(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) All right, Psalm 47, I think, is a very exciting psalm. Very short. There's not a whole lot of... I always hesitate to say this. I've said this many times before. I don't think the sermon's going to be that long tonight. Okay, but I really mean that tonight. I think I usually mean that, but this time, it seems like it's going to be going that way. Now watch, it's going to be like an hour and 20 minutes. Guys, if you like Passover, don't ever say that again. There's one real main point that I want to bring out here in Psalm 47. Look at verse number one. Bob reads, Oh, clap your hands, all you people. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. And as we get a little bit further, I'm just going to kind of make reference back to this and this point. Like I said, this is an exciting psalm. I think there's just excitement all the way through from beginning to end, just exalting the Lord. He's the King. He's God. He reigns over the heathen. He's in charge, you know, and sing unto the Lord and get praise unto His name. And it's just packed with just being a powerful, exciting, uplifting, edifying psalm. But look at verse number two, and I kind of want to I'm going to pause on this and I'm going to read a lot of scripture for you regarding this tonight. And I brought this up on a sermon recently. I don't remember if it was this Sunday or last week. Look at verse number two. The Bible says, For the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the earth. Now, we have a connotation with the word terrible today of just something that's being like real bad. Right. And understandably so. Right. If you say, oh, man, that's terrible. You just think, oh, that's really bad. The terrible being represented here in the Bible when it's referring to the Lord isn't a bad thing. In many, in many cases, you know, being terrified of something that's terrible can be associated with being bad. Right. I mean, if some really bad event happens unto somebody, you say, man, that's terrible. Right. It's frightening. It's terrible. That could be just a bad thing, bad consequence, whatever. But what the Bible is ascribing unto God, unto the Lord, says the Lord Most High is terrible. And this isn't just a one off in scripture either. So this is why I have many scriptures reference. You can see on my notes here. And this is only the first page. I've got more where everything where it's highlighted is God being described as terrible. I'm going to read some of these off to you. You're not going to have to turn to all these places. But just to emphasize this point of who God is and some of the attributes of God, I preached on the attributes of God previously and other sermons. And this one we cannot forget. And I just want to make sure this is stressed appropriately, because the Bible stresses this attribute of God, that God is terrible. It's not terrible in a bad way, but God is someone. God is a being an entity. God is the creator almighty that should instill terror in people. And that we should fear the Lord, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and that we're instructed over and over again to fear God. And we have good reason to fear God. And, you know, the fact that God is almighty and is able to speak all of creation into it into existence demonstrates the power of the Lord. Which means that God is not someone to be messed with. At all. Now. As we are reminded also in this song, hey, God reigns in heaven. You may not always think so. You can look at this world and say, man, there's so much wickedness, there's so much evil, there's so many bad things going on. But at the end of the day, hey, be sure that God will not be mocked. God is not mocked, OK? God is long suffering. God is merciful. God is patient. God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. Don't mistake the mercy and kindness and long suffering of the Lord as if he's not there or he's not in charge or anything like that. OK, and then you could just walk all over the Lord or treat him with disrespect or treat him like he's not there. OK, because God is not mocked and God is terrible. I'm going to read some verses for you just just to let this sink in. How often this comes up. And this is not every reference. Just so you know, this is not every reference. There's many other things that God does that are called terrible as well. I didn't include any of those. I'm just trying to get this point across. Excuse me, Deuteronomy 721, and you can make note of these if you'd like. Deuteronomy 721 says thou shalt not be afraid at them, for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. Deuteronomy 10, 17. So in that context of 721, the fact that God is mighty and terrible is actually a good thing for you says, hey, don't be afraid of them because God's a mighty God and terrible, which means he's going to sell terror in your enemies. He's going to be there for you. He's your defender. He's your protector. But guess what? He's terrible. He's going to terrify the enemy. Deuteronomy 10, 17 says for the Lord, your God is a God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward. Deuteronomy 10, 21 says he is thy praise and he is thy God that hath done for thee these great and terrible things which thine eyes have seen. Deuteronomy 26, eight. The Bible says in the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched harm and with great terribleness and with signs and with wonders. Nehemiah one five says, and he said and said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. Nehemiah four fourteen says, and I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, be not you afraid of them? Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible and fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses. So don't be afraid of them. Remember your God. Remember the Lord. He's great and terrible. Nehemiah nine thirty two. Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty and the terrible God who keep his covenant and mercy. Let not all the trouble seem little before thee that hath come upon us on our kings and on our princes and on our priests and on our prophets and on our fathers and on all thy people since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day. Job thirty seven twenty two says fair weather cometh out of the north with God is terrible majesty. Psalm sixty six three say unto God, how terrible art thou in thy works through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. Psalm sixty six, verse five, come and see the works of God. He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. Psalm sixty eight thirty five. Oh God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places. The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power into his people. Blessed be God. So ninety nine three, let them praise thy great and terrible name, for it is holy. Jeremiah twenty eleven. But the Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible one. Therefore, my persecutor shall stumble and they shall not prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed for they shall not prosper. Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. And then Hebrews twelve, twenty one and two, if you would, to Hebrews twelve. I'll read twenty verse twenty one for you. Rather than so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Now, many of those verses that I just read off to you are talking about God being terrible towards the people on the earth, but mostly towards the enemies, right? Towards the enemies of the Lord, that they have a reason to be terrified. And when the great day of the Lord is come, the people are going to be hiding themselves. The most powerful rulers and leaders and the valiant men and the mighty men are going to be running and hiding and trying to crawl into the dens, into the into the clefts of the rocks and say and fall on us for the great day of his wrath is come. Because when God shows up after all of their haughtiness and all of their proud speeches and all of their all of the the just animosity towards the Lord and towards his people, when it all comes to a head after the great tribulation against the saints, and God shows up, he's going to be full of wrath and you better believe he's going to instill terror in all that live on the earth. He will be known as the great, terrible God. And that is not a bad attribute of the Lord. It's a good attribute. And it's one, but it's one that people need to remember. It's one that people need to remember to keep you humble, to keep you lowly, to stop thinking of yourself above that you are. Even Moses, who was a great man of God, who was a believer in the Lord. He is not an enemy of the Lord. When Moses was in the presence of the Lord says and so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Quake means he's shaking. He's afraid and he's literally trembling before the Lord. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time even thinking of a time where I got so scared that I shook. Well, I were, you know, people's knees shake. Look, that is that is a reaction that your body has. And, you know, oftentimes it's used as kind of like, you know, cartoons and things that make fun of it. But it's real. I mean, that literally happens when people get terrified, when people get extremely, you know, worried and fearful. They will start to shake and tremble. And, you know, I thank God that I don't I can't recall a time where I've ever been in such a state of fear. You know, it's obviously not a good place you want to be is to be so fearful. And I'm not saying that because, oh, I'm so tough. It's just I thankfully haven't ever had to face something that was so frightful that would put me in such a condition. And but you know what? Being in the presence of the Lord, especially as a man, as a sinful man, is going to instill fear in everybody. And even with Moses, he is exceeding exceedingly fearful, and he and he trembled. Jump down to verse 28 there in Hebrews Chapter 12. Bible says, Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Last Sunday, I preached on the verses in 1st John that say God is love and amen. Amen to that. Amen for God's mercy and long suffering. We preach God's mercy. We preach God's love when we go out and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, because that exemplifies the love of God. You know, for God committed, God committed his love for us and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. That exalts the love that God has for us. And he's willing to make that ultimate sacrifice. That's great news. That's great. I love that. But you know what? We cannot just go completely on to one side and be the lopsided in our understanding of God. And yes, God is love. And yes, we understand. And yes, it's a great thing. But God also is a consuming fire. Don't forget that the same God that created heaven and the New Jerusalem and the pearly gates and the streets of gold and all the great things where you're never going to grow old and we're going to never have aches and pains and sorrow and all the things that we experience in this life. The same God that made all those good things. Guess what? He also made hell. He also created a place where the fire is not quenched and the worm dieth not. He made a place where people will be tortured and tormented forever for eternity. That is the same God that made both places. And we cannot forget either one because they are both equally important and both equally aspects of our God. So, yes, when the Bible says God is terrible. Amen. Amen. It makes sense. How could it be almighty and not be terrible? Just being just having that level of power, being in the presence of anything with that amount of power, ought to instill fear and terror in a person. I mean, that's that's that makes sense. That's normal. It's natural. It's not hard to accept. So don't think that this is oh, this is just poetic language in the song. The Lord Most High is terrible, and He is a great king over all the earth. Let's go back to Psalm 47. And as it was the case in many of the other verses that we were looking at, the terrible acts of the Lord and the terribleness of God in context very frequently was referring to the enemies of God, not referring to, you know, his his people are God's not terrible, you know, or trying to necessarily instill terror in his people. He wants us to fear him, but he's not trying to instill terror in our hearts towards towards him. But God is a God that does instill terror. And people ought to be terrified of the Lord. But as we see here in Psalm 47, this context is very similar. Verse three says he shall subdue the people under us and the nations under our feet. So when God brings his judgment, he's going to exalt his people. He's an exalt the believers in his name, the believers in his word, the believers on Jesus Christ and give them a place and give them a nation and ultimately, you know, provide a heaven here on