In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the faithfulness and goodness of God to Israel. He emphasizes that God is never too late, even when it seems like the situation is hopeless. Using the example of David, Pastor Chuck highlights how David cried out to the Lord and waited patiently for Him to act. Despite facing numerous enemies and challenges, David trusted in God's deliverance. The sermon encourages listeners to have faith in God's timing and to trust in His goodness, even when circumstances seem overwhelming.

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 continuing with God's goodness to Israel And returning our Bibles to the 68th Psalm Beginning with verse 28 And now, with today's message Here's Pastor Chuck Smith Thy God hath commanded thy strength Strengthen, O God, that which you have wrought for us Because of thy temple at Jerusalem Shall kings bring presents unto thee This again is going into prophecy And we know that in the kingdom age When Jesus is reigning on Mount Zion Then shall the kings of the earth gather together annually Bringing their presents and laying them before Him This is sort of what's going to be happening in Jerusalem When Jesus reigns over the earth And the kings of the earth will gather yearly in Jerusalem Bringing to Him the presents Oh, what a sight that will be Gathering there at the temple Rebuke, He said, the company of spearmen The multitude of the bulls with the calves of the people Till every one submit himself with the pieces of silver Scatter thou the people that delight in war Princes shall come out of Egypt Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth O sing praises unto the Lord And so he's talking about this glorious reign of God Through Jesus Christ over the earth When the various nations will come And stretch out their hands to God To Him that rides upon the heavens of heavens Which were of old, lo, He doth send out His voice And that a mighty voice Ascribe strength unto God His excellency is over Israel And His strength is in the clouds O God, You are awesome out of Your holy place The God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power Unto His people Blessed be God And so David just really was brought Really at this point to the peak He begins with sort of that glorious God Who will triumph over all of His enemies He goes back into their history How that God was with the people Brought them out of the bondage Triumphed over their enemies Brought their enemies before them And even though they were driven out Would bring them back And He of course ends with this glorious reign of God When the whole earth acknowledges Jesus really as the King and as Lord And the praises unto Him Blessed be God Strength, power Psalm 69 is a psalm that is quoted more in the New Testament Than any other psalm with the exception of Psalm 22 Psalm 22 is the most quoted psalm of the New Testament Psalm 69 is the second most quoted psalm And it is again acknowledged to be a messianic psalm That is, it is a psalm of prophecy Concerning the coming Messiah And in many places there are references To Jesus Christ which are quoted in the New Testament From this psalm Save me O God For the waters are come in unto my soul I sink in deep mire Where there is no standing I'm going down in the quicksand I'm going down in the mud and there's nothing underneath Or I'm just, you know, I'm being swallowed up In this quicksand I'm come into the deep waters Where the floods overflow me And so David begins the psalm With a cry for help Because of the circumstances of life are overwhelming I can't handle The conditions Lord I'm being swallowed up By the problems I'm sinking in the mire Isn't it interesting how that Our timetable so often does not jive with God's timetable I have so many times in my life thought that God was too late He had a tremendous opportunity to have done something God is never too late It's just that our timetable is so often off I don't like those lessons of faith I find my heart rebelling against them It'd be so much easier on me if God would just run on my schedule But all the lessons that I have learned Of the power of God And of the faithfulness of God When I thought he was too late It's all over Lord if you'd only been here You could have done something But what he did was even greater Over and over again But David was crying unto the Lord until his throat was dry Shed so many tears that body was dehydrating My eyes fail while I'm waiting For my God And in the meantime Those that hate me without a cause Are more than the hairs of my head They that would destroy me, my enemies wrongfully Are mighty Then I restored that which I took not away It is thought that perhaps this was written at the Rebellion of David's son Adonijah Or perhaps at Absalom They wanted the throne They wanted the crown And David more or less just abdicated to Absalom He didn't stay to fight Now David didn't fight to get the crown God gave the kingdom to David David didn't fight Saul to get the kingdom In fact David refused to fight Saul Though Saul was bent upon killing David David refused to fight him And so he said I didn't take the crown away It was given to him by God He didn't take it away Nor would he take it away from Saul But yet I have restored I've given that which I did not take away Oh God you know my foolishness And my sins are not hid from thee How true that is God knows our foolishness, our folly We don't hide our sins from him He said let not them that wait on thee Oh Lord God of hosts be ashamed for my sake Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake Oh God of Israel Don't let my foolishness and my sin Lord Stumble others But that is so often the tragic result Of the sins of those in leadership Is that it does stumble others When David did sin And Nathan came to rebuke him for it The charge that he made was You have caused the enemies of God to blaspheme And when a leader sins It causes shame among the people of God David is praying Lord don't let this happen You know my foolishness, you know my sin Those that are waiting upon you Lord Don't let them be ashamed Because of what I have done Those that are seeking thee Lord Don't let them be confused Because of what I have done But then David goes on to say Because for thy sake I have borne reproach And shame has covered my face He changes completely now And he talks about the reproach that he had suffered For God The shame that had been Brought to him I have become a stranger to my brethren An alien to my mother's children When David was chosen over his brothers To be the king You remember God said to the prophet Samuel Go down to the house of Jesse And anoint one of his sons You know how long will you mourn for Saul You know I have rejected him Go down to the house of Jesse And anoint his son as the king And so he went down to the house of Jesse And said to Jesse You know bring your sons in Jesse One at a time And first son Eliab Hey he's a handsome guy Great physique Samuel looked at him and he thought Oh this must be the one Good looking, strong, well built And the Lord said No Samuel Not the one Man looks on the outward appearance I'm looking at the heart So Jesse began to pray to his sons Before Samuel And after they all prayed it by Lord didn't give him the okay for any of them He said Is that all the sons you have are there anymore Oh well there's one more but he's just a kid He's out there watching the sheep He said well call him in And when Samuel saw David The Lord spoke and said this is one He took the oil and poured over