Psalm 135:1-21

[0:00] Psalm 135 says, Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the name of the Lord, praise him, O ye servants of the Lord, ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, praise the Lord, for the Lord is good, sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant, for the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure, for I know that the Lord is great and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all the deep places. He calls it the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth, he maketh lightnings from the rain, he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. Who smote the first born of Egypt, both of man and beast? Who sink tokens and wonders into the midst of the old Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants? Who smote great nations and slew many kings, Sion, king of the Amorites, and Ah, king of Basharin, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land for inheritance, inherited unto Israel his people. Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations, for the Lord will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants. The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see not.

[1:30] They have ears, but they hear not. Neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusted them then. Bless the Lord, O house of Israel, bless the Lord, O house of Aaron, bless the Lord, O house of Levi, ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord, blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth in Jerusalem, praise ye the Lord.

[1:56] And I said, that's a that's a hallelujah sermon, if I've ever heard a hallelujah sermon, or a song, for that matter. But this would have been sung. I have no idea what melody they would have had for this song. No idea what kind of instruments they may have used in praising God while singing this song. But this would have been sung by folks in temple worship, unto the one true God. And I said, the first three verses and the last few verses are nothing more than praising God. But then you get the verses four through about seven, and it talks about whom God is beginning with verse four. He says, for the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. And folks must say, oh, how does that pertain to us as New Testament Christians as part of the Gentile church? Folks, this particular Psalm and these particular words written in this particular time, they didn't pertain to us. They pertain unto God's people. But folks, if we look at that as a

[3:04] New Testament Christian, and we say, blessed be the Lord God, blessed be the one true God, blessed be Jehovah God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, blessed be him, we could say for the same reasons, for he hath chosen us unto himself, and he has made us a peculiar treasure post. He has chosen the church unto himself. He has saved the church. He has redeemed the church of Jesus Christ through the blood of Jesus Christ. Folks, that is enough reason that the church should rise up and give him praise. Praise the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Praise the God who has delivered you later on in this Psalm we read where he said that the king of Zion, or Zion, and God had delivered these kings and delivered these armies into the hand of Israel. When did he do that? You read about this in the book of Numbers. It was while Israel was out in the wilderness,

[4:11] God was making their way for them. God was going before them. He's the one that was clearing the path. He's the one that was providing manna. He was providing water. He was providing everything that these Israelites needed. And they sent messengers unto king Zion. And they said, let us pass through your land. And king Zion said, I will not have it. You will not come unto Abraham. You will not come into my land. And he sent his own armies to come against Israel, and God delivered the armies of Zion into Israel's hand. God went before them. God delivered them.

[4:55] Israel didn't do it themselves. But we did not save ourselves. We had no way to save ourselves. God had to make that way through the blood of Jesus Christ. Praise the name of the Lord. Hallelujah.

[5:13] God did it. God did it for these Jews. And they praised him for, they praised him for deliverance. They praised him for delivering these armies. Now folks, you listen to me. You might be able to read this, and I guarantee you the world can read this. And they can say, my goodness, these people are praising God because God calls the Jews to slay a bunch of innocent people.

[5:43] Those these weren't innocent people that were taught about. These are people that were dwelling in the land of Canaan. That was the land that God himself had chosen for his own peculiar treasure.

[5:56] As we read about here, they were invaders in the land that God had promised. You looked in the news now, there's still a war raging over there in the Middle East, over this parcel of land, over not only the Gaza Strip, but over every bit of land that is over there. Who does it belong to?

[6:18] Why does it belong to this one or that one? God says it belongs to the Jews. It belongs to the Hebrews. It belongs to the descendants of Abraham. That's who it belongs to. And these Jews here were praising God for the deliverance that he had performed on their behalf. Not only Sion, but of Og too. Og was the same time. In fact, that was almost directly after Sion. After King Sion sent his armies, Og sent his armies, and God delivered those armies into the hands of the Israelites as well. Like I said, you can read about these things in Beletus Numbers chapter 21.

