Let My Mouth Be Filled With Thy Praise

But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the numbers thereof, but I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. Oh God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.

Now also when I am old and gray headed, O God, forsake me not, until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to everyone that is to come. Thy righteousness also, oh God, is very high, who has done great things. Oh God, who is like unto thee? Thou which has showed me great and sore troubles, thou shalt quicken me again and bring me up from bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side. I I will also praise thee with the paltry, even thy truth. Oh my god. Unto thee will I sing with a harp. Oh thou holy one of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee and my soul which thou hast redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt. Let’s pray together for you.

Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to meet together, and as we come into your word, Lord, first we want to humble ourselves, and we want to ask for your help and your grace. Lord, we know and acknowledge that you are, by your spirit, you are our teacher and lord, we pray that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear, that you would teach us and instruct us in your ways, in your truth.

Lord, that we might understand it, that we might live it, and do the things, and follow the pattern that we see here in this Psalm 71. So help us, we pray. Help me, Lord, I pray, to say the things that each hearer needs to hear. Because, Lord, you are the only one who knows the hearts of all men. And so we pray for your blessing in our service tonight in Jesus name.

Amen. Alright. So, we’ll start in verse number six. We’re not going to try to read every single verse but we are going to try to cover cover kind of the the the repeated themes we see in this Psalm. Now, if if you’ve been with us all these some, I guess, probably 80, 80 messages, 80 Wednesday nights, we’ve probably been in the Psalm so far. And if you’ve been with us that long, you’ve seen that that there are there’s a lot of repetition in the Psalms and even in a single Psalm, there’ll be things that are repeated and that’s what I wanna show you tonight.

Now, of course, from from from down from verse six through the end of the Psalm, there is there is frequent mention of praise and of course, if you look at verse verse number 18 as an example, he says, now also when I’m old and gray headed, oh god, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come and so this idea, this idea of praise directed at men, praise directed at people, how that giving praise to god and recounting what god has done and god’s character but not directed at god himself but directed at others. That’s what you see in verse 18 but you also have praise directed at god directly and if you look at verse number 22, you can see that. It says, I will also praise thee with the psaltery even thy truth, oh my god, unto thee, will I sing with the harp, oh thou holy one of Israel. So, praise can be this direction and praise can be this direction. It can be upward or it can be outward.

Now, just as a just as a as a note, the things about which the Psalmist praises god. In verse eight, he praises, he pray, he talks about god’s praise, thy praise. Verse eight, he also talks about the talking about the honor of god. Now, what it... Let’s just pause here a second and just because I wanna clarify something. What does it mean to praise God? Especially when you’re talking about to another person.

You know, really praise... Praising God is all that really is about, is using your words, right? Using your words to say good things about god. Either about about himself, his character, or about what he has done and that that’s why verse eight it says, let my mouth be filled with thy praise and that with thy honor all the day. And so it’s it’s not it’s not hard. Now, what I’m about to say in just a minute is gonna cut probably cut a little deep and cut me as deep as it does you probably.

But praising God is not hard. You don’t have to have a college degree, you don’t have to have a high school diploma, you don’t have to be graduated out of kindergarten to give praise to God. Saying things that glorify god and exalt him and lift him up in the ears of others is all that praise is about. In fact, some of the best praise according to scripture comes from the mouths of the ignorant.

The the mouths of the inexperienced to from babes, the lord Jesus said. But he also, so so it all of these things when we’re talking about praise, it’s not anything fancy or anything complicated. It is really just a matter of talking about the good things god is and does to others. So, we we have the Psalmist talks about the praise of god. He talks about the honor of god but he also frequently and we’ll come back to this. He talks about the righteousness of god.

Praising God because of his righteousness. Then he gives praise to God because of his salvation, because of his wondrous works, verse 17. He praises God because of God’s strength, he praises God’s power, and he praises God’s truth. All of these things we find in our subjects if you will of praise to god. In other words, things about the lord that we talk about in the hearing and to others about the lord. Just that simple. Just that simple.

