The eighty-first psalm focuses on God's redemption, contrasting with the eighth psalm's creation and the eighty-fourth psalm's focus on God's house. This psalm highlights God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt and His promises for them, emphasizing that true appreciation of creation and God's house stems from recognizing His redemptive work. The sermon explains that Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead, and the firstborn among many brethren, signifying His supreme authority and role in redemption and our future conformity to His image. The core lesson is that God's threefold redemption—salvation, sanctification, and satisfaction—is unlocked through obedience to His word and faith, as exemplified by Israel's potential blessings that were often missed due to disobedience.
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of none of me, or succeed. He should have fed them also with the finest of the week, and with honey out of the rock, should I have satisfied thee. If you remember from the title of the eighty-first psalm, it's the recede musician of one's given. Now there are only three psalms and all the hundred and fifty of them that have the title given, or that word contained in the title. And that's the eighth psalm and the eighty-first psalm and the eighty-fourth psalm. The meaning of the title is really not known. It may have been a musical instrument that was originated in gas. It may have been a song that was sung in gas. It was used by the people in Israel.
But at least there are those three songs that contain the word giveth in the title. The eighth song is taken up with God's creation. The eighty-first song is taken up with God's redemption. And the eighty-fourth song is taken up with God's house. In the eighty-fourth psalm, the psalmist would say, How am I, will are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. But in the eighty-first psalm, he's occupied with redemption what God has done for his people in delivering them out of the land of Egypt and bringing them into the good land that he has promised them. And going back to the eighth psalm, it's how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
It's the psalm of creation. And we learn to appreciate if once we're redeemed, we learn to appreciate something of God's creation. It was not without reason that the songwriters penned those words, heaven above is soft or blue. Earth around is sweet or green. Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen. Birds with gladder songs or flow, flowers with deeper beauty shine since I know as now I know. I am His, and He is mine. And well could we praise God for the beauty of His creation. But what is there to bring a song out of the heart of the Christian, like the joys and glories of the redemption that God has wrought for us in the purse of His beloved Son?
The fact that we have salvation, the forgiveness of sin, we possess eternal life, we've been born into the family of God, we've been redeemed. Then you'll think of the eighty-fourth song, we've been brought into the house of God. The three songs at a time together. Each of them is addressed to the chief musician, each of these three songs. And if we could take a word from the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to lead the assembled company of his saints in the song of praise.
And if these are ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm spiritualizing, of course, for there was a chief musician of point in the days of David. But if these songs are described to the Lord Jesus Christ, then in the eighth song we see them as the firstborn of all creation. And you're aware of the fact that the term firstborn is a title, more than a description. It doesn't have to do with birth, it has to do with poverty. It's the place that he occupies. Lord Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creation in Colossians chapter one, because he is the creator of all things. He is the chief. He is overall God's creation, creator and sustainer of all things.
God's excellent one. But in the eighty-first psalm, in redemption, we see him as the firstborn from the dead. The one who died for us and was buried and was raised again the third day. It's in him that we have our redemption. He's the firstborn from the dead. And in the eighty-fourth psalm, which is the psalm of God's house, He's seen as the firstborn among many brethren, when in that glorious coming day of which we've been reminded, all God's people are at home, and the fulfillment of God's purposes for us is then seen.
We are conformed to the image of his Son. When that takes place, he will be seen there as that great pattern to which we are all conformed. And he's going to have that chief place among many brethren. the firstborn, that in all the things he might have to preempt. But you notice also those to whom the psalm is described, or who perhaps may have written these three psalms. David wrote the eighth psalm. No wonder that David could praise the God of creation if he kept the sheep out on the hillside of Judea, looking up the stars in the universe that God has made.
He glorified the God that put them all there. But in this eighty-first psalm, a psalm for Asaph, first chronicle chapter sixteen, Asaph was appointed by David to be the chief over those who should send and give praise to God in the service of the tabernacle. The eighty-fourth star, the star of God's house, perhaps the most precious of all, was for the sons of Korah. The sons of Korah. You remember the history of Korah, David and Abime, who raised the rebellion against Moses and the Aaron, and felt that they were just as holy as either Moses or Aaron?
and that Moses' man had no more right to the presence of God than they did. And you remember the subsequent judgment of God upon him when Moses told the people of Israel to separate themselves from the text of his ungodly men, and to demonstrate to whom God had chosen, that God was sticking through Moses. An unusual death would be visited upon core abatement of Zion and all that appertained to them. And the earth opened and the mountains swallowed them alive down into the pit. One moment standing in the sunlight of that glorious day, with a lot of possessions around them in the door of their chamber, the next moment the earth had swung them alive into the garden.
Of course, rebel against God. And yet we read in the twenty-sixth chapter that same book, but the sons of Korah perish not. And the sons of Korah have the eighty-fourth Psalm. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord God. We're not you and I in a similar condition. Will we not by nature and practice reverence against God?