[7:00] You can read about both of those kings and both of those deliverances. But the Jews here, these Hebrews would have been praising God for his deliverance of them into the promised land.

[7:13] Hey folks, why do you think that David, when they came to get the ark out of the house of Abinah death, why did David go before the ark dancing and praising and playing his instruments in these things? Because God had made good on his promise. He wasn't dancing because Sion was dead. He wasn't dancing because Adnor was dead. He wasn't dancing because Jonathan was dead. He was dancing because the God of the Hebrews had made good on his promise. And we can praise God for the same thing.

[7:51] What's the Bible say? It says, confess Jesus crossed your mouth, believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, and thou shalt be saved. Folks, we can praise God for deliverance, and we should praise God for deliverance. It might not be the armies that we're talking about here, but folks, I guarantee you, before you were saved, there were armies of demons coming at you. There were armies of demons that would whisper in your ear, that would enter your mind and plant all kinds of thoughts in there. God has delivered you from those things. God has delivered you from sin.

[8:25] He's delivered you from guilt. He's delivered you from shame. He has delivered you from everything that was nailed to Jesus Christ on that cross at Calvary. Praise the Lord. We can praise him for the same thing. We can praise him for the same things at these Jews here, D. He said, for the Lord hath chosen Jacob and himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. For I know that the Lord is great and that our Lord is God above all gods. Folks, our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is God above all gods. It don't matter what the world's God is. It didn't matter what God I had in my life before I got saved, and I had a God in some of you before you got saved. You may not have had a little statue or statue with or a little idol that was made out of bronze or brass or gold or silver or wood or whatever. You may not have bowed down to that, but you bowed down to something in your life before Almighty God came along and reached down there, says, pull a sand and saved your soul. You had a God in your life and my God, your God, he is God above all other gods. He didn't have to come to where you were. He chose to come to where you were, and he chose to save you out of your sin. How love you! We can praise him for the same reasons that the Jews did for the same reason, especially if we don't have a temple. My goodness, what's the New Testament

[10:03] I have to say about that? New Testament says, now you know that your body is a temple. Your very body that you worship him with your body, you worship him with your mind, with your heart. Why else would the scripture say that we are to love the Lord God with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength, all our soul, every fiber of our being? We are to love God, and if we love God as the scripture tells us to love God, we will worship God. We will worship him the way the scripture tells us to.

[10:38] We'll praise his name for deliverance. We'll praise his name because he is God above all other gods. It goes on the same list. Let's keep on reading, Whatsoever the Lord hath pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth and in the seas and all the deep places. That's the God I serve.

[10:58] He does whatever he pleases. Y'all have heard me preach it and teach it here for the best three years almost. God doesn't need your permission to do anything, and he doesn't need my permission to do anything. He is God and he is sovereign over this entire universe. If he could speak out into the darkness, out into the black, out into the emptiness, and things just form, and things just come to be, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. Hey, if there was no other way but a lot to happen other than God to speak it into existence, then so be it. That is the God that I serve. He can speak anything into existence or out of existence if he chooses.

[11:47] That's the God I worship and that's the God that saved my soul. He is God above all other gods. He is the only one that is able to do these things. These Jews here, they made it plain to bless the name of the Lord, worship the name of the Lord in the first three verses. Then they started talking about who this Lord is, that they're exhorting one another to worship, that they're encouraging one another to worship. This is the God that spoke the earth in his existence, not only the earth, the entire universe. He spoke into existence. He knows every star. He knows where it hangs. He knows just how long it's been there, and he knows just how long it will be that my God is omniscient, omnipresent. My God is all and all. He is everything, Alpha, Omega, beginning and end. He is all and will be all until the very end of this same. That's the God I worship.

