(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Okay, Psalm 33 verse number 5, well, I was going to use this verse to name this sermon. I'll just read it to you. He loveth righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. So I was going to call it the goodness of the Lord, but often before I label a sermon, I quickly go on YouTube to our channel. Have I already preached with that title on it? Well, four months ago, Brother Matt preached a title with the goodness of the Lord, so I couldn't use that one. So let's look at verse number 1, Psalm 33 verse 1. It begins by saying, Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright. So I just decided to call it praise is comely. Praise is comely. And then as I was looking through this psalm, I realized this is a great psalm that's actually teaching us how to praise the Lord. How to praise the Lord. Now, you know, quite often you hear preaching, hey, we need to praise the Lord. We need to thank the Lord and lift up his name on high and bless the Lord. But sometimes we're not given the instructions, well, how do we do that exactly? How does God like to receive praise? And so I believe this psalm gives us those instructions. How we can praise him and not just be sort of a general praise, but we can actually praise him about specific things. Now, because it says rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous. So that's definitely about us as righteous people, we've been made righteous in the righteousness of Christ. And it says for praise is comely for the upright. So comely, if you don't know, it's not a word we use very often, but comely means pleasant or beautiful. Okay, it's pleasant. So when we praise the Lord, guess what? It is pleasant to the Lord. He loves it. The Lord loves praise from his people. The Lord loves praise from the righteous. And so beginning with verse number two, we learn how we can praise the Lord. And I've got eight points in this sermon. So maybe in some of these points, you do praise him in these ways. But maybe there are other areas that you've not praised the Lord in this way. So please pay attention because I want you to be pleasant. I want your your words. I want your your thanksgiving to God to be pleasant, to be comely to the Lord. Verse number two, it says, Praise the Lord with harp, sing unto him, by the way, harp, you guys got to learn the harp. So it says praise the Lord with harp, better start getting some some lessons in there. Well, let's keep going. Praise the Lord with harp. So maybe some of you can play an instrument, maybe even the harp, then it says, sing unto him with a soul tree and an instrument of 10 strings. So look, maybe you're not very musical. Maybe you're not the kind of guy that can play with 10 strings or play a harp. But one thing you definitely can do is sing. I don't care how bad of a singer you are, you know that you can do that doesn't matter how tone deaf you are. It doesn't matter how bad your voice is. You can definitely sing. Okay, sometimes I'm singing praises the Lord in my voice cracks. Okay. For some reason, my voice is starting to wear out a little bit preaching song lead. I love the song lead. I'm not gonna stop song leading. But sometimes my voice cracks and you know, well, that's the case. You know, I'm sure the Lord understands that, you know, we're made of flesh and blood and our bodies are not perfect and they deteriorate. I haven't got the beautiful voice. We know some people like our sister Annie, she's got a great voice when she sings. Hey, praise God that she's been given that gift. But we don't all have that. But just because you don't have it doesn't mean that you shouldn't praise the Lord. We are being commanded here with musical instruments and with song to praise the Lord. Look at verse number three, sing unto him a new song, play skillfully with a loud noise. So you know what, if you are musical, if you do have the skills of being able to play an instrument, hey, get skillful at it. Okay. The more skillful you are, hey, do it unto the Lord. Right. I mean, some people think about I know what it was like in high school as a teenager. People wanted to get into the band. In fact, brother, Jason probably go into a band on I never go into band. All right. But you know, be like, I played the instrument for my brother was the bass guitar, he wanted to get into the band. Right. But here's the thing, you know, if we want to get skillful, we have to be skillful for the Lord. Okay. It's not about making a big name or joining some band or becoming famous in this world. You know what, our love for the Lord, our love to praise the Lord or to come with, well, the skill ought to be the reason why we want to accomplish that. Right. Becoming skillful in the way we play. So point number one, brethren, is that we ought to praise the Lord with music and song. Praise the Lord with music and song. Again, church is a great place to come because for many of us, I'm sure, you know, before church you probably weren't in the habit of praising the Lord, not in the habit of singing praises. Maybe a lot of the hymns you weren't even aware of, you know, a few years ago, but as church goes on and we learn different songs and different hymns, it's a great place to come together and play music and to sing songs unto the Lord. Now, unfortunately for us, yeah, we're almost four years into the church, we still don't have a