Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Psalms

Dwelling Together in Unity

About this sermon

Psalm 133 celebrates how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. Division among professing Christians grieves God and weakens the church’s witness, and unity that sets doctrine aside offers no cure. True unity flows down from Christ, the anointed High Priest, like the oil poured on Aaron’s head, and God’s people taste it most in their worship together. Whoever loves Christ also loves his church, and the Spirit knits believers into one family.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

to consider a very brief psalm. It is three verses in length, but it’s a psalm that is a pact full of truth. Psalm 133. I invite you to turn to Psalm 133. Let us hear God’s holy word. Psalm 133. It is entitled, A Song of a Sense of David. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Dear friends, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word.

Heavenly Father, we pray that by your spirit, once again, you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. And we ask, Heavenly Father, that by Your Spirit, You would use the preaching of Your Word this evening to deepen and strengthen our faith, and also to deepen and strengthen our bonds of fellowship and love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. Again, I would encourage you, if it helps you to follow along, to keep track of the key words that are listed in your sermon outline. Well, dear ones, one of the saddest, most grievous realities in the Christian world today is the reality of disunity among the professing Christian churches.

Division, schism, a sectarian spirit, and disunity among the professed people of God is far more common than we might wish to admit. And few things can be more heartbreaking to the souls of the godly than witnessing folks who claim to trust and love and follow Jesus biting and devouring and squabbling with each other in a spirit of venomous vitriol, abusive rhetoric, and tribalistic pride. and few things present the unbelieving world with a poorer witness for Christ than a divided, disunited, conflict-ridden Christian church. I don’t know about you folks, but over the years as I’ve had opportunity to speak with unbelievers or with those who are perhaps believers but disaffected by the church, many of them will say things like, why is it that you Christians hate each other so much? Or why is it that you are so disunited?

How can we claim to be followers of Jesus if we don’t love one another and are not in unity with one another? Now of course, dear friends, many professing Christians grieve over the current disunity of the church. And we should. We should grieve for the disunity of the church because the disunity that is found in the body of Christ is indeed grievously offensive to the honor of Christ and to the Holy Spirit who himself unites us to Jesus Christ. But what is the solution to this disunity that is so common today among the body of Christ? Well, one attempt, it’s a well-intended attempt, to heal divisions in the visible body of Christ was and is the so-called ecumenical movement. The modern ecumenical movement in the so-called mainline churches, a movement which was influenced by theological liberalism or modernism, sought to restore unity among the churches by basically downplaying the doctrinal differences that have historically divided the various Christian denominations.

And instead of Seeking unity in doctrine, there was a tendency to seek organizational unity or unity in works of service and charity. Nothing wrong with organizational unity. We’re Presbyterians. We love everything to be done decently and in good order. And the Spirit of God is a spirit of order, not of chaos. But is that really the solution to division in the church? organizational or bureaucratic attempts at organizational unity, or unity together in works of service and charity. Again, nothing wrong with works of service and charity done out of love for our fellow man, but is that really what brings true unity in the body of Christ? Friends, this ecumenical approach to Christian unity is well expressed in the saying, doctrine divides, service unites. or perhaps you’ve heard it put this way, doctrine divides, love unites.

The spirit of the modern ecumenical movement can also be detected in the slogan, deeds, not creeds, a slogan which, ironically and incidentally, is itself a creed of sorts. However, dear ones, this modern ecumenical approach to Christian unity simply will not do. It will not do, not simply because it it’s incapable of producing that which it aims at, it will not do because it is unbiblical. Indeed, it is contrary to the Word of God. You see, friends, the Bible, God’s Word, teaches that our Christian unity is a unity in the truth of the gospel, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Unlike the ecumenical movement, Scripture does not drive a wedge between creeds and deeds. It does not drive a wedge between doctrine and service or between doctrine and love. On the contrary, Scripture teaches that the biblical faith, the faith once for all delivered to the saints, the faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures is indeed a creed and it is a creed that is meant to lead to and bear fruit in deeds of love and good works.

To pit doctrine and service or deeds and creeds against one another is a false and unbiblical dichotomy that undermines a biblical worldview. Beloved, if we wish to work towards restoration of unity in the visible body of Christ, we must first understand what that unity is and also where it comes from. In scripture, this unity is fundamentally a spiritual unity, spiritual with a capital S, because it is a unity produced by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, and it is experienced by true believers in union with Jesus Christ. It is not the product of administrative church bureaucracies or of social gospel do-goodism. This deep-seated unity among believers that is produced by the Holy Spirit and experienced in spiritual and saving union with Christ is the kind of unity that our brief psalm for this Lord’s Day evening points us to.

It is a unity which the redeemed family of God dwells together, a unity in which the redeemed family of God dwells together in peace and in harmony. So as we turn our attention to this brief passage for this Lord’s Day evening, I want us, first of all, from verse 1, to consider what we learn here about the blessing of spiritual unity in God’s family. If you’re following along in your outline, this is the first main point. Let’s consider the blessing of spiritual unity in God’s family. The psalmist, it is entitled, A Song of Ascents of David. The psalmist begins, behold, that means pay attention, listen up, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. Now this psalm is entitled A Song of Ascents. These psalms that are called Songs of Ascents were likely described that way or designated that way because they were likely sung by religious pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem for the annual feasts that had been appointed by God in the Law of Moses.

And during these annual feasts, God’s people from the various tribes of Israel and scattered throughout their tribal allotments in the promised land, they would go on pilgrimage and they would come together. They would gather together as one before the tabernacle or later on before the temple of the Lord in order to worship their God together. Such events would remind God’s people not only of their oneness in their worship of the one true and living God, but would also remind them of their history and their heritage as those who had been graciously redeemed from slavery in Egypt and brought into covenant relationship with Yahweh, their faithful covenant Lord and Redeemer God. Now this psalm is attributed to David. It’s a song of ascents of David. Now biblical scholars debate whether this is the case. There is a question about whether or not this psalm was originally written by David because of the fact that not all textual sources ascribe this psalm to him.

The designation or the title of David is in some of the ancient texts and not in others. So there’s debate about whether, in fact, David was the one who penned this particular psalm. But whether or not David was the human author of this psalm, we know that this psalm was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the authorship of this psalm doesn’t really impact the meaning of the psalm. And furthermore, David, King David, whether he wrote this psalm or not, give his hearty amen to this psalm, no doubt. Now, what does the psalmist say? Behold how good and how pleasant it is. He focuses on the goodness and the pleasantness of oneness, of unity among brothers. And he’s talking here, I believe, about the spiritual brotherhood the spiritual family of God. He’s talking about the brotherhood enjoyed by God’s people.

The spiritual unity of God’s people as experienced together in their corporate worship and fellowship is described as good and as pleasant. The imagery used of precious oil upon the head coming down upon Aaron’s beard perhaps is an image, an illustration of the goodness of this fellowship, whereas the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion is perhaps intended as a picture of the pleasantness of such unity among spiritual brothers and sisters. Though the people of God, in their pilgrimages to Jerusalem at that time, came together from different backgrounds, different localities, different tribes, different locations within the promised land, when they came together, they came together with one purpose, and that purpose was to worship and serve God in His holy presence. Remember what the what the tabernacle and later on the temple represented.

What did that represent? That symbolized and signified God’s covenantal reign and presence dwelling in the midst of His people. And of course, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that temple imagery. For in Christ, the Word made flesh, God the Son, the Word, the eternal Word, came and pitched his tent, made his dwelling in our midst. So they come together in the holy, saving, covenantal presence of God. They come together from all kinds of different backgrounds and tribes and localities, but they come together in Jerusalem to worship their covenant Lord. And as they do so, they truly dwell together in unity. And the psalmist says, how good, how pleasant it is. The opposite is implied as well. The opposite of the goodness and pleasantness of dwelling together is the evil and the discord and the unpleasantness of division among God’s professed people.

What are some of the takeaways or some of the implications that we can glean from this first verse? Well, there’s many things again that we can learn from this, but I would point us to the fact that as followers of Jesus Christ, we are meant to dwell together in unity in the body of Christ. We are not meant to live apart as isolated, Lone Ranger Christians. We live in a highly individualistic age, a hyper-individualistic age. And there’s many professing Christians today who would claim to love Jesus, but not so much his church. But friends, We’re not just meant to be Christians in our private prayer closets or in our personal study of the Word of God. We are meant to dwell together in unity, for we are the family, the forever family of God. We are His blood-bought children in Jesus Christ.

But where, again, where do we primarily experience this dwelling together in unity? Well, the answer, from the context of our passage for this evening, is in corporate worship together. It is when we gather together and raise our praises to the Lord and receive together the word of the Lord that our unity, our spiritual unity, which we have in Christ, is expressed and displayed in its most powerful sense, this side of glory. Passages like this one remind us, beloved, that biblical piety is fundamentally corporate and communal in nature, not individualistic. Now, of course, that is not to deny the individual aspects of our faith. We often hear Christians today talking about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and we affirm that. That’s properly understood, biblically understood. That’s very important. You have to be, you have to have a personal trust in Christ for salvation.

But that personal trust in Christ is not meant to be just personal, just between you and Jesus and no one else. It is meant to bring you into the family of God. When Christ saves you by grace alone, through faith alone, he brings you into unity through the Holy Spirit, into unity with his body, with the universal body of Christ. Now, as a backdrop to the blessedness spoken of in this passage, one of the things we need to remember is that spiritual unity in the family of God has always been a struggle throughout redemptive history. We might be tempted to look at the life of the church today, to look at the poor condition, the disunited condition that the professing church is in today, and we might be tempted to say, oh, it’s never been this bad.

Well, that’s not really the case. As one commentator reminds us, the commentator writes, the history of Israel, whether of its ancestors in the book of Genesis or of later periods, was a history of distinct groups struggling to live in unity. You see, friends, throughout its history, the different tribes among the Israelites often found themselves in conflict with each other. Just to give some examples for those of you who know about the biblical history, and I’d encourage you to study biblical history throughout the scriptures. The Bible, especially the Old Testament, is full of historical books. Remember the days of the judges right after the Israelites had been brought into the Promised Land and had been assigned their tribal allotments and as they got settled in the Promised Land and dealt with, you know, putting away and seeking to conquer the peoples that still remained in the land.

Remember those days. In the days of the judges before the monarchy, Israel was settling into life in the promised land. Israel at that time existed as a loose tribal confederacy. If you study the book of Judges, if you study the history of that period, one of the things you will notice is that there were often tensions and conflicts, not just between Israel and their neighbors that existed within the land or outside of the land, but amongst the tribes of Israel themselves. And of course this struggle for unity was especially highlighted in the history of the divided kingdom when the northern tribes of Israel separated themselves from the southern tribe of Judah in the early days of King Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon. The disobedience of God’s people to their covenant obligations had inevitably led to the fracturing of the United Kingdom under David.

What about in this new covenant era in which we live? We live in a period of redemptive history when the church is no longer confined to a single theocratic nation. Now the church, the people of God, the Israel of God has gone international. The gospel extends beyond the boundaries of national Israel to go into all the world and to embrace Gentiles into the people of God as well. Well, even in this new covenant era, we have seen this particular kind of sad division replicated in the history of the Christian church. If you study church history, and by the way, I would encourage you to study and read up on church history. It’s a wonderful, wonderful faith strengthening thing. But as you study church history, you’ll find things that will be very encouraging. You’ll see the hand of God and God’s providence guiding the church in great theological controversies, the Trinitarian controversy, and then the Reformation and all of that.

There’s so much to be encouraged by, but there’s also, I must warn you, if you get into church history, there’s a lot to be discouraged about as well. The history of the Christian church is, yes, it’s a history of some wonderful victories, but it’s also a history of some serious sin and schism and heresy. However, friends, in Christ, those who are savingly united to him are indeed truly one, spiritually one, one in the spirit, at least in principle, if not in perfection. And on that final day when our Lord Jesus returns in glory, the unity of God’s forever family will be displayed as redeemed sinners from every tribe and tongue and people and nation will be gathered in glory before the throne of God and before the Lamb. Then we will know in a superlative sense just how good and just how pleasant it is for God’s people to dwell together in unity before the Lord.

Are you looking forward to that day? That day when Christ returns and we are gathered before his throne, all is put to rights and we are in his presence forever. Then we will know, in the ultimate sense, just how good and pleasant it is to dwell together in unity. But not only does this psalm speak to the goodness and pleasantness of this unity. Next, as we move on to verse two and the first part of verse three, let us consider the holiness and fruitfulness of spiritual unity. The holiness and fruitfulness of spiritual unity. In the first verse, the psalmist extols the goodness and pleasantness of this unity, but then he gives some illustrations. He describes it. He likens it to some things. He says, it is like the precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard.

Who was Aaron? Aaron was the high priest, right? Moses’ brother Aaron. This is talking about the Aaronic priesthood. It’s talking about Aaron being anointed for his priestly office. It’s like precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes, those sacred priestly robes that he wore. And then another illustration, it is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains. of Zion. Now let’s focus on verse 2. What is the psalmist talking about here? Precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard. Well this, again, this refers to the sacred anointing oil that was used to anoint Aaron and the Aaronic priests to their priestly office. This sacred anointing oil was poured out abundantly upon the priest’s head and would flow down upon his beard and upon and drip down upon his holy garments.

And the symbolism here is tremendously rich and deep. After all, this anointing oil symbolized the work of the Holy Spirit, in particular, the work of the Holy Spirit in consecrating, in setting apart, and in equipping the priests for their priestly service. Now, did you notice the priests don’t anoint themselves? They don’t consecrate or equip themselves to God. Instead, God, by His Spirit, as symbolized in this anointing oil, consecrates and equips them. The equipping comes from above and drips down upon them. It’s not something that they work themselves up to or do for themselves. God by His Spirit consecrates and equips them. In addition, remember who these priests were. It is to be remembered that these priests were set apart not merely to serve and represent themselves. They were set apart to a public office to represent the people before the Lord.

So theirs was a representative office that they were consecrated and set apart to. And of course, friends, all of this imagery points forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ as our Redeemer is our great prophet, priest, and king. And as our great high priest, Jesus Christ was anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure. That is pointed to, that is typified in our passage for this evening. Now what we learn here in this imagery of the anointing of Aaron for his Aaronic priesthood, and I believe Aaron is a representative of the entire priestly class, the Levitical priests here. Again, this is Old Covenant language being used. What does this point to? What are some of the implications here? Well, first of all, true spiritual unity among God’s people is the result of Christ’s priestly work and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

It is a blessing granted from above. It comes down upon us from above. It is not something that we can accomplish by our efforts. Although We are indeed called upon in scripture to give diligence in preserving the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. But it is the unity of the spirit that we are to be diligent in persevering, in preserving. The spirit is the one who grants us this unity. We are to preserve that unity. And the unity that Christ produces, again, it is spiritual in nature, not merely external or organizational. Although, again, as I mentioned before, the spirit of God is not a spirit of chaos, but is a spirit of organization, if you will. We are to do everything decently and in good order. That is how the spirit works.

And then this other image, this other picture that the psalmist gives us, he says that this goodness and pleasantness of dwelling together in unity, he says, it is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion. One commentator explains it as such regarding Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon is a tall snow-covered mountain on the northernmost border of the Promised Land, part of the range that is the source of the Jordan River. Moisture comes from those mountains to fall on the dry land of Israel. The imagery of dew falling on the mountains of Jerusalem is one of refreshing moisture falling on dry ground. Such is the blessing of spiritual unity, true unity in Christ, unity in the truth of the gospel. produced by the Holy Spirit is something that is refreshing and fills us with joy.

But this dew, it’s also important to understand that this dew was crucial in providing moisture for the vegetation in that area of the world, especially during its dry season, which could often extend for lengthy periods of time. So by using this imagery, the psalmist may also be intending to picture the fruitfulness that such spiritual unity brings. When we are truly united in Christ, united in his person, united in the truth of his gospel, that bears spiritual fruit. It bears fruit for the kingdom of God. It bears spiritual fruit in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Beloved, since true spiritual unity is found in Christ and flows down from us as a blessing of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray for our Lord to strengthen our bonds of unity in the truth of the gospel.

But finally, beloved, As we wrap up our consideration of this brief psalm, we notice that the psalmist presents eternal life as the ultimate blessing associated with spiritual unity. And this is my final point, based on the end of verse three. Eternal life is presented as the ultimate blessing associated with spiritual unity. If we are united in Christ, we are united in our enjoyment of the gift of Christ, which is life eternal. To know Christ is to know life eternal. And if you know Christ, you share with me and we share together as brothers and sisters in the unity of the gift of eternal life that is found in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Notice how the psalmist puts it, though. He says, as he talks about the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion, you know, Zion, the mountains of Zion were in the south of the promised land.

Mount Hermon was to the north, so it’s somewhat of an idyllic picture here. But what is it picture? He says, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Where is the there that the psalmist is speaking of? Well, again, I will quote from Dr. Van Gammeren. He says, where God’s people are living together, quote, in unity, there the Lord sends blessing by his, quote, command. The nature of the blessing is specified in the second part of this verse, even life forevermore. And again, in the context of this psalm, where are the people gathered together and dwelling together in unity one with another? Well, these are the pilgrims gathered together before the tabernacle or temple of the Lord, the place of God’s special dwelling in the midst of of his people, the place of sacrifice, the place of atonement, the place of forgiveness, the place where the Lord puts his name upon his people and blesses them with his forgiving, covenantal saving grace.

It is there that the blessing of life eternal is experienced. Again, to quote from another commentator from Jerusalem, comes the promise of everlasting salvation symbolized on the Temple Mount, but fulfilled on that other mountain of Zion, Calvary, where Christ was crucified. It is there at the foot of the cross that we experience life eternal. And brothers and sisters in Christ, we are united in Christ. We are united in clinging together to Christ and his finished work on the cross. That is the source of our unity. this wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if we are united in Christ at the foot of the cross, looking to Him and Him alone for our salvation, we are one with each other. The spiritual unity of true believers expressed in their fellowship and love for one another is presented in scripture as one of the evidences of being in possession of the gift of eternal life.

For example, if we turn to 1 John 3, let me just briefly read 1 John 3, verses 14 through 16. 1 John 3, verses 14 through 16. The apostle John writes, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. And sometimes we hear of people who say they love Jesus, but they hate the church. They hate the people of God. You can’t love Jesus if you don’t love his bride, his body. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know, loved by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Now we are not saved by loving the brethren, but if we are trusting in Christ as our Savior and Lord, if by sovereign grace we have put our faith and trust in Jesus and know his saving grace, we will love our fellow believers who also trust in him.

Dear listener, do you love and desire to dwell in unity with the family of God? Have you received the gift of eternal life? Repent of your sin, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and Christ alone for your salvation from sin. And God’s word promises you that you will dwell in unity with the forever family of God. It’s a gift of God by sovereign grace and sovereign grace alone. Turn to Christ today. Indeed, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. We are the brotherhood, the sisterhood, the forever family of God, knit together by the Spirit through faith in Christ. May God enable us to continue to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we do thank you, Lord, for our unity as brothers and sisters in Christ.

And yet in this fallen world and dealing as we do, Lord, with a sin nature that continues to abide in us, we often find ourselves in disunity with our brothers and sisters. We pray, Lord, that by your grace you would enable us to give all diligence to maintain the unity of the spirit, to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And may we grow in love and unity for one another as we grow in our knowledge of your word and in our adherence to the unchanging truth of your God-breathed, infallible, inerrant scriptures. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. As we close our time in worship this evening, I’d invite us to rise and we’ll sing together Psalm 133a, how excellent a thing it is.

Let’s rise and sing 133a.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 16, 2023
Sowing in Tears, Reaping with Joy

About this sermon

Psalm 126 remembers the joy of the exiles’ return to Zion, when their mouths filled with laughter and even the nations said the Lord had done great things for them. The restoration was still incomplete, and the psalmist prays for the Lord to restore them fully, like streams in the Negev. Believers live in the same tension: already saved, being saved, and still waiting to be saved in full. Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy at the final harvest.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Amen, please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. We continue our consideration of various select songs. You may have noticed that I’ve jumped ahead this evening, we’re going to consider a very short song, but a very powerful song, Psalm 126. You may have noticed that I’m jumping ahead a little bit and I may be doing a little bit of back and forth as we approach the end of our our song series, but this evening I thought it would be well for us to consider Psalm 126. So let us hear God’s holy word. This is entitled A Song of Ascent. When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting. Then they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them.

The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. Restore our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South. Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro, weeping, carrying his bag of seed shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Here once the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Once again, let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we pray that by your Holy Spirit, you would cause your word to find a lodging place in our souls. Once again, this Lord’s Day evening, we ask that in this brief psalm we would find a truth that indeed transforms us and renews our minds.

We ask that you would set a guard over my lips, that I might speak only that which is faithful, and we pray that your name would be glorified in the proclamation of your word this evening. We ask these things through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. titled my sermon this evening is Sewing in Tears, Reaping in Joy. Well, dear ones, reunions with family or old friends that you haven’t seen in a while can indeed be joyful occasions, especially so when such a reunion takes place after a significantly long period of time filled with life-changing trials, struggles, crises, and sorrows. This was brought home to me recently. Recently, I was looking online at some old photos of soldiers who had just returned home to their families and friends after the end of the Second World War.

Though the pictures were black and white, for the most part, the look on the faces of these folks, the folks in these photos, whether we’re talking about the returned soldiers, their girlfriends, their wives, their children, their friends, and onlookers in general. The looks on their faces were just beaming with brightness and joy. In some of these old photos, you can also detect some eyes that were moist with tears of joy. One particular picture that really stood out to me was a photo of two young soldiers who had returned home from the war. In this particular photo, these men in uniform were walking on crutches, the reason being that each one of them had lost a part of his leg up to the knee in the photo. But in spite of having lost a limb in their service, both of these wounded warriors were just smiling from ear to ear, their faces just beaming.

And you might wonder as you look at that picture, why are these men so happy? Each of them has lost a significant portion of one of his legs and they’re walking on crutches. Why are they so happy? Well, friends, the war was over. They were home, finally home. It’s likely that they had been looking forward to that moment in time for a very long time. And when the moment finally arrived, it must have seemed euphoric to them, almost like they were dreaming. As I was looking at these photos, I also began reflecting on not only on the joy of homecoming and reunion with family and friends as depicted in these photos, but I also began to wonder to myself, well, what was it like for these brave men to readjust to life after war and life off of the battlefield?

What was it like for them to get back into the routine of ordinary civilian life and in a setting of peacetime? As joyful as it was for many of these soldiers to return home from the war, no doubt many of them and their families would face painful challenges as these men sought to transition back into civilian life and as they sought to return to a sense of normalcy. Now some, like the two men who had lost a leg, some of these men would carry with them for the rest of their lives the physical wounds of the battlefield. But even in the case of those who emerged from the war without physical injuries, no doubt many carried with them deep psychological scars, painful memories of the hellish horrors and atrocities witnessed on the battlefield, perhaps even memories of witnessing the lives of close friends and comrades in arms being violently snuffed out before their very eyes.

In their case, there was indeed joy in coming home and reuniting with family and friends. But for many who leave the war, sadly, the war never completely leaves them as their souls bear the imprint of it for the rest of their lives. What does this all have to do with our song for this Lord’s Day evening? Well, dear ones, our song for this Lord’s Day evening reflects a similar kind of tension between, on the one hand, the joys of restored fortunes, the joy of returning from the captivity, and on the other hand, the ongoing challenges and obstacles and struggles that living life in this fallen world continues to throw our way. In terms of the original life setting of this psalm, many believe that this particular psalm reflects the reality of life for God’s people after their return to the promised land following their exile. in Babylon.

This setting is favored by translations such as the one I’m preaching from this evening, the New American Standard Version. You’ll notice in verse one, it is translated, when the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion. Now, if that’s the favored translation, then it favors the view that this psalm was likely composed following the exile from Babylon. In other words, a post-exilic psalm. However, some versions, like the very sound English Standard Version, offer another possible translation that leaves the door open for a more general historical setting. In the ESV, it is translated in verse 1, when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion. That could be referring to any number of historical situations in Israel, situations both before and following the exile. Based on my own research, I tend to favor the view that this particular psalm is a post-exilic psalm.

But in any case, whenever it was written, this psalm appropriately speaks to the joys and to the sorrows that God’s people experienced after their return to the promised land from their Babylonian exile. Now, this is one of the so-called songs of ascents. The songs of ascents include Psalms 120 through 134. And many believe that these songs were sung by pilgrims after the exiled who would sing these songs on their way up on their ascent up to Jerusalem for the annual feast, and which also may have been used in the temple liturgy as they made their way up the steps of the temple. Like many other songs, this song covers a full range of human emotions. It goes from joy to sorrow and back to joy. Again, Professor Elmer Leslie introduces this psalm in the following words in his commentary.

He says, The psalmist remembers the joy which came to him and his countrymen when the return from exile or the change in fortunes was experienced. The presence, however, is disappointing, and in confidence, he prays that Jehovah may bring the restoration to a glorious completion. There is no definite indication of date. It would fit in the troublesome period soon after the return in 537 B.C. or in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah nearly a century later. So as we dive into this brief poem this evening, let’s first of all consider the opening verses, verses one through three, as we consider the joy of restoration, the joy of restoration. Again, assuming the New American Standard Version translation being appropriate, it says, when the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream.

