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If you have your Bible, turn with me to Psalm 113. We will read the entirety of Psalm 113 together, and we will study tonight. But the title of this evening's sermon, Worship Our Great and Good God. Worship Our Great and Good God. Psalm 113. Friends, let's read the word of God together. Psalm 113, the word of God says, praise the Lord. Praise, oh servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high. above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. To make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people, he gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord. Dear ones, this is the word of God. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Our Father. how we long to worship you tonight. You are worthy of praise. You are worthy of all honor and glory. Father, we have not the ability in ourselves to worship you. Father, we are reminded today of our frail, fickle hearts, of our finite minds, of sin that still lingers within us, Lord. we pray that today, Father, you would open our eyes to see your glory, to see your goodness, to see your beauty, and to see all of this in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, Lord Jesus, when we see you, we see the glory of God, that transcendent majesty come near to us. Oh, Lord Jesus, that you might live and die and rise from the dead. Lord Jesus, you are the Savior of sinners. You are our Savior and our King. Oh, Lord Jesus, thank you for having mercy on wretches, upon rebels, upon such people as we are. Please bless this time, we ask, as we study your word by your spirit. Restore us, renew us, revive us, oh God, to worship you. For this, oh God, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Psalm 113, dear friends, Tonight, worship the Lord, our God, whose glory is revealed both in his transcendent majesty and in his intimate care for those who trust in him. For our God is worthy of worship. Dear friends, Psalm 113 is part of what has been called the Hallel. It kind of comes from the first word of these Psalms. Praise the Lord, we have that hallelujah. So this Hallel, these group of Psalms from 113 to 118, typically are sung before the festivals. They were sung traditionally before Passover and the Feast of Booths. And so very likely these were some of the Psalms that Jesus and the disciples sang. after they finished the Passover feast and when they went out to the garden, went out to the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus would pray and where he would ultimately be betrayed into the hands of wicked men. So these Psalms, friends, are meant to stir the hearts of the people of God to worship. Remember, guys, worship. is more than an emotional response. It's more than an emotive response. Worship is driven by truth. Worship is driven by doctrine. We need truth in our minds in order to stir the hearts. Guys, the word of God comes first to the mind as the only avenue to the heart. Guys, we cannot love a God we don't know. Right, so we put a premium on knowing God according to the truth because once the truth about God is in our minds and the Spirit of God brings that home to the heart, it's like a flame being nourished within the soul. The more we know about God, the more we can love and serve, enjoy and worship Him. And so, big doctrine. large, robust truth about God will drive the people of God to deeper, more faithful worship, not only corporately, but also individually. And so Psalm 113 is given to us by God the Holy Spirit to teach us to praise God, to worship the Lord. We see that in the very opening line. Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. We see here that our God is worthy of worship from his redeemed people who know his name. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Whom does the psalmist urge to praise and to worship God? Well, The servants of the Lord are called to praise him. Who are the servants of the Lord? The servants of the Lord are those who know him, those who praise his name, who know who he is, that he is the sovereign God of heaven and earth, not only the creator and sustainer of all things, but also he who redeems sinners by his grace. The servants of the Lord are those who know him, those who love him, those who worship Him. Guys, praise is to begin here in the household of faith. We remember the Lord's Prayer. Remember Jesus taught us to pray. He said, pray then like this, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When we pray, that God's name be hallowed. When we pray that the kingdom of God would come in all its fullness, we are reminded that that begins here with us. It begins in our hearts. It begins in our lives. It begins in our families. It begins in our local church. Praise for the Lord our God, for the living God must begin with us as we call ourselves the servants of God in Christ Jesus. Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Guys, the name of the Lord is the glory of God proclaimed. The glory of God proclaimed. When we speak of the name of God, in a sense, the name is distilling or crystallizing who God is. And God reveals himself in many names to showcase his glory and his character. But you remember that back in the book of Exodus, God gave his name to Moses. And he said, I am who I am. When Moses asked, who do I tell the people of Israel? Who do I say has sent me? When Moses says, the Lord God of your fathers has appeared to me. And Israel asked Moses, what is his name? Moses was to say, I am who I am has sent me. When God gave that name, He was saying that He is self-existent and eternal. God says, I am who I am. I was who I was. I will be what I will be. It speaks to His eternality, His self-existence, the fact that He has no beginning or end. He is unchangeable in all that He is and all that He does. I am who I am. He is the Lord. When we speak of the name of God, we're speaking not only of His identity, but also of His reputation. We have that sense in our own language. We talk about somebody's having a good name or having a bad name, and that speaks of what? Their reputation. And we see that the Lord's name is not only His identity, but also His character, His reputation. What kind of God is the Lord? What we see here in Psalm 113 is that the Lord our God is both transcendent in glorious majesty, and He is also imminent, near, intimate in His care for us. in his care for his people and the kindness he shows to human beings. Praise the name of the Lord. Guys, we serve a God who is altogether glorious and holy, and we need to remember his name. We need to rehearse daily his character, because as we understand the character of God and the glory of God, then we will begin to understand the nature of the gospel because our redemption is in accord with the character of God. The reason that Christ came and lived and died was to satisfy the righteousness of God, both in judgment and in salvation. So friends, we praise the Lord. Praise of the living God is to begin with his redeemed people who know his name. So let's set ourselves this day to fill our minds with the truth of God. Verse two, blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. God is worthy of all praise by all people in all times and in all places. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is to be blessed. God is to be honored. He is to be revered. And in what time? Well, from this time forth and forevermore. From now to eternity and beyond eternity, God is worthy of praise at all time. But not only in all time, but verse three, He is worthy of praise from the rising of the sun to its setting, from the east to the west, across the globe and over the sea and through the jungle, And in every place, God is worthy of praise. The name of the Lord is to be praised. Guys, God is worthy of glory. The Bible says in many places, Romans 1, Psalm 19, and in other texts as well, that God's glory is sufficiently revealed in nature. that the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no place nor are there words whose voice is not heard. And the psalmist David in Psalm 19 says that the glory of God as revealed in nature is like the rising of the sun with its blazing light and heat and as the sun shines upon the entire lower world that we have, that we live in, So to the glory of God shines upon this world in which humanity lives. God has sufficiently revealed himself in the things that he has made so that man is without excuse. Man knows God exists, yet he represses, he suppresses the truth about God in unrighteousness. Guys, this world screams of the glory of his creator. And every human being is hardwired from their mother's womb to respond and to see the glory of God, to know him, to love him, and to worship him. God is worthy of all praise from all time and all places by all people. Guys, this is why we must bring the gospel to the nations. Guys, you know, when we send missionaries to a foreign field, for example, let's say we send missionaries to a tribe in Papua New Guinea, right? We send missionaries to bring the gospel. Guys, those indigenous tribes, they know God exists. but they hate the God they know exists, and they have repressed and suppressed that truth about God as revealed in nature, and instead of worshiping the one true and living God, they've turned aside to idols. And so as we come with the gospel to them, we are calling upon them to repent, to turn to believe in the one true and living God who has appointed Christ the Savior of sinners who trust in Him. That's the same is true for us here in this modern Western world. We know God exists, but we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That is man's fallen condition. Man is incurably religious. You can look anywhere and everywhere on the globe and you can see religion, but all of this religion just underscores the fact that man is by nature an idolatry. Because of sin, he will not bless the name of the Lord, nor give to him the glory due his name. So part of our mission as the church is to make, in one sense, the invisible visible. We are to showcase to the world what it means to worship the one true and living God, to worship him. in His Son, Jesus Christ, and by His Spirit. And when we bring the gospel, part of what we're doing is we're commanding and calling, summoning, urging others to repent, to turn from their idolatry, and to give to God the glory due His name. He is worthy of all praise. So one thing that we can pray about as we look to the