Please turn with me now in the Old Testament to the book of Psalms. The book of Psalms, particularly Psalm 148. And we've been going through a small series here with the idea of being called to praise. We started that in Psalm 145, and then we've seen at each of the last Psalms of the Psalter that there is an initial call that says, praise the Lord. And then we've looked at the reasons why we would praise God. So in 146, we saw that he was trustworthy. In 147, we saw that he was good. In 148, we wanna see how he is great. And so as we read through that text this morning, let's see if you can pick up on how the psalmist here identifies the greatness of God and how this then encourages you to worship Him. So let's listen to Psalm 148. The psalmist writes, Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him, all His angels. Praise Him, all His hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all you stars of light. Praise Him, you heavens of heavens and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. He also established them forever and ever. He made a decree which shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures in all the depths, fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted. His glory is above the earth and heaven, and He has exalted the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints, of the children of Israel, a people near to Him. Praise the Lord. Remember the grass withers and the flower falls, but God's word abides forever. Amen. So this morning we want to see this idea that we want to worship God because He is great. You know, in our society today, we like to talk about greatness. Sometimes we don't use the word great, we might use the word best. And so every year here in our town, there's always the voting for the opportunity of who's voted best for a particular year and companies are able to avail themselves of that title. So that way then they're at the top of the list and they can say we're the best. We're the greatest. And of course we want to use those guys for service, right? You don't want number 11 on the top 10 list. You don't know what kind of service you're going to get. We hear about greatness as it pertains to our athletes. As individuals start moving towards retirement, then they are put on the list of where do they fall in? Are they a first ballot hall of famer? What kind of records did they set? Are they the greatest of all times? And we start seeing goat memes. All kinds of things are set before us so that our eye, our direction, our attention is towards who's great. Who's best? And yet no one in their list of greatness or being the best can have any sorts of lists that God has here in Psalm 148. In Psalm 148, the implication of greatness is here in this way. Because God is called upon by the entirety of creation to give Him praise. That's how we come to this idea of worship God, for He is great. Who else can summon all the hosts of heaven and anything and everything in earth to say, worship me? Can any quarterback? Any power forward in the NBA? Any president? Anything in this world? No. And yet our God does. He does so in two ways. The first of which is He summons all of the heavenly hosts to give Him praise. That's in verses 1-6. And then in verses 7-12, He summons all the earth in order to worship Him. And so this morning we want to see that God truly is great as seen in the fact that all things ever made are to give Him adoration. When we talk about greatness, what we mean by that is this, that it's the idea that there is a remarkableness to one in some aspect of magnitude, degree, or effectiveness. that there is something amazing about the one who is identified as great based on some degree, some aspect or thing that they can do or how they look or stand in relation to all else that's compared to them. We could put it this way, that they are superior to all else in character, quality, and skill. Notice how this is brought out in verses 1 through 6 of our text. Considering the fact that everything and everyone in heaven is called to praise the Lord. Notice again what's said. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights, praise Him all His angels, praise Him all His hosts, praise Him sun and moon, praise Him all you stars of light, praise you heavens of heavens and you waters above the earth. Now as an aside here, this word praise I believe is repeated, this word praise is repeated 13 times in 14 verses. So it's calling us, or whoever is being summoned, to note the worth and the glory of the one being praised. Notice who it is. The angels and all the hosts of heavens. Angels are a miraculous creation, are they not? They were messengers, or they were beings that were created by God that are there to do His will. Whether it means by providing a message to someone in His creation, whether it's having the responsibility to simply be before His throne as in Isaiah 6, declaring before God, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. Whether they're engaged in the activity of providing a defense and at work in spiritual warfare on behalf of the people of God. These beings are astounding. These beings are glorious. And anytime man sees an angel and recognizes it to be as such, he immediately is smitten and struck down and falls before this one. They're mighty. They're powerful. They're amazing, beautiful creatures. And yet even these creatures are summoned by God, not only