Warren W. Wiersbe - Be Exultant. Praising God for His Mighty Works

BE EXULTANT

Published by David C Cook

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David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications

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All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission; NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved; NIV are taken from the Holy Bible , New International Version. NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved; ph are taken from J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English , revised editions J. B. Phillips, 1958, 1960, 1972, permission of Macmillan Publishing Co. and Collins Publishers; and ab are taken from The Amplified Bible . Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

LCCN 2008937409

ISBN 978-1-4347-6737-0
eISBN 978-1-4347-0332-3

2004 Warren W. Wiersbe

First edition of Be Exultant by Warren W. Wiersbe published by Victor Books
in 2004 Warren W. Wiersbe, ISBN 978-0-7814-4101-8

The Team: Karen Lee-Thorp, Amy Kiechlin, Jack Campbell, and Susan Vannaman

Series Cover Design: John Hamilton Design

Cover Photo: iStock Photo

Second Edition 2009

Contents

: An Introduction to Be Exultant by Ken Baugh

1. (Psalms 90106)

2. (Psalms 107150)

The Big Idea

An Introduction to Be Exultant
by Ken Baugh

In 1871, much of the city of Chicago was on fire, hundreds of people died, and four square miles of the city burned to the ground. The Great Chicago Fire was one of the worst disasters in America during the nineteenth century. One Chicago resident, Horatio Spafford, was a good friend of D. L. Moody and a man who lived out his faith. Despite great personal loss in property and assets, Horatio and his wife, Anna, dedicated themselves to helping the people of Chicago who had become impoverished by the fire. After years of hard work helping others recover from their losses, the Spaffords decided to take a well-earned vacation to help Moody during one of his evangelistic crusades in Great Britain.

Anna and their four daughters went on ahead while Horatio planned on joining them in a few days after tending to some unfinished business matters. One night en route, the ship that Anna and the girls were traveling on collided with another ship and sank within minutes. Anna and the girls were thrown into the black waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and only Anna survived. As hard as she tried, she could not save even one of her daughters. Anna was found unconscious, floating on a piece of wreckage. After her rescue, she sent a heartrending telegram to Horatio in Chicago that simply said, Saved alone.

Horatio boarded the next ship to Europe to be reunited with his wife. As he was en route, the captain called Horatio to the bridge when they reached the spot where his daughters had drowned. As Horatio stood looking out into the blackness of the sea, heartbroken and no doubt with tears running down his face, with only his faith sustaining him, he penned the words to one of the greatest hymns ever written: It Is Well with My Soul.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul

Chorus

It is well with my soul,

It is well, it is well with my soul!

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part, but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

How can a man who has just lost his four little girls praise the Lord? Where does a person get that kind of strength? The answer: by being deeply rooted in the Word of God. Horatio Spafford was a man of the Word, so when tragedy stuck, he could face it with strength and confidence. The centrality of Gods Word plays a critical role in the life of every believer, and this emphasis serves as the Big Idea throughout Psalms 90150.

David introduced this theme of being rooted in Gods Word in Psalm 1:13: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither ( NIV ). If you want to remain steadfast when the storms of life blow your way, you must be planted firmly into the truth of Gods Word.

But here is the question: If Gods Word is so important in my life as a Christian, why is it so hard to read and study the Bible? Let me share with you some results from a survey I gave to my congregation asking them to list for me the barriers that hinder them and others they know from reading the Bible.

The first barrier they shared with me is time. You probably guessed that this was the number one answer as to why people do not read their Bibles. Do you struggle with this one too? I sure do. Here is the truth about time: None of us has enough time to read our Bibles, so we have to make the time. And we make time by adding Bible reading to our daily list of priorities. If you and I believe that reading the Bible is important, we will put it at the top of our list of priorities. I believe the primary reason Bible reading should be a part of your daily routine is because the Bible is the primary tool that God uses to transform the mind.

The apostle Paul said, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2 NIV ). The word transformed comes from the word metamorphosis , which means to be completely changed from the inside out. Just as a caterpillar goes into the cocoon in one form and emerges totally transformed into anothera butterflythe Bible totally transforms our thinking about life, about suffering, about everything. If you do not make the time to ground yourself into the truth of Gods Word on a regular basis (I recommend daily), you will not be able to stand strong when the storms of life come your way. And to overcome the time barrier to Bible reading, you must decide that it is important and add it to your daily list of priorities.

The second barrier to reading the Bible is unbelief. Many of the people in my congregation noted that people dont read the Bible because there is so much stuff in it that seems incredible. Well, guess what? Those people are right! Lets look at a couple of examples. The Bible tells the story of a man named Noah whom God told to build an ark (a huge boat the size of one and a half football fields) and take in two of every kind of animal, bird, and reptile because He was going to send a flood to wipe out every living creature on the earth. Thats a tough pill to swallow. Then you have this guy named Jonah who was supposedly thrown into the sea and swallowed by a big fish, surviving for three days before being barfed up on some beach. Yeah, that really happened. Then you have this nation of people called the Israelites who were taken into slavery by the Egyptians, and God raised up a deliverer for them named Moses who turned his staff into a snake, called down all these plaguesnot the least of which was turning the Nile River into bloodand then, if thats not ridiculous enough, parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape Pharaohs approaching army. Cmon, that might make for an interesting movie, but how do you expect me to believe that? Do I need to go on?