Everybody’s Fool (Psalm 14)

Only 8% of job applicants ever make it to the interview phase. On average, 118 people will apply for a given job these days. The pressure is compounded when you learn that 77% of recruiters will disqualify you as a candidate if they find a typo on your resume.

God isn’t hiring, but He does like to add people to His company. The problem is: None of us measure up. There’s no one good enough to be recruited. But, in God’s mind we’re all loved enough to be rescued.

The State of the Union, quarterly earnings calls, unemployment and inflation reports all evaluate what’s going on in a group and identify weaknesses and make projections. Psalm 14 is a sort of State Of The Human report for us. And, apparently the Lord really wants us to get this message, because this Psalm is published a second time almost word for word as Psalm 53. And Paul repeats much of it in his letter to the Romans. So, message received. This is the situation. This is the condition and position of man. And, it’s not a pretty picture.

Psalm 14:1 – For the choir director. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There’s no God.” They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good.

“Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist.” That line in The Princess Bride is immediately and hilariously followed by a Rodent Of Unusual Size absolutely smashing Westley out of frame and chewing him up for a bit.

Just because a person says it doesn’t make it so. What novel or symphony or knock-knock joke ever wrote itself? What painting ever simply materialized on a blank canvas? But, this Psalm isn’t just talking about smug, YouTube atheists who take pleasure in mocking the idea that God exists. This includes people who live as if there is no God, whether they philosophically believe a God exists or not. And that is a much larger group of people.

The truth is, most people will tell you that they believe a God exists. 74% of Americans by one recent count. But how many live as if God exists?

To either reject the idea that God exists or to live as if it doesn’t matter, David says, is foolish. He uses a particular word here: The Nabal says in his heart “there’s no God.” Of course, many of you know there was a man named Nabal during David’s time who embodied foolishness. He was selfish and senseless and shortsighted. His foolishness went beyond being the local curmudgeon. He was a danger to himself and to others. His foolishness caused harm to his family, his community. It ultimately put him into an early grave and no one was sorry to see him go.

This is true of every fool, to one degree or another. Rejecting God results in corruption and vile deeds. I’m sure we can all identify some fools we know if we think for a moment. But David would have us sing this song with a mirror in our hands. “There is no one who does good.” We’re all fools.

Now, that is a bold claim. But if we pause to consider, we find that it is a very true claim. Any time I go my own way instead of God’s way, I am living as if there is no God or as if God does not care about my life. I’m a fool. Of course, I don’t consider myself a Nabal, but let’s see what God thinks.

Psalm 14:2-3 – The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.

There are lots of stories where the good guys are trying to find that special person who will become the chosen one. Willy Wonka found Charlie. Mr. Benedict found the four, extraordinary children who would comprise his Mysterious Benedict Society. Men In Black found Will Smith.

God looks down on everyone – in that last phrase it’s as if He even checks the list twice – and His finding is: There is no one who does good, not even one. It’s a poor showing for team humanity.

One translation says, “All turn astray, altogether befouled.” It’s not just that we’re misunderstood or that we’re being misused on Team Humanity. Sin has ruined us. And we see it’s not just in a passive way, as if, “Well, sin has stained us and that looks pretty bad.” No, it’s much worse than that because we have turned away from God. We have departed. We have defected. We have withdrawn from God. We all have made the same choice that Adam and Eve made, only we make that choice again and again, day after day. We’ve become corrupt.

That’s the second time David has used that word. That’s bad news because, when the Lord looked down on the earth at Noah’s time, He said, “Mankind is totally corrupt, so I have to judge them.”

Every time the Lord assesses humanity, this is what happens. Tower of Babel. The days of Noah. During Ezekiel’s time. During Jesus’ first coming to earth. The story is always the same.

Well, then, if no one does good and if no one seeks God, then does that suggest that God only saves some and doesn’t save others? Or that, as some Christian traditions teach, “regeneration precedes faith?” That since we’re dead in sin we can’t exercise faith? That a person only seeks God because determines that they do?

No. The Bible reveals to us that without the intervention of grace, humanity will always stay in sin. But, God has graciously intervened. He reveals Himself in nature and in His Word. He calls to us. He puts eternity in our hearts and determines the time and place in which we live so that we might grope for Him and seek Him, and He frees our wills so that we have a genuine ability to do so.

But without His intervention, we have no hope. And without His transformation, we remain in our sinful foolishness. We need a new nature, a new mind, a new heart that acts in response to grace.

Psalm 14:4 – Will evildoers never understand? They consume my people as they consume bread; they do not call on the Lord.

When a person rejects God, when they refuse to follow Him, the only alternative is to do evil. That’s the clear claim of the first 4 verses. That evil metastasizes and produces oppression. Harming others becomes commonplace – like eating bread before the entrée arrives.

But wait! Out of nowhere there are suddenly two groups being talked about. Up to this point, everyone has been lumped together. No one is good. Everyone is foolish. Now we see there is a group of evildoers and then there is a group that the Lord identifies as His people.

How do I get in the group of God’s people? Call on the Lord. Psalm 91 is all about the people who are protected and cared for by God. In that Psalm, the Lord says:

Psalm 91:15 – 15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and give him honor.

On the flip side, when a person or a nation does not call on the Lord, the result is wrath.

Psalm 76:9 – Pour out your wrath [Lord] on the nations that don’t acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name.

So these are the groups. Those who call on the Lord are brought into His family, transformed from the inside out, given heavenly honor. And then there are those who won’t believe God or live as if God doesn’t matter. That keeps you in your sinful foolishness and makes you a slave of evil.

Sadly, evildoers can come from anywhere. Think of the time of David and Samuel. There were Philistines. Those were obvious evildoers from outside. Very clear enemies with an obvious agenda. But then there were the sons of Eli. They were priests and should’ve been spiritual guides, but instead they abused the people, and ripped them off, and defiled God’s house. Later there was Absalom, David’s own son. He betrayed his family and the Lord.

All of these enemies came from different places, but the fruit was always the same. They all tried to devour others for their own desires. They all oppressed the weak and thumbed their noses at God.

Paul would make a list of evildoers in 1 Corinthians 6 and then said, “And such were some of you.” The good news is: The corrupted can become consecrated. Fools can become faithful. We all start as Nabal, but we don’t have to stay that way. The Bible has a book totally dedicated to learning God’s wisdom. Proverbs 1 opens by saying, “Take these words and with them you will be instructed in righteousness.” And when we follow God’s revelation, when we respond to His call and call back to Him, we become His people and the Lord protects His people. He provides for them. He communes with them.

Psalm 14:5 – Then they will be filled with dread, for God is with those who are righteous.

The fools of the world often seem to have one up on the people of God. But there is a reckoning coming. A judgment is coming on all who reject God. And, when that day comes, they will be filled with dread. Why? Because, without God, they go into eternity alone. Separate. Abandoned.

One of the Old Testament prophets wrote, “[The Lord] will chase His enemies into darkness.” The foolish unbelievers are headed toward a dreadful end because they will not accept God’s invitation to be with Him.

Now, we who believe in God and live like it are headed not to the end but toward a glorious new beginning. It’s only possible because God has gifted us His righteousness. Notice, it says “God is with those who are righteous,” not “Those who are perfect.” We’re not perfect. We’ll be perfected, but here and now we still fall short. We still make mistakes. We still fail to live up to the wisdom of God. But, we are clothed in His robe of righteousness, and that makes all the difference.

What a good reminder that God is with us. He’s here now, watching your life. Directing your life. Let’s act like it.

Psalm 14:6 – You sinners frustrate the plans of the oppressed, but the Lord is his refuge.

An attack on God’s people is an attack on the Lord Himself because He is our Refuge. We are in Him.

What did Jesus say to Saul on the road to Damascus? “Why are you persecuting Me?”

You Christians here tonight, remind yourself that God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble. He is our Rock and stronghold. He is trustworthy and secure. We are invited to hide ourselves in Him and be sustained and satisfied by His grace. His ways are true. His Words are wisdom.

Why try to find security somewhere else? In life we face problems or we get scared or we get into trouble and our tendency is to look to some other human or some human system or use human ingenuity to outwit our trouble. But, if we understand Psalm 14, that’s just letting the inmates run the asylum and thinking things will be ok.

A “better” fool, or a lesser fool than the other fool is still a fool. We want to source the wisdom and insight and motivation and perspective we need for life from the Lord, our Refuge. That’s the climax of this song. Look at verse 7.

Psalm 14:7 – Oh, that Israel’s deliverance would come from Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

This is what we want. Not for a single problem to be solved but for all the foolishness of this life to be dealt with. That every enemy would be overcome, including the Nabal within our own hearts.

Our prayer can be: Lord, deliver me from Goliath, deliver me from Absalom, but also deliver me from myself. There’s a Nabal within, trying to take over, trying to coax me out of my Refuge. Lord, keep me close and save me from all these fools.

That phrase, “When the Lord restores the fortunes of His people” may say “brings back the captivity” in your version. Linguists argue over specifics, but literally the phrase is, that God would “turn the turning” of His people. What a beautiful picture this is – God bringing captives home. God, restoring the fortune of those who had lost everything. God turning and guiding and assisting us as we go His way.

At the end, the Psalm speaks to both Jacob and Israel. They’re the same people, of course, but on a devotional level there’s a wide difference between Jacob and Israel. Jacob was a scoundrel. Interestingly, one translation has verse 1 of this Psalm as, “The scoundrel says in his heart…”

If you were here for our Genesis studies we saw the life of Jacob and how he developed in understanding and faith in God. As God walked with him, he transformed him from scoundrel to servant. And so, we can join with this final verse and say, “Lord, deliver us! Turn our turnings. Turn us from scoundrels to servants. From fools to faithful. Bring us into Your company and transform our hearts and minds. Fashion us into wise doers of good and make us glad along the way.”

How Does He Love Me? Let Me Count The Ways.