[12:45] That's the God that saved me. Whatsoever the Lord pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased. He did in heaven and in earth, the season, deep place, all deep places. He calls it the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes his lightnings for the rain. He brings the wind out of his treasures. God calls us all these things to happen. Just in case these Israelites, just in case these Jews might have had it in the back of their mind, this God that I'm being exhorted to praise, he didn't raise my crops. He didn't raise my grain. He didn't do any of these things. This song says that he's the one that makes, made everything. He's the one that sends the rain. He made the lightnings for the rain. He sends the wind from his own treasuries. Hey, what's Jesus say about the wind when he's talking to Nicodemus in John chapter three? He said, no man knows where the where the Spirit lists it and he compares it to the wind. He says, just like no man knows where the wind's going, where it comes from, where it's going to. Hey, the Spirit's the same way Nicodemus.

[13:54] No man knows exactly where it comes from or exactly where it's going to. I know that the Spirit came from God, but Jesus was telling Nicodemus that for a reason. He was showing him just how ignorant that he was of the Scriptures, even though he was a teacher of Israel and a Pharisee in the San Higran. He was ignorant to the Scriptures and the meaning of the Holy Writ of God. Because Jesus said, art thou not a teacher of Israel? If you don't understand the natural things, how can I explain to you the spiritual things? How can I explain to you that which comes from God? If you don't even understand the blessings that you have from down here on earth, the wind, the rain, the light, the sun, the moon. Hey folks, that moon is just as important as the sun is.

[14:41] It's a proven scientific fact. Without the moon there, this earth would be flooded over with water. That's a proven fact. God put it there though. It ain't nothing to do with evolution. It ain't nothing to do with a ball of slime that was in and upon somewhere. It ain't nothing to do with some atom that was floating around in the darkness of the universe.

[15:03] They decided it would blow up one day. It was Almighty God that spoke these things into existence. It is He that is at the wheel. It is He that controls these very things. And He's the God that I serve. That's why the Bible says to fear Him. It says, don't fear man who can destroy his body. But fear God who can destroy both body and soul in hell. That's the words of Jesus Christ.

[15:29] Fear God. Why should we fear God? Because God done these things that we're reading about here. God spoke everything into existence. God sends the wind. It says out of His own treasure, He's out of His own places. He does these things.

[15:45] Not to mention it speaks of Israel. It says, peculiar treasure. Just on a side note, let me slow down for a second. I might teach for just a minute. Just on a side note, if you flip some time over to Matthew 13, you read a bunch of parables that Jesus spoke. A whole bunch of them.

[16:01] One of the, or two of those parables, one is about the pearl of great Christ. And one is about a hidden treasure in the field. That pearl has nothing to do with Israel. It would have been an insult for a Jew to be compared to something that come out of a shellfish.

[16:20] They were forbidden in the book of Leviticus to touch, eat, or have any dealings with shellfish. It would have been an insult for them. That was for the Gentile church. The pearl, the pearl of great Christ was the Gentile church that Jesus came.

[16:36] I didn't go out anywhere and find the pearl of great Christ. Praise God, the pearl of great Christ. Hey, it was Jesus, that's the church. And Jesus is the one that came for me. I've heard it preached and I've heard it taught. I found the pearl of great Christ when I found Jesus.

[16:51] Hey folks, that pearl of great Christ is me. He's the one that came looking for me. I never gave away my land or sold it. I never sold everything that I had to gain Jesus. What I gained in Jesus was given to me as a free gift of salvation from Almighty God, the Creator.

[17:09] Then you get down to the hidden treasure of the field. That's the Jewish people. Read those parables sometimes. Matthew 13, read those parables and compare with what they said to the Word of God.

[17:26] And see if you don't come up with that same conclusion. The treasure, that's the Jewish nation. That's the Jewish nation, the pearl. That's the Gentile church that we're talking about there. But anyway, that was just a side note.

[17:41] He says, who smoked the first port of Egypt, both the man and beast, who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of the old Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants. My goodness, the praising God, once again, I know I've done preached about half of that section, but the praising God forced deliverance for the deliverance out of the hand of the Egyptians, out of the bondage that was in Egypt for them.

[18:09] Folks, it was 400 years that they were in Egypt, that they grew as a nation. God had them down there for a purpose. It wasn't because he was upset with them. It wasn't because he was mad. It wasn't surely, it wasn't because he hated them. He had them down there to take care of them so that they can grow as a great nation.

