In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith encourages listeners to delight themselves in the Lord and put their trust in Him. He emphasizes the power of God to transform lives and bring people to Christ. Pastor Chuck highlights the wonderful works of God and the thoughts He has towards us, which cannot be fully comprehended. He concludes with a prayer for God's blessings, guidance, and strength for the listeners.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today The broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture The entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be encouraged to delight ourselves in the Lord As we turn in our Bibles to the 40th Psalm Beginning with verse 1 And now with today's message Here's Pastor Chuck Smith Psalm 40 is another one of the psalms Which are known as Messianic Psalms That is, it is a psalm that has Prophecy concerning Jesus Christ That was fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus Christ The New Testament recognizes David as a prophet It also recognizes the words of David As being inspired by the Holy Spirit As Peter said, And David by the mouth of the Holy Spirit spake, saying And David prophesied, it said And it was recognized that David was a prophet And many of the psalms have references to Jesus as Messiah This is another one of the Messianic Psalms And the basic prophecies of this psalm Psalm are in verses 6, 7, and 8 However, there are those that see verses 1 and 2 as a prophecy A prophecy concerning the resurrection Where it is, as they see, Jesus speaking And declared, I waited patiently for the Lord He inclined unto me, and heard my cry He brought me up also out of a horrible pit Out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock And established my goings And so there are those who see that as prophetic of the resurrection There are other psalms in which David did prophesy the resurrection Peter in chapter 2 of the book of Acts Quotes one of the psalms of David concerning the resurrection Where he said that David by the mouth of the Holy Spirit said Thou will not leave my soul in hell Neither will you allow the Holy One to see corruption And he said, I testify to you that David was speaking not of himself His sepulcher is still here, but he was prophesying of Jesus Christ And we declare that God did not leave his soul in hell Neither did he allow the Holy One to see corruption When Jesus died for our sins When God placed upon him our guilt And he died in our place His spirit descended into Hades Or Sheol, or what is commonly known as hell in our English language It was a place that was in the center of the earth That was divided into two compartments The righteous dead and the unrighteous dead The righteous dead with Abraham Waiting for God to fulfill his promise of salvation And so Jesus talks about this in Luke's Gospel chapter 16 When he gives to us the story of the rich man and Lazarus And how that Lazarus died was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom Moreover the rich man died and in hell lifted up his eyes being in torment Seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus there being comforted And declared, Father Abraham have mercy on me Send Lazarus unto me that he might take his finger and dip it in water And touch the tip of my tongue for I am tormented in this heat And Abraham said, Son remember that you in your lifetime had the good things Lazarus the evil, now he is comforted while you are tormented And beside that there is this gulf that is fixed Between these two places where you can't cross over one from the other And he said I pray thee then if he cannot come to me Send him back to the earth that he might warn my brothers Lest they also come to this awesome place And Abraham said they have the law and the prophets If they will not believe them neither will they believe Even if one should come back from the dead And so Jesus descended into hell He who has ascended Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 Is the same one who first of all descended into the lower parts of the earth But when he ascended he led the captives from their captivity So Jesus descended into hell He preached to those souls that were in prison When Jesus rose from the dead Abraham and all of those righteous saints Rose with him into the glorious eternal kingdom of God And so the promise though was to him by the father I will not leave your soul in hell I will not allow you to see corruption So this I waited patiently for the Lord He inclined unto me and heard my cry Now it is possible that this is prophetic It is also very true though of so many many people As we have waited patiently for the Lord But we have seen the answers to our prayers And we have seen and so many can say God took me out of a horrible pit That life of the flesh That life in bondage to sin And he brought me out of the horrible pit Out of the miry clay And he set my feet upon the rock Even upon Jesus Christ And he has established my goings And thus he has put a new song in my mouth Even praise unto our God And many shall see it in reverence And shall trust in the Lord And so we see how that the work of God in a person's life The transformation How when God lifts a person out of that horrible pit of sin Out of that miry clay in which they are sinking And he sets their feet upon the rock He establishes them And we see the stories, we see the lives That are so transformed by the power of Jesus Christ People who