In 1850, Elizabeth Barrett Browning published Sonnet 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. The poem was an exploration of the love she felt for her husband, Robert. Lizzie’s father did not approve, and so she and Bob not only courted but also married in secret. After the ceremony, they fled to Italy, where Elizabeth wrote her sonnets and the couple lived for 15 years.

Is Psalm 103, David writes a song that could be tilted How Do YOU Love ME? As the stanzas unfurl, we are reminded of the tender, unfailing, destiny-changing nature of God’s love for us. This is no love expressed in secret – it has been on display for thousands of years for all the world to see. It is His great desire that people know about His love. The world keeps turning because God wants to shower us with His love and draw others into relationship with Him.

Psalm 103:1 – Of David. My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

This song is directed inwardly. In it there are many Gospel truths and God is glorified – it’s very worshipful – but David’s message is to himself.

He speaks to his “soul.” If you’re like me, the soul seems like a ghostly thing. But in the Bible, the soul refers to your essential being. It’s your life, your mind, your will, your appetites, the things you yearn or thirst for. That which makes you you.

All of that, David says, should bless the Lord. Everything inside, all of my essence, every compartment of life. To bless means to praise, to kneel, to salute. David’s desire is that the entirety of his being would be oriented toward praising the Lord and loving Him.

Who are we to bless? It’s this Person Who loves us so well. Love has a name, and it’s Yahweh. We can personally know Him because He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Psalm 103:2 – My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget all his benefits.

Another way to read that last phrase is, “Do not ignore all His dealings.” Derek Kidner says it seems David needed to rouse himself out of some sort of apathy or gloom. The best way to do that is to remember Who God is and what He has done. Remember His accomplishments.

We’re prone to forget the Lord’s dealings. There are warnings of God’s people forgetting the Lord in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Hosea, 2 Peter, Hebrews, and Revelation. When we forget, we slide into discontent, discouragement, resentment, frustration, doubt. The Biblical antidote is to remember what God has done, how He deals with His people, and to remember the benefits of salvation.

Psalm 103:3-5 – He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from the Pit; he crowns you with faithful love and compassion. He satisfies you with good things; your youth is renewed like the eagle.

How does He love me? Let me count the ways: He forgives, He heals, He redeems, He crowns, He satisfies, He renews. What a list!

Now, someone might say, “Wait just a minute. I’m diseased. I’m old and tired. The promises here don’t ring true.” How are we to deal with a phrase like, “He heals all your diseases?”

First of all, we see that phrase paired with “He forgives all your iniquity.” Biblical poetry often uses a literary method called parallelism which connects one line with another. In this couplet, David would have us think about spiritual and moral disease in our hearts resulting from sin. God heals those diseases. He heals the inner man. He takes a killer like Saul and transforms him into a hero like Paul. Paul was cured of his hatred, his violence, his self-righteousness.

Of course – in the end – all our physical diseases will be healed. The effects of sin will be undone in the Kingdom. That counts! We want healing now, and that’s ok, but we most definitely will be healed in eternity.

We’re not surprised when an old Christian dies, right? None of us think, “Well, I’m a Christian, so I’ll never get old and die.” Neither should a Christian be surprised when our bodies get sick.

That’s not to say God doesn’t still heal today. He absolutely does. Just yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine from out of town. He told me that about a week ago doctors found a very scary lump in his wife. They prayed about it for a week. They went back to the doctor yesterday morning and the lump is just gone! That’s not a coincidence and it’s not because my friend has more spiritual power than someone else. God decided to heal in that situation.

But not every sickness is healed in the here and now. That same friend has a very difficult, chronic illness that has not been healed. But in the end, we will be raised incorruptible, unsick, full of glory and vigor. That’s what God will do for us. And there we’ll be crowned with love and compassion.

The Lord crowns us with His attributes. He is the King of love. He is compassionate. And that’s what we’re going to look like in the end. It makes sense that we should look more and more like that as we walk with Him. Christians are being conformed into this image.

Meanwhile, the Lord promises to satisfy us, not with worldly things, but with good things. “No one is good but God alone.” Satisfaction in the Christian life comes from Godliness.

Psalm 103:6-7 – The Lord executes acts of righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He revealed his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel.

God’s active love is applied personally, nationally, and globally. We’re told that He “executes acts of righteousness.” He performs it and advances it and manufactures it and accomplishes it. He is always right and always righteous.

People see suffering or injustice in the world and some react by saying, “How could a God love,” or “Why doesn’t God.” Those are hard questions, but those questions misunderstand the problem. God is always righteous. God is gracious even to the guilty. It is man who has fouled the earth.

Now God works tirelessly to save us from our own destruction. And He does not hide behind the scenes. He reveals and demonstrates His power and His truth. There He is, throughout all human history, accomplishing what He said He was going to do and telling us about it along the way.

People are intrigued with what billionaires do – the islands they buy, the places they go. The media always wants to know why did Elon Musk do this thing over here, or, what is Mark Zuckerberg building over there? They are enigmatic figures that we guess about.

We know Who God is. We know why God does things. He has revealed His ways and His deeds. We can go to the record right now and discover His plan, His principles, His character, His heart.

One of His righteous purposes is to execute justice for the oppressed. We want to be on His side of those issues. In the mid 1800s, there were some so-called Christians who tried to use the Bible to defend American slavery. What could be more unjust? I suppose those so-called Christians who try to defend abortion might take the cake.

God is a God of justice for the oppressed. He not only saves, He pours vengeance out on His enemies. He is keeping score and the score will be settled one day.

These references to justice in the Bible have propelled some churches into what is called the Social Gospel, where the focus ultimately shifts away from the spiritual onto the physical. The emphasis tends to become using human means and worldly structures to temporally benefit those who are oppressed or disadvantaged. Not all of those efforts are wrong, but what is wrong is pouring all of our activity into earthly programs, which will inevitably fail or become corrupted themselves.

Our hope can’t be in human programs, governmental systems, human leadership. I saw a flag outside a house the other day that said, “Jesus 2024: Our only hope.” That’s a good reminder of our spiritual reality. We should be as civically involved as the Lord leads us, we should seek to alleviate suffering, but the final answer isn’t a law or a leader or a poverty plan. It is God’s righteousness operating in many individual hearts that changes lives and exalts a nation.

Psalm 103:8-10 – The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever. 10 He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities.

God is so gracious, so faithful, so compassionate that even Israel is not abandoned by Him. God cannot and will not forsake Israel. Thank goodness, because we’re no more deserving of His mercy.

Back in Exodus, after the incident with the golden calf, the Lord came, dealt with that situation, and then identified Himself with the quote David uses here: Slow to anger. Abounding in love.

Late in Jeremiah, after all the pronouncements of judgment, God says, “No matter what, there is no way I would reject Israel.”

That doesn’t mean God doesn’t care about sin. Look at the history of Israel and the disciplines they endured. David would be the first one to tell you that sin has terrible consequences. But, in wrath God remembers mercy. Even when His anger must break out against sin, He is compassionate.

Kidner writes, “God, infinitely wronged, not only tempers [His] wrath, but tempers justice – though at what cost to Himself, only the New Testament would reveal.”

Our sin demands death and wrath. But God said, “I’ll pay the bill. I’ll send My own Son to die so that I don’t have to give these people what they deserve.” And even though we still go on sinning, He still relates to us in loving, merciful compassion.

Psalm 103:11-13 – 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithful love toward those who fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

David uses three pictures here: One spacial, one theoretical, one familial, all to illustrate the fact that God’s love for you cannot be bounded. You can’t hit the edge. There isn’t an end.

Scientists recently discovered a new galaxy that is “baffling” astronomers. According to current space science theories it shouldn’t be able to exist. That galaxy is 300 million light years away. To give you some perspective, the space shuttle Discovery traveled at 5 miles a second. It would take the Discovery more than 37,000 years to travel one light-year.

The Lord wants you to know His hesed love for you is greater than the span of galaxies. Hesed is a word we’re less familiar with than the New Testament agape, but it is just as important. God’s hesed is not a feelings-based love. This is a love based on covenant loyalty. It is kind and steadfast and gracious, and strong. It is a love that is constantly shown in action and faithfulness. Just as east can never meet west, God’s love for you cannot come to an end.

If you want to experience this love, there is a requirement: You must fear the Lord. David is going to say that three times in these verses. The Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

Psalm 103:14-16 – 14 For he knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field; 16 when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known.

We are nothing more than dust bunnies. Talk about a rags-to-riches story! Look at how frail, how fleeting a human life is in the grand scheme. And yet, we are the object of God’s special attention.

I’ve vacuumed up a lot of dust bunnies. I can’t say that I’ve ever felt any emotion for them. But look at the tenderness of God. Look at how mindful, how thoughtful, how caring He is toward us.

We would have no place unless God made a place for us, and that’s exactly what He’s done and is doing for us. The Lord has gone to prepare a place for His people – one that lasts forever.

Psalm 103:17-18 – 17 But from eternity to eternity the Lord’s faithful love is toward those who fear him, and his righteousness toward the grandchildren 18 of those who keep his covenant, who remember to observe his precepts.

David shows what it means to fear the Lord – it means to keep His covenant and to observe His precepts. To be in right relationship with this God Who loves so much requires that we understand Him and undertake what He commands. This is why we need to study the Bible. Emotional religiosity isn’t sufficient. It must be informed by the truth.

But we also should take to heart here that we will not be automatically spiritual, even if we study a lot. The Psalm opened with, “Don’t forget.” Here we see “those who remember to observe.” The Christian life is a conscious choice day-by-day, not just in the mind, but with all the soul. In heaven, we’ll be complete. We will have perfect free will. Obeying God will be then like breathing is now.

But on this side of eternity, it’s a walk that takes purposeful steps. In fact, the prophet Micah said, “Other people are following their gods, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God.”

Sadly, we tend to be faithless at times – to backslide or stop progressing or wander off the path. Praise God that when we are faithless He is still faithful. He keeps His covenant.

