In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the loss of humanity in a group of men who are involved in producing expensive fighter bombers. He emphasizes that this is God's final act in history, the consummation of all things. The speaker encourages the audience to read and study the Scriptures deeply, rather than just fulfilling a daily reading requirement. He also highlights the importance of having a different attitude towards Israel than the world, based on God's compassion and mercy towards them.

I just had the thought to read Acts 3, verse, I think it's 21. It all starts from verse 20, actually a speech of Peter's. Verse 19, Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, here's the verse, whom the heaven must receive, I think in some versions it says retain, until, there's that critical word, the times of restitution or restoration of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. So the Lord is contained in the heavens, self-contained, he's imposed upon himself a restriction that he will not violate. It's a remarkable glimpse of the genius of God and the way of God, the humility of God to be willing to suffer a confinement and a restriction that will not allow him to come down from heaven and to take his rightful place as king of the universe, his own creation, until the times of the restitution or restoration of all things spoken by the prophets since the world began. So, the Lord is waiting for something that must be fulfilled, that releases him and that's in concert with that verse that I cited at the end of our afternoon session, the set time to favor Zion has come. There are times in God, this is not a God of caprice, this is a God of times, of seasons, of ordered things. In the day of my power, my people will be willing. There's a day, there's a time, there's an hour. So, what is the set time? Because I believe that that verse from Psalm 102, which is our text for tonight, is altogether in keeping with this verse quoted by Peter in verse 21 of Acts chapter 3. Something, a restoration of all things spoken by the prophets. Well, the only thing that all the prophets have spoken, whether it's Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the minor prophets, Amos, Habakkuk, you go on. The one prevalent theme in all the prophets is the restoration of Israel at the end of the ages. This is the thing for which the prophets waited, sought and believed. Amos chapter 9 is a wonderful oversight of the entire great climax of the age, God restoring Israel to the land and I will plant you and you will not again ever be plucked up. So, God is waiting for something to be restored, Israel herself, and that he himself affects that restoration when the set time expressed in Psalm 102 takes place. And we want to examine what that set time is. Psalm 2 is an eschatological psalm. That means it's written about the end. God has given us the complete and closed canon of Scripture that can neither be added to nor taken away. So, of necessity, if there are things that pertain to the end, they had to be communicated, written and established in these books. And Psalm 2 is just such a psalm, inspired by the Spirit. I don't think that the author is indicated. Usually it says David or the sons of Korah or some other identification. Here it is so holy, almost like a direct transmission from God that no human agent is even named. So, just to leap directly into the point at hand and then perhaps go back and read what precedes it. In verse 12 of Psalm 102, But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever. Your name endures to all generations. You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to favor it. The appointed time has come. So, we're going to examine what has happened, and what is indicated that accounts for this time having come that God will rise up. I love all of the resurrection terminology. You will rise up when this time to favor Zion has come. Because you are enthroned forever. You have the power. You are creator king. And that this statement comes from a man who is in evidently desperate plight. When you read the earlier part of Psalm 102, it reads like someone who is an inmate in a concentration camp that is crying out of his desperate condition. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me. Answer me speedily in the day when I call. For my days pass away like smoke and my bones like a furnace. My heart is stricken and withered like grass. I am too wasted to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning, my bones cling to my skin. I am like an owl in the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste places. I lie awake. I am like a lonely bird on the housetop. All day long, my enemies taunt me. Those who deride me use my name for a curse. For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink. That could have been written at Auschwitz. Bones clinging to skin, parched, dried, being taunted and mocked to add to his other sufferings. He's in the cruel hands of a malicious enemy taking delight in his plight and in his condition. You wonder why that's included in a psalm that speaks about a day of deliverance for Israel. Because what... Have you ever been to Auschwitz? As I have. And Birkenau and virtually every camp in Europe and Poland. Dachau in Germany. Every time I travel where there's a concentration camp I go out of my way to see it. And when we visited Auschwitz which is the most notorious and systematic place of annihilation that the Germans began with an existing Polish military camp and began the process of annihilating prisoners, largely Jews but it was inadequate. And they needed a stepped up, more efficient arrangement for the disposal of these bodies. And three kilometers away they developed a property called Birkenau. And so you see the train tracks going right in through the gate that says