musician. Okay. So I know there's a few kids here learning how to play an instrument. Okay. So my kids are learning how to play an instrument. Brother, I'm looking at you. I know you're playing a few instruments. Okay. But listen. We need a musician. Okay. If you have the skill, okay, if you have the ability, well, you know what God wants from you? Who's playing instruments? Are you? Okay. You know what God wants from you guys? He wants you to play skillfully and praise Him with the talent that God has given you. Okay. I think our church will be like the praise and worship that we can give God will be so much more, so much greater, you know, so much more pleasant and comely in the ears of the Lord when we can have a few people playing their instruments skillfully. Okay. So for those that are learning how to play instruments, please continue down that journey. Don't have the dreams of being a big rock star or something. Okay. That'll just lead you to destruction. The rock stars have like the least, the smallest lifespan anyway, isn't it? Like for most people, right? No. But you can have a long lifespan playing wonderful music in the house of God and the Lord loves it. Look at verse number four. It says, for the word of the Lord is right. And all His works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness and judgments. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. I love that. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. We are, we're in COVID world, you know, Melbourne's back in lockdown, masks, this and that. Listen, you either way, you can complain. You can complain if you want. It's like, you know, it's your life. You can whine and murmur and complain and, you know, be worried and upset. Or you can say, you know what, no, the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. I mean, that's the right way to look at life. Yeah, it's full of the goodness of the Lord. And I think sometimes when we get distracted by all the nonsense on the media, the wickedness of the world, we need to just remind ourselves, no, there is a lot of goodness left in this world. There's a lot of goodness of the Lord in this world. And so point number two is to praise His righteousness. Praise the righteousness of God. We saw those verses there, verse number four and five, the Lord is right. The work's done in truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment. Hey, we ought to praise God for His righteousness. We ought to praise God for His judgments. Even if God has judged in a way that you don't like, if He's judged in a way that you disagree, you know, you wanted something in your life and the Lord says, no, that's not for you. You can have this and said, hey, that's righteous judgment from God. We ought to learn how to praise Him. Say thank you, Lord, that you are righteous God. Thank you, Lord, for the truth that you've given us in your word. We ought to love His righteousness and judgment. Can you please go to Psalm 45, Psalm 45 and verse number six. Now the Psalm we're looking at, the verses that we're looking at in Psalm 45 and verse number six, these are repeated for us in Hebrews chapter one, eight and nine. So we won't go to Hebrews. It's basically word for word similar, but go to Psalm 45 verse number six. Now these again are pretty famous verses and Hebrews chapter one tells us that these words are from God the Father and spoken to the Son. Okay. God the Father is speaking the words we're about to read and He's speaking to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in verse number six, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter. Okay. So we have God the Father calling Jesus Christ, God, O God. Okay. Jesus Christ is God. Okay. And He has a scepter of righteousness. Now I want you to notice verse number seven, because you cannot have righteousness with this other aspect in our lives, or God cannot have this without the other. Look at verse number seven, it says, Thou lovest righteousness, again, God the Father is saying to the Son, Thou lovest righteousness, look at this, and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, Thy God, have anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. Look at that. That's amazing. Those verses are amazing, right? The Father says to the Son, O God, but then He says about the Son, therefore God, Thy God. So who's the God of Jesus? The Father. Okay. This is why we believe in a triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Okay. But I want you to notice that love and righteousness is great. Okay. You can go to church after church, and they're going to tell you to love righteousness, to love the God of righteousness. That's wonderful. But how many churches will tell you, well, to love righteousness is also to hate wickedness. Because a lot of churches will teach you, hatred is wrong. Hatred is a sin. The Father is speaking to the Son, and He says, Thou hatest wickedness. Okay. And so, listen, you cannot be righteous without hating wickedness. Okay. And in fact, hating wickedness is being righteous. And so we have a God who hates wickedness. We ought to praise Him for His righteousness. Okay. We ought to praise Him that He hates wickedness. And look, if that's our God, if the Father reflects and acknowledges that about the Son, hey, we're children of God as well. We're in Christ Jesus as well. We ought to love the things that God loves, the righteous