coming year, we can pray, O Lord, may you be praised in all the earth. May your church go forth and may your gospel go to the nations that you might be praised from the rising of the sun to its setting. We can pray that the kingdom of God would come in its fullness, that Christ would redeem for himself a people from every tribe and language and nation. We are summoning, we are urging the peoples to give glory to the Lord. The name of the Lord is to be praised. In verse four, we see that the Lord is high above all nations and His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God? Verse five, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth. Our God is worthy of all praise, praised by His redeemed people. God is worthy of all praise in all times and all places. by all people, not just as redeemed. And we see that God is transcendent in glory. You know, guys, our God is inexhaustible and unfathomable in the depths of his glory. We see in verse four, the Lord is high above all nations, God rules. Over kingdoms, He rules over countries. He rules over presidents and senators. He rules over lawmakers. He rules over all people. He's high above all nations. And His glory is above the heavens. Even as high as the stars may be above us, God's glory exceeds even their grandeur. This is speaking again to the transcendence of God, that God is above and beyond. Guys, we always have to remember that our God is high and lifted up, that there is a great and infinite distance between the infinite, holy, glorious creator and the creature. And there's a point of contact in that God made us in His image, in His likeness. He made us for a relationship with Him. But God is, again, we have more in common with other creatures than we do our Creator. He is high and lifted up. And we must have this view of God reigning in holy, transcendent majesty, because this fixes our gaze to God as being worthy of worship. Verse five, who is like the Lord our God? rhetorical question, there's none. No one is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, whose throne is above all, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth. The psalmist is again emphasizing the glory of God. that He is so majestic, so holy, so great, that it's as though He has to really look down and peer to see what's going on in this world. He is so exalted in glory. He looks far down on the heavens and the earth. Now, this reminds me of the episode in Genesis where you see after the flood that the people rebel against God's command to fill the earth, to multiply, and to do it. And they say, hey, we're not gonna be scattered throughout the whole earth, but we're going to build a city here. We're gonna build a tower for ourselves. Here, on this plain of Shinar, we're gonna build a tower to ourselves. And they made bricks, and they put them together, and they built the Tower of Babel. And the text says in Genesis that God came down, He looked down at this puny little thing that man had made, this great tower that was the product of all their combined energies, ingenuities, all of their wisdom and might, everything that man in his sin could cobble together, God looked as less than dust, like those little Legos that your son or your grandson might play with. That's how all the greatest works of man are before a holy and majestic God. Guys, this is healthy for us because this reminds us who God is and us who we are. Guys, one of the most important principles of prayer and of worship, never forget who you're talking to. Never forget who He is Therefore, you'll never forget who you are. And once you see who he is, and you know who you are, and you see your absolute need for Christ, and the joy you have now in Christ to come to this transcendent, glorious God in holy majesty, and make your petitions known to him. As our God is transcendent, We don't serve a god like the Philistines who was a national god over their country and territory. We serve the one true and living God who is high and lifted up. He is transcended in glory, reigning in holy majesty. Verse seven, he raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Guys, I want you to see, God is so transcendent in glory, and yet He is so near, intimate in His care for us, for His people. Guys, God is not some aloof father in the sky. It's not that God is some great clockmaker who just set the world in motion, now stands back and lets the world follow its own course. No, God is transcendent in glory, yet he is imminent, near. Guys, The scripture says, where could I flee from your presence? Behold, if I go to the highest heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there. Guys, there's no place in the whole universe where God is not. You know, we talk about hell and we talk about the great and awful torment that's there and how it is such a a terrible place, but what makes hell so terrible is not the absence of God, but it is the presence of God in all of His fury, in all of His righteous indignation. What is a terror in hell is not that God is not there, but that He is present there and that there is no more mercy, no more grace, no more forbearance, but the outpouring of all His holiness is being experienced there. God's sinners and devils wish they could escape the presence of God in hell. But what makes hell such a torment makes heaven such a blessing. The presence of God in all of His goodness, in all of His grace, in all of His majesty, where His saints and the angels enjoy the Lord in all of His beauty, worshiping and enjoying Him forever. But yet God is near. He is concerned with the goings-on here in this lower world. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ashy. Guys, our God delights to showcase His goodness, to make known His love, to bring to bear upon the world that He is a God who is good. He raises the poor from the dust. God delights to care for those whom the world rejects. He lifts the needy from the ashy. Guys, God delights to take what the world deems worthless, what the world deems as castoffs, what the world deems as insignificant, and to take them and to redeem them by His grace and to set them as His trophies. You recall when Peter and John stood before the Sanhedrin. and they gave a bold testimony to the resurrection of Christ. And you recall that the Sanhedrin, these learned scholars of the Bible, that they were awestruck by the words that were coming from Peter and John. And they understood that they were uneducated men, but that they had been with Jesus. Jesus loved these fishermen and he chose them to be his apostles. Yes, the Lord does choose and does call some well-trained men like Paul. But God also delights to take the poor from the dust and to lift the needy from the ash heap and to exalt them, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. Guys, God chose David from the sheepfold, from following the sheep to be prince over his people Israel. God chose this little shepherd boy from Bethlehem and whom to build a dynasty and to be the one for whom his own son would be born into the world and his own son would inherit his kingdom. Guys, God delights in reversals. He delights to take what the world deems as worthless and to showcase his goodness. to make them sit with princes, with princes of His people. Guys, the people of God ought to show that same tender care, that same love for the poor and the needy, because we know that our God, our Father in heaven delights to love on them, delights to serve them, delights to take them and to use them as, and to put them forth as testimonies of His beauty and of His grace. And he's worthy of praise because our God is not only so great in glory, but he is so good. Verse nine, he gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. A barrenness is something of a reproach. Even in our own day, even in our own day, we have all kinds of technology, we have all kinds of treatments for infertility. but it's still a source of great shame and reproach and sorrow and grief when a woman or a couple can't conceive a child. But especially so in these days. Remember how Hannah was tormented by her rival because she couldn't bear any children. And when she came to the Lord and His holy place and she began to pray and ask for a son, God was gracious to hear her prayer and he gave to Hannah Samuel. We see how Elizabeth was barren in her old age, yet God blessed her with a son. We think of Sarah conceiving Isaac when she was well past the age of childbearing. God gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. God is good. He's not only great, but He is good. He's not only transcendent in majesty, but He is near at hand with His tender care for His people. Oh, how He loves sinners as we are. Oh, how He cares for us. And guys, that ought to fuel our praise because, you know, friends, there are many religions that will speak of a God of transcendent glory. Islam, there, conception of God, which is idolatrous. Has God is great. Has God is transcendent. But he's not necessarily good. He's not near. God is the true and living God who reveals himself in his word, who disclosed his glory in Jesus Christ, who through the gospel urges us to come to repent and trust in him. This God is good and great. and He is worthy of our praise. And that's how it closes. Praise the Lord. Guys, praise the Lord for He is good, delighting in reversals and delighting to make wretches His treasure. So friends, this week, as you stir your heart to give praise to God, remember His holy character, remember His transcendent glory, but also remember His nearness to all those who trust in him. And may these truths fuel our worship that God may be glorified in our lives. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for who you are and what you've done. Father, open our eyes to see the beauty of Christ, because in Christ Jesus, you have brought us near to you that we might love and worship you forever. Lord Jesus, we do pray that you would be glorified in all the earth, that, oh Lord Jesus, you would redeem for yourself a people for your own possession. Father, we thank you And we pray that, oh Lord, you would continue to enlarge our hearts that we might give you all the praise for you are worthy. Father, all this we ask in Christ's name.
Worship Our Great and Good God
Série Psalms
Identifiant du sermon | 122620214216270 |
Durée | 30:04 |
Date | |
Catégorie | dimanche - après-midi |
Texte biblique | Psaume 113 |
Langue | anglais |
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