Again, we have here likely a post-exilic setting. And he says, when the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, Yahweh, the Lord, Israel’s faithful covenant-keeping God, is credited with bringing his captive ones back to Zion or of restoring the fortunes of Zion. What is in view here, beloved, is a gracious, divine intervention, a special providential act of Israel’s faithful covenant Lord, the Lord who does great things for them. And it says, as the psalmist recalls, God’s mighty work in bringing the captives back to Zion this joy, the joy of returning from the captivity. What does he say? He says, we were like those who dream. If you’ve ever experienced an occasion of reunion after a long period of time or a heightened emotion, it can almost seem, especially heightened emotion when it comes to joy, it can almost seem like you’re dreaming.

It can seem like, is this really real? We were like those who dream. In other words, what God had done for them almost seemed too good to be true. Almost seemed like a dream. But God had indeed done great things for them in bringing them back to the promised land. And then it goes on to say in verse two, then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting. Then they said among the nations that the goyim, the gentile nations, they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them. So great was God’s restoration, his intervention that brought this restoration, that even the Gentile nations surrounding Israel acknowledge that Yahweh, their God, has done great things for them. Once the initial shock of joy over their restoration is over, they’re filled with rejoicing over the Lord’s gracious restoration.

Their joy is multiplied. And even as I mentioned, even the Gentile nations at that time recognized the sovereign power of Yahweh, Israel’s God, in doing great things for his people. And by the way, that reminds us that part of Israel’s calling as the chosen people of God and as a theocratic nation, as the church under age, the church of the old covenant, was to bear witness to the reality of God and the truthfulness of his word to the Gentile nations around them. Israel to God’s people under the old covenant also had a missionary calling. They were to bear faithful testimony to the true and living God to the Gentile nations that surrounded them. Just as it is our duty as the Church of Jesus Christ in this new covenant era to proclaim the gospel in all the world and to make disciples of all the nations.

And so following up on this confession of the nations that yes, The Lord has done great things for them. What does it say in verse three, the psalmist voicing the expression, the confession of the people of God, the psalmist says the Lord has done great things for us. And what’s the result? We are glad. You see how these opening verses of this brief psalm just pulsate with joy. Pulsate with with thanksgiving to God for the great things that he has done for them. Beloved, even greater than God restoring his people from exile, that great historical restoration and deliverance was God restoring us believers to a right relationship with us, with himself, through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. You see, all of these lesser restorations and deliverances point forward to the ultimate restoration and deliverance that comes to God’s people through the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners.

In Christ, God has indeed done great things for us, especially in saving us from our sins and granting us the gift of everlasting life. Dear listener, do you know the joy of being restored to a right relationship with God, the joy of salvation? It is that joy that would cause us to say we were it was like we were dreaming. What a wondrous thing that God, the infinitely holy creator of the universe, would have pity upon and take and show mercy to us wretched sinners and send his son Jesus Christ to die for our sins and to rise again that we might receive the gift of eternal life. May your trust be in him. May you rejoice in the Lord who has done great things for you, the Lord Jesus Christ, your Savior. But next, while this psalm opens with a note of great joy, we next notice in verse four, a prayer for the Lord to complete the restoration, a prayer for the Lord Yahweh to complete the restoration.

Verse one, when the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, so there’s already been an initial restoration, but then the psalmist goes on to say, Restore our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South, or the Negev. The Negev was the southern part of the promised land, as streams in the South. Though the people have experienced the joy of restoration, they await a complete or full restoration. When the psalmist prays and petitions God to restore our fortunes, as one commentator puts it, it’s as if the psalmist is saying either complete the repatriation of exiles or fully restore the security and prosperity of former times. If you read in the Old Testament the history of the post-exilic community, you recognize that the returned exiles didn’t have it easy. Yes, they rejoiced that that the Lord had brought them back to the promised land.

But once they got back to the promised land, what did they face? They faced difficulty. They faced opposition from the pagans who were then dwelling in the land and so forth. And so there was there was difficulty. It was not like it had been in the days of Solomon for the post-agylic community. And so, again, the psalmist says, Restore our captivity, O Lord. as the streams in the south. Now, what is this referring to, the streams in the south? Another commentator reminds us that the streams in the Negev were dry in the summer, but winter rains brought plenty of water and made the people rejoice. Now, this kind of agricultural language that the psalmist is using, what does it point to? This imagery of streams in the Negev and seed for sowing and so forth.

Again, another commentator says that the images that follow seem to illustrate the kind of renewal that is being asked for, namely a good year for crops. Since Israel’s life in the land was to show forth a new Eden for all the world to see, such agricultural fruitfulness would necessarily be tied to active faithfulness on the part of the people. And so the returned exiles seem to be praying for Lord, grant us a a full crop that we might be able to provide for our children in the next year. Living in that part of the world, living in that kind of an agricultural environment where people, you know, if you were hungry you couldn’t go to the local supermarket, you depended upon a good crop to be able to survive. And so this is the kind of, these are the kinds of requests that are being made in this particular psalm.

What is the basic overall message of this psalm? Well, to quote from another commentator, the message of the psalm is that there is no simple solution on earth for the problems of the people of God. No single act of God which will bring them into unbroken joy, rid them of trials and temptations, or establish them in perfection. This side of heaven. In other words, friends, This psalm expresses the already not yet tension of this present age. What’s that talking about? What am I talking about when I speak of the already and the not yet? Well, thank brothers and sisters of your salvation. Are you saved? Is Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior? Have you trusted him as your very own Lord and Savior, having repented of sin and put your faith and trust in him alone?

If by God’s sovereign grace and through the effectual call of that grace, you have put your faith and trust in Jesus, you are already in a safe position. You are already justified. You are an adopted child of God. You are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You are being progressively sanctified, and one day you will be glorified. But you are saved, and yet you are not saved in the fullness of salvation. You yet await full conformity into the image of Christ your Savior, which will happen at your glorification. So, in answer to the question, when someone asks you, are you saved? Really, the biblical answer is, I am saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved. I’m already in a saved condition because of Christ and because of His mercy to me, because of my justification and adoption.

But I am being saved. I’m being progressively sanctified and I will be saved in the ultimate consummate sense on that final day. There’s this already not yet reality or tension that we live with in this present age. This is reflected in the psalm. The psalmist says that they rejoice because the Lord had restored their fortunes. The Lord had brought back the captive ones and yet They’re not fully restored as verse as the petition of verse four indicates. And so again, we who are in Christ are already know the joy of the Lord and his saving, restoring grace. If Christ is your savior, if you are in Christ, you already know that joy inexpressible and filled with glory, you know, in your heart, the joy of the Lord. And yet we do not experience that joy and restoration in its full consummated sense yet.

And therefore, this psalm leaves us longing for the eschatological age to come. This psalm ultimately points us to the fact that there is something better yet to come. The good news is that this psalm closes by pointing us to the hope and promise of the final harvest. And that leads me to my final point as we consider verses five and six, where the psalmist writes, Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.” Now, assuming that this psalm reflects a post-exilic setting, The returned exiles faced, as I mentioned, they faced the difficult and often sorrowful challenges of working the land. And the land was not always cooperative. Working the land, sowing their seed, and looking in hope for a fruitful harvest.

But here our Lord assures his people that though at this present time we sow in tears, one day we shall reap a joyful harvest. In these verses, we are presented with an oracle of hope. And, you know, this has been mentioned many times, but it’s important to remind ourselves that when the Bible talks about hope, it’s not just talking about a pipe dream. It’s not just talking about, oh, I wish. We might use the word hope in that looser sense of, well, I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, or I hope, you know, I hope I get that new job, or I hope I get a good report from my doctor. When we use the word hope in that sense, we’re expressing a wish, but a wish that may or may not come to pass. But biblical hope is not merely a wish.

Biblical hope is a certainty. Our ultimate hope as Christians is not an uncertain thing. Our ultimate hope, the hope of glorified life in the new heavens and the new earth, There’s nothing uncertain about that. It is an absolute certainty, but it is still in our future. And in this present age, we are pilgrims walking towards that ultimate hope. We walk by faith, not by sight. And so here we have an oracle of hope where God is assuring his people that yes, a bountiful, joyful harvest is coming. God will in his good time, grant a fruitful harvest. Now, the present painful toil of his people will yet bear abundant fruit. Now, no doubt this promise was fulfilled in a typological and agricultural sense in its ancient context, and no doubt God did grant his post-exilic people the necessary harvest to sustain their life.

But this also points us to an even greater harvest. That is the spiritual and eternal harvest of redeemed souls that our Lord will harvest on that final day. Beloved, this points us to Christ. Think about it. Christ’s body was sown in sorrow on Good Friday. But through his redemptive labors on the cross, he reaped a harvest of eternal life on Easter Sunday when he rose victorious from the dead. securing the harvest of a great multitude of redeemed sinners. And likewise, the church of two, the Church of Jesus Christ, also sows the seed of the gospel word throughout the field of this world, and oftentimes, beloved, our labors as the Church of Jesus Christ, our labors at sowing the word are often accompanied by the sorrows of this life, often accompanied by the sorrows of discouragement and disappointment.

People rejecting the gospel. People scoffing at us. People even persecuting the church. In this present age, we sometimes face the sorrows, the tears. We take out our bag of seed. We sow the seed of the word. The church sows the seed of the word and much of that seed will fall on fallow ground, unresponsive ground. And it’s tempting to be discouraged. The Church of Jesus Christ, let us not lose heart. Christ has promised and indeed secured an abundant spiritual harvest. He has secured it by his obedient life, his atoning death and his glorious resurrection. So let us with courage and joy labor on until our Lord returns and brings in the final harvest. This passage also leaves us longing for the glories of heaven. For the sorrows and the struggles and incomplete restoration that we experience in this present life are reminders to us that something better is yet to come.

As I studied this psalm in preparation for this sermon and considered it and meditated upon it, one of the effects that it had on me is that, again, it kind of whetted my appetite for the glories of the age to come. If I considered the redemptive historical and eschatological truths that this was pointing to, namely the truth of heaven, the final harvest, the final bringing in of the she’s where the Lord will bring us his harvest into his everlasting barn. How about you, dear listener, do you long for the glories of the age to come? Are you looking forward? to the ultimate joy of that ultimate eschatological harvest, that ultimate restoration. Are you looking forward to that time when Jesus, your Lord, will take you to be with himself or come back for you? Should he return at this present time?

Whenever our Lord returns, this psalm directs us to look to the Lord for that final harvest and to be assured that indeed, as it promises here, he who goes to and fro, weeping, carrying his bag of seeds shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Oh, dear, discouraged believer, latch on to this truth, this promise in verse five. Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. There may be sorrow and tears now, but joy beyond imagination, the joy of the Lord is yet to come in its consummated glory. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we do praise you and thank you, O God, that you have indeed restored us into a right relationship with yourself through faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that was given to us by your grace as a gift We thank you, Lord, that we can experience in Christ the joy of the Lord.

Even now, in this present age, we have a foretaste of the glorious age to come. And yet, Lord, in this present age, we continue to labor. We continue to sorrow. We often sow in tears. Give us the grace, Heavenly Father, give us the grace to rest in your promise that those who sow in tears will one day reap, by your grace, a joyful harvest because Christ, our Savior, has brought us into a right relationship with yourself. In his name we pray, and all of God’s people say, Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 9, 2023
The Living God versus Lifeless Idols

About this sermon

Psalm 115 gives glory to the Lord’s name and answers the nations that ask, ‘Where is their God?’ The idols of silver and gold have mouths that cannot speak and eyes that cannot see, and those who trust in them become like them. True religion comes from God’s revelation, while false religion comes from human imagination. Israel, the priests, and all who fear the Lord must trust in him as their help and shield, and his people will bless him forever.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Indeed, our Lord and Father in heaven, we do look forward to Jerusalem, the golden, the heavenly Jerusalem. But we thank you, Lord, that in this age you give us a foretaste of that heavenly glory by your word and through your spirit. We ask, Lord, that as we come to this portion of Holy Scripture, that your spirit would indeed give us such a foretaste of the glories of the age to come. And we pray, Lord God, that you would bless the reading and proclamation of your word this evening. We pray that through this word, read and proclaim that your spirit would root and establish us more firmly in Christ, that you would transform us by the renewing of our minds. And we pray that this sermon this evening, this preaching this evening would be spiritual milk to those who need the milk of the word.

May it be meat to those who need the meat of the word. but may it be manna from heaven for all of us, Lord. We ask that you would grant unto me the grace, Lord, to speak forth your word with clarity, faithfulness, and power, and set a guard over my lips, that I might speak only that which is faithful in your sight. We pray these things through Christ our Lord, and all of God’s people said. Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. As we continue to study and consider various Psalms from the Book of Psalms, this evening we consider another one of the Hallel Psalms, Psalm 115. This psalm does not have an indication of author or superscription, but it is a psalm that is relevant to God’s people in all ages of redemptive history.

Let us hear God’s holy word. Psalm 115. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your loving kindness, because of your truth. Why should the nation say, where now is their God? But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak. They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot hear. They have noses, but they cannot smell. They have hands, but they cannot feel. They have feet, but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.

O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, the small together with the great. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth he has given to the sons of men. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. But as for us, we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever.

Praise the Lord. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. You may be seated. Title of my sermon on this Lord’s Day evening is The Living God Versus Lifeless Idols. And children, if you wanna listen for key words this evening, what I encourage the children to do is pick a few of these key words that are on your sermon outline and pick a few of those words, count the number of times that I say those words. Words are idols, idolatry, religion, trust, worship, sovereignty, life, death, and praise. Hey, it doesn’t matter. We all worship the same God anyways. Friends, I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve heard this or similar kinds of assertions being made, usually in the context of having friendly, informal conversations with unbelievers who find out that I’m a pastor, or sometimes with professing Christians whose theology I know to be radically different from my own.

Perhaps you’ve had similar comments or encountered similar comments in your conversations with those outside of an orthodox understanding of the faith. And what do you say to that? Sometimes it’s brought up in conversation really to kind of derail the conversation and get it back to more mundane things. That’s sort of a way that many folks will say something like that as a way of saying, you know what, I really don’t want to talk about this. Can’t we just go back to talking about the weather, right? Well, perhaps you’ve encountered similar types of comments in conversations that you’ve had. The truth is, friends, that many today have bought into the pluralistic belief that says all religions ultimately lead to God or to ultimate reality, quote unquote, whoever or whatever that ultimate reality might happen to be.

This common theology of religious pluralism tends to see all religions as equally valid, as equally, quote, true. And that’s the case whether we’re talking about Christianity, or Judaism, or Islam, or Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age mysticism, Mormonism, Wicca, some would even say Satanism, or what have you. The idea is, well, these are all just different paths to the same ultimate goal. Now, closely connected to this theology of religious pluralism, meaning the belief that all paths lead ultimately to God or to the divine, is the commonly held belief that says, well, it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere. And so, for example, if I wanted to create a new religion, let’s say it’s the religion of the sacred tomato. And I say that the sacred tomato is the source of salvation. Those of a religious pluralist mindset might say, well, that’s fine if that’s what you sincerely believe.

And if you create a religion around the sacred tomato and develop a theology around a sacred tomato and proclaim the sacred tomato as the savior, well, that’s just your way of finding God. As long as you’re sincere, it doesn’t matter what you believe. The dogma of religious pluralism, and it is a contemporary dogma, and its related doctrine of salvation by sincerity is very popular today, especially in our postmodern world of moral relativism, and especially with its emphasis upon diversity and inclusion and tolerance as the highest of ethical virtues. Now don’t get me wrong, properly understood things like inclusion, intolerance, and so forth are good things, properly biblically understood. But dear ones, the God revealed in the pages of the Holy Bible would strongly disagree with the theology of religious pluralism and its related doctrine of salvation by sincerity.

In fact, Throughout its sacred pages, the Word of God clearly, unambiguously, and unapologetically teaches that there is only one true and living God, namely, the sovereign triune God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the blessed Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that Bible-believing Christians worship and seek to serve and obey. And of course, Our Lord Jesus Christ claims that He Himself is the only way of salvation, the only way to God, as Jesus makes that claim in passages like John 14, verse 6. Very familiar passage. Jesus says, I am the way, not a way, not one of many ways. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except by me.” And, of course, the apostolic writers of the New Testament Scriptures preached the Lord Jesus Christ as the only name given under heaven by which we must be saved, the one and only mediator between the holy God and sinful humanity.

And furthermore, the Bible is equally clear that the so-called gods worshipped by those who reject the true and living God revealed in the Bible are, in fact, non-existent, lifeless idols, which implies that those religions which promote the worship of such false deities are not, quote, equally valid paths to God, but rather are false deceptive, soul-destroying, eternally damning religions that are actually animated by demonic spirits. Now I read a passage earlier in the service from 1 Corinthians and later on in 1 Corinthians as Paul is dealing with problems with some of the believers in the church in Corinth who were continuing to frequent idol ceremonies and idol worship. Paul makes it clear that those who worship idols, that idols are non-existent, but behind those idols is actually demons. That’s not a very popular view today. It would be very offensive to many today to suggest that religions that promote deities that we as Christians do not recognize are actually animated by the demonic realm. but that’s what the word of God teaches.

Friends, as offensive as this truth may be in today’s pluralistic postmodern context, It is the very unchanging truth of the unchanging God. And friends, one of the clearest passages of Holy Scripture that reveals this sharp and irreconcilable contrast between the true and living God on the one hand, and false, lifeless idols on the other hand, is the passage that we are considering on this Lord’s Day evening, namely Psalm 115. Now it is clear from the structure of this powerful psalm that it was written to be used in the corporate worship assemblies of God’s people. It was likely used in the temple liturgy, perhaps during one of the annual festivals in Israel’s religious calendar. What characterizes this powerful divinely inspired poem is its affirmation of Yahweh, Israel’s God, as the one true God, in contrast to the many lifeless idols of the Gentile nations that surrounded Israel.

In terms of who wrote this psalms, in terms of its human author, and in terms of when it was written, we really can’t be too dogmatic about that. You notice that some of the psalms have superscriptions or titles that indicate an author and sometimes even explain a historical setting out of which the psalm arose, but we have no such superscription or title here in Psalm 115. It is technically anonymous and we’re not given really many clues in terms of the historical setting that led, that the Holy Spirit used to lead this psalm writer to pen this beautiful psalm. Nevertheless, some scholars are very insistent that it must have been written after the Babylonian exile, that is to say that it is post-exilic, and some are very, and I could show you commentary, some are very dogmatic in that assertion.

But others suggest that perhaps it makes better sense to view this as having been composed before the exile, perhaps in the early period of Israel’s monarchy. But really, in terms of when it was written, that doesn’t impact how we understand this psalm, whether it was pre-exilic, exilic, post-exilic, or what have you, though it probably wasn’t written during the exile. In terms of the type of psalm, again I quote from Willem van Gemmeren, he says, Psalm 115 may be classified as a psalm of communal confidence. The psalms of communal confidence are closely related to communal thanksgiving songs and to communal laments. The psalms of communal confidence convey a sense of need as well as of deep trust in the Lord’s ability to take care of the needs of the people. And then Van Gemeren goes on to say that Psalm 115 had a liturgical place in the worship of ancient Israel.

The alteration between the first and second persons suggests the variation between communal recitation and priestly blessings. There’s sort of an antiphonal call and response structure to this psalm. And that’s instructive, by the way, in terms of our worship of God. Well, with all of this in mind, let’s dive in, and I want us first to focus on the opening section of Psalm 115, namely the first eight verses. And what we find in these verses is the ultimate contrast between true and false religion, the ultimate contrast between true and false religion. You see, friends, ultimately speaking, from a biblical point of view, there’s ultimately only two religions. There is true religion, the religion revealed from God through Christ, what we would call the gospel, and false religion, which arises from human imagination animated by the demonic realm.

Now, the psalm opens up with a cry to the Lord. The psalmist says, not to us, O Lord, not to us. but to your name give glory. Notice, not to us. This is a communal cry to the Lord. Not to us, O Yahweh. Notice the name Lord is in all capital letters indicating that the psalmist is appealing to God as the redeeming covenant Lord, the faithful, redemptive covenant Lord of Israel. Not to us, O Lord. Not to us, but to your name give glory because of your loving kindness, because of your truth, your covenant faithfulness to your people, in other words. Now verse 1 is perhaps a cry for vindication from God as God’s people faced scoffing and mockery from Gentile enemies who taunt them with the words of verse 2, the words, where now is their God?

From this language here, we may perhaps infer that perhaps Israel has experienced some national crisis or trouble. Maybe they’ve been defeated in battle by some Gentile enemies, or they’ve experienced a famine, or they’ve had locusts devour the land, or whatever the case may be. And their Gentile enemies and neighbors interpret Israel’s distress as weakness or impotence on the part of Israel’s God. Now one of the things that makes it difficult for us today in the 21st century to appreciate this kind of supernaturalistic worldview is that we are saturated with a naturalistic worldview. We live after the Enlightenment, the so-called Enlightenment, and even as Orthodox Presbyterians, even as Bible-believing Christians who recognize and confess God’s supernatural works as revealed in the scripture, we tend to be influenced more than we’re aware of by the secular naturalism that is all around us.

And one of the things to understand is that in the ancient world, If a nation defeated another nation, if a king defeats another king, that was interpreted in the ancient Near Eastern context as, well, our gods, the gods of the victorious nation, defeated the gods of the other nation, of the defeated nation. So the gods, the divine realm, the supernatural realm was viewed as being intricately interwoven with and involved in the life of the nation. Now of course we know that in the case of the Gentile nations with their false gods, that was not literally true, but in the case of Israel, Israel was God, they were God’s people, and God had made a covenant with them. And God is often presented, even in the Psalms especially, as the divine warrior who fights for his people.

And we have many instances in the scriptures where God does indeed use his people, Israel, as his instruments of judgment to defeat the enemies of his people. And so, again, we need to understand this framework as we try to understand why would it be that the Gentile nations taunt the Israelites and say, well, where now is your God? If the Gentile nations look at Israel and Israel is experiencing famine or military defeat or crisis or distress, ah, your God, Yahweh, is weak, impotent, and so forth. But then we have the response. But our God, verse three, but our God is in the heavens. Our God is not just a tribal, nationalistic deity. Our God is in the heavens. And then he does whatever he pleases. So that means that if Israel is in distress, that’s because Yahweh, the sovereign Lord of his people, has willed for Israel to be distressed.

God has reasons for doing what he does. Here in verses 2 through 8, again, true religion is contrasted with false religion, for the true and living God, the God who is transcendent, sovereign, and omnipotent, as He’s revealed to be in verse 3, is contrasted with the lifelessness, the impotence, and the powerlessness of the vain, man-made idols of the Gentile nations. Now, as verse 3 tells us, unlike the lifeless idols of the pagans, who were confined to an earthly temple, or within the sinful human imagination in the case of idols of the mind, mental idols. In contrast to all of the idols of mankind, whether material or mental, our God, Yahweh, the true and living God, He is in the heavens, meaning He is supramundane. He is transcendent spirit, as we confess in our shorter catechism in answer to that question four, what is God?

And I’m sure some of you can recite it. Follow along with me if you’d like. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. He is an infinite spirit, the transcendent creator of heaven and earth. And then it says of this God, this God whom we love and worship and serve, He does whatever He pleases. God’s ultimate reason for doing and decreeing whatever he does and decrees is his own sovereign good pleasure. It is his good pleasure for God is good and everything he ordains is right. But friends, this statement, he does whatever he pleases, this is one of the clearest statements of God’s absolute sovereignty over all and his power, his omnipotent power to accomplish all of his good pleasure. But then we have the contrast with the idols of the nations.

And before I just briefly take us through verses four through eight, I’ve sometimes had folks approach me and say, you know what? Why don’t we just focus on the positive? Instead of decrying the falsehood of false religions, just present the true God. Just be positive and not negative. And I understand that sometimes maybe I can be a little too negative and maybe you’ve had that experience as well. Why do you have to keep talking about the wrath of God and judgment and things like that? Why can’t you just focus on the positive? And certainly we need to be balanced in the way we talk about our God and the way we witness about our Lord. But look at the scriptures. The scriptures are often very negative in their criticisms of false religions, such as in this passage.

Here, the psalmist, in response to the taunting of the Gentiles, as recorded in the words of verse 2, Well, the psalmist, again, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, engages in sort of a satirical mockery of the false gods worshipped by their Gentile neighbors. Their idols are silver and gold. Our God is in the heavens. He’s sovereign over all. He does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They are creations of man. Our God is sovereign in the heaven. He’s the maker of heaven and earth. Their gods are creations of man. And then he goes on to, in great detail, to continue his satirical mockery of these false idols. He says, they have mouths, but they cannot speak. They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot hear.

They have noses, but they cannot smell. They have hands, but they cannot feel. They have feet, but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat. What’s the point of all of this, this litany of these idols? The point is they’re lifeless. The God of Israel is the living God. Their gods are lifeless, worthless, vain. Again, in reply to the taunting question of the godless nations in verse two, the psalmist replies, as I said, by satirically mocking the false idols worshiped by these Gentile nations. Now, is this the only place in scripture where we find this kind of satirical mockery of paganism, this kind of anti-polytheistic polemic? No, there are many other passages in scripture that engage in similar types of satirical mockery of false religion. Isaiah 44, 9-20, I’m not going to take the time to read that this evening, but I’d encourage you to read that passage in the book of the prophet Isaiah.