earth and and provide a kingdom that they're going to we're going to rule and reign and that all the nations of the earth are going to be subservient and be subdued under our feet. Verse four, the Bible says he shall choose our inheritance for us. The excellency of Jacob, whom he loved the seal. Turn, if you would, real quick to first Peter, chapter one. This is another reason to be excited in the Lord's exciting Psalm. Hey, clap your hands. All you people shout unto God with the voice of triumph. That was verse number one. Get excited. Hey, clap, shout. The Lord most high is terrible. He's a great king over all the earth. He's going to subdue the people under us. It's exciting. He's going to destroy the enemies. He's going to make sure that those that would want to kill you and those that are going to try to harm you, they're going to be subdued. All nations are going to be brought under and God's going to reign. He shall choose our inheritance for us. You don't even have to worry about, you know, a lot of people spend their lives worrying about their inheritance, worrying about all these things that they're going to give their children. You know what? As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have an inheritance already put aside for us. And that's that's great news in itself. You think it'd be enough just to avoid burning forever in hell. But how great is it that God also has an inheritance for us in eternity? You know, Jesus said that in my father's house are many mansions. And that He went to prepare a place for us. We have a great inheritance to look forward to. You're in First Peter, Chapter one. Look at verse number three. The Bible reads, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. And that fate is not a way reserved in heaven for you. Think about that. You've got you've got a place in heaven right now with your name on it. It's got a reservation. Say this is booked. Peter, God, I need you reserved right there. You've got a spot in heaven reserved for you. And everybody who is a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you've got a reservation in heaven and it's already bought, it's already paid for, it's already there for you. It's exciting. You don't want to worry about saving up for it and everything else. The Bible says it's incorruptible, it's undefiled. Hey, nothing's got no one's going to steal that from you. You could you know, you could put your money today in a 401K and the government could come along and just empty that out. They start going into problems, you know, and you say, you know what? Social security. Sorry. You could put your money in a safe. You could bury it in your backyard. You put it on your pillow, on your mattress, in a picture frame, whatever people put their stuff, their valuables. And it could be stolen. It could be destroyed. It could come to nothing. But your inheritance in heaven, you have no worries about. That's secured. That is insured way greater than the FDIC is insured. Or the banks or whatever, right? Any type of of insurance that you have here on earth is nothing compared to the insurance that the word of God gives us that, hey, you've got a place reserved, incorruptible, undefiled, if faith is not away, it's reserved in heaven for you. Verse five, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And amen, we're kept by the power of God. I'm glad that I'm not just kept by my own power. I'm glad I'm not just relying on my own power to keep me saved until the day that I die. There's not very much assurance in that for me. In fact, to rely on my own power, my own strength, my own ability, whatever. No, you know what? I've already received the grace from God. I've already received his gift. He's keeping me now. I'm in the Father's hand. No man can pluck me out of his hand. That is encouraged. That's exciting. Amen. We have no reason not to sing praises in the Lord. We have no reason not to serve the Lord. Why not? I mean, he's doing everything for us. We got inheritance. Why not? Let's get fired up. Let's praise the Lord and let's do something for him. Let's not just sit around. Don't waste your life. God's worth it. Verse number five. God has gone up with a shout. Are we back in Psalm forty seven, not first Peter chapter one? We left off on verse five and first Peter one. We're back on Psalm forty seven. Verse number five. God has gone up with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a trumpet sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises into our king. Sing praises. Ever a reason to sing praises. Verse seven for God is the king of all the earth. Sing he praises with understanding. And we need to remember that, you know, God is the king of all the earth. We know that Satan has a little bit of time on this earth and he's considered the God of this world, lowercase g, right? He's free to roam around and he's the accuser of the brethren. But we know that his time is coming and that God is going to destroy him. He's going to be cast into the lake of fire with the beast and the false prophet. And he's going to spend an eternity there. He's loosed for a short season in general, even just not not even when he's released from hell, he's he's just here for a short season overall, because eternity is a long time. But God is the king of all the earth. God is capable of raising up and bringing down. And, you know, when when you get so fretful and fearful over things that are happening in this world, whether it be politics, whether it be diseases, you know, whether it be natural disasters, whether it be your job, whether it be anything that's going on, just remember, God is still in charge. God is in heaven. He's on his throne and he rules and reigns. OK, and we ought to serve the true king and not worry about these under kings and these under lords that want to rule everyone's lives here on earth, because God can protect you. God can bless you. God can see you through everything. And why wouldn't we want to trust in him with everything? God is the king of all the earth. But then I like the second half of that verse there, sing he praises with understanding. I love the hymns that we sing. I'm not a fan of all the current modern music that's coming out, that so called Christian music, because what it's become, it's just become this, it hasn't, it's not about God. It's about selling records. It's about trying to broaden, just reach as many people as possible by removing doctrine and making the songs about nothing. You