were going nowhere People who were bound in drugs and alcoholism And the other evils And you see them set free And you see the change of their countenances, their lives You hear now the new song that they are singing The transformed life The mouth is cleaned up And the whole life is transformed And people see it And they say well there's got to be something real You know, you just don't change like that And they recognize the power of God And they see it and they come to trust in the Lord Many people are brought to Christ Through the witness of a changed life Of a friend who has been so transformed By the power of the Spirit Blessed are all the blessed happiness Of that man that makes the Lord his trust Or the man who puts his trust in the Lord All the blessed happiness of committing ourselves to him And respects not the proud Nor such as turn aside to lies Many, O Lord God, my God Are thy wonderful works which thou hast done Understatement for sure Look around and see the wonderful works That God has done And then he said And your thoughts which are toward us They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee If I would declare and speak of them They are more than can be numbered The amazing thing is that God thinks about us David said when I consider thy heavens The work of thy fingers, the moon, the stars Which thou hast ordained What is man that thou art mindful of him Who am I that God should think about me And yet he does In fact the psalmist said If I tried to number his thoughts concerning me I couldn't do it, they are without number In Psalm 139 David said Thy thoughts concerning me Are as the sand of the sea in number Are in number as the sand And so God continually thinking about you his child The thing that Jesus taught us concerning God Is that though he is God over the universe God over creation He is the creator, he is the God over creation He is mindful of his creation He is mindful of the birds of the air He is mindful of the grass of the field It's creation, he is mindful of it And he takes care of it, he watches over it Jesus said there is not a sparrow that falls He talked about sparrows, they are cheap little things And so for three cents you can buy a couple of sparrows And yet he said there is not a sparrow As common as they are that falls to the ground But what your father doesn't notice it Now the argument was always from the lesser to the greater When Jesus was using the birds and the grass and the flowers For if your father will take care of the birds And feed the birds And if your father will clothe the grass of the field How much more will he take care of you Because you are his child And I love that argument, I love the analogy there My father watches over his creation But I'm his child and as a child I have the rights of sonship And if he takes care of that which is just creation Not related to him, how much more will he take care of me As his child I love it And so he thinks about me To Jeremiah he said I know my thoughts concerning you They are of peace and not of evil Satan would have you think that God only thinks of you in a negative way He only thinks of you in the terms of judgment or punishment Or whatever, not so God says my thoughts are to bring you to the expected end God thinks of you in the eternal and this is where the problem arises As God is thinking about me and dealing with me He always deals from the eternal perspective To bring you to the expected end He looks down at the end of the path, the end of the road And God deals with me from the eternal values and the eternal good Now there are some things that I may desire for a temporal advantage But they would be bad for me eternally From a spiritual standpoint they could be destroying, they could be damaging And so God withholds many times the temporal Because he is considering the eternal That expected end, that down the road, where will it lead And thus we sometimes find ourselves not understanding the ways of God within our lives Because it has brought me temporary discomfort I don't like this discomfort God why do you allow this discomfort if you really love me? God is looking down the road What is going to work out of me and what is going to work into me Of his likeness as he is molding me into his image How vital and important that is And God looks at that end result And he is always interested in the end result That's the folly of man We do so many things without considering the end result So many things that are destructive Because we don't look down the road, we don't see what it's doing And sometimes you want to shake these kids and say Wake up, can't you see what you're doing? But Satan is always living for now You know, eat, drink and be merry, tomorrow we die And it's living for the moment Where God wants us to live for the eternal That expected end Now we get into the prophecies concerning Jesus Sacrifice and offerings you did not desire This is quoted in the book of Hebrews As referring to Christ It is interesting that this was written by David At a time when the sacrifices were probably The most meaningful in the history of the nation of Israel The temple worship had The worship of God and of course David in the tabernacle Had pretty much come to a peak It was not until Isaiah's time After the spiritual declension of the nation That God spoke of his feelings concerning the sacrifice Turn to Isaiah chapter 1 And in verse 11 The Lord said, to what purpose Is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of