things that God loves. We ought to love His righteousness and the things that God hates. We ought to hate them as well. I mean, think about it. If God hates something, some type of wickedness, or wicked people, and we love that, say, well, you know what? I'm very righteous here. I'm going to love the things that God hates. You're being wicked at that point in time. Okay. This is something that you don't hear in a lot of churches, the importance of loving righteousness, but especially hating wickedness. You can see these things go hand in hand with Jesus Christ. You know, sometimes people say, well, I like Jesus, because you know, Jesus is brought up mostly in the New Testament, but I don't like the God of the Old Testament, okay? Because He's full of hatred and hating wickedness, and I say, that's Jesus. It's the same God. You know, Jesus Christ is saying today, yesterday, and forever, God does not change, okay? So we ought to praise Him for His righteousness. When's the last time you said, Lord, thank you for being a righteous God? God, I love your righteousness. Lord, you judged, and I didn't get my way, but thank you anyway, because I know you have the best in mind for me. That's a great way to praise God, okay? That's going to keep you motivated in life knowing that God is righteous and God is just. Let's keep going. Verse number six, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth. Notice that, verse number six, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, plural, heavens. Okay? And we've looked at this before. Do you know what the first heaven is? It's the sky. You know, it's where the birds fly. It's where the clouds are. That's the first heaven. And yesterday we were having lunch at the Bailey's house, and I'm sure most of you, maybe all of you have gone to the Bailey's house, and you know they've got that nice little veranda, outdoor place where you can look outside and you can see the hills. And I'm just sitting there. I'm just like enjoying the view, like enjoying, you know, the clouds, enjoying the blue sky. It kind of almost looks like a painting, but even better than a painting, it's God's handiwork, right? Just able to look at the beauty of the heavens and say, wow, that's amazing. That's awesome. Now sometimes we need to just stop and look at the sky and just remember God's handiwork. It's harder in Sydney because you've got a lot more like properties that are higher. Like you know, and like every time I come into Sunshine Coast, I just, I tell Kristina, this is big sky country. Like I can see more sky than anywhere else because, you know, we were on the, in the hotel room. I can look at that side. Well, I can see all the way there. There's a sea over there. I can see the sky and there's the glasshouse mountains. What a beautiful place in this world. But you know, when we live here day after day after day, we kind of tend to kind of forget about, ah yeah, there's the sky again. Okay. But no, these things we ought to be praising God for his creation. That's the first heaven. The second heaven. What is the second heaven? That's space, right? That's where the sun, the moon, the stars are. On Wednesday after church service, what are we doing? Looking at the moon. Oh, there's the eclipse. It's turning red. Hey, that's awesome. That's good. Okay. Again, yeah, we see the moon all the time, but listen, God has done these things, right? And remind yourself when you see these amazing things that the word, by the word of the Lord, were the heavens made. God put these things there so we can think about him. We can see his great handiwork. We can see his creation. And then we have the third heaven, of course, where the Lord dwells, where his throne is. Okay. What we call just referred to as heaven. You know, if you die today, would you be 100% sure you'd go to heaven? Yeah, we're talking about the third heaven. Okay. And we saw there, by the word of the Lord, were the heavens made. And so, let's look at verse number seven now, verse number seven. It says, he gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap. He lath up the depth of storehouses. Now, when we look at that, verse number seven, he gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap. I don't know what you think about when you read that passage. I used to read a lot about these. I used to read these things in the Bible because it's quite often that the waters are brought up that are gathered together. And I'd say, I don't know what that's talking about. It's not that complicated actually, okay. But I want to read a few portions of scripture to you. Actually, we'll turn to both because Proverbs is nearby. Go to Proverbs just after Psalms. Keep your finger there in Psalm 33. And go to Proverbs chapter 30. Go to Proverbs chapter 30 in verse number four. Proverbs 30 verse four. So remember the Psalm said, he gathereth the water of the sea together as an heap. Well, in Proverbs chapter 30 verse four, the language is a little bit more poetic, okay. The language is a little bit more expressive. In Proverbs chapter 30 verse number four, it says, who have ascended up into heaven or descended, who have gathered the wind in his fists, who have bound the waters in a garment? Okay, so you can see the binding of waters or as the Psalm said, the gathering of waters in a garment, okay, who have established all the ends of the earth. What is his name and what is his son's