A Book Made For You

The title says it's a book made for you. It's a book with 150 chapters. That means there's something in there for everybody. No matter how difficult you are, no matter how negative you may be, no matter how empowered you want to be, there's something in there for you. There's something in there for me. And many of us over the years, oh yes, we know Psalms and we view it sometimes because we sing those. And I think it's great we do. I mean, it does empower us, but sometimes we can view it in our little realm, in our little world and say, I mean, I look at the two songs we sing that we listen to today, one we sang from 145 that Bill led us on, and then that one. There are two different kinds of not only modulation, but also of a variety of using the words in such a structure that they set a different tone, a different mood, a different picture. And I think that's important because David was a Renaissance man at his time, ever since he was a young man. And I think sometimes we sometimes get stuck, well, this should be played like this and everything must be solemn and everybody, yeah, well, we've got to stay down. David was a man of passion. When he sang, if you were sitting here and he was in the middle of this group, guess what? You would hear him and go, isn't he a little too loud? I mean, that's the way he was. His wife, couldn't you put a little more clothes on when you dance? You're just a little bit too much? Well, when he was relating his life, his story, his feelings towards God, it couldn't be contained. And that came out in his music. Sure, when he sang, he sang. He didn't just go, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma. So that's one of the things that I wanted us to realize because we each can read his words and feel different things and be moved by different things because they're the word of God. And the word of God, as Christ said, my words are spirit and they can help not only instruct us, empower us, but teach us and show us and sometimes even need to humble us, as Bill mentioned earlier. So I did get a phone call this week about my sermon last week of someone in another state that they actually said, wait a minute, you were very down on pigs last week.

And they said, I remember you telling a story one time about you had a pet pig growing up. And he said, you didn't think that was nasty and dirty and filthy. And I said, well, you're right. I had forgotten about my pet pig that I raised from this small.

He named him King because he was the last pig on Smith Farm. And yes, I raised him and I washed him. And after we sold all of our pigs and got out of pig business, my father let me keep him because I'd raised him from a pig, a little palmy from a piglet.

And so he got to be about 400 pounds. And I even when I was 11 or 12, I even rode him. He didn't like me riding him too much, but he liked me spraying him down with water and washing him and everything else. And I spent a lot of time with that with that pig. And what brought that up is that Phil last week talked about when he was a young man. He fed this little pig was your uncle, your aunt, or whatever. And he came back and came back a year or two later and wanted to feed the pig.

But the pig wasn't there. Where is he? You ate him, he said. And so, Phil, you made me think about because I was 13 when we decided my father said, well, he's a great borehog. And we don't mind keeping him to feed garbage and so forth like that, since that's what they were made for. But we no longer raise pigs for food. But a man has offered because he'd like him to be a he has a bunch of sows and would like him to breed since he's a really good looking and he was Hampshire.

And so I said, well, as long as that's what's going to happen, that's okay. But you made me start thinking about my dad. And I wonder if he really went there or whether he ended up on somebody's table. So I do not know. But he made me think about that, that I hadn't thought in 40 years. But I don't necessarily jump from one to the other, but I'd like to go to Psalm 145. Has nothing to do with pigs.

But that thought just ran across my mind. So when I say something here or when I say something anywhere, I don't always expect a phone call, but it never surprises me. And I never mind a phone call. So Psalm 145, we went through and I spent two sermons on this a lot of time. And I hope you're not tired of it, because by the time we're done today, we would have four messages, four basic messages on Psalms.

I don't know if I could do Psalms justice if I took the entire year and did it. Because there is so much power there. There's prophecy there. There's everything you could want in that. But Psalm 145 was one of my favorites just because I could feel and I broke it down into the Hebrew words. I brought various things out about Psalm 145. But it is, as it says, a praise of David, and it helped me get into David's mind. We can all read about him, but nothing could prepare us for the future when we meet David. We're going to have certain thoughts and so forth when he's resurrected, and it's told that he will be resurrected.

He will sit on the throne of the tribes of Israel. But he will surprise us because he is like no other. And he's a man after God's own heart. It's the only one in the entire Bible that I could find. If you find something different, let me know. So God chose him. And I like to follow through, and it helps me see the mind of God when we see this individual that he chose. And what this man had in his mind and why he preserved these. And Psalm 145, just everything about it, I go to it when I am feeling a little doubt.