You know, if you you know, now, I, you know, before the service started, I was spending a little bit of time with Madeline and you know, when I’m not near Madeline, I’m talking to other people about Madeline, I say good things about Madeline, right? Of course I do, because it’s only good at this point. Right, why do I do that? Well, that’s a simple definition of praise.

It’s really, of course I’m gonna say good things about how pudgy she is and how cute she is and how she smiles and all of those things that you have with the new baby.

It’s natural for me to do that because that’s how I feel about her, right? That’s what I observed in her. And so it is with praise to God. But let me ask you this, is not praise to God in that kind of organic natural way, does that not come much more difficult? It does. I have no trouble at all praising Madeline, right? No trouble at all. But praising the Lord does not come as easy.

It doesn’t come as easy. Notice what I want you to see. I want you to see the frequency of the praise. Look at verse six. By thee have I been holding up from the womb, thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels. My praise shall be, what is the next word? Continually of thee. Then it says in verse number eight, it says, let my mouth be what? Filled. Filled with thy praise, and with thy honor all the day.

Let’s go to verse 14. But I will hope continually and will yet praise thee, what is that? More and more. You know what? That is, that’s increasing. More later than now.

Then, you go to verse 15, look at what it says, my mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation. Next word, all the day, all the time, all the time. Then, verse 17, look at that. Oh God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto, hitherto, what does the word hitherto mean? Good old, good, good word we don’t hear a lot. What does it mean? Up to up to this point. Right. So here’s what he’s here’s what he’s saying. You’ve taught me, Lord, you’ve taught me from the time that I was a child, and up to now, when I’m when I’m say middle aged, because we know he’s not quite old yet, because he he mentions being old in just a minute, and from the time of my youth up until now, I I’ve been praising you. I’ve been talking about about you to others. I’ve been lifting you up and glorifying you to others, and and and telling others your your, you know, your praises, and your glories, and your, you know, your attributes, and those kinds of things. So, not only is it we have continually, we have all the day, we have my mouth is filled with the praise of God, now we have from the time I was young up until this moment.

Then you go to verse 18. Now also when I am old and gray headed, oh God, forsake me not until I have showed thy praise unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come. So the praise of God, listen, it starts when he’s young and it goes until he meets his maker.

So, the frequency of praise continually, mouth filled all the day, all the day is actually repeated twice and then from the youth into old age. Now, let here’s here’s the cutting part.

How often do we talk of god’s praise to others? It is not often. Let’s just be honest. It is not often. Yet the Psalmist, what what is he describing? He’s... He is... He talks about the Lord, and the glories and the attributes and the wonder of god and everything he is and does. He talks about the lord all the time. Continually. His mouth is filled with that. So, I want to challenge you. I want to ask you a question.

At any point today, have you said anything to anybody that gave praise or exalted God? At any point today, alright? Let’s push it a little bit further. At any point today, did you say anything at all to another person? Let me back that up. At at any point in the last week or month of all the things that you spoke, was there anything that gave glory and honor and brought recognition to God’s works or God’s character?

Now listen, I say that, every one of us is deficient in this area, no doubt. Our mouth is filled with so many things. It’s filled with politics, it’s filled with issues, it’s filled with problems, it sometimes is filled with complaints, right? It’s filled with many, many things. Some of which are totally legitimate, right? But in all that we say, has anyone heard us exalt God’s character, God’s works, God’s attributes through our lips? Should it not be something that it is filled, that our lips are filled with?

So, we should, here here’s and here’s I think the way we should apply this, the way I’m I’m thinking of me. I’m not thinking of you, I’m thinking of me, although I’m talking to you.

I think we should make a more of a conscious and intentional effort At actually speaking of the lord to others and I’m not just talking about giving the gospel. That’s we’re getting there in just a minute but I’m not just talking about that. I’m just talking about talking about the Lord. Because of course, if you’re talking about the Lord, you’re only saying praise, the words of praise because that’s all there is to talk about.