Or consider Psalm 135, verses 15-18, which is very similar to Psalm 115. In Psalm 135, verses 15-18, you’re welcome to turn there if you’d like, I’ll briefly read this. And these words should sound quite familiar. The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them. Yes, everyone who trusts in them.” You say, well, that sounds very familiar. Well, it should because it’s almost word for word the same as what I just read for you in Psalm 115. So friends, notice also verse 8 is especially piercing in the truth that it presents.

It says, those who make them, those who forge and fashion these idols, and all idols, all material idols start in the human imagination. the imagination of sinful fallen man. Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. Friends, those who make and worship these vain idols become like them. And what does that mean? These idols, well, they are lifeless, they’re impotent, they’re vain. Those who forge idols from their own imaginations and worship them, sooner or later, they themselves become spiritually lifeless. In fact, it is because they are spiritually dead, dead to the things of the true and living God, that they would dare to fashion false, lifeless idols. They become impotent, they become vain. This points to the fact that idol worship is actually not a small thing. Religion, false worship, is not a little thing, a light thing.

It is in fact dehumanizing and degrading. As one commentator puts it, when people construct their own gods, they make them in their own image. As they worship these gods, they are more and more conformed to their likeness. That is the catch-22, if you will, of idolatry. Notice also, by the way, that there’s a contrast, a sharp contrast going on here between the idolaters gods who are made by them. Again, verse eight talks about those who make these idols, these idols that have eyes but they can’t see, ears but they can’t hear, and so forth. Those who make them will become like them. Focus on the word make, but then skip down and look at verse 15. which is probably part of a priestly blessing upon the gathered congregation, where the priest says, may you be blessed of the Lord, and Yahweh the Lord is described as what?

Maker of heaven and earth. You see the contrast? The idolaters, those who fashion idols, make them. But the Lord, Yahweh, is himself the maker of heaven and earth. Dear ones, what do we learn here? Well, we learn many things, but The point here is that true religion is grounded in the reality of the true and living God, whereas false religion and idolatry are grounded in false theology. Indeed, friends, idols, whether we’re talking about material idols or idols that are mental in nature, all idols are ultimately expressions of false theology. Furthermore, true religion, the religion that brings us back into fellowship and communion with the true and living God, the true religion that is known as the Gospel of Jesus Christ, originates from God’s revelation given to us in His Word, whereas false religion arises out of sinful man’s imagination.

You see the contrast? True biblical Christianity is rooted and grounded in the revelation of God. It comes from God to us. False religion comes from man’s imagination, influenced and animated by the demonic realm. So it’s man trying to work his way up to whatever he perceives the divine to be, but it comes from man, not from God. Dear listener, are you following the true religion revealed in Holy Scripture, the religion that comes from God and leads back to God through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Or are you following a false religion that flows out of your own feelings, your own sense of personal identity, your own imagination, your own desires? God’s word calls us to repent of false and vain religion and to turn to Christ alone as He has revealed to us in the Gospel.

And that brings me to our next section, verses 9 through 15. Consider next, what we have here is a call to trust in the Lord who blesses His people. This is the second main point in your sermon outline. We find here a call to trust in the Lord, to trust in Yahweh who blesses His people. Verse 9, it says, O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Why this repetition? Well again, what’s probably going on here is an antiphonal call and response of the worshiping assembly in the temple. Here is a call to all of God’s people described in their various categories, including both laity and leadership, including both the priests and the people.

The sons of Aaron, that was the priestly line. Whether priests or people, whether clergy or laity, all are called to trust in Yahweh their God as their help and their shield. Help can be more of an offensive word in the sense of God intervening and acting, providing for his people. Shield is more of a defensive term. God is the provider and the protector of his people. And again, the call response structure of these verses is likely due to their antiphonal use in public worship. And by the way, as an aside, you may wonder, why is it that we at Grace Church, why do we do a responsive reading? for example, in our morning worship service. That’s been our typical custom. And how does that fit in with the regulative principle of worship, if you’re familiar with that?

Well, we find hints and instances in scripture of this kind of call and response pattern of worship in scripture. And so there’s nothing wrong with, in our prayers and praises to God, alternating between leader and congregation and so forth. But then it goes on to say in verse 12, the Lord has been mindful of us. So Israel, the house of Aaron, all of God’s people are called upon, summoned to trust in Yahweh their God, the true and living God, the maker of heaven and earth. And then we have these words of promise and assurance. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, the small together with the great. Though God’s people apparently, as I’ve mentioned in verse one, may have been suffering from a national calamity or distress that is, and we don’t know the nature of it, but the psalmist is crying out, not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name, give glory.

And by the way, one thing I forgot to mention about verse one, notice the God-centered focus. Essentially what the congregation does in verse one, even though they’re distressed about their present circumstances, their focus is on the Lord. This is essentially an old covenant way of saying, hallowed be thy name. Lord, hallow your name. To God be the glory, great things he has done. But in any case, in response to this cry to God for help, for relief, for the glory of his name, The psalmist then goes on to express confidence that yes, the Lord our God hears us and He will act. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, the small and the great together.

And then verses 14 and 15 contain what are probably the priestly pronouncement of blessing upon the gathered congregation. Again, there seems to be a call and response structure to this going on. And here in verse 14, may the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. Yahweh can be relied upon to bless his people and to grant them increase. And again, it may be, like I said, that verses 12 and 13 were recited by the congregation and that the words in verses 14 and 15 represent a priestly blessing pronounced upon the people. Well, beloved, in light of all of this, this call to trust in Yahweh, the true and living God, let us turn from the idols of our age, including the idols of religious pluralism and salvation by sincerity.

Those are idols. Let us turn from all idols, whether in our culture or in our hearts. By the grace of God, let us turn from our idols. Instead, let us put our trust in the Lord to bless us with his grace and salvation as he promises to all who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. As the word of God says, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And that brings us to the close of this beautiful and powerful psalm. This is the final point in your sermon outline. Consider, finally, the never-ending praise of those who trust the ever-living God. We have, in verses 16 through 18, we have the psalmist describing the never-ending praise of those who trust in the ever-living God. Verse 16, the heavens are the heavens of the Lord.

But the earth he has given to the sons of men. Now this does not mean that while God is only sovereign in heaven, he has no sovereignty over the earth. That’s not what it’s saying, but it’s speaking here of Yahweh being sovereign over all. He reigns in transcendent glory, but he has given mankind as his image bearers the responsibility to steward the earth for his glory. That is what is being spoken of here. And then verse 17. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. Now some of a more liberal theological persuasion will latch onto verse 17 and will say, well see, in the Old Testament, they didn’t believe in life after death. It says the dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence.

This is proof, they would say, that in the Old Testament, believers did not expect life after death. But of course, that is to take verse 17 and yank it out of its context because In the very next verse, verse 18, but as for us, we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever praise the Lord. And so the psalmist here in verse 17 is not denying life after death, nor is he denying the reality of heaven. Now it is true that God’s people living under the old covenant did not have as clear a view of what would happen after death as we are privileged to have today. living after the coming of Christ and especially living after His death on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead and the promises, the so, the very clear promises of life and salvation, eternal life and salvation for those who believe in Him.

But nevertheless, This verse points to the reality that when we die, our physical tongues fall silent. It reminds me of that statement in that William Cooper hymn that when we die, our tongues lie silent in the grave until the resurrection. This is speaking of this present life. It’s saying those who die, And when death happens, your soul is separated from your body. So the tongues that God gave us, tongues that are meant to extol and confess and praise and witness to God and his reality, those tongues will be silenced, but not forever. Again, that’s the point here. One day we will be raised from the dead. Our tongues are intended to extol and praise God. In this life we do so, but in physical death our tongues lie silent in the grave until the resurrection.

And while verse 18 does not directly or explicitly predict the truth of the resurrection of the dead, it certainly implies it. This powerful psalm closes by pointing us to eternal praise that we will offer to the Lord, which implies, by the way, that our tongues will not remain silent forever. but will one day be raised again in glory so that we indeed will be able to bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. And so, beloved, because we serve the true and living God, the God who has given to us believers in Christ the gift of everlasting life, we look forward to praising Him forever. Let us make it our intention to bless and praise our God while we have breath, the one true and living God, from this time forth and forevermore. If we know Christ as Savior, that is what we have to look forward to.

Do you, dear listener, do you know Christ? Come to Him today if you don’t. Believe upon Him and you will be saved. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, We thank you that you are indeed a God who hears our cries because you are the true and living God. We pray that these truths that we’ve considered this evening would find a lodging place in our souls and bear much spiritual fruit in our lives. And we pray that you would grant us the grace to faithfully confess, extol, praise, and adore you. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 2, 2023
Great are the Works of the LORD

About this sermon

Psalm 111 praises the great works of the Lord, especially his works of redemption in the exodus, the wilderness, and the gift of the land. His works are studied by all who delight in them, and his people must remember his wonders, because drifting from them comes easily. The psalm ends with the motto of the wisdom books: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Christ is the wisdom of God, and the message of the cross makes sinners wise unto salvation.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue our study and consideration of various Psalms in the Book of Psalms. And this evening, we’re going to consider Psalm 111, often regarded as the first of the so-called Hallel Psalms. Let us hear God’s holy words, Psalm 111. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, in the company of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is His work, and His righteousness endures forever. He has made His wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear Him. He will remember His covenant forever. He has made known to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations.

The works of His hands are truth and justice. All His precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to His people. He has ordained His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God to bless the proclamation of His word this evening. Gracious Heavenly Father, indeed, how great and awesome are Your works, for You are the great and awesome God. We ask, Heavenly Father, once again, as we sit at Your feet this evening and hear Your Word proclaimed, we pray that Your Spirit would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from Your Word.

And once again, we would beseech you, God, to set a guard over my lips that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word and beneficial to your people and glorifying to your name. We pray these things, heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. Once again, I would point out we have about six key words that you can be listening for this evening, and especially the words praise, redemption, and wisdom are significant words in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening. Well, dear friends, our psalm for this Lord’s Day evening is a joyful psalm of praise and thanksgiving. It’s a psalm which includes an emphasis on the theme of godly wisdom, a psalm which also extols and celebrates the mighty works of Yahweh, our faithful covenant-keeping God.

The mighty works of the Lord that appear to be the particular focus of this psalm’s anonymous author and which serve as the backdrop of this psalm are His mighty works of redemption in particular. Psalm 104, for example, focused on God’s mighty works of creation and providence, but once again, we have in this psalm this evening a focus on God’s mighty works of redemption. Though these mighty redemptive works are not explicitly mentioned, it seems clear that the spirit-inspired psalmist alludes to Yahweh’s mighty works such as the exodus deliverance of His people from Egyptian slavery through things like the plagues and the Red Sea Crossing. God preserving them in the wilderness and in their wanderings in that wilderness, His conquest of the promised land, and also possibly His revelation, the revelation of His law on Mount Sinai.

That is perhaps what is referred to as the precepts of verse 7. Although, as an aside, I will say that this term, precepts, may in this passage also encompass God’s covenant promises given to Abraham and not just God’s giving of the law to his people from Mount Sinai. In any case, one commentator writes in introducing Psalm 111 the following. The commentator says, this psalm of praise recalls the exodus, wilderness wanderings, and conquest of the promised land. The psalm is an acrostic. That is to say, every line of this psalm is a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So the psalm is an acrostic, a trait common among wisdom poems, and it ends on a note that could be called the motto of the book of Proverbs. Again, that motto, if you will, is found in verse 10, where it says, and you’ve probably heard these words before, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

A good understanding have those who do his commandments. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Again, that highlights the wisdom emphasis of this particular psalm. Now as I mentioned, Psalm 111 is often regarded as the first of the so-called Hallel Psalms. And usually those psalms are listed as being Psalm 111 through Psalm 118. And they are called the Hallel Psalms for a couple of reasons. First of all, because of their liturgical use, their frequent liturgical use of the Hebrew phrase Hallelu-Yah. And what do those words mean? Hallelujah, it means praise ye Yah, or praise ye Jehovah, praise ye the Lord. And it’s also, these are also classified as Hallel Psalms because it is believed that these particular praise songs, Psalms 111 through 118, were used in the liturgy at the three annual festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.

Now in terms of the question, who wrote this psalm in terms of its human author and when was this psalm written? Honestly, we simply don’t have enough information to know who in particular wrote this psalm. We know that the author was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write what he wrote, but we can’t identify that author with absolute certainty. Nor can we be dogmatic about precisely when this psalm was written, although some scholars are of the strong opinion that this psalm is no doubt a post-exilic psalm. That is to say, some scholars believe that it was written after God’s people returned to the Promised Land following their Babylonian exile. But again, we cannot be too dogmatic about that view. In terms of the theme and structure of this beautiful psalm, again I refer to, as I often quote him, Dr.

Willem van Gemeren. He has some helpful comments to consider. He writes, this psalm celebrating the wonders of Yahweh is in the form of a hymn but has a clearly defined concern with wisdom. The acrostic structure reveals a careful and artistic composition. The psalm consists of 23 bi and tri colons, each beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet except for the introduction in verse 1a. And Dr. Van Gammeren also points out that Psalms 111 and 112 form a unit and may have been written by the same author or originated from within the same general approach to piety. And so as you read these Psalms, it’s helpful to read Psalm 11 along with Psalm 12. And you’ll notice some similarities between those two Psalms. And you’ll see that they go together and fill out one another, if you will.

Now, when we as Christians, as believers in Christ and as the Christian church, as we use this psalm and approach psalms like Psalm 111, how are we to do so from a distinctly Christian point of view? Well friends, as we in the Christian church take up this psalm to use in our own prayers and in our own praises, I would suggest to you, beloved, that the great works of the Lord that we should especially remember and especially celebrate are the saving works of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially His atoning death on the cross his glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven and his pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon his church on the day of Pentecost. When this psalm was sung by Old Covenant believers, believers living under the Old Covenant, they would naturally, as they reflect on the mighty works of God, they’d naturally think back to events like the Exodus, the plagues that God poured out upon the Egyptians, and the rescue of His people, His bringing them through the Red Sea on dry land, His giving of His law to His people from Mount Sinai, His presence with His people in the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night in their wilderness wanderings, and ultimately through Joshua, His bringing of His people into the promised land through the conquest.

And certainly it is a right and good thing for us as God’s people living even as we do today in the new covenant to remember those mighty works of the Lord in the past, those mighty acts of redemption and deliverance under the old covenant. But again, remember brothers and sisters, all of those Old Testament redemptive events, what did they point forward to? What do they prepare the way for? they ultimately point forward to the saving work of Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross of Calvary as the Passover lamb and his glorious resurrection from the dead, wherein he brings in the new creation and guarantees us an eternal inheritance. Another way to put this is that we need to read these Old Covenant Psalms, including Psalm 111, with new covenant eyes. We need to ask ourselves, and this is how I like to put it with children.

Children, when we read the Old Testament, we need to put our Jesus glasses on. We need to ask ourselves as we approach any passage of the Old Testament, how does this passage prepare us for and point to and lead us to Jesus Christ and His fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. So with all of this in mind, let’s consider Psalm 111. We’ll focus, first of all, on the first three verses of this psalm. And one of the things we learn in the first three verses, this opening section of this brief psalm, is that the Lord, Yahweh, our faithful covenant God, is to be publicly praised for His mighty works. The Lord is to be publicly praised for His mighty works. The psalm begins with that hallelujah language. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart in the company of the upright and in the assembly.

The psalmist here declares his intention to thank Yahweh, to thank the Lord, and to do so not just in an external ritual ceremonial sense, but to do so with his whole heart, with his entire being. His praise and thanksgiving to God is to flow out of the very center of His life and being. We learn here in this verse that Yahweh, the covenant Lord and faithful Redeemer, is to be given wholehearted praise. And He is to be given wholehearted praise where? In the company of the upright and in the assembly, or that could be translated as the council of the upright and in the congregation. What do these terms refer to? Well, the Council of the Upright, as one commentator points out, this could be referring to the intimate fellowship of the individual members of their group, whereas the congregation refers to the gatherings of those intimate friends in the house of God.

In other words, the references to private prayer and public worship. And I think this is important. We tend in our culture here in America to be very individualistic, focused on individual practice of our faith, and that’s very important. Personal devotions, personal prayer and Bible study, personal praise to God, and praise to God in the context of your families, family worship together, family devotions. Those are important and commendable practices, but we often downplay the significance and importance of corporate worship. But the scriptures don’t share that hyper-individualistic focus. Like many other passages of God’s Word, and especially of the Psalms, this verse underscores the importance and the centrality of the corporate worship of God in the context of the covenant community. And perhaps I don’t need to highlight that or point that out to you folks. who are here for this evening service.

You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t think that corporate worship was important. But nonetheless, we need to have our attention focused on how the scriptures highlight the importance of corporate worship. Brothers and sisters, we are not meant to be disconnected Lone Ranger Christians who praise God only in our private prayer closets, as important as private prayer and devotion is. After all, when Christ saves us, he connects us not only to himself, but to the body of Christ. We’re not supposed to operate outside the body We are to be connected to the body, not only in fellowship, but in worship as well. And then verse two, it goes on, the psalmist goes on to say, great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Some translations, I believe, say they are pondered by all who delight in them.

All of Yahweh’s works are great, for Yahweh, the true and living God, is Himself the infinitely great One. And since Yahweh is great and His works are great, we read here that these great works of the Lord are studied by all who delight in them. My friends, there is this conception out there, this view out there among those who probably don’t spend much time studying the Bible, that Bible study is boring, right? Now, Bible study can be approached in a boring way, I’m not denying that, but when you actually do a deep dive into scripture, When you get beyond the surface and you dive into the word of God, there are treasures, there are treasures here, spiritual treasures found in this book, in this word from God. They are studied by all who delight in them.

Do you, dear listener, delight in studying the great works of your great and awesome God? And if you’ve been redeemed by Christ, how could you not delight in studying the person and work of Christ, in studying what your Savior did to redeem your soul and bring you back into a right relationship with God and secure for you everlasting life and eternal hope? Let us delight in studying the great works of our great and awesome God as those mighty works are revealed to us in his inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. And then we read on in verse three, the psalmist says, splendid and majestic is his work and his righteousness endures forever. Did you notice the exalted terminology that the psalmist uses to describe these mighty works of God? They are splendid. They are majestic, just like God himself is splendid and majestic.

And we are told that his righteousness endures forever. Now, when we think of God’s righteousness, We no doubt think of things like his moral uprightness. God is infinitely righteous. There is no evil or wickedness in the Lord. He is perfectly pure and holy and righteous. He is ethically supreme and just and good and right. But this word righteousness means more than simply the Lord’s moral uprightness, his ethical excellence. Dr. Van Gameron, points this out, he says that the word righteousness refers to God’s orderly rule over creation, his victorious rule over the nations, and his redemption of his own. By his righteousness, God puts all things right in the end. and so we can trust in Him. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us ever strive to make the public praise and worship of our God and the declaration of His mighty works a top priority here at Grace Church.

So we see that the Lord is to be publicly praised for His mighty works. And as we move next to the central section of our Psalm verses 4 through 9, consider next that the Lord who in covenant faithfulness acted to redeem His people in the past can be trusted to deliver His people in the future. The Lord, Yahweh, who in covenant faithfulness acted to redeem His people in the past, all in fulfillment of His covenant promises, He can be trusted to deliver His people in the future as well. Sometimes if you’re discouraged in your faith and God seems distant from you or you’re going through a spiritual dry season, One of the things that, I don’t know about you folks, but one of the things I find encouraging when I go through periods of spiritual dryness in my own walk with the Lord is to remember how God has worked in my life in the past, to remember how God has shown me mercy and kindness in the past, and how he promises that he will never leave us or forsake us.

And this is what we find emphasized here in this section of Psalm 111. Our God has been our help in ages past. He will be our hope for years to come because He is the same from everlasting to everlasting. His promises are sure and secure and dependable. We can depend upon Him. And so we go on here in verse four. The psalmist says, He has made His wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious. and compassionate. Yes, he’s holy. Yes, he’s righteous. Yes, he is just. Yes, he will bring his wrath upon those who rebel against him and persist in their impenitent sin. But he is gracious and compassionate. We also learn in the scriptures that he is slow to anger and abundant in steadfast love and covenant faithfulness. We are often, we and our sin are often quick to anger.

We have a short fuse. And we sometimes get impatient with God because we look around the world and we see all the wickedness and evil that is committed in the world. And we think, Lord, why don’t you act? Are you asleep, God? No, he’s not. He’s patient. He’s slow to anger. He’s gracious. He’s compassionate. But notice in verse four, this emphasis on remembering God’s wonders. To remember God’s wonders, in other words, His miracles, especially His miraculous works of deliverance and redemption, this remembrance of God’s wonders is obviously a high priority to the Lord because many places in the scriptures contain the command or the exhortation to remember the Lord. And why is it that we are called to remember the Lord? Because we are so prone to forget the Lord. in Old Testament times. But we may wonder, you may wonder, well how is it that the people of God who lived under the Old Covenant, how did they remember the mighty works of the Lord?

After all, they did not have the completed scriptures. They didn’t have this book all in one, bound in one volume. And so how was it that the people of God living at that time of redemptive history, how did they remember the mighty works that the Lord had done for them? And we need to keep in mind too, brothers and sisters, you know, think about how many Bibles do you own? If you’re like most people, especially most American Christians, you probably own multiple copies of the Word of God. And praise God, that’s a great blessing to have multiple copies of the Word of God. But back then, if you were part of the people of God, to have a copy, to have a scroll of various writings of Scripture was a great luxury. that only the most wealthy could afford.

So without access to their own copies of God’s word, how did God’s people remember the mighty works of the Lord? God’s mighty works were remembered in Old Testament times through things such as the feast days, the Sabbaths, the various ordinances of Old Covenant ceremonial worship, the sacrifices, the liturgical and life of worship in Israel, all of the things like the Passover and tabernacles and Pentecost and all of these ceremonies and sacrifices, all of these liturgical feast days, were intended and given by God to his people, designed to remind them of what God had done for them in redeeming them to be his people and reminding them of their identity as God’s chosen, redeemed covenant people. And so, again, God made provision for the remembrance of his mighty deeds. That’s why he can say that the Lord has made his wonders to be remembered.

But praise God, as I mentioned before, we have access to his word. But we also continue to have access to the ordinary means of grace. Not only the word as it’s publicly read and proclaimed, but the sacraments and public prayer and so forth. And God calls us in his word, commands us to diligently use these ordinary means of grace. through these ordinary means of grace, we do indeed remember His mighty works of redemption for us. And so the implication is that if we are infrequent or negligent or casual in our use of God’s ordinary means of grace, we are at higher risk of forgetting the Lord and His wonders. And When the Bible talks about remembering, it’s not just talking about mental remembrance. To forget the Lord is not just to forget about him intellectually speaking.

So this is not necessarily forgetting in the sense of intellectual forgetfulness, but in the sense of losing our grip on the importance, the priority, and the absolute centrality of our Lord and his saving work for us. as a pastor. I’ve seen it before and I’m sure every pastor, almost any pastor would say this. You think about folks who they’re regular in their attendance on the worship of God, the public ordinances of worship, but then they start to slack off. Not because of providential hindrances beyond their control. We understand that that some folks are hindered from regular attendance at the public worship services through illness, through incarceration, through various providential circumstances. But I’m talking about those who have access, who don’t have these providential hindrances. And one of the things that pastors sometimes see is that folks who start to gradually start abstaining from the regular worship assembly of the church.

Over time, they get into, they lose the habit of regular church attendance and they drift away, gradually, slowly drift away to the point where even though they know about church, they know about the things of the Lord intellectually, they forget the centrality and the importance of Christ. to their lives. We’re warned about this kind of drift in passages, for example, like Hebrews 2, verse 1. If you want to turn there, just very briefly, Hebrews 2, verse 1. The author of Hebrews writes, for this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it. We must pay much closer attention. In other words, we must remember, we must be earnest and diligent in paying attention to these things. And one of the ways that we do that is through the regular week in, week out, Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day attendance upon the public means of grace as God in His providence gives us opportunity to attend to those means.

And that’s why even as even Hebrews 10 verses 23 through 25, which is another familiar exhortation, I’m sure. But the author of Hebrews there, again, the author of Hebrews is addressing this warning to a group of Jewish Christians who were tempted because of the pressures of persecution to abandon Christ and go back to their former Judaism. What does he say? Hebrews 10, 23 to 25, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another. There’s the community, the covenant community. Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some. Even in the first century in the early church, there were some professing believers who were infrequent in attendance upon the public means of grace, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

And so this is why we believe in the importance of regular, indeed weekly, Lord’s Day worship together in the church. Not because we earn brownie points with God or earn his favor by coming together frequently in worship, but because God uses these things to help us remember his mighty works, to preserve us in the faith and give us hope and encouragement in our pilgrimage on the way to glory. But some would say, well, pastor, you know, I’ve been to services where, you know, and sometimes we’ve all been there, right? You attend a worship service and you leave and you say, you know what? I really didn’t get anything out of that service. Was that a waste of time? And even if the, and I’ll be honest too as a preacher, sometimes preachers bomb in their sermons.