individually, but in the entirety of their host to exalt the living God. The host of angels is glorious. You recall at the birth of Jesus in Luke chapter two, when the angel provided the message to the shepherds and then suddenly there was with him in the field, the multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill with those whom God is well pleased. It lit up the sky. The shepherd saw this and immediately then had to act and to move. And yet all of these individuals were called upon to praise this one who is far greater and far more glorious. Beyond these angelic hosts, we also see reference to the sun and the moon and the stars. The questions that may come to mind is, how in the world is it that a moon and stars and distant galaxies, which are inanimate and non-thinking, bring praise to God? Well, in this way, that all of them call attention to the glory of their Creator. All of them call attention to the glory of their Creator. The psalmist in Psalm 19 says the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows forth his handiwork. The beauty and the wonder of just each aspect of that, the light that's provided by a star or the operation of the effect of the moon in relation to the earth. The magnificence of each planet simply by its existence and by the fact that we look upon it and are just struck with how much we don't know and struck by the wonder of it causes us to recognize that that in and of itself is giving glory to the Creator. As we looked at Psalm 147, we recognize that scientists look upon the stars of the universe and they say it's anywhere from 2 million to 10 million galaxies that exist. They don't know. And in each galaxy, there are trillions and trillions of stars. And the point in all of that is to direct our attention by this psalm to say all of those The angelic beings, the heavenly host, all the stars in the sky are not there to be adored by us with that as an end, but rather to give glory and praise to the living God. One author notes that there is a model for worship and what they do. They noted, for example, that their work to give glory to God is always visible. When you go out at night and you don't have light pollution, you see the stars. The planets are always there. They cannot be hidden. They can't somehow be covered up. And by the fact that they're always visible, it teaches us something about our worship to God. It should always be visible. It shouldn't be hidden. It should in no way be tempered. We also see that it's constant. That as it pertains to the way in which the light comes forth from the sun and the manner in which the moon operates, even as it goes through its phases, it's still constant. There's no variation to it. And it teaches us in terms of our worship, that as we adore the living God, that we should be regular. And how we go about that. And lastly, we see just complete and total obedience. The planets, the angels don't worship God on their terms. We don't see the starry skies somehow conspiring with one another saying, well, God, we know that you made us in this manner, but we want to then exalt you in a different way. It's as God has intended, it's as He has purposed, as He has decreed, so it's set forth. And the consequence is that through their obedience and always doing exactly what He has called upon them to do, they're modeling worship. And so also for us, our worship ought to be with the intention of obedience to Him. But why do these beings and these heavenly hosts have reason to praise God? Look at verse 5 and 6. Let them praise the name of the Lord for He commanded and they were created. He also established them forever and ever. He made a decree which shall not pass away. The reason they ought to worship God is this. God has created them and he's established them. That's it. The fact that God has made them, set them in their purpose of what they're called to do and oversees how that goes about, they in turn say, okay, we give praise to the living God. And yet how does this show the greatness of God? Think about all of these things. Think about how glorious and wondrous it is. Think about how amazing it is to see the pictures that come back from space of the various planets and the moons that are all orbiting around those places. The amazement of the activity and the appearance of angels. And yet, how did they come to be? How are they here? What does God say about that in Genesis 1? God spoke, and they came to be. Let there be light, and there was light. Let there be the separation of the waters above and the waters below. The separation of the waters from the land. And it was so on day one, two, and three. On day four, let there be the sun and the moon and the stars. And all these things came to be. as great and as glorious as they are, and as they all run their appointed course, and as they all stay in their particular orbits and do exactly the bidding of God, who made it simply by the word of His power, consider how great, how glorious, how awesome, how wondrous, and how much worthy of praise, then, God the Creator deserves. And if the stars in the sky, and the planets in our galaxy, and if the angels themselves would praise God because he made them and set their course, how much more so you? But God moves on. from the heavens to the earth. The amazing action by the psalmist is he starts from the place that would be furthest away from earth in the heavens at the heavenly host who are there at the very throne of God and then begins to move down and towards our atmosphere as it were. And then as he looks at earth, he starts again from the very place most away from us to then start moving us toward ourselves. Look at how he does this in verse 7. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures, in all the depths, way down below in the waters. And then he moves up fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl. Basically, he's listed all the non-humans on our planet, and there isn't anything that he hasn't covered. Because the point of this isn't just simply to list the one and the other, but to include everything in between. And so he highlights the great creatures of the deep, the whales and the sharks and the other large animals. He moves on to weather phenomenon with lightning and hail and clouds and stormy winds. All of these things that are grand and wondrous and amazing to behold. And yet He notes that these ought to praise Him because they are under His sovereign control. Think about this in light of what we've heard in the news this past week. Hurricane Ian, believed to be the fifth strongest hurricane to come upon the contiguous US. So far 77 fatalities, 12 foot surges of waves as it went into Tampa Bay. The second strongest wind scale on record with sustained winds at 150 miles per hour. And yet this too, as you look at a map and see the clouds as it covers just a huge portion of our country, is at the call and under the direction of our God. All elements of weather are under God's sovereign control. He sends and He withholds. It's amazing how He uses the rain and sends it at the right time in order to help water the earth and see the produce come forth. And yet, if He withholds it for any period of time, then we see droughts. And yet, if He gives it in an overabundance, then we see floods and storms. And yet all of this isn't the natural process that's overseen by someone called Mother Nature. This doesn't happen by chance. It doesn't happen simply by randomness. It doesn't occur simply because we have weather patterns that come and that go. It ultimately is at the direction and at the intention and purpose of God's sovereign command. So that He then might display His glory and through all of this, the creation might adore Him and worship Him. Beyond storms. Mountains and hills, fruitful trees and established trees. Beasts and cattle, creeping things and things that fly. Again, you see this movement of height and depth and width and things that are close to the earth and things that are further away. Things that are little, things that are big. All of these amazing intricacies should call upon us to worship God. And yet, isn't it interesting? You take the first part of this psalm and People look up into the heavens and they wanna worship the planets and they believe that their lives are directed by the planets and they wanna look and determine what their futures are by the planets and yet God controls that. And those who may be somewhat suspicious about giving their lives over to some random action of Mars or Venus decides that they wanna worship the sun. to look upon creatures and care for them and elevate them to a position where they have the greatest importance even more so than human life. And yet God says it's not about the angels or the planets or the creatures or mother earth. It's about me. I'm the one who's called upon. I'm the one who's great. I'm the one who's worthy of praise. And so the psalmist consequently then says, in light of all this, verse 11 and 12, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, young men and maidens, old men and children, let them praise the name of the Lord. The call upon every single one of us in this room, the call upon every single person in this world who is here now, who has been here and who will be forthcoming is to recognize and to bow the knee before the one who has made us and the one who cares for us. No one is excluded. Kings, princes, judges, those in power. Those who may even be enamored with their own power and glory are summoned to bow the knee before the triune God. Those who are young and those who are old. where they may have strength and beauty of life and view themselves as being somewhat independent, having their lives ahead of them with everything to live for and nothing to lose. They're called to bend before the triune God. Those who are older, those of you who know that your best years are behind you, You've given more years than you have yet to receive. You're advanced and may even think, what's the point? I've lived my life. I've run the race. It hasn't been easy. You're called upon to give Him praise. Even children whose society would look upon and say, well, you don't have anything to live for until you're 18 or 21 or 25. Even you. are to be here in worship, attentive, involved, listening, with parents who are directing you to that end, to participate now, to glorify God. Why? Because He's great. John Piper said this, God made man small. and the universe big to say something about himself. He said it's about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. And that's what the psalmist has really set before us, isn't it? He's shown us the wonder of the entirety of creation so that then when people come and they look at things around them, and they look up and they look out and they look around, all they can say is, God is great. And I am not. He