Psalm 103:19 – 19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

Yesterday I saw a video of the mayor of Chicago complaining at a press conference because of his low approval numbers and he essentially said, “You’re all expecting me to be mayor, but my kids have soccer games and I have other stuff to do in my personal life.”

God isn’t stressed out about His responsibilities. He’s not strained to His limits. He invites us to pile all our cares onto Him. He is the Almighty. He is absolutely in charge and His ways are the answer. If we want a better life, a better family, a better society, then we should recognize that Christ is King and His Kingdom will never end and then orient our lives accordingly.

Psalm 103:20-22 – 20 Bless the Lord, all his angels of great strength, who do his word, obedient to his command. 21 Bless the Lord, all his armies, his servants who do his will. 22 Bless the Lord, all his works in all the places where he rules. My soul, bless the Lord!

David the dust bunny commanded the angels to praise the Lord. It is an astonishing thing that we will judge the angels one day. That should humble us. That should inspire us to serve the Lord in heart, mind, and body right now. To conduct ourselves as His people in His purposes.

In all the places where God rules. I was thinking how remarkable it is: God rules everywhere, except one place: the human heart. He doesn’t not force us to open that territory to Him. Almighty God allows rebellion. He allows people to shut Him out for a time – not forever. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But for now, this wonderful Lord suffers long and He reveals Who He is, He reveals the power of His love and invites us to love Him in return.

Years before their marriage, Robert Browning had written a letter to Elizabeth Barrett. He had read some of her earlier poems and asked to meet her. She hesitated and resisted at first, but finally accepted the invitation. As a result, she discovered the great love of her life – her soul mate.

David took a look at these things and his response was, “My soul, bless the Lord!” Despite his earthly prominence, despite the mistakes he had made, despite the difficulties he faced, he realized the best thing he could do was receive God’s love and take his position in God’s Kingdom.

Psalm 116:12-13 – How can I repay the Lord for all the good he has done for me? 13 I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

24 Reasons Why (Psalm 147)

Entrepreneur shares one good reason to start a business. House Digest has a good reason for keeping only one kind of seed in your bird feeder. The Law Office Of Joel R. Spivak offers one good reason to file for bankruptcy during the holidays, and Simba tells Scar to give him one good reason he shouldn’t tear him apart.

Psalm 147 is all about reasons we should praise God. In each of its three stanzas, we are told to worship God, then given the reasons why. Not just one reason, but two dozen springing from God’s power and His goodness and His activity and His tender love for the people of earth.

We don’t know who wrote this Psalm or the historical setting, but it references the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of Israel. It may be from Nehemiah’s time, when God’s people endured a great deal of hardship and uncertainty, but they were also able to see the Lord move on their behalf and draw them back into closeness and communion with Him.

Psalm 147:1 – Hallelujah! How good it is to sing to our God, for praise is pleasant and lovely.

Praising God is not just about singing but it is about singing. In worship, we bring together our voices, our hearts, our spirits, our minds, our hope, and our faith to proclaim what is true about God. We mobilize melody for the glory of God – adorning the air with honor and awe. To praise means to be deeply thankful, to magnify and exalt Him, to express joy, to shout and brag and boast about Who God is. It can be done in the quiet of our hearts, but Psalms calls us to more – to actually make music together with our voices and with instruments and even our posture.

It’s a good thing to do – pleasant and lovely. One translation says: “It is good to hymn to our God…it is sweet to adorn with praise.” Not only is God worthy of praise, but worship is good for us, too. In worship, we fulfill our priestly duties. God is looking for worshippers. It is a good thing, a pleasant thing, a lovely thing. Matthew Henry called praising God, “work that is its own wages.”

Psalm 147:2 – The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem; he gathers Israel’s exiled people.

Jerusalem was a special city to the Lord, Israel His special people. So we ask: Why was Jerusalem destroyed? Why was Israel exiled? It was because the people turned away from God. They refused to listen to Him for hundreds of years. After many warnings, after generations of long-suffering mercy, judgment came and the people were taken to Babylon. Their defiant unfaithfulness brought that disaster. And yet, God was still faithful. God still loved them and He would not abandon His promises to them. So, 70 years later, He provided for Israel to be regathered and the city of Zion to be rebuilt.

You may not know Adrian Smith, but you probably know his work. He’s the architect behind some of the most famous buildings in the world, like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It is currently the world’s tallest building, featured prominently in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. The Burj Khalifa won’t be the tallest building for much longer. That title will go to Adrian Smith’s newest megatall skyscraper, the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, which will stand 3,281 feet tall, with 165 floors.

God is a builder. Psalm 147 pictures Him building Jerusalem. What does He build today? Well, He’s building a New Jerusalem, which His people will inhabit for all eternity. You can learn about its design and structure in Revelation 21. But God is also building His Church. If you’re a Christian, the New Testament explains that you are a living stone in His construction – carefully selected, shaped, and installed among other living stones for the best harmony and growth of the Body of Christ.

God still builds using exiles. The outcasts – those driven away by an unloving world, God receives with open arms and tender care. Look at verse 3.

Psalm 147:3 – He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.

A lot of shocking footage came out of the tragic fires on Maui this summer. The worst I saw was an injured or dying woman lying by the side of the road while cars drove past. In the video, a man in a car was filming while his fellow passengers said “Just go – we can’t do nothing for her.”

There’s no footage of another woman’s experience. Flames were closing in on Lani Williams and her mother. Their only hope was to climb a seawall and wade out into the waves. But the wall was too high. Time was running out. Then a stranger appeared out of the smoke and carried the ladies over the seawall to safety. He told them, “Trust me…put your weight on me…I promise I got you.”

God loves you. He sees your hurts. He knows your wounds. Others may pass by, but He leans down to bear your burdens with His own strength. He has come to save and to rescue the broken.

One day, Jesus entered a synagogue in His home town. He opened the scroll of Isaiah and read Isaiah 61:1. “The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners.” Then He said, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”

Jesus is the Great Physician. He is the Healer, sent from heaven to bind up our wounds and heal our broken hearts. He offers you salvation, liberty, spiritual healing.

Psalm 147:4 – He counts the number of the stars; he gives names to all of them.

Scientists say there are 100 billion stars in a typical galaxy and that there are 2 trillion or so galaxies. One million earths could fit inside of our sun and five billion of our suns could fit inside the largest known star.

We are awestruck at the power of God. With a word He created these 200 billion trillion stars. He names each one and holds their atoms together. At the same time, this verse shows how great God’s care is for you. The stars were not made in His image – you were. The stars are not the special object of His attention – you are. In fact, the Bible uses the stars, all 200 billion trillion of them, as a reference for the work the Lord wants to do in your life and a marker of His love for you.

You were handcrafted by God in your mother’s womb. You are known and loved by Him. He has a special name for you. He’s numbered the hairs on your head and saves your tears in His bottle. He created the universe, vast as it is, so you might be His friend, a child in His family.

Psalm 147:5 – Our Lord is great, vast in power; his understanding is infinite.

We marvel at the skill of great athletes. I’m sure some of you have strong opinions about who the greatest to ever play your sport of choice is. We can’t help but praise their excellence. The Lord holds the cosmos together. His strength, His wisdom, His goodness cannot be measured. It’s marvelous!

Psalm 147:6 – The Lord helps the oppressed but brings the wicked to the ground.

“God helps those who help themselves” is a phrase made famous by Benjamin Franklin. The saying can be traced back as far as Sophocles in 409 B.C. But Poor Richard and the Greeks were wrong. The truth is, God helps those who cannot help themselves.

The term used for ‘help’ can mean “bind,” or “surround with ropes.” How does that help? In Hosea, the Lord tell us He binds us with ropes of love, easing our burdens, taking us by the hand. The Lord’s ropes are never meant to imprison, but to relieve and sustain – to hold us together.

But, not everyone receives this help. Psalms is very clear that there are two paths leading to two destinations: The Lord’s way, leading to life and the way of the wicked, leading to destruction.

As we look at the world, it’s easy to feel like evil people are always high above, ahead of the rest of us. But God will bring them down. He will sink their ship. The day is coming when the wrath of God will consume the wicked. Those who are not walking with God should look to the Lord for rescue from their inevitable destruction. He will save them if they will humble themselves.

Psalm 147:7 – Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; play the lyre to our God,

The “lyre” was a kinnor, which was a small harp, usually 10 strings, played with a pick. You can get a “Levite-made, Temple quality” kinnor, handcrafted in Jerusalem, carved from Israeli olivewood, inlaid with the jewels of the 12 tribes of Israel. It’ll only set you back $9,700 (plus $320 shipping).

The Psalms last mentioned lyres in chapter 137 when the exiles “hung up their lyres in the poplar trees.” Instead of worship in the Temple there was weeping in Babylon. But the Lord brings beauty from ashes. He gave His people chance to sing to Him again, to worship with their lyres.

There are Christians who say that it is wrong to use instruments in church worship. The argument is that we have no specific examples or prescriptions in the New Testament to use instruments, therefore it’s unbiblical to use them. Ephesians 5:19 is cited as proof: “speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord.”

Here’s a quote from a Church of Christ pastor: “It is clear that there is no authority from God for the church to worship with a mechanical instrument of music.”

This isn’t an essential issue to us, but I will say: The Psalms are quoted dozens of times in the New Testament and, in Ephesians and Colossians, we are commanded to use the Psalms in the exercise of our Christian faith and in our church life. The Psalms were set to music, using instruments from every section of the orchestra. Not everyone plays a mechanical instrument, but we all have an instrument – our voice – and those who do play an instrument can do so to the glory of God.

Psalm 147:8-9 – who covers the sky with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, and causes grass to grow on the hills. He provides the animals with their food, and the young ravens what they cry for.