Every preacher’s had that happen, right? Even if the sermon is technically accurate and in accordance with the scripture, sometimes it’s delivered in a way that is unhelpful or the spirit just doesn’t seem to be blessing the proclamation of the word. And sometimes we’re tempted to go away from services like that and say, you know, maybe that was a waste of time. No, it’s not. It’s not. It’s not. any particular service that matters. It’s the cumulative effect of week in, week out, Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day, attending upon the means of grace. You know, even when you’re tired, even when your mind is distracted with other things, you come together with God’s people. And even if you leave the worship assembly saying, you know, I was, my mind was so, Often in the distance, I don’t think I got anything out of that, but it’s the formation, the spiritual formation that comes through the habit of communing with God in the public means of grace, week in and week out.

And the Lord uses this to help us remember His mighty works. And so again, getting back to our passage, he has made his wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. And then the psalmist lists particular ways that God has done this. He has given food to those who fear him. Now some commentators think that, well, this may be referring to God’s gift of the manna in the wilderness. And God did indeed provide manna for his wilderness, the wilderness generation. However, notice it says he gives food to those who fear him. The wilderness generation as a whole was not faithful in fearing or reverencing the Lord. I think this is probably talking about God’s general provision of food for his people. But then it goes on to say, He will remember His covenant forever.

God has shown His covenant faithfulness to His people throughout redemptive history. And then verse 6, He has made known to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations. That is a reference to the conquest. That was part of God’s covenant promise to Abraham that he would give Abraham, his descendants, the promised land. And that promised land, of course, was a type and picture of the ultimate promised land, the new heavens and the new earth, wherein righteousness dwells. So in verses 5 and 6 we see a focus on Yahweh’s daily provision, His covenant faithfulness, and His provision of an inheritance for His people. And then in verses 7 and 8 the psalmist says, justice. All his precepts are sure.” Again, those precepts he could have in mind, the commandments revealed from Mount Sinai in particular, but I think I agree with commentators who suggest that the psalmist here is using that term precepts in the broader sense of God’s covenant promises as well, including his covenant promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And then verse 8, They are upheld forever and ever. God keeps His covenant promises forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness. Here in verses 7 and 8, God’s works and words are shown to be true, just, and forever certain. How reliable and trustworthy He is as displayed in His wonders and in His precepts. And then verse 9. He has sent redemption to His people. He has ordained His covenant forever. If you were an old covenant believer, a believer living in Old Testament times, and you heard these words, the act of redemption that would come to the forefront of your mind, the act of redemption that showed the mighty power of God would have been the Exodus event. And indeed, that was a mighty redemptive work of the Lord. But again, as I pointed out before, This is ultimately fulfilled in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He has wrought that ultimate redemption by his obedient life, his atoning sacrificial death, and his glorious resurrection from the dead. So the point here, friends, is that since God has been faithful in keeping His covenant promises and in delivering His people in the past, let us rest in His covenant faithfulness to us in Christ as we face the future, even an uncertain future. And finally, as the psalmist closes up our psalm for this evening in verse 10, he focuses on our proper response to this. What is our proper response to Yahweh’s mighty works? We are to pursue true wisdom and offer to Him continuous praise. Our proper response to Yahweh’s mighty works? is to pursue true wisdom and offer the Lord continuous praise. As it says in verse 10, the fear of the Lord, that is reverent awe and trust in the fear of the Lord, Yahweh, is the beginning of wisdom.

A good understanding have all those who do his commandments. His praise endures forever. Notice the close connection between wisdom, obedience, and praise. Again, to quote from Dr. Van Gammeren, he says, in which God’s people will express fear for him, submitting themselves to his rule and following his precepts. The bottom line, what is our proper response to the mighty works of the Lord, his mighty works of redemption? In short, fear God, strive to keep his commandments, and express his praise. However, let me step back and remind us that as sinners, we cannot do these things in the power of our flesh or by our own resources. You cannot fear God, obey His commandments, or even properly sing His praises in your flesh or out of your own resources. Let us remember, brothers and sisters, that it is in Christ that we have wisdom.

In Christ are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, as the Apostle Paul reminds us in Colossians 2, verse 3. Christ alone is our righteousness, our redemption, our sanctification, and our wisdom. He alone is our source for godly wisdom. So how do we get this godly wisdom? The answer is by grace alone, through believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, the cross of Christ, the message of the cross, is foolishness to those coming from a standpoint of worldly wisdom. It is foolishness, the wise of this world say, this idea of salvation through a crucified Messiah. That’s foolishness, the world says. But it is the very wisdom and the very power of Almighty God. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God because it brings us into union with Christ who is himself the living wisdom and word of God.

Dear listener, do you believe in the good news of Jesus Christ? Is his mighty work of redemption on the cross and by his resurrection the source of your joy and hope, that in which you delight to study? Do you look to Christ and his cross work as your wisdom. Pursue wisdom by resting upon Jesus Christ and then praise Him for His amazing grace to you. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, once again we thank you that in Christ we have righteousness, redemption, sanctification and wisdom. And we thank you, Lord, for your mighty acts of grace and redemption given to us in Christ. We pray, Heavenly Father, that we might not drift from these truths, but indeed that we might remember by trusting you and continuing to rest upon you each and every day.

Be with us now, we pray, and by your spirit, bless the word that we heard this evening. In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said, amen. As we close our time of worship this evening, let’s rise and we’ll sing Psalm 111B, O give the Lord wholehearted praise. We’ll rise and sing together 111B.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

June 25, 2023
Remember His Wonders!

About this sermon

Psalm 105 calls God’s people to give thanks, seek his face, and remember the wonders he has done. The Lord remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he protected the patriarchs while they wandered as strangers: ‘Do not touch my anointed ones.’ God guards his covenant promises in every age, as he did when he warned Abimelech in a dream. Every believer in Christ is a child of Abraham and one of God’s chosen, and he will keep his promise to save them to the uttermost.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. We return to our consideration of the book of Psalms and various select Psalms. And this evening, we’re going to consider a part of Psalm 105. Psalm 105 is a lengthy Psalm, so we’re not gonna have time to cover it all this evening, but we’ll cover the main points. Tonight, we consider Psalm 105, verses one through 15. So let us hear. God’s holy words, Psalm 105, verses 1 through 15. O give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him, speak of all His wonders, glory in His holy name. Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually. Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels, and the judgments uttered by His mouth.

O seed of Abraham, His servant. O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac. Then he confirmed it to Jacob for a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying to you, I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance. When they were only a few men in number, very few and strangers in it, and they wandered about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. He permitted no man to oppress them, and he reproved kings for their sakes. Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm. Dear friends, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Gracious Lord and Father in heaven once again, We would invoke and beseech you for the presence of your spirit to attend the proclamation of your word this evening. We ask that by your Holy Spirit, you would soften and open our hearts to receive the things of your word, the things that the spirit is speaking to us in this portion of your God-breathed, infallible, inerrant word. We thank you for your word. It is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, a guide to our way. We ask, Lord, that Jesus would be exalted in the preaching of your word this evening, and we pray, Heavenly Father, that we would be edified and built up in our faith. We ask these things through Christ our Lord, and all of God’s people said.

Amen. You may be seated. title of my sermon this evening is Remember His Wonders, and I’d encourage the children especially to keep track of these key words that I suggest to you in your sermon outline. Well, dear friends, as God’s people, have you ever asked yourself the question, why do I worship God? Why should we worship and serve the Lord? What is our incentive, our motivation for worship, for service, and for obedience? For example, should we seek to worship and serve and obey God because it will make us feel good inside and give us a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives? Or is it so that we might experience the blessings of the Lord in our lives? Do we worship God in order to be blessed by the Lord? or perhaps to foster moral improvement in our lives.

In terms of our social obligations, should we seek to worship, serve, and obey the Lord in order to fulfill our social obligations or perhaps to live up to the expectations of our community or to foster social unity and social cohesion and so forth? Well, dear ones, there is indeed some truth to all of these hypothetical reasons and motivations that I’ve just listed to you for worshiping, serving, and obeying the Lord. The worship and service of Almighty God, for example, can indeed contribute to our emotional well-being. It can give us a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives. That certainly is the case. And of course, in genuine spirit-filled, word-based worship and service, we do indeed experience the rich spiritual blessings of communion with our Lord Jesus Christ as we taste His goodness and His grace.

And of course, our corporate worship together as a church indeed helps to strengthen and solidify our bonds of unity and fellowship together as a community of Christ, as a local expression of the body of Christ, and that is important. But of course, scripturally speaking, our ultimate incentive, our ultimate motivation for worshiping and serving and seeking to obey our Lord is not man-centered. but rather it is God-centered. We are to worship, to serve, and to seek to obey our Lord for who He is and for what He has done. The focus should be on Him. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about Him. It’s about who He is, and it’s about His mighty deeds, His wonders. Our psalm for this Lord’s Day evening, in summoning us as God’s people to worship and to praise, presents the summons from a God-centered perspective, as we are called upon to glory in His holy name, as it says in verse 3.

In other words, to glory in who God is revealed to be in all of His glorious divine attributes. And we are also exhorted here, for example, in verse five, to remember his wonders. In other words, we are to take to heart his mighty deeds of grace and of judgment in guarding and fulfilling his covenant promises. Now, as we turn our attention to our psalm for this evening, it’s important to note, if you’ve ever read this section of the book of Psalms, you’ll notice that Psalms 104 through 106 are intertwined. The themes of these psalms are closely connected. And in reality, Psalms 104 through 106 go together, thematically speaking. For example, in Psalm 104, we saw that God is praised for His mighty works of creation and providence. Here in Psalm 105, God is praised for His mighty acts of redemption and deliverance.

In particular, in the redemptive historical events of God making and keeping His covenant promises to Abraham, the keeping of those promises being expressed in God’s deliverance of his people Israel from their slavery in Egypt and in bringing them into the promised land just as he had covenanted to do. And in Psalm 106, God is praised for his mercy and faithfulness to his people Israel in spite of their many sins and provocations, in spite of their many violations of his covenant. God was faithful to his people in spite of their persistent unfaithfulness. One of the study notes in the Lutheran Study Bible relates Psalm 105 and Psalm 106 as follows. It says, Psalms 105 and 106 stand together as they recall God’s promise to Abraham to bring Israel into the promised land and the mighty ways he kept that promise.

Psalm 105 focuses on God’s grace while Psalm 106 describes the people’s rebellion and their continued need for mercy. And it goes on to note, interestingly, that Psalm 105, 1 through 15, appears in 1 Chronicles 16, 8 through 22, at the joyous occasion of David’s bringing the ark to Jerusalem, indicating that it was used in worship on festival occasions, celebrating the covenant God made with his people. And indeed, the tone of this psalm is one of celebration, celebration of God being faithful to keep his covenant promises. So with all of this in mind, as we turn our attention to the opening verses, the opening section of Psalm 105, we note a call to worship the Lord for His holy name and for His wondrous deeds of grace and judgment. This is the first point on your sermon outline if you’re following along.

Beloved, let us worship the Lord for His holy name and for His wondrous deeds of grace and judgment. Here in this opening section, the psalmist summons God’s people to praise, to worship, and to witness to the Lord. As it opens up in verse 1, O give thanks to Yahweh, to the Lord, Yahweh, God, Israel’s faithful covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. The people of God are summoned to give thanks to the Lord. And closely related with the call to thank the Lord is the call to call upon His name. We thank the Lord by calling upon His name in prayer. and in praise. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name. And when we thank the Lord, when we call upon His name, we also make known His deeds among the peoples, or as some translations put it, among the nations.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, there is a sense in which when we come to worship, we’re not just praising God and thanking God, but we are also making known to those outside of the covenant community that God is alive, that God is real. making known His deeds among the peoples. And especially in our time when church attendance is becoming less and less of a frequency, becoming less and less prominent in our culture. We really stand out when you get up on a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening and you take yourself and your family to church on the Lord’s Day. That sends a message to the world outside of the church that You may reject the Lord, but the Lord is alive, He is real, He is real to us, and we bear witness to Him in our worship of God.

One of the ways that we witness to the Lord, to outsiders, is by gathering regularly for worship. And so the psalmist says, give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples. And then verse two, sing to Him, sing praises to Him, The singing of praise is indeed a divine ordinance of worship. It is something we are commanded to do. And some of God’s people say, well, I’m not a very good singer, so I think I’ll just keep quiet. No. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, whether it’s good singing or bad singing. Of course, try to sing good. Try to sing well. But we are to sing. We have much to sing about. God has been merciful to us. He has brought us out of the pit of despair, out of the pit of sin and damnation, and He has brought us into the kingdom of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Through Christ, He has redeemed us. He has renewed us. He’s given us new life. He has made us new creations in Christ. So brothers and sisters, we have much to sing about and we are exhorted, commanded in scripture to sing to him, sing praises to him. The psalmist repeats himself for emphasis. And notice again, the close connection between singing his praises and speaking of his wonders, meaning his wonderful deeds, his wonderful works of redemption. and judgment. In the New American Standard Version that I’m preaching from, it says, speak of all his wonders. That is translated in versions like the ESV as tell of all his wondrous works. We can do that, of course, in our daily conversations with those outside of Christ. as we seek to share the gospel, as God in His good providence gives us opportunity.

That’s certainly a good thing to do, a commendable thing to do. But we also speak of His wondrous works and tell others of His wondrous works through our singing of praise to the Lord. As another commentator puts it, the telling of his wondrous works, or speaking of all of his wonders, refers to those acts of grace and judgment that God performs in history. God enters history and acts graciously on behalf of his people, remarkably so in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His only begotten Son.” Again, living as we do under the New Covenant, when we read this psalm or any portion of the Old Testament, we read these things as fulfilled in Christ and pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. So these mighty works of God, of God’s judgment and grace in the Old Testament, pointed us forward to the ultimate mighty works of God in Christ, as Christ took the judgment of God upon himself on the cross and redeemed us through his precious blood.

And then notice verse three. I mentioned this a few minutes ago, but again, notice it says, glory in his holy name. What is God’s holy name? Holy means set apart. He is transcendent. He is distinct from his creation. As Van Til taught us, there’s the creator-creature distinction. God is transcendent. He is set apart as the creator of heaven and earth, but he’s also holy, ethically speaking. He is set apart. His holy name, God’s name, represents his revealed character, his divine attributes. So we are summoned here to glory in God’s holy name, not just that we that we think about the name of God as a designation or a title, but that we glory in His revealed character. We meditate upon, we consider, we reflect upon and glory in the greatness and the goodness of our merciful God.

And then verse four, We, as the imperatives and exhortations continue, seek the Lord, seek Yahweh and His strength. We have no strength in ourselves, but praise God, it was when we were weak that Christ died for our sins. We are weak in our sin, in our fallenness, but the Lord is strong. And we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually. Again, we have no strength in ourselves to worship, to serve, or to obey our covenant Lord. But by His sovereign, omnipotent grace, We must seek His face. Now what does the face of the Lord represent? It represents His favor, His presence. And so to seek the face of the Lord is to seek to live in union and communion with Him, to seek to live in His presence, to commune with Him. in prayer and in praise, both individually as an individual believer, but also since this is a psalm that is addressed to God’s gathered covenant community, we do so as a congregation of God’s people.

And so seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually. Seek His blessing. Seek His presence in prayer and praise continually. But why should we praise the Lord? Well, I like what Dr. Van Gameren, I know I often quote from him. He’s a Reformed guy, I believe. In his commentary, he answers that question, why praise the Lord, in terms of the goal of praise. He writes, the goal of praise is threefold. First, praise magnifies the Lord. When the people of God reflect on Him and what He has done, they ascribe power holiness, and glory to His name. His perfections and mighty acts are so closely interrelated that no separation can be made between praise and thanksgiving. Second, praise intensifies an appreciation of the history of redemption as it affects God’s people in the present.

That is, when we reflect upon and praise the Lord for His mighty works in the past, we are assured that that God, that same God and covenant Lord of ours who has acted in history in the past continues to be at work now in our lives and in His church. And so Van Gameren goes on to say that God’s people receive consolation and encouragement reflecting on what He has done in the past. Third, praise also witnesses to those outside the covenant community, those described as the nations, or in the New American Standard Version in verse one, the peoples. Even as the mighty acts of God were to inspire the nations with awe, and he refers us back to Psalm 76, verses seven and 12, so the recounting of God’s acts in the past witnesses to his power over all of the nations.

Beloved, what can fuel and deepen our praise and worship of God? Sometimes, and let’s be honest, sometimes we all, if you’ve been in the Lord for any amount of time, you can look back at times in your life when you’ve gone through what is sometimes referred to as a spiritual dry spell. When it just feels like God is completely absent. When it feels like when you pray to him that your prayers are just bouncing off the walls, not getting through to the Lord. It seems like God has abandoned you or is not walking with you. He seems distant from you. And sometimes as a covenant community, sometimes our worship of the Lord can be cold and formalistic, even ritualistic. So what can we do? What is it that we can do, brothers and sisters, to fuel and deepen and strengthen our praise and worship?

What is to be done in order that our worship might be more personally meaningful as well as powerful and spirit-blessed? Well, the answer that is given in our psalm this evening is glorying in His holy name and remembering His wonders. What can fuel and deepen our praise and worship of God, whether we’re talking about our personal devotion to the Lord, our worship together as families, or our corporate worship together as a church? Again, getting the focus back on the Lord, reflecting upon and glorying in who God is, getting our eyes off of ourselves and back onto the Lord and His greatness, His goodness, His holiness, His majesty, and reflecting upon all that He has done for us, especially in the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. Imagine it, brothers and sisters.

Before God created the world, He had you in mind. He had planned He had planned things out from the beginning. He had decreed your creation, and yes, He had decreed, sovereignly decreed, your fall in Adam and mine. God is not the author of sin, but he is the decreeer of sin, and he orders even the sins of his creatures for his own glory and for the good of his people. God had that all planned out, but God’s plan had you in mind, brother, sister in Christ, that before the foundation of the world, the Father gave you and me to his Son in the eternal covenant of redemption. The Father has given you to his Son from eternity. He’s loved you with an everlasting love. And in time, Jesus Christ came to this earth to die, brothers, sisters, for your sins and for mine.

As you reflect upon that amazing, boundless love that God has demonstrated and shown for you and for me, that should fill our hearts with awe, that should deepen and strengthen our devotion, our worship. It should fuel our praises as we glory in His holy name and as we remember His wondrous works, His wonders done for our salvation. But friends, only as we know the Lord in a saving way can we truly appreciate and reverence the Lord for who He is and for what He has done. And so I would ask you, dear listener, this evening, whether you’re here tonight or whether you’re listening through the internet, I would ask you, do you, do you know the Lord in a saving way? Have you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your very own Lord and Savior?

God’s word calls upon you, summons you and me to repent and believe in Christ. Repent and believe the good news. Trust in Christ who was crucified for the forgiveness of sins and raised from the dead so that whoever believes in him might not perish. but have everlasting life. Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus for salvation tonight. And then you too will be able by the grace of God to enter into the spirit of praise and adoration that is reflected in this glorious portion of God’s word known as Psalm 105. And so, indeed, we are called upon and summoned in this psalm to worship and praise the Lord, to glory in His holy name. But next, as we move on to verses 5 through 11, and this is the second point in your sermon outline, friends, remember the wonders of the faithful God who remembers His covenant forever.

There are two remembrances going on in this section. We as God’s people are called upon to remember his wonders, the wonders of the Lord, his glorious deeds of grace and judgment. And we are to remember the one who himself remembers his covenant forever. Remember the wonders of the faithful God who remembers his covenant forever. The major central theme throughout this psalm is Yahweh’s faithfulness to keep his covenant forever. When God makes a promise, he keeps his promises. You know, sometimes when we make promises to one another, we mean those promises half-heartedly, and sometimes people even make promises with their fingers crossed behind their backs. Their promises can often be deceptive. We think of our politicians, for example. making many promises that they oftentimes don’t intend to keep. But not so our Lord. God is faithful.

He remembers his covenant forever. Not merely in the sense that he brings it to mind, but in the sense that he acts upon that which he has promised. Look at verse five. Remember his wonders which he has done. his marvels and the judgments uttered by his mouth. Now later in this lengthy psalm, the psalmist recounts many of these wonders of the past. Wonders such as God’s faithfulness in the history of Joseph. You remember Joseph who was sold into slavery, but God did raise Joseph up to deliver God’s people and many others as well from starvation. We remember God’s faithfulness in the history of Joseph. We also are, Psalm 105 recounts, the psalmist recounts the Lord’s deliverance of his people Israel from their slavery in Egypt by raising up Moses and in the process of delivering his people, pouring out mighty plagues upon the Egyptians, which again, these plagues are, some of these plagues are listed here in Psalm 105 and remembered as being part of the wonders that God performed, wonders of judgment and deliverance.

And then finally, we see the wonders of God in bringing his people into the promised land in fulfillment of his covenant promise, that covenant promise being brought out, especially in verse 11, where God says to Abraham, to you, I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance. So again, we are told to remember his wonders which he has done, his marvels, and the judgments he uttered by his mouth. Now, to whom is the psalmist addressing this exhortation to remember? Well, he’s addressing those described in verse 6 as the seed of Abraham, his servant, the sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. As we learn in the New Testament, if you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior and Lord by the sovereign grace of God, even if you have not a drop of Jewish blood in your body, even if you are a Gentile of the Gentiles, if you are a true believer in Christ, you are a son, a daughter of Abraham, and thus by grace, one of his chosen ones.

So this applies to you and to me as well. Verse seven. The psalmist reminds the people of God. The people of God in the Old Testament often forgot that the Lord Yahweh was the only true God and was their God. And he reminds them that He is the Lord. He is Yahweh our God. His judgments are in all the earth. And then expanding upon that, he goes on to say of the Lord, that he has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. God never forgets his promises. He has remembered his word, and the passing of time does not eat away at God’s memory muscle. God continues to remember throughout all ages, not just in the sense of keeping it in mind, but in the sense of acting in his divine providence to faithfully execute his covenant promises.

And what covenant promises in particular are in mind here? Well, again, verse nine, the covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac, and then he confirmed it to Jacob for a statue to Israel as an everlasting covenant saying to you, I will give the land of Canaan. In verses eight through 11, we read this language of the Lord remembering his covenant. And again, as I’ve already said, but I wanna stress it some more. He remembers, not that God is ever in danger of forgetting. Remember, God is the omniscient one. He knows all things. God does not experience memory lapses. God does not suffer from cosmic amnesia. He is always mindful. But when the scriptures use this language of God remembering, again, what they mean, He remembers in the sense that He is at work, that He acts to fulfill His covenant promises.

He acts within history. In His divine providence, He orchestrates events so that His covenant promises come to fruition in His timing. And similarly, when we are exhorted to remember the Lord, that doesn’t mean merely to bring to mental remembrance the things that the Lord has done, although that’s part of it, but to remember the Lord means to obey the Lord. not only to think upon who He is and all that He’s done, but on the basis of who He is and what He has done to trust and by His grace to obey Him. You know, we sometimes sing that beautiful hymn, great is thy faithfulness. And I don’t know about you folks, but that’s one of my favorite hymns. I have a lot of favorite hymns, but that’s one of them. Think of those words, so precious.

Great is thy faithfulness, oh God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee, thou changest not. Thy compassions, they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have need of thy hands have provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross and His glorious bodily resurrection and ascension and reign at the Father’s right hand assures us that our God is indeed faithful to keep His covenant promises. We can rely upon them. We can stake our eternity upon His promises. This, beloved, is our comfort both in life and in death, knowing that our gracious God and Heavenly Father is faithful to keep His covenant promises freely given to us in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

If you’re here this evening or watching this sermon this evening, and you are struggling in your faith, oh, dear struggling believer, may you be comforted in knowing that your blessed Savior is a faithful Savior. He is a Savior who remembers His covenant forever. And because He remembers His covenant forever, what does that mean for you? That means that He will never, ever leave you nor forsake you. nor will he ever abandon his covenant bond of love and mercy that he has given to you. Even if you are faithless, this is not counsel for you to be loose in your living or to presume upon the faithfulness of God, but even if you should stray, If you truly belong to Christ, if He is your Lord and Savior, He will not let you stray beyond reach.

He will sooner or later bring you back because He is faithful to keep His covenant. His covenant mercies are sealed by His precious lifeblood which He shed upon the cross of Calvary to redeem you from all of your sins, so trust Rest in peace. in Him, glory in Him. And that brings me to my next point, my final brief point based on verses 12 through 15. And that is, beloved, trust in the providential protection and guidance of the Lord who watches over His pilgrim people. Trust in the providential protection and guidance of the Lord who watches over His pilgrim people. Just as Yahweh the Lord faithfully watched over Abraham and the patriarchs when they were few in number and vulnerable, so vulnerable and weak to attack from outsiders. Look at verses 12 through 15. The psalmist recounts the history of redemption when the people of God were very, very few.

In the times of Abraham, when they were only a few men in number, very few, and strangers in it. They were strangers in a foreign land, which would put you in a very vulnerable position in those days. And they wandered about from nation to nation. They had no land of their own. They were nomads, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. He permitted no man to oppress them, and he reproved kings for their sakes. Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm. Based on verse 12, we see that God faithfully watched over his people, even when they were few in number, unstable, weak, and vulnerable. You know, as we look at the state of the faithful church today, the church of Jesus Christ that is faithful in preaching the gospel, we see the church is so filled with sin, so filled with weakness, so vulnerable.