name? If thou canst tell. So hey, Jesus Christ, the son there, is in the Old Testament as well. But I want you to notice that the Lord has bound the waters in a garment. So when we look at that, does God actually have like a piece of fabric or something where he's got all the waters gathered up or something? No, this is poetic language, okay, expressive language. Basically saying the same thing that we read in Psalm 33. So let's go to Genesis chapter one now. Go to Genesis chapter one, again keep your finger open in Psalm 33. Go to Genesis chapter one and verse number nine. And this is very basic but for some reason, I always missed it. I would read about how God gathers the water or bounds the water and I didn't know what he was talking about. But then when we look at Genesis chapter one and verse number nine, and we know that Genesis one is about the creation, it says, and God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and it was so. And God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters called his seas and God saw that it was good. So we see that when God causes dry land to appear on the earth, it says that he gathered up the waters into one location, into one place. And that's what God referred to as the seas, right, the oceans, what we normally refer to it as. So when we go back to Psalm 33 and verse number seven, Psalm 33 verse number seven, it says he gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. Well what are we talking about now? We're talking about God's creation. Just like when he created the heavens as it was mentioned in verse number six, we see that this is speaking of the same events when God created the dry land to appear and gathered the water together as a heap. So all of that to say this, point number three is that we need to praise him as creator. We ought to praise God as creator. Remember his creation. I know it was 6,000, maybe 200 years roughly ago, but no, we ought to remember that God has created all things. He created the beautiful earth that we live on, he's given us our lives, he's created us in the mother's womb, and we need to remember him that he is the creator, praise him as the creator. Thank you Lord for creating this or that, the things that you enjoy. Maybe stop and contemplate and instead of going about in your busy life, look at God's creation. You can't escape on the Sunshine Coast. You just drive to the coast, beautiful, say man, and you look at it, oh this is a great place to live, yeah, God gave it to you. God created it, praise God. Then you go halfway, the other way into the hinterlands and you see the beautiful trees and hills and rainforests and glasshouse mountains, well God created this as well, praise God. That's how we praise God as creator. Thank him for what he's given us, thank him for the earth that we live in. Verse number eight please, Psalm 33, verse number eight. The Bible reads, let all the earth fear the Lord, sorry, let me just start again. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast. So the next point that I have for you brethren is praise him with fear and awe. Praise him, so this is more about you being prepared in the way that you praise him. Praise him with fear and in awe, be in awe of God. There's that song that goes, my God is an awesome God. Listen, the song itself is kind of rubbish because it just repeats the same words over and over and over and over and over again. There's no doctrinal depth in that song but just that phrase alone is right. Our God is an awesome God and we ought to stand in awe of him, in who he is and we understand who God is and then we understand who we are, it ought to give you a little bit of fear. Fear God, boy I don't want to let God down. I don't want to just live a life of wickedness and sinful pleasures and just give it into temptations, not thinking about who God is. Many times your victories over sin will just boil down to how much you fear the Lord. The more you fear the Lord, the more you stand in awe of him, the better your opportunities are to overcome the sins that you have in your life. You're going to be given in less and less to those sins. Now that word awe only appears three times in your Bibles so let's have a look at where they are and they're all in the Psalms so we don't need to turn too far away. So let's go to Psalm chapter four and verse number four. Psalm chapter four and verse number four. The Bible reads, stand in awe, and those next words, and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still, Selah. Okay, so standing in awe, notice that, that's going to help you to not sin. Those two things going hand in hand. We need to remember who God is, okay. Not only is he creator, he can destroy it all if he wants. He can destroy it all. In fact, read the book of Revelation, he's going to destroy it all and one day he's going to create a new heaven and a new earth, okay. So the Lord can pass severe judgment, you know. We've seen how God dealt with Egypt when they would not let his people leave the land where God, you know, took, poured out those plagues upon the land of Egypt. Egypt was essentially destroyed, you know, by the hand of God, you know, for his people and we need to learn how to have that fear, to praise him with fear and awe. I need to remind myself and, you know, I say this over and over again, I just, because it's so true, you know, before I preach, I need the fear of