The Lord is a tender God. His care is thorough and comprehensive. One commentator points out how humans wouldn’t cultivate up on the hills, so the Lord takes it on Himself to make food for animals there. Of course, ravens don’t eat grass, so the Lord has to address their needs in a different way. But the Lord has it covered. He cares even for young ravens.

But you sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, “you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Psalm 147:10 – 10 He is not impressed by the strength of a horse; he does not value the power of a warrior.

We are impressed with horses. We still measure a car’s engine by horsepower. Man is infatuated with strength and physique. But God is not interested in those things. What is He interested in?

Psalm 147:11 – 11 The Lord values those who fear him, those who put their hope in his faithful love.

Fearing God is explained in the second line of this verse. It means to put our hope in His faithful love. Deuteronomy 10 says: “fear the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.”

We’re invited to put our hope in God’s hesed. That’s a special term for God’s love in the Old Testament. It speaks of His merciful, compassionate, covenant love that is freely given. God values the people who accept this covenant love.

People value strange things. I found a list of odd collections. Graham Baker takes the cake with the Guinness World Record for largest collection of belly button lint. After 30 years, he has 22 grams.

God values you. He values people who accept His hesed love and love Him in return.

Psalm 147:12 – 12 Exalt the Lord, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion!

Verse 12 turns personal: Exalt your God, Zion. You’re here, listening to this song. Is this God, so great, so good, so loving – is He your God? Do you know Him? Have you pledged yourself to Him? Have you become a citizen in His Kingdom? To be a citizen of Zion meant you were part of God’s covenant. As Christians, we, too, are members of a covenant – the new covenant brought by the blood of Jesus. We are His and He is ours.

Psalm 147:13-14 – 13 For he strengthens the bars of your city gates and blesses your children within you. 14 He endows your territory with prosperity; he satisfies you with the finest wheat.

God’s activity causes us not just to survive, but to thrive. We see pictured here civic life, family life, personal need, communal protection. Agriculture and economy and generations.

The rescued exiles would still face difficulties and enemies. They would still have needs and hardships. The Lord promised to look after them and to endow them with shalom. That’s the word that comes to us as “prosperity” there in verse 14. Your version may say “makes peace.”

God does not promise New Testament Christians that they will always be healthy and wealthy in a life of ease. But He does promise shalom from the Prince of Peace. Scholars call shalom “one of the most important theological words in the Old Testament,” and define it as “completeness, wholeness, harmony, fulfillment. That is what God wants to grow in your life. Strength and peace and satisfaction rooted in Christ Jesus, Who cares for you day by day.

Psalm 147:15 – 15 He sends his command throughout the earth; his word runs swiftly.

The Word of God is powerful. It can penetrate to the deepest part of a human heart or the furthest corner of space. It is a light for our feet and works healings among the broken. The swiftness gives us the impression of a God Who is eager to accomplish His gracious purposes on the earth. And now we Christians are enlisted to be a part of the spread of the Word of God throughout the earth.

Psalm 147:16-18 – 16 He spreads snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes; 17 he throws his hailstones like crumbs. Who can withstand his cold? 18 He sends his word and melts them; he unleashes his winds, and the water flows.

I read that some ancients referred to snow as “wooly water.” We see here a God Who is continually active in the affairs of the world. He didn’t “set it and forget it.”

Though His power is astounding, notice how He uses it at the end of verse 18: Water flows. His desire is to sustain. God wants to take your life and make it like a tree planted by rivers of water. He said to the woman at the well, “If you knew Who I was, you’d ask and I would give you living water.”

Psalm 147:19-20 – 19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and judgments to Israel. 20 He has not done this for every nation; they do not know his judgments. Hallelujah!

This great and active God has a special relationship with certain people. It was Israel He set apart to be His special possession among the nations. And now, we Christians have been grafted into the work. God revealed His Word and His judgments to His people. In the Bible, God’s “judgments” include all the functions of government. It means His justice, His manners and customs, His ordinances. We are not only recipients of this revelation, we are also custodians of it. We are sent to spread the word, to herald what has been revealed.

The other nations of the world, the unbelievers around us, do not know these truths. Rather than resent them for it, we should reveal to them what has been revealed to us: The living Word of God – the truth of Who God is and what He does.

Why did God call out the family of Abraham as a special group? So they could be a blessing to all the nations of the world. And now we are included in that opportunity to be light in the dark, heralds of good news in a world full of suffering and hate.

There are a lot of good reasons to praise the Lord. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Our God is great and worthy of praise. This song which fills our mind with snow and seasons and satisfaction and stars and salvation only begins to count the reasons why we can praise our God.

But one good reason is reason enough, and we have dozens. Thousands! Day after day we can learn more of God’s graciousness, kindness, power, and love as we walk with Him and filled full with His everlasting life. And day after day we have more reason and more opportunity to praise the Lord.

These Are God’s Days Of Our Lives (Psalm 90)

If you live to be 80 years old, that’s 29,200 days. More than 9,500 of those days will be spent sleeping. Between red lights, the doctor’s office, checkout at the store, and getting YouTube to load, upwards of 1,800 of your days will be spent waiting. If you’re 20, 7,300 of your days are gone. If you’re 40, you’re past 14,000.

The internet provides many lists of how to make every day count. The suggestions are mostly self-centered. Make time for yourself, exercise, learn something new. One said what you really need to do is “make a vision board.”

Of all the articles I scanned, two were sensible enough to acknowledge that our lives are going to end one day. One put it bluntly: “Every second you’re alive, you’re a second closer to death.” So their advice is: Do what makes you happy! I found it ironic that the most recent article published on that same site was titled: “7 Tips For How To Negotiate Credit Card Debt.”

Psalm 90 has a blunt message for us: Life is short and we have immense debt in our account. But that’s not the whole message. Yes, we’re going to die – in fact, you’re dying now – but each and every one of us can have a life full of joy and purpose, a life that counts.

Most of those “How to make every day count” lists pretend we can just ignore the obstacles of life. One said, “Stop spending time with people who don’t make you happy.” Luckily, the author of this Psalm didn’t follow that advice. We read above verse one that Psalm 90 is:

Psalm 90:SuperScript – A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

Moses was a songwriter, but this is the only one found in Psalms. This makes Psalm 90 the oldest in the book, as far as we know. The title calls him “the man of God.” Exodus 33 tells us that the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face, like a man speaks with his friend. But, that doesn’t mean Moses was perfect – far from it. He was a “man of God” because he had faith and walked with the Lord.

Psalm 90:1 – Lord, you have been our refuge in every generation.

We don’t know the specific circumstances, but Moses was facing a time of hard realities – maybe the death of members of his family. But, as we embark on this trip through some difficult verses, Moses wants to remind us of this truth: God is a refuge. He is a place of shelter and protection and provision. It’s the term used for an animal’s den. God does not limit access to a person or two. The door is open wide to anyone who will trust Him and depend on Him. The Psalms are full of this idea: Anyone can take refuge in the Lord and He will not turn you out.

In Moses’ day, the Lord was literally their shelter. As they wandered the wilderness, the Lord’s glory went with them as a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, giving light and protection.

That doesn’t mean God’s people had no problems. These Israelites faced the attacking Egyptians and Amalekites. They endured hard years in a harsh desert, sometimes short on water. They dealt with temptation and interpersonal conflict. But the Lord was still their refuge.

Whatever state you’re in, whatever generation you belong to, God is a refuge. He invites you to make your home in Him and open up your heart so He can dwell in you.

Psalm 90:2 – Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God.

Moses is contrasting the vast greatness of God with our own finite weakness. We are a moment, God is eternal. We can barely keep our potted plants alive. Meanwhile God created the universe. He hung the stars in their place. He breathes life into every living creature. Just 4,000 people have climbed Mount Everest. With a word, the Lord formed it and Olympus Mons – a mountain on Mars that makes Everest look like a little foothill.

Why did God give birth to the world? So that there would be a place for you to live. So He could love you, have a personal relationship with you. That’s the reason creation exists. In Ephesians 1, Paul explains that, before time began, God called you by name, made plans for your life, decided to adopt you into His forever family if you’re willing to put your faith in Him.

Psalm 90:3 – You return mankind to the dust, saying, “Return, descendants of Adam.”

God had this plan, He constructed a universe so that He could commune with human beings. He created man and woman immortal. What happened? Adam happened.

Death and sorrow and suffering were not part of the plan. But Adam and Eve, knowing their options, chose to go their own way. They chose to reject what God had said and did the one thing He asked them not to do, even though they were told doing so would bring death into the cosmos.

They immediately discovered that God wasn’t lying. He wasn’t exaggerating. He wasn’t bluffing. Death flooded into creation. That’s why we are so fragile. That’s why every one of us is dying here today. That’s why we need a refuge: A predator is coming after us and we are helpless against it.

Psalm 90:4 – For in your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that passes by, like a few hours of the night.

We’re fond of saying that, with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. We do so because that’s what Peter says, quoting this verse. Moses goes further and says, with God, a thousand years are like 4 hours of the night. The Israelites divided sunset to sunrise into three four-hour blocks.

Isaiah gives us another comparison between God and humanity. He says in chapter 40 that all the nations of the earth are like a drop of water in a bucket or a speck of dust on a scale.

That’s not to say God doesn’t keep track of time. He does. In eternity we know at least months will be counted. And it doesn’t mean God doesn’t care about the nations – He does. He cares so much about you that He was willing to send His One and only Son to die in your place. He cares so much that He continually spends His time intervening in human history on our behalf. Moses’ point is that God is beyond comparison. There is none so great, none so powerful the God of the Bible.

Psalm 90:5-6 – You end their lives; they sleep. They are like grass that grows in the morning—in the morning it sprouts and grows; by evening it withers and dries up.

God is in charge of the beginning and end of a life. The Bible explains that He fashioned us in our mother’s womb and that He gives life to all things. Psalm 31 says, “[Our] times are in Your hands.”

