Praise the Lord. Praise, O 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 is 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 the princess of His people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord." This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Almighty and ever living God, we thank you that you have given us your word as instruction for our lives to give us direction as to how we should live and how we should walk. And Lord, we would plead with you tonight that you would speak by the power of your spirit as your word is preached. We ask that you would give us ears that would hear it and hearts that would receive it. O Lord, we plead for your mercy as we come to hear your word, that you would cause us to receive and to meditate upon your word, that as we prepare to come around the table of the Lord, that we might be refreshed by your word and by the sacrament. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and come and speak to us as your people. For we pray in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen. There are many occasions in life that call for much celebration. If you've been to a wedding or you've been to an anniversary or perhaps to a birthday party and there's much joy and excitement and happiness in those events, those are great times in the life of a family. But there's greater times in the life of the church when we consider those occasions for celebration and for joy. And here in Psalm 113, the psalmist calls us to reflect upon the joyous occasion of remembering what our glorious Redeemer has done for His people. Psalm 113 is the first of six Psalms, 113 through 118, which are called the Hallel Psalms or the Psalms of Praise. They are called the Psalms of Praise because they were used in Israel's time of celebration. They were particularly used at Passover and the other feast days in Israel. But particularly Psalm 113 was the psalm that Jesus and his disciples sung at the Last Supper, when Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And in Israel's history, these psalms were public psalms of praise that were to be sung in the temple. They were particularly connected with the Passover. And the Jews would sing them at their Passover celebration, recalling several things. They would recall Israel's exodus from Egypt. They would recall the parting of the Red Sea. And then they would recall the giving of the law. And in the temple, the Levites and the Israelites would sing these halal psalms in responsive readings. The Levites, or the leaders of the temple, would read, Praise ye the Lord. And the people would respond, Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. And they would read this and sing this in a responsive way. And as they did so, they were recalling God's works and God's ways in the life of Israel. And so these Hillel Psalms, or these great psalms of praise, were sung at these occasions. But particularly here in Psalm 113, as the psalmist gives praise to the Lord for His mercy, he recalls, more importantly, not what God has done in Israel alone, but what God has done through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because as Jesus at the Last Supper observed the Passover meal with his disciples, he turned that Old Testament type and symbol into the reality when he showed, by eating bread and drinking wine with them, that he was the one who had parted the Red Sea, that He is the One who delivers His people from the bondage of sin, that His suffering and death for His people would indeed become realized. And so this psalm does not simply celebrate the Passover of the Old Testament. but the Passover of the New Testament, when Jesus Christ, our Savior, offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin. And so as we consider this psalm, we consider that there are several things in this psalm that are important lessons for us to understand. First of all, tonight as we Learn of the praise of our glorious Redeemer. First of all, we learn here that the psalmist calls us to give praise to the Lord. He begins by saying, Praise ye the Lord. Praise Him, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Here we find that we are called to give praise to the Lord. In fact, It's twice repeated there in verse 1. Praise ye the Lord. Praise Him, O servants of the Lord. And here the psalmist calls us to give praise to God because He alone is worthy. He alone is to be exalted. We are to give Him praise and we are exhorted to give Him praise in the assembly of the saints. This is the highest work of the people of God, and that is to give praise corporately to the Lord our God. It is a high and holy calling. We are called to praise His name. The word Lord there, that is used in this particular psalm there in verse 1, he says, praise the name of the Lord, or praise the name of Jehovah. It is that Hebrew word which entails that God is our Creator, that God is our Covenant Maker, that God is the One who calls us to worship and to give Him praise. That He is the One who has redeemed His people from all of their sins. And so this hallelujah psalm, this psalm of praise is praise to Jehovah. For it is essential and it is necessary that we offer Him praise. We offer Him praise because He alone is God. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. All of His servants are called to give Him praise. All of His servants are bound to exalt His name. Those who've been delivered from the bondage of sin and death. Those who have seen Him part the Red Sea. Those who have seen the wonderful miracles of God in the history of Israel. And more importantly, as we see the work of God's grace in our lives, we are called to give Him praise. How can the people of God not give Him praise? If He has redeemed us, if He's delivered us from sin and from death, why would we not give Him praise? This is the highest devotion of the believer, is to pour out his soul in praise and exaltation to God. I'm afraid that even among Reformed people today, we have a very low view of the church. Because the church is the place where God gathers His covenant people, where He calls us to worship. And worship is a high and a holy function. Worship is commanded of us and is regulated by Scripture. But we are called to praise Him, for He reveals to us His character. He reveals to us who He is and what He has done for us. The name of God, the name of Jehovah, the name of our covenant-keeping and covenant-making God is worthy to be praised. As we consider the fact that He calls us to praise, He states there in verse 2, Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth, and forevermore. That His name is to be exalted from the rising of the sun to its setting. His name is to be exalted in all the nations of the earth. Verse 4 says that He is to be exalted, that His glory is above the heavens, and so all nations are to give Him praise. Now we understand that not every Nation and every tribe acknowledges Christ. And that's certainly true. But when you look at verse 4, it says the Lord is high above all nations. And there are other Psalms that speak of the fact that Christ is Lord of every nation. And that all the nations will come and worship Him. Some would believe that there's only certain Psalms that speak of Christ. But if we are careful to read all of the Psalms in the Psalter and reflect upon them, every Psalm speaks of Christ. It speaks of His worth and of His glory. And particularly there in Psalm 72, it says that Christ will have dominion over all the earth. That all the nations will come and acknowledge and worship Him. And before the second return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed. His name and His fame, as Psalm 72 reminds us, will go out to all the nations of the earth. Verse 17 of Psalm 72 says, His name shall endure for how long? Forever his name shall be continued as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and amen. And so the psalmist calls us to praise, to recognize the fact that God, as our covenant God, is high above all nations, and His glory is exalted above all the earth. But there's a second thing that we consider as we are called to give Him praise, and that is, to give praise to Jehovah for who He is. Who is our God? Who is this One that the psalmist calls us to speak about, to give praise to? Well, we are called to give praise to the God who is high above all nations. The nations in the Old Testament knew who the Lord God was. When Moses demonstrated the miracles of God before the nation of Egypt. And when he brought the plagues upon the nation of Egypt. At the very ends, Pharaoh and the people of Egypt knew that God was the King of heaven and earth. There is no God except our God, the Triune God, who is worthy of all praise. Last number of months, I've been thinking more and reading more on the great doctrine of the Trinity. It's ironic that something we suppose that is so essential and cardinal to the belief of the church is coming under attack even by reformed people. But when we see the psalmist talking about giving praise to God, he's not talking about the Father. He's talking about the Triune God. All of Scripture is filled with this understanding and this doctrine of the Trinity, that God is a Triune God, that He is worthy of all praise. And even for Israel, the God that they worshipped, The God who came in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy. And so we are to give praise to this triune God for who He is, because He is worthy. He is the God who is exalted above heaven and earth. And the psalmist asked the question, who is like? the Lord our God, who dwells on high. Who is like this One who has created all things out of nothing in the space of six days? Who is this One who has revealed Himself to Noah, to Moses, to Abraham, to all the prophets? Who is this One who has revealed Himself in all of creation? He is to be exalted. He is to be worshipped. For He is the God who has revealed Himself from heaven. He is the One who reveals His very character. He is the One who is called the Great I Am. Every line, first line of this psalm is repeated by the people. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. And then the psalmist ends there in verse 9 with, Praise ye the Lord. And so we are to remember our God. We are to give Him praise for who He is. For He is the God who has created all things. He is the one who has revealed Himself to us. He is the one who redeems His people. Now there's a third and final thing as we think upon this psalm, as we meditate upon it. And that is that we are to give praise to this God for what He has done for us. He is a sovereign God. He is a holy God. He is a righteous God. That is who He is. Our confession says that God is a spirit who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, his wisdom, his power, his justice, his goodness, and truth. But as we learn about who he is as he's revealed it in scripture, what does he do? What has he done for us? Well, the psalmist here shows us particularly their In verses 6 through the end of the passage, as the psalmist asked the question, who is like the Lord our God who dwells on high, who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth? Here we learn that our God humbles himself and condescends to his people. He comes, He who is highly exalted, condescends to us. He is such a great God that He would lower Himself to us to consider us in our lowest state. If you turn there in Luke's account of the gospel, there in chapter 1, there in the beautiful, magnificent, or the Song of Mary, As Mary, there in verse 46 of Luke chapter 1, Mary says these words, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, from this time forth all generations shall call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He hath given strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their seat. He has exalted them of low degree. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He sends away empty. He has helped His servant Israel in remembering His mercy, and He spoke to our fathers. to Abraham and to his seed forever. There in that wonderful song of Mary, she recalls what the Lord has done for her, that He has been gracious to her. But notice there in Luke 1.48, she says, He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden. For behold, from this time forth, all generations shall call me blessed. She recognized that God took pity upon her, that God took mercy upon her. And unless God takes pity or mercy upon us, we would be cast away. But Mary regards the fact that God himself humbled himself and condescended to her, that he raised her up and lifted her up. And so this great psalm calls us to remember the redemption of our God, how He has delivered us from the lowest depth. He has delivered us from the power of sin and death. And as the Creed reminds us, there in the Apostles' Creed, it says that Christ descended into hell, and the third day He rose again from the dead. Oftentimes people question, well what does that mean that Christ descended into hell? It means that He descended into our lives and delivered us from the power of hell, that He delivered us out of bondage, that Christ descended into our hell, that He took upon Himself the wrath of a holy God. And we need to understand as we give praise for what God has done, what He has done for us in Christ. Christ does not just die on the cross and excuse our sin or pardon our sin, but in His death, He took upon Himself the wrath of a holy God. He took upon Himself the wrath that you and I deserve. And in that taking of our wrath, He gives us a righteousness that we do not have. that Christ, in His death upon the cross, delivers us from hell, delivers us from the lowest depth, and raises us up and crowns us with glory and honor. Verses 7 through 9 speak of what He has done for fallen sinful creatures like us. Verse 7, he raises up the poor from the dust and lifts the needy out of the dunghill, that he might set him with princes, with the princes of his people. There's something significant there in verses 7 and 8, as we consider that Christ in His low condition, in His low estate, condescended to us that He might lift us who are poor, and He might lift us who are needy out of the dust, and that He might set us with kings and princes, that He might make His glory known among His people. And so when the psalmist speaks of the Lord God raising us up and setting us with princess, he's speaking of that passage that the Apostle Paul reminds us of in Philippians chapter 2, when he says, consider this, that he who was with God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the nature of a servant." And there in Philippians chapter 2, as the passage continues on, the Apostle Paul says that He who made himself of no reputation, Philippians 2, 7, took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man. He being found in fashion as a man humbled himself and became obedient to death. even death of the cross. Therefore God raised Him, and highly exalted Him, and gave Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Christ in His great act of humiliation condescends to us, that He might raise us up, that He might exalt us. But notice there in verse 7, as Paul speaks of Christ taking on the form of a servant, He who is the eternal Son of God, He who was always God, has now come and taken on human flesh. not just simply appears to be a man, but takes into himself a reasonable body and soul, that he might become a man, that he might humble himself and become obedient to death, even death upon the cross. But notice there, in verse 9, that as Christ is exalted to the highest place and given a name above every name, Here He not only speaks of Christ, He speaks of us. And we often miss that, particularly in Philippians chapter 2, that Christ by taking on the likeness of men and becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross, He takes our death, He takes our shame, He takes our sin, so that we might be exalted with Him. Because when Christ died, we died. When Christ was exalted, we are exalted. Because in His death and in His resurrection, all of His elect are united with Christ. And so we are united with Him and with one another. So therefore we are exalted, not that we share in the same divinity as Christ, not that we become divine, but that we as His people, as His citizens, are exalted together with Him. And so when the psalmist talks about raising us from the dust, He talks about lifting us out of that miry clay, as the psalmist says, and setting our feet upon the rock and giving us a song to sing, so that He might set us with princes, the princes of His people. And here verse 8 speaks of the fact that as Christ raises us up and unites us to Him, We