There are no negative things to complain about with the Lord. He is all good and all righteous, like we’ll see. But we should make a conscious effort to bring God’s name into our conversation, to bring God’s works and character into our conversation on purpose, Right? Should we not? Even in places where, listen, is there ever gonna be a place in this world where people want to hear about our God? No, they don’t.

They are averse. This world is averse to the lord. So, if you’re expecting it’s gonna be a time where somebody’s gonna be, oh, I’m so glad that you talk to me about the lord. People just aren’t generally, I mean, if you meet a believer, that might be the case but if you’re talking to someone that just a random person, what if you were going down the Swamp Rabbit Trail and you’re you’re on your walk or on your, you know, whatever bike ride or whatnot and you were said, man, isn’t God a creative God to make all these beautiful trees and these beautiful flowers and these beautiful colors as it turns to autumn? Isn’t God so kind to do these things to us? That’s one cheesy example. Actually, don’t even think it’s that cheesy but you see what I’m saying? Just just say it.

We need to do this more. Need to do this more. But there’s one particular thing I want to draw your attention to that is in the list of subjects of praise that we read in the Psalm and that’s the righteousness of god. Look if you would at verse two. Look at the number of time. The sheer number of times in this Psalm that the word that the term thy righteousness occurs. Look at verse two in the Psalm.

It says this, deliver me in thy righteousness. In verse two, look at verse number 15. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness. Alright, stop. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness. That’s praise, right? What is the subject of praise? God’s, specifically, God’s righteousness. Okay, think about that. Okay? Now, if you go to verse number 16, I will go in the strength of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.

There it is again. That’s three times. Look you, if you would at verse number 19. Thy righteousness also, oh God, is very high, who has done great things. That’s very important. The righteousness of God related to what he has done, very very important. We’ll come back to that. Look at verse number 24. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long. Okay, let me ask you this.

When we talk about the Lord and his character and works to others, what are we usually emphasizing? What subject are we usually covering? If we’re honest, and it’s not wrong, I’m definitely not throwing stones, but what do we usually talk about? We usually talk about God’s goodness. Like in my example I just gave, the swamp rabbit trail, right? You see all the color? Maybe I’m the only one but I love, I love fall.

I love the colors. It’s my favorite time of the year and when I see the colors, sometimes I will in my heart just stand in awe and think, man, that is nothing but the goodness of God. He didn’t have to do that. He doesn’t care about those colors.

Makes no difference to him. He does it for us, for our joy and that’s it. Not only for those who love him and believe in him but also for those who disbelieve and hate him, right? He has these beautiful colors and he’s given us eyes that had the capability of seeing those those vibrant colors And every year we get to experience and for me, look forward even to that time.

That’s that’s the goodness of god. Most of the time, our praise is related to the goodness of god but this Psalm interestingly and notably focuses on the righteousness of God.

Now I gave this some thought. How would I give God praise for His righteousness in practical terms? Have you ever thought about that? That doesn’t come naturally, like that doesn’t come, it’s not forthcoming. How you would praise God for His righteousness, but yet the Psalmist says it over and over and over. And so I gave that some thought and I wasn’t getting anywhere, to be honest with you.

And then I thought about the book of Romans. We’ve been studying the book of Romans in the school of scripture, just finished chapter eight. One of the major themes of the book of Romans is the righteousness of God. There’s a lot of themes, but that is a big one. And all of the different avenues that that leads into.

So I’ll propose this to you, how to praise God with the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is directly correlated in the book of Romans to the Gospel.

The works of God in righteousness. Let me explain to you what I mean. The reason why the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world was because of the righteousness of God.

Here’s why, Because the righteousness of God required that a sinful humanity be justly punished for all of eternity, for for our transgressions of his law. And see that’s what the book of Romans tells us. It tells us that there is no way for God to justify or to say a sinner is righteous.

