God's thoughts toward humanity are precious, exceeding the number of grains of sand, and are directed toward individuals. The sermon explores five facets of this preciousness: God values human life, as seen in Psalm 72:14; He values the soul, evidenced by the precious blood of Christ required for redemption, as in Psalm 49:6-8 and 1 Peter 1:18-19; He values fellowship among believers, likened to precious anointing oil in Psalm 133; He values our service, even when sown in tears, as described in Psalm 126:5-6; and He values our death, deeming it precious in His sight (Psalm 116:15). Ultimately, believers will be most precious in God's sight in the eternal glory of the New Jerusalem.
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I'm sure it's a real joy to have the privilege again of being with you and looking forward to the blessing of God's word by his spirit while we're together this weekend. Would you please turn with me tonight to the book of Psalms chapter one hundred and thirty-nine. Psalm one hundred and thirty-nine. It has been so properly stated that the book of Psalms has often been expressed as being the book of experiences, and I'm sure that no believer has been without many experiences that are described in the words of the psalmist.
Again and again we find whatever mood, whatever circumstance, whatever conflict and trial we may be passing through, There is a Psalm that expresses the feeling of the heart and the experience of the soul. We turn tonight and read in Psalm one thirty-nine, verse seventeen and eighteen. The words of the Psalm is saying in the midst of this Psalm, How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! if I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.
When I awake, I am still with thee. Now if you were to read the psalm through, you would find preceding the verses that we have read that the psalmist speaks concerning the great attributes of God, which are sometimes called his relative attributes. In the opening words, beginning at verse one, going down through verse six, you will find the psalmist declaring the omniscience of God. He opens the psalm by saying, O Lord, thou hast searched me and know me.
Thou knowest my down sitting and my uprising. Thou understandest my father far off and so on. and he speaks particularly of the great omniscience of God. Meaning in brief words, God knows everything. And he declares the complete knowledge of a God who knows all things. Then he follows to speak of God's omnipresence. He declares beginning at verse seven, going down through verse twelve, He declares the omnipresence of God.
No matter where he might be, God is present. No matter where he may go, God is there. He mentions particularly some strange words. As you hear him say in verse eight, if I ascend up into heaven, thou art there, and if I make my bed in hell, even there, behold thou art. And it may seem strange. that the omnipresence of God can be consciously known itself. Either in heaven, we can understand that, but also in hell. But there is a verse in the book of Revelation chapter fourteen and verse eleven that declares that in that day of judgment that the worshippers of the beast will be in that place of eternal torment where they have no rest, day, no night, and that even there they will be conscious of the presence of holy angels, and conscious of the presence of the land.
The very one who died to redeem them, there will be the consciousness of his presence. One can recognize, though one can never explain it, The revelation of the fact that God is everywhere. Many years ago I recall reading, there was a certain infidel who when he was taken sick and found himself confined in bed, he wrote a motto that all who came to visit in might see on the foot of his bed these words, God is nowhere.
One day there came into his room, a lady to visit him with her little child, and the interval said to the little child, little girl, can you read those words right at the foot of my bed? She looked at those words, and then she began to say, God is now here. Well, she couldn't think of anything else. but what it would mean that. But how true it is. Then the third thing, God is not only omnipresent, but God is omnipotent. For beginning as you have it in verse fourteen and on, or even verse thirteen and down through verse sixteen, you have the omnipotence of God revealed.
And who can tell the omnipotence of God? One is properly stated, that if you could take the stars that are in the Milky Way, possibly totaling eighteen million in number, every one of them weighing perhaps a million times more than this little earth about, and if you were able to place those stars in an adequate sack, God would be able to lift and move them with his finger as though they were but a grain of sand. The omnipotence of God is beyond our comprehension.
Likewise is omnipresent. Likewise is omniscient. But will you note something? These great attributes of God, great as they may be and are, are incomparable to what you read in verse seventeen and eighteen. For as you find the opening words of verse seventeen, the psalmist says, How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee.