[18:28] I understand Joseph's part and all of that in the last several chapters of Genesis, the folks that was the beginning of God's plan for redemption of his people.

[18:42] He had to send them down there. He had to send them down. Why? Because they was a famine coming. And God could foresee that in the future. He took Jacob and his entire family and moved them down to Egypt, moved them amongst a bunch of Gentiles.

[18:58] And then, not only that, but God, God, not only God, it might have been Joseph, but it was God through Joseph. God gave him a choice plot of land down there called Goshen, somewhere where they could raise their own critters with no problem.

[19:12] You ever see pictures of Egypt? Hey, it's pretty much barren. But if there was a land down there that was able to be grazed upon, it was that land of Goshen. And Joseph said it himself. He said, hey, this is the most choice part of Egypt. And I'm going to make sure that you get this part.

[19:28] When you come down here, you make sure you tell Pharaoh that you are shepherds and that's how you earn your living because the Egyptians wanted nothing to do with a bunch of dirty, grimy, stinky shepherds.

[19:41] And he knew he'd put them over their mother's sails so they wouldn't infiltrate and dirty up the Egyptian people. God's plan is perfect. This God that these people were worshiping, this God, and folks, listen, this would have been 500 years after Moses.

[20:00] This would have been 500 years after the law of the Psalm would have been written. Give or take 500 years after all this. And these people are praising God for the deliverance of their descendants from 500 years past.

[20:13] Praising God that he came through on his promise, that he came through with salvation for them, with deliverance, with redemption for them. Folks, we can praise God and we should praise God and we do praise God for the exact same reasons.

[20:28] Maybe not the exact same circumstances like these Jews were in, but it's for the exact same reasons because God delivered you out of something you were incapable of delivering yourself out of.

[20:42] That's the whole reason Jesus came. That's the Lord that I worship. He sent tokens and wonders into the midst of the Old Egypt. I find that kind of humorous that they're singing to God about Egypt.

[21:01] And they're actually singing to Egypt about what God done to them. But they're singing to God about what happened in Egypt. And they're singing to Egypt because it says, who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of the Old Egypt.

[21:16] He sent tokens and wonders. Now folks, listen, that wasn't just the deliverance. That wasn't just the parting of the Red Sea. We've got plagues. There was 10 plagues that were plowed up to that deliverance. Not all of which hit the Jewish people. Now listen, the first couple, the first few, there's no distinction.

[21:38] There's no distinction between those. But then God draws a boundary and God says, okay, in Egypt, this is going to happen. In Egypt, you're going to have lies.

[21:50] In Egypt, there's going to come darkness, but not in the land of Goshen. Not over there where my people are. There's going to be darkness. And the Bible describes it as darkness that you could feel. You couldn't even see anybody that was standing right in front of you. Darkness that you could feel. Folks, that's dark. I don't know what that's like. But it's dark.

[22:08] I can guarantee that. It's just like outer darkness that Jesus talks about. I don't know what outer darkness is. And I won't know part of it and praise God by the blood of Jesus Christ. I will never know what that outer darkness is. But when that darkness came upon Egypt in the ninth plague and it came upon them and it was only upon Egypt over in Goshen where the Jews were God's chosen.

[22:31] God's elect, God's people, that He was going to deliver with a stronger and a great deliverance for those people. They had lied. It's no different now. People out there in the world, they're in darkness. They're in darkness. Solomon says in the book of Proverbs, he that stumbles in the darkness, no, it's not at what he stumbles. Because he's in darkness. I've taught and preached that in the past.

[23:00] They can stumble right over the gospel and not even know it. Not even know that's what they're stumbling over. Not even knowing that it's across the Jesus Christ that they've tripped over.

[23:11] Not even knowing that it's the payment for sin that they fell over. Why? Because they choose to remain in darkness just like the Jews in the time that Jesus walked this earth. They were blind by choice. They didn't want to see the Savior before them. They didn't want a suffering servant. They wanted a Messiah that would deliver them from Roman oppression right then.