God. I like singing songs because it kind of gets me in that thought that, wow, my God's amazing and who am I to stand up before God's people and preach, who am I? I'm dust, you know, how can I speak God's word, how is it, you know, it's through the spirit, it's through the new man that God has given us, right. And that will help us to have, to be clean, to be able to be used by God in a powerful way. Please go to Psalm 119, Psalm 119. I like this one, Psalm 119, and we know that's the longest Psalm. Psalm 119 and look at verse number 161, verse number 161 in Psalm 119. It says, Shin, princes have persecuted me without a cause. Let's stop there for a minute. Okay, so the Psalmist says, look, there are powerful people, okay, those governments, there's princes that have persecuted me for no reason. That would be a scary thought, wouldn't it? Being persecuted by those in authority and power. But then he says, but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. That's awesome, right, so he's being persecuted by powerful people. Who cares though, I've got God's word and I stand in awe of that. That's even more amazing, you know, that's even more, that deserves more of my attention, that deserves more of my fear, you know, just thinking about the awesomeness of God. Who are these princes anyway? Who cares? You know what, God's given them power for a period of time and God will judge them with what they use their power over and he just stands in awe of God's word. That's awesome, I love that, I love that little psalm, that verse there in the psalm there. So let's go back to Psalm 33. Psalm 33, we ought to praise him with fear and awe, that's point number four. Praise him with fear and awe. Look at verse number 10. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought. He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth forever. The thoughts of his heart to all generations. So the fifth point that I have for you, brethren, praise his counsel. What did it say there? The counsel of the Lord standeth forever. God has given us his counsel. God has given us his knowledge, his wisdom, his words. We're going to fare so much better in life than everyone else if we just listen to God's counsel, we walk in God's counsel, we stand, it's amazing. We've got God's knowledge right here, brethren, in our hands, at our fingertips. People go on pilgrimages to learn about the great spiritual truths and who knows what. We can just open our Bibles and know much more than what they know. What did it say? The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought, to nothing. The counsel, the wisdom of this world is nothing compared to the counsel you've got in your hands. Praise his counsel. He's given it to us. You know, it says at the end of verse number 11, it says, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. You know, God wants all people, he wants all generations to have his wisdom, to have his counsel, to have his knowledge. Can you please turn to James chapter one? Keep your finger then, go to James chapter one, verse number five. James chapter one, verse number five. Praise his counsel. God wants us to have his counsel, to have his wisdom. Go to James chapter one, verse number five. There was something that I had to learn in life. When I learned that God does things a certain way, I realized I need to do it the same way as the Lord. Okay, now what is that? In James chapter one, verse number five, it says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and God will make you do a long pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to Jerusalem, and back again, and you need to beat your body, so you can have a greater spiritual awareness, and awake spiritually, and you've got to die and be reincarnated, to have the great wisdom of man. No, that's not what he reads, right? Let me read it again. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally. That's freely. God says, you need wisdom, you need counsel? Yeah, come, come and ask me. You know why we don't have wisdom and counsel? We don't ask, that's all. I mean, if this Bible verse is true, the reason we aren't as wise or have the counsel that we need is we just don't go enough to God and ask for it. God wants to give it to us liberally and upbraideth nots. That means he's not going to get angry at you for asking for wisdom. He's not going to say, hey, you should know this by now. We go to God, God, I need some help here, I need some advice, I need some wisdom. God's not going to turn around and say, I've been telling you for the last 10 years, why aren't you listening? He doesn't upbraideth. He gives it liberally. He goes, all right, you can have the information. You want it that badly, I'll give it to you. Liberally, freely. And then it says, and it shall be given him. It shall be given him. You know what? God gives his counsel and his wisdom freely. You know how much it costs to come to New Life Baptist Church? Zero. It's free. If you want to give to the work of God, that's between you and God. You guys know what the Bible says, but really, anyone, anyone can walk off this street, walk into church. I'm not going to put an offering plate in your face. You come here, hey, it's free. God's given it to us freely. Why should I charge for it? Why should I set up some Bible college? All right, guys, come to Bible college. It'll cost you 10 grand a year. You know, so you can hear