Will you note the word also, indicating in addition to the omniscience, the omnipresence, and the omnipotence of God. The psalmist emphasizes, here is something else. And what he reveals is the subject I would like to bring before you tonight from these words. He reveals the infinite heart of God. God's omnipotence is great, as well as his omnipresence, as well as his omnipotence.
But God's heart is greater still. The infinite greatness of the heart of God, who can tell? But the psalmist declares it in these words. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. Now when any thoughts are revealed, they come from the heart. As he thinketh in his heart, so is he wrote the wise man in the book of Proverbs. For thought they come from the heart. And how we can acknowledge and do acknowledge that whenever there is a thought, it springs from the heart.
And the psalmist declares In these words, the thoughts of God that come from his infinite heart. There are no three things particularly. First note, he mentions their incomparable value. He uses the word, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. Their incomparable value, precious. precious precious I'm sure that you and I would never say to God what we sometimes say to each other a penny for your thoughts and sometimes our thoughts are not even worth a penny but the Spirit of God through the psalmist declares the incomparable value of God's thought precious and my beloved If you and I could only know and understand some of the divine thoughts in the heart of God, every one of them can be turned in their value precious
beyond human comprehension. Then there is second thing concerning those thoughts coming from Islam. Not only their incomparable value, but their inconceivable direction. Notice what he says. How precious also are thy thoughts in what direction? Unto me, O God. Beloved, this is a stupendous revelation. That the thoughts of God's hearts are unto you and me. Unto me, O God.
One wrote these lovely little words that I value. How thou can speak so well of me, and be that God thou art, is darkness to my intellect, but sunshine to my heart. And to recognize being a conceivable direction of God's thought, as the psalmist declared in another place, Psalm forty verse seventeen, though I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Well, one can be grateful for being an individual who is called me, and to acknowledge the direction of God's thoughts are unto me.
Then notice that thing. And that is their incomprehensible number. How great is that some of them? If I should count them, they are more in number than a sand. Their incomprehensible number. That all the sand upon the earth, every grain of sand, If all could be computed and numbered, God says his thoughts are even more in number than the grains of sand. I recall reading in one of the books of Dr.
Samuel Swain, a missionary to the Muslims. Then on one occasion he was walking upon the seashore of the Arabian coast on the Arabian Sea. And he saw a strange sight, an old Aaron who was sitting in the sand and playing with the sand, lifting it up in his hand and letting it flow through his fingers. And again and again, like a child, he was lifting the sand up and letting it go through his fingers over and over. He thought it was strange to see an old man doing such a thing. And he came near to him and said, What are you doing?
The old man looked up and said, Leave me alone. I'm thinking. Then the missionary said, What are you thinking of? Then answered the old abbot, I'm thinking of eternity. Then the missionary was more interested in that. What is eternity? The old average said, what is eternity? Why if a bird could take one grain of sand away from the earth, one grain a year, when he would have finished, he would only just be beginning eternity.
For eternity would just be commencing. May the graphic illustration. But eternity is measureless. And yet God says, for all the grains of sand, upon this scene, he has a thought that is precious toward you and me. Now beloved, the intellect of God is beyond our comprehension. How great is the sum of those thoughts? And if we should be able to count them, they are more in number than this man.
But oh, my beloved, those thoughts of God are the precious toward you and precious toward me. Someday we'll be exploring those thoughts in eternity forever and enjoying that. But I'd like you to enjoy with me tonight five of those precious grains. of God's thoughts towards you and me. The psalmist in this great book has written five occasions beside this scripture that we have read and use the word precious that conveys the thoughts of God's heart toward us.
May I refer first of all to the seventy-second psalm. Psalm seventy-two. I would like to read verse thirteen and fourteen. Just a little background concerning the psalm, as many of you may know. It is one of the psalms that is called a messianic psalm. It was a psalm that was prayed by David for his son Solomon when he came to the throne. David prayed for the reign of Solomon. far greater than the psalm declares the prayers of David but Solomon can be recognized the prayer of the psalmist by the spirit for the messianic reign of the Lord Jesus when he will be king of kings and lord of lords over the earth when in verse thirteen and fourteen there is a characteristic presentation of our blessed Lord Jesus towards the poor and the needy.
If you note verse thirteen and fourteen, he shall spare the poor and the needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceiving violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight. Note the last words of verse fourteen. and precious shall their blood be in his sight. We shall have the poor and needy with us until Jesus comes in his glory. We shall have violence and deceit in the world until he comes and sets up his eternal kingdom.
Then here is a statement that indicates and conveys the heart of God toward humanity. He values human life. May I express it this way? How precious also are thy thought of the meal God? And let them personally be applied to my heart. First, here in the psalm that we have just read, chapter seventy-two, verse fourteen, he values my life. Precious shall their blood be in his sight. Human life is valued by God.
Human life is of great value to the heart of God. From the Old Testament scriptures it was very evident that when blood was shed and man's blood was poured out upon this earth, God required that it should be avenged, and God required that that blood should not be left exposed but covered over. And God values human life. Man's inhumanity to man will someday seek praise God. And when the Lord Jesus comes, he will manifest that compassion and grace for the need of mankind.
For precious shall their blood be in his sight. And, oh, may I say, every man, woman, boy, and girl is valued by God in their human existence. Go with me to Psalm forty-nine, please. Briefly but quickly, let's look at Psalm forty-nine and recognize another value that God places upon me. Chapter forty-nine, may I read verse six and seven and part of verse eight? They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother and give to God, nor give to God a ransom for him.
For the redemption of their soul is precious. God not only values my soul, God, my life, but God values my soul. And here we find the same word of incomparable value used to describe his value of the soul. The redemption of their soul is precious. Now look at the infinite cost of this redemption for the soul. It can never be bought by silver and gold. For they that trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him.
Many years ago, as I met a friend in the town I once lived in, he said to me, Mr. Bramhall, did you read the paper this morning? I said, well, Mr. Lawrence, I glanced at the headlines. What were you thinking of? He said, did you know that Will Rogers, the noted humorist, died? Yes, I did. I said, I noticed that. He said, Mr. Brownell, he must be in heaven. And I looked at him and said, well, Mr. Lawrence, did you know him that you could say such a thing? No, he said, I didn't know him, but he said, I read in the paper that when he died, he left a half a million dollars.
for the blessing and use of humanity in a humanitarian project. Well, I looked at my friend, I said, well, Mr. Lawrence, do you have a half a million dollars to leave? I don't. And they said, if that's the way to heaven, I'm shocked. And you too, I wouldn't think. And I told him, I said, I knew a man that gave away a hundred million dollars during his lifetime. And he left only twenty million dollars. But I'm afraid he went to hell. For he had no confidence, no belief in the hereafter. My beloved, if God values my life, he values my soul in a greater way.
The redemption of their soul is precious. And the words of Peter are so appropriate. as he wrote in verse Peter one verse eighteen and nineteen for ye know ye were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without blood my beloved I'm sure that all of us say by grace will say with the poet precious precious blood of Jesus shed on Calvary, shed for rebels, shed for sinners, shed for me.
Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? My beloved, God's value of my soul If I could ever measure it, I must only attempt to measure it by that death of his beloved Son upon the cross of Calvary. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The value of my soul My beloved your soul and mine must have been of such infinite and eternal value to God that he gave his only begotten Son. Hallelujah. Precious. My soul is to God. Go with me to Psalm. One hundred and thirty-three. I'm taking them in their moral order, as we mentioned then. in their proper spiritual order, our blessings and experience. Psalm one hundred and thirty-three, when we have the Psalmist saying in the whole Psalm these precious words, only three verses in number, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It is like the precious ointment Upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments. As the new affirmed, and as the new that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. May I give you the setting of the psalm? You will find this coming next to the last psalm in a group of psalms that are called Psalms of Degrees. or the Psalms of Ascent, beginning with one hundred and twenty, and going through Psalm one thirty-four.