Because he’s a sinner, because he has violated God’s law. There’s no way for a righteous God to say a guilty sinner is righteous. That’s not possible. Because if God were to say the guilty were righteous, he himself would cease to be righteous. He would be he would be unrighteous for declaring something true that is not. And so, listen, that’s what the book of Romans very clearly, right? That he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. That’s what the scripture says in Romans.

So what’s in view, the problem if you will, the problem in the book of Romans is, how can God be righteous and yet somehow receive an unrighteous and guilty sinner like me, and like you?

And you know how he did it? He did it using righteousness. Think about the righteous acts of god. You see, when the lord Jesus came into this world, he himself was righteous. He had no sin. That is he was put to the test and he was tried and he was found completely righteous. He was tempted on all points. The Bible says, like as we are yet without sin. And yet our lord, our lord Jesus Christ willingly offered himself.

To stand as the representative, to stand in the place of the sinner, to stand in my place and in the place, your place, and in the place of every man, woman, and boy, and girl, and to take and to bear the wrath of god. On our behalf. He, he who had no sin. The Bible says, the just for the unjust. That word is just the righteous for the unrighteous. That’s what first Peter tells us.

And you know what God did? Now think about this is amazing. Praising God for the for his righteousness. And God, with our Lord upon the cross, like the church sign says, with our Lord upon the cross, he judged. He judged Christ as our representative, as our substitute righteously. Because our sin was attributed and counted counted to him. And God judged Christ that he might righteously pardon us. So the gospel is the gospel not from start to finish, from its conception, from the foundation of the world to its completion.

It is a gospel of righteousness. The thought of it is righteousness, the source of it is righteousness, and every act of it has to do with either the the exercise or the fulfilling and satisfying of God’s righteousness. Those of you in the school of scripture class, it’s the propitiation, right? The appeasement of God’s righteousness, satisfying that demand. That is the gospel. You know what? As a New Testament Christian, you can look at all that and you can say, man, look at what god has done in righteousness.

God’s righteousness said that not a sinner, not a sinner who dies in his sin can enter his presence at all. That’s God’s righteousness. But God in his righteousness has also provided us a sacrifice, has provided a savior in his righteousness. And that savior was judged righteously in our place. And so, God who is righteous can receive unrighteous sinners, and do so righteously, maintaining his own righteousness. It’s an amazing truth. It is praising God for his righteousness.

So when you do talk about, when you do have an opportunity to talk about what God has done, God’s character, maybe one of the character traits of God, one of the attributes of God we should bring up is the righteousness of God. For instance, have you ever thought, if God is so righteous, how in the world you’re gonna get to heaven?

I’ve never used that line trying to talk to somebody about the Lord in my life. But that’s a good one. Brother Jim, try it and let me know how it goes. Have you ever thought how in the world you’re gonna get to heaven if God is righteous? Well, God will just, you know, he’s nice, he’s kind too, he’ll just give me a pass. Well, not if he’s righteous.

Now, God is kind, but not kind to the point of unrighteousness. He’s just going to he’s going to give us a pass. Say, well, I’m nice and you know, I like you and I love you and so I’m just going to give you a pass. No, the love of god exercise the righteousness of god on the cross that those who are unrighteous might be made righteous in his sight by faith in Christ.

Man, there’s a lot you can go in on in that direction, is it not? God’s righteousness in view. Consider this, first John one nine, you know these verses, right? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. Same word is righteous. To forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know why god forgives you? Not only because he’s faithful, he forgives a wayward saint when he confesses, a wayward believer because he’s righteous.

What does that mean? That means that God’s justice is satisfied and he and I heard one writer, this is a famous quote, I can’t give it to you at this moment, but it’s a famous quote done by one of the, a Methodist preacher, think in the area of the Wesleys, and he says, he says, the sword of God’s justice has been sheathed and it demands nothing. It has been fully satisfied.

And so God can justly forgive the wayward saint. Why? Because a savior was our advocate, that’s what that says. But let me note, this is as well in verse number 16, I will go, if you look at verse 16, I will go in the strength of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness. Whose righteousness is are we make making mention of? God’s righteousness. Here it is, even thine only.