But it made his brothers jealous And so David speaks about that I'm a stranger unto my brothers An alien unto my mother's children There was a jealousy that arose in their hearts Because of God's choice of David over them And so for thy sake I've borne reproach A reproach from his own family You know The reproach of the world is one thing But the reproach of the family Is something else again The reproach from those within the body of Christ I think is much more difficult to bear Than the reproach that comes to us from the world When I'm reproached by my own brothers It's more hurtful David said if it were an enemy that reproached me I could handle it But it was you my own friend My dear close brother We went into the house of God together We had sweet fellowship together That's hard to take When those that are close to you turn But God was the one that chose David And it caused his brothers to become like strangers to him They became alienated from him But David declared For the zeal of your house hath eaten me up David had a great desire to build a house for God He had a great desire to bring the nation together In spiritual worship of God And the first thing he did Was move the tabernacle to Jerusalem So that Jerusalem could be the center of worship for the people The tabernacle prior to that was north of Jerusalem In Gilgal And so David had them move the tabernacle to Jerusalem And then He desired to bring the Ark of the Covenant And place it in the tabernacle in Jerusalem So that the people would have a place to gather to worship God It was his heart The zeal of the house of the Lord was eating him up And then He said I want to build a magnificent house for God Here I am in this beautiful palace And you know here's God over here in a tent The tabernacle, that's not fair I want to build a glorious house for God It's got to be more glorious than any building on the earth And so in expressing his desire to his friend Nathan The zeal of the house of the Lord is eating me up Nathan said splendid, go for it David And then the Lord said to Nathan You spoke out of turn, David can't build me a house His hands are bloody, go back and tell him That he won't be able to build me a house, I'll build him a house But the Lord didn't say David couldn't prepare for the building of the house And so David gathered the gold, the silver, the wood He drew the plans When he was dying he turned over to Solomon the plans And the wealth, billions of dollars in wealth For the building of the house of God The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up David of course As the Lord said I will build you a house And referred to the fact that the Messiah, Jesus Christ Would be of the seed of David, from the line of David That one who came from David It was later declared of him The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up When Jesus came into the temple in Jerusalem And saw the corruption and the merchandising When he drove out the money changers, overturned their tables Drove out those that were selling the doves and the oxen and all Then the disciples remembered the scripture that said The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up And so that same zeal for the house of God that was in David Was in David's descendant, Jesus Christ And the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me David recognized that the reproaches that he was receiving Were actually the attitude that worldly people have Who hate God and are against God As God's representative People who hate God Pour upon me The venom of their hatred against God The problem is that we are so prone to take this personally As though, you know, they hate me No, they hate God that I represent Blessed are ye, Jesus said, when men shall revile you and persecute you And say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, great is your reward in heaven The reproaches that we have as a Christian Are really the world's expression of their hatred of Jesus Christ Jesus said, they hate me because I testify of them Told them the truth He called their corrupt practices corrupt He called their hypocrisy, hypocrisy He wasn't going around trying to make men feel good about himself He was saying, you are a sinner and except you repent, you're gonna perish And he was so straight and so direct that they hated him Hated him so much, they crucified him And the world has not changed The carnal mind is enmity against God And is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be And because man rebels against God's law And the restrictions that God has placed upon the flesh In his law Men hate God, but they take their reproach out on God's people And so the reproach that people had towards God They vented on Jesus who came As God's representative to man He was more than that, he was God Dwelling amongst us And they finally had their opportunity to do what their wicked hearts desired As they sought to destroy him And there are people today who are seeking to destroy God There are those men today who have signed the Humanist Manifesto And the Humanist Manifesto is their manifesto By which they are declaring their intention of destroying God They want to destroy God out of the minds and out of the life of our nation And unfortunately these men have been extremely successful And they are devoting their fortunes and their lives to destroying God The reproaches of them that reproached thee have fallen upon me And if you stand up for God, if you dare to speak up for God If you dare to renounce sin If you dare to speak out against homosexuality or abortion or the issues Then they begin to, you know, reproach you If you just go along and say, hey, everything's fine, everybody has a spark of good, you know I'm just here to help you feel good about yourself The world will pat you on the back and say, oh, you're a fine fellow But if you really start being straight Calling sin, sin Then the reproaches will begin to come because the carnal mind is imity against God Not subject to His law, neither indeed can be We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse venture through the Bible in our next lesson As Pastor Chuck Smith continues with the Messianic Psalm 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 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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 TheWordForToday, 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 comments May the Lord bless you and keep His hand upon your life As you walk in fellowship with Him May you be strengthened day-by-day by the work of His Spirit within your life And may you begin to experience His victories, His power over sin May the love of Christ and the peace of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit Rest and abide with all of you while we are absent from each other And may God draw us together again That we might grow in our knowledge and understanding of His love and grace Through Jesus Christ Read the full story of how God transformed the lives of ten men to reach the world Read the testimonies of Greg Laurie, Raul Reis, Mike McIntosh, John Corson, Skip Heitzik, and others And see for yourself that if God can use these guys to spread the gospel worldwide Then God can use you too To read a sneak preview of the book online, visit TheWordForToday.org Or call The Word for Today at 800-272-WORD I want to encourage you to check it out This just might be the book to change the life of a loved one or even you Visit TheWordForToday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California