VESPERS!--PSALM 5
DO 2364
4/82
1. Psalm 5 is a Psalm of David, one of my Psalms! (Verse 1,2:) "Give ear unto my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto Thee will I pray." I think that's obvious what it's talking about, David's praying, asking the Lord to listen.
2. (Verse 3:) "My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up." Do you pray first thing when you wake up in the morning? It's a good time to pray. Or in the night is a good time to pray. Think of the Lord first thing in the morning, all day long, and the last thing at night, and even think about Him in your sleep, dream about Him! PTL! TYL! You're to look up to the Lord in the morning, you're to pray all day without ceasing. Amen?
3. (Verse 4,5,6:) "For Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with Thee. The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing." What is leasing again? (Family: Lying.) God doesn't like lies and when you don't tell the truth.
4. "The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man." He doesn't like lies and violence and deceit. The World loves them! I'm shocked that they have such horrible movies nowadays, all kinds of horror and violent movies, etc.
5. (Verse 7:) "But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy: and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple." Well, that House is gone and that Temple is gone, so what are we going to do now? What's God's Temple now? (David: Heaven?) Well, there is a Temple in the Holy City that John saw one time. In another place it says they don't need the Temple because the Lord's the light of it, but he nevertheless saw a Temple there. But what's the Temple now? (Davida: "Ye are the temple of God!") Very good!
6. "Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost!"--1Cor.3:16,17; 2Cor.6:16. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Every one of you is a little temple. You're a little temple, you're a little temple, and you're a great big temple! We're all temples of the Lord! Why are we temples? (Techi [3 years old]: Because we all dance in a circle.) Yes, we all dance in a circle in the Spirit, that's right, and what is a temple? (David: A place of worship.)
7. Do you worship the Lord in your body? (David and Techi: Yes!) Yes, in your heart you worship the Lord. It's a place where God was supposed to dwell in the old days, right? Well, does He dwell in you? (Family: Yes!) PTL! He dwells in our hearts. So it says we're the Temple of the Holy Ghost, we're the Temple of His Spirit.
8. We are God's Temple today, as the Apostle Peter said, a house built with living stones!--Not old dead rocks and bricks, but a living stone. You're a living stone! You're a living stone! So what's His Temple today? (Family: We are!) PTL! So we're going to "worship toward Thy Holy Temple," we're going to worship, in this case, right in His Holy Temple, because we are His Temple!
9. (Verse 8:) "Lead me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make Thy way straight before my face." We certainly need the Lord's leading because of our enemies, don't we?--That we don't fall into any of their traps, that we don't go for any of their tricks. He makes His way very plain and straight before our face.
10. (Verse 9:) "For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue." Here is a description of our enemies who hate us and hate the Lord! "No faithfulness"--they have no faith in God, they don't confess God with their mouth. "Their very inward parts are wickedness"--they're rotten to the core!
11. "Their throat is an open sepulchre." What's a sepulchre? (David: A grave.) And what do you suppose it smells like when you open it? I've smelled some people's breath that was almost like an open sepulchre!--Ahem! Usually it was somebody that was not living right or eating right or something, or maybe they were sick. Thank God it wasn't in this Family. As far as the wicked are concerned, they stink, that's what God's saying, right? But they'll flatter with their tongue if they think it'll get'm somewhere.
12. (Verse 10:) "Destroy Thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against Thee." Is David praying for the destruction of his enemies? Is it legitimate to pray for the destruction of your enemies? I thought we were supposed to love our enemies? Well, yes, we can love our enemies, pray for them and do good for them--unless they don't respond to it! If they just keep causing trouble and are going to endanger God and His Work, if they're not going to be converted and changed by it, then we certainly have a right to pray that God'll destroy'm!
