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[0:00] Let us read together from the word of God Psalm 113 Psalm 113 Praise ye the Lord Praise, O ye servants of the Lord Praise the name of the Lord Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens Who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven

[1:02] And in the earth He raiseth up the poor out of the dust And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill That he may set him with princes Even with the princes of his people He maketh a barren woman to keep house And to be a joyful mother of children Praise ye the Lord This word was brought into my thoughts earlier in the week And as I thought about it If I may say this without any Any wrong interpretation being put upon it It is typical of the psalms It is typical because it leads us into two things First, into the praise of God And then into the meditation upon him

[2:03] We are able to look not only upon that which was so evidently as some of our hymns A means by which God's people could express their worship to him But also by which they should learn of him Do we not find that sometimes as we sing our hymns?

[2:25] A little thought is given as we look upon that grace which the Lord is pleased to show And what is intended And entered into We humbly hope and believe As worship Becomes also instruction So was the purpose of the psalms This particular psalm We cannot date We cannot even show the author There is speculation of course But it seems that there is nothing Of which we may be certain We may even think we can recognize the language But then When the language comes from the Holy Spirit We find a likeness and expression In those parts of the word of God Which are centuries apart Because they have, all of them The same absolute authorship They come from the Spirit of God

[3:27] I want to look very briefly Just through the verses I shall not take long But it seemed to me that As I read through it This was the way to go about it We first come As I said Into that spirit of praise And then The psalmist is In his inspiration Brought to see Who should praise the Lord And it says O ye servants of the Lord Now The psalmist was speaking To A congregation Yes We know the time But If we think of it As those that gather together For worship Perhaps In the Tabernacle Or the temple Or even In What were known Later times In the local meetings As synagogues Nonetheless It was As it were An exhortation

[4:28] To be received By those That sang it And they were to realize That this is That purpose For which we are on earth If we are the Lord's people To serve him O ye servants of the Lord And then The word Finishes In the first verse Praise the name Of the Lord And continues In the second Blessed be the name Of the Lord From this time Forth And forevermore And if We were to stop Or perhaps To begin To think of this In a Time Where there was more time Just to go into That one verse We see An absolute Wealth Of Reason To think Of God Reason To think Of the Lord Jesus

[5:28] The name Of the Lord Blessed be The name Of the Lord And no doubt The words Will come Into our thoughts In the coming weeks They shall call His name Jesus For he shall Save his people From their sin And what we think Just in the one Simple Explanation Of this sort Of name For the Jews It had an even Deeper meaning The name Of the Lord Is a strong Tower The righteous Runneth into it And is safe Yes I said Is it deeper Surely the name Of Jesus Has such a description As well And as we think Of what we are able To look upon If we were to Follow that thought Into the names Of Jehovah And even If I can put it Without discrimination Into the names Of God I think of the Jehovah descriptions

[6:28] Which are in the Bible But when we think Of just the name Of God The Lord of hosts Yes There is a Pre-eminence there There is a Pre-eminence In every aspect Of consideration Of this name And then We find something else The psalmist Is not As it were Expressing a wish Blessed be The name of the Lord From this time Forth Even forevermore But he is expressing A fact It will be blessed It is blessed Eternally In heaven If we read The revelation We find That it is Continual Continuous And it is Eternal And although Perhaps it is Difficult for us To imagine Yet We shall find If this Infinite Privilege Is given to us To join in it It is something

[7:29] Which will bring This verse Into The true understanding Blessed be The name of the Lord From this time Forth Yes Wherever it was Set in time The psalmist Could not Ask for things That already Had happened But surely The name of the Lord Was blessed From the moment That he was Revealed as the Lord And when As Moses Is able to Reveal him He said Let there be light Oh my friends What a depth There is in here And then Thirdly Where From the rising Of the sun Even to the Going down Of the same And There is something So beautiful In the expression Isn't there Sometimes we Look at it Like this As far as The east Is from the west So far Hath he removed Our transgressions

[8:29] From us And it It seems To me That yes If we Point westward And point eastward We are pointing To some Two things That in One sense Never come together Not in the distance We are thinking Of infinity And when we Think of it Yes From the rising Of the sun As the sun Rises in the East And it matters Not in which Part of the world We are The sun Rises in the East And as the Sun As the earth Revolves And evidently To our appearance The sun Goes round it Then We find Yes I like to Think of it Sometimes If I am awake On a Saturday Night Which is not Unusual And as I think Sometimes I can Do a little Calculation If my mind Is bright enough And I can Think of those Places where The sun Is rising And What parts Of the earth

