Psalm 81: Open Ears, Opens Hearts for Salvation! Psalm 81:8-10

Text: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But I say, Have they not heard?”

Romans 10:17-18.

          “He that hath an ear, let him/her hear what the Spirit (capital S., God!) saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death (Hell, and the Lake of Fire).”

Revelation 2:11.

Good morning, open-eared Christian!  You and I have that ‘new song’ to sing, a song of deliverance; a song of joyful worship unto the Living Lord God Jehovah, in Christ Jesus, because, once we were lost in our sins, and now we are found in God’s family to worship the Lamb forever.  Hallelujah!  Can you resist shouting it from the rooftops?  I can’t.  Glory…

“And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”  (Psalm 40:3)

The Lord God gave me this verse from Psalm 40:3 the day He saved me – in cell 9, H Block 6, at the maximum-security Maze Prison for political prisoners, here in Northern Ireland, on August 12^th, 1979.

I had been an Ulster Freedom Fighter terrorist, in the early and mid-1970s, and had been rightly incarcerated for my vile terrorist actions, and placed on solitary-confinement.  In my profound rebellion and sin, I had refused to wear the prison uniform of a common criminal, and was protesting on what was called ‘The Loyalist Blanket Protest’ with other political activists, for political recognition status, having been engaged in politically motivated offences.

My rebellion knew no limits, as I engaged in ‘gross personal violence on prison staff’, and was called ‘that maniac McClinton’ by the prison guards. ‘My name is legion…’ (Mark 5:)

Left alone in solitary-confinement cells for over two years, there was nothing to stimulate the mind, but a King James Version Bible had to be in every cell of the British Prison System – and so I began to read this old dog-eared prison edition to pass the long days.

 “So, then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  (Romans 10:17)

In God’s Sovereign grace, praise His Name, He ‘quickened’ me as I read the Gospel truths; granted me the faith absolutely necessary to believe; granted me true repentance from my gross life of violence; and saved me from my vile sins. Thanks be to His Holy Name!

That was when the Lord God gave me Psalm 40: verse 3, as a promise for the future as His servant. “And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”  (Psalm 40:3)

The Lord has fulfilled that promise to me in wonderful ways for the past 47 years since.  Hallelujah!  I have seen with my own eyes, many precious souls saved, redeemed by Christ’s precious Blood, through being ‘quickened’ by my preaching of God’s Word and the Gospel of Christ Crucified for our sins. I have been enabled to strengthen the hearts and hands of many young Christians, and many not so young have benefited by my ministry in the Word.

All praise, honour, glory and thanks be to the Lord God.  We can do nothing without Him!  (John 15:5)

Verse 8. “Hear, O My people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, IF thou wilt hearken unto Me. Hurried reading is of little benefit; to sit down a while and meditate is very profitable.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 350)

If the Lord God, via the universal call of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is speaking to the hearts and souls of sinners – it is of vital, Eternal, importance to sit down quietly and seriously mediate on what is being read or heard with the eyes and the ears of those on their way to Hell. 

If true saving faith cometh by hearing – and it does – then sinners need desperately to open their ears to hear.  By God’s Sovereign grace and will, He will then ‘quicken’ (make alive) dead spirits, to not only hear and receive Christ’s Salvation, but also to have the very heart of their being to be opened to receive all the wonderful blessing of a truly gracious Lord God.

Verse 10: “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Egypt is often a type of ‘the world of the unsaved’ when reading Holy Scriptures.  God’s people, Israel, were enslaved in Egypt, and labouring under a terrible burden – and the Lord God brought them out by the hand of Moses.  You and I were enslaved by Satan and our sins, unsaved, and wallowing in a world on its way to a Christ-rejecter’s Hell, when God the Spirit ‘quickened’ us as we heard/read God’s message of deliverance and Eternal Salvation.

“And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins…Even when we were dead in sins (Spiritually dead, unsaved), hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;)” (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Verse 10: “…Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Open thy mouth wide, then, O Christian; stretch out thy desires to the uttermost, grasp Heaven and earth in thy boundless wishes, and believe there is enough in God to afford thee full satisfaction. Not only come, but come with boldness to the throne of grace: it is erected for sinners, even the chief of sinners.  Come to it then, and wait at it, till you obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Those who expect most from God are likely to receive the most. The desire of the righteous, let it be ever so extensive, shall be granted.”  (Benjamin Beddome, 1717-1795)

Verse 10: “…Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. This is also God’s promise, especially to preachers, Sunday-school teachers, Bible Teachers – we should never doubt if we are going to be enabled to present a sound Gospel message, the Lord shall fill our mouths.