in German Labor makes free. Arbeit macht frei. Which is a delusion and a lie. As if they were coming to a workplace by which they would earn their freedom rather than come to their death. And the tracks go right up to the platform where people were directed immediately upon their getting off of these freight, these cattle cars directly to the fire or into the barracks where they would get such labor from them as their wasted bodies would deliver before their death came. And as I went through that this last time I was with a brother and he said to me as we left Artie said, if you believe that there's yet a future time of annihilation for Jews of which Jesus spoke in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 there's a time of trouble coming for the nation such as it has not ever before known nor will again. If that time were not cut short, no flesh would survive. And it has its commencement in Jerusalem pray it doesn't come on the Sabbath or the winter there are indications seek for the hills of Judah that this explosion that sets in motion the time of Jacob's trouble has its inception in Jerusalem but it will be the time of Jacob's trouble wherever Jacob is and that is global. So if this will exceed then anything, any trouble that the nation has previously known it will have to exceed the Nazi Holocaust which took six million lives if this exceeds it it means that yet a greater number will be victim and if that's true, this brother said wouldn't it be necessary for camps of this kind to be set up in many places of the world where there are concentrations of Jews I said, I had never thought about that but surely in the three and a half year period of time that is described as the time of Jacob's trouble if two thirds of world Jewry is to suffer annihilation which is the number that suffer that within the land one third pass through the fire two thirds are destroyed then we're talking about the elimination of ten million Jews it's no small problem to bring that number to death and to eliminate their bodies in so short a time so it may well be that the time, the set time to favor Zion will come in the context established by this psalm which is to say in a confinement concentration camp a place of desperation but the remarkable thing that follows this description of a life being wasted and taunted is the statement from verse 10 where the victim does not see himself as a victim but suffering from the hands of men but suffering from the hand of God because it says because your indignation and anger for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside my days are like an evening shadow I wither away like grass but you oh Lord are enthroned forever that means that while I'm suffering this you are enthroned forever is inclusive of the past the present and the future so this victim has come to an awareness that whatever he's suffering is not some act of caprice or something being inflicted mindlessly by men who are only the agent of his suffering but that this comes from the hand of God because of your indignation and anger so I would say having never said this before and having this thought for a first time that if we're trying to explore what is the pattern given by the scripture in this psalm to indicate the set time to favor Zion it will wait upon some awareness of Jews themselves that their suffering is not arbitrary that it has not come from the hands of men but that it is in the last analysis the work of God and that it is a righteous work and a just work that is the expression of the indignation and the wrath of God for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside in recompense for our sin God waits for Jewish acknowledgement that our sufferings are not indiscriminate or capricious or just happen of themselves or that Hitler or the Germans are mean but that God himself is enthroned forever have you understood that? if God is enthroned then this brother with a brain tumor is not some kind of thing that has happened independent of his enthronement he's the lord over all there's a total sovereignty of God that we ourselves as believers have not acknowledged and I'm wondering if the said time will ever come until we will God is waiting for an acknowledgement of himself in his complete and unfailing sovereignty that even the church is unwilling to grant him because it would change everything if we understood that God is enthroned forever and that forever is inclusive of the past, the present and the future that something is being worked out in the divine wisdom over the nations and for our own lives personally that needs to be recognized and acknowledged and what shall I say celebrated that even if it's a hard something that's being worked out we have to entrust that it comes from a God who is himself mercy mercy is an attribute of God love is what God himself is righteousness is God and so that we may not understand we can accept and give honor to the God who is enthroned and until we will acknowledge God's enthronement not in the blessings that we enjoy but in the sufferings that we bear have we really acknowledged God as God when you'll read the holocaust book brace yourself for the most profound effect of that book is to challenge people on how they perceive God for the church has been notorious in sidestepping and omitting the reference to God as judge and we will attribute to men or to accident aberrations in history things that are explicitly from the hand of God including the holocaust of the Nazi time was not an accident I'm saying in the book it's a judgment not only a judgment but a justified judgment predicated upon the accumulation of Jewish sin never acknowledged before God for which we were told in the scriptures that in the latter days we will understand this and we were even warned of it but we have very little disposition to see our present