of your home. What an impact that would be on Montgomery, if it was known, your every pretty member. I'll tell you, when you go into one of their houses, you know it's God's house. You know that they have given that place to the Lord. You can just, and when it'd be great for someone to say that of your home and perhaps they have, but when you go into that, into your home, you sense the spirit, there's just a war about it. And I really want to urge you, or challenge you if you've not done it, don't let the week go by, that you don't go into every room in your house. I mean, everywhere, the washroom, the kitchen, the din, the living room, your bedrooms, everywhere in your house. And you might just go in there and try to get on your knees, get on your face, give that area, give that room to the Lord, or you might even on a more elaborate scale, plan out a certain hymn, or a certain verse with a hymn to take your family into every room in the house. And then a particular verse with a hymn for that room, and then all the family can imagine the witness to your children, all the family get on their knees, and you can play for God's presence there. You can play for his protection in that room, play for his presence, play for church. That's one thing you can do. You can play for obedience. You might go in your din and say, God, dedicate this room, there will never be anything on this TV that ever just honors you, that ever just plays a G, and just give it to him. And don't forget to be grateful in the course of history, teens, what have loved, what have loved the luxury of indoor plumbing, teens, what have loved, what have had that. And when we have amenities in our homes, the past generations could only dream of, and so be grateful for what you have, and that leads us really into this song in these first live verses, in what just being thankful does for you, with a sweet service Thursday morning, so those of you who couldn't be here, it was just so sweet because that's what gratitude does, when people stand up and they talk about things that they are thankful for through the year, there's something about being grateful that just lifts you up, lifts up those around you, lifts you up off this earthly plane almost, and has a way of cultivating a heavenly perspective on life. You could even say that gratitude is a weapon, that you have a weapon in your arsenal to fight against the struggles that you find yourself in, winning the midst of trials, and what a joy it is in this song, what a joy it's been to go through the Psalms thus far, and see David wheeled that, that weapon of gratitude, no matter what, no matter what state he found himself in his life, that's what you find about David, that's what you find about him in this song, that when he's in trouble and when he's in prosperity, David is always able to have a heavenly mindedness about whatever it is in his life, and much of that has to do with the fact that he knew how to show gratitude, to show thanksgiving to God, no matter what state in which he found himself, he was always praising God for his grace, for his providence, for his provision, for his deliverance, and that's really the first point of the sermon that Christians should thank God for their deliverances. You'll notice in the first five verses that David is thankful in three particular areas, three things in his life that move him to thanksgiving, the first being that David thanks God for rescuing him from the hand of his enemy. Look at verse one, he says, I will extol you, O Lord, for you have lifted me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me, and the idea, the idea of being lifted up, look at verse three, you use the same word again, you have brought my soul up from the grave, the same word is the word used for pulling a bucket up out of a well, W-E-L-L, a well, I recall the mornings in junior high, probably mentioned the city before, it's part of my testimony, but just waking up and being physically ill because of my mom's sickness and just fearing for her life, I'd wake up at 4.30 and 5.00, particularly 8th grade, that was just the problem here for me, but just the fear for her life, but also, what was I going to say, better go back in 8th grade or 4th grade, the fact that it's like homesickness, it's almost a depression, if you've ever known depression in your life, depression is like, it's the feeling of having a lot of fears, there's a lot of anxieties to it all well, and you want to trust, but you just can't trust, and I think that's what's so horrible about depression has sucks you in, and you hear people say, I can't come out of it, and there's some truth to that, it's a spiritual situation, but nonetheless, it's very serious, and then I think it's going to grow older and just the enemies, the triumph, the three, the world, the devil and the flesh, and how they wage war, and they just know the button is to push, in my life, anyway, I'm sure you know that's true in your life too, but they just know how to push you down in the well, how to get you down in the pit, but oh, we say, oh, this is what we learn from this first verse, the grace of God, if they were not for God, if they were not for God, forcing my enemies, the evil fire, these disabled enemies, they would certainly, you know this in your own experience, they would have eaten me alive, they would have conquered my soul, if they