Thought: Open ears to God’s Word, produces open hearts and mouths for Christ.

Psalm 81: Open Mouths for Jesus! Psalm 81:1-7

Text: “Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a Psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet…”

Psalm 81:1-3.

          “And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.”

Psalm 40:3-4.

 

Good morning, loud-mouthed Christian!  Being called a ‘loud-mouth’ is traditionally thought of as being a derogatory description of a person, and often suits the label.  However, seeking sincerely to be a ‘loud-mouth’ for the Lord Jesus Christ, in joyful singing of praise to His Holy Name; and in the public and church witness of Gospel preaching/teaching, is deemed to be an absolute necessity.  If the Lord’s Cause and the Gospel of Salvation is to be proclaimed loud and clear for every hearer to hear, you and I must seek to be ‘loud-mouthed’ in the service of the risen Lord. 

Praise God for such loud-mouthed Christians!  Let us raise our voices, brethren: HALLEUJAH!  OUR GOD REIGNS!

“For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.  How then shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peach (peace between a Holy Lord God, and sinful mankind), and bring glad tidings of good things!”  (Romans 10:13-15)

First thing we learn in verse one of Psalm 81 is that, we should, at all times, have a song in our mouths to the Lord God Who supplies our strength to do so, in the service of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Verse 1. “Sing aloud. No dullness should ever stupefy our Psalmody or half-heartedness cause it to limp along.  Sing aloud, ye debtors to Sovereign grace.  Your hearts are profoundly grateful; let your voices express your thankfulness.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, page 350)

The second thing we learn in verse one of Psalm 81 is that, our song should not be some type of dirge of woefulness, no, our song is to be filled with Holy Spirit joy.  Glory to the Lamb!

Verse 1. “Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. It is to be regretted that the niceties of modern singing frighten our congregations from joining lustily in the hymns.  For our part, we delight in full bursts of praise and had rather discover the ruggedness of a want of musical training that miss the heartiness of universal congregational song.  The gentility, which lisps the tune in well-bred whispers or leaves the singing altogether to the choir, is very like a mockery of worship.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 350)

The third thing we learn from verse one of Psalm 81is that, our songs of praise and worship must at all times be directed in ONE direction: unto the Lord God of Jacob, Jehovah God.

We cannot sing a song of worship to Mary, the mother of Jesus as some beguiled religionists are willing to do: for it flies in the face of the First Commandment of God: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3) Mariolatry is a most dangerous heresy indeed.

Dead so-called ‘saints’, mere sinners who are, by other sinners ‘beatified’, are never to receive worship, prayer, or songs of adoration or praise.  Our Holy Lord God is a jealous God, and will not tolerate such practices, no matter how religiously practiced.

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My Commandments.”  (Exodus 20:5-6)

Verse 2 of Psalm 81 also promotes the use of musical instruments being played in church buildings – a song needs the support of good professional musicians, and here are timbrels, and harps, and the psaltery to accompany voices raised loud in the worship and praise of Jehovah Lord God. (The psaltery was an ancient and medieval stringed instrument like the zither, played by plucking.)

Verse 2. “Take a Psalm. When we open our mouths wide to sing aloud worship and praise to our Living Lord God, in Christ Jesus, we are prudent to sing a correct theology when we do so; for the Lord God will not countenance the babblings of those misguided in their knowledge of Him and the Gospel truths of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dictionary Definition: “Theology – the study of God, religion and revelation; a system of theological doctrine.” (The Chambers Dictionary, page 1719) 

In layman’s terms: theology is the knowledge (ology) of Theo, which is God.  Basically, theology is our knowledge of God, as revealed in our KJV Bibles, which is the inspired Word of Jehovah Lord God.  Therefore, theology is knowledge of God, not some high-brow concept that Christians should spurn, or ignore.  Without theology (knowledge of God as He has revealed it in His Word) we sinners could never even know there was an Eternal Salvation and forgiveness of sins to be had!  Sound Christians, NEED a sound theology.

When we have a sound knowledge of God, we should write it into our songs of praise and worship to Him, otherwise our church-music sessions become ‘just another gig’ for some.

Verse 7. “Thou calledst in trouble and I delivered thee. You and I were wallowing in sin and on our way to a Christ-rejecter’s Hell, when the Lord God in His mercy ‘quickened’ us by His Spirit, showed us Christ, and Him Crucified for to pay the penalty for our sins; and redeemed us by His own sinless and precious Blood.  Open your mouths wide in thanksgiving, worship, and praise to our Triune Lord God. We have Victory, in Christ Jesus.