[23:36] These Jews here, this was a thousand years before Jesus. They were just happy God delivered them. They were happy God delivered their ancestors. Delivered the ones before them out of Egypt.

[23:50] Who spoke great nations and slew mighty kings. Now who are we talking about there? We're talking about God. We are talking about God. When it says back up to verse seven or actually back up to verse six, whatsoever the Lord pleased. That did he in heaven.

[24:09] Now we're talking about the Lord. He's the subject matter there. He is the subject matter. He's the pronoun. When you go all the way down through here, the he's and the who and the he is, whatever, it's all talking about the Lord. It's all talking about God. And in verse nine, it says, or in verse 10, who spoke great nations and slew mighty kings.

[24:33] The Lord did that. People don't like to think about that. People's and our goodness. What kind of God of love would do that? The same one that would rain down Brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah.

[24:47] The same one that would flood the earth. The same God would slew nations and he would slay kings. He would kill these people. Now granted, he used his people to do. He used the Israelites to do every time they went in. Hey, folks, you read over in Joshua when they begin their conquest into the promised land and the first major city they come to is Jericho.

[25:09] When they came in and they marched around the city walls those seven times in those days of the last day, they blew the trumpets and the walls came in. It had nothing to do with the air out of any trumpets. It had nothing to do with the sound of the Israelites. It had to do with God delivering that city unto his people.

[25:33] And they went in and they killed. They went in and they killed at God's command. They did the same. They did what God said. Oh, Jesus delivered. I thank God that he is. It didn't just stop with the Jesus.

[25:48] He made a way for everybody to be delivered or everybody to be saved. He made a way that everybody could worship them like these Jews here were worshiping him for the same reason for deliverance, for deliverance of his people.

[26:02] And the king of the Amorats and all the kings of the kingdoms of Canaan and gave their land for inheritance and heritage unto Israel, his people. This king sighed.

[26:20] This is brought up actually in the book of Judges. There's a man named Jephthah. There's a judge named Jephthah in the book of Judges. The only other time you read about him is in Hebrew chapter 11.

[26:36] But there's a judge named Jephthah. And Jephthah knew his scripture because these Ammonites were coming. Now, Silan, he was the king of Ammon and they slew him in his armies.

[26:50] But Ammon was still a nation at the time of the judges. It was still a nation. Ammon was coming against the Israelites. They sent out from Jephthah because they'd done booted him out as brothers had.

[27:02] Sent him out into the wilderness. He got a little band of miscreants together, kind of like David did. When David was running from Saul. But anyway, Jephthah, he goes and he prays unto God for them to, after they put him in his head, he prays to God, deliver these Ammonites into his hand.

[27:22] But why were they coming against Israel to begin with? Because they wanted their land back. They said, you Israelites, you Jews, when you were coming up into Canaan, you come along to our borders and you took our land from us.

[27:38] And Jephthah, praise God for men that know their scriptures. Jephthah said, that's not what happened. He said, we came up and we asked Silan. We sent messengers, unto Silan, let us pass through. We won't turn into your fields. We won't do anything out of the way. All we want is to pass through. We're going home. We're going to the promised land.

[28:00] And Silan rejected them and would not let them pass through. And then what did he do? Hey, those Jews they were like, fine, we'll just go around. They didn't start a fight. They didn't pick a fight.

[28:11] Silan got his armies together and he sent them after the Jews. And folks, the Jews, when they got in the fight with the Ammonite army, they won. God delivered them into their hand.

[28:24] What happens when nation wins against nation in a war? Spul is taken. What was that Spul? It was all the land. It was like, they didn't take anything.

[28:36] They won that fair and square in a fight that God delivered the Ammonite army into their own hands. That's what started that whole fight between the Israelites and the Ammonites, the Book of Judges.

[28:50] It was them wanting their own land back. But Jephthah, thank God, he knew the scriptures didn't know. He knew what happened over there in the Book of Numbers. He knew what happened as far as what those kings done, not only Silan, but all as well, and God delivered them. Read on just a little bit more.

[29:08] Thy name, O Lord, endure it forever and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations. It kind of gone back to who it is that they're worshiping. You're the God that created everything. You're the God that controls the weather. You're the God that's delivered our people out of the hand of the enemy.

[29:25] He says, Thy name, O Lord, endure it forever and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations. Everybody. Hope's that scripture, and it's actually in the Book of Psalms as well, says, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised.

[29:42] That's not talking about from the time you get up to the time you go to bed. It's talking about from the east to the west, the world over, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised, is to be praised by all people. I know that not all people do it. I know that not all people praise God.

[30:02] I didn't praise God before I was saved, and you didn't either. None of us did. But that's what that means. These people are saying, Thy name, O Lord, your name, endure it forever, your memorial, everything that you've done, everything that you've done, a memorial, something that's in past, it's history, your memorial, it goes on forever, everything that you've done. I've told you all a thousand times since I've been here, what God does, He does it perfectly, and He does it right, and there is no messing it up.

[30:32] God does not mess up anything that He does. When God saves, He does it right. When God heals, He does it right. When God fixes, He does it right. He does everything right. But, so for the Lord will judge His people and He will repent Himself concerning His servants.

[30:51] Why it sounds like the negative part of this whole thing. I praise God that it's there. I thank God that the Lord will judge all His people and He will repent Himself concerning His servants.

[31:03] What is that? Hey, the Lord's never committed a sin that He needs to repent of. That's not what this is talking about. It's talking about, hey, the Lord will forget your sin. The Lord will cast your sin into forgetfulness concerning His servants.

[31:16] Hey, the world out here that's lost, God will remember their sin. Their sin is not cast into that sea. It is not cast as far as the east is from the west. Their sin remains with them and the wrath of God abounds upon them, by the Scriptures. But according to the servants of God, those that serve Him, those whom He knows, those whom He loves, those whom He has saved, He will repent Himself of their condition.

[31:44] Hallelujah. I praise God for that church. People say, I don't want to be judged. You're going to be judged. Paul said we must all, all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Saved and lost to lock will stand at the judgment seat of Christ.

[32:01] The lost only if my interpretation of Scripture is correct, only the lost will appear at the great white throne judgment. But the judgment seat of Christ, that is for everyone. Everyone, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

[32:15] So whether or not you want to be judged, you will be. Part of the word of God, you will be judged. The islands of the heathen are silver and gold. The work of men's hands, they have mouths, but they speak not eyes. Have they, but they see not?

[32:28] They have ears, but they hear not neither is there any breath in their mouths. That's scary enough. Then you got this next line. They that make them are locked unto them. So is everyone that trusts in them.

[32:43] They that make those idols, they have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear. They have a mouth, but they don't speak.

[32:54] We're not talking about physical matters here. We're talking spiritual realm. We're talking about the spiritual things of the Scripture. They might have physical eyes they can see perfectly fine with, but spiritually they're just like those idols.

[33:10] They that make them and they that trust in them are locked under the idols that they worship. They are deaf, they are dumb, and they are blind. That's what the Scripture here is saying. Deaf, dumb and blind to the things of God.

[33:26] It's just scary stuff. It's scary stuff. And yet we are, we are saved and born again of God. We are here in this world amongst all these people like that. Amongst people that worship their own idols. That make their own idols.

[33:44] I've told you all before there's a million different Jesuses out there that people worship, but there's only one true Jesus. Any other Jesus is a concoction to someone's mind and that part of the Scripture is idolatry.

[33:58] And idolatry in the Old Testament was punishable by death. These people, they make up their own gods, they make up their own saviors, they make up their own salvation, and when they do that they are deaf, they are dumb, and they are blind to the things of God.

[34:16] Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, O house of Israel, bless the Lord, O house of Aaron, bless the Lord, O house of Levi, you that fear the Lord, bless the Lord. Why was this included in here? There's a good reason for it.