It was the custom of the pilgrims, the Jewish pilgrims, when they rendered their path to Jerusalem upon their annual feast day, they would sing these Psalms as they rendered their way up to Jerusalem. It was also the custom of the priests, the Levites, when they ascended the temple steps to go toward the altar in the courts of the Lord. They too would sing these Psalms of Ascent. Now when you read the Psalms through, you will find them ascending in their truth and in their glory higher and higher until you come to the closing two, one thirty-three and one thirty-four.
Dispensationally, they describe the blessing of Israel when under the reign of their Messiah they will be enjoying their land, their nation, and their kingdom, and that millennial reign of their blessed, blessed king. And it crowns the glory of that day when they will be found in happy, united fellowship as the people redeemed around their king in the glory of his kingdom. It has another meaning that we could apply. For though it reminds us, as you see the Psalm reminding us, that that great day of Pentecost went from heaven above, there was poured out the Holy Spirit by the risen glorified Lord upon the believers below, and he formed the one body of Christ, which is church.
And in rich profusion, the Spirit of God was poured out from heaven above, to form the one body, to dwell in the believer, and to dwell with the believers until the dispensation is finished. That's another application that I like to think of. You could read a bit in Revelation chapter twenty-one, the first five verses. When in that new creation, God will be dwelling together with his redeemed creation, and in that day, God will be their God, and they shall be his people, in happy unity forevermore in that eternal scene.
But it does have an application even in our day. When I find that he values myself and Christ becomes my Savior, then I am God immediately. He is in the fellowship of his people. And in fellowship with his people, he goes there, I should join together with them in unity. How good and how present it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And in that fellowship, that God destroyed his people to enjoy. When he sees the unity, when he recognizes how good and how present that fellowship is, It's like the precious anointing oil that was poured out upon the head of Aaron that ran down his bed under the curse of Esau.
And there was the sweet fragrance and aroneness that came to the heart of God in satisfaction, all speaking to him, which we have no time to enter into tonight, but all speaking to him of the fragrance of Christ. May I present my brother and sister? God not only values my life. God not only values my soul. God values my fellowship with his people. You know, there's one thing about fellowshiping with God's people. You know, who is it? Enjoy singing his people together. The Lord himself.
The Lord himself. In the days of Malachi, as he described them in Malachi three, verse sixteen, days when the remnant testimony was small, declension and moral declension together with spiritual declension was great. Then David feared the Lord's sake, often one to another. And the Lord heard, and heartened, he stood nearer. So listen to them. that Satan sawed of his name, and a book of remembrance was written before him. And my beloved, may I say, there is one person who values the fellowship of God's people more than any other, God himself, and the Blessed Lord Jesus.
God values my fellowship. He strikes me in fellowship with every child of God. He strikes me in fellowship with his people. And my beloved, let me realize, God values that fellowship. And he wants the fragrance of it to be like the precious ointment that was on the head of Aaron. And may I take I wish I could have smelled him, but he must have been the sweetest, smiling man that perhaps has ever been on the earth. And he's never been away with the smell so sweet as he did. In that respect. But the joy of realizing, God damners the fellowship of his people.
And when he sees it as he wants it to be, it's precious. Precious. Precious. You know I'm glad I'm saying. More than that, I'm glad I belong to the people of God. The best people on the earth. What did you say? The best people on the earth. God redeemed people. And with what joy it is that you and I redeemed by the precious love of Christ, we belong to this. Members of his body, members of the family of God, And oh, how the Father delights.