circumstances in the light of the understanding of God's complete and unfailing sovereignty that is an old testament view that is archaic that's the middle ages that God is sovereign over all because we moderns do not like to consider God as present now that he's enthroned now that his will is being fulfilled now we would much we would be much more comfortable with a world that is capricious and moves of itself and things happen that are accidental and you have to make the best of it or run to newsweek or time magazine to receive an explanation how many are there in the church that believe that God is enthroned and lord over all he's so masterful at it it almost appears as if it moves by itself rather than under the oversight of the most high so I repeat until we have surrendered and believe and rejoice for the enthronement of God presently and forever and receive what comes as from his hand have we really acknowledged God as God so it seems like this victim has come to that acknowledgement and until we will as Jews the set time has not come to favor sign God is waiting for acknowledgement that he's the lord of all including our judgment so now we're going to move from the Jew the victim Israel making that acknowledgement to something that God also waits for at the same time from a group identified as my servants well art when it says my servants as it does in verse 14 for your servants hold it's stones dear and have compassion on it's dust isn't that also Israel no way because if the servants were Israel there would be no necessity for their judgment or their suffering the servants are a reference an oblique reference to another group that is not Israel and yet in the earth at the same time which I believe is a reference to the church the servants something is required from Israel an acknowledgement that it's judgments are from the hand of God and something at the same time is required from the people identified as his servants and when he has both it's that time to favor Zion has come so we know what's required from Israel acknowledgement that they are not victims and we mustn't encourage them in a victim mentality as if you poor thing why did this happen to you it's not fair but rather seek God and an acknowledgement that all things come from his hand and he's not a mean God that pulls the wings off of flies likely as is always the way your judgments are an exact proportion to your sins in fact you'll never understand your sins until you see them as being revealed in your judgments sin does not reveal itself as sin it's the judgment that reveals it as sin what came on upon Jesus in crucifixion is the judgment of the father and the only way to understand why that was suffered is that it's a statement of bearing the sins of the world it's the revelation of the sin the judgment indicates the sin because the nature of sin is to hide itself and not to disclose itself as sin how are we doing have we had too ample a supper feeling a little heavy, loggy dozy awaken the truth saints thank you lord because this is a remarkable dissertation and putting in the scalpel and laying there and opening up an eschatological psalm that speaks of the last days and gives us a key of understanding of what it is that god is waiting for who is contained in the heavens until the fulfillment comes by which he is released to come into the earth and into his creation as king unless that doesn't really matter much to you I don't know what your present political situation is and you're happy with it pathetic my god human government is a grotesque changing of rulers and governors and men with their hands in the till and corruption and every kind of thing that you choke and gasp crying out come lord Jesus and show the world what it means to rule in righteousness equity and justice without putting your hands in the till in self aggrandizement but in perfect priestly royal kingship ruling with equity and resolving the differences between the nations when does that take place when the law shall go forth out of Zion and the word of the lord out of Jerusalem nations shall study war no more and beat their swords into plowshares spears into pruney hooks and you poor saps I'm talking to the church at large have dismissed that as poetry it is the most accurate statement of a coming rule of god a theocracy, theo means god and cratic means rule everything is tending toward that this is what the whole thing is about the rebellion of nations in their autonomy and independence from god the end of which has been armaments, build up war, devastation, ruin loss of life 40 million in world war 2 almost a comparable sum in world war 1 haven't you ever been to verdun see how privileged I am France the verdun V E R D U N the no man's land of world war 1 where the cream of german and french civilization exhausted each other in the space of about 5 football fields and what's at verdun now is an an enormous building containing their bones how many beetovans and mozarts and schopenhauers and geniuses of poetry literature, philosophy and the faith how many potential poles how many Karl Barth my favorite german swiss theologian died in that seesaw battle of muddy trenches of no man's land for what because there were some men playing with tin soldiers some kaiser and some british hotshots with their navy and building up their armaments and throwing their chests out national pride brought about an inevitable collision between nations that drained the nations blood and we have suffered from that ever since. World war 2 is only the continuation of world war 1 and if there is a world war 3 it will come out of the unresolved issues of world war 2 massive loss of life massive ruin things that are irreplaceable I don't know how much you love antiquity the middle ages ancient cities how about Dresden famous for it's china Dresden ceramic was