know what, I like singing with the understanding. I like songs that are packed with doctrine. The example that God gives us for songs packed with doctrine is found in the Bible, in Psalms. Because the entire book of Psalms is a song book. This is what we're preaching through on Wednesday night. Isn't it amazing that we can take a song book and preach with power and authority the word of God out of a song book? Those are God's songs. That's powerful. Godly music, Godly songs, not these songs that are just repetitive over and over and over again. Our God's an awesome God. You're just gonna chant things instead of singing with the understanding. How about we sing praises unto the Lord and we sing songs with the understanding also. And that's why I love those old Christmas hymns. I'm not talking about the all I want for Christmas stuff and the Santa Claus stuff and all the other nonsense and the Yuletide and all the other garbage that's out there, but the ones that talk about the deity of Jesus Christ and that God was born and the word was made flesh and all the great doctrine that's in these great Christmas hymns. I still am glad, every once in a while I'll turn on the radio real close to Christmastime and try to find you. There's always at least one or two stations, it seems, that'll have Christmas music playing. And you just hope, can you just play a good song? And it's like they play something stupid and you just turn it off and they'll turn it back on again and be like, come on, I know you're gonna do, I know you can do at least one. Oh no, you turn it off, turn it back on again. Jingle bells, turn it off and turn it back on. They still play, every once in a while they'll play something good. They'll play Joy to the World or Oh Come All Ye Faithful or something along those lines. And it's like, yes. And honestly, it's one of the reasons why I love, I still love the Christmas season. Even though it's been bastardized and people are trying to change it into being all about covetousness and trying to remove Jesus Christ from the whole holiday altogether and replace him with some fat guy that's supposed to come down your chimney and break into your house and leave you stuff or whatever. So I guess someone dressed in a red suit coming down my chimney, they better be climbing back up real fast because, because I'm armed. We don't play that. But seriously, I mean, teaching the kids that there's someone watching them and knows whether they're naughty and nice and that you're only gonna get a gift if you're good. Come on, man. I thought the message of Jesus Christ is, you all been bad but you know what, he's got a free gift for you anyways. How about you put your trust in him, you put your faith in him and he'll give you that free gift. You don't have to be good. You don't have to be good all year to worry about receiving that gift from the one who does see everything that you do. It's already bought and paid for. It's no doubt, no question about it. There's a lot of things out there that try to ruin Christmas. You know what I do? I do thank God that we still have this time. And look, I know that Jesus most likely wasn't born on December 25th. I don't pretend that I just think, oh no, that's the right date. It doesn't matter. There's a time of year where you've got people everywhere that are still honoring a day that is set aside for the birth of Jesus Christ to recognize that. It's still happening. And there still is remnants of good, godly music that's out there and things like that. You know what? I thank God for that. And this ought to, I hope you use this this season as more of an opportunity to bring up the gospel, to bring up Jesus Christ. I mean, if you're worried about it being awkward or something, what more can you ask for than everybody in the country observing a day of Christmas with Christ's name in it to bring up Jesus Christ? It shouldn't be that weird or awkward for you. Get over yourself and talk about Jesus. Bring it up to someone that you love. Say, hey, you know what I love about Christmas? It's about Jesus. I don't think that should be something awkward to say. Verse seven there where we're left off. For God is the king of all the earth. Sing He praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong unto God. He is greatly exalted. And when the Bible's talking about the shields of the earth that belong unto God, all the defenses, all the great ornaments, we see oftentimes that the shields are used. Even Israel had the golden shields. Remember that they had up and then they got stolen and then they made brazen shields and it's just not quite the same as having golden shields, right? But it's just a symbol of your power and your might and your strength and your defense. You know what the Bible's saying? It's God's. God's on His throne. God's sitting in holiness. Safety is of the Lord. We don't have any reason to fear and in fact, we have every reason to sing praises unto God. It's exciting. Knowing there's going to be all of the wrongs righted should give you hope and encouragement and faith. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for this great, encouraging Psalm. God, I pray that you would please help us to live our lives better, that we walk by faith and not by sight and that we can use these words that you've provided for us to give us more encouragement and more excitement and to just be stirred up to serve you, be stirred up to live our lives in a way that's righteous and that is going to be pleasing to you and that will exalt your name and Lord, help us to reach other people with the truth, with the love of the gospel, with all that good news, Lord, but help us never to forget that you are a terrible God as well and that you are to be feared and that we shouldn't just disrespect your name by dragging it around or using your name in vain or just saying things that are disrespectful even in terms about you and just shortening and using names like, oh, the old man upstairs or JC or all these, God's my homeboy and all these ridiculous statements, Lord, help us not to just fall into the world's degradation of your word, but that we would treat you with honor and respect and glory and honor that you deserve because you rule in holiness and that you sit on the throne, Lord, and we ought to just humble ourselves before you and Lord, I pray that you would please help us to thunder forth your words. We love you. It's in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen.