I'd like to have a beer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you do care for us. We thank you for your faithfulness, for the way in which you remember your promises and the purposes of your grace. And we ask, Lord, that we may grow in our understanding of that, that we may learn more and more to live and walk in your presence, And also, Lord, to respond to you using the words of the Psalms and manifesting also the joy and thankfulness that the Psalms reflect as we come face to face with Him who is our Savior, Jesus Christ. We ask it in His name. Amen. Well, if you would glance at your outlines again, on page 2, I've been talking about the Psalms as the response to the covenant mercy of the Lord, and as a reflection of the history of the covenant. The Psalms have their setting in the history of redemption. And in that connection, we see how the covenant promise is claimed in the Psalms, but we also see how the covenant is experienced, how it comes to actual realization in the lives of the Psalmist. The concreteness of praise in what is well called the declarative praise of the Psalms, You see, the praise of God in the Psalms is both declarative and also descriptive. Declarative praise is celebrating the great acts of God, declaring what He has done and glorifying Him for what He has done. The descriptive praise is celebrating God's attributes. It's praising God for who He is. So we're thinking both of the great works of the Lord, but then also of the attributes of the Lord, His grace, His holiness, His justice. The Psalms are filled with reflections on who God is, what He's like. Klaus Westermann, in his book on the praises of Israel, the book on the Psalms, draws that distinction between declarative and descriptive praise. And then he also calls attention to the fact that in the hymns of the ancient Near East, you know, in Pritchard's ancient Near Eastern text, He has quite a few hymns from various sources, Egypt and Mesopotamia. And those old Near Eastern hymns, as Vestermann has pointed out, are mainly of the nature of descriptive praise. rather than of declarative praise. The gods are praised that they are so great, so powerful, so mighty, etc. I think you might detect a little something there, you know, that the fellow with a lot of girls on the string has to be particularly eloquent in describing his date for the night, you know. because he's got to convince her that she's really special. I mean, she knows that he dates a lot of other gals, you know, so he's got to lay it on a little bit, right? Well, it's sort of like that in policy. The God you're worshiping in that particular Time is well aware that you're worshipping a whole string. And so you've got to let him know that you think he's really special, or she's really special, if you're going to get results. There's a lot of descriptive praise in the ancient Near Eastern hymns. However, as Westermann also points out, there's not nearly so much declarative praise. not so much thanking God for what they've done. Interesting. Well, but you see, in the Bible, God prays for who he is, and indeed he's said to be above all the gods, but he's also praised especially for what he's done, because he's done so much. He's delivered his people, he's preserved them, he's provided for them, he's watched over them. And he's also visited his judgments on them for their correction, you know. He's a mighty God. So we have both then, declarative praise and descriptive. Now the declarative praise is all summarized, you might say, with the root barak, you know, blessed be the Lord. Praise God because of what he's done for us. Whereas the descriptive praise is summarized, you might say, in the hallelujah. That's lifting up the name of God for who he is. So God is blessed for what he's done, he's praised for who he is. He's blessed for what he's done, and you notice just the outline there. God's works of creation. He's praised for his works of power. He's formed the universe. His works are wonderful. And in connection with that, the wisdom and the goodness of God is celebrated. God is the one who has wrought in wisdom in his great works of creation. And God not only made the world, he also sustains the world. So you have his works of providence. He gives the seasons, he causes the rains to fall, he provides for his people in giving them their daily food. But God, who is the God of creation and providence, is also the God of covenantal salvation. He remembers his promises to his people. He will return the captives, because he hasn't forgotten them, even though they may seem forsaken and scattered in distress. He's the one who's sworn by his oath to David that he will put on his throne one of his descendants. And the blessings of God in his acts for his people are all summarized in the phrase, for his name's sake. God will do these things because of his own name, because of what he has revealed to be his purpose. And then also these works of God may be recounted as he is praised. It's interesting that in Psalm 22 the psalmist talks about all his bones being numbered, all his bones being counted in his agony. But that word of numbering is often used in the Psalms to describe numbering the mercies of God, counting all the things that he has done, remembering. Of course, Vestermann's suggestion that there aren't so many declarative praise hymns in ancient Near Eastern hymnody is suggestion that perhaps those gods hadn't done so much to be remembered. But here is the one who is the living God, who never forgets his people. And then not only the concreteness of praise, that you can praise God for actual things that he has really done, but also the thought of covenant fellowship. You see, When we remember what God has done, our praise is closely related to thanksgiving. You're thanking God for particular things that he has done for you. So it is a thankful praise. But when you're praising God for who He is, that isn't thanksgiving in the usual sense, it's adoration, it's reverence, it's awe before Him, but it's also fellowship with Him. You see, Jesus teaches us to pray in the Lord's Prayer, Hallowed be thy name. And of course that prayer implies that we are asking God to hallow his name on earth. That God will so work among the nations that his name will be praised. But that's not yet quite the heart of it, you see. It isn't just praying that God's name would be hallowed in the world or even that God's name would be hallowed in us. we are praying that God's name would be hallowed in himself. May your name be holy. And well, you say, how can God's name be made more holy than it is? Isn't God's name holy already? Now, if God sanctifies us, We know what that means. We're sinners. God purges us of sin and makes us more like himself. So we can understand how we can be made more holy. There's lots of room to move in as we become more holy. But how about God? He can't become more holy. He's already perfectly holy. So what's the use in praying that God should sanctify His name? when his name is already sanctified. Well, I think when you reflect on that, you see that so far from being a meaningless prayer, it's really the crown of all prayers. Because what is the greatest thing you can ask of God? Well, you might think of a whole lot of petitions you could ask of him, but I guess you might end with the one Thy will be done. The greatest thing you can ask of God, surely, is not that your will should be done, but it's that His will should be done. But is there something even greater than asking that His will should be done? Well, the only thing that could possibly top that is to pray that God would be Himself. Be the one that you are. Hallow your name. Be what your name declares. Be who you are. Be the living and true God. You see, I invite your reflection on that. Because, you see, there really isn't anything that goes beyond the ultimate joy of asking God to be true to himself. He can't improve But he can remain the same. He can be the living God. And of course, we realize that even there, our human categories break down. Because it isn't as though... While God can improve, it isn't as though he's in some way static. He's a living fire. He's... He's changeless but not in the sense of being without movement or without energy or without life. He's changeless in the sense of being all movement and all energy and all life. So when we ask God to be the God that he is, it's not a static prayer. Of course, our categories of time and space limit the way in which we conceptualize our prayers, but not the reach of the prayer itself, which is addressed to God as the living God. The songs do appreciate this, you see. They do rejoice in the name of the Lord. And the name is that in which God expresses who he is. Yes, yes. Well, I may be wrong, but that's not what I'm getting at. I would include that, surely, yes. You know, you ask God to reveal himself to be the God he is in every one of our situations. So, in that sense, there's always freshness, there's always something new that we find in God. You know, the angels say around the throne, say, holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty. Well, the chittagyan, the holy, holy, holy, you know, you don't conceive of the angels as just having so many holies to get through for this morning's liturgy. It's not like that. See, they're right in the presence of God. And so, when they say holy once, then immediately they're gripped again by a fresh revelation of the wonder of this holy God, whom they've just cried holy once, but it's like the waves of the ocean, it keeps pouring in, you know, and so they say, holy again, and no more than said that, then another wave hits them, and they say, holy again, and that's certainly the picture that we have, you see, the overflowing fullness of God's holiness, that that overwhelms them in their praise. So, yes, there's that, and we certainly do pray that, that God would sanctify His name by revealing more fully the wonder and the glory of it. But I think when you say, Lord, sanctify Your name, I just think there's the ultimate prayer there. Lord, be the God that you are. Not only make it known, but be it. Well, think about that. Maybe you