Union Baptist Church

“I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done; this is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 8:10)

THE wicked here are the ones who through wicked means have prospered in this world. Our text puts perspective upon these folk which will encourage the righteous who are troubled by the prosperity of the wicked. From this text we note four things about the wicked. They are the death, the departure, the demotion, and the destiny of the wicked.

Death. “I saw the wicked buried.” The wicked may have been able to escape many things through cheating, lying, payoffs and other evil means; but they will not escape death. They have a Divine appointment with death (Hebrews 9:27). All their prosperity will not keep them from this appointment.

Departure. “Who had come and gone from the place of the holy.” This sentence suggests apostasy. These wicked folk used to go to church (“place of the holy”), but they left it. When they became prosperous through their evil ways, they left the holy place; they departed from the faith. Evil prosperity does not promote piety.

Demotion. “They were forgotten.” Once the wicked die, they are eventually forgotten by the world. But worse, they are forgotten by God. God warns evil men that “I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you . . . and cast you out of my presence” (Jeremiah 23:39). These wicked people forgot and forsook God; now in the end, they are forgotten and forsaken of God. In contrast, the thief on the cross wanted to be remembered by God and was (Luke 23:39–43).

Destiny. “This is also vanity.” The epitaph of these wicked folk who prosper in the world but forsake God is “vanity.” The word “vanity” means empty, useless, waste, worthless. A life lived only for this world ends in vanity. When one is ushered into eternity, the gains of this world will be found to be losses and not gains. “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul” (Mark 8:36). In contrast, Paul gave himself to the Lord and so could say, “To die is gain” (Philippians 1:21) not vanity.

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“Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.” (Psalm 111:1)

PRAISE for God is the theme of this verse. The command for praising, the consecration for praising and the crowds for praising are all included in the verse.

Command for praising. “Praise ye the LORD.” We are to praise God. The world is not so sure as they put limits on where God can be honored. But the world is run by Satan. It makes no difference what the world thinks, we are to praise God. Spurgeon said, “Do it now, do it always; do it heartily, do it unanimously, do it eternally.” Let us praise God with our lips and our lives. Much of the world only mentions God in profanity; God’s people are to mention God in praise. The ailments of the world and our own lives can be traced back to failure to praise God.

Consecration for praising. “I will praise the LORD with my whole heart.” The Psalmist exhorted others to “Praise ye the Lord.” Now he sets a good example by doing it himself. The best way to teach is by example. We need to practice what we preach. And our example needs to be an excellent example. This one was, for it was praise from the “whole heart.” It was not just empty rhetoric, or words without sincerity, for the Psalmist praised God with sincerity. It is the only kind of praise that counts.

Crowds for praising. “In the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.” The two different crowds here represent two different situations for praising God. The first crowd (assembly of upright) represents a small group while the second crowd (congregation) represents a large group. The lesson is that we should praise God no matter where we are or how many people are present. Just because you are in a small church with few in attendance should not stop your praising God. And when you are in a large crowd where some may oppose your praising, you still are to praise God. Some folk only praise God where it is acceptable to do so. Our text says to praise God everywhere regardless.

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