I go to it when I'm a little depressed, when I feel beat up. That's why I go to Psalm 145, because it shows me what it's going to be like. It shows me the kingdom of God. He's still up there. Chuck, get out. Put your pity party behind. And pull yourself up and let's go to work. That's one of the reasons I like that Psalm 145. There are 150 Psalms in this book. Almost 4,500 verses. That's a lot of verses. I doubt anybody can memorize all the verses. But when you have not only 4,500 verses that cover all the various things.

Excuse me, it's 2,500 verses, isn't it, Jeff? Yeah, almost 2,500 verses. 2,461. I'm saying 45. I've got too many things on my mind today. 2,461 verses. That's enough for you to try to memorize some. That's enough for you to choose. And over 40,000 words in the Psalms. And half of the Psalms we know were written. Almost at least 73 or 75 of the 150 were written by David. People want to argue that sometimes, but that isn't something that I think is worth arguing. But out of the 150 Psalms, there's one Psalm, at least one, for everyone here. I hope you have a favorite because that's what we're banking on, the Bible study being on today.

Because I not only want you to hear from me today, but I want to hear from you. Because as I was even going and went to bed last night and I started going through Psalms, Mary knew I was flipping pages quite a bit before I went to sleep. And she said, what are you doing? I said, I'm looking at Psalms that I hadn't looked at in a long time. And I just picked up certain things that I was like, huh, I need to go through that at another time.

Most of my Psalm, 150 Psalms, I've got underlines and notes and circles all through these things. I've got my favorite verses. I would read the whole chapter, spend time looking at it and then circle my favorite verses. Just so it helps me when I'm flipping through, when I need a quick fix. Because sometimes spiritually I need a quick fix. Maybe that's me and not you. But it does help us sometimes. We're going through there and there's so much of that in here.

Now, why do I bring this up? Because one of the issues that I feel like is solved is our connection to God in the universe. He's a long way up there. Sometimes He feels farther than He is on other days. But He doesn't move, does He, as He says. He gives us the book of Psalms, all 150, for us to draw closer to Him, for us to communicate with Him, for us to see what He is like, to know His very nature. And He gave this before God in the flesh came down and became Emmanuel.

So this is how David knew Him. This, brethren, is how I knew Him, how I got to know Him.

Dale and Diane. That's how they, I'm sure, know Him. I don't know Him like that anymore because I live in the city.

I walk outside and I'm blessed if I see one star. I even go to the ocean, but it's hard to see. But when you're in the country and you see this, the awesomeness of it.

Yeah, I miss those days. And it helps to ground us. God knew that.

David spent so much of his time where? Outside. Outside. Whether he was a shepherd boy, looking after the flock. Whether he was on the battlefield and he didn't fight all the time. Whether he was laying there, looking up at the stars, talking to God. Asking him for safety in this battle that they were about to fight. Praying to him that this was the right thing to do. Or whether it was going to him because he had family problems when too many wives and too many concubines and too many sons and daughters that he never had enough time with.

Brethren, he just teaches us that sometimes a lot of our answers, the beginning to get those answers starts by looking up.

Tonight, if you are blessed than I am, you can look up and be able to see the sky, see the stars, see the awesomeness. I had an uncle who died. He was a guide, hunting guide, up in Wyoming, Montana. He did that for about ten years. He would always go up in the summertime up to Montana, Wyoming, various places where he would go and search out, bear and so forth before he took a group up to hunt. The elk and the moose. He would take a tent, being he was a retired service man, and he was used to camping out. He would take a tent and a little bit of food and a gun and that's where he'd go, just in the middle of nowhere. I remember him telling me before he died, he told me, he said, I know you've been a lot of places, but of course, he'd been all over the world. He had traveled in military service all, literally all over the world. He said, you've got to go to a big sky country. He said, you've got to go out there some time and spend a week, four or five days, out away from everybody. He said, the stars are so bright. In the summertime, he said it's late before it gets dark, but when it gets dark, he said, I would lay there and felt like I could almost reach the stars. They were that close. Now, I've never been. Never been. Anybody here? Was he correct?

Well, I guess so. And my uncle was not a religious man. But he said, it's hard to deny there's a creator when you see that, so forth. So I bring these things up to you, not because I think that you don't understand the Psalms. Most of you have read them all your lives.