were not for God, fighting for me, and certainly dragged me into the pit, but you see I'm inclined, I mean that's the Christian's application of verse one, I'm inclined, my enemies can't sing a song over me, my enemies, there's no way for my enemies to rejoice over me, and so therefore I always have reason to thank God, always, no matter what, no matter where I find myself in my life, there is always reason to be grateful, because God has triumphed over my enemies, there's always reason to show in gratitude, I'm 36 years old, I can say I'm 36 years old, and I'm still walking with God, I'm not bitter, I've not run from Him, if that I'll stay in the pulpit and say that to my own glory is to say, I have reason to praise God, my enemies have not overcome me, and that's the grace of God, and secondly David thanks God for hearing and answering his prayer, verse two, oh Lord my God I cried out to you and you have healed me, apparently David was struck with some kind of horrific illness, he feared for his life, and so he cries out to God for healing, and God hears him, God answers him, and then God heals him, the great verse when you're said, Exodus 15, verse 26, I am the Lord who heals you, you know David took comfort in that, and God, and say his application to us again, when God hears you, and when God heals you, when you cry out to God, and God said, here I am, don't forget to thank Him, that's the point, don't forget to show Him gratitude, because it's only then that you really gain heaven's perspective on this province in your life, and thirdly David thanks God for sharing his life, and verse three, O Lord you have brought my soul up from the grave, every one of us can identify with the second party says you've kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit, there's not one person in this room that can not identify with verse three, it could be a sickness in your life, it may be cancer, a number of people stood up Thursday morning, gave testimony to that fact that they've battled cancer in their lives, and God has given them healing, given them victory, and it may be that God has literally spared your life from an enemy, and it may be an enemy at war, maybe you have a victim of a violent crime, so my harms you in a great way, and that person, that person really could have taken your life, but he didn't, and the reason is God spares you, and it could be your own irresponsibility, it could be something that you've dabbled with in your life, drug abuse or alcohol abuse, and you're a living testimony that God has had grace in your life, God has spared you from that life, it may just be foolishness, it may look back, no matter your age, look back on your younger days, and you think of just the foolishness in your life, and God spares you, he didn't have to do, and I'll talk about that, I'll talk in those terms, and it may be that God reminds you even now, of some event in your life, and you look back on maybe for the first time, or maybe in a fresh way tonight, you look back and you realize God really did spare my life, you're sitting here tonight with a pumping heart, and the only reason that's true is because you could say God spared me from the grave, and it may be that, but let me say at this way first that if you're a believer, that's why I mean that everybody identifies with verse three, because if you're a believer, God has spared you from the grave, he has spared you from eternal death, if you know it may be, this was the slightest moment ago, it may be that God spared your life as an unbeliever, had he not spared your life 10, 15, 20 years ago, you'd be in hell tonight, or you think if you're an unbeliever now, it's in shimmers of your spine, but thank God has spared my life all these years, but he might bring you to this point tonight, many of you perhaps have read James Clevelle's and the novel Shogun, I'm sure I'm not thinking of pronouncing that right, but the story of the English captain who ends up in Japan in the late 16th, 17th century, he actually comes in contact with some of the most powerful warlords in Japan at that time, and there's some circumstances that lead up to this man captain, Will Adams, where he is in a situation where he is commanded to commit the act of ritual suicide, he has failed this one that he had pledged allegiance, and they spared in the long sword, if you know the story, but they hand him the dagger, and they say, if the dagger, you'll use the dagger to plunge it into your breath, and he's just about to do it, I mean, he is prepared to die, he is ready to die, and he is going to do it, and as his arm, his hand moves toward his heart, his master grabs his wrist, to spare his life, and the man is never the same, the rest of the novel, he lives his life, the rest of his life, in light of the fact that his life had been spared, he could never live his life the same way again, because of the gratitude, because he had been spared, and that's true for every believer in this room tonight, that God has spared your life. There's no way you could ever live your life the way you used to live your life, he would never do that, because you're too grateful, you'd never allow that to happen in your life, you have no other choice, but to live a life of praise to this one who has spared you from death, and then because David knows the goodness of God he wants to encourage other believers