world famous the city itself was a little piece of exquisite medieval german culture you cannot find a scrap of it today for the fire bombing that came by the british in the last weeks of the war consumed the entire city hundreds of thousands of people died, not from the flames but from asphyxiation for the heat robbed, took the oxygen out of the air men and women had their feet stuck in the melted asphalt and couldn't move it was a horror, it was hell because of the independence of nations from god because of power because of prestige, because of ambition because of men playing on a chess board with thin soldiers who don't know what it means until a shell hits and it's fragments tear flesh and brains come out and guts spilled out on ship decks war is hell come lord jesus bring peace the shalom of god what does it say the knowledge of god shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas righteousness in the earth when god rules I am amazed, astonished at how little consciousness there is in the church about the coming kingdom of god how little expectation how little desire how little awareness that the whole greatness of the kingdom which is god's design from the first in the very first angelic statement to mary, you shall bear a son, his name shall be called jesus, and his father shall give him the throne of david that he might rule over the house of israel forever the government shall be upon his shoulder and of the increase of that government there shall be no end everything in the word is government, the divine government of god over his own creation which is contended against by the powers of darkness, who are the false rulers, usurping rulers of this age, the gods of this world who love blood violence, death, devastation hatred between nations hatred between races turning tribes against tribes and we as the church so depleted so lacking this framework of understanding that we have relegated the kingdom to be some kind of subjective and inward personal feeling the kingdom of god is within you what did jesus mean by that that it's relegated to a subjective and internal thing only or did he mean that the kingdom of god is within you because i'm standing right here i am the king of that kingdom and it's right within your midst and you don't even know it, but what have we done with it in modern times we have converted the kingdom from a theocratic reality of actual rule and righteousness that should be devoutly desired by the church to some kind of personal subjective and inward thing, the kingdom is with us as if the church is the kingdom the kingdom is a hard real fact that is the consummation of everything saints the issue of israel is not just her deliverance not even just her restoration but it's the fulfillment of what was spoken by the prophets that releases the king to come and to rule god gives me special experiences i've been to verdun i've been to Auschwitz, to Birkenau and i've also been in Houston, Texas to the mcdonald douglas plant that builds the f-16 bombers that just were used by the israelis to send those two rockets into the town in which my brother tony has grown up a brother took me who works there as an engineer and i know when god brings me into a place like that it's not for touring it's for spiritual instruction it was a saturday and men who were working were getting paid time and a half well their salaries and their incomes are astronomical it's the highest paid industry is working in armaments which is one of the leading industries of the united states the billions that are obtained by the sale of armaments israel itself is one of the leading nations producing armaments feeding it to china you may one day experience an israeli missile on your heads that china bought from israel it's big biz big biz is armaments the sophistication the technology, the things that they can use at night the precision that those israelis hit exactly that headquarter building is an indication of just how superb these weapons are and the more sophisticated the more costly it's big biz there's profit in this and so i toured the plant and i saw these men without exception virtually every man's gut was hanging over his belt are they all beer guzzlers? what do they do in their spare time? sit up with their feet and watch a ball game with a six pack? i was looking at a species of men that made me to question their humanity in fact the lord gave me the word gnomes the g is silent g-n-o-m-e-s i had never spoken that word i knew of it but somehow when i saw these men who were making this time and a half in big bucks out of producing these f-16 each one of which cost a kingdom fortune in itself millions upon millions for one of these fighter bombers that these men had lost their humanity they were stunted they were working in the arsenal of death in the factory of death and death had permeated their personalities and even their physical appearance in their bodies i told this engineer seek other employment or it will not be long before your conscience will be stultified and deadened i know you're making a great income but don't give yourself to the production of those things that pertain to death because don't you know saints that the whole conflict is between death and life there are forces arraigned who are death jesus overcame death the last enemy to be defeated is death and the lord is the lord of life what a conflict resist and spurn everything that pertains to death and that's not just terminal illnesses or the physical body dying death is any stultification any reduction any contraction of that which should abound in life if your mind is screwed up it's death, it's a measure of death if your liberty is restricted it's a measure of death if you're fixed in terrible habits, it's death death is seeking to govern, to rule, to destroy, to contract and the church ought to be