Now, we talk about God’s righteousness, as we talk about, as we have conversations with anyone, what we’ll notice is there’s something in every one of us, no exceptions, there’s something in every one of us that wants to toot our own horn, that wants to praise ourselves and talk about our own glories. That exists in every one of us. And you and I both know that during certain conversations, that urge will come up for us to praise ourselves.

But the Psalmist says, I will praise, I will speak of thy righteousness, even thine only. Proverbs 20 verse six says this, most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find?

Proverbs twenty five twenty seven says this, it is not good to eat much honey, so for men to search their own glory is not glory. Proverbs twenty seven two, let another man praise thee and not thine own lips. A stranger, and not thine own mouth, excuse me, a stranger and not thine own lips. Second Corinthians ten twelve in the New Testament. For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves.

You know what commend themselves means, right? It means toot their own horn, praise themselves. Or compare themselves with some that commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Goes on in verse 18 to say this, for he, for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. So let’s make a rule following verse number 16. Let’s make a rule that our own righteousness, our own praise, our own glory, and our own goodness will not be a subject that’s found on our lips.

That’s a good rule to follow. Alright, one, I got one more thing before we get to the end that I wanna show you. Look if if you would at verse number nine.

And also in verse number 18. Verse nine says this, cast me not off in time of old age, forsake me not when my strength faileth. Verse 18. Now also when I am old and gray headed, oh God, forsake me not, until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come. I found it interesting that the Psalmist brings up old age.

I found it interesting he brings up old age. You see, in verse 18, we see that the desire of the Psalmist is to show, notice what he says, until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come. That’s praise. So, the Psalmist, his desire is to show God’s strength and God’s power to the generation that is coming after him when he is old.

And you know what? This older man, this older saint is uniquely suited to do that. You know why? Because the older saint has seen and experienced God’s strength and God’s power by personal experience.

So, to an older saint, the whether it’s the strength, the power of god, or any other attribute of god that we experience on a personal level, to an older saint, this is not just theory.

About what I believe god is. No, we’ve had time as an older saint. We an older saint has had time to actually put that to the test. Is god actually powerful? Is he strong? Can he help? Will he help? And you see, that is something that the experience of an older person can prove by tests, not just in a doctrinal book.

So experience, now just listen to me for a second. So this experience, in scripture the word for experience is sometimes the word experiment, same thing. This experience that I’m referring to is the one and the important thing that an older person has that a younger person cannot have.

A younger person, listen, you might go to college, you might go to college when you’re 18, you might go through four years, you might go into the master’s program, and you might get a post graduate degree, and then you go on and you get a doctorate degree, and you’re only what? 27, 28 years old. You might be 28 years old, not even in your 30s, and have a doctorate degree.

Okay? That’s great. But it doesn’t matter how much learning one has. That learning does not equal and cannot equal experience. Does everybody hear me? It does not, it is not of the same value as lived experience from an older person.

Because a lot of that is theory. It’s never been put to the test. So, a younger person can literally run circles educationally around an older person. They might have degrees, they might have accolades in that way, but that cannot be, it is not a replacement for experience. And here’s the thing, an older person has the one thing that a younger person does not have and cannot obtain except by long years.

You hear what I’m saying? And this is why so many people when they’re in their 20s, and when they’re, usually when they’re in their 20s, they’re of one frame of mind, and they go into their 30s, they get married, they have children, and that frame of mind starts to change. The time they get to their 40s, they have a completely different frame of mind than they did when they were in their 20s.

You know why? Life experience has tempered those ideas. You see, this Psalmist wants to take the things that he has seen and heard about the Lord and he wants to tell them to the generation to come. In other words, use his experience for good.

And so it is for these reasons, brothers and sisters, that younger people, I don’t know where I fit in in that, to be honest with you. If I were to ask Anna, I’m an old guy, But if I were to ask Vernon, I’m a young guy. Right? You’re not that much older than me.