Thought: Those devoid of worshipful praise, have nothing of Salvation to sing about.  Let His praises ring out in loud anthems!  Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

Psalm 80: Man’s Inner Awareness of God 3. History is ‘HIS Story’! Psalm 80:8-19

Text: “Thou hast brought a VINE out of Egypt: Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.  Thou preparest room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.”

Psalm 80:8-9.

“I am the Vine, and my Father is the husbandman.  Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth (continually prunes) it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  Now ye are clean through the Word which I (Jesus Christ) have spoken unto you…I am the Vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without (apart from) Me ye can do nothing.”

John 15:1-5.

Good morning, Spiritually discerning Christian!  The power of discernment in human terms is a wonderful gift to have in this day of social conflict, international business; and interactions with all other people.  We do not get far in natural, daily life, without such wise discernment. But the power of Spiritual discernment, comes only from God the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity of the Living Lord God Jehovah - Who not only ‘quickens’ God’s elect people, makes us alive Spiritually, but also grants us deep discernment concerning our understanding of Spiritual matters, and the teachings from God, from His Holy Word.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth; but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual.  But the natural man (unsaved, unquickened by God) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know then, because they are Spiritually discerned.”  (1 Corinthians 2:12-14)

Spiritually discerning Christians are given many profound insights from the written Word of God contained in our KJV Bibles (I say in our KJV Bibles, because in my 47 years of experience as a born-again Christian believer, I have been repeatedly led back to the King James Version Bible, for there I find a purity of Scriptural doctrine that I can find in no other Bible version.)

For example, this morning’s Bible Reading and Text, speaks of a vine being brought out of Egypt. When Spiritually discerning Bible scholars read this verse from Psalm 80, we more immediately make the Spiritual connection with the Jewish Nation being brought out of bondage under the Egyptian Pharaohs, where they had been for over 400 years.  Therefore, we can better understand what has been called ‘the whole thread of Holy Scriptures’ – the entire 66 Canonical books of our Old and New Testament Bibles.

Israel is, of course, a TYPE of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, an illustration down through Bible history of a promised deliverance from sin; a promised Saviour, ‘the seed of the woman’, (Genesis 3:15) Who, right from Genesis chapter 3, is set forth as the Lord God’s Blood-redeemer of ‘His people’s souls.  Bible history is in fact ‘His Story’. Hallelujah!

Isaiah speaks clearly of this same Vine, as both Israel, and the coming Christ Jesus: “Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard.  My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill (Read Mark 12:1-11)”

“For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgement, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” (Isaiah 5:1;7)

Matthew: Again, we learn that the Lord Jesus was taken, as a child, into Egypt to hide Him from the wicked Herod who was killing all the children his age, in order to have no other contender for his earthly throne.  He was, later, brought out of Egypt to live in Nazareth.  (Matthew 2:12-23) “Thou hast brought a VINE out of Egypt:” (Psalm 80:8)

“I am the Vine, and my Father is the husbandman.  Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth (continually prunes) it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  Now ye are clean through the Word which I (Jesus Christ) have spoken unto you…I am the Vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without (apart from) Me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:1-5)

Hosea, the prophet, wrote: “His branches shall spread, and His beauty shall be as the olive tree, and His smell as Lebanon.  They that shall dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall revive (regenerate, be born again?) as the corn and grow as the Vine (Christ Jesus, the true Vine): the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon…Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?  Prudent, and he shall know them?  For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.” (Hosea 14:6-9)

Verse 12. Asaph, in Divine inspiration, pens a vital question here in Psalm 80: “WHY hast Thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?”

Can we not see and understand this as a rhetorical question: a question designed more to make the hearer think things through personally, rather than seeking an answer?  I believe we can.

Sin caused Israel and the Jewish Nation to be rebuked by the Lord all the way down through HIS STORY (history). Continually, her ‘hedges were broken down’, and she has been ‘plucked’ clean of all compassion by cruel oppressors ever since that day when they cried out with a loud voice: “…Let Him be Crucified…His blood be upon us, and on our children!” (Matthew 27:17-26) To this national cry, the Lord God said, ‘Amen’, so be it.

One day soon, a remnant of the Jewish nation shall cry out to the Living Lord God: “Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts: look down from Heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; and the vineyard which Thy right hand (Christ Jesus) hath planted, and the Branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself…Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” (Psalm 80:14-19) And that elect remnant shall be saved.

Thought: Oh, the blessings of Spiritual awareness from the Lord God! Hallelujah!