[9:29] And I think That very shortly Those that love The Lord Will be lifting Up their hearts In praise And then When we come To the end Of the day I must admit That nowadays I'm usually Too weary To think of it But sometimes When we have Had those With whom we Were close Who have been In the far west We think of the Sun rising on them And have that hope That they are too Joining in the praise That we've already Joined into And our day Has come Or is coming To an end And we think Isn't it Like just a little Illustration Of eternity A continual Lifting up Of praise Yes I know That not every Day is a Day of worship Not to a lot Of people But surely It should be In measure To God's people Yes Yes they have to Occupy their Hands and their Minds perhaps But surely Their spirits Will be

[10:29] In that place Of worship Every day Of the week And in that way The Lord's name Shall be praised From the rising Of the sun To the going Down of the same And then We're lifted To another thought The Lord The Lord is High above All the nations And his glory Above the heavens And we have to Look on this And I don't Feel that At this moment In time In the time In which we live That we need To keep this In mind We're able To look upon Ungodly nations And we see Those ungodly Nations With much Temporal power And yes Sometimes Our natural Minds begin To wonder What the outcome Of all these Things will be And we see Fear gathering In the hearts

[11:30] Of men Even great men Men who are In great places In the earth That is Great men Are rather rare But some people Have to occupy Responsible places And we see Them Yes Sometimes Almost at their Whits end To know What to do There is Something we Can do We can commit The matter Unto the Lord And then We can go A little more Than this We can look At the The testimony Of the word Of God The Lord Is high Above all The nations Yes The time Shall come When Our Lord So often Despised Denied And with So much That would Yes Even ridicule The very Thought of The Lord Jesus Christ Upon the Face of the Earth The day Shall come When every Eye shall See him And every Knee Shall bow The Lord

[12:31] Is high Above all The earth And another Thought which Often comes Into my Prayers That the Lord Will hasten The day When the Kingdoms Of this World Shall become The kingdoms Of the Lord Of his Christ And then There is Something to Excite our Imaginations A bit Who is Like Unto the Lord Our God Who dwelleth On high And Oh my Mind went To another Part of The word Of God Who is A God Like unto The That Pardoneth Iniquity We have Listened to It in the Not too Distant Past And we Think of The wonder Of that Which is How can I Put it With reverence In the Nature of Our God Yes Incomparable We cannot Look upon It in any Other aspect

[13:31] There is Nothing Wherever We look Nothing That can Be compared Unto our God Who is Like unto The Lord Our God And the Answer can Only be That one Thought He is Supreme He is Incomparable Above all Things And Yes But not Only Do we Have to Look upon His Excellence That is to Say His glory His power Those things Which are Not Overcomable In the Sense in Which we Are able To Evaluate Them But we Have to Look upon Those other Things which We attribute To him We think Of his Grace We think Of his Mercy And then We come Even further We think Of that Great love

[14:32] Wherewith he Loved us Who is a God like Unto thee Who dwelleth On high And then What a lovely Messianic Thought we Have In the Next verse Who humbleth Himself To behold The things That are in Heaven and In the Earth First When we Think of God In his Glory In his Wisdom And in His Grace And in The holiness Of heaven And we Have that Thought that Even the Heavens Are not Holy in His sight Such as The infinite Holiness Of our God Yes we Find it Rather hard To think Of unholy Angels But we Do read Of fallen Angels Don't we And then We have to Think too That only That which Is perfect Is Of God Only

[15:32] God Can Apply Perfection To anything Because anything Which is not The subject Of God's Sanctification Is imperfect It is that Which is Abhorrent To him Only As it Pleases him To Behold The things And to Behold Them in Grace In mercy And in Love Are those Things Even Fit For the Sight Of God Yes he Looks upon The hearts Of men Even sinful Men But he Does Separate Himself From Their Sinfulness But for His people He looks Upon them And in That look There is Love There is Mercy There is Grace And there Is provision And there Is provision And then I thought We take this

[16:32] Into The second Person of The Trinity Who Humble Himself My mind My mind Went To that Lovely Part Of Philippians The second Chapter Where Paul Writing Of the Things that Were in the Mind of Jesus Christ To be in You Which was Also in Christ Jesus Who being In the form Of God Thought it Not robbery To be equal With God But made Himself No reputation Took upon Him the Form of A servant Who was Made in The likeness Of men And being Found in Fashion as A man He humbled Himself And became Obedient Unto death Even the Death of The cross Now In the Lord Jesus We see This thought Humbled When we Think of God looking Upon the Earth I think Condescension Would have Been Perhaps A little

[17:33] More Appropriate Yes He Condescended That is to Say He Was Willing To look Upon that Which in Itself Was displeasing To him But He did it For the Benefit of Those he Looked upon He humbled Himself To behold The things That are In the Earth I sometimes Have to Think How certain It is When we Are able To apply Even a Selm To the Gospel That in The heart Of the Selmist There was The spirit Of God So that Those things Which were Too deep For the Selmist To comprehend And were Expressed And again We have We have That thought Given to Those who Spake Pope

[18:33] Of all The Did you of all To do Could quite Can They did not live in time to see their fulfillment.