That doesn’t mean that if someone is murdered God caused it. The Bible reveals that God’s providential dealings with men has some wiggle room. Sometimes lives are cut short of what the Lord intended. The Israelites in the wilderness are a great example. God wanted them to go into the promised land, they said no, so the Lord said, “Alright. All of you are going to die in the next 40 years.” In the church at Corinth there were Christians who were sinning in such a way that God decided to strike them with fatal illnesses, bringing them home to heaven earlier than would’ve happened if they hadn’t been sinning.

But, if you are alive this morning, it’s not an accident or an afterthought. God has some plan, some intention, some direction for you. Because you are His masterpiece, meant to display His glory not only to this world, but to the unseen cosmos filled with supernatural beings.

Moses says we’re like grass. Grass is a weak and fragile thing. It it helpless against a hot sun, a heavy boot, or a hungry cow. From heaven’s perspective, the strongest man is just a blade of grass.

This image isn’t just about our weakness. It uncovers the incredible kindness and generosity of God, Who does so much for creatures who are so weak.

We’ve all seen the stereotype of the neighbor who is so obsessed with his lawn that he cuts it by hand with scissors. Now consider that you are like a blade of grass. Yet the Lord loves you individually. He planted you specifically. He tends to your life. He pours out all He has on your behalf, sparing not even His own Son, but giving Him up for you – a blade of grass. A wisp of vapor.

Psalm 90:7-8 – For we are consumed by your anger; we are terrified by your wrath. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

This is the why of our weakness. It’s sin that has ruined things. It brings wrath. Moses knew about hidden sins coming to light. His secret murder had been exposed – his secret family failures, too.

If God is so powerful, if His plan is to rescue anyway, why not just let it slide? The same reason why you don’t let it slide if there’s a big stain on the front of your shirt. The same reason why we watch lawlessness play out on our television screens and we feel anger. The same reason why, if you had absolute power, you’d make some changes to this world, wouldn’t you? George Costanza once said if he were running for office, he would seek the death penalty for double parkers!

My first apartment had a little grass just outside the front door. Periodically, one of my neighbors would dump their used up fry oil right there on the grass in a stinking, putrid puddle. It killed the grass and greeted me with its stench whenever I came home. I would’ve liked that to not happen.

God is absolutely holy. Sin is absolutely rancid. It is the worst stain, the worst rot, the worst lawlessness, the worst rebellion against a perfect God. God cannot overlook sin or pretend it isn’t what it is or sweep it under a rug somewhere. If He did, He would not be just, He would not be righteous, He would not be good, He would not be holy.

The truth is, we want God to overlook some sin but not others. We want Him to let our guilt slide. But those other people? Hang them high! But all sin is sin. And God hates it.

One reason He hates it is because it separates us from Him. His great desire is to commune with you – for our hearts to be joined with His. Adam and Eve sinned and immediately they hid from God. Now, for thousands of years Emmanuel, God with us, has been working to repair that breach.

Psalm 90:9-10 – For all our days ebb away under your wrath; we end our years like a sigh. 10 Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow; indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.

Life expectancy in California is 79 years. For those of you seeking an escape to Tennessee, beware: You may have to trade a few years. Life expectancy there is just 73.

Moses is speaking generally here. He himself lived to be 120. So call it 100. Make it a thousand. Compared to eternity, it’s a few passing moments. Meanwhile, human life is hard, even when it’s easy! Moses knew what he was talking about. He knew life in the palace, life as a powerful leader. He knew the quiet life of pasturing flocks. We’ll find ways to struggle no matter where we live. No one escapes the difficulties of life when it comes to worry, regret, mistake, sorrow, pain, disappointment. It all points to the reality that we’re in trouble and need a rescue.

Psalm 90:11-12 – 11 Who understands the power of your anger? Your wrath matches the fear that is due you. 12 Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.

We deserve wrath, but suddenly Moses pivots and reveals there is a way out. God has a remedy. He is always ready to rescue. He gave Adam and Eve a substitute. He brought His people out of Egypt. He saw them through the wilderness. He defeated the giants that came against them. He brought down the nations that surround them. He always provides a way out.

If you want to escape wrath, the way is simple: The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

Moses asks the Lord to teach us to number our days that we may develop wisdom. This isn’t about getting smarter. Wisdom means seeing things as God sees them. It means applying His truth to our life. In context, it means to recognize that God has numbered our days and so we should number them, too – to make them count not for what I think will make me happy, but to make them count toward those intentions God designed for my life before the world was even created.

How can we number our days? In part, it’s important for us to take the theme of this Psalm to heart. Life is short. Eternity is coming. Short timers make decisions purposefully, don’t they? If you are at Disneyland and you have 30 minutes till the park closes, it impacts your decision making.

So, how can we number our days? That’s something the Lord has to teach you to do. It’s not just, “Oh well then we all have to work ‘round the clock and never stop.” After all, God doesn’t just intend labor for your life, He also intends rest. I need God to teach me what He wants for my day today. This is the day God has made and I have a particular place in it that He wants me to discover.

God plans to develop this wisdom in our lives. It’s not an instant acquisition. It a process of growth as we walk with Him. But there’s another layer that we can apply in light of the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians we read that Jesus Christ “became wisdom from God for us.” So, developing wisdom means growing in our knowledge of Jesus, becoming more conformed into His image. God’s plan is for Christ to fill our hearts with His grace and power and truth and compassion.

God’s wisdom, in Christ, is the most valuable thing we could devote our lives to. It’s more valuable than gold or rubies or even cryptocurrency!

Psalm 90:13 – 13 Lord—how long? Turn and have compassion on your servants.

It’s interesting for Moses to say “how long” here. After all, he just said a thousand years was like a few hours to God. But, from our perspective, it is long when we’re struggling. Moses shows us it’s ok to pray this way. We don’t have to pretend we aren’t downhearted. God is mindful of your suffering. And He is a God of active mercy – a God of tender compassion – Who can be counted on.

Your version may have Moses asking God to “return” to us, but the Lord hasn’t left. He will never leave us or forsake us. Moses is comparing again. As we are turning back to dust in verse 3, we see God turning to us in grace and compassion. While sin ruins, the Lord redeems.

Psalm 90:14-15 – 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days. 15 Make us rejoice for as many days as you have humbled us, for as many years as we have seen adversity.

Moses calls on God’s faithful love – His hesed. This is an active, loyal love, where a stronger party takes it upon himself to help a weaker party because he loves them and cares for them.

Moses asks the Lord to fill up the lives of His people. Filled with all the fullness of God, where our lives overflow with an abundance of joy and contentment and worship and purpose and strength. This is what God wants. Jesus said He came that we may have life and have it in abundance.

In the end, God will not give us a one-for-one trade for our days of adversity. He’s going to give His people a trillion-to-one reward. Though our present sufferings are real, by looking into eternity we can remind ourselves that, “our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” And we can rejoice along the way.

Psalm 90:16 – 16 Let your work be seen by your servants, and your splendor by their children.

Moses didn’t only ask for eternal relief, he’s asking for God’s intervention right here, right now. And his prayer is that God would work in such a way that a magnificent testimony would shine through our lives as a proof of God’s powerful splendor.

As we walk with God, even in adversity, He works in our lives so that our families and friends and the world around us can see our joy, see how we’re invigorated to praise the Lord, so they might come to the conclusion that God is real and He is good and His is with His people.

Psalm 90:17 – 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands—establish the work of our hands!

What an ending compared to how the song started off! Your version may say let the beauty of the Lord be on us. The term can also mean goodness or kindness.

When Moses refers to the work of our hands, he doesn’t just mean the job we do. He’s talking about our response to what God has done. The term can also mean “workmanship.” It reminds us that we are God’s workmanship – His masterpiece – and we are able to participate with Him in that everlasting, cosmic work. And so the prayer is not, “Lord, give us an extra 100,000 days on this earth,” it’s, “Lord, who am I that You are mindful of me? Lord, involve yourself in the days I have left. Show me how to be in step with what you have planned for my life.”

Gene Simmons is quoted as saying, “Life is too short to have anything but delusional notions about yourself.” That’s a real good way to waste your life.

Before time began the Lord determined to create you and to portion out your days. David said that if we could count how many thoughts God has for you, individually, it would outnumber the grains of sand on the beach. There’s no need for you to have delusional notions about yourself. The Lord wants you to have supernatural notions about your life.

Psalm 90 reminds us that the clock is ticking. We are running to the end of time on this earth. But these expiring days of our lives can overflow with joy and have everlasting impact when we realize that the Lord has made this day, He has counted this day, and He has called each us from eternity past to walk with Him in it as partners in His good work. Today counts as we make our home in Him.

Musician Of Guilt (Psalm 51)

There are more than 250,000 murder cold cases in the United States. That number grows by about 6,000 every year.

In ancient Israel, a notable killing had gone unpunished. It wasn’t exactly a cold case – rumors had spread here and there. After all, the victim was one of the greatest warriors in the nation: Uriah the Hittite. He was famous and celebrated – a hero of the kingdom.

There had been no arrests, no civil suit, seemingly no investigation. But then a scene worthy of the old Columbo series unfolded. The king himself was publicly accused. At this point two unexpected things happened. First, the king did not deny the charges. He confessed to adultery and murder.

In May, a New Mexico man walked out of a store, borrowed a phone, and dialed 911 to confess to killing his landlord in 2008. “He told [police] he was tired of being overwhelmed by guilt.”

It’s surprising to have someone confess to murder – especially a king. But then a second surprising thing happened: The killer was not led off to be executed under the Law of Moses. Instead, he went to worship. Some time later, he wrote the song we just listened to. For thousands of years it has endured as one of his most famous, alongside Psalm 23 and 139.

It remains important not only because of its beauty and history – not only because it speaks to us of the overwhelming grace of God – but because we know that this is a prayer that God accepts. This gives a roadmap for how we untangle ourselves from the ruin of sin and experience the tenderness, the washing, the strengthening of God’s forgiveness.