The true churches today seem to be so small in numbers, as a general rule, they seem to be so weak, so vulnerable to the attacks and influences of the world. How can the church survive in such times as these? We read the statistics that churches all over the nation are bleeding members, and the churches are shrinking. And Christian influence, if there ever was such, is shrinking more and more in our nation. And it’s tempting to throw up our hands in despair and say, it’s hopeless. Brothers and sisters, it’s not hopeless because He remembers His covenant forever. Our Lord guides and guards His people in all generations, and He will continue to do so even until the return of Christ. And he keeps his people, his faithful remnant, from ultimate spiritual harm. So let us not live in despair.

Let us live in confidence, resting in the Lord’s sovereign, providential protection. Now, in verses 13 through 15, the background of these verses seems clearly to be Genesis chapter 20, where Abimelech, the king of Gerar, had taken Sarah, Abraham’s wife, to be his own wife. in large part because Abraham had not been entirely forthright about his relationship with Sarah. He had said, well, Sarah’s my sister. And so Abimelech took Sarah to be his wife, thereby unknowingly threatening the integrity of God’s covenant promise. After all, God had promised Abraham that he would have a son by Sarah. So how is that promise gonna be fulfilled when Sarah is now the wife of Abimelech? the king of Gerar. Well, as you may recall, God comes to Abimelech in a dream and rather threateningly says, you better return Sarah to her rightful husband.

And Abimelech rightfully said, Lord, I had no idea. I’m paraphrasing, of course, but he did that in the integrity of his heart. That’s the point. God there intervened to guard and protect His covenant promise. He did so by coming to Abimelech in the dream, thereby preventing Abimelech from further sinning and also guarding His covenant promises. And what God did in that instance, He continues to do throughout redemptive history. Indeed, He continues to do today. So once again, beloved, we see God remembering His covenant promises by intervening and acting to guard those promises. So let us, in light of that, Let us continue, brothers and sisters, as a church and as believers, to trust in Him and in His covenant promises. Let us remember the Lord who graciously remembers His covenant promises in the sense of acting to fulfill, guard, and keep those promises.

And let us remember especially His promises of salvation in Christ. And let us be assured that if we believe in Christ, if we trust in Him, He will indeed fulfill the promise to save us even to the uttermost. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank you for its comforts, its truths, and the peace that we derive from it. We pray that by your spirit, you would help us to take these truths to heart. We ask, Lord God, that you would grant that we would live out the implications of these truths in our lives. May we trust and obey out of gratitude for your gift of salvation to us in Jesus. And we thank you, oh Lord, that you are such a faithful covenant-keeping God. In Jesus’ name we pray. and all of God’s people said, amen.

Let us, beloved, close our time of worship this evening by singing together our closing hymn, number 228, Hast Thou Not Known, Hast Thou Not Heard. Let’s rise and sing together number 228.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

June 11, 2023
God’s Glorious Works of Providence

About this sermon

Psalm 104 closes with God’s works of providence: every creature looks to him for food, and when he takes away their breath, they return to dust. God made the world, and he never stepped back from it. He upholds and governs every creature and every event by his power, from the rain to the stars. When God sends forth his Spirit, he renews the face of the ground, and his people bless the Lord with all their souls.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Psalm 104. I gave an overview of this psalm on the last Lord’s Day. This evening, we’re going to focus on verses 27 through 35. Psalm 104, verses 27 through 35. I’m going to start at verse 24 to kind of fill out the context a little bit. So let us hear God’s holy word. Psalm 104, beginning at verse 24. O Lord, How many are your works? In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions. There is the sea, great and broad, in which are swarms without number, animals both small and great. There the ships move along and leviathan, which you have formed to sport in it. They all wait for you to give them their food in due season. You give to them, they gather it up. You open your hand.

They are satisfied with good. You hide your face. They are dismayed. You take away their spirit. They expire and return to their dust. You send forth your spirit. They are created and you renew the face of the ground. Let the glory of the Lord endure forever. Let the Lord be glad in his works. He looks at the earth and it trembles. He touches the mountains and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Let my meditation be pleasing to Him. As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord. Let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord.” The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever.

Let’s ask for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have spoken to us, that you’ve given us your holy word. We pray now that by your spirit you would illuminate the word to us as we consider this portion of holy scripture. We ask that you would bless the proclamation of your word this evening to our edification and salvation and to your glory and honor and praise. We ask these things in Jesus name and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. Well, friends, the title of my sermon this evening is God’s Glorious Works of Providence. And as you’ll see, if you’re following along in your sermon outline, there’s five key words to be listening for tonight. One of those words, of course, being the word providence, but also creation, life, praise and joy.

Now, dear friends, I want you to consider that word providence. Let me ask you, how often do you hear that word used these days in ordinary day-to-day conversation? How often does that word get used in your ordinary conversations? Well, unless you’re a seminary student, my suspicion is that you rarely, if ever, hear that word in ordinary day-to-day conversations. The whole concept and idea of providence is something that is almost off of the radar screen of most folks today in our culture and in our time. And while that may be sad, indeed I do believe it is sad, it really isn’t surprising, is it? After all, we find ourselves living today in a highly secularized, man-centered, humanistic age. We find ourselves living in an age which has discarded belief. in the personal sovereign triune God of providence who has revealed himself in the Bible and an age which has replaced this God with a so-called God who is basically uninvolved and disengaged from his creation and whose highest aspiration, at least insofar as he chooses to get involved in his creation, whose highest aspiration is the personal happiness and fulfillment of us, his creatures.

But the word providence and the concept that lies behind that word, it’s an important theological word. It’s a word that carries with it the conviction that the universe and all of reality are God-centered, theocentric to the core. In contrast to the prevailing worldview of our current secular age, the Word of God teaches that the world and all of reality are deeply God-centered, precisely because the true and living God, the God who created all things at the very beginning, that this God continues to uphold, to sustain, and to govern all things and all creatures, by His omnipotent power, all for His glory and for the good of His elect Church. The God who is the creator of heaven and earth is also the providential Lord who sovereignly, moment by moment, governs all things in heaven and on earth.

If God were to remove his sustaining hand from creation for even a moment, all things would disappear out of existence. For God sustains us and all things and all creatures moment by moment. The section of Psalm 104, which we are considering on this Lord’s Day evening, affirms this truth of divine providence as it highlights God’s glorious works of providence. Now, in terms of an overview and setting of this particular psalm, as I mentioned on the last Lord’s Day, I sought to offer a broad overview of this psalm. And as we saw on the last Lord’s Day evening, Psalm 104 is a psalm of praise which highlights God’s glory, God’s wisdom and God’s majesty as displayed in both his mighty works of creation and providence. As I pointed out then, this psalm appears to be a poetic reflection upon the creation account recorded in Genesis chapter 1.

This psalm contains many poetic echoes of the Genesis creation account. As one Bible commentator puts it, this hymn of praise celebrates the way the created order reveals God’s glory by providing so abundantly for all living creatures. Although it does not use many specific words from Genesis chapter one, verse one through chapter two, verse three, it is generally agreed that the creation account ideas, the creation accounts ideas lie behind the psalm. And I tried to show that on the last Lord’s Day. But for this Lord’s Day evening, let’s dive in beginning at verse twenty eight, twenty seven and twenty eight. And the first thing I want us to consider from our psalm this evening, We find in this psalm that God is revealed as the great provider for all of his creatures. This is the first main point on your outline.

If you’re following along, God is the great provider for all of his creatures. Look at verse 27. The psalmist writes, they all, all of the creatures that have been mentioned up to this point, they all wait for you to give them their food in due season. So God is the one who gives nourishment, sustenance. Our food ultimately comes from God. Verse 28, you give to them, they gather it up. You open your hand. What a picture. God opening his hand. They are satisfied with good. Now, of course, these two verses focus particularly on God’s provision of food for all of his creatures. Food is absolutely essential for life, of course. Without food, there is no sustenance. There’s no nourishment. Without food, sooner or later, you will You will die. We need food. And God is the one who provides us and all of his creatures with the food that we need in his divine providence.

Now, in the previous sections of this psalm, the author had focused on God’s provision for the land animals, including man, as well as the birds of the air. We read about those provisions in verses 11 through 24. And verses 25 through 26 also highlight how our sovereign God has provided for all of the vast array of sea creatures, both small and great. We see that again in verses 25 and 26. So the they all mentioned in verse 27 would include all of the creatures mentioned in these previous sections. Their food is said to be a gift from their Creator. In verse 28, God’s provision of food for His creatures is depicted as a result of God opening His hand. It says, you open your hand, they are satisfied with good. Oh, what a fearful thing it would be for God to close up His hands, to withhold from us and food and nourishment and the things that we need for life and sustenance.

But no, God in his goodness and kindness opens his hand and he provides us each day with our daily bread. Children, where does our food ultimately come from? A lot of people think that our food comes from the grocery store or from the farmers or from, quote, nature. Friends, from a biblical point of view, our food does not ultimately come from the grocery store, though, obviously, in our setting, we shop for our food at the grocery store. At least most of us do. Some of us grow a portion of our of our food from the land. But you can we get this food from the grocery store. And our food doesn’t ultimately come from the dedicated farmers who grow our food, though again, in God’s providence, God uses those farmers and he uses these natural processes to bring us our food.

We can’t even say that our food ultimately comes from nature abstractly considered. Instead, beloved, we are ultimately fed by the very hand of God himself. And that’s why it is our it is a biblical custom, a good custom to give thanks for your food at the meal. This is why it is legitimate to pray as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. Give us this day our daily bread, even though in God’s providence we ordinarily work for our food. After all, it is God who gives us the strength to work and who providentially controls all of the pieces of the process that take place to produce food from the ground or the animal products from the animals that we eat and turns them into sustenance and nourishment for our bodies, which sustains our natural biological life.

Again, the psalmist writes, you open your hands, they are satisfied. I hope you had a satisfying meal after church this morning. What a blessing to enjoy a meal with your family. What a blessing to be so well provided for as we are in our nation. And we should, of course, think of those whose food is less secure than what we have. And we should pray for them, for God’s provision for them. But God is the great provider. And so in terms of some takeaways and applications from this first observation, beloved, remember that the providential creator God who provides for his creature, the God who is revealed and spoken of in this portion of Holy Scripture. Remember, as I mentioned on the last Lord’s Day, that this God is Yahweh. The predominant name for God in the Hebrew that is used in Psalm 104 is the covenant name for God, Yahweh.

And as I’ve mentioned many times, and as you folks very likely know, the name Yahweh refers to God or has God in view as the one who is the faithful covenant keeping Lord, the redeeming God of Israel. And yet, this redeeming covenant God is also revealed to be our creator and provider. The God who is our Redeemer is the God who is also our Creator and Provider. And as we bear witness to this true and living God to unbelievers, and we point them to the reality of God as the Creator and as the providential Lord, we need to remind them that not only did God create you, not only does He provide you with your daily bread, He is the only God who is able to save you from your sins and provide you with that spiritual food that nourishes your soul unto life eternal.

So let us remember that this God of providence is Yahweh the Lord. And of course, I know that today that’s nothing new to us. But this was a theological truth that that is frequently pushed forth and presented to God’s people in the Old Testament scriptures. They needed to be reminded constantly that that their God was not just a national deity, He was not just a deity who did limited things for them, like redeem them from slavery and give them their own promised land. He’s also the great creator of all peoples, all the nations, all creation. And He sustains all things by His divine providence. But again, another truth that we glean from these verses is that these verses illustrate well the theological truth of God’s providence. Now, you may have noticed, at least in the English language, the term providence is very closely related to the term provide, right?

And that is intentional. For God, by His divine providence, provides for His creatures, and He disposes and governs all things to His glory and for the good of His creatures. Our shorter catechism in question 11 asks, what are God’s works of providence? And I know some of you know the answer to that question. The Bible based answer to that question, of course, is God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. The preserving of His creatures is especially highlighted in passages like the one that we are considering this Lord’s Day evening. And I also love what our Confession of Faith in chapter 5, section 1 says about providence. This is the chapter on providence. That section reads as follows. It says, God, the great creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things from the greatest even to the least. by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness and mercy.

Praise be to God. He is a God of glorious, awesome providence. Another truth we glean here, beloved, is that the biblical truth of God’s providence, which we see revealed in passages of scripture like this one, refutes all deistic notions of a distant, uninvolved God. Now, I’m not going to give you a lecture this evening on false theologies or the false theology of deism in particular. But basically, deism is the idea that, yes, there is a creator God, a God who kind of got things started. But after getting things started, he kind of stepped back and let things run on their own. And the comparison has been made to a clockmaker. You know, let’s say you’ve got a clockmaker and he gets all of the pieces and parts of the clock and he constructs the clock.

He puts all the pieces in place and everything’s put together and then he winds up the clock. Does he have to constantly attend to it? Does he have to constantly oversee it? No. Once the clock is put together, once it’s created, and once all of the pieces are in place and he winds it up, it runs on its own. It only needs occasional attending to maintain it. And a lot of people have that idea about God. They think, well, yes, God created the universe and he gave the universe natural laws, but things kind of run on their own. And God is kind of up there and he’s not really interested or involved. He’s just kind of sitting back and not really involved in our lives. Well, I’m here to tell you, my friends, that the God of deism is an idol.

It is not the true and living God, the true and living God, not only created all things, but the Bible says, as we read from Acts chapter 17, that in Him we live and move and have our being. God, moment by moment, sustains His creation. And yes, God has created the natural laws. God uses those natural laws. He oversees them. He is behind all of those natural laws so that it can be said that he is the ultimate one who gives us all of the things in creation. And so, for example, we often talk, if you’re watching the Weather Channel, for example, and the meteorologist says, well, tomorrow it’s going to rain. Well, friends, from a biblical worldview point of view, it doesn’t rain. God causes it to rain. God uses the natural laws and the scientific realities that are involved in the sending of rain.

But it isn’t just that rain happens on its own. God, in his ordinary providence, is involved in all of these natural processes. He is not a deistic distant God. He is a God who is working out his plan and purpose in history. Everything that occurs at the most microscopic level, even to the largest cosmic level, whether it’s happening under a microscope or happening in a distant galaxy, It is a playing out of God’s decree, God’s sovereign plan. And the reason I bring this up and stress this is that I think we Christians can sometimes fall into this deistic thinking. We think that unless something miraculous happens, that God’s not involved. No, God is involved in every beat of your heart, every breath that you draw. God is involved in it. He is involved in it by his divine providence.

So let us let us avoid deistic thinking. Let us realize that in him we live and move and have our being. Yes, he is transcendent over his creation, but he is always also present within his creation and he’s working out his plan. Most of the time he works it out. according to his secret counsel, behind the scenes, if you will, but he is actively involved. God is actively involved by his providence in every sunrise, in every sunset, every beat of our hearts, every meal that we enjoy. God is involved in it all. So let us remember that, beloved, and let us praise him, recognizing that he is the one who provides for us. But not only is God the great provider for all of His creatures, God is also revealed here as the great sovereign over life and death.

This is my second point in your outline. Notice, beloved, that God is the great sovereign over life and death. As it says in verse 29, you hide your face, they are dismayed. You take away their spirit, or breath as it could be translated, They expire and return to their dust. You send forth your spirit. They are created and you renew the face of the ground. Now, let’s focus on verse 29. The psalmist writes, you hide your face. They are dismayed. Now, that language of God hiding his face, what is this language pointing to? Well, in the scriptures, when God causes his face to shine upon you, what does that indicate? the shining of God’s face. When we when we pray for God to shine the light of his countenance upon someone, we think of someone in our life who is suffering or struggling and we say, Lord, shine the light of your countenance upon that person.

What are we praying? We’re praying that God would show favor, that God would give blessing to that person. So to have God’s face shine upon you means life and blessing. But on the other hand, for God to hide his face indicates curse and abandonment, or at the very least, the removal of that providential power by which life is sustained. You take away their spirit, the psalmist writes. The God who is responsible for breathing life into us. The God who is responsible for giving us life is also the one who ultimately takes it away. When we breathe our last breath, it’s because God is taking our breath from us and we return to Him. And if you’re a believer in Christ, that means coming into His presence. It’s a good thing, a good transition for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, again, there’s a lot of wrong thinking about death and about the language that we use to refer to death. We often speak about those who have died as those who, quote, pass away. And, you know, if you use that language, I’m not going to make a stink about that. I use that language sometimes, too. So-and-so has passed away. But when you think about it, that’s not really accurate. We don’t just pass away in some kind of passive manner where God is not involved. Instead, God actively takes away our spirit or our breath. And then what happens? It says they return to their dust. Now, this seems to reflect the language of Genesis 3, verse 19, where God says to Adam after his fall into sin, for you are dust and to dust you shall return.

I’m sure many of you have been to funerals before and at a graveside service, you might hear the minister or officiant say the words ashes to ashes and dust to dust. We are dust. God formed mankind from the dust of the earth, breathed life into us. But the same God who breathed life into us can take that breath back to himself according to his sovereign will and plan. But then there’s a note of hope in verse 30. It says, you send forth your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground. Now, I don’t believe the psalmist is in this context speaking here about the resurrection. Instead, he’s speaking about how God in his providence raises up new generations of creatures. to replace those who have passed away, who have died, whose breath has been removed by God.

And thus God renews the face of the ground. He continues in his divine providence to maintain and sustain life from generation to generation. One Bible commentator puts it this way. He says, God is the great householder. Both land and sea animals seek their meat from him, verses 27 and 28. God gives life as well as food, verse 29. Day by day, he gives them breath. And when he withdraws his sustaining influence, they die and return to dust. When the present generation of animals die, God’s spirit creates others to take their place, verse 30. So what do we learn from this, beloved? Well, let us realize that our lives are ultimately in the hands of our creator. Life is fragile. Life is a blessing. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s a gift from God, but it is fragile.

May we realize this. May this truth move us to seek wisdom from God that we may number our days and be good stewards of our lives and live our lives for his glory and not for our pleasures. Let us also remember that just as God is the only one who has the power to grant us the natural biological life that we all enjoy, He is also the only one who can grant to us sinners that spiritual, eternal, eschatological life that saves our souls. That gift of eternal life, of course, is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. As our Lord Jesus said to His Father in the high priestly prayer recorded in John 17, verse 3, Jesus says, This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

When God causes a sinner to be born again, God, the Holy Spirit, breathes new life into the souls of that sinner, bringing them, raising them from spiritual death unto newness of life in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, both natural biological life and spiritual eternal life are gifts from our God and Creator. Dear listener, do you know Jesus Christ as your very own Savior and Lord? Have you received the gift of eternal life? Turn to Christ today. Believe upon him for the salvation of your soul. And finally, beloved, notice that God’s mighty works of creation and providence should fuel our praises and fill us with joy. God’s mighty works of creation and providence should fuel our praises and fill us with joy. In this closing section of Psalm 104, the psalmist says, let the glory of the Lord endure forever.

Let the Lord be glad in his works. He looks at the earth and it trembles. He touches the mountains and they smoke. This language depicts the power of God and the awesomeness of God and the fearfulness of God as he touches the mountains and they smoke. Perhaps there’s also a thought of volcanoes erupting in the background here. He says in verse 33, I will sing to the Lord as long as I live here, the psalmist having reflected upon God’s mighty works of creation and providence, he resolves in his heart that he is going to respond to these mighty works by singing to the Lord, by worshiping God all his life long. I will sing to the Lord. I will sing to Yahweh, the Lord, my faithful covenant God, as long as I live, I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

And again, remember that our being is given to us from the hand of God and sustained from the hand of God. He gives us breath. He gives us life and he gives us that life for us a specific time. And as long as we live, let us worship and serve him. And then he says, let my meditation be pleasing to him. As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord. The Lord is glad when his people are glad in him. And then, verse 35, he says, let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more. The sinners and the wicked of the earth are a blight upon God’s godly order and the wonderful works of God. And yet God will take care of the sinners in his due time. This powerful psalm highlighting God’s mighty works of creation and providence comes here to an appropriate close on a high note of praise.

As Yahweh Himself in creation declared all things to be very good, so may He continue, the psalmist writes, to be glad in His works. Do you desire for your God and Savior to be glad in the works of His hands? We should desire God’s happiness, God’s pleasure above all. Let the Lord glory. Let the Lord be glad in His works. But verse 35, I want to focus on this verse just for a few more moments before we wrap things up. According to one commentator, In one of my study Bible study notes, it says this about verse 35. It says, the psalmist would like to see the removal of everything that opposes the godly order he has so eloquently described. God has given us a beautiful creation, and He’s given us a godly order of creation.

And when we align our lives by His grace with that godly order, there is blessing, there is life, there is wholeness, there is peace, But when sinners distort the ways of the Lord, rebel against God, rebel against his created order, chaos and disorder and corruption ensue. And so the psalmist is expressing that eschatological longing, that longing for the time when God will bring in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein righteousness dwells. Right now, wickedness dwells and seems to prevail. Indeed, it does prevail among the fallen of mankind. But there will come a time when God will reverse that. And in terms of the terminology that is used here, the term sinners and wicked, As another commentator puts it, sinners and wicked are, as generally in the Psalms, those who reject God’s gracious rule and dwell in their rebellion.

In other words, those who are hardened and impenitent in their sin and rebellion against the Lord. Such a moral condition of hardness against God is a blemish on God’s good world. The prayer that they may be consumed from the earth will be answered in God’s good time. So in a sense, this is an imprecation. calling for God to deal with the wicked. But let us remember brothers and sisters that in this time between the times in this period of redemptive history one of the ways that God deals with the wicked of the earth is by bringing them the gospel and bringing them to repentance. So God will deal with the wicked in his time, either by bringing judgment upon them or by bringing them to repentance. Let us pray that in this age of this time of grace that he might bring them to repentance lest they perish.

But then again, the psalm closes as it opens with this praise to God. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Does your soul say that to the Lord? Can you say from your heart? Bless the Lord, O my soul. In closing, as John Calvin writes, since then, the wicked, by their perverse abuse of God’s gifts, caused the world in a manner to degenerate and fall away from its first original. The prophet justly desires that they may be exterminated until the race of them entirely fail. Let us then take care so to weigh the providence of God as that being wholly devoted to obeying him. We may rightly and purely use the benefits which he sanctifies for our enjoying them. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your gracious and kind providence to us and especially for your saving providence in bringing us into contact with the gospel and drawing us by your grace and through the Holy Spirit to faith in Christ.

Lord, we ask that you would deepen our sense of the God-centered reality of all of creation. Help us to live our lives Coram Deo before your face, knowing that in you we live and move and have our being and confident that you will indeed lead us on and carry us to that destiny that you have drawn us to. We thank you, Lord, that you who have begun a good work in us will indeed carry it through to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. For it is in his name that we pray and all of God’s people said, Amen. As we close our time together, let’s rise and sing. Hymn 256, God Moves in a Mysterious Way, 256.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

May 28, 2023
God’s Wisdom and Glory Displayed in Creation

About this sermon

Psalm 104 is a hymn to the Creator that echoes the six days of Genesis 1. The Lord stretches out the heavens, sets the earth on its foundations, bounds the sea, and feeds every creature in its season. His creation shows a God of order, wisdom, and majesty, to whom every person is accountable. The psalmist resolves to sing to the Lord as long as he lives, and he prays that sinners will be consumed from the earth.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out heaven like a tent curtain. He lays the beams of his upper chambers in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks upon the wings of the wind. He makes the winds his messengers, flaming fire his ministers. He established the earth upon its foundations so that it will not totter forever and ever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters were standing above the mountains. At your rebuke, they fled. At the sound of your thunder, they hurried away. The mountains rose. The valleys sank down to the place which you established for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass over so that they will not return to cover the earth.

He sends forth springs in the valleys. They flow between the mountains. They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them, the birds of the heavens dwell. They lift up their voices among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of his works. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle. and vegetation for the labor of man, so that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine which makes man’s heart glad, so that he may make his face glisten with oil, and food which sustains man’s heart. The trees of the Lord drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon which he planted, where the birds build their nests, and the stork whose home is the fir trees.

The high mountains are for the wild goats, the cliffs are a refuge for the Shefenim. He made the moon for the seasons. The sun knows the place of its setting. You appoint darkness and it becomes night in which all the beasts of the forest prowl about. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God. When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens. Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until evening. Oh Lord, How many are your works? In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions. There is the sea, great and broad, in which are swarms without number, animals both small and great. There the ships move along, and leviathan which you have formed to sport in it. They all wait for you.

You give them their food in due season. You give to them, they gather it up. You open your hands, they are satisfied with good. You hide your face, they are dismayed. You take away their spirit, they expire and return to their dust. You send forth your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground. Let the glory of the Lord endure forever. Let the Lord be glad in His works. He looks at the earth and it trembles. He touches the mountains and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Let my meditation be pleasing to Him. As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord. Let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more.

Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord. Let’s pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, you are the mighty and awesome and sovereign creator and sustainer and governor and Lord over heaven and earth. We ask, Lord, that by your Holy Spirit you would now open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word and to take to heart that which your spirit is speaking to us in this portion of your inerrant scriptures. We thank you, O God, for your word. It is indeed a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, and a guide to our way. And we ask, Lord, that the spirit of praise that saturates this psalm would become part of our spirit as well, that we might indeed draw forth from this psalm great riches to fuel our praises and our prayers.

