The Best Way To Fill Your Day Series

Summer Psalms #12 - The Best Way to Fill Your Day

Psalms 118:1-29

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - Aug. 19, 2009

*On mission trips to Ukraine we would ask the team to memorize one song in Russian. I’m sure we butchered the pronunciation, but nobody ever laughed in our faces. I’ll spare you the singing, but here are the words:

-E tat dien - E tat Dien

-Sot variel Gospoid - Sot veriel Godpoid

-Nada dos nom - Nada dos nom -- E vicilia - E vicilia

*It was a verse from this Psalm, vs. 24:

-This is the day, this is the day,

-That the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.

-I will rejoice, I will rejoice

-And be glad in it, and be glad in it.

*This is the day that the Lord has made. What are you doing with it? This Psalm shows us some of the best things we can do.

1. First: Fill your day by magnifying the mercy of the Lord.

*In vs. 1-4, our writer magnified the mercy of the Lord:

1. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! Because His mercy endures forever.

2. Let Israel now say, "His mercy endures forever.’’

3. Let the house of Aaron now say, "His mercy endures forever.’’

4. Let those who fear the Lord now say, "His mercy endures forever.’’

*Let everybody with Godly wisdom now say, “His mercy endures forever!”

-As Jeremiah declared in Lam 3:22-23: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”

*God’s mercy on His people is renewed every day! I once heard a preacher on TV ask this question: “You know why God’s mercy is renewed every day? Cuz we used up yesterday’s batch!” -- But God’s mercy is renewed every day, and it lasts forever!

*How much mercy can you get from the Lord? -- All the mercy you will ever need. And we need a lot, because all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But how can we get this mercy? -- Only through the cross of Jesus Christ! Vs. 27 tells us, “God is the Lord, And He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.”

*The Old Testament sacrifices looked forward to the coming of Christ, the Lamb of God who died to take away the sin of the world. But Jesus was the real sacrifice, so Heb 9:11-12 tells us:

11. Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

12. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

*This is the only reason why anybody can say: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! Because His mercy endures forever.” Fill your day by magnifying the mercy of the Lord.

2. But also by confessing your confidence in the Lord.

*In vs. 5-18, the writer confessed his great confidence in the Lord:

-In vs. 5, he talks about answered prayer: “I called on the Lord in distress; The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.”

-In vs. 6&7, he speaks of God’s abundant help:

6. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?

7. The Lord is for me among those who help me; Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.

-In vs. 8&9, he declares the Lord’s unsurpassed reliability:

8. It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in man.

9. It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in princes.

*Starting in vs. 10, we see a testimony of this man’s troubles, -- a testimony of his triumph over troubles:

10. All nations surrounded me, But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

11. They surrounded me, Yes, they surrounded me; But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

12. They surrounded me like bees; They were quenched like a fire of thorns; For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

13. You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the Lord helped me.

*What we see here and often see in prophetic passages is a mingling of our life’s story with the Lord’s. Surely these verses point us to the ultimate victory of our Savior over His enemies. But on another level, the writer is also reflecting on his own past troubles. Have you ever felt like you were completely surrounded by your troubles? Have your ever felt like your troubles were coming after you like a swarm of bees?