to praise the Lord for the goodness that he has shown them in their lives. Look at verse 4, saying, praise to the Lord, you saints of his, your translation may say, you godly ones, and give thanks for the remembrance of his holy name. David is exhorting these fellow believers to shout praises to God, to shout out his thanks to God. Why does he do that? Look at the verse, verse 4, what is David specifically encouraging them to give thanks for? What aspect of God's character, to exhort them, and really exhorting them to take comfort at it? The state at the end of verse 4 is holiness, his holy name, Matthew Henry said, none of all God's perfections carries in it more terror for the wicked, but more comfort for the righteous than does God's holiness. It's when we meditate on God's holiness, it's then and only then, really, that we're reminded what it took for God to take away the punishment percent that we deserve, that it's because he had to give his only son, and he gave his only son, and how he not also freely give you all things, that's what Paul asked, and he said, that's a great comfort to the believer. And he noticed here that the saints rejoice in God, well, how many times have we seen that? It's not simply in the gifts that God has given, but it's actually in God himself, he's rejoicing that God is merciful, and that God is righteous, and that God is holy. William Flummer said, however much wicked men they love good gifts, they always hate the giver of all good things. Many of them did not even thank him for their existence. He said, that's not true for the believer. The believer knows God, the believer loves God, so the believer finds in God, they're all at all. And then verse 5, it's this keen understanding of God that leads David to say what he says in verse 5, for his anger is but for a moment, his favor is for life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. This idea of something enduring for a night, obviously, that's a time span. And the idea is that it's a short time span, but the time is not what's important. What's important is he's saying, after the night, after the night of suffering, after the night of discouragement, of disappointment, of fears, after the night of loneliness, after the night of repentance, the night of pain, the night of leasing, the night of sorrow and misery, the night of wondering how in the world is all this going to work itself out in my life. There is, for the Christian, the dawn, the morning comes, the morning sunrise, the morning of joy, the joy of obedience, the joy of being found in the will of God again, the joy of having that relationship with God restored again, the joy of knowing his protection, his provision, the joy of his open arms of mercy, his favor, his presence in your life. The old Puritans used to say, his anger is short, and his smiles are sweet. His anger is short, and his smiles are sweet. His anger is short. That's a great comfort in itself, but a greater comfort, the greater comfort is that his mercy is forever and ever, and then notice that the Christian should be aware of the danger of prosperity. You know, David has so much integrity. He really doesn't have anything to hide, but when you get to verses 6 to 10 and David starts confessing his sin, it's like, David, I really don't want to know that about you. I mean, we learned some things about David here, we didn't know. He confesses in verses 6 to 10 that obviously he struggled, he had a weakness with complacency. He had a weakness with being secure in the world as we said earlier, spectacular, secure security. He might call it coronal security. He's the one who says, I felt as if I couldn't be moved, self-satisfaction, you see, comfortable, even comfortable in the things that God had given, and even comfortable in God's gifts in his life. But as a result of that, he drifted away from God, he's forgotten to give her, you know, the Greeks, they understood the principle that with prosperity there was always peril, and this is what they used to say, whom the gods would destroy. They answered his prayers, whom the gods would destroy. They answered his prayers. In other words, sometimes the things that we want the most, the things that we desire, the most are the very things that would destroy us. And that's when David says that in verse 6, when he's secure in his earthly veins, he says, now in my prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved. In other words, David is saying, I never expected my circumstances to change. It's a very dangerous place to be, this was just last week or two weeks ago where that came up before. It's very dangerous to think, well, I'll always have this prosperity, my situation will never change. It's called complacency. It's being too comfortable, and that's where David found himself, and when the trials came into his life, it just shook his world, it turned him upside down, and he realized that his long prosperity had promoted an earthly ease, a certain security, an over-confident, and that's why in verse 7 he acknowledges the Lord's hand, look at verse 7, Lord, buy your favor, you have made my mountains stand strong. Listen to this quote from Derek Kiddner. He said, easy circumstances and a careless outlook are seldom far apart. I particularly hear that as parents, we think about our children, we say, we don't want anything to harm our children, we