We ask these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. The sermon title this evening is God’s Wisdom and Glory Displayed in Creation. And there’s four key words to be listening for this evening. The words greatness, goodness, wisdom, and majesty. Especially the children, if you would find it helpful to keep track of the number of times I say those words, if that helps you follow along in the sermon, I’d encourage you to count the number of times I say those words. Greatness, goodness, wisdom, and majesty. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Psalm 104 is a marvelous psalm. It is a marvelous psalm of praise to the Creator, a psalm of praise that highlights God’s glory, God’s wisdom, and God’s majesty. especially as that glory, wisdom, and majesty are displayed in His mighty works of creation and His mighty works of divine providence.

Now this psalm appears to be a poetic reflection upon the creation account of Genesis chapter 1 and if you carefully compare this psalm with Genesis 1 you will detect many poetic echoes of Genesis chapter 1 of the Genesis creation account. And just to give you some examples, the creation of light and the heavens in verses 2 and 3 of our psalm echoes the first and second days of creation as recorded in Genesis chapter 1 verses 3 through 8. The separation of the land from the sea recorded in verses 5 through 9 of this psalm echoes the third day of creation as recorded in Genesis 1, 9, and 10. God’s provision for the vegetation and land creatures as spoken of in verses 10 through 18 of this psalm echoes the third and the sixth days of creation as recorded in Genesis 1, 11 to 13, as well as Genesis 1 24 to 31.

The order of day and night as ruled by the sun and the moon, which we read about in verses 19 through 23 of our psalm, echoes the fourth day of creation as recorded in Genesis 1 14 through 19. And God’s works in the realm of the sea, which we read about in verses 25 and 26 of this psalm, are an echo of the fifth day of creation as recorded in Genesis 1 20 through 23. It would be a fascinating thing to take two copies of your Bible and open one Bible to Genesis 1 and one of your Bibles to Psalm 104 and make those comparisons and to see the poetic echoes of the Genesis creation account here in this beautiful psalm of creation and providence, Psalm 104. So again, it would appear that this beautiful divinely inspired literary masterpiece known to us today as Psalm 104 is a poetic reflection upon and echo of the creation account of Genesis chapter one.

Now it’s interesting that in this psalm the author tends to use for the name of God the name Yahweh, the Hebrew name Yahweh. That’s represented in the word Lord translated in your English translations in all capital letters. And what is the significance again of the name Yahweh, the name Lord? Well, Yahweh, of course, is the covenant name for God. It is the name for God that has in view His special covenant bond with His people, Israel. So why does the Holy Spirit inspire the psalmist to use the divine name Yahweh predominantly in this psalm instead of the more general name Elohim to describe God? Well, it would seem that the reason is that the psalmist intends to present Yahweh, the covenant redeemer God of Israel, not as a mere tribal or national deity like the so-called gods of the pagan nations that surrounded Israel, but as the sovereign creator and providential Lord of heaven and earth, indeed the Lord over all of the nations of humanity.

In other words, The electing, redeeming, covenant-making, covenant-keeping God of Israel is not just the God of Israel. Rather, He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the providential King and Lord over all. In other words, our Redeemer is our Creator and our Creator is our Redeemer. What is the central theme or one of the central themes of this psalm? Well, again, I often quote from Dr. Willem van Gemeren, and again, I think that he is helpful in his commentary. He says that the theme of Psalm 104 is God’s greatness in ruling and sustaining His vast creation. The form of this psalm is a descriptive psalm of praise. Its theme and form are complementary to Psalm 103. Psalm 103 praises the Redeemer King, whereas this psalm magnifies the Creator King. And so what do we learn about Yahweh, God, our Lord, in this psalm?

We learn many things, but first of all, in the opening verses, in the first section of this psalm, verses 1 through 9, consider that we see here Yahweh’s greatness is displayed in the created order. Verses 1-9 of Psalm 104 highlight the fact that the Lord’s greatness is displayed in the created order. Here, the Holy Spirit inspired the psalmist to artfully and poetically describe God’s greatness and splendor and majesty throughout this psalm by using of various literary figures and types, analogy, figurative expressions, and phenomenological language, and we’ll see some of that. Let me just, again, read this section of Psalm 104. The psalm begins, as it closes, with a call to bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul. The psalmist speaks to himself, summons himself to bless and praise Yahweh, his God, and then he says, O Lord, O Yahweh, my God, you are very great.

And notice the language he uses to describe God’s greatness. You are clothed with splendor and majesty. It’s not that God is a physical being who is naked and needs to be clothed, literally, but this imagery highlights the magnificence, the splendor, the majesty of our God. He is clothed with splendor and majesty. Covering yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out heaven like a tent curtain. Notice the imagery. The heavens are compared to a tent curtain and Yahweh the Lord stretches out the heavens in his creative power. Verse three, he lays the beams of his upper chambers in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks upon the wings of the wind. He makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers, messengers or angels. And that’s how it’s understood by the author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 1.

He establishes the earth upon its foundations so that it will not totter forever and ever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters were standing above the mountains and so forth. Notice this language, this powerful figurative language, poetic language that he uses. In verse three, for example, Yahweh is pictured as laying the beams of his upper chambers, his heavenly dwelling place, as if he has laid the beams for them. He has established them, in other words. He makes the clouds his chariot. Again, Yahweh is the God who fights for his people. He is the divine warrior who fights for his people. In verse five, the earth is said to be established on foundations, indicating the stability of the earth. In pagan thought, in ancient pagan thought in the days of ancient Israel, their pagan neighbors were often fearful because In their minds, the creation was not stable.

The earth was not firm. But the good news about the true and living God, the creator of heaven and earth, is that He has made a creation that is stable and orderly. You can rely upon it. You can rely upon the earth to remain stable. And then, of course, In verse 19, if you skip down, we see this throughout the psalm, this literary poetic language. The sun in verse 19 is said to know it’s time for setting. That is personification, as it says in verse 19. He made the moon for the seasons. The sun knows the place. of its setting. In other words, God has created an orderly universe where everything has its place. Everything is ordered according to his divine sovereignty. And again, in verse 13, God is pictured as dwelling in the upper chambers, or as I think the ESV translates it as his lofty abode.

All of this imagery, all of this language serves to highlight the glory and greatness and majesty of God in His creation order. And what do we take from this? Well, believer, we are called, brothers and sisters, to stand in awe of the greatness of God as revealed in His creation. Creation testifies that God is majestic and magnificent. He is sovereign and supreme. Let us adore him. Let us stand in awe of our awesome God. One of the things that is also highlighted throughout this psalm, and we see it here in this opening section in the first nine verses as well, this psalm reveals that there is a divinely established order in creation. Psalm 104 reveals to us that our God is a God of order. Hear that, Presbyterians? We love to quote that verse. Let everything be done decently and in good order.

That’s actually a good and godly thing, to desire that things be done in good order. For we serve a God who is a God of order. He is not a God of chaos. He is a God of order and structure, a God who makes distinctions, a God who sets boundaries, a God who bestows blessings. And whenever you try to redefine God’s creation order or live outside of the boundaries that God has established, you’re gonna run into trouble. And I think we’re seeing that in so many ways in our culture and society today, as there is so much rebellion against God’s created order. But God’s created order is for our good. We must align ourselves if we want to live in peace and harmony, we must align our lives with the divine order that God has given to his creation.

Let us seek by the grace of God to live within his divine order. But of course, as we learned from that passage that I read earlier in the service from Romans chapter one, the wicked, those who are apart from God’s grace, those who are unrepentant, seek to suppress the truth of God that is revealed in creation. In fact, that is our natural tendency as fallen sinners. In Adam, our natural bent is to suppress or hold down the truth in unrighteousness. I picture, you know, imagine you’re in a swimming pool and you’ve got one of those beach balls. And as a kid, sometimes I like to try to push the ball under the water, but it never stayed under the water. If you’re not actively suppressing it and holding it down, you let go, it pops right back up.

Those who are unregenerate, those who are apart from Christ, apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, that is our natural tendency to hold down, to suppress the truth in unrighteousness, to pretend that the God who created this magnificent universe is not, or that if he is, that he’s not concerned about our moral behavior, he’s not concerned about how we live. But the God of the Bible is a God of order. He’s also a God of righteousness and holiness and majesty, a God who calls us to live in line with his divine order. But in our fallen nature, we don’t do that. Again, to quote from Romans 1, 18 through 20, again, I know I read from this passage earlier in the service, but by way of reminder, Romans 1, 18 through 20, the Apostle Paul writes, for the wrath of God is, not will be, but is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

Because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen.” Did you notice the language there? God’s invisible attributes. For example, His eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen. How are they seen? They’re invisible attributes. Well, they are understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. A number of years ago, I remember seeing a little cartoon. I think it was, remember the BC cartoon? And there was a picture of a, one of the cartoon characters denying the existence of God and all of a sudden just being overwhelmed by the sense of creation saying, there’s gotta be a God. Walking along boldly, there’s no God.

But then looking up at the starry sky, there’s gotta be, there’s gotta be a God. We all know God has made his, reality, he has made himself clearly known in the created order. And even the most ardent dogmatic atheist, in their quieter moments, when they’re left to their conscience, when they look up at the starry sky, they know in their heart of hearts that God is, and that distresses them. That distresses them because they know that they are accountable to this God. That is true of each and every one of us. We are all accountable to the God, this majestic, magnificent, great and awesome God that is revealed in Psalm 104. We know this God in our heart of hearts. We know we are accountable to him for we were created in his image. So if that is you, dear listener, you know the truth, but you’re suppressing it, repent of suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, lest God’s wrath abide upon you.

Instead, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, admit your rebellion against your creator, and flee to Jesus Christ. Christ died for sinners like me and like you, and he rose from the dead so that all who trust in him might not perish, but have everlasting life. So we see in this psalm Yahweh’s greatness displayed in the created order. But we also see in this psalm Yahweh’s goodness being displayed in the created order. And that’s my second point if you’re following along in your sermon outline. In this psalm we see Yahweh’s goodness is displayed in the created order. And His goodness is described in the way that He, in His good and kind providence, provides for all of His creatures, mankind included. Look at verse 10. He sends forth springs in the valleys. They flow between the mountains.

He does this, of course, ultimately for His own glory. You know, you ever wonder, well, why did God create such a vast universe that is, as far as we know, uninhabited? We’re the only inhabited planet in the entire vast universe. Well, God delights in His creation, but He also governs His creation in a way that benefits His creatures. He sends forth springs in the valleys. They flow between the mountains. No doubt that brings delight to God’s house, God’s heart rather. But, verse 11, they give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them, the birds of the heavens dwell. They lift up their voices among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of his works. God is good. He provides for his creatures.

And then, verse 14, he causes the grass to grow for the cattle. God even cares for the cattle, and he provides grass for them, and vegetation for the labor of man. so that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine, which makes man’s heart glad.” God is a benevolent God. He desires that we delight in His good gifts. And then he talks about food, oil that makes man’s face glisten, food which sustains man’s heart, verse 15. The trees of the Lord drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon. God provides for the plant life of this planet as well, where birds build their nests and the stork whose home is the fir tree and so forth. Beloved, God’s goodness is displayed in his works of providence. He provides for his creatures. He is a good God.

He is a great God, a majestic God, a sovereign God, an omnipotent God, but he is also a good and benevolent God. Psalm 104, by the way, is a powerful refutation of all deistic notions of a distant, uninvolved creator. In other words, a God, a so-called God, who created all things, got things started, but then withdrew and basically lets things run on their own by so-called natural laws. Sometimes it’s been compared to a sort of a watchmaker God, that God created the universe like a watch or a clockmaker would make a clock and put all the pieces and parts in place, wind it up, and the clock runs on its own. Well, certainly God has created the natural laws that govern this universe. But in the scriptures, when it rains, it’s ultimately because God sends the rain.

Yes, God uses natural laws to send rain and to send sunshine and so forth. He uses the natural laws of creation. But these so-called natural laws are simply God’s ordinary way of operating. The biblical God revealed in Psalm 104 is not only the Creator, but the sovereign Lord of Providence who moment by moment sustains and governs the natural created order. As it says in the answer to Shorter Catechism, question 11, the question is, what are God’s works of providence? I know some of you know the answer to this question. The Bible-based answer is God’s works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions. It is not that It’s not that God is uninvolved in the daily occurrences of the natural order. It’s not that the sun rises on its own and sets on its own, that it rains.

It’s not that it rains, God sends the rain. God causes the sun to rise and to set. He uses secondary causes to fulfill His sovereign purposes. But we, brothers and sisters, let us avoid a deistical conception of God that keeps Him at a distance unless He’s involved in redeeming us. God is active in redeeming us, but He is also a God who is active moment by moment, day by day, from the moment you get up in the morning to the moment you go to bed at night and even through the night. God is actively at work in your life, sustaining your life, granting you every breath that you take, granting you every beat of your heart. granting you everything that you have. God is involved, he’s not distant, he is involved. So this psalm instructs us to reject all deistical notions of the deity.

But some would ask, well, okay, I understand that, Pastor, but, you know, I read this Psalm and there’s not much said here about the fact that God cursed the ground due to man’s sin, as we’re told in the Genesis account. And certainly, yes, God did curse the ground at Adam and Eve’s fall into sin. God’s curse upon the ground, is reality, and therefore the present creation also manifests the wrath of God. But at the same time, God in His divine providence, even in our fallen, sin-cursed situation, God continues to display His undeserved goodness and generosity in the created order, even in our fallen condition. Scripture testifies that even the ungodly experience a measure of His goodness and kindness and generosity. Some theologians call that common grace. Now, some Reformed theologians are uncomfortable with that terminology.

They’ll say things like there’s nothing common about grace. And I understand that sentiment. But whatever you call it, whatever label you use, it is clear from the Scriptures that God’s goodness is not just restricted to his elect. His saving goodness is, but God manifests his goodness to all of his creatures, including even the wicked. Jesus himself said so. Consider, for example, what our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5, 43 to 45, as we Consider all of the scriptures, compare scripture with scripture. In Matthew 5 beginning at verse 43, Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven for, listen up, For He causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

This is evidence of loving even our enemies, just as God shows love to His enemies, even the wicked, by sending the sunshine and the rain. or we consider what Paul says in Acts 14, verses 14-17. Acts 14 verses 14 through 17 as Paul and Barnabas are addressing the crowds at Lystra, these pagans who are trying to worship them. And it says this, but when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd crying out and saying, men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In the generations gone by, He permitted all the nations to go their own ways, and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Yes.

There is an election of God. Not everyone experiences the saving grace of God, but God does show his kindness to all people, and that is one of the things that’s going to make the unrepentant wicked even more guilty on judgment day, that they have refused to give thanks for God’s goodness shown in their life, the kind of goodness of God that is spoken of in our psalm. for this evening. So our psalm for tonight highlights the goodness of Yahweh, Yahweh’s goodness in providing for all of His creatures. And you know what, no matter who we are or what we’ve done or what our life circumstances may be, we all experience some measure of God’s goodness each and every day. Let us be grateful for our Creator’s goodness to us, and let us realize, too, that God’s goodness is meant to lead us to repentance, as Paul says in Romans 2, verse 4.

So Yahweh’s greatness and goodness are displayed in the order of creation. But we also learn in this psalm, and this is my final point in your sermon outline, that Yahweh’s wisdom is displayed in His manifold works. Yahweh’s wisdom is displayed in His manifold works. In this closing section of the psalm, or this section that approaches the closing praise of Psalm 104, the psalmist writes, verse 24, O Lord, how many are your works? He’s already recounted some of the Lord’s works, and it’s almost like he’s saying, I could go on and on and on. How many are your works? And notice the second line, in wisdom you’ve made them all. The earth is full of your possessions. Our God is a wise God. He is God the all-wise. And then he gives the example of the sea.

Verse 25, there is the sea, great and broad, in which are swarms without number, animals both small and great. There the ships move along in Leviathan, which you formed to sport in it. They all wait for you to give them their food in due season. You give it to them, they gather it up, and so forth. The created order contains an almost unlimited example of the creative wisdom of Almighty God. Our God’s wisdom is displayed in the rocks and in the trees, in the dazzling diversity of marine life, and in the microscopic machinery of a single cell. His wisdom is displayed in the stars and galaxies as well as in the richness of Earth’s animal kingdoms. So what is our takeaway from this beautiful psalm of creation and providence? Many takeaways, many applications we could glean from this passage, but let me leave you with some closing thoughts.

First of all, beloved, If God’s created order so clearly manifests his divine omniscient wisdom, then it is utter folly to deny God’s existence or to rebel against his order of creation. Let us not deny the Lord who is so good, so great, so wise. Instead, let us seek his wisdom as it is found in his holy word. Also, the creation, we learn in this psalm, and this psalm serves to reinforce the truth, that the creation powerfully displays the great riches of God’s infinite wisdom. But while creation displays God’s wisdom, even more so is the wisdom of God displayed in the redemption that He has provided for us sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 2, verse 3.

We can learn much about God’s glory and wisdom by studying His creation. But we can learn even more of His glory and wisdom by studying His plan of salvation through Jesus Christ and by seeking Christ as our wisdom. Is Christ your wisdom? In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And what is our proper response to the glory and majesty of God revealed in His created order? What is our proper response to the greatness and goodness and wisdom of God displayed in His created order and in His mighty works? Well, I think the psalmist shows us the right path of response in the closing section, verses 31 to 35, where he says, Let the Lord be glad in his works. He looks at the earth and it trembles. He touches the mountains and they smoke.

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Let my meditation be pleasing to him. As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord. However, the psalmist ends this psalm in the awareness that he, like we, continue to live in a fallen situation where the wicked abound. And so he in closing in verse 35 offers this imprecatory prayer. He says, let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more. For sinners and the wicked rebel against the creator. They rebel against his divine order and they cause much suffering and heartache to those who trust in the Lord. And so he prays this eschatologically oriented prayer, let sinners be consumed from the earth. They shall sooner or later be consumed from the earth.

But then again, bless the Lord, oh my soul, praise the Lord. And so let us join with this psalmist in blessing the Lord, for he is indeed very great. Let us praise him for his greatness, for his goodness, and for his wisdom, as displayed in his mighty works of creation, his providence, and especially in the gift of salvation that he has given to us in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you for your amazing Majesty, we thank you for your greatness and glory and wisdom, and we thank you that your wisdom is displayed in your mighty works, but we thank you and praise you especially for the divine wisdom that we have in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Grant us the grace, Heavenly Father, to walk in wisdom as we live out our lives as disciples of Jesus in this fallen, sin-cursed world.

And Lord, we ask that you would give us grace to bear faithful testimony to you who are our awesome creator and covenant Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray and all of God’s people said, amen. As we close our time in worship this evening, I invite you to rise and let’s sing together Psalm 104B. We’re going to sing stanzas one through three, 12 and 16. Psalm 104B, stanzas, the first three stanzas, as well as stanzas 12 and 16. We’ll rise and sing together, 104B.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

May 21, 2023
Serve Yahweh with Gladness

About this sermon

Psalm 100 calls all the earth to shout joyfully to the Lord and to serve him with gladness. God is great beyond measure, and he is also good. He made us, we belong to him, and in Christ, the living temple, his people enter his gates with thanksgiving. Reverent worship is joyful worship, because the Lord’s lovingkindness is everlasting and his faithfulness lasts to all generations.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Well, please remain standing for the reading of God’s word as we continue our consideration of various select psalms this evening. We’re going to consider a brief yet well-known psalm, Psalm 100. Psalm 100. Here are the word of God, this is entitled, A Psalm for Thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting. and his faithfulness to all generations. Dear ones, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Let’s pray for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Our dear Lord and Father in heaven, we ask that by your Holy Spirit you would work through the word this evening. We thank you, Lord, that you do communicate to us through your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible word We ask that by your Holy Spirit, you would cause the hearts of each and every one of us to be good soil to receive the seed of your word. And we ask that by your spirit, the seed of your word would not only take deep root in our hearts, but would also produce much in the way of spiritual fruit. We ask Heavenly Father that you would fill us with joy and comfort and that you would challenge us as well by your word and spirit this evening.

Grant me grace, Lord, to declare your word with power and clarity. Clothe me with power from on high by your Holy Spirit. And Lord, we ask that you would get me out of the way that Jesus would be exalted in the proclamation of your word tonight. In Jesus’ name we pray and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. As you see in your bulletin, the title of my sermon this evening is, Serve Yahweh with Greatness. And there’s four key words to be listening for this evening. The words kingship, covenant, praise, and thanksgiving. God is great. God is good. Thank you, thank you for our food. Or perhaps you’ve heard the prayer go this way. God is great. God is good. Now we thank him for our food. This was a simple prayer that I was taught as a child and which we would sometimes pray together at family gatherings.

I think I’ve shared that with you before and perhaps you’ve prayed similar prayers in your family gatherings as well. The post-meal version of the prayer which we would sometimes pray if we got ahead of ourselves and ended up eating before praying was something like, God is good, God is great, thank you for the food we ate. But in any case, while this was a simple, short, childlike prayer, when you think about it, the prayer itself, the content of that prayer itself, summarizes and expresses some incredibly deep, profound theology. God is great and God is good. Yes, indeed, God is great. The Bible teaches that God is infinitely, boundlessly, eternally great. As our shorter catechism so eloquently states it, God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. God is omnipotent, almighty in His power.

He is absolute in His sovereignty. He is majestic in His holiness. He is unsearchable in His wisdom. He is high and lifted up, worthy of never-ending praise and adoration. The contemplations of His triune majesty and glorious being could easily occupy multiple lifetimes. In fact, if God were to grant us a thousand lifetimes to spend our entire lives contemplating His majestic triune being, we would only begin to scratch the surface. For He is incomprehensible in His greatness and glory. But our God, who is so incredibly great, unfathomably great, is also profoundly good. While he is indeed infinitely holy and righteous and just, he is a just God who will bring his holy judgments to bear against the unrepentant wicked. He is also a God of infinite grace, mercy, and kindness, a God who is revealed to be one who is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and covenant faithfulness, a God who in Jesus Christ has redeemed a world of wretched sinners like me and like you, simply out of pure, sovereign, undiluted grace.

Indeed, God is great, but praise be to His name, He is also wonderfully good.” Well, friends, like that childhood prayer, short and simple yet profound, Our psalm for this Lord’s Day evening is also short and, at one level at least, simple. And yet it is also deeply profound in the theological truths that it summarizes and expresses. This psalm, which we sang at the beginning of our service this evening using the old hundredth tune, reveals both the greatness and the goodness of our God. And friends, it summons us to worship and serve Yahweh the Lord, our God, with gladness and joy. When it comes to classifying this psalm in terms of its psalm type, Psalm 100 is often classified as a kingship psalm, a psalm that highlights the sovereign reign of God over all the nations, indeed over all creation.

It is a psalm that appears to conclude a series of psalms that run from Psalm 95 through Psalm 100 and which share the common theme of Yahweh’s divine kingship. The Lord, Yahweh, is extolled in these Psalms as the sovereign and supreme ruler over all creation and over all the nations, but He is also extolled as the covenant Lord of His people, Israel. Psalm 100 serves as a fitting conclusion and thematic recap to this celebratory section of the Psalter that runs from Psalm 95 through Psalm 100. It is entitled simply, A Psalm of Thanksgiving. And this title has led some Bible scholars to suggest that this psalm may have been sung in the temple when the thank offering was presented on the altar to the Lord. And that is indeed a possibility. There is language in this psalm that indicates that it may very well have been used in the context of temple worship under the Old Covenant.

And while there are no certain clues regarding its historical setting or regarding its author, its human author, some suggest that it is a post-exilic psalm. Some suggest that this psalm may have been written after the Jews had returned from their exile in Babylon. What is the redemptive historical significance of this psalm? Well, very profound, actually. Like the other kingship psalms that preceded, Psalm 100 anticipates the Messianic New Covenant age in Christ, the age in which we now live, when Gentile nations will join with believing Israel in worshiping Yahweh as their covenant Lord, Savior, and King. And there are basically two major themes or lessons that we can glean from this psalm. And we first of all read in this psalm a summons to praise and thanksgiving. This psalm is a joyful, exuberant summons for God’s people to praise and thank Him.

And not only for God’s people to praise and thank Him, but indeed for all of the earth. all of the lands, all of the nations of mankind to join with the covenant people in worshiping and serving Yahweh the Lord. We see this summons to praise and thanksgiving in the opening verses, verses one and two, and we also see the psalmist returning to this summons to praise and thanksgiving in verse four. So let’s dive in and take a look. In verses one and two, read again the following. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful singing. What is the opening mood of this psalm, the mood that pervades the entirety of this brief psalm. It is a mood of joy. It is a mood of thanksgiving, a mood of praise.

