The truth is stated that God is the rock of our Salvation and therefore is to be praised. To all the people God the Messiah is presented as the Savior.

B. The truth of God's salvation is given as the reason to worship the Lord.

1. Worship begins with thanksgiving. You can easily identify a thankful Christian. He will be praising God from whom all blessing flow as the hymn states.

ILLUS: My mother is a thankful woman. You cannot speak with her for more than a few minutes until she is saying how blessed she is. She is now (January 2008) in a rest home. She told me yesterday how blessed she was to be in a new room with a window where she could look out and see birds and deer come to feed in the afternoon. She said she was blessed because God answered her prayers. She was earlier in a room with a cantankerous woman who played the TV all night and had a bitter and mean spirit. She said God answered her prayers and the woman she is now with a such a sweet lady. She is a picture of a true thankful Christian. She praises God all day....

2. We are told to come before His presence with thanksgiving and to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord with psalms." That means with singing accompanied with a instrument. You cannot worship God without thanksgiving. True worship first acknowledge that God gives us salvation and secondly we express out thanksgiving to Him for salvation. (V1-2)

1. This statement about being the great King over all gods means little to us, but it was understood by the Jews who had a history of worshiping false gods and idols. Thus God is compared to the pitiful gods of man's invention and shown to be nothing.

2. The Gentiles and Israel worshiped false gods of the sun, moon, star and idols made with hands. Yet God is the creator of all things....He made the sun and stars and event he materials of the idol and the men who invented them. Thus God is THE King above all.

3. The evidence of the greatest of God is seen in His creation. (V4) God's power over the universe is absolute. Even in the deep places, the interior of the earth is His power shown. God sees and controls even what man cannot see as the interior of our earth. His power is there keeping the earth together. I think it could be a reference to gravity.

4. He says His hand are the strength of the hills. In Job 22:25 it says, "Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defense, and thou shalt have plenty of silver." (Job 22:25) The word "strength" is the same word translated "plenty" in Job 22:25. It refers to treasure and seems to speak of the valve and riches of the mountains.

5. Both the sea and the dry land are God's as He created them with His hands. (V5)

1. Worshiping God and humbling ourselves before Him is hard for some people. It goes against our pride.

2. But the fact is....we are His, made by Him for His purpose. Is the thing made greater than its creator? Who are we and where did we come from? Are we not God's on creation and who are we compared to Him? His greatness and power demands that the sensible thing to do is accept who we are and worship God. This is reality. What power does a man have? The answer is NONE.

2. Jehovah is our God....believe or not, accept it or not...the fact is we are His people in His pasture the earth. All we have even the breath we breath comes from God. What do you have that God did not make? NOTHING! (V7a) We are His sheep in His hand.

1. The illustration is when God delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt from their captives, the murmured against Him and showing they were ungrateful. As God directed them through the wilderness towards the promise land....they complained showing no respect for God are were they thankful. All they were interested in was food.

2. God had promise them a land flowing with milk and honey....could they not endure a little difficulty in getting to God's promise place for them?

C. Referring to the wilderness wandering of Israel which as the result of the unbelief and hardening of their heart God put up with them. (v10)

1. All who at Kadesh Barnea who would not believe the good report brought by Joshua and Caleb who spied out the Canaan land...they died in the wilderness and never saw God's blessings and promise.

2. They believed the skies who had no faith and would not believe God and accept His promise. They had no fear of God and no respect for him. They used their own faulty wisdom and it killed ever one of them to the man.

3. The same thing is happening today. Men reject God's promises with little or no thought as to who God is. They will not bow themselves and humble themselves to God's wonderful will and purpose for their lives. Instead like Israel...they are wandering around in their own power, confused, desolate of spirit and without hope.

4. Men who harden their hearts against God and His truth are in grave error....making a fatal mistake in not accepting the "ways of God."

1. God hates pride in man. He says, "Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest."

2. There is no salvation for the proud. God says "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. . ." (Proverbs 6:16-17)

3. God says, "And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." (Isaiah 13:11)

4. Jeremiah warning Judah said, "Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee." (Jeremiah 50:31) Pride and unbelief will bear its fruit and reap its just reward.

           Paul address this gross sin... "But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." (James 4:6)

           The question is simple and the answer should be clear... do we want the blessings of God that comes from accepting who we are and stopping to fight with God. Or will be choose to reject Him, to relish in our pride and have the wrath of Almighty God fall on us.

I think the wise man knows what He should do.... I think the fool will not be changed.