rams And of the fat of fed beasts And I delight not in the blood of bullocks Or of lambs or of goats When you come to appear before me Who's required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations Incense is an abomination unto me The new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates They are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when you spread forth your hands I will hide my eyes from you Yea, when you make many prayers I will not hear For your hands are full of blood So God speaks of that time That came in the nation's history Where he was just sick of their sacrifices You see, it is possible To start out In a real worship and move of God And to continue in a form But to lose the power The meaning Israel Had offered the sacrifices to the Lord Which the Lord required But it came to the time When they were just perfunctory They weren't meaningful any longer And God said they're an abomination to me Don't bring me any more sacrifices So here David is saying Sacrifice and offering You did not desire Burn offerings and sin offerings You have not required God says stop them, away with them I'm through with them This my ear Hast thou opened or pierced We read concerning Jesus in Philippians Chapter 2 Who though he was in the form of God And thought it not something To be grasped To be equal with God Yet he humbled himself Took upon the form of man Came in likeness of man As a servant Obedient unto death Even the death of the cross So Jesus took upon himself That of a servant This ear, my ear have you opened Or my ear have you pierced Under the Jewish law If you because of debts That you could not pay Had to be sold as a slave In order to pay your debts You would only be required To serve as a slave for six years In the seventh year It was required that they set you free However If during that tenure of time That you were a servant You Really enjoyed Your position Then you would come to the master And you would say Look I enjoy serving you I don't want to be set free I'm secure here I enjoy the circumstances here I want to become your slave He would take an awl And he would go to the door of the house And there on the door post They would drive the awl through your ear And pin you to the door post And then when they would Take the awl out They would put the gold ring in A slave by choice And so Jesus Was a servant By choice He said I did not come to do my own will But the will of him who sent me He humbled himself and became a servant Obedient unto death Even the death of the cross So my ear have you opened Is a prophecy of The fact that Jesus came as a servant To do the will of the father As when in the garden he prayed Father if it is possible Let this cup pass from me Nevertheless not what I will Thy will be done Submitting unto the father As a servant my ear Have you opened We'll return with more of our Verse by Verse Venture Through the Bible In our next lesson As Pastor Chuck guides us Through the study of the Psalms And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part Of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy For that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting One of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy To assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again our toll free number Is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience You can order online anytime When you go to TheWordForToday.org And while you're there Be sure to browse through The additional resources That include Bible studies Commentaries, CDs, DVDs And so much more Once again that's The Word for Today online At TheWordForToday.org And for those of you Who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address Which is The Word for Today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include The call letters of this station With your correspondence And now on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you Who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers And financial support And be sure to join us Again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith Continues his verse-by-verse venture Through the Psalms That's right here On the next edition of The Word for Today Now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith With today's closing prayer May the Lord bless you And keep His hand upon you Guide you with His counsels And keep you in His strength May you rest upon Him And may you experience His strength And His love And may God help you To really come into a full Understanding and knowledge Where it isn't just hearing Him With the hearing of the ear But is really coming to apprehend To see God To see the truth of God You might be strengthened Knowing that God is with you And shall sustain you as His child Listen and read along As Pastor Chuck tells The greatest story ever told The resurrection of Jesus Christ Each book contains an audio CD Of Pastor Chuck reading this story Featuring the voice talents of Skip Heitzik But I will come back again On the third day Greg Laurie It's Jesus Hi Peter Raul Rees See it's really Jesus Gasp Cheryl Brodeson The stone was rolled away The tomb is empty There are angels And so many more Order your copy Call The Word for Today At 800-272-WORD To see a sneak preview Of the story of the resurrection Visit us online At thewordfortoday.org Again, the number to call Is 800-272-9673 This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California