truly is awesome and powerful and glorious and majestic. And we are summoned then to unite in praise of God for the majestic and glorious display that he's manifest. But there's something even more than just simply to say God is exalted. Look at verse 14. The psalmist says, and he has exalted the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints, of the children of Israel, a people near to him. Praise the Lord. What does the psalmist mean by that? He's exalted the horn of his people, the praise of all the saints, of the children of Israel? Remember the timeframe in which this was written. The children of Israel having come out of the Babylonian captivity, restored into the land of promise in the city of Jerusalem, having opportunity to see the temple erected for worship, having the walls built all around the city, knowing that God has worked. What are they saying? We are his people. We are gathered here for worship. God is in our midst. He's at work. But all of this being done is to direct us to something further. It's to praise Him as His people. Not just simply as the ones that He's made, not just simply as the ones who He takes care of, but as the ones who He has redeemed. Because remember, these people were in captivity in Babylon. They were separated. God reveals the strength of His arm by remembering His promise and motivating even the king, the princes, and He who is great and glorious to give to these people the opportunity to go back to their land and to be restored. God shows the work of salvation among them. And the psalmist here is summoning then the audience to remember. And yet the exaltation of the horn of the people isn't just simply back into the land of Israel. Mary, in making reference to this in Luke chapter 1 verse 69, says that God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. She takes reference to this and identifies Jesus Christ. And that's how we see the greatness of God all the more. You see, it's one thing to say, yeah, look at what's happening around us in our world. Look at weather systems, look at lightning and storms and the amazing things with that. Look at the beauty of the creation and its grandness and even down to its intricacies. But if we see all that and study all that and reflect on that, and yet don't look at our own souls, what benefit is that? God has done a thing that's far greater than make the world. He's taken a sinful people. And shown them love. God, in dealing with a sinful people, even immediately after those individuals had gone against His will and thumbed their nose at Him and said, we'd rather do it our way, He still showed up. And He said, okay, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna show how great I am by overcoming the very thing that you did that's devastating to you. And so what does he do? He begins to show through the line of Seth and through the line of Noah. And he calls Abraham to be his own. Out of all the other people and families in the earth, he says, Abraham, you are mine. You worship me, and you belong to me, and I'll be your God, and I'll do a tremendous work in your life, and through you, all the nations of the earth are gonna be blessed. And then through the line of Abraham, he goes to Jacob. I'm sorry, to Isaac. And he looks at the amazing thing that he provides there, that Abraham was supposed to have a son, and yet Abraham thought he could do that on his own terms and said, no, no, no, it's on my terms. And even though your wife is 90 years old, and even though you're 100 years old, I'm still gonna give you a child. And so he provides through the miracle of Isaac. And then through Isaac, Isaac has two sons, and he picks then the one who is the younger and who is the lesser. And through him, he then provides a nation that begins to manifest itself in this world. And yet that nation was attempted to be stomped out by the Egyptians. And even in the midst of their crying, He raised up a deliverer, and through that deliverer, He then causes them to come out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, picturing this work of salvation. And God does this again, over and over and over, to show that even as He's made the glorious stars in the heaven, He cares for His own people, He calls them by name, He effectively works in their life, and through His Son, Jesus Christ. He's given the gift of love. He's graciously forgiven them, mercifully overcomes all of their sins and miseries so that they would be brought into a position of favor and wonder. Who else does that? Who else is like that? Great, glorious, exalted by the angels, wondrous, majestic, powerful in all the earth, sovereignly works in your life to love you, to make you His own, and to exalt His name in you. What an amazing, great, and glorious God we have. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, how wondrous you are, how little we are. And yet even though we are small, you know us, you care for us, and you work your will. May we join with all of your creation to bow down and adore you. And how much more so reason do we have? Because you've loved us eternally, perfectly, and amazingly. Strengthen us in our worship to know you and serve you accordingly. Strengthen us in our worship to bow down and recognize your greatness and your wonder. Strengthen us in our worship to seek you above all else. Help us with this even as we pray, saying, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.