But then he came. Indeed, taking to his heart the fragrance of the fellowship of saints. That's one good reason you ought to come to part to part. You'll smell better. But what a joy to realize. The preciousness of the fragrance of such fellowship. He now used it. Praise the Lord. I'm glad he's glad I'm here. What a joy to realize. It's God that values his people when they come together. Hallelujah. Now, you know what value the rest of them to put on us? Well, never mind. The one who values it the most is the Lord himself.
Well, let's go on. Psalm one twenty-six. Psalm one hundred and twenty-six. Remember the last two verses? They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weep at bearing precious seed. And so thou must come again with rejoicing, bringing his seed with him. He not only values my light, my soul, my fellowship, but he values my service. You have the figure of birth, man sowing seed, the seed-sower. He may throw in tears, but he leaves in joy.
He goes forth and weep at, but is carrying precious seed. And he shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheep with him, says the Lord. He values my service, all the joy of recognizing, in the sight of God, whatever service we render as we carry this precious seed map in of his word. And sow the seed of the good word of God. The word is the good seed. The field is the world. And you and I in harmony with our Lord Jesus and in fellowship with him can sow it. We used to sing a little chorus when I was young that said, So, so, so.
You may not see it grow. Scatter seeds of fresh truth everywhere you go. So, so, so, and gone will fruit be stowed. And it will keep your heart aglow. So, so, so, so, so. Oh, beloved, you never know. You know, I never forget an incident comes to my heart. Many years ago, when first moving in the South, and that's thirty-six years ago, I recall a circus came to the town where I lived. And it's the last time I ever remembered seeing and knowing of a circus parade that was usually held before they had the circus.
I got to myself, now that would be a good opportunity to give tracks away. So I fortified myself with hundreds of tracks. I walked along the parade line of that circus parade all through that town. Now it was a long way to go, but the crowds were there. And I gave trust out. In the afternoon I went near the circus grounds, milled around in the crowd, and gave many away. I went back at night again. And I recalled going home that night, and my back ate, and well-minded ate. But I had gone from at least nine o'clock in the morning to ten thirty at night. And I said, Lord, I hope something's been done.
But two weeks later, I had the privilege of having a little place at the county fair, and the privilege of giving testament, Bible, and distributing tracts. And I think we must have given about ten to twelve thousand tracts away that week. The end of the week, the college citizens of the town asked if they could have the fair and the exhibits kept for another week, and it was granted. So I thought I'll do my best and stay for another week if I can, at least part of the time. One day as I was standing in the booth where I was, I saw an old colored man coming down with five little piccaninies tagging after him, and I could see they were begging him for money.
So when he came to me, he said, maybe this gentleman has changed for a quarter. So I said, sure, I'll give you a change. So I gave him change for his quarter. And he gave the answer to the dime and said, run away now. I want to talk to this gentleman. And he looked up at me, he said, Brother, he said, I know you anywhere. He said, you the man that was giving them tickets away at the big show the other week. And he said, you gave me one of them tickets. And he said, I looked at it, and I read it. And when I read it, I thought that's just what my people need. And he said, Brother, I looked for you all over, and I couldn't find you anywhere. Because I was moving all around the place. But he said, You know, I picked up every one of them tickets I could find on the ground.
I said, Lord, I wish you'd follow me everywhere. And then he said, you know what, brother? He said, one night my aunt, she sent for me, she ran a boarding house, and she had a man over there that was dying, and he was afraid to die. Could I come over and help him? So he said, brother, I went over there. Sure enough, he said, that man was scared. He was dying, and he was afraid to die. And I looked at him, I looked down at him and said, I'll tell you what I've done. He said, the other night, he says, a man gave me something at the big show, some tickets. I don't know who the man was. He said, I suppose he went on with the show, he actually said.
But he said, I got two of them tickets left. And he said, I took them out, brother, out of my pocket. And I said, I'm going to read them to you. And then when I read them, you believe them. And you're dying happy. Then he said, brother, before I left, I gave them to him. I said, you read them. And if you read them, and if you believe them, you die happy. And he looked up at me with a big grin. He said, brother, that man died happy. And I said, thank you, Lord, for the backache. It was worth it. Now, we don't always see that truth.