some, what, I mean, I'm really teaching God's word at church. Why do you have to come somewhere else to learn? I mean, so if I'm going to go to Bible college to learn God's truth, what's going on in church? Are we learning anything in church then? No, it ought to be given freely, right? Jesus Christ says in Matthew 10 seven, as you go preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Then he says, freely you have received, freely give. So you know what? When you go door to door, knocking doors, preaching the gospel, why are you doing that? You're freely given, because it was freely given to you. The gospel was freely given to you, amen. It's a free gift, salvation. And now we take that same knowledge, we take that same counsel, and we give it for free. And sometimes people at the door are very nice. Oh, do you need a drink of water? That's cool. If you get off with that, you know what? If people offer it to me, just accept it, you know? Unless it's been, you know, prayed over to a false god or something and you're aware of it, then forget that, okay? No, but if people want to give you something as you go, it doesn't happen sometimes. It happens a lot down in Sydney. A lot of Muslims are very kind, like you knock on a Muslim's door, they always want to give you something, all right, you know? Thank you, you know? But no, we ought to be given freely information. I'm not trying to hold back anything from God's word. If I know something in God's word, or I've learned something from experience that ties into God's word, I just want to tell you guys, I want you to learn. And I found that this is really, like, it's really productive. Like, it's really helpful. I remember, you know, think about your workplace, or for those that, you know, for those of you that do go to work. You know, there are some people that are very protective about their job, where they don't want anyone to know, like, this is my job, and I don't want anyone else to know how to do this job. Because they're insecure. They think if someone else knows, that they might lose their job. And I can kind of understand that. I, you know, you need a paycheck, you need to pay your bills, right? So maybe you feel like it needs to be protective about my position. And maybe I a little bit had that mindset when I was working some work, jobs. But I found when I started to learn the truth of God's word, that well, God gives information freely. You ask for it, he'll give it to you. He wants you to know how to do things, right? I realized, you know what, I'm just going to apply this in my life. If that's how God is, then I'm going to try to be like that. And I found that in my workplace, instead of being protective about my department or my job, if people wanted to know, I would just tell them. You know what, people, I realized I had learned something great, something that made me more productive. I'm like, hey guys, this has made me more productive. What about you guys do this? You know, this will make your life a lot easier. Let me show you how to do this. And before I know it, I'm telling other people of other departments, hey, you're doing it like this, why don't you do it like this, it'll be a lot easier. Hey, I can take that responsibility off you, you know, off you, and you can take this responsibility off me, and we'll get the job done quicker. It'll be faster, all right? And I started down this track of just trying to give counsel and wisdom liberally, and then, yeah, guess what happened? People would know my job inside out. In fact, sometimes they would perform even better than me. And then what happened, did I lose my job? Because someone else was better. Actually, I did lose my job, and then I got promoted. I lost my job, someone else took it, yeah, but I got a better job. I get a higher paying job, right? And then you just keep doing that, and you just get promoted, promoted, promoted, right? And that's how the Lord is, okay? He gives us knowledge, he gives us wisdom, he gives us counsel. Yeah, just give it out, you know? God's using you to be that way. That's how God is. If that's how God is, that's how we ought to be, right? God teaches us something from his word. Doesn't matter how uncomfortable he might be. Doesn't matter how controversial he might be. My job as the pastor is to teach you God's word. Otherwise, I'm not doing God justice, yeah? So we ought to praise him for his counsel. He's given it to us liberally. If you need counsel, you need wisdom, just go and ask God. He'll give it to you, guaranteed, guaranteed. Psalm 33, verse number 12. Psalm 33, verse number 12. It says, blessed is the nation. Let's think about Australia right now. We live in the nation of Australia. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Is Australia's God the Lord? Not anymore. Maybe it was some time ago, maybe, I don't know. I won't necessarily say it definitely was, but it's definitely not now. So we see here that if the nation makes the God of the Bible their Lord, then the nation will be blessed. Now, I do believe to some extent, I mean, Australia is very blessed. You know, it still is very blessed, okay? But things are getting worse. The blessings are becoming curses almost, okay? But notice, even if the nation itself does not have the Lord as its God, it says in the rest of verse number 12, whom he have chosen for his own inheritance. So if the nation makes God the Lord of the nation, God will bless the nation, but he also blesses the people who he may have chosen for his own inheritance. We are the inheritance of God. God's people, Christians, we are his inheritance, meaning that God's going to bless us. Does that make sense? He's going to bless us. So point number six, brethren, point number six is to praise his blessings. Praise his blessings. Have you been blessed by God? Well, you know what? You need to turn around and say, God, thank you for your blessings. Praise you, Lord, for the blessings that you have given me. And as we see our nation go down the toilet, okay? You know what? We're still God's people. Our nation might not be blessed by God, but we will be. That's what the Psalm says, okay? The people who may have chosen for his own inheritance, that's us. We will continue to be blessed by God. So yeah, it's horrible to see our nation go down the toilet to turn away from the Lord, but we don't have to worry. The blessings will continue in the life of the believer. Now, I don't know if you guys are aware, but just this month, we're almost to the end of May, but just this month, a new bill was brought into Queensland Parliament and that was about assisted suicide euthanasia. Are you guys aware about Queensland? The Queensland Labour Party are trying to bring assisted suicide euthanasia into this state, okay? They're trying to get it passed. And if it is passed, it'll be enacted in 2023, okay? So we might be, this state might be two years away from legal murder, basically, right? Legal murder, okay? I mean, listen, God is not the God of this nation, okay? I'm hoping there are some people in power, in parliament that actually have a fear of God and say, how can we do this? How can we destroy the lives that God has created? Even in pain and suffering, God allows pain and suffering so we can learn thereby. God allows pain and suffering so people can run to God for help. God allows pain and suffering so people can call upon him and learn of him and be saved. People say, well, no, we can't have pain and suffering. Let's just kill them. That's gonna happen maybe by 2023 in Queensland. It's already legal in Victoria since 2019. And I think that's why COVID is so bad in Victoria. Why God's judgment is hitting Victoria, okay? Because these guys, it's that state that's leading the assisted suicide. WA, it'll become legal in Western Australia in two months. In July, 2021, two months. Euthanasia, assisted suicide will be legal in Western Australia and in Tasmania. It'll be legal from next year, sometime next year, 2022. This nation's going down the toilet. This nation loves death. Not only is it busy killing babies in the mother's womb, abortions every single day, now let's kill the elderly. I mean, this nation just loves death. You think it's going to be blessed by God? We're gonna soon see, or we're gonna start seeing all the blessings that we have in Australia, they're gonna be stripped away. It's gonna become more and more difficult. It's gonna become more and more ungodly, our nation. But guess what? I'm a Christian, I'm gonna be blessed. You know, I'm gonna be blessed by God, okay? And can we turn the tide? Sometimes I feel like we can't, but I'm not gonna give up hope. Until the Lord takes me home, we're just gonna keep fighting the battles that God has given us. We're just gonna continue soldiering on. We're gonna continue giving out the gospel. We're going to continue proclaiming His name and preaching the Bible without compromise. Nothing's gonna change the way we live our lives. I'm gonna continue being blessed by God, okay? And so, point number six, brethren, was to praise His blessings. Okay, look at verse number 13. The Bible says, the Lord looketh from heaven. He beholdeth all the sons of men. This should give you a lot of comfort, okay? Actually, maybe even a lot of fear that God looks down and sees you. You know, verse number 14. From the place of His habitation, He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. Now, look at verse number 15. He fashioneth their hearts alike. He considereth all their works. Look, no one is born into this world more wicked than another. It says here, God fashioneth their hearts alike. When we all are born into this world, we all have the same heart. We can all believe the gospel. We all have the opportunity. It's not like God says, well, you're not gonna have the ability to believe, and you'll have the ability to believe, like Calvinism. It doesn't happen, you know, at birth or anything like that, okay? All our hearts are fashioned alike, and He considereth all their works, okay? Again, you know, the Lord looking down behind all the sons of men, that means God's eyes are on you constantly. You cannot hide from God. Now, again, this should give us both a lot of fear and a lot of comfort, okay? So when you're going through some hardships, you might have people against you, you know, and it may seemingly look like you're not getting justice, you know, and you're going to be taken advantage of, and maybe already have been taken advantage of, people have done cruel things to you. Well, the comfort is God saw it. God saw it. Okay? Now, I know as a father of 11 kids, there are things that my kids do, maybe one to another, maybe one's cruel to the other person, and we're going to miss it. Like, you know, I can't see everything at once, right? You try to manage things as best as