the most expansive and alive entity upon earth full of the life of god and living for the purposes of that life and not in any way tolerating or making itself a candidate for death in any form because it knows there's a war on and a conflict between death and life so you oh lord are enthroned forever, your name endures to all generations you see how far that jewish victim has come that not only is god enthroned forever and that this man's sufferings have come from his hand but that the issue is not the alleviation of that suffering but the name of god that endures to all generations when the jew in his last distress will recognize that god's name is the foremost purpose for his being that his name is to be honored which we have blasphemed in every nation where we have been driven or israel is already a candidate for redemption the issue of god's name for israel is like the issue of god's glory for the church there's something above ourselves beyond ourselves that needs to be recognized and sought you're not only enthroned but your name what you are in yourself that is signified by your name endures forever for you will rise up and have compassion on zion how come what do you mean you will because your name requires it your righteousness requires it yes judgment is of god but it's not god's last word that's why there's an until when isaiah had to speak to bring judgment on israel that their hearts would be hardened that their ears would be stopped that they could not hear, they could not believe that they could be saved the first question that isaiah asks is how long lord this can't be your last word because it's not in keeping with your name my knowledge of you is that your name speaks righteousness, mercy, love, justice the last thing must be the glorification of your name, the revelation of what you are in yourself as god this judgment yes it's necessary, you're righteous sin must be judged your word must be honored that said these things will befall us in the last days but it's not your last word your last word is mercy your last word is restoration reconciliation how long lord until until you will rise up and have compassion on zion because until you rise up there is no solution to this condition you who are the judge must also be the savior it's not going to come from man it's going to come from god and as surely as you are informed as surely as you judge so as surely must you save, must you deliver don't you wish you had the understanding of the psalmist and there are not even new testaments to christians what a remarkable depth of appreciation and understanding for god as god if you're not steeped in the psalms every day you're doing disservice to god you should be reading the psalm for the day today was 22nd psalm 22 a month from now it will be psalm 52 a month later it will be psalm 82 in the space of 5 months you have gone through the 150 psalms and then begin again inexhaustible riches to hear the cry of the psalmist the depth of comprehension the confidence that god will deliver hear my cry oh lord how long oh lord until the psalmist knows an answer must come and the psalm often ends without any reference to the answer having come but exhibiting a confidence that it will because the psalmist knows god and knows how he has acted in the past toward israel and how he will act in the future and therefore although relief has not yet come he is confident that it will so what begins with a cry ends with a rejoicing and a praise before god's answer comes and what distinguishes the psalms is not god's answer as relief for the distress of the psalmist but that god should honor his name because if you don't act in behalf of your own how then are you a righteous god if you allow your servants who are catching it for your namesake to suffer without alleviation then what reflection is that upon you so i'm asking for your relief not that i should be free from this vexation and distress but that your name should be honored that's another way of calling upon the lord oh dear saints you're only one dimensional until you have immersed yourself in the psalms and don't read them in some obligatory fashion that you've done a chapter a day immerse yourself swim in it be inundated, take it into your spirit let it come into you for it is the most privileged choice revelation of god as god that's why psalm 102 speaks mysteries of things for the future that will not find elsewhere and how influential was it in shaping paul's own understanding where did he get his understanding of the deliverance that would come from zion if not from these very scriptures in which he was immersed okay you will rise up because if you don't, nothing has changed you will rise up god acts in his own behalf he intervenes with men he's actually going to come in and deliver i know you don't believe this but not the least of the reasons for israel's last days time of jacob's trouble when god will see them expelled to the outermost corners of the earth is that he himself will bring them out of helpless situations in chains, in dungeons and in darkness because he will set the prisoners free we're going to read this in this very psalm and i know you have not the faith to believe this and that you're even offended if god should actually be an agent in history and intervene in a visible and demonstrative way as a living and supernatural god as i sometimes tease the saints you would much rather see israel blossom as a rose through irrigation than by the direct supernatural activity of god we are offended by the supernaturalness of god because we are living in a world that is offended god is a concept god is abstract we're not even comfortable with the idea of god intervening in himself as god it's contrary to the whole modern mind that's why it prefers its deliverance through men through negotiation through a treaty rather