want to protect them, we want to pray to tag around, and we want them to have easy circumstances. And look at what he says, those easy circumstances and a careless outlook are seldom far apart. And God, you see, God is just one going to have that for His servant, David. He just wasn't going to allow it, so what did he do? He hid his face behind him, and you think about your children, and you think, that's the last thing you walk through your children, it's for God to hide his face from them, so maybe that prayer for easy circumstances is not, maybe not the wisest prayer. Look at verse 7, he says, you hid your face and how it was troubled. Even in the midst of prosperity, that's the point, David. David now does not have the presence of God in his life. He misses that fellowship, that blessing of God, so what does he do? He seeks God. What else can he do? Where else can he go? Except for the one that he's lost fellowship, and so he runs to God. Verse 8, I cry out to you, O Lord, and to the Lord I made supplication, O that we would learn to pray even in the dark, to pray even when God is distanced from you, pray when you feel tempted not to pray because you don't feel close to God, that's when you pray. Steve Brown used to say, take it till you make it, there's a lot of truth in there, just keep praying and keep praying until you close to you again, that's okay, and then David tells us exactly what he pray. In verse 9, he said, what prophet is there in my blood? When I go down to the pit, will I, will I, will the dust praise you, will it declare your truth? David is saying, Lord, if I die, who's going to praise you? If I die, you're going to lose a worship, but on this earth. What he's asking is, what glory are you going to receive in all of this? If I die, what glory do you receive? I've heard a lot about this question, this verse 9, I have to try to put yourself there. I've come to this conclusion that it's really a very appropriate question. As long as the questioner doesn't say that he has the right to answer the question, does that make sense? It's okay to ask. As long as you're ready for God to say, it's okay with me if I have one less worship on earth. It's my problem, it's my wrong. And I think that's what David, David knows God. And I hope David's really trying to answer the question anyway. I think he's just seeking to have heaven's perspective and he's saying, Lord, preserve my life to this end that I praise you. Spare me from the grave for one purpose so that I can keep praising you, keep thanking you, enduring worship to you. What does he pray for specifically in verse 10 on Merit's favor? Look at verse 10. Here, O Lord, and have mercy on me, Lord be my helper, you say, according to your character, according to who you are, according to your mercy, your grace, and your divine favor, out of the fact that you are the helper of your people, help me. You say, no, no, this is because of what I've done. This is the way we always approach God. Always, every morning, every night, every minute of every day, it's this idea that God, because of who you are, because of your mercy, help me, to all of me to yourself, don't hide your face from me, spare me that I might worship you as I ought. And then he ends with thanksgiving in verses 11 and 12. You see, it goes from thanksgiving to confession and back to thanksgiving again. Look at verse 11, you have turned, for me, my morning in the dancing, you have put off my sackcloth and closed me with gladness, another Puritan quote about this verse. His griefs were balanced, his fears were silenced, his compass returned, and he was girded with gladness. He said, God, with his infinite and eternal love, he takes David's morning and he turns it into joy. He strips them of his sackcloth and he closes them in gladness, he closes them in joy. His crushed bones were joy again. And may I say in closing that that's what God will do for you, if you will cry out in him, if you will come to him, thanking him for delivering you, if you will, if you will praise him for sparing your life when you were unsafe, especially, and then confess to him that you've felt self-satisfaction, confess your sin to him, and then turn to him as the only one who can give real peace, real rest, lasting joy. That's what David's comfort is. It lies in the fact that this gladness will last forever, verse 12, to the end that my glory may soon praise to you and not be silent, O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. And that's why I just love, I love about that way that Saul means with that word forever. Our trials are comparatively brief. Our complaints and our confessions even comparatively brief, but our praise and our thanksgiving is forever and ever and ever. As we pray together, if the God we pray that you would have mercy on us and show us yourself by your mercy, by your grace, by your divine favor, your holiness, that you might show us who you are, that we might know you like David knew, we pray that you would call us to know our sin, that we return from it, and that we might be clothed in joy, that the bones you have crushed would rejoice again, that we might rejoice in your salvation every one of us in here tonight, walk out of here, rejoicing in your comfort and your peace and the joy that you grant according to your character, and we make our plea, we make our prayer in the name of Jesus.