think I'm pressing that a little too far, but see, I really think it comes close to the heart of what adoration is. You know, we're praising God for who He is. Realizing that we don't even begin to understand all the wonder of that. But Lord, don't be my idea of you, be your idea of you. Be the God that you've declared yourself to be, but be the God that you are. Yes, Danny. Sometimes we think of the application to humble up, that I want to praise God for His holiness. I'm not adding to His holiness, and that's humbling to me. What I hear you saying is that it pleases the Lord, and He is blessed by hearing us pray such a prayer, and hearing the angel pray, and it is not just our need to be humble before this God, and to become more like Him in holiness, but that we are in fact pleasing the Lord. Yes, it's to His glory. You know, the philosophers, of course, have always kicked this one around, the so-called full bucket problem. If God already has all glory, then the bucket's full, so how can he add glory to the bucket that's already full? From a human rationalistic viewpoint, it's completely impossible, but not in terms of the dynamics of personal communion. You acknowledge the wonder and glory of God and yet you cannot but express your desire that more glory should be his, more praise and adoration. Yes, yes. This is the problem here that it's not God but the problem is me. And when I ask God to be God, I'm asking to be that for me because I don't understand Him the way He is. Right, you're certainly not asking him to be what he isn't. I quite agree there, but I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure that you're not asking him to be what he is. See, I'm agreeing with all you say. It's all that, but I'm just asking if it isn't perhaps even a little more, that not only that he would be sanctified in my life, or even sanctified in my understanding, or sanctified in my praise, or sanctified among the nations All these things are part of our prayer. But when we say blessed be the name of the Lord, it's not saying may I bless him, may you bless him, may the nations bless him. It is that. It's all of that. But we're also saying something that His name is worthy of praise. His name is worthy of being blessed. His name is worthy of more than anybody could ever ascribe to Him. And so ultimately we say, Lord, we can't do it, all the nations can't do it, all the angels can't do it, Lord, you do it. You sanctify your own name. You lift up and set apart as holy your own name in terms of your own being. Something like that. It gets a little closer to what I'm trying to say. But that point is important. I mean, the point is important. Now, it gets kicked around different ways, and there are different problems, but we want to get in the universe of the psalm. Because God is... See, we bring the praise to God. When I was young, I never heard it put that way. Never that our worship was pleasing to God. Somehow that never emerged. It was always that we would want to please God, we would want to praise God, but never the thought of God taking delight in our praise. or worship being in a certain reverent sense for his sake. You know, worship was thought of more as something that produces good in us. Which, of course, it does. And the New Testament puts a lot of emphasis on edification in connection with worship. We gather together to edify one another as we worship. And when Paul talks about singing praise to God in Ephesians and Colossians, he also talks about exhorting one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So we do address one another. There is the desire in worship to be helping one another and to cause God's name to be praised by more people for their good. But you see there's also this other element that that God is delighted in our praise, that our praise ascends as a sweet incense in His presence. We offer the fruit of our lips to the praise of His name, and God receives that, and He prizes that. Now, of course, that won't make any sense if we don't have ahead of it all the reverence, all the understanding of who God is. And, you know, it would be a terrible travesty on that thought to paganize it. You know, the gods of the heathen, they want the food because they're hungry. So you bring an offering of food because God's hungry, He needs it, so you give it to Him. That God wants praise, so you give it to Him, because He's hungry for it, He needs it. Well, you see, it's not until you fully understand that God doesn't need it at all. It's not until you fully understand that it's by pure grace that He appreciates it, you know. It's not until you well appropriate those illustrations that you've all used in sermons of the little girl that brings her bouquet to her mother, you know, with a lot of wilted dandelions and maybe a sprig of poison ivy, you know, and she brings it to her mother. But her mother gladly receives it, you know, because she knows what it means. And we have to understand all that, you know, that It isn't that we are really worth so much and that our praise is so desirable that of course God desires it. It's not until we understand it's all grace that we can affirm it, but when we do understand that it's all grace, Then I still think it's worth affirming that when we come to praise God, we don't just come to edify one another, we come to give to Him the glory that's due to His name. And certainly the Psalms are always speaking of that glory of God, that the attributes of God, His greatness in creation, in redemption, His faithfulness, His righteousness, We were looking at that at the end of the last hour, that strange verse in Psalm 51, deliver me from my blood guiltiness and I will praise your righteousness. Amazing. And then the goodness and mercy of God, and of course especially the initiative of God in grace, the way in which God shows his grace to us, taking the initiative to manifest himself to us. Psalm 135, where we read, For the Lord has chosen Jacob unto himself in Israel for his own possession. So I know that the Lord is great and that our Lord is above all gods, whatever God, whatever the Lord please, that has He done in heaven and in earth and in the seas and in all the deep. You see, God is a sovereign God. He does what He pleases to do in His whole work of creation, but also in His work of redemption. So Israel is not chosen because of their outstanding excellence, they are chosen out of the free grace of God. He's called them, He's made them His people, and therefore His grace is to be praised. And then the wisdom and the understanding of God. Psalm 111 is a wisdom psalm. It is an acrostic psalm built on the beginning with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And that psalm speaks of the wisdom of the Lord. Verse 10 gives you again the golden text of all the wisdom literature. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. a good understanding of all they that do his commandments, his praise endureth forever." So God is the source of all wisdom, and therefore the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And then the name of God is praise. God's covenant name is adored. You'll notice there's a difference, as Tremper Longman brings out in his book as well. The name Yahweh, the covenant name of God, is used in Psalms 1 through 41, and then beginning again at Psalm 90 through 150, the covenant name is used. whereas in the intervening psalms Elohim is used rather than Yahweh. So you have celebrations of both the covenant name specifically and also the general name of God in these different psalms. The name of God is the center of the fellowship of the psalmist and of the longing of the psalmist For the Lord, Psalm seventy-two, turn to that passage seventy-two eighteen, where you have a doxology that ends the second book of the Psalms. Blessed be Yahweh Elohim, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. There you have this characteristic pinnacle of praise, where God is not only saying for what he's done, not only have his praises described as attributes, but at last you just say, blessed be his name. Lord, you be adored, you be blessed, your name be blessed. Again, you know, it's curious, How blessing can be used in relation to us that God blesses us? And we can understand that, can't we? God grants to us all manner of good. He gives us things that are blessings granted to us by the Lord. But then how can we bless God? What can we give Him? He doesn't need anything, so what does it mean then? Isn't all worship meaningless? If God doesn't need our praises, what's the use of giving him what he doesn't need? And there's where the rationale of worship is not according to human category. We give it to him because he deserves it, not because he needs it. Because it is our need to adore him. But it's acceptable in its life. He's delighted with our worship. He's delighted with our praise. So it really comes down again to the personal relation that exists between God and the worshipper. You see, if it weren't for the personal relation, there'd be no point in it. Maybe the nearest we can come to it in terms of personal relationships is the relationship of love in the bonds of the human family. Those of you that are married have presumably at some time in the not too distant past assured your spouse that you loved him or her, you know. And well, that's not new information, is it? But you said it anyway. Well, you know, you know that passage in Deuteronomy 7. Well, read 6. For you are a holy people unto the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. There you get the same problem, you see. What does God own on the face of the earth? Everything. Well, what's Israel? His own possession. Oh, it's all His possession, so how is Israel His special possession? Well, just because they are special. He's chosen them from all the nations of the world to be His treasured people. And then look at the next verse. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, Has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt? Now, why did the Lord choose Israel? Because they were such a big and important nation? No, they were the fewest of all people when he chose them. They were just a family of Abraham. So God chose them when they were few. He didn't choose them for their numbers. So why did he choose them? Not for their numbers, but for what? Well, why did you set your love upon them, Lord? And the answer is what? He loved them. He loved them because he loved them. And, well, you know, a guy's going out with a girl, and I've used this illustration for some of you before, but a guy goes out with a girl and he says, She says to him, dear, why do you love me? And he says, oh darling, of all the women that I've ever met, you are the most suitable for my purposes. Why are you all laughing? I mean, he's met a lot of gals and he likes this one. Isn't that a rational statement? I mean, what's the matter with that? You don't think that would go over so well, huh? But she says, why do you love me? And then he says, oh dear, I love you because I love you. And she says, oh. There's a sheer tautology. He hasn't given her any new information at all. I love you because I love you. What kind of nonsense is that? I mean, it's sheer repetition, right? Well, even in our human relationships, we realize there's a certain sense in which you can't put anything above love. If you start saying I love you because of this or that, it somehow isn't quite as strong as I love you. Well, if it's true even in human relationships, then how much more true is it true in God's relationship to us? Because if God loved If God said I love you because you have more religious potential than any other people, that's very different from saying I love you because I love you. So, that's very important to understand. Because, see that's in the Psalms all the time. The Lord loves his people because he loves them. It's a grace. And they love him because he first loved them. And therefore, the fellowship between God and His people is one of love and longing and yearning and desiring one another. There is a love relationship between God and His people. In the 72nd Psalm and the 18th verse, we read that the doxology, where the name of God is blessed and praised. But this is the desire that runs through the Psalms. Look over in the 73rd Psalm, which is the one I wanted to call your attention to. Now, look at verse 23. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee, thou hast hold in my right hand, thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." You see how the psalmist cries out for God. He hungers and thirsts for the living God as the heart The deer cries out for the water brooks, heated in the chase. So the soul of the psalmist cries out for the living God. And then God's presence in the sanctuary. And here I just want to show you again, remind you again, of how much the presence of God is important to the psalmist. See, he yearns for the sanctuary because there's an address for God's presence. There's a place where he reveals himself. There's a place where God is made known. And why is the city of God so special to the psalmist? Why does he walk around the city and look at the battlements and count the towers and so on? Why is Mount Zion the greatest of all mountains in the earth? Not because it's the highest mountain. It isn't even as high as the Mount of Olives. You can stand on the mountains that circle Jerusalem and look down on Mount Zion. It's not a great mountain. Why then is Mount Zion so important? Why? Because it's the place where God dwells. It's the place where he's put his name. Why is the temple important? Because God is there. He reveals his presence there. The cloud of his glory was there. So everything focuses on God himself. And the wonderful thing about Old Testament worship is specifically that focus. Now, we were talking about the revelation of God in the history of redemption. We were looking at that earlier this morning. And there's an interesting kind of relationship here, because from one perspective, as you look at the history of Revelation, here's Abraham, for example. Well, Enoch, who walked with God, and he was not because God took him. close fellowship. Here's Abraham in close fellowship with God. And then as you go along, you know, there are more people get into the act. It's not just Abraham, but it's his family. And then you get a lot of a kind of dubious relationship. And then you go along and more people, more and more people come in. And then it gets more and more institutionalized. So, you think of this as being a high personal relationship in the days of, we'll say, Abraham. And then you go along here, and by the time you get to Moses, you begin to see a whole institutionalization, right? You get the tabernacle and the there's the cloud over the tabernacle but then there's also the priesthood that gets set up and the ceremonies and all that and then you go along and Israel comes into the land and then you get a whole political structure and you get the capital of Jerusalem and you get the all the land divided up into territories, and all the ordinances of the temple, and the ordinances of the historical structure, the political structure of Israel. And so, looked at one way, you could say, the history