[18:52] But like Elijah and Moses, they lived in heaven to see their fulfillment. Oh, I love the thought of the transfiguration that Moses and Elijah, as they came and encouraged the Lord Jesus, they could see the things which were prophesied, the things which the Spirit of God has shown to them in measure, and they could see their fulfillment.

[19:20] And I like to think that they came with gladness, and there must have been, oh, such a time of worship in their hearts as they met again with the Son of God.

[19:35] And as they were able to see very clearly those things which they had foretold, foreshadowed, then there must have been joy in their hearts.

[19:48] Yes, not only the joy of heaven, but the joy to think that in some little measure they had been used of God in the fulfillment of his purposes, and now they were able to see those purposes coming to their culmination in the Son of God, who humbled himself to behold those things that are in heaven and are in the earth.

[20:12] There was a little piece on our calendar that made my mind go to this verse, and I think I've got the name right, Colonel Irwin, one of those people that went in the first trip to the moon, and walked upon me, he left a text upon me for the face of the moon, and I behold thy heaven, the work of thy hands, the Son of the moon, which thou hast made.

[20:43] And on his return, when he was back in his own place, in his own church, he was asked to talk to the people, but he said, it seems a wonderful thing that man has been able to walk upon the face of the moon.

[20:57] But he said, I'll tell you a much greater thing, that God walked on the face of the earth, that we should be made fit for heaven.

[21:10] Oh, he said, the greatest thing that ever has happened, that ever can happen on earth, was when the Lord Jesus came, and came as a saviour. And I thought, yes, the technical things are very interesting, and very expensive, but when I think of the cost of the Lord Jesus coming, it outweighs all things, in cost, and in benefit.

[21:37] In some of those technical things, we can see very little temporal benefit, but in the coming of the Lord Jesus, when he humbled himself, to behold the things that are in the earth, we see eternal benefit.

[21:54] And then, we have just a little thought, that reaches down to the Lord's people, the last three verses, he raises the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, literally, and spiritually.

[22:10] Yes, we know that, it could be done, in the things of time, but spiritually, how much more? Oh, when Paul had to cast his righteousness upon the dunghill, he was lifted out of it, wasn't he?

[22:29] That which he had been grovelling in, self-righteousness, he was lifted from it, and then he was able, to see, the righteousness, which was of God, by faith in Jesus Christ.

[22:43] Then, that he may set him with princes, even the princes, of his people. And of course, we have to look at this, we think of, the expression, again, we have to see the metaphor, rather than, the earthly fulfillment, what it will be, for those, or help, I can say, those of us, privileged, to enter into heaven, to be able to be with those, of whom we see, in the word of God.

[23:16] We look upon them, we think of them, used of God, and then recorded in the word of God, for our instruction. We think of the disciples, the apostles, especially, perhaps, of John.

[23:30] And we think of John, who was, in his earthly life, so close to the Lord Jesus, and in his spiritual life, so favored, with that, subsequent visitation, when in the spirit, on the Lord's day, he met again, with his Lord, and saw him in glory.

[23:49] And oh, my friends, to think, to be, in such company, oh yes, but in greater company, than this, a prince, and a saviour, can there be, any greater privilege, than, that God's people, are set, yes, even in a little measure, while still, in this earthly, state, with God, in Christ.

[24:20] Think of it. And lastly, look at it first, literally, in the scriptures, he maketh a better woman, to keep house, and to be a joyful mother, of children.

[24:32] Yes, we can look upon it, and we can see, literal fulfillment, to, the Selmas, would have known of, he could have looked back, into their, national history, and could have seen Sarah, and he could have seen, Hannah, and then, later on, we can see, the wife of Zacharias, the priest, Elizabeth, and we can see, that the Lord, in a literal sense, could fulfill, this promise.

[25:01] But it's to be seen, more than this. Oh, sometimes, it seems, to us, that, the church of Christ, upon the earth, is in very low ebb.

[25:16] And, yes, it seems, sometimes, to be diminishing. Again, remember, there are the hidden ones, but, the time shall come, when, there shall be, a prosperity in the church, it will be in heaven, and it may be, too, on earth.

[25:38] There will be, that, which will show, that, the word, yes, shall we say, the mother of church, if I may put it in such a way, and not referring to any denomination, or any, other description, when, the church, God's way, by which, his people, are brought, into the knowledge, of himself, it will be, that, which will prosper.

[26:05] And, oh, my friends, again, it will be, for this reason, he maketh, he bringeth it. no wonder, we have to finish, with that, yes, so oft expressed word, hallelujah, praise ye, the Lord.

[26:24] And, we think that, yes, when these, psalms were sung, in the, in the synagogues, it was, in a sense, of, of, this reply.

[26:40] The priests, the singers, would have sung the verse, and, at each pause, the people, would have replied, hallelujah, there is that, for which, we must praise the Lord.

[26:58]  May this spirit, be in our hearts. Amen.