We begin above verse 1 in what is called the superscript.

Psalm 51:Superscript – For the choir director. A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.

When David’s men went to war, he stayed behind. One day he saw Bathsheba bathing, had her brought to the palace, and slept with her. Notice, our text says, “After he – David – has gone to her.” It was his doing. He reached out to take what wasn’t his and began this disastrous series of events. Bathsheba got pregnant and David’s efforts to cover up what he did ultimately led him to have her husband Uriah (who was David’s close friend by the way), killed.

David is guilty of not one but two capital offenses. There was no sacrifice that could cover him, no fine he could pay. There was no jail for him to do his time. Death was what he deserved. He had no hope other than God’s grace, and he knew it.

In verse 1, he begins to sing and pray.

Psalm 51:1-2 – Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.

No bartering, no bravado. David throws himself on the mercy of the court of heaven and asks for the legal expunging of the record of what he had done.  This is a big ask. But David he knew the character of God. He believed God was a God of grace, of compassion, of mercy, and forgiveness toward the guilty. He knew about God’s unfailing love – that God wants to cleanse and forgive.

Psalm 51:3 – For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me.

Even though for a year it seemed like David got away with his sin, internally he was crumbling. He kept thinking about what he did over and over again.

What really woke him up, though, was when the prophet Nathan came – sent by God – to confront him. He told David directly, “You have sinned. You have treated the Lord with contempt.” That scene, so harsh and so unpleasant in the moment, was the best thing that could’ve happened to David. He needed to be confronted with his sin.

If you’re not a Christian here today or if you’re a Christian who is living in sin, or hiding some wicked thing you’ve done, the Holy Spirit wants to expose it. That sin is going to ruin your life and you need to turn from it and be embraced by the grace of God. We need to see sin the way David did, as a terrible, defiling thing, because it is! And the more we ignore it, the more it will destroy.

Psalm 51:4 – Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge.

This is a shocking thing to hear. “Against you alone?” How about Uriah and Bathsheba? How about their friends and extended family? How about the nation at large?

Now, this phrase can be translated “against you above all I have sinned” But remember: a king could do what he wanted. What did Nixon say? “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

When Israel demanded a king so they could be like the rest of the nations, Samuel told them, “You don’t want a king. He can take your sons and your daughters and your horses and your cattle. He can take your fields and vineyards, and your grain.” Kings in this era ruled with absolute authority.

But even an atheist would look at what David had done – killing a man and taking his wife – and say, “That’s not right.” Why? Because God does exist and He has a standard of morality. If there is no God, then what David did is fine because it’s exactly what all the other animals in nature do.

But there is a God and He has a standard for right and wrong. And it’s His standard, not ours. Our standards of good and evil, right and wrong, seem to fluctuate over time. They change with culture. But God’s standard does not. What is normal in the world’s sight may be evil in God’s sight.

Someone in Israel might hear about what David did and say, “Well, he is the king after all, and Uriah was just a Gentile.” But David recognized that, despite what anyone else thought or said, he had violated God’s morality. And he recognized that God the Judge was watching and evaluating.

So why then isn’t the Judge judging? It’s because while God is a Judge, He is also a Savior. He is full of mercy and His desire is that people be rescued from the penalty of their sin.

Psalm 51:5 – Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

David’s problem wasn’t just that he had committed murder, the problem was that he was a sinner through and through. In his Psalms, David loves to look into the human heart and get down to the core issues. And, at our core, we have a sin problem.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “A man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness.” David wants forgiveness not just for one mistake, but for everything. He knows that what he did with Bathsheba and Uriah was not some one-off, freak accident. It flowed from his nature. Now, not everyone will become a murderer, but all of us are killers at heart. Jesus explained that in Matthew 5.

From our human hearts flow evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander. David understood this and came to the conclusion that what he needed was a new heart, a new nature.

Psalm 51:6 – Surely you desire integrity in the inner self, and you teach me wisdom deep within.

We learn here that not only is God a Judge, not only is He a Savior, He is also a Teacher. He is chair of the Wisdom Department, where we are instructed in truth and Godliness and heaven’s way so that we can know how to abandon sin and walk in fullness of life.

I appreciate the focus on depth in this verse. A lot of our time is spent on surface-level problems, but we have deeper things going on that need fixing but they are things only God can fix.

Recently our kitchen sink was draining really slow. We did all the things: Hot water, then Drano, then Liquid Plumber. The the auger came out. I got that thing going and you feel it going around the turns in your pipes. I didn’t hit any big clogs, so I kept going deeper. Before I knew it, all 25 feet of the snake was in the pipe. I thought, “How deep is this clog?” I snaked a couple more times and did more Liquid Plumber and now I’m just waiting for that deep problem to present itself again.

God wants to solve the deep problems of our hearts and lives. His grace is enough for it. His wisdom is effective for it.

Psalm 51:7 – Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

David for legal cleansing and ceremonial cleansing. David wanted to be able to go into God’s presence to worship. For that to happen, he would need the purification of hyssop.

Hyssop was used to paint the doorposts during the first Passover. It was also used for the cleansing of lepers and to bring God’s people into covenant. David is saying, “I’m a leper who has broken covenant, I need a new Passover.”

While Jesus hung dying on the cross, some standing below dipped a branch of hyssop into sour wine and offered it to Him, mingling it with the blood pouring from His wounds.

We sinners need the cleansing supplied by the blood of an innocent substitute Who can wash us whiter than snow. Is there anything whiter than snow? There’s one thing: a human heart washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. It is made perfectly pure, free from any tarnish or defilement.

Psalm 51:8 – Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

It had been 9 months or a year since David’s scandalous behavior. He had involved multiple people bringing Bathsheba and in the plot to kill Uriah. Those palace walls were talking. Can you imagine the whispers in the corridors between the servants? No longer were the halls filled with praise and music – David wasn’t writing any new songs. Instead, there was shame and rumors.

David himself was aching within. Many scholars believe Psalm 32 is a companion to this one. In it, David describes the pain he was in, the weakness he felt, and how he was groaning all day long.

It’s interesting: David had “flexed” his kingly muscles – he saw a woman he wanted and took her. When his plan to cover up his adultery failed, he flexed again and had the husband killed. From the human perspective, it was a show of strength. “I can do whatever I want and no one can stop me.”

In actuality, this was the weakest David had ever been. With his relationship with God blockaded by sin, all his vitality drained away. He was crushed by his guilt.

Psalm 51:9-10 – Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt. 10 God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Not just a repair, not just a remodel. David wants a new heart. One crafted with heavenly materials. His prayer is that God would bring order into the chaos of David’s heart, meaning his mind, his will, even his intellect.

When God saves us He does not simply reroute us from hell to heaven. He begins a total transformation of who we are. His intention is to give us a new mind, a new heart, new desires, new perspectives, new attitudes, new words, new priorities, new reactions, all in line with His character.

Psalm 51:11 – 11 Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Christians feel weird about this verse. Is David suggesting that we can lose the Holy Spirit? The answer is no. Jesus was very clear on this point in John 6:37, where He said, “the one who comes to me I will never cast out.” Remember, we are members of a new covenant with the Lord.

David lived in a time where the Spirit’s anointing did seem to come and go, particularly when a believer fell into sin. David saw firsthand how this happened to King Saul before him.

While the Spirit will not be taken from Christians, we are told that we can grieve Him. We can stifle Him. And Paul indicated that we can become disqualified from God’s service when we fail to walk in self-control. So, like David, we should be concerned about our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 51:12 – 12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.

The term “willing” can also mean a “free” spirit. This is one of the great surprises of God’s plan. His desire is to free you, to give you total liberty, ultimately bringing you to heaven with a perfectly freed will but one that has no desire to sin. A will like Jesus’ own. So David is, in a sense, praying “on earth as it is in heaven. Make my heart now the way you want to make it in the end. Reprogram my desires to be totally in line with what You desire.”

David also asks that the joy he once felt. Do we have joy? It doesn’t mean our circumstances always make us happy. But joy is a supernatural power that can flow in any situation and it’s exceedingly important. Nehemiah 8 says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Psalm 16 says that in God’s presence is abundant joy. A lack of joy is an indication that something is laying siege to our relationship with the Lord.

Psalm 51:13 – 13 Then I will teach the rebellious your ways, and sinners will return to you.

God’s heart is always others oriented. So, if we have a heart that is after God’s heart, like David did, we will also be others oriented. David’s desire was to rescue others out of their guilt and shame.

Psalm 51:14 – 14 Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God—God of my salvation—and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

God is righteous. He would never do the kinds of things we do – stealing and lying and killing and cheating and all the rest. Meanwhile, we are totally unrighteous. But the Lord is willing to take away our guilt and wrap us up in His perfect righteousness no matter what we’ve done.

Psalm 51:15 – 15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

There was a 36 year gap between William Shatner’s debut album The Transformed Man and his follow up Has Been. I’m not sure anyone was too upset about having to wait. But, then again, Shatner is no one’s favorite musical artist.

David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, one of the most important songwriters of all time, wasn’t writing songs. He didn’t have writer’s block, he had sinner’s block. But now, as part of this saving work, the Lord would give him songs again. And we are all the richer for it.

Psalm 51:16 – 16 You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; you are not pleased with a burnt offering.

This is another eyebrow-raising verse. Isn’t there like a bunch of books about the importance of animal sacrifice in the Old Testament? Yes, but remember, David is speaking on a deeper level. He has a wider view and he knows that God doesn’t just want a religious transaction. This isn’t just, “I broke a window, so here’s some money and we’ll call it good.” There was no sacrifice for murder.

So what did God want?

Psalm 51:17 – 17 The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.

God wants you on the altar. He’s pleased when we surrender to Him in faith and obedience.