And to think of it, to be brought into the house of God. Which house are we, writes the Apostle to the Hebrews, to be brought into the house of God? Have you grasped something of the privilege of that? Have we dined this afternoon to trace the experience of Israel as they came out of Egypt? You're aware of the fact that they were redeemed by the blood of the land in the land of Egypt. They were redeemed by the power of God through their legacy, delivered from their slavery in the land of Egypt. And in the song that they sang, the fifties of Exodus, we have a word, I will prepare him and have it taken.
They never said that at all. Actually what they said is, I will praise him. It never dawned on their minds that God would dwell in the midst of such a people. It was not till the twenty-fifth of Exodus that God gave instructions that a house should be prepared for him when he was well in the midst of his people. It was not that the people were causing God to dwell in their midst. It was God who in his gracious manner moved to dwell in the midst of his people. And as a result of the covenant of Exodus chapter twenty-four, the sacrifice offered there, the relationship into which is brought to people of God, God in chapter twenty-five says, Let them prepare me in habitation, that I may dwell among them.
And because of that covenant relationship to God with the people of this day, they've had the house of God. And those of privilege, the living God dwelling in their midst, a sinful people, conscious of their iniquity, aggravating and provoking God for forty years in the wilderness. And yet here they are with the presence of God in their midst. You talk about the sons of Kor. They had every reason to praise the goodness and glory of God for the house of God. And you're aware in New Testament language, we're not talking about a literal building of bricks and stones, but you think on it.
In the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, there are different aspects. And resurrection from the penalty of sin is typified in the Passover, when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, in that Passover which redeemed them from a penalty, death. There was no provision in itself for entry into the presence of God. Now it's one thing to have your sins forgiven. It's one thing to be cleared of every charge that's against you before the face of a righteous judge.
But it's another thing to live in the presence of that same judge. Or to use the illustration I've constantly referred to, Mr. Robert Anderson uses. If the Queen of England pardoned a criminal from the death penalty in the jail, he could walk the streets of any city, a free man, knowing that that sentence will never be executed upon him. But that in itself does not give him the right to enter into the palace and sit down at dinner with the queen.
But God said to the people of Israel he wanted to bring them to himself. And God is not satisfied just to deliver us from the penalty of our sins. God is not satisfied just to remove condemnation from us. God is not satisfied just as clear as the whole charge is. But to bring us to himself, the house of God. Do we grasp this? Hasn't a lot of the scripture lost its meaning for us? We have said it so often where two or three are gathered in my name.
There am I in the midst. Is he? Is that God's house? Are we in any sense conscious of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ this afternoon in the midst of his people? How would it change our attitude in this sermon? How different would we be if we knew that he was here?
How eagerly we would come to meet with him? God's help. What a privilege. What a privilege. Under the execution of that covenant in Exodus twenty-four, the people were forbidden to draw near to the presence of God. But it was all changed because of the blood of the covenant. Because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have access into the presence of God. But very briefly in this eighty-first psalm, redemption in the eighty-first psalm is occupied with three things.
First of all, there was salvation itself. In the sixth verse, God said, I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered from the pot. There was salvation itself. In verse nine, there is sanctification. Now, I am aware that what God is saying is that you will never be taken into captivity when you hear the worship of strange gods in your ears. There be kept from all that. Kept from it very practically, there is sanctification. And in verse ten, open my mouth wide, and I will sit at it. And there is satisfaction. And in the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ has provided for us when he's finished work upon the cross, when he's present, when he's finished, when he's free, at the right hand of God, all these three are for us.
What do we know of them? To remove thy shoulder from the burden. Israel knew what it meant, living as slaves in the land of Egypt, under the lash of the taskmaster, their lives made miserable by reason of hard bondage. They knew what it meant to have their shoulder removed of that burden. What do we know in practical experience of delivering from the power of things?
Do we speak of it as a doctrine and yet persist in slavery to habit and quirks of temperament that bring no glory to God. What do we know of delivering from the power of sin? Or what do we know of practical sanctification of being set apart to God? What do we know of this redemption that is called for such rejoicing in the first five verses of this eighty-first Psalm?
And finally, what do we know of satisfaction? Have we all had to speak of how true it is, what we've been hearing this afternoon, that materialism has come into the lives of the people of God almost as much as it has into the Word, and our chief occupation so often becomes things? And yet God says, over my mouth, why did I not do it? There's satisfaction. And I suppose in one sense, as Mr. Feschel was speaking in Florence this past week, there's a difference between contentment and satisfaction, but I'm going to leave it after this.
What do we know of being satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ? What do we know? I'm going to suggest to you in this eighty-first psalm There are two keys to this threefold redemption. The first problem is found in verse eight. Hear, O my people. And the second one is found in verse ten. Open thy mouth wide. Could I speak of them at obedience and faith?
Hear, O my people. And yet we are not to be just hearers of the word, but we are to be doers of it. God gave us ears. I mean, he's writing the sounds that we can hear. Thank God for hearing. But the chief purpose that he gave us ears was to hear his word. Do it. and written to the Lord Jesus Christ in the fortieth Psalm that God had digged his ease. God had formed an ease. And why had God formed an ease?
