“Exhort one another daily, while it is called today” (Heb 3:13)
Psalms 66:1-20

Part 2 – Verses 8 to 20

God has blessed His people to “Come and see the works of God:” and how He is “terrible (H3372) in his doing toward the children of men.

What is terrible (H3372) or fearful is to fall into the hands of the living (G2198) God (Heb 10:31) and to see how our nephesh, soulish sea of a life naturally commits adultery and fornication (physically and spiritually) and abides with strange creatures within as we progress from the sea unto the dry land as God supernaturally leads us “through the flood on foot:” by quickening us with His spirit (Joh 6:63).

It is through this process which we discussed last week that we learn to “rejoice in him” and come to learn and believe our powerlessness over sin (Joh 8:34), and how we are only beasts in this flesh with a much higher potential than we could have ever understood without God revealing this to us (Ecc 3:17-18, Gen 7:21).

Ecc 3:17 And I said in my heart: God shall judge both the just and the wicked, and then shall be the time of every thing.
Ecc 3:18 I said in my heart concerning the sons of men, that God would prove them, and shew them to be like beasts.
Ecc 3:18 I said in my heart, It is because of the sons of men, that God may prove them, and that they may see that they themselves are but as beasts. (ASV)

Gen 7:21 And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle, and of beasts, and of all creeping things that creep upon the earth: and all men.

Ecc 3:17 shows us that it is through the judgment of our just behaviour and wickedness (Pro 16:4, Jer 17:17) that we come to understand how God is Sovereign over the light and darkness (Isa 45:7) and working all things according to the counsel of His will (Ecc 1:11, Rom 8:28).

These verses below and especially the first one (Psa 51:10) reveal to us the spiritual creation process of Jerusalem above (Psa 137:6) where we abide as God tells us “I Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy” and this all happening in “heavenly places.”

Creating heavenly places (Joh 14:3)

Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Isa 4:5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Isa 57:19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

Isa 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Isa 65:18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

It is most humbling and reassuring to come to learn of God’s power and might that works through the Alpha and Omega who declares the end from the beginning (Rom 4:17). We are blessed to know in this age that His judgments are upon our first man Adam (1Pe 4:17) remaking the vessel of clay which was purposefully marred in the hand of the Potter to become something that “seemed good to the potter to make it.” (Jer 18:4). The ‘all things are new’ promises found in (2Co 5:17, Rev 21:5) are being created or formed within us through an ongoing process that God has promised to finish through Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our faith, as He makes known “by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Heb 12:1-2).

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Rev 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Rev 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

This week we will once again look at the need to “exhort one another daily, while it is called today” and how it is through this exhorting, encouraging and comforting (1Th 4:1, Heb 3:13, 1Th 4:1, Act 2:40, Rom 15:4, 1Co 14:3, 2Co 1:3) of the body of Christ that we can stay the hand of Satan and the sin in our lives which can so easily beset us (Heb 12:1, 1Co 13:5).

1Th 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, – that ye abound more and more.

Heb 3:13 but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin:

1Th 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, – that ye abound more and more.

Act 2:40 And with many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope.

1Co 14:3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men edification, and exhortation, and consolation.

2Co 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;

Psa 66:8 O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard:
Psa 66:9 Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

We praise God because He truly does bring us to see that He “holdeth our soul (H5315) in life” and “suffereth not our feet to be moved” and we are reminded of verses (Psa 91:12, Luk 4:11) to make the point that God uses the angels of God, the church to minister to Christ’s body and hold us up and witness to those who will come after of the discipleship of Christ.

Some verses, like those found in (Luk 12:5-15) show us God who “holdeth our soul (H5315) in life”. We are reminded that we are in the same nephesh life as the sparrows and yet are of much greater value because God is destroying our soulishness to make it anew. Whereas the rest of the creation is being sacrificed for our sakes to demonstrate how God is destroying all the carnal realm (man’s heart) typified by beasts (Ecc 3:18).

Luk 12:5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
Luk 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?
Luk 12:7 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Luk 12:8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:
Luk 12:9 But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. Luk 12:10 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.
Luk 12:11 And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:
Luk 12:12 For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. Luk 12:13 And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.
Luk 12:14 And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
Luk 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

Psa 66:10 For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
Psa 66:11 Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.
Psa 66:12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

The result of God proving us and our being tried of the Lord is to be brought into a “wealthy place”.

These verses in Matthew best describe that wealthy place:

Mat 19:27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
Mat 19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Mat 19:30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

In order to get to this place however, we know that there must be much tribulation (Act 14:22) that God brings about and describes in these words in verse 12: “Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.” and “Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water“.

The water and fire demonstrate the process of baptisms that we are called unto as well.

Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Psa 66:13 I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,
Psa 66:14 Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble.
Psa 66:15 I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.

These verses remind us that it is upon a burnt offering (Lev 1:4) that our vows are paid and fulfilled as we saw so clearly demonstrated through the email string of late in regards to being salted with fire, which we know that every sacrifice must be, in order to be accepted of the Lord (Mar 9:49, Heb 12:6).


Our lips utter “my vows” to God that declare we are a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1) and come at times of duress “when I was in trouble” (Job 5:7). God holds us up through the fiery experience so that our sacrifice is accepted before our Father through Christ (Eph 1:6) who is represented by the fatlings, the rams, the bullocks and the goats of verse 15.

Psa 66:16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.
Psa 66:17 I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

What God has done for our soul is what we have been discussing all along. He has been purifying it through the fire of His word, which must be tried and tested in this age if we are going to be able to reveal Christ to the world, as Christ presented the Father to the world (Joh 5:43, Mat 11:27, Joh 6:38, 2Ti 2:12).

Psa 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
Psa 66:19 But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Psa 66:20 Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

A reprobate heart, as we have discussed in the past, is an unbelieving and faithless heart (2Co 13:5-6, Rom 14:23), and when we are in this state of mind, God tells us plainly that such prayers are not heard because of their faithless nature (Jas 1:7). Our prayer is that God will keep us from this spirit of unbelief which was given to the Israelites in the wilderness for our abmonition (Heb 3:7-13).

2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
2Co 13:6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Heb 3:7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
Heb 3:8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Heb 3:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Heb 3:10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
Heb 3:11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
Heb 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

We can’t help it when we don’t have faith or are given over to a reprobate mind (2Co 4:4, Rom 1:28), but God does bring the elect to cry out and ask for help in our unbelief if we are his and he delivers us by the saving grace and faith (Eph 2:8) that come from Him alone and is manifested through the body of Christ that “exhort one another daily, while it is called To day” (Heb 11:6, Mar 9:24).

2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Mar 9:24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

When God does not turn away from our prayer, we are experiencing His mercy (Rom 11:16) in this age which acts upon those fervent and continual prayers which God grants the elect to abide in to His glory (Joh 8:31-33, Psa 119:133).

Rom 11:16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

Joh 8:30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Psa 119:133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.