It’s interesting – the words for broken and humbled speak of smashing and crushing. David mentioned crushing before, up in verse 8. It seems we get to choose between crushed hearts or crushed bones. One dictionary says this about the humbled heart: “to be in a crushed state, or possibly actively to press on someone, implying destruction.” So we have the bones crushed under the destructive disease of sin or a heart pressed into the Lord, its stoniness destroyed and fused with the heart of God, in oneness with Him.

God will not despise a heart like that. To drive home that truth, you can read the incredible account of Ahab in 1 Kings 21. Ahab was the worst king of Israel. There was no one who devoted himself more to evil. But when the Lord brought a message of judgment, Ahab humbled himself. And the Lord said to Elijah: “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? I will not bring the disaster during his lifetime, because he has humbled himself before Me.” That’s how much God will not despise a humbled heart.

Psalm 51:18 – 18 In your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build the walls of Jerusalem.

When David was walking with God he always thought bigger than himself. He thought of the rest of God’s people, the ongoing work of God, the coming generations.

When he was captive to sin, David didn’t go out with his soldiers to fight. He didn’t care about Uriah or anyone else, only his own impulses and pleasures. But now we see how the fruit of repentance makes a person more like God.

How would Zion prosper?

Psalm 51:19 – 19 Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

They would proser in worship. David specifically highlights bulls, which draws our attention to the Feast Of Shelters, during which dozens of bulls were offered day-by-day. Shelters, which revealed how God’s desire is to tabernacle, to dwell with His people and that our Messiah is coming to tabernacle with us in His forever Kingdom.

God’s people prosper in His presence and with His presence in them, when they acknowledge their sin, turn from it, and allow the Lord tenderly transform them with His righteousness and grace. We are strongest when our hearts are crushed into His and our spirits made new, when we’re washed by His Word and walking in the newness of that life headed toward our final glory, totally new, totally free, totally surrendered and in harmony with God our Savior.

The Guilty Party (Psalm 32)

When someone is declared bankrupt many (but not all) of their debts are wiped out. But first their assets are liquidated and sent to creditors. Their accounts are left empty and their record is left with a mark that makes future business difficult or impossible. The Biblical bankruptcy process is much less punishing for the debtor. Paul explains in Colossians 2 that, for those who are saved:

Colossians 2:14 – [God has] erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

All the wrong things you’ve done in word, thought, or action count toward your spiritual debt. If you had 1,000 lifetimes of good works you wouldn’t come close to paying it off. But God offers you a full pardon and is willing to go into His own pocket to pay your debt. If you let Him, He will not leave you empty-handed. He will immediately fill your eternal accounts with more than you could ask or imagine and will make you His Friend for all eternity.

In Psalm 32, David tells us how he personally discovered God’s forgiveness – how he went through this spiritual bankruptcy process. He went in being crushed by the weight of his guilt. But then he received God’s forgiveness and came out stronger, more secure, and more joyful than ever before.

Psalm 32:Superscript – Of David. A Maskil.

As an author, David is worth listening to. Of course, he’s writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and that is reason enough. But as a writer, David speaks with the authority of experience and expertise. John Phillips points out that David is one of the greatest sages of Scripture, one of the greatest saints, and one of the greatest sovereigns. But he is also one of the greatest sinners.[1] So when he speaks about forgiveness and closeness with God, we should pay attention.

Psalm 32:1-2 – How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit!

From the start, David wants us to feel joy as we realize God has made His forgiveness available to any person who is willing to receive it. That is good news which should fill up our hearts with celebration. Right from the start of this book, in Psalm 1 we’re told about the eternal joy that God wants for people. The problem is, we’re unable to walk that road of righteousness on our own. We don’t qualify. We fall short of the standards of righteousness. But now David reveals that there is a way to attain that spiritual happiness thanks to the forgiveness of God. The message of the Psalms is that anyone can walk with the Lord, anyone can be forgiven no matter what they’ve done because He has made it possible.

In verses 1 and 2, David describes a spectrum of sin. Commentators note that he uses three terms for those wrong things we do. The first is transgression, which speaks to us of rebellion against God. The second is sin, which means falling short or missing the mark of perfection. The third is iniquity. This is a term that speaks of corruption and twistedness – acts of evil.[2] So we see David isn’t just talking about the worst of wickedness that men do. He’s talking about all of the wrong things. From basic imperfection to abject evil. It all applies and he says that all of it can be forgiven.

David also gives three different terms to describe what the Lord wants to do with our sin and guilt. First, He forgives. The Lord promises to carry our sins away and remember them no more. Second, David says our sins can be covered. It doesn’t mean a cover-up in the negative sense. And it doesn’t mean just sweeping our guilt under a rug for it to fester.

Some of you have had a stain on a wall and when you tried to paint over it, the stain bled through the new coat. But, if you first treat that wall and paint on Kilz primer, that will put an end to the stain. God cleans while He covers. The Bible explains that the blood of Jesus cleanses us and makes us brand new. It purifies us and covers us in righteousness so we can walk with God.

Third, David tells us that God will not charge us with iniquity. Perhaps you saw the story of Irmgard Furchner. At age 18 she worked as a secretary in a Nazi concentration camp. Almost 80 years later, the law finally caught up with her and she was brought to court. At her job, all she did was paperwork. But that was enough for her to be charged and found guilty for aiding in the murder of more than 10,000 people.[3] There was nothing she could do to free herself from her guilt. The charges were waiting for her after all those decades.

God knows exactly what we’ve done. The thousands upon thousands of counts of imperfection, of rebellion, of hate, of wickedness, of selfishness, of meanness, or vice. And we’re guilty of them all. But God makes us this offer to carry them away, to cover, and to never charge us for any of it.

The offer sounds amazing until we read. “In whose spirit is no deceit.” Do we have to be perfectly honest before we can be forgiven? Jeremiah says, “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable.”[4] So is this an offer that we can’t actually enjoy? Is this like one of those mailers you get claiming someone is going to win a million dollars when, clearly, no one is going to win?

Jesus once said to Nathanael, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom is no deceit.” Was that literally true? We don’t know a lot about Nathanael, but we know that he made the same mistakes as the other disciples. He argued over who was the greatest. He failed to be there at the foot of the cross, choosing instead to run and hide. And one of the only times he does speak in the Bible is when he scoffs at the idea that anyone from Nazareth could be used by God. Or consider David himself. He had many moments of terrible dishonesty.

This ‘no deceit’ line shows that forgiveness is not only about settling a debt. It is the beginning of a transformative process which completely changes us from the inside out. God doesn’t just say, “I’ll square your debt,” He goes further and says, “I’m going to make you a new creation.”

On top of that, the term for deceit here can refer to slackness, or a sluggishness to do an activity.[5] David shares that he had that sluggishness at first.

Psalm 32:3-4 – When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat. Selah (There, what do you think of that?) [6]

We don’t know when David wrote this song or what situation he was referring to. Some scholars tie it to his sin with Bathsheba, and that’s definitely a contender. Whenever it was, he had fallen into sin and then held his guilt in his heart. He closed the Lord out and tried to act like nothing was wrong. But it started eating him alive. We know something about summer heat, right? David said this guilt that he was holding in was like those dog-days of late July. 115° but with no A/C, no shade, no ice.

David was a strong man. He had killed giants and lions and bears with his own hands. But he was no match for guilt. Did you know being “weighed down by guilt” is more than a metaphor? In 2013, Princeton published a study showing that the feelings of guilt are, indeed, felt like weight in our minds and bodies.[7] David felt it eating him from the inside, crushing him from the outside.

In verse 4, was David suggesting that God was inflicting this pain on him? On the one hand, we have to take this Psalm with the Psalms before and after. In Psalm 31 David wrote, “my strength has failed because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.” He rightly understood the destructive nature of sin. Paul talks about this in Romans 1, where sinners are left to deal with the appropriate consequences of their choices.

At the same time, though God is ready to forgive sin, He will not ignore sin. He applies firm pressure on the sinner in order to draw us to repentance, so He can remove the weight of our guilt. He tells His children that He will discipline them when they sin, because He loves them.

I was a lifeguard for a few summers in college. I always enjoyed practicing removing a swimmer with a neck injury from the pool. You would go in, apply a hold with firm pressure, rotate that swimmer into position, and get them strapped tight onto a backboard so they could be lifted out of the water. If not, the person would die. God applies that kind of pressure when we dive into sin.

Psalm 32:5 – Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah (There, what do you think of that?)

All David had to do to receive God’s forgiveness was confess. Technically, we don’t even see his confession here. He says, “I will confess to the Lord,” and immediately forgiveness flowed, the guilt was gone, and David had the relief he needed. So, what is confession? Confession is more than just saying a few words. Confession means to realize God’s truth in your heart, agree with that truth, turn from your sin and face God, saying, “I am guilty, I am sorry, and I want to receive Your mercy.”

Does this mean that, as a Christian, I don’t have forgiveness for individual sins until I confess? There are some churches that hold a doctrine like that. If you’re a Christian, if you’ve been born again, you have eternal forgiveness right now. In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He has poured out on us.[8] God never comes back with a sponge to sop up what He poured out. But we also read in 1 John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins.” So which is it?

There are two aspects of forgiveness. The first is judicial. Has your debt been paid? If you are in Christ, then Christ’s death on the cross dealt with all your sin, past, present, and future. You are sealed into a promise. When the Judge of heaven and earth looks at you, He sees His Son and pronounces you clean. But there is also relational forgiveness. When we rebel against God or go our own way, we remove ourselves from His boundaries and His leading and His commands. Those sins bring breeches and barriers in our relationship with the Lord. Through confession we are able to once again live in the fullness of His grace.

This is depicted in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The son went out from the father’s house on his own way, into ruin. The father did not announce, “the Prodigal is no longer my son.” He was still his son. But once the son came to his senses and returned home, he was able to have not just the title of son, but the benefits of the father’s love and they embrace and reconcile and rejoice together.