But I needed to appreciate them more than I have done in the last 45 years. And I need a closer connection. And as we look at the world today, inflation's 40-year high. And it's not leveling off. It's going up. We're in for some tough times. Anybody can see that.

We need to have a closer relationship with our creator. Because there's no government, there's no president, there's no Congress, there's no sin that's going to get us through to the kingdom of God. It's only God Almighty. Our relationship with Him, He will see us through. We just have to do our part.

So this connection with our Father, spiritual Father up there, I think it's very important. So that is why I am having this sermon today, and we're going to have the Bible study, and then I'll move on to other things. But I hope we can appreciate music, the words and music of God, as perhaps we've never appreciated them before. Because, as a lot of service guys will tell you from World War II, it's sometimes the music that got us through to help take our mind off the issues and problems that existed in 1944 and 1945 as my grandfather was over there fighting. And I think we're going to need some help down the road, and I think this is a good preparation for us to enhance our relationship. So I want to give you four songs today that two of them are my favorite and two of them are Mary's favorite. And I want you to look at that because we all have things, and I don't know whether you've had it, but somebody will say, Oh, have you heard the song? And they will send you the song over the Internet or play it for you. And you're like, that's okay. And then there's other songs you go, wow, that was really good. I really enjoyed that and it becomes part of your life. Well, I hope today we can share some of those songs. And so we have more music. I know I tell David that two of the next two we will play. We can't put them on the recording just because I don't have the rights to those. But you can hear them here. And we just have to make sure they're not on the YouTube thing. But we can have the we can have the songwriter in the song. But I'd like you to turn with me to Psalm 139. Psalm 139 is not the first Psalm I learned. It's the first Psalm that impressed me. It was the very first Psalm that I dug into every single verse. It's the first Psalm that I really, besides Psalm 23, all ministers have one of those. It's the first one I really put a sermon together for. It was Psalm 139. And Psalm 139 to me taught me about God being in my life. Because sometimes it can be a relative thing. Yeah, but I'm over here. Where is God? Because we even see that in David's life. And so many of these Psalms. But Psalm 139 I'd like to look at now. I'll read from the New King James Version. But if you really want to appreciate Psalm 139, try the New Living Translation. It's powerful. It gives you a different, some different words and explains things sometimes in a little better way. It's one of the few times that I will suggest that. But the New Living Translation does a great job. So let's look at this Psalm 139 from New King James Verse 1. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. That's the chapter right there. It could just be. Okay, because it tells us. We're not just sitting over here and, you know, the mailman knows us. The bill collectors know us. Family knows us and that's about it. Neighbors know. God knows you. And He's searched you. He knows us inside and out.

You know my sitting down and my rising up. He knew exactly when you got up today. He knew what was on your mind. He knows tonight when you go to bed. Why? He knows where we are. We're here. We're here. We have two little beautiful little girls sitting in the back here. Right, Diane? Right? Well, guess what? Girls, your great-grandmother, she knows exactly where you are tonight. She's going to know where you are because she loves you. And she wants to make sure that you're taken care of. You're protected. She's not going to say, oh, there's a pond out there. You guys go and play on that pond till two in the morning. Right? You know the pond I'm talking about? Yes. She's not going near it. Well, he'll better hope Dale doesn't throw her in it. But this is God. He knows us because He loves us. He's going to make sure we're taken care of. I've thought about that many times because we live in the city and I had to lock my doors at night. And a couple of times I forgot to lock the door. That's basically my job, not Mary's. But I've forgotten. I left the garage door open and the door into the house was open.

I got up and the first thing went through my mind. Thank you, God. Because of this Scripture, He knows that. So when we do make a faux pas, have a mistake. He's got us.

You understand my thoughts are far off. Hm. Verse 3, You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways, both the good and the bad. He knows me better than Mary.

And Mary thinks she pretty much knows me. He knows us better than anyone. And he's more loving and caring and forgiving than Mary is. And she's pretty much cornered the market on that. But he's even better than that. Verse 4, For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. This means that He knows what we're going to say before we say it. It makes you wonder if He's talking to the angel, or especially the one He sets over to take care of us, and says, Oh, I wish I hadn't said that. I knew He was going to say that.

But behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You have hedged me behind, and before me. You build a hedge to protect something. Right, Traceland? I was sitting in the back seat today. I never sit in the back seat hardly ever, except when Traceland kicks me out of Mary's car. And I have to sit in the back seat, because I like driving. I like to be in control. It's just me. And Tractor-Trailer decided to... We weren't there and pulled over. And Mary, thankfully, she had Chuck's reflexes, and she pulled the car over. And I tried to keep my head down like I wasn't looking. But it was more in prayer.

But He hedges before us and behind us.

I thought of that many times as I walked the road streets and...

...of Haiti.

And I'm the only one there at that time. And I had to know He had my back.

And He did. Brought me home each time. Shaky a couple of times, but we got there. But it's here. This gives me...this empowers me to know that. And said, you laid your hand upon me. And I've had that more than a few times. That He's guided me. I would have probably gone the wrong way. I probably would have headed down the road. Verse 6, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. Why can't He attain it? Because He can't believe that somebody so powerful, so rich, so everything cares that much that He is so involved in our lives.

He knows us when we're at the high point. He knows us when we're at the low point. He knows us when we have money. He knows us when we're broke.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there, of course. If I make my bed in hell or Hades, I shew. Behold, You're there. If I go to the grave, You're there. You're going to bring me up. David knew that. He talks about it in other Psalms. And he's going to be awakened and come out of the grave, just like he told Daniel. Go to sleep. And in time, come back. So, he's got us if we're alive. He's got us if we're dead. He's going to make sure we're taken care of.

If I ascend into heaven, You are there. If I go to make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, which means if I was a bird, He wasn't. He didn't have airplanes then. So, he's using the language that, hey, if I could fly, because he studied birds and saw, I mean, haven't you watched him? I'm like, wow, wish I could fly like that. And dwell in the uttermost part of the seas, Even there your hand shall lead me, And your right hand, that strong hand, Shall hold me. See, God's not left-handed. He's not handicapped like I am. He's right-handed. 90% of men are. And his right hand is your strong hand. He has, he's not taken, well, let me give you this. I've got this one busy. No. David's saying, whatever it takes, he's going to do with the strong hand.

And it says, If I say, Surely the darkness shall fall on me, Or cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Why? We don't need to worry about darkness. I was scared to death when I was a kid. The lights go off.

My parents didn't have any relationship with God. They didn't say anything, other than they let me watch these stupid movies. Made it even worse. I'd see things in the dark, hear every little thing, so forth. You know, plus, I think my sister was in the other room, And she knew I was bothered so she would scratch the floor or something, you know, Just to make me think that.

Verse 12, Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, But the light shines as the day. The darkness of the light are both alike to you. For you have formed my inward part, You have covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We don't think about that enough.

Let's go over, as I look at my time, I'd like to go over to Psalm 91. That's my other one that I guess I've read too many times. Catch me singing it too, and I can't sing very well. But I love this. Psalm 91, David is writing this, He who dwells in a secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. El Shaddai is the word. El Shaddai. I'll give a sermon sometime. Just that phrase alone is worth a sermon. It's just so powerful. So, He who dwells in a secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow. I want that place!

I don't know about you. And it's interesting because in Hebrew, the secret place meant an intimate, special place. Not like secret, nobody knows, but it's a certain place for you. Verse 2, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in Him I will trust. Hmm. We could go on, but I'm not going to do that.

Because I'm afraid you may get caught up in my thoughts. Jeff, let somebody else finish this one. You don't mind? This is on Eagle's wings by Michael Junkus. It's what got me into Psalm 91 when I first heard this song. And I think of David every time.

Now, I hear it. You want to play that? I don't know about you, but that's where I want to be. I think David would appreciate that music. I think he would appreciate the video. I think he would appreciate that because that's what he understood. He understood about being in the palm of God's hand. We should want the same thing. We can appreciate that.

And Michael Junkus wrote that, sung that, from being inspired by Psalm 91. Let's go as I look at my watch today. I realize I have to speed this up. Let's go to one of Mary's favorites. Psalm 8. I don't know.

Maybe some of you had that written down as yours. You can explain why. Psalm 8. Let's look at the first five verses. Psalm 8. O Lord, O Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! You who set your glory above the heavens, out of the mouths of babes and infants, you have ordained strength because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, that phrase, he just took his fingers.