Notice the language. In verse 1, we are exhorted to do what? To shout joyfully. And then there is language in verse 2 that speaks of serving and worshiping God with gladness and joyful singing. Friends, what does that tell us about our God? It tells us that God, our sovereign King and covenant Lord, delights in receiving the joyful worship and service of His people. He doesn’t need our worship. It’s not like we come to worship God because poor God, he needs an ego boost, so he needs for us to come together and sing his praises. No, he doesn’t need us, but nonetheless, he condescends to us, he feeds us, he encourages us, he builds us up through the word, and he delights to hear our response in prayer and praise and adoration. Now, as the Psalter itself testifies elsewhere, There is certainly a place in our worship of God for things such as reverent lamentation and sorrowful repentance.

So those more somber moods of worship are also appropriate at times. But nevertheless, it is important for us to remember, beloved, that scripture nowhere equates reverence in worship with a gloomy, morose spirit. A countenance and demeanor in worship that makes the worshiper look like he or she is sucking on sour lemons is not necessarily an evidence of reverent piety or a pious heart. On the contrary, the Word of God indicates in places like this very psalm that our loving Heavenly Father desires for us, His people, to find joy and gladness in His holy presence and to express that joy in our prayers and praises. Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing.” This is one of the reasons why we place such a premium on the importance of worship song.

This is why we set aside time in our services, especially the evening service when you get to choose favorite psalms or hymns to sing. That’s why we view that as being so important. God delights in hearing the praises of His people.” Indeed, the Scriptures indicate to us that He inhabits the praises of His people. And again, notice who is summoned to such joyful worship. Shout joyfully to the Lord. Notice the word Lord there in your translations is probably in all capital letters. That indicates the covenant name of God, Yahweh, and contemplates God in His special covenant bond, His relationship with His people, shout joyfully to Yahweh, the faithful, redeeming, covenant God, all the earth. Some translations say all the lands. This is a theme in all of the kingship Psalms. like the other kingship psalms, all the nations of humanity are invited and summoned to worship, to praise, and to serve Yahweh with gladness, not with gloominess, but with gladness.

And this anticipates the new covenant age when the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ will go beyond the boundaries of national Israel and through the missionary labors of the church in fulfillment of the great commission will go out into the Gentile nations, inviting believing Gentiles to join with their believing Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ in the one covenant people of God. to worship and serve the One Covenant Lord and Sovereign over all together. And so this psalm anticipates the Gentile mission, the great commission to the nations. And then if we skip down to verse 4, We see again the psalmist repeating this summons to worship and verse four again has more of a focus on the temple. Enter his gates with thanksgiving. This is no doubt very likely the gates of the temple that the psalmist is speaking of.

Enter into his courts with praise. These are the temple courts. Now, of course, we don’t have the temple in Jerusalem is no more, but as Scripture makes abundantly clear in many different places, that temple imagery and typology is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the living temple. And in union with Jesus Christ, we brothers and sisters are a temple of God in the Spirit. We are built together as living stones in Christ, the living temple. So we no longer need to enter the gates of a temple in the Middle East, in Jerusalem, no. We can enter the gates of the heavenly temple by faith and through the Holy Spirit as we gather together to worship the Lord in union with Jesus Christ. Enter His gates with what? Again, what is the mood here?

Enter His gates with thanksgiving. And then to reinforce what he is saying, using different words to describe basically the same thing, enter into his courts with praise, give thanks to him, bless his name. Thanksgiving and praise, blessing his name, giving thanks to him. These are ideas, these are practices that involve and are connected and intertwined one with another. Here again, the psalmist issues another call to thanksgiving and praise using the language, as I mentioned, of temple worship. And so, dear listener, we are summoned to worship God in spirit and in truth with joy and gladness. Dear listener, does your faith fill you with joy? Now, God has given us different personalities. Not everybody is giddy and exuberant. Some of us are more reserved, and that’s okay. We express our joy in different ways. But if we know Christ as our Savior, how can we help but be filled with a spirit of joy, knowing that in Christ our sins are forgiven, in Christ we are accepted, we are adopted as God’s children, and the Lord is at work in us, and he is conforming us more and more into the image of Christ.

So are you? Is your faith a faith that fills you with joy? Not giddiness necessarily, but joy. Do you worship and serve the Lord with gladness and joy? Of course you can’t have the gladness and joy of the Lord unless you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin? by God’s grace have you repented of sin and looked to Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, the only mediator between God and the sinful humanity? Do you look to Christ alone for your salvation from sin? God in the gospel calls you, dear listener, to put away your sin, to turn from your sin to Christ, trusting him, resting upon him alone, receiving him alone as your righteousness, your redemption, your sanctification and wisdom. For Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and rose from the dead so that all who believe in him might not perish but have everlasting life.

And it is the gospel, it is believing and embracing the gospel that fuels the joy of our worship. We worship the Lord and serve the Lord with gladness and joy because we know that we have been beloved of God, that we have been loved with an everlasting love, that we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, that God in mercy has come to us, rescued us, redeemed us, forgiven us for all of our sins, and accepted us, justified us in Christ. all by His grace and grace alone. Knowing your identity in Christ, knowing that you are a forgiven, beloved child of God, how can you not feel joy in your heart knowing these things to be so? So by the grace of God, let us worship and serve the Lord. with gladness, whatever circumstances we find.

Yes, we believers, we live in a fallen, sin-cursed world. And sometimes we, too, grieve. Sometimes we, too, lament and mourn. And there is a place for that in the Christian life. It’s not that it’s wrong or sinful for Christians to grieve. At the same time, we grieve not like the world does, for the joy of the Lord sustains us even in the midst of our grief as we look to Jesus and know that He will pull us through. And so again, we see in this psalm a simple yet powerful summons to praise and thanksgiving. But we also see in this psalm a confession of Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness to His people. This is my second main point, a confession of Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness to His people. We find this confession in verses 3 and 5. The first two verses, the psalmist opens the psalm summoning God’s people and indeed all the earth to shout joyfully before the Lord, to worship and serve Him in gladness.

And then in verse three, we are given the reason why we are to do so. And this reason is also a confession of the faith of God’s people. Know that the Lord, know that Yahweh Himself is God. He is God, the one true and living God. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. We know our identity. We are his sheep. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. And then also verse five confesses the covenant faithfulness and the goodness of our Lord. It says, for the Lord, for Yahweh is good, His loving kindness, I believe in the Hebrew it is His hesed, His covenant love is everlasting, His faithfulness to all generations. Reflecting on verse 3, one commentator writes the following as verse 3 speaks of the foundation of our joy and of joyful worship.

It says, this commentator says, that God’s threefold claim to possess His people is registered first because of creation, for He made us, secondly because of election, for we are His people, thirdly because of providence, for as shepherd, He presides over and guides the sheep of His pasture. We can praise God because he is our creator. We can praise God and ought to praise God because in mercy he has chosen us to be his people. We can praise God because in Christ, the good shepherd, he shepherds us, the sheep of his pasture. Now there is a translational question here in verse 3. If you’re following along in the New American Standard Version it says, it is He who has made us and not we ourselves. Well that certainly is true. We didn’t make ourselves. We’re not self-sovereign God is sovereign over us.

We are creatures. He is our Creator. But is that really how we are to understand this? Another suggested translation which was found, for example, in the English Standard Version is, and we are His. We are His people, it is He who made us, and we are His. If that’s the correct way to understand this passage, then this passage highlights the fact that God, in sovereign mercy, has taken us, sinners and wretches though we be, to be His sheep, His people, the sheep of His pasture. And again, there’s arguments that could be made for either view. I believe the ESV’s translation is probably to be preferred, that we are His, whatever the case may be. The Lord indeed made us, He created us, He redeemed us, He has chosen us in Christ, He has taken us to be the sheep of His pasture, and He mercifully, graciously shepherds us.

And then verse five again closes this psalm, verse five closes this psalm with another reflection on Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness to his people, which we as his people confess and which serves as a foundation for our joyful worship. For the Lord is good. Remember I shared that child’s prayer. God is good. God is great. God is good. That’s a biblical truth. The Lord is good. He is superlatively good. And then to flesh this out and express that goodness, how do we see the goodness of God? His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations. God promises to be God to us and to our children after us. God’s covenant mercies are not just for one generation or several generations. His covenant mercies are everlasting. His faithfulness to all generations. We need not fear that the church of Jesus Christ will perish, for God will always maintain a people for His name. throughout human history until the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why? Because He is a God of covenant faithfulness. His loving kindness is everlasting, His faithfulness to all generations. The goodness of Yahweh is expressed in His steadfast love and His faithfulness to His people, a steadfast love and faithfulness that finds their ultimate climax and fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the covenant of grace that He has secured. This is the ultimate reason. why we redeemed sinners should worship and serve our covenant Lord with joy and with gladness. Dear ones, God is indeed great and God is indeed good. The saving work accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate proof of both the greatness and the goodness of our God. What better reason to serve the Lord with gladness? What better reason to serve the Lord who has graciously loved us, redeemed us, renewed us, and drawn us with the cords of love unto himself?

Again, shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth, serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you that you delight in your people as they delight in you, as they rejoice in you. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would remove from us the world’s sadness, and that you would fill us with that hope-filled, joy-filled exuberance that comes from knowing that we are your sheep and that you are indeed good to us in union with Christ. We do pray that by your Spirit you would take these truths and plant them deeply within our souls, and enable us, O God, to be a joy-filled people. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that those outside of our fellowship would see in us the joy of the Lord.

We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, amen. Well, dear ones, speaking of rejoicing in the Lord, let’s rise and we’ll sing together our closing hymn, Number 528, rejoice ye pure in heart, 528.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

May 14, 2023
Sing a New Song!

About this sermon

Psalm 96 summons all the earth to sing a new song to the Lord and to proclaim his salvation among the nations. The psalm looks ahead to the new covenant age, when the gospel gathers the Gentiles into God’s people. Missions exists because worship does not yet fill the earth, and worship is the goal. The Lord reigns and will judge the peoples in righteousness, so everyone must stand ready in Christ for that day.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Dear friends, let us hear with reverence and awe the Word of our God. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name. Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire.

Tremble before Him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.” Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all it contains. Let the field exalt and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord. For he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s ask the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Again, gracious Lord, our heavenly Father, we have much to sing about, much to praise you for.

We do pray that by your Holy Spirit you would give us attentive hearts And open minds this evening. We pray that your word would not return to you void. We pray that by your spirit you would cause the seed of your word to take deep root in our hearts and bear spiritual fruit unto holiness and sanctification in our lives. Open our minds and hearts this evening to behold wondrous things from your word. And by your grace, Lord, set a guard over my lips that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word and edifying to your people and glorifying to your name. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening, it’s another title that is not very insightful, but it is straightforward, sing a new song.

And there’s three key words you can be listening for in my sermon this evening, the words praise, evangelism, and righteousness. Well, dear ones, it has often been observed that this collection of divinely inspired poems, known to us as the Book of Psalms, covers the whole range of human emotions. The Psalter takes us to the depths of depression and despondency, and it also takes us to the other extreme, to the heights of joy and praise, and it touches everything in between those two extremes. Our psalm for this Lord’s Day evening is one of those psalms which pulsates with a mood of joy and praise as the unidentified psalmist summons all of the nations of the earth to sing to the Lord a new song. As it says in verse one, sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, bless his name, proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. And as we will see, it is a new song that we are summoned to sing to the Lord because this psalm prophetically anticipates a glorious new work of Yahweh, our covenant Lord. A new work that is described in this psalm in verse two as His salvation and in verse three as His glory and His wonderful deeds. Because this psalm invites not only the people of Israel, but all of the nations of the earth, all of the families of the peoples, as it says in verse 7, to sing this new song in celebration of God’s new act of salvation, it prophetically anticipates this messianic new covenant age, when believing Gentiles will be gathered in and incorporated into the covenant people of God, along with their believing Jewish brethren.

As the great reformer John Calvin explains in his commentary on this psalm, and I quote from Calvin, he says, We must infer from this that it has reference to the kingdom of Christ, God’s name could not be called upon in any other part of the world than Judea until it had been revealed, and the heathen nations were at that time necessarily altogether incapacitated for any such exercise. Yet it is evident that the Holy Spirit stirred up the saints who were under the law to celebrate the divine praises till the period should arrive when Christ, by the spread of the gospel, should fill the whole earth with His glory. So again, this psalm anticipates the age in which we now live, this new covenant age, this age between the ages, between the first coming and the future second advent of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The age when the gospel is going out to the nations, when all of the nations are being discipled through the spread of the gospel. Now, in terms of what kind of psalm this is, again I quote from Dr. Willem van Gemeren. He says that this psalm belongs to a group of psalms that covers psalms 93 through 100, united by genre and motif. These psalms are hymns celebrating Yahweh’s kingship and form a subcategory of the descriptive praise psalms. The linguistic similarities between Psalms 96 through 99 may suggest that the same author has composed these psalms. By being incorporated into a larger unit in 1 Chronicles 16, which quotes extensively from this psalm, the psalm became associated with the glorious entry of the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. Now, as I read this psalm to you a few minutes ago, what major themes did you pick up on as you were listening to the reading of this psalm?

Well, there’s a couple of major themes that we need to focus on, that it would be helpful for us to focus on as we seek to learn from this portion of God’s Word. And one major theme is God’s universal kingship. Yahweh is king over all the nations is a truth that this psalm proclaims. Yahweh the Lord is not just God of Israel, he’s not just a national deity who is limited in power and limited in his geographical sovereignty. No, he is the Lord and king over all of the nations, over all of mankind. Another major theme in this psalm is God’s universal justice. In terms of the structure of this psalm, in the first three verses, we have before us a universal call to praise the Lord in song, and we’ll focus on that call in just a few minutes.

And then in verses 4 through 6, the psalmist gives us the reasons for this praise. Why should we praise the Lord? Why is all humanity summoned to praise the Lord? And then in verses seven through nine, this universal call to praise is repeated in somewhat different language, but for emphasis, it is basically repeated. Verse 10 is a proclamation of the good news of the Lord’s righteous kingdom reign, and verses 11 to 13, which close the psalm as a final call to universal praise, where all of creation is called upon to join with the human race in rejoicing before the Lord because of the good news of the coming of His righteous kingdom rule. So with all this in mind, let’s dig in to the details of our psalm for this evening. And we notice, first of all, if you’re following along in your sermon outline, if you happen to have a copy of that, the first thing to notice is the universal call to worship.

Observe, friends, that God commands all the earth to worship Him. Worship is A duty. We are creatures. God is our creator. And not only are we creatures of God, like the animals, we are God’s image bearers. And we owe God, as every rational creature owes God, worship and praise and adoration. The worship of God is a universal, God-ordained duty. Every single human being on the face of this planet, whatever their nationality, whatever their ethnicity, whatever their background, whatever their socioeconomic status, whatever their religion, all human beings are morally obligated before the creator of the universe to offer the creator worship, thanksgiving, and praise. It is a universal duty. But for those of us who through sovereign grace have come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, it is not only a duty, it is a duty which is something that ought to be a delight, not a drudgery.

For the Lord has been good to us. We can sing to the Lord a new song because he has done marvelous things for us. He has given us the grace of salvation. And so we read here in verses 1 through 3, the opening call to worship. Sing to the Lord, sing to the Lord. In many of your translations, that word Lord is in all capital letters indicating that the English translators are translating the covenant name for God, Yahweh. Sing to Yahweh, the Lord, the covenant God of Israel. Sing to the Lord a new song. And this call to praise, again, is not just addressed to Israel, to the covenant people of God. Sing to the Lord all the earth, Sing to the Lord, bless His name, proclaim the good tidings of His salvation from day to day.

And then verse three helps to underscore the fact that this is a call not just to the earth or the land of Israel, but not just to the people of Israel, but to all the nations. Verse three, tell of His glory among the nations. That would be the Gentile nations. His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. Now notice, first of all, friends, in the opening two verses which summon us to worship and praise God, notice that the biblical religion is a singing religion. Biblical faith is a singing faith. The singing of praise is one of the central elements of divine worship. Historic biblical Christianity has always been a singing religion. Like the ordinances of prayer and preaching and scripture reading and the administration and receiving of the sacraments, the praise of Almighty God in song is a divine ordinance and an essential element of Bible-based worship.

In His Word, God commands His church to engage in exercises of worship such as prayer, the reading of Scripture, the teaching and preaching of the Word, and so forth, the giving and receiving of the sacraments. But God also commands His people in many places in Scripture to declare his praises in song. Again, the Christian faith is a singing faith, and as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have much to sing about. That’s why singing is one of the highlights of our worship, not just in the evening service, where we take hymn and psalm requests, but in both of our services. Now, this ought to cause us to reflect on the power of worship song. Perhaps you’ve heard of the so-called worship wars that rage in the churches. And there’s a debate among Bible-believing Christians about styles of worship and debate about what kinds of songs we should sing to the Lord, whether contemporary songs or traditional hymns or we have our RPCNA brothers and sisters who believe in singing only the Psalms and so forth.

But one of the things about the singing of praise is that well-known psalms and hymns and worship songs have the power to just get into your soul, don’t they? Have you ever found yourself in a situation where maybe you find yourself facing grief or facing sorrow or facing joy in your life, a time of joy? And in the midst of that sorrow or joy, whatever the case may be, one of the great hymns of the faith or a favorite psalm perhaps comes to mind and comforts you or encourages you at that particular time. I remember a time in my life many years ago when I faced a particularly stressful time in my life, and I remember I was driving down the road in my car just feeling overwhelmed with stress, overwhelmed with angst about what the future held, and I started singing that well-known hymn, It Is Well With My Soul.

It is well with my soul. I didn’t feel like it was well in my life at that time, that time of stress and the time when there was so much uncertainty in my life, but that powerful hymn comforted me, and I must have looked ridiculous behind the wheel, driving down the road and singing. I don’t know if anyone was looking or would have cared, but you see people doing all kinds of things in their cars these days as you’re driving down the road. But I was comforted by that beautiful hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. Perhaps there are favorite hymns or psalms that touch your heart. And this, my friends, I believe that the power of worship song is one of the reasons why differences over so-called music style in the worship services of the church can become such a powerful source of contention among professing Christians.

Now, you may be tempted to say, well, pastor, that’s not the way it should be. We should just be open to all kinds of different worship styles, worship songs. I guarantee you, brothers and sisters, if your session decided that we would remove the pulpit and instead of singing from the Psalter hymnal, we had a rock band up here, I suspect that not all of you would appreciate that. That’s sort of an understatement. But friends, the reason for this is because Worship song, we recognize its power, we recognize its importance, wherever you come down on the issue of contemporary versus traditional or what have you. We need to seek biblically-based worship song, whatever the so-called style may be. Everything we do in worship must be guided by and based upon and agreeable to the Word of God and the commands of Scripture, the prescriptions of Holy Scripture.

But worship song is powerful, and no wonder that the Psalms, this divinely inspired collection of worship songs, has such a prominent place in Scripture. It has the power to get into our souls. We see also the importance of worship song in Holy Scripture. God commands it, so it must be important. Worship song touches our souls in a way that goes beyond our intellects and touches our emotions as well and unites emotion and mind together. Let me ask you, dear listener, is your Christian faith a singing faith? You know, it’s tempting to say, well, since worship song is so controversial in the church, we should just get rid of singing altogether. Let’s just have prayer and scripture reading and preaching. But friends, we can’t do that because God has commanded His church to sing. And is your faith a singing faith?

Is the praise of God in song a regular part of your spiritual and devotional life as a Christian? And do you view the worship song of the church when you gather for worship to be an important aspect of your devotion to and worship of Almighty God? I’m reminded of what the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5, verses 17 through 21, where he is exhorting the church to not get drunk with wine, do not follow pagan ways, but to rejoice in the Lord. Verse 17, so then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. And what are the evidences or the outflows of the filling of the Holy Spirit? Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God the Father, and so forth.

Well, notice also as we consider this universal call to praise and worship, notice that this universal call to praise cannot be fulfilled without evangelism. Sing to the Lord, bless His name, proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day as it says in verse two. Now, the call to sing and to bless and to proclaim, these are different ways of speaking about these things involve one another. We proclaim good tidings of salvation in our song as we also proclaim that in our witness and as that is proclaimed in preaching. and so forth. But again, and I’ve quoted this before, but I think here again, John Piper has some helpful words to say when he addresses this issue. In his book, Let the Nations Be Glad, The Supremacy of God in Missions, Mr. Piper writes the following, missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.

Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever. He goes on to say, worship therefore is the fuel and goal in missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions, we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God’s love. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. I think our psalmist would agree with Mr. Piper. And by the way, as an aside, I have some theological issues and theological axes to grind with John Piper. But nevertheless, truth is truth, whoever speaks it.

And I think that he is spot on in those comments. My dear listeners, the message of Psalm 96 supports these assertions by Mr. Piper. But it is because we live in a fallen world where most folks don’t worship the Lord with gladness and joy that missions and evangelism should be very high up on our priority list as a church of Jesus Christ. Notice also that the main theme of our praise is to be the good news of God’s mighty acts of salvation. As we read in verses 2 and 3, proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. In other words, continuously tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. Again, this was written in the old covenant age. This was written in an age where knowledge of the true God, saving knowledge of the true God was limited to Israel at that point in time.

There were a few occasional Gentiles who would come to true faith in the true and living God that we read of, you know, Ruth and Rahab and so forth. but it was very rare for Gentiles to come to faith in the true and living God. But here, even under the old covenant, the Holy Spirit through the psalmist urges the people of God, summons the people of God to tell of his glory among the Gentile nations, among all of the peoples. And again, this is ultimately fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the things that’s interesting about the Psalms and many other passages of the Old Testament that call God’s people to praise is that oftentimes the rationale for that praise includes God’s mighty acts of salvation. Think of how many, think of the Psalms that call upon us to bless and praise the Lord because of his mighty acts in the Exodus, for example.

The Exodus event where God rescued his people Israel from their slavery in Egypt and brought them into the promised land. God’s people are sometimes summoned to praise God because God has granted them a political deliverance, a deliverance from foreign aggressors or oppressors. We see the people of God summoned to praise Him as they return to the promised land after the Babylonian exile and so forth. But friends, all of these lesser acts of salvation, these historical acts of salvation, ultimately point to the ultimate act of salvation that God has accomplished, this new act of salvation that this psalm prophetically anticipates, namely Christ’s redemptive work. Christ’s redemptive work is the ultimate act of salvation, and therefore Jesus Christ and His saving work ought to be the predominant themes of our worship song as believers. living in this new covenant age of fulfillment.

And by the way, as an aside, this is not a sermon against exclusive psalmody, but we love our Covenanter, our Reformed Presbyterian brothers and sisters, and we love the psalms and we love to sing the psalms. And our RP brethren point out to us that Christ is revealed in the psalms, and that is absolutely true, amen to that. But Christ is revealed in the psalms in Old Covenant terms. He is revealed in the Psalms by way of anticipation, not by way of fulfillment. So, since we are in the Age of Fulfillment, God has, in Christ, provided for us this new work of salvation. It is, therefore, appropriate for us to sing a new song to the Lord, including songs and hymns that extol the Lord Jesus for His fulfillment of the work of redemption in this new covenant era.

Well, notice next, and again, as I mentioned, let me just back up a little bit. As I mentioned before, this call to praise is also repeated in slightly different terminology in verses seven through nine. Verse seven, if you skip down there, ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Again, the biblical faith is not only a singing faith, it is a faith that involves the covenant family. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. meaning not just the Jewish people but Gentiles as well. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before Him, all the earth. Again, all of the nations are summoned to worship God in holy attire. And we can only worship God in holy attire, by the way, as we are clothed in the perfect, everlasting righteousness of Christ, as we trust in Him and Him alone as Lord and Savior.

But then moving on to the next section of the psalm verses four through six, notice next the psalmist’s rationale for this universal call to praise. Why should we praise the Lord? Why are the nations summoned to praise the Lord? Because Yahweh is greater than the so-called gods of the nations. Verse four, for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols. They are dead idols. They are the result of man’s imagination, fallen man’s work. But the Lord, on the other hand, the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Why are the nations summoned and called upon to worship the Lord, to sing praises to the Lord for His new act of salvation?

Well, because the Lord is greater than all so-called gods. He is greater because he is the one true and living God, the creator of heaven and earth. Whereas the so-called gods of the nations are man-made idols, non-existent beings, the result of man’s imagination and man’s workmanship. Dear listener, do you truly believe in your heart of hearts that God is indeed great and therefore that He is greatly to be praised? If so, do you live your day-to-day life in the awareness of His supreme greatness, majesty, and glory? Do you declare his greatness by your life? Let us ascribe greatness to our God, for he is indeed great and greatly to be praised, for he is the one true and living God. But next, friends, receive and declare the good news of God’s righteous kingdom rule. Let’s look at verses 10 through the end of this psalm.

Verse 10, say among the nations, the Lord reigns. That’s good news. Yahweh reigns and His reign is a reign of grace and salvation, a reign of deliverance. Yahweh, the redeeming God, the God of redemption, the God of covenant faithfulness, He reigns. His kingdom rule. is universal. Say among the nations the Lord reigns. Indeed the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.” Now why should the nations rejoice that Yahweh will judge the peoples with equity? When we think of judgment we think of condemnation and certainly God will judge the nations in the sense that He will on Judgment Day, Christ will judge the nations separating the sheep from the goats and so forth. But sometimes that word judge is used to indicate rule or reign. God will reign over the peoples with equity.