Another question is: If God knows everything, then why do I need to confess? Isaiah 55 explains that when we seek God, when we confess and abandon our own way and instead embrace the Lord, He is able to cover us with His compassion and freely forgive. Through confession we step from the shadow of guilt into the light of God’s mercy. The Prodigal not only had to mentally admit he was wrong, he had to also leave the pigsty and return to his father. Proverbs 28 says, “whoever confesses and renounces [their sin] will find mercy.”

David said, “I did not conceal my iniquity.” We’re no good at covering over our sin. That’s the job the Lord wants to do. Don’t think for a minute you can clean yourself up for God.

Awhile ago, one of our little ones got sick to their stomach in the middle of the night. We went in to make sure they were ok and we said, “Where did you throw up?” They said, “In the bathroom. But I cleaned it up.” Let’s just say, “clean” isn’t the word I would use. It was the middle of the night. They were sick. It was dark. They grabbed whatever towel they could and did their best. But they needed a parent to actually take care of it. Don’t try to cover your sin. Let the professional take care of it.

Psalm 32:6-7 – Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately., When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah (There, what do you think of that?)

David is not suggesting all his problems were immediately solved. He was a man who knew many troubles for many years. But, in the final judgment, David knew he was safe. He would be delivered just as Noah was in the ark when the flood waters came.

There’s a judgment coming. If you’re not a Christian, you’re going to be judged for your sin. You will stand before God’s throne and your debts must be paid. Without Christ, there’s no deliverance.

There is also a global judgment coming one day. The whole world will be flooded with the wrath of God. Knowing that judgment is coming, let everyone who is faithful pray immediately. If you want salvation, there is no time to lose. Call out to God for forgiveness. Hide yourself in Him. Don’t wait. God is ready to receive each of us us as spiritual refugees, covering us and sustaining us and making us new. That’s not just David’s opinion – The Lord Himself would verify the message of this song. It’s the Lord speaking in our next verses,[9] where we read:

Psalm 32:8-9 – I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with my eye on you, I will give counsel. Do not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, that must be controlled with bit and bridle or else it will not come near you.

Why would anyone refuse God’s offer of salvation and forgiveness? It happens every day. In fact, we saw a few weeks ago in our study of Isaiah 1 how God’s people had become so stubborn, so hard-hearted that they were, indeed, dumber than donkeys, spiritually speaking.

The truth is, our hearts are inclined to evil. We’re prone to wander. And we’ll wander right into ruin if we don’t trust the Lord and go His way.

Harry Randall Truman, not the president but the Mt. Saint Helens resident, was warned to evacuate his home in 1980. Precursor earthquakes had knocked him out of bed as he slept, so he moved his mattress to the basement. He told interviewers, “[that] mountain is a mile away, [it] ain’t gonna hurt me…You couldn’t pull me out with a mule team.”[10] No mules would be necessary. On May 18 he was vaporized along with everything he owned with the volcano erupted.

A person who doesn’t admit they’re a sinner and then receive the free gift of God’s salvation is like Harry Randall Truman. They’re like an ignorant mule, with no understanding.

“I will show you the way to go; with My eye on you, I will give counsel.” God guides not with a whip, but with gentleness.[11] The “way” He shows us is that “way” from Psalm 1 – the way where everything we do prospers. Where our lives are made strong and fruitful, weathering the seasons that come our way, always growing, always developing. This is where the Lord wants to guide us.

John Phillips gives us some important insight here. He writes, “If the Lord is to guide us with His eye, it means that we must stay close to Him. A person cannot give another person a warning look or a warm look or a welcoming look if he is in Chicago and the friend is in Atlanta. Let us see to it that we allow our Lord to guide us by keeping our Bibles open and our eye ever looking to Him. He will make it plain what we ought to do.” God’s counsel isn’t only for the sinner on the day of his salvation, it’s also for the saint every single day of their life.

Psalm 32:10 – Many pains come to the wicked, but the one who trusts in the Lord will have faithful love surrounding him.

To trust God means to depend on His faithful love.[12] It means to put our hope in Him, rather than our own strength or our own plans or the systems of this world. To trust the Lord means to enter into this covenant love He talks about – His hesed. That we acknowledge the truth about ourselves, and that we receive His love and love Him in return. That’s how we walk in the joy of this song.

Psalm 32:11 – Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

A Psalm like this makes us think a lot about our mistakes and how we fall short of God’s glory. But let’s remember what David’s perspective is: He started with joy, he’s ending with joy. He says, “Here’s what’s true about God’s forgiveness. Here’s how we can all have it day-by-day, no matter what we’ve done. Here’s how God plans to revolutionize our lives and surround us like a shield and a refuge and a Teacher and with the kindness of a Friend. So let’s praise the Lord for it!” If we pause to consider all that God had forgiven David, or all that God forgave Paul, or all He has forgiven you and me, the spiritual reaction should be like finding out you’ve won the lottery.

Despite his many mistakes, David felt no need to carry his guilt any more. He confessed it and turned from it. It was done, it was gone. And it was replaced by joy.

How joyful are you? That’s how our text opened, right? “How joyful is the one.” David says forgiven people are joyful people. Paul does too. He described himself as overflowing with joy in 2 Corinthians. The Christian life is supposed to be full of joy and peace, overflowing with hope. Because the Lord bears away our guilt and leads us into a way full of joy.

Has God borne away your guilt? Or are you still on the run? In September of 2021, Irmgard Furchner went on the run, hoping to avoid her trial. She was picked up a few hours later.[13]

Maybe you’re on the run, spiritually speaking. You can’t avoid the Judge. Turn yourself in. When you turn yourself in to this Judge, He cleans your slate, cancels your debts, makes you new. You don’t have to work off your guilt. You are saved by grace through faith, not of works.

In fact, when Paul spoke in Romans about how we are justified by faith alone, how salvation is all a work of grace, he used this Psalm as the Old Testament basis. If you believe what God has revealed in the Scripture, if you come to him in repentance, acknowledging your spiritual bankruptcy, He will forgive you.

For Christians, forgiveness isn’t new, but it’s not finished either. In this Psalm, David reminds us that God’s forgiveness still applies and we who are faithful can stay in that closeness with the Lord, we can be quick to praise, quick to rejoice, quick to pray in confession as we discover more and more of what God has saved us from and what He has saved us for and we walk with Him on this way He’s leading us.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 John Phillips Exploring Psalms Volume 1
2 James Montgomery Boice Psalms Volume 1
3 https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-convicts-97-year-old-woman-nazi-war-crimes-media-2022-12-20/?utm_source=pocket_saves
4 Jeremiah 17:9
5 Dictionary Of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains: Hebrew Old Testament
6 The meaning of Selah is debated, but one helpful understanding of the term is “There, what do you think of that?” See Phillips.
7 https://www.princeton.edu/news/2013/10/08/weighed-down-guilt-research-shows-its-more-metaphor
8 Ephesians 1:7-8
9 Derek Kidner Psalms 1-72
10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_R._Truman
11 J.J. Stewart Perowne Commentary On The Psalms
12 Psalm 33:18
13 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/96-year-old-german-woman-released-after-going-run-skip-n1280876

Taking A Sleep Of Faith (Psalm 3)

On April 28, 1789, honorary midshipman Ned Young slept while mutineers took control of the HMS Bounty. The violence and commotion roused every other sleeping sailor from their berth, but not Ned.[1] He only woke up after the mutiny was over. Seeing that the captain and his loyalists were adrift in the South Pacific, Ned “soon announced that he fully supported the mutineers.”[2] They decided they would settle on a small island, south of Tahiti. Conflict arose and, when a battle broke out between the mutineers and locals, Ned slept through that battle as well.[3]

In Psalm 3, we find David asleep during a mutiny. Now, David was no narcoleptic midshipman. He was a seasoned warrior who knew tactics, knew battle, and knew the danger he was in. The mutiny was against him, after all. His night of sleep was not accidental or coincidental. David’s slept because, in the midst of the worst crisis of his life, he was able to draw upon the spiritual rest provided by God.

Psalm 3 is a good Psalm for the new year. Many scholars consider Psalms 1 and 2 to be an introduction to the Psalter.[4] One commentator explains Psalms 1 and 2 as providing the theological undergirding for the the rest that follow.[5] After showing us the way of the righteous and then the dominion of the Messiah, we get to Psalm 3 – the first Psalm that’s called a Psalm, and the first song that is from man’s perspective to God – a prayer being sung out loud as an act of faith.

In this short prayer, David gets right to the point and says, “Lord, I need help!” We know why – this is the first Psalm that has a historical marker. We’re told David wrote this song “when he fled from his son Absalom.” This mutiny in the later part of David’s reign was sudden and widespread. David had to quickly run for his life with no provisions, no plan, and no safe-haven in mind. Absalom’s intent was to take the throne and kill his father. In that context, David produced Psalm 3.

But what’s remarkable is that the song isn’t just about asking for help. After the ask, David then writes line after line with absolute confidence that God knows, hears, and will answer with all the help that he needed. He was so confident that he decided to make camp, bed down, and get a good night’s rest. That’s how much he trusted the Lord. In fact, one scholar noticed that David’s declaration of trust is twice as long as his cry for help.[6]

This morning, there is a wide range of circumstances represented among us. Some of you are in a period of abundance and enjoyment. Some of you are, in a sense, running for your lives. Some disease is after you. Some uncertainty looms over your future. No matter our circumstances, Psalm 3 is for us because all of us need help from the Lord and want the strength and the rest and the hope demonstrated by David in these words. And remember: These words were inspired and delivered and recorded and preserved because God knows we need them. These are the songs the Lord has provided so that we can sing and pray them back to Him.

Our text begins above verse one, in what is called the title or superscript.

Psalm 3:Superscript – A psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom.

Some academics discount the superscripts, but these titles are in the canonical text of the Hebrew Bible.[7] More importantly, Jesus references one of these superscripts in Matthew 22:45.

Right away we’re reminded of an important truth that is easy to forget: Every day, every season, every circumstance has a spiritual component. There is no experience we face that is separate from God