than god should come but god will come because israel needs to recognize that their god is god and that he has himself personally delivered them restored them and planted them in the land they will see the difference between their own attempt which must necessarily fail present zionist israel and his effort which will endure forever when he will plant us in the land from which we will not again be plucked up and give it to us as an inheritance i have said more in those few words to explain israel's present existence and why it cannot succeed and what will replace it then you can understand lord, grace my god grace, mercy to understand lift all dullness my god from our minds our hearts, that is not only from the excellent meal that we have eaten, but i suspect something of the spirits of the air that prevail over australia over melbourne, over this locality that want to keep us from an understanding that would threaten their usurping and false rulership over this nation so pleading your blood upon the door and upon our heads i'm asking my god for holy intervention to break any influence that was seeking to come upon us to dull us and to rob us that we might receive the full measure of understanding that you intend you're the triumphant god you defeated those powers and we stand my god in the knowledge of that defeat and want its full benefit in jesus name, amen you will rise up, you will intervene, and have compassion on zion for this time to favor her or it, the appointed time has come for your servants, here's the reason the appointed time has come, how does god know when it has come for your servants hold their stones dear and have pity on its dust isn't that a remarkable poetic statement that speaks volumes, what is the sign for which god waits that permits him to be released to be israel's deliverer something not from israel but from his servants and what is the something an attitude toward israel that is completely different than other than what prevails in the world compassion upon her stones and pity upon her dust is not some people who are interested in antiquity it's people whose hearts are broken for the judgment of god that has come upon israel, which is the statement of her shame on Haifa Tel Aviv, Jerusalem Tiberias, Ashkelon and all the present modern cities of Israel reduced to rubble ruin and dust the rest of the world will be gloating g-l-o-a-t-i-n-g they will be rubbing their hands in delight that the jews are catching it they had it coming they've troubled the world, they've threatened all security they could have averted this middle east conflict if they had only done this, this, and now there's an oil crisis, now the world's economies have been affected Israel is a trouble you know what the nazi slogan used to be in the early hitler time? the jews are our misfortune the jews are our misfortune and he persuaded the nation that that was true and the only answer therefore for the nation was the removal of that misfortune, the jews are trouble the world is going to enjoy the judgments that are coming upon Israel there's only one group in the world that will not share in that delight but that their hearts will be stricken they know that these are judgments that must come but they do not enjoy them they have compassion upon her stones pity upon her dust which is to say not just a sentimental clucking of the tongue and saying oh too bad about them but an identification with them with Israel, even in her judgment, that's more than a sentimental regard for the jew that's nothing more nor other than God's own position and God's own mind and God's own heart, in a word the set time to favor Israel has come when the church has come into a place of complete alignment with the heart of God toward the jew and toward Israel when he has a church like that the church has arrived all that has been sought has been obtained he not only has a people that will come to Israel's aid in her distress but he has a people who are like him in their compassion, in their mercy, in their identification with the sinner just as he died for us while we were yet in our sins we will be willing to die for them while they are yet in theirs we have come to the place of perfect identification with God, the set time has come how much are we in that place now? don't even ask, nowhere near we're still in ourselves in our own opinion our own attitudes if perchance there might be a slight disposition toward the jew but not the identification with God, when God will have a church like for the bridegroom his whole redemptive work for the church has been completed because Jesus cannot rule until he has a co-regent as Adam required an Eve, God gave to them dominion over creation God will not give to Jesus dominion over creation until he has a helpmate fitted for him a bride adorned for the bridegroom everything is tied up with Israel God's waiting for that set time and when it comes even the nations are affected as verse 15 tells us the nations will fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth your glory, for the Lord will build up Zion and will appear in his glory he will regard the prayer of the destitute and will not despise that prayer the nations are affected, a testimony has gone to the nations that even brings about their compliance with God everything comes together in the servants who have compassion upon her stones and pity upon her dust this will be recorded for generations to come so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord why does it have to be recorded? because it is God's final act in history no more after this this is the conclusion this is the consummation it will be recorded for a generation yet to be born the nations will rehearse, Israel will rehearse God's mercy when he will rise up to deliver them when the set time to favor Zion has come I think that's as far as