That there might be obedience to his word. I'm not sure that the fortieth Psalm had anything to do with the perpetual servant of Exodus twenty one or Deuteronomy fifteen. There when a slave decided that he did not want to leave his servitude either out of love for his wife and children whom he had acquired during his years of slavery, or out of love for his natural revenge of good women, Judah on these days, his ear was bored through with an all, and it was a sign, the outward symbol of perpetual services Nor am I sure it has reference to the fiftieth of Isaiah that God opened the ear of the Lord Jesus to hear.
But it seems to me it's the very formation of the ear. Why did God give a man an ear? To hear his word. And the fact that you and I have physical ears is the form for God that we are to hear when they're done with words. Now when you come to the tent of Hebrews, that quotation has changed. A body has now prepared. Why did God serve a body by the action of the Spirit of God in the womb of the Virgin? Why? That His Son might take the place of obedience. Why does God the Son, or why did God the Son move around this earth in the land of Palestine?
Why did He move around a human body? What is the purpose of that body? That He might be obedient, even as far as death. And that's the cross kind of death. He came as a servant. And the God that was formed for him was represented by the ears of the fourteenth child, the perfect birth, with obedience.
To serve God, to serve man. And I'm reminded that in a glorified body, is at the right hand of God this afternoon to meet our needs, still serving. What then was the key to God's blessing for His people long ago, the same key to His blessing for us today, obedience, heartless, Now to be very practical.
What do I do with the word as I read it? What do I do with it? I may outline it, exegesis if I can, and preach it. But God gave that word to be obeyed, not to be outlined primarily, to be obeyed. And I am fully persuaded that the key to the blessing of God, the first key, in the life of an individual or the life of a local church, is implicit obedience.
to what God says. Now that's a searching thing. It will not do for me to take the precepts of the sermon on the mountain brush from the side. No, I'm persuaded there be the laws in the coming kingdom age. Are there not things there that I must learn to obey? I was stopped short in Florence some time ago by an intelligent young couple, college graduate, and they later on may confess they were not entirely sincere, they had had a bad day, and was somewhat cynical to start with.
When I went to visit them about the things of God and about the gospel, I began to open my Bible with various scriptures about the gospel, and they stopped me for no wait a minute. You want us to become what you call a Christian. You are the slave of what we are now. We are not Christians. Now they said, we've been reading our Bible. And before we become Christians as you want us to be, we want you to do one thing for us. Show us one Christian in the city of Florence. Oh, that would be easy. Until they began to turn to certain passages in the New Testament.
Now they said, show us a person that goes out to the chapel. That's doing that. And before I was through, before they were through, I had closed my Bible and gone home. Obedience. We weren't doing it. heart. How do you read the Bible in your devotion? When God speaks, is there the desire to obey?
Remember the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. If any man will to do his will, he shall know of this doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. He did not say, if any man desires to know God's will. We are always so concerned with knowing the will of God. But God doesn't say anything about that. The Lord Jesus said, If any man desires to do his will, and I have half an idea that the reason I want to know God's will is not to decide whether or not I'll obey it. If it suits me. But the Lord says, If any man desires to do so, The second key is faith, a learning hold of what God is and can do.
Open thy mouth wide. Do you really expect God to do great things in your life or in your local assembly? Do you really think he can or will? Do you actually expect him to do anything? I prefer the reason we make no real ventures for God if we have no faith in God. I've asked myself many a times, why is it you sat here in small and the assembly has grown as an act? Why is it there aren't other assemblies planted around for it? Why haven't you made the venture?
It may well be the time has not been right when we were ready. That may well be. But our lives are set. We've never had the faith to open our mouths wide and let God do it. But the key to God's blessing, obedience, and faith. Now look at the results. The result in the last section of the eighty-first psalm. First of all, there would be subjection on the part of God's enemy. Verse fourteen, I would soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversary.
And the second result would have been satisfaction. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat. Now, this is what could have been said. This psalm is divided into three sections. There is first of all the calling to rejoice in the first five verses. There is second the word of redemption in verses six through ten. The last section is the cry of regret. This, God says, is what might have been. Israel had heartened and opened their mouth.
As you read the history of the people of Israel in the Old Testament, as you go through the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, And you listen to the prophets in those days, warning the people what would happen if they persisted in their course. You sit and read and wonder, if there are, how could you have been so far? And when you read as a warning from the exhortations and the encouragement to the prophets, what God would do for them is they would obey him.
but it never came to pass. But I wonder one day when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, if God is not going to say, now this is what could have been, if you had been willing to obey, this is what your life might have. This is what that local church could have been in that city if you have been willing to obey. Harpen, oh my people, hear his word, not just to read it and know it, Oh, God keeps us from the attitude of those who came to Jeremiah, professing a sincere desire to know the will of God is the way they should stay in the land or go down to Egypt.
And when they got the word of the Lord, they refused to obey him. God keeps us from a curiosity. Just to know. God give us a