13. We are to have patience for awhile, we're to love them, pray for them and hope they'll change--and we have many times, and in some cases they have, thank the Lord! We've had parents who were bitter enemies who are now some of our best friends! But there are others who are bitter enemies and now they're even more bitter enemies, they've gotten worse rather than better. So we can certainly, legitimately pray that God will bring about their destruction rather than allow them to destroy His Work. "Cast them out," He says, "for they have rebelled against Thee."
14. "In the multitude of their transgressions." Well, some of them certainly have been transgressing against the Lord for ages, like the ACs. They continue to rebel, continue to spit at the Name of Christ, continue to harden their hearts against Him, continue to persecute the poor. So can we pray for their destruction when they don't repent? Certainly! If they're not going to repent, the quicker they're destroyed the better, the less damage they'll do!
15. (Verse 11:) "But let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice." Who's that? (David: Us!) Right! All those that put their trust in the Lord, let them do what? (Family: Rejoice!) What is it to rejoice, David? (David: Be happy!) That's right. Re-joice--be again like joy, happy! "Let them ever shout for joy!"
16. "Because Thou defendest them." TTL! Do we have to worry about our enemies? We don't have to worry about them, but we've gotta be cautious about them. We don't want to have any security breaches, but we don't have to worry. We know God's going to defend us. Those that put their trust in Thee, they're to rejoice, shout for joy because Thou defendest them, the Lord defends us. We have a lot of reasons to be happy, to rejoice and shout and praise the Lord, because the Lord takes care of us, amen?
17. "Let them also that love Thy Name be joyful in Thee." We're the only really happy people in the World because we love the Lord and we're joyful in Him! After all, how could anybody else be truly happy when they're not saved and they don't know what's going to happen to them when they die?--Or maybe they do, and if they're not saved, it's not too good.
18. (Verse 12:) "For Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt Thou compass him as with a shield." Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! What's the Lord going to do to the righteous? (Family: Bless them!) Amen! How can we be righteous when we are such messes and make so many mistakes and do some wrong things? How are we righteous? (Family: According to His mercies, by grace.)--By grace in His righteousness!
19. "With favour wilt Thou compass him as with a shield." When you have the Lord, His favour, it's just like you have a shield all the way around you, like a forcefield protecting you from the Enemy! PTL?
20. Well, that's a good Psalm about the Lord's protection from our enemies and hearing our prayers and His many promises if we stay close to Him and worship Him, and in this case, let ourselves be His Temple. Amen. TYL! Someone lead us in closing prayer. (Family prays.) As we pray our little prayer together: (Prays: "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep," Psa. 19:14, Num.6:24-26.) Bless our Family around the World, Lord, and do give us a good night's sleep and safekeeping and strength for tomorrow, in Jesus' name. PTL! Hallelujah! TYL! (Sings:)
"Blest be the tie that binds,
Our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred minds,
Is like to that above!"
"What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms!
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms!
Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus,
Safe & secure from all alarms.
Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus,
Leaning on His everlasting arms!"
"And God will take care of you,
Through every day, o'er all the way.
He will take care of you,
God will take care of you!
Be not dismayed what e'er betide.
God will take care of you.
Beneath His wings of Love abide,
God will take care of you!"
"God be with you till we meet again.
By His counsel guide, uphold you.
In His arms securely fold you,
God be with you till we meet again!
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus' feet!
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again!"
21. PTL! Hallelujah! TYL! Amen, Lord, do be with each one of us as we retire and sleep tonight and go about our work tomorrow. Have Thy way in each life and make us a blessing, Lord, each one of us, in Jesus' name. Bless and keep us safely and give us strength and health and wisdom and Thy wealth, Lord, and all the love and all the wonderful satisfaction You give us in Thy service, to see all these wonderful souls on the Family videos that You've reached and saved, Lord, and are using for Thy glory, all through the power of Thy Love and Thy Word and Thy Spirit, Lord. TYJ! PYL! In Jesus' name. TYL! Thank You for such a wonderful love and such a wonderful life, in Jesus' name. PTL!