Younger people must resist the tendency that is so prevalent in our day to look lightly upon older people. And I’m older, I’m not referring to ancient, I’m just referring to the generation above them. Mostly because, listen now, to this world, it’s constantly, it has all these fast moving trends. You know, when when you live in a world where everything is changing and the it’s trend, to be trendy is the trend, right? To be trendy is the trend, And that’s to be up to date, right? Changing with the times. And you see an old guy or an old lady and they just seem static.

You know what? They appear to us, to a younger person, to be dated. Because you’re chasing the trend, so it’s always new. Trendiness is all the rage and older people are simply not that, right? And so, this generation looks at them and it’s true of every generation, every succeeding generation. You might be in your 20s right now but one day, you’re going to be in your 50s and people in their twenties are gonna be looking lightly upon you and the way you think and what you say and your values. That’s that’s just life. Was it true for those of you who are older who when you were in your twenties, was that not the way to think as well? It is. I’m getting nods if you can’t tell. I’m getting nods.

First Peter five:five, Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. So this is not just a society question, this is a biblical question. Leviticus nine nineteen thirty two, thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man and fear thy god, I am the lord.

So, let me say this, we’re almost finished, let me say this. Younger people ought to make it their practice to give honor and reverence to people who are older for the simple fact that they have experience and knowledge that you cannot have until you have lived. That’s life. And to acknowledge that that person who’s older than me has something that I cannot have in my station of life right now. And so I need to listen.

And that is completely contrary to our world in this time. And so we do need, for those of you who are older, we do need the older to teach the younger. But it goes both ways. As much as we need the older who are willing to teach the younger, like the Psalmist, he says listen, if you’re older, you need to take the Psalmist’s advice and the desire of the Psalmist, and you need to say, I want to tell, verse number 18, I want to show thy strength unto this generation. So, if you’re an older person, do you have that desire that I want the next generation to know the strength and power of God. I want them to know God’s praise from my lived experience, my personal trial of what God has done.

That’s something that you as older people need to resolve, that’s something you want to do and you’re gonna seek to do it. But if you’re a younger person, you’re on this side.

As much as we need older people who will teach the younger, it’s just as important for the younger people to desire to hear it. We can complain about there’s not older people teaching the younger, but but might I submit to you that there’s a big problem with younger people not wanting to hear it. That’s a big thing too.

There should be a reverential attitude in younger people to stop and listen to the elder. The older must be willing to tell, and the younger must be willing to listen. They go both ways. And you know what, in scripture, in the New Testament, that pattern, both sides of that, the older and the younger, are are admonished to do both, on both sides. To teach and to hear.

And so we get down to the end, which is verse 22. I will I will also praise thee with the paltry even thy truth, oh my God. Unto thee will I sing with the harp, oh thou holy one of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed. Brother Andrew’s gonna come in just a second. You say, I don’t like the fact that we didn’t sing first. Well, you’ll note that the Psalm doesn’t get to singing praise until the end.

Which is why we’re singing at the end. Not only that, but notice this in verse 23, my lips shall greatly, notice greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed.

My lips shall greatly rejoice. So here here’s the thing I want you to pray praise can be speech as we see in verse 24, but praise can also be in song. But when praise is in song in verse number 23, you have the lips in 23, but you also have the soul in 23. My lips shall greatly rejoice and my soul shall greatly rejoice. So, me challenge you. We’re about to sing right now.

Let me challenge you. As we have this opportunity to sing to god, I challenge you to sing with joy and to greatly rejoice as you sing. Because your soul has been redeemed. I challenge you to sing not just with your lips but sing with your with your soul too. You gotta have both. They should be in sync, should they not? So, we’re we’re closing there. We’re gonna close with our song before we have prayer.

But we have four songs we’re gonna sing right now. Let me challenge you to sing God’s praise with your lips and with your soul and greatly rejoice in doing so. Brother Ledes.