There was a lot of inequity. There was a lot of injustice in the ancient world just as there is a lot of injustice today. We see injustice all around us. We see it in our news feeds every day. And it is tempting when you are confronted with the injustice and wickedness of the world, it’s tempting to be frustrated and flustered and to fret because of evildoers, but the good news of the gospel not only declares to us that God will save those whom he has chosen from before the foundation of the earth, but also that God will bring his justice to bear in the end. And so we see God’s kingdom rule brings stability where there had been instability. as it says in verse 10 again. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established.

It will not be moved. The ancient Gentiles, their worldview was such that in their view, the world was uncertain. There was uncertainty even about the natural order. The gods, if they lost their temper, could overthrow the order of creation and throw it into chaos. But because God, Yahweh, is God, the created order is firm. The pattern of day and night, winter and summer, the crops and so forth, the seasons continue because God, the sovereign Lord God, makes the created order stable. The stability of the created order is due to God’s universal reign, and that is good news. That would be good news to people who worried about whether the deities that they worshiped, who were fickle and unstable, whether they would throw the created order into chaos, no. God is a God who bounds the chaos.

He is sovereign over the chaos and he brings order out of chaos. Just as God’s rule causes the created order to be stable, so also God’s gracious rule will bring righteousness and stability to the nations, ultimately through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God’s kingdom rule is a cause for rejoicing as we see in verses 11 and 12. Let the heavens be glad. and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all it contains. Here the psalmist uses anthropomorphic language to summon all of creation to join with the human race in praising God. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth, let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, let the sea roar and all it contains. Let the field exult and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy.

Now, of course, We know that trees don’t literally sing. We know that the field cannot literally exalt in a literalistic sense, but in this kind of language, all of creation, in a sense, bears testimony to the glory of God, and in that sense, praises the Lord. And then verse 12, verse 13, rather, before the Lord, for He is coming. Let them sing for joy before the Lord, for He is coming. He is coming to judge the earth, and that’s a good thing. His gracious reign is coming to earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness. We see God will rule and judge all peoples with righteousness and truth, with faithfulness. The righteous kingdom, of course, was decisively established by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This kingdom reign, this kingdom of grace and salvation has drawn near in the person and saving work of Christ.

It is progressively growing as the gospel goes forth among the nations, and as the elect among the nations of mankind are progressively not only called into the kingdom through the gospel, but progressively discipled in that kingdom. And it will be brought to its full and consummated expression when our Lord Jesus Christ returns in glory to judge all mankind at the end of this age. Are you ready to stand before the judgment seat of Christ? Well, if you are outside of Christ, you’re not ready. But if you are trusting Christ for your salvation from sin with a true penitent faith, be assured that your sins are forgiven. You’re clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and therefore you will stand before his glory. If you’re unsure, dear listener, repent and believe the good news. Trust in Christ. as your Lord and Savior, trust in Him and Him alone for salvation from sin.

And then you too, having experienced this new work of God, the work of salvation in your own life, you will be enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit to sing to the Lord a new song. Brothers and sisters in Christ, sing to the Lord a new song, and let us summon the nations through the gospel to sing to the Lord all the earth. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you, O God, for your missionary heart, We thank you, O God, that you call all the nations of humanity to worship and praise you, for you are indeed worthy of all praise and adoration. And we thank you, God, for the new work of salvation that you have done in and through Christ, your Son, our Lord and Savior. We ask, Lord, that you would fill our hearts with the joy of the Lord, that we might not only sing your praises, but also summon all the nations. to praise you, for Lord, you are great and greatly to be praised.

You are to be feared above all gods. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. As we close our time this evening, I invite you to rise and we’ll sing together hymn 417, Jesus shall reign wherever the sun. 417.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

May 7, 2023
It is Good to Thank the Lord!

About this sermon

Psalm 92, a song for the Sabbath, declares that it is good to give thanks to the Lord and to declare his lovingkindness morning and night. God’s people should give thanks even in troubled times, when the wicked seem to flourish. The wicked spring up like grass only to perish, while the Lord is on high forever. The righteous, planted in the house of the Lord, flourish like the palm tree and still bear fruit in old age.

More sermons from Psalms · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

As we continue our consideration of various psalms, tonight we’re going to consider Psalm 92. So if you’d like to follow along in your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn there to Psalm 92. Dear friends, let’s hear God’s holy word. This psalm is entitled, A Psalm, A Song for the Sabbath Day. It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your lovingkindness in the morning and your faithfulness by night, with the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre. For you, O Lord, have made me glad by what you have done. I will sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep. A senseless man has no knowledge, nor does a stupid man understand this, that when the wicked sprout up like grass and all who do iniquity flourished, it was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.

But you, O Lord, are on high forever. For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies will perish. All who do iniquity will be scattered. But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. I have been anointed with fresh oil, and my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes. My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me. The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age. They shall be full of sap and very green to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. Dear ones, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His word. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, it is indeed a good thing to give you thanks and praise. We ask that you would fill our hearts with gratitude as we consider this portion of your word. We ask that you would give us inquiring minds and open hearts, and we pray that by your spirit, you would cause the seed of your word to take deep root in our hearts and bear much spiritual fruit in our lives. Be with us now, Lord, as we consider this portion of your word. In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. My sermon title for this evening’s sermon is a very creative title. It is good to thank the Lord.

Well, not very creative, but very appropriate given of this wonderful passage of Holy Scripture. And if you’re following along in your bulletin outline, or rather your sermon outline, there’s a couple of words you can be listening for this evening. Thanks, Thanksgiving, righteous, wicked, and temple. Well, dear friends, as we check our news feeds and consider the many troubles and challenges of our present time, we might be tempted to think that an attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving are not really called for, perhaps even inappropriate given the troubled times in which we live. After all, is it not the case that we live in a violent, fallen, sin-cursed world and that we find ourselves in the midst of uncertain and unstable times? Is it a good thing, even in such times, to give thanks to the Lord?

Well, dear ones, I think you know the answer to that question, and Psalm 92 is one portion of God’s Word that assures us, as God’s people, that it is indeed a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to do so continuously, as the psalmist puts it, day and night. Day and night, not only when times are peaceful and prosperous and stable, but even in times when wicked men and evildoers seem to flourish. After all, this powerful psalm assures us that our sovereign God and Savior will indeed destroy and scatter the unrepentant wicked and will establish the righteous, those who are in a right relationship with God, He will establish them securely in His eternal presence. Now this Psalm was probably written by one of the Hebrew kings. We’re not told who it was, but it is entitled a Psalm, a song for the Sabbath day.

And whenever it happened to have been written, it appears to have been used in the liturgy of the rebuilt Jerusalem temple in post-exilic times. That is to say, in the time after the people of God had returned to the promised land after the period of their exile in Babylon. And it was used in the temple liturgy on the Sabbath day, and hence it is entitled a song for the Sabbath day. It is a psalm that highlights the goodness of giving thanks to Yahweh, the faithful covenant God of Israel, the God of mercy and redemption, to give praise to Him for His mighty works, including His works in bringing destruction upon the unrepentant wicked and establishing the righteous in security, strength, and fruitfulness. So let’s dive in and see what the Spirit is teaching us here in this portion of His Holy Word.

The first thing I want us to consider in the opening section of this psalm, which covers the first four verses, let us consider, beloved, the goodness of giving thanks, the goodness of giving thanks. The psalmist begins, it is good to give thanks to Yahweh, to the Lord. That term, that word that is translated there is as good could be translated as pleasant. It is a good thing, a pleasant thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your loving kindness in the morning and your faithfulness by night. The term good here, where the psalmist says it is good to give thanks to the Lord, this term applies not only to the giving of thanks, but also to the singing of praise and to the declaring of God’s loving kindness.

Indeed, these activities, giving thanks, giving praise and declaring the loving kindness of the Lord. These are not watertight, distinct activities. These are activities that involve one another. And so we learn in these opening verses that God is pleased when His people offer Him thanks and praise from the heart. And again, the activity of thanking God and praising God and declaring His loving kindness, You notice here the parallelism involved in this psalm. But what does it mean to sing praises to the name of God? What is God’s name? Well, remember that in Scripture, God’s name represents His revealed character. that we praise God not just because he gives us warm feelings or makes us feel all ooey and gooey inside. We praise God because of who he is, because of his glorious revealed attributes as the omnipotent one, as the God who is, as our sort of catechism puts it, a spirit infinite, eternal, and unchanging in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

This is the God whom we are to praise and give thanks to and whose name, whose revealed character we are to declare. And what are we to declare and sing praises to him for? For his loving kindness and his faithfulness Faithfulness. Our God is a God of faithfulness. We sing that wonderful hymn, great is thy faithfulness. Oh God, my Father, there’s no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not thy compassions. They fail not as thou hast been thou forever. will be. Oh, what comfort we can derive from the name of God, the character of God. He is the God of steadfast love. He is the God of covenant faithfulness, a God who deserves and is worthy of praise continuously, both in the morning and by night.” Now, it’s interesting in verse two, the psalmist speaks of declaring God’s loving kindness in the morning and God’s faithfulness by night.

Why this reference to morning and evening? Well, obviously, the reference to morning and evening implies praising God continuously. As the apostle Paul writes in the New Testament, rejoice in the Lord when? Always, again I will say it, rejoice. So this has in view continuous praise, but also in the specific context of this psalm as a song for the Sabbath day, morning and evening worship in the temple are probably in view here, since the Sabbath day was not only a day of rest, but also a day for gathered worship, as we learn in passages like Leviticus 23, verse three. and also since morning and evening sacrifices in the temple would be accompanied by the singing of praise by the Levitical choirs. Because of the Bible’s teaching, beloved, on the Sabbath, and because of passages like this one that speak of praising God in the morning and in the evening, because of these emphases in Scripture, Historic Reformed churches like the OPC have always had a high view of the Christian Sabbath or the Lord’s Day.

And the historic practice of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches has been to have both morning and evening worship services on the Lord’s Day, in part because of the example and the emphases of passages such as the one that we are considering this evening. And this giving of thanks and this singing of praise and declaring of God’s faithfulness is not to be done in some morose, some kind of somber way. There is a place for for being somber, and obviously reverence is, there’s a seriousness about the reverent fear of the Lord that we are to have in our approach to God in worship. But it is also to be worship characterized by joy, and this is highlighted by the use of musical instruments in the temple’s worship. As verse three says, with the 10-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre.

This praise to God, this declaration of His loving kindness, this giving of thanks in the temple context was accompanied by joyful music with these musical instruments that are associated with worship in the temple. And the psalmist goes on to say in verse 4, Now what in particular has the Lord done for this psalmist as reflected in this particular psalm? As we will see, it could It could have particular reference to a mighty act of deliverance where God has delivered the psalmist, who again may have been one of the kings of Judah. God has delivered the psalmist from a military adversary. That is possibly a historical setting that is in the background. But again, as is characteristic of many of the psalms, The setting is presented in such a general way that the psalm can be adapted to many different circumstances in the life of the church, in the lives of God’s people.

But notice in verse 4, the psalmist is made glad by what? By the works of God. Verse 4, for you, O Lord, have made me glad by what you have done. I will sing for joy at the works of your hands. God’s hands represent His power. God, of course, as a Spirit, an infinite transcendent Spirit, the Creator of heaven and earth, does not literally have hands, but in the Scriptures, God’s hands are symbols of His power. And God has displayed His power in the works of creation, For He spoke and all things came into being in His works of providence. For God governs all things and causes all things to work out in accordance with His sovereign will and good pleasure, and also His mighty works of justice and redemption. So as we come to church on the Lord’s Day, as we come before our God to worship Him and praise Him both publicly and also in our own private devotions, let us consider who God is, how great His mighty works are, how great are the works of His hands, and let us praise Him and thank Him and declare the mighty works of His hands, especially let us consider how His mighty works have been displayed in showing us His grace and mercy, in intervening in our lives with His grace, and mercy.

Well, there’s so much that we can glean from this passage by way of application, but let me mention a number of things. First of all, beloved, like the psalmist, we should praise and thank God even in a time of uncertainty. Why? Because His loving kindness and faithfulness remain constant and unchanging. You’ve perhaps heard the saying that the only constant is constant change. But there is one thing, or I should say one person, who never changes, and that is God. God is our rock. He is constant. He is faithful to His promises. In fact, He is faithful even, praise God, when we are unfaithful. And thank God that our salvation is grounded ultimately in the faithful, divine grace and initiative of God. and not grounded in our response to that grace, although he does require a response, but he himself works that response in us by his grace.

God is our constant. He is our unchanging rock. We can build our lives securely upon him. Jesus is the rock of our salvation. Let us build our lives upon the rock of Jesus Christ, our Lord, for he is. faithful, and He is constant, and we are secure as we take refuge in Him. Also, like the psalmist, we should rejoice in God, as I mentioned, because of His mighty works. Again, let us especially thank and praise God for His mighty work of redeeming us through the divine person and saving work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear believer, Have you ever paused to reflect upon your life, to look back on your life and remember and recall the many times that you have failed your Lord and fallen short, but then come to the realization once again that in spite of your many failings, in spite of the roller coaster ride of life, In spite of all these things, God has loved you and continues to love you and continues to forgive you and continues to preserve you and persevere with you.

That He continues His work of grace in you and He will continue it even unto the day of Christ Jesus. Reflect upon how faithful God has been to you in spite of your unfaithfulness, and we’ve all fallen short, we are all unfaithful, but God is faithful, and he keeps us in his sovereign grace and care. Trust in him, look to him, rejoice in him, abide in him. But next, beloved, as we move on to the next section of this psalm, let us take to heart God’s mighty work of bringing the unrepentant wicked to ultimate destruction in spite of their temporary strength and flourishing. Take to heart God’s mighty work of bringing the unrepentant wicked to ultimate destruction in spite of their temporary strength and flourishing. So often, if you study human history, so often it seems that like the wicked abound, So often it seems like the servants of Satan have the upper hand.

They’re the ones it seems more often than not in positions of power and influence. And it’s tempting for us as God’s people to get discouraged. But we can take heart that just as God is faithful and constant in showing mercy and grace towards his people, God’s faithfulness and constancy is also a source of confidence that he will indeed bring justice to bear in the end. He will either convert his enemies, and we pray for that, we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us and to seek their repentance and conversion, but if they do not repent are not converted, we can be assured that God will knock them off their high horse, that God will bring down the wicked in their pride in His timing and by His omnipotent power. Verse 5, the psalmist, now some suggest that verse 5 should go with what comes before it, sort of as a summary of the opening section of this psalm.

Others believe that verse 5 should go with what follows, and you know, it’s debatable. In the New American Standard version that I’m using to preach from, verse 5 goes with what follows, and I think that it makes sense. But the psalmist goes on to say, how great are your works, O Lord. Your thoughts are very deep. In what sense are God’s thoughts deep? His thoughts are infinitely deep because he is the infinite God. While the psalmist here extols the greatness of Yahweh’s works, the depth of God’s thoughts are seen in the often mysterious way that he seemingly allows the wicked to flourish for a time but only to bring his judgments upon them in the end and to vindicate his people in the end, all to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glorious grace in the case of his elect, the praise of his glorious justice in the case of the unrepentant wicked, the reprobate.

We see this mysteriousness of God’s thoughts and God’s plans and God’s decree in many passages of Scripture, but let us just review a few of those passages as we compare Scripture with Scripture. Look with me, if you would, at Romans 11, verses 33 through 36. Romans chapter 11. verses 33 to 36 as the Apostle Paul kind of wraps up the doctrinal section of Romans where he’s been just extolling and explaining the gospel in all of its depth and riches. And then he bursts out in these words of doxology. Romans 11, beginning at verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. There he, in this passage, he’s been talking about how God is a temporary hardening has come upon Israel so that the Gentiles might be brought in.

And it’s just so mysterious, so deep. And he says, how deep, who can figure out God’s ways? Verse 34, for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became his counselor, or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? For from him, and through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. Or again, consider what the prophet Isaiah writes in Isaiah 55, verses eight and nine. Isaiah 55, verses eight and nine, we read these powerful words. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. The psalmist praises God and says, your thoughts, Lord, are very deep.

Well, as God himself says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. God does not look at things the way that we do. His thoughts are very deep, indeed infinitely deep. Or we consider once again that wonderful passage from Deuteronomy 29 verse 29, which I think really confronts us with the limitations of our own ability to perceive and wrap our brains around the ways of God but the assurance that God has indeed revealed to us everything that we need in His Word. It says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed, that would be things revealed in this book, the Word of God, the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever that we may observe all the words of this law. With all of this in mind, the psalmist goes on in verses six and seven to say the following.

A senseless man has no knowledge, nor does a stupid man understand this. Scriptures are sometimes very blunt and straightforward in how they describe folks. Verse seven, that when the wicked sprouted up like grass and all who did iniquity flourished, it was only that they might be destroyed forever. When the wicked sprout up like grass, grass can sprout up very quickly. This is a time of year when when, I don’t know about you folks, but our lawn, this time of year, grows at such a rapid pace that sometimes I have to mow the lawn more than once a week, because it grows so fast, or if the lawn’s not growing, at least the dandelions are growing, and the weeds, and they have to be dealt with. And so often, the wicked seem to sprout up quickly, and they seem to predominate.

When the wicked sprouted up like grass, And all who did iniquity flourished. They seemed to flourish. They seemed to be everywhere. They seemed to be in control. And their presence seemed so threatening to the people of God. But then it was only that they might be destroyed forevermore. Remember, God raised up Pharaoh to display his glory in judging Pharaoh and redeeming and delivering his people. Now the psalmist here speaks of a senseless man. Here the psalmist describes the foolish man, the man who lacks the fear of the Lord. And remember the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. He describes the foolish man who appears to see only the immediate strength and flourishing of the wicked and therefore is tempted to join in with the wicked. but who seems incapable of taking the long view and understanding the ultimate long-term defeat and destruction of evildoers, of the unrepentant wicked.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is easy for us to see only what is immediately before us. But we in the OPC, we like to emphasize eschatology, right? Which is not just about the way end. All of Christianity is eschatological. God has us moving in a direction, and He’s working out His plan and purpose in history. And history may seem to be dominated by the wicked right now, but Jesus Christ, the Messiah, our King and Lord, rules in the midst of His enemies. And He is calling His elect through the gospel from the four corners of the earth, and He is working out His plans and purposes. And therefore, We can trust that God’s purposes will prevail in the end. Then in verse eight, there’s a contrast here. He speaks about the wicked who sprout up like grass, who sprout up quickly, but then they are defeated and destroyed quickly as well.

What a contrast that is to Yahweh, the true and living God, the God whom we love and serve and worship and trust. But you, O Lord, are on high forever. The wicked so often seem to be on high. They seem to be beyond, you can’t even touch them. They seem so stable and secure in their wicked reign. But Yahweh, the Lord, He is on high forevermore. He reigns. The eternal exaltation of Yahweh is here contrasted with the eternal destruction of the unrepentant wicked. And then verse nine, for behold, your enemies, O Lord, and then he repeats himself for emphasis, for behold, your enemies will what? Will perish. All who do iniquity will be scattered. The enemies of Yahweh are doomed to perish and shall be scattered. And this, brothers and sisters, should not fill us with a spirit of revenge and like, yeah, I can’t wait till these folks get what’s coming to them.

It instead should fill us with a burden to reach these with the gospel before it is too late. This is a time of grace. This is a time where God through the gospel extends an olive branch. He extends the offer of peace to the wicked that they might repent. Praise God. Those of us, we are, apart from His grace, we are wicked too. We are among their company unless the Lord calls us in grace. The only reason that we are on this side of the divide rather than the other side, the only reason that we have been brought into the kingdom of His beloved Son and do not continue to abide under the domain of darkness is because God in sovereign grace has brought us to repentance through the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

So we should realize that yes, God will defeat the unrepentant wicked in the end, but in the meantime, let us seek to proclaim the good news and call the wicked to repentance. to display the love of God, even for sinners. Let us remember, there go I, but for the grace of God. Let us remember that Christ, that God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, rebels shaking our fist against our holy creator, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Hallelujah, praise be to God. And then the psalmist goes on in verse 10. But you have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox. The horn in the Bible is often used as a symbol of strength and power. And here the horn is being used in a creative way because he talks about God exalting his horn like that of a wild ox, but then he talks about being anointed with fresh oil.

Well, anointing with oil, the oil was often poured out from a horn. One Bible commentator says that the wild ox here is the aurochs, A-U-R-O-C-H-S, which is the ancestor of domestic cattle but is now extinct. The animal was known for its strength and its horns were effective for goring. The psalmist says, you’ve exalted my horn like that of a wild ox. Perhaps the psalmist, especially if he was one of the Davidic kings, has in view how God has strengthened him for battle against the enemies of Israel. And then verse 11, it says, And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes, my ears hear of the evildoers who rise up In other words, God has given the psalmist victory over his enemies, a victory which he has witnessed firsthand with his eyes. He’s seen it with his eyes.

He’s heard it with his ears. And again, perhaps a military victory against the enemies of God’s people is in view. Well, brothers and sisters, what are some of the takeaways or lessons that we can glean from this portion of Psalm 92? Well, first of all, there’s many things we can learn from this, but I would encourage us, let us not be like the senseless man described in this psalm, the man who is incapable of self-reflection, the man who only sees the short-term victory of the wicked, but cannot see with the eyes of faith the long-term eschatological victory of Almighty God. Instead, by His grace let us trust in the Lord and wait upon Him.” God’s Word calls us to patience, doesn’t it? How many scripture passages, it would be interesting to count the number of times if you look it up in your Bible concordance that we are exhorted as God’s people to wait upon the Lord.

Oh, I hate waiting. Don’t you hate waiting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office? Or the other day I was on the road and I got stuck in some traffic. There was construction on the road and I was sitting in my car for about maybe 10 minutes, completely stopped on the road. And it’s amazing how long that 10 minutes seemed, because I’m so impatient, right? that we are to wait upon the Lord. God takes the long view. May we take the long view as well. May we trust in the Lord and wait upon Him. And let us understand that Christ has already gained the victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. He’s already secured our victory. We are already, if you are in union with Jesus Christ, you are already a victorious.

You are already more than a conqueror through Him who loved you. So rest in His victory and by faith, Give Him thanks for His victory. But when you are tempted, as we all are, to fret because of evildoers, be assured that God will bring his righteous wrath down upon the wicked who refuse to repent, and he will vindicate his believing people in the end. And so when we see wickedness and injustice, when we see the suffering of God’s people and persecution of believers, when we see such evils, let us realize that God will bring every deed into the open and He will indeed vindicate His people and bring His holy judgment upon the unrepentant wicked in the end. Though they seem so strong and stable today, They will perish like the grass. They will wither and fade like the grass.

And that leads me to my final point in the closing verses of this Psalm. Beloved, let us rejoice in the ultimate flourishing of the righteous. Rejoice in the ultimate flourishing of those who through sovereign grace are right with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12, the righteous man will flourish like what? like the palm tree.” Do you see the contrast? The wicked are compared to the grass, which flourishes quickly but then is soon destroyed. But the righteous man will flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those were tall, strong trees. And then verse 13, planted in the house of the Lord they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age. They shall be full of sap and very green to declare that the Lord is upright.

He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness. Again, notice that the righteous are sharply contrasted with the wicked. The wicked in verse 7, as I mentioned, the wicked in verse 7 being compared to the grass that sprout up and seem to prevail everywhere. But the righteous are like fruitful trees, like a palm tree. And like a cedar of Lebanon, there is security there, there is stability there, there is fruitfulness there. And not only that, but they are compared to trees that are planted where? Look at verse 13, planted in the house of the Lord. In the old covenant context, that would be in the temple. Now where, what is the significance of the Old Testament temple? The temple was the place, yes, where sacrifices were offered to God, where God was worshiped through sacrifices, but the temple was a symbol of God’s reign over and presence in the midst of his people.

And so this imagery of being planted in the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord was where the Lord dwelt in a special way amongst his people. They will flourish in the courts of our God. In ancient temples, in the ancient Near East, trees were often planted within the precincts of the temple, and that may have been the case as well in God’s temple in Jerusalem. And so the righteous are compared to those who flourish in the courts of the Lord. Planted in Yahweh’s house, in Yahweh’s temple. This is a picture of spiritual safety and security. The safety and security that comes from living in communion with the living God. The temple, of course, was the place of atonement and forgiveness. It was the dwelling place of God. And notice also the temple was also the place where corporate acts of worship took place.

So we are planted in the Lord’s house As individual believers, yes, we are planted in Him. We are stable and secure in Him. But we also, this security and stability that we have in Christ is especially exemplified when we gather together for corporate worship on the Lord’s day, to worship and rejoice in Him. Beloved, by His grace, we are a temple of the Holy Spirit, united to Christ. That being the case, let us trust in Him to cause us to bear fruit for His kingdom, and let us declare as the last verse of this psalm says, He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. May He be your rock and your refuge. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, it is indeed a good thing to give thanks to you. We thank you that you in Christ have granted us stability, security, and the ability by grace to bear fruit for your kingdom.

We ask that through faith in Christ, we would indeed be planted like a cedar in Lebanon, like a palm tree in the courts of the Lord. Be with us now, Lord, bear fruit in and through us in the week ahead. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. Dear ones, as we close our time of worship this evening, let’s rise and we’ll sing from the Psalter hymnal, Psalm 92a. It’s good to thank the Lord, 92a.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

April 30, 2023