I can go tonight to be continued you can read the psalm really read the psalm and if it pleases the Lord we'll come back to this and gain more profit tomorrow than we're gaining tonight so I want to pray for that, that you'll do your homework get spoiled learn how to read the scriptures break the power of this obligatory having read the chapter for the day to relieve your conscience you've done your required reading invest yourself come into the reality compare statement with statement what is God saying? weigh up the words because the psalms like the prophets are compressed statements it is a poetry one little statement compassion on their stones and pity on their dust is saying more than just what it sounds like it is saying it is speaking volumes it is talking about an attitudinal revolution revolution at a time when all the world is hating Israel and delighting in her dismay his servants are having his attitude toward that same people how was that possible? how is it that the world will not have influence on the church? how is it that the church will not go along with the consensus? how is it that the church will have an attitude toward Israel that is different and other than the world's? because the world's attitude is predicated on performance acceptance is based on performance prestige is what you get in terms of what you do what your track record is what your conduct is but God does not require that his love is unconditional he loves Israel even in her chastisements in fact his chastisements are the expression of his love and when you will be graduated from evaluating people on the basis of their performance which you are now conducting with your spouses and in the church weighing and evaluating in terms of what you see people perform in order to obtain your esteem you will have come to the place of God it's not our performance that has obtained his love for us it's what he is in himself he cannot help himself he is a lover of the souls of men and we don't have to perform to obtain it but we require performance of others and the worst death is requiring it of ourselves such self hatred such self denigration in the church who kicks you more than you kick yourself who is the last to forgive you if not yourself you can forgive others but have you forgiven yourself for your own failures who is continually rubbing it in if not yourself over yourself your own worst disappointment you have not learned acceptance unconditional love of what is made in God's image and demand of yourself a performance and a criteria before you can enjoy your own self esteem how then are you going to extend it to Israel you are mean spirited performance oriented it's not God it's man and the world and it's measures you are even going to assess the speaker the same way how did you like him what did you think did you enjoy and you have no idea how much these unconscious processes of thought actually affect what can come forth from the speaker and from each other we condemn and cripple each other by our very attitude and projection or to come into that benign, blessed unconditional love of God that does not require performance to obtain because Israel's performance record stinks it never will rate acceptance on the basis of its conduct that's why it reveals God in his love because he cannot help himself it's what he is in himself Israel reveals God to the world because his unconditional love is being expressed and if you can have it for them then how about Saudi Arabia how about Jordan, how about Iran, how about Australia Israel is his revelation of himself and when you'll join him in his own attitude you will have a life as the church you will have broken the power of your judgmental condition by which you assess, evaluate and weigh one another and yourselves oh which freedom saints don't you see you're in bondage when the set time to favor Zion has come the Lord's waiting and the issue is entirely with you that's why I don't want to go further tonight if you're not disposed this is too choice that we should not receive its full value so Lord we ask the grace of your love to instruct us on how to read the Psalms how to enter in to the reality my God that they describe how to come in to the Psalmist's own heart and his understanding of you how did he understand these things, how did he know that there's an until how did he know that there must be a time that you will arise and deliver he has an exquisite knowledge of God that we assume is not cheap and we lack it because we have not pursued it and so Lord bless this people give them a homework assignment read, study, evaluate way up, Psalm 102 and let it not be Lord that we should lose its value tremendous liberating value so do we bless you for the holy writ so do we bless you for the God that you are that rises up and delivers deliver us Lord from our attitudes that are worldly and prejudicial and devaluative and bring us in to the precious unconditional acceptance and love of God for the saints for the church in its present uncomely condition for ourselves and for Israel you wait for this Lord and I pray that you'll help us to this even through the night and tomorrow we want to be changed as well as instructed so we bless you Lord for what you are after and ask that you will not fall short of it in one iota break in my God to the people break in to the church move us toward this great fulfillment for which you wait who has contained himself in the heavens waiting for the fulfillment of all that the prophets have spoken thank you Lord we look to you my God for your gracious event in our own lives bless us through the night hours under your blood stir us wake us and fit us my God for tomorrow and the full value that you would have us to derive from what you will set before us and we thank you and give you the praise for your intention in Jesus name Amen