The harvest day is still ahead. and the day will come when he'll show how much he's valued our service. And like the old hymn says, I don't know when we sang it last, bringing in the sheath, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheath. My beloved, there's no other person values what you do for him in his service than the Lord himself. Hallelujah. Now I'm going to tell you, You've got no idea how much he values what he does for you, what you do for him, and what he, I may do for him too.
He values my service and he values yours. One more text, Psalm one hundred and sixteen. Psalm one hundred and sixteen. And I'm sure you notice the happy sequence. of these precious truths. He not only values my life, he not only values my soul, he not only values my fellowship, he not only values my service, but here in these words are words that no other one but God could ever write. Verse fifteen, Psalm one hundred and sixteen. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his thing. You will never find anyone upon the earth that will write these words in an obituary column of the newspaper.
But these words have been written of every believer. These words are written for every saint that passes through the valley of the shadow of death to go and be with the Lord which is far better. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faith. She valued my death. Hallelujah. Somebody's going to value me when I die. And that will be the Lord himself. Oh, the joy of being human is a strange thing, but it's human. We only value things that live.
God says, I value my people even at their death. No wonder he wrote in Revelation, Happy are the dead which die in the Lord. And my beloved, the joy of realizing the value he places upon my death. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faith. May I point out to you I'm sure you see it, only five grains of sand. But I'm sure you recognize how in beautiful frequency covers my life.
He values my life. He values my soul, redeeming me through the precious blood of his son. He values my fellowship with his people. He values my service that I do for him. And he values when the end of that service is reached. And I pass through the shadow of death. to be in his presence forever. He values my death. I'm precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his face. From beginning to the end, I'm precious to him. Hallelujah. I'm glad I'm worth something to somebody, and particularly to him. One more take, and I'm closing.
The book of Revelation, please. I like the thought that I found in the book of Revelation chapter twenty one. Let me read verse ten and eleven. It's a description of that glorious city, the new Jerusalem, when the bride of our Lord Jesus will be seen in her glory eternal. Let me just read verse ten and eleven. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain. And show me that great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.
And the light was light unto a stone, and note, most precious, even like a Jasper stone, clear with crystal. My beloved, listen, I precious in light. I'm precious in my soul to him. I'm precious in my Christian fellowship to him. And so are you. I shall be precious in my service, and so will you as we serve him. We shall be precious to him in death. But may I suggest to you, when we get on the glory, we're going to be most precious. Most precious.
Having the glory of God. And in that glorious day, shining with the glory of God, out of the clay of earth, he will have redeemed us to present us to himself, to be forever to him, not only precious, but thank God, most precious. Hallelujah. I must say again, how thou canst think so well of me, and be the God thou art, is darkness to my intellect, but it's sunshine to my heart.
May God bless his word, for his name's sake. Amen. Shall we close in a word of prayer? Blessed Father, we lift our hearts to thee with gratitude. Father, we're amazed, we're overwhelmed when we recognize the dust that we are. Not only the dust that we are by nature, but when we recognize and acknowledge our unworthiness as sinners, who have proved their unworthiness in rebelling against thee.
that in the greatness of thy grace and the matchless character of thy love, thine infinite heart has gone out to us. With the psalmist we say, How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should help them, they are more in number than the sand! And then, Lord, when the moment comes we shall wake in glory. When I awake, I'm still with thee, and, Lord, in that day we'll be most precious. Father, may we not say in closing, unto you that believe he is precious, for it's only because of thy precious son these truths have ever become our blessed portion and shall be forever.
We thank thee. May we go our way tonight, saying in the words of the poet, For he is so precious to me. To heaven below, my Jesus to know, for he is so precious to me. We ask it in His adorable name, giving thanks as we separate. Amen.