you can as a family, but you're not always going to get things necessarily right, okay? But God will always see all things. And so point number seven, brethren, is praise His omniscience. Praise His omniscience. God sees it all. Nothing escapes His view, okay? When you're in turmoil, when you're in problems, God knows. When you pray to God, God, you know what I'm going through. I don't know how to get out of this situation, but you know. You can open the door, you can make it happen, Lord. You know my situation. That should give us comfort, amen? You know, when we feel like nobody else knows our situation, God knows it. But then the great fear, the great realisation, when I sin against the Lord, He saw it. You know, I hid myself, I hid my sin. No man knows, but God knows. God saw it. Great fear, oh man. You know, God sees this. And you know, next time you're tempted to sin, please just remind yourself, God is omniscient. God sees. If I do this, God will see what I've done, okay? So that great fear, but then the reason for that is to help us walk in the right ways, you know? So praise His omniscience. Thank you, Lord, that you see all things. Thank you, Lord, that this helps me actually have a fear of you, because I know if I mess up, you're there. I can't hide from you. I can't hide from the Lord. I can't hide from the Spirit of the Lord. He sees it all. And Lord, you see my enemies. You see what the devil's up to. You see what the forces of wickedness are up to. You see the people that hate me and might hate my faith, might hate my church, might hate my brethren. You know who they are, Lord. You know what they're planning to do. You know how they're trying to plan to hurt us or to attack us. And the Lord knows, and He'll take care of it. Again, that great comfort that comes from understanding God's omniscience. Verse number 16. It says, there is no king saved by the multitude of a host. Did you know that? A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. You might say, well, I thought battles, I thought wars were won by how strong the army is. No, there is no king saved by the multitude of a host. Okay. A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. Who is it that allows victories in warfare? It's the Lord. It's not your might. The Lord can use your might to fight the battle. The God can use, God can use the resources that you have to fight the battle. But it's not the resources. It's not the power. It's not the might that delivers you. Verse number 17. And horse is a vain thing for safety. Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. Now, we don't often have horses, you know, but people tend to think about like a guard dog, right? They'll have a dog in their house. They'll think, well, this dog will bark when the intruder comes in. Or, you know, this one's going to attack. And then, you know, there's safety in that animal, right? That view. No. And horse or a dog is a vain thing for safety. You know what? It's the Lord that protects your house. And there's nothing wrong with having a guard dog. I'm not trying to say there's nothing wrong with it, okay? The Lord can use the guard dog, okay? But it's not the guard dog. It's not the resources. It's not your might that delivers you. It's the hand of the Lord. Verse number 18. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiter for the Lord, he is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in him because we have trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. And the final point that I have for you, brethren, point number eight, is praise his deliverance. Have you been delivered? You have been saved. Yeah, that's deliverance. Praise God, you've been delivered from sin. You've been delivered from hell. Praise God, we've all had that. But listen, God has delivered us in many ways. I'm sure there's been trials and problems and you thought, how am I going to get out of this? What's the answer? It's not going to happen. And God's found a way. He's delivered you. Praise God. I'm sure there are other things that he's delivered us and we have no idea. We have no idea how close we came to facing a devil. How close we came to facing destruction. Maybe we don't know how close we came to death and the Lord's come in and he's delivered us from that trial, from that issue, from that problem, and we don't even know because it was just smooth sailing for us, right? We ought to praise God for his deliverance. Thank you, God, for understanding my situation. Thank you, God, for understanding my problem, helping me through these trials. Thank you for my salvation. So I hope this has given you some pointers of how we can praise God. Again, often we preach. Make sure we praise God. We thank God. We bless him. Yeah, that's good. It's good, but we need to know a little bit more. What does that look like? What does that mean? And I think this Psalm does a good job of explaining that for us. So let me just summarise and go through those eight points once again. In conclusion, number one, we ought to praise God with music and song. Number two, we ought to praise his righteousness Number three, we ought to praise him as creator. Number four, we ought to praise with fear and awe. Number five, we ought to praise his counsel. Number six, we ought to praise his blessings. Number seven, we ought to praise his omniscience. And number eight, we ought to praise his deliverance. Let's pray.