[34:32] When the Israelites got into the promised land and they started divvying up the land, Ferdinand Herod has got it already told them. Levi is not going to happen in here. Levi is not getting into that land. Levi portion is the Lord.

[34:51] That's what the Scripture says. Their job was to serve God in the tabernacle of the temple later on. So the Israelites, over time, they had gotten to where Levi wasn't, you know, he was Israel, but he wasn't Israel.

[35:11] Levi done his own thing, kind of like the cousin everybody wants to forget about. Nobody wants to claim. That's how a lot of the Jews treated the Levites. And these were the priests of God. This was the priestly tribe that served God. They burned the incense. They made the offerings. They made the sacrifices.

[35:30] Hey, without a high priest from the tribe of Levi, that atonement couldn't have been made every year because that's how God demanded that it be happened. Yet these Jews, they saw Levi as an outsider.

[35:42] So the writer of this song says, bless the Lord, O house of Israel. Bless him, house of Aaron. That's where the priestly tribe comes from. Bless him, house of Levi.

[35:53] Bless him, every one of you. Hey, you're all one of the same folks. I don't care if you're a Methodist, Baptist, I don't care if you're a church of God, church of Christ. I don't care if you've been a gospel. I don't care if you're a free willie or a Christian church, whatever it is.

[36:07] Folks, if you believe in the same Jesus that I believe in and you were saved by the same blood that I was, we are all one people. We are all one body. Praise God. Paul described it the best. He said that we were the body and Christ is the head. He is the head of the church.

[36:25] We are nothing more than fingers and toes and legs and arms, but he is the head. He's the one that controls us. He's the one that puts everything into motion and makes everything work the way that he wants to. That's the God that we have.

[36:40] Amen. Yeah. Bless the Lord, O house of Levi, hear the word. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, Adam's eye, which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. Bless him, be the Lord. Adam's eye.

[36:55] He that dwelleth at Jerusalem, the Bible describes Jerusalem as a place that has the very name of God upon it. That's the center of God's universe, is that city of Jerusalem. He says bless the Lord, Adam's eye, and bless the Lord.

[37:12] He that dwelleth, he dwells in Jerusalem. I hope that's another reason that David was so happy when they were bringing the ark about the house of Abelah dead. Now I understand that bad things happen. Bad things happen. There's a man named Uzi.

[37:31] The ox rocked the cart a little bit. Uzi said he's hanging over there on the ark. God struck him dead right there on the spot. People say, my goodness, what kind of God is that? That's a God that demands holiness and righteousness and reverence. That's the kind of God that that is.

[37:47] But he went at that point, he says that David was displeased with the Lord because of how he dealt with Uzi. But he quit moving the ark toward Jerusalem at that point. David reigned seven years in Hebrew on 33 years in Jerusalem, according to the scripture.

[38:04] They were taking that ark home, they were taking it to where it belonged, to the city of God. And it went to a house of a man named Obedetim. And there it sat until they set forth again. Then they came to God. And then it made it home.

[38:19] Folks, God dwelt in Jerusalem. God dwelt in Jerusalem. He dwelt with his people. Praise God. That is something that we can praise God about now. When that ark was there, God dwelt among his people. He tabernacled with his people, folks.

[38:37] He does it with you as individuals if you're saved and born again. And he does it with me as an individual when we get the indwelling spirit of Almighty God within us. God is tabernacling with his people. Hallelujah.

[38:51] We can praise him for that. We can praise him for deliverance. Praise him just for who he is. And praise him just because of his name. Because of what he's done. And what he promises to do.

[39:03] We can praise him for all these things. Everything in here, these Jews, praise God. We can praise him for the exact same things. Don't forget that. Anytime you read through the Psalms, anytime you read through any of the scripture really, when you read about deliverance, think about what God's delivered you from.

[39:20] And praise his name for it. Praise his name. It may not have been delivering you from a life of harlotry like it was right had. It may not have been from a life of wantoness or a life of adultery or a life of anything like that.

[39:37] But God, if you're saved and born again, God delivered you from something. And you can praise his name for that. Just like these Jews here.