Look at the shots of the universe. Just look at him. He just took his finger and moved it. I mean, that's what he's saying. It was nothing, and he made all this beauty. And it's awesome. The Hubble telescope, we have Keck, we have all these things you can look at that goes deep into space now, and it just gets more glorious as you go.

And it's just like, here, here. You know? That's what he's saying. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, you put them in their place. What is man that you are mindful of him and the Son of man that you actually visit him? You're actually involved with us. Here, you want to be intimate with us. You want to be family with us. Verse 5, For you have made him a little lower than the angels are, as the original Hebrew says, Elohim, Elohim. You've just made him a little less than us.

David understood that. He's like, wow! We mean that much to you, and you have crowned him with glory and with honor. This is one of Mary's favorite, and I've heard her say it ever since we started dating. It meant something to her because she, like me, grew up in the country in the hills and woods of Alabama, where there wasn't a lot of entertainment, wasn't a lot of TV, wasn't a lot of anything.

You'd go out at night and see it's just... You had a display in front of you. A Rembrandt. Magnificent proportions up in the sky every night. And it helps you with your relationship. It helped build hers when she was very young. And then you read this verse and you realize, if you were talking to God, you'd go, I did that and I did it for you. That's what we have to realize. He didn't do that for us. He did it for billions of years, but he gave it for us to see.

So that we could begin to have this... want this relationship with Him. As a matter of fact, Jeff, let's feel a little bit with that because I found this woman that was singing about this very thing in Psalm 8. So if you'll play her, Emily, Hyman, Hellman. Hellman, yes, I had to think of that. I found her voice unique, and I found her words as she drew from this Psalm intriguing.

Go ahead. One woman's point of view. I haven't just played this music because I didn't want to talk today. I just felt music moves people, moves me, it moves a lot of people. If I do anything to move you going into the book of Psalms more, because I think it's a way that God preserved these things for us. I could go one more. It's only got five verses. Psalm, another one of Mary's favorites, Psalm 15. Psalm 15, one of the shorter ones.

You may think, well, it doesn't take long, but I've spent a whole day going through Psalm 115, taking it apart, talking about it, because it is very powerful. Psalm 115, I mean Psalm, sorry, Psalm 15. And Mary corrected me real quick. Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill? How about me? That's what I want to say. I've said that actually, it's been the whole day. How about me? I really want to do that. He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart, not just out of his mouth.

He who does not backbite with his tongue, he can't see a kind person here. He can't see the kind of person that God wants around for eternity. Don't you? Who's going to abide in his holy hill? He'll abide in his kingdom. Nor does evil to his neighbor. Boy, don't we all want a neighbor like that? Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend. Remember what he did to me? Remember what he said to me? No. So he's instructing us that this is how we need to be because David had to look at his own family and go, boy, I've got a lot of these things. And whose eyes a vile person is despised. I mean, he doesn't know. Look at him. I kind of admire that. He doesn't do, he does whatever it takes to get rich.

Uh-uh. But he honors those who fear the Lord. He who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

He who does not put out his money at usury. Let's see, how can I make money? Uh, let me charge incredible interest. This person's kind of in a bind. Even in church where it says we're not to charge interest to each other. Uh, I've seen people in the church, oh, let me give you, yeah, okay, you need to tie over for your check. You're expecting maybe a thousand bucks, eighteen percent. Yes, I heard it. I was asked about it back in Tennessee. Asked me if that was right.

Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. I'm going to trustworthy, truthful. This is how we need to be. He who does these things, what? Who is that type of person who speaks the truth in his heart, who works righteousness, who walks uprightly, shall never be, what? Moved from where? God's holy hill. God's tabernacle. God's kingdom. So, Brother and I want to say there's a song in there for you.

There's a song in there for me. There's a song for each of us. You've seen a part of me, and you've seen a part of Mary that you haven't seen before, chances are. It happens when you relate to people what you love. And we got to see a part of David that, whether you love David for the things he did or hated him for some of the things that he didn't do, gives you insight. A man after God's own heart. That through it all, through our good times and through our bad times, he's there for us. We just have to make sure that we're here for him because we are his representatives.

So we'll take a small break. We'll get a song, right? And we'll take a break after this, and then we'll come back, and hopefully by that time you will have your song ready for us.