are part of a royal family. As Peter says, we are a kingdom of priests. We are a holy nation, a people who belongs to God. So as kings and priests, we might reign with Him forever, that we might glorify and exalt His name. And then verse 9, another thing that he does, is he makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Here he speaks about the compassion of God, and here we have an allusion to the promises that were made to Abraham and Sarah. Remember when God gave promise to Abraham and to Sarah, Sarah was barren. And in that culture, to be a barren woman was to be a woman who was cut off, who had nothing. She had no children. And so for Sarah to be barren was a very difficult situation. And the Lord God said to her, you will have a son. And what was Sarah's response? She laughed. Lord, are you kidding? You know how old I am? I'm an old woman. There's no way I can have a child. But as God promised that through Sarah, He would bring forth a promised son, this barren woman, who had no possibility of children, now is with child. And it is that child of promise. Through the seed of Isaac and Jacob, God called his people. And the barren woman in scripture is always a picture of the one who is without hope. the one who is covered in shame and guilt. But here the psalmist says he makes the barren woman to keep house, to be a joyful mother. And so the picture is that the Lord takes a barren woman to be the mother of children, of all of the spiritual children that come from the promise of that one. Look in Isaiah chapter 54 for just a moment. Isaiah chapter 54 beautifully expresses this very thought. There in Isaiah chapter 54 in verse 1. Sing, O barren, the one who did not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud, those who did not prevail with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch forth the curtain of your habitations. Spare not Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, for you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left, and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not. For thou shall not be ashamed, neither shall you be confounded, for you shall not be put to shame, for you shall forget the shame of your youth and shall not remember the reproach of the widow anymore. For your maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall be called. For the Lord has called you as a woman forsaken. and grieved in spirit, a wife of youth, when you were refused, says the Lord." The passage there speaks of Israel as the barren woman, as the woman who is covered in shame, the woman who is grieved, the woman who is forsaken by God. Just like Sarah who felt forsaken and grieved, the Lord remembered His promise, His covenant. And here in this passage, the Lord remembers His covenant to His people, that He will not forgive them, that they will not be in shame forever. For the Lord will reconcile His covenant wife and her children. The Lord will comfort Zion with the promise of His redemption and of His grace. And we as God's people are never forsaken. We as God's people have been lifted up and seated with Christ in heavenly places, as Paul reminds us there in Ephesians chapter 2. And so as we think and meditate upon this psalm, we see God exalted in his majesty that the holy and sovereign God would even consider to stoop to our low estate and remember us in his mercy and would grant us his grace. when we consider that this God to whom we are called to give praise has lifted us up and delivered us from the depths of sin and despair. We are a people of hope. We are a people of joy. We are a people who can continually give praise to God, for who is like Him? Who does such wondrous and glorious things as our God? As we come to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper this evening, we remember particularly in this psalm that the Lord our God is reminding us of His covenant promises, that He is our God, that He is our Redeemer, that He is our Shepherd. that He is the One who comes to us, and He's given us these elements of bread and wine, not only to remind us of the sacrifice that He has made for us, but He's given us as a means of grace this sacrament, that we might be strengthened, that we might continue to be drawn closer to Him so that we might give praise to Him, Let us think upon this psalm. Let us meditate upon it as we consider His grace and His love for the unlovely, His love for those who are despised and ashamed. Jesus, our Savior and our King, indeed is not ashamed to call us His children, His people. And as we meditate upon this psalm, let us remember what the Lord our God has done for us. And let us give praise and honor and glory to him who is worthy of our praise and our adoration. Let us pray. Almighty and ever-living God, how can we fully give you praise for all of your mercies? As the psalmist says, we will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Indeed, O Lord God, you as the King and the God of the universe has condescended to us in our lowly estate that we might be exalted with you. We thank you that as we have heard this passage from Psalm 113, we ask that you would give us understanding, that you would open our minds and our hearts, that we might hear what the Spirit would say, and that you would remind us the glorious things that our Redeemer has done for us. And may we live to give you glory and praise, for we ask this in the name of Christ our Lord, amen. Let us sing there from Psalm 23, found on page 87. The Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want. Let us stand and sing together, hymn 87.