of redemption seems to be going down great. It starts with a personal intense fellowship and then you come down here into political Israel and everything has been politicized and it's institutionalized religion with cultists at a geographical center and Abraham could build an altar to God anywhere but you come to Israel and you can only have the altar at Jerusalem, one place, etc. So, you can build a picture like that easily, couldn't you? But then, look, you could also build another kind of picture. You could say, yes, in the days of Abraham, did he have the land yet? No. Could he count on God's being found at any one place? No. What did he long for? Why the time when the land would be given? What did he long for? The God who would reveal himself. What did he long for? Why, the explicit description of the covenant of God, the Ten Commandments and tablets of stone, Abraham would love to have had them, right? What did he long for? Why, the place where God would put his name, the tabernacle. What did he long for? When not only he would know the Lord, but when all his descendants would be, you know, he'd be a blessing, and you, all the families of the earth would be blessed. So he wouldn't be just one sojourner and pilgrim in the land of promise, who only owned enough land that he bought from the Hethites to bury his wife Sarah, but he would be the man who was now a blessing to the families of Israel, and through Israel to all the families of the earth. And so, here's Abraham building one little altar to praise God, but here at I should just tie in, well, the temple too. But here's Abraham offering one altar to praise God. But now, here are all the people of God assembled in Israel, praising the Lord, and calling on all the nations to praise Him. See? Praise Him, all you nations. Praise Him, all you peoples. There's no God like the God of Israel. Bless His name. You see, there's a testimony that goes out from Israel to all the ends of the earth, which is like a fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. So, you notice there's a kind of a chiastic structure here, that in a certain sense, the history of redemption proceeds by a greater degree of institutionalization. But the institutionalization also is a kind of concretization. making things more concrete, more definite. Sure, the altar is only in one place, but the fact that it's in one place is something to be glad about. God has an address, you can find them. You want to enter into the Lord's presence? You go right up His holy hill, and he that has clean hands and a pure heart, he can go up that hill, and there he can bow down and praise God. And so the psalmist yearns for the temple of the Lord, and he's glad that God has a place, and he'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of his God than to dwell in the tents of righteousness. I mean, the tents of... I got the wrong one there, but you know what I mean. He longs for the temple, he wants to be where God is. Okay. Now, so, what I'm getting at is that there's, in the Psalms, There's this strong sense of centering, coming into the city, and the wonderful city of God, Jerusalem, the praise of all the earth, you know. And the coming into the temple, because that's where God is, and glorify his name. And of course, David's psalms center on the temple often, even though it wasn't built yet. because he knows the wonder of the promise. So he's looking forward prophetically to the actual construction of the temple by his son Solomon, because that's the place where the nations can gather together to glorify the name of God. So there's interesting interplay here. from what looks like a more institutionalized form of worship, which also becomes more concrete and more specific. So, you can look at it as downgrade, but you can also look at it as upgrade. But, of course, you see what I'm getting at. In Jesus Christ, both. see, because Jesus meets the Samaritan woman by the well, and when she finds out he knows all about her past, you know, she says, well, you must be a prophet, but you're a Jew, and that's a problem. because our father said we were to worship God in this mountain. And you know, she's at Jacob's Well and Mount Gerizim, the slopes go right up from Jacob's Well, so that's the mountain right up there. And she says, our father said we should worship God in this mountain. And up on the top of Mount Gerizim, there's nothing but the remnant of a destroyed temple of the Samaritans. The Jews destroyed it. There's nothing but the wreckage up there. But it's still a holy place for the Samaritans. So she said, our father said we should worship God in this mountain. But you Jews say, you say, in Jerusalem is the place where God ought to be worshipped. Now, Jesus, which is it? And Jesus says, well, it's not this mountain, it's not Gerizim. Salvation is the Jews. So the Samaritans are wrong. The Jews are right. Salvation is the Jews. The holy place of God is at the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus cleansed that temple, didn't he? So, it's important. All right. But, what else did Jesus say? Did he say, well, Gerizim is not the place to worship. As a matter of fact, since God is spirit, There's no localization anymore at all. The whole localization movement was mistaken. Shouldn't think of God as being in any one place. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. He's a spirit. So of course he doesn't have an address. So of course you can worship God anywhere, anytime. Like on the first tee at 11 a.m. Sunday morning, where all the boys are, right? See, no address, no place, it's all free now. No localization. Is that what you've been saying? Some people look at it as though he were saying that. He does say God is the spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. But did you notice what he said in connection with that in Gospel of John there in the fourth chapter? He says, you worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews, verse 23, John 4, 23. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for such does the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is the spirit, and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Now, isn't it interesting that Jesus would say, the hour comes And now is. Now what, you know, if you're just going to say God is omnipresent, there wasn't a time when he began to be omnipresent. He was always omnipresent, right? So why is time so important? See, he says the Samaritans are wrong, the Jews are right, but a time has come. And according to the time, Verse 21, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Not Gerasim, you can understand that, but how in the world can Jesus say not Jerusalem? Was all this concreteness wrong? The localizing of the presence of God, was that wrong? No, Jesus doesn't say that was wrong at all. He just says, that was right, up to a time. But now, another time has come. And what brings in the other time? What's the hour that comes? Well, you know, in John's Gospel, what the hour is, it's the hour of Christ's death and resurrection. It's the hour of his doing what he came on earth to do. So what changes everything? Jesus changes everything. See? Jesus says if you knew who it was that asked you for a drink, you would have asked of him and he would have given you the drink of living water. See? Not the water, the dead water from the well, but the water that springs up unto life eternal. And what makes all the difference? Not crossing out the old. It isn't that. It isn't that Jesus destroys the old. No, no. It's that he fulfills it. See, it's that both aspects are fulfilled in him. The spirituality of worship. That God is a spirit. The freedom of worship in the Spirit. And who gives the Spirit? Jesus does. He tells a woman, if you'd known, you would have asked, and I would have given you the Spirit. See, the water is obviously the symbol of the Spirit. So worship in Spirit is worship when you've drunk of the water that comes not from the well, but from Jesus. And then, truth. Worship in truth. What's that? Worship in Jesus. He's the truth. So, the hour has come when Christ dies and when Christ rises from the dead. Does that mean then that this whole business of the psalmist rejoicing in the temple, being glad that he can enter into the courts of the Most High and so on, does that mean now that Jesus says, no longer Jerusalem, does that mean that there's no longer any focus of worship? That there's no longer any center of worship? No, it doesn't mean that at all. What it means is, Jesus is the focus. Jesus is the center. This is the Gospel of John, chapter 4. What did Jesus say in chapter 2? Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And what temple is he talking about? His body. How then can we worship God in truth, only if we worship Him and Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life? That's what John's Gospel is telling us. So yes, the Jews are right, the Samaritans are wrong, but the hour comes with Jesus' death and resurrection, when the geography won't make any difference anymore. There won't be a holy place anymore, because there's the Holy One. There's Jesus Christ, and He becomes the center of worship. And all the concretizing in the Psalms, and you'll notice in the outline there, I talk about centering of praise in the throne, in the city, in the temple. Maybe you could organize that better. Centering of praise in the city, centering of the praise in the temple, centering of praise in the throne. And then you ask, how is that praise centered? And you notice you have the answer in Psalm 2, Psalm 45, Psalm 72, Psalm 80, Psalm 110. Those Psalms that are so plainly and explicitly messianic, they tell us where the center is to be found. For the center is, after all, not the throne on which the king sits. The center is the king who sits on the throne. Why is Jerusalem the center? Because the Lord's presence is there. And who is the one in whom the Lord becomes present? Well, Jesus Christ. the true tabernacle, built not by man, not by human hands, but by God. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory. Glory is to the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We come to Him, we find Jesus, and He is the concrete center of our worship. See, worship is not devoid of center. Worship hasn't been made a diffuse mysticism with no focus. Worship is not just a kind of cloud of emotion or something. Worship is where God's revealed. That's where you worship because He's the one you worship. And of course he had to be worshipped in the tabernacle in the temple, because he provided that as a symbol of that place where he would be found. But who is the true temple? Jesus is. Where is the place that we worship now? Where Jesus is. So, you see, you know, it might be supposed that An emphasis on holy places would help us in celebrating the devotion of the Psalms. But that's not really so. Because you see, the Psalms point us in our devotion, ultimately, not to Jerusalem, not to the temple, but to the Lord. And when the Lord himself comes, and the Psalms promise that he's coming, giving you some references on that, that he's coming, and then the very trees of the field will all rejoice, and the little hills will skip like rams before the Lord, because he's coming. He's coming to judge the earth. And when He comes, then all the shadows are transcended, because then the reality has come. And so the book of Hebrews says, don't go back to the shadows. Don't go back to holy places on earth, because there's only one holy place now, and that's the heavenly holy place. And why is that the holy place? Because that's where Jesus is. Are there holy places on earth? Well, in a certain sense there are. Because wherever believers are gathered together, there Jesus is in the midst. And where he is, that's a holy place. But the place where they meet is completely indifferent. It's not the architecture that makes devotion. It's not stained glass windows that draw forth praise. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. That's really what this course is all about. It's the Lord. And that's what the Psalms are all about. And that's what preaching and teaching the Bible is all about. And there's always the thrust, the temptation to give worship some other center, to give it concreteness of some other kind. see, rather than keeping the Lord himself before people, preaching him and proclaiming him. See, that's what the Psalms are about. God is present in the sanctuary. He's coming in vindication, and when he comes, it will be in the Messiah. Who has clean hands and a pure heart that he can ascend into the hill of the Lord? Well, Jesus does. So our ascent had better be in him. And what sanctuary does he enter? Well, he enters the heavenly sanctuary. And where do we go when we worship Hebrews 12? We gather together with the vast assembly of all the saints and the angels. And where are they? In the heavenly sanctuary. In the harvest home festival of all the holy ones of God. And that's where Jesus is. And that's where there is the blood of sprinkling. That does not cry out like the blood of Abel for vengeance. The blood of Abel spilled on the ground crying for vengeance. but the blood of Jesus sprinkled on the mercy seat, crying for justification, crying for forgiveness. We come to Jesus and we come to the spirit of just men made perfect, we come to God. the living God who is the consuming fire. But we come to him through Jesus Christ without fear, oh with awe, with dread, but without terror, but with confidence, because Jesus is there. Well, that's the idea that the Bible has of the century that we have in Jesus Christ. And that's why the Psalms, as a covenant book, celebrating this covenant union with God, centering on the temple, centering on the concrete, centering on the specific, is also revealing to us the spiritual intimacy. You find both in the Psalms, don't you? You find the so-called institutional or specific or temple-centered worship, but you also find the realization of the living God being in his presence and hungry and thirsting for him. Abraham was a friend of God. David is a man after God's own heart. So there's the intimacy of fellowship and community. But both of these are being drawn together in the Psalms as they point us to Jesus Christ, in whom they have their final point of reference and point of focus and point of realization. Just look well at the Gospels. And what does Jesus talk about? Well, he talks about loving your enemies, he talks about the coming of the Kingdom of God, he talks about doing good rather than ill, and all that. But in all of that, what's he always saying? Take up your cross, follow me. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. I am the way, the truth, and the life. If you had believed Moses, you would believe me. Moses wrote of me. Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. See, Jesus is always presenting himself, because he's the one in whom the Father is revealed. Philip says, show me the Father. Well, Abraham had sought the presence of God. Moses had cried out, Lord, show me your glory, after the sin of the golden calf on the part of Israel, you know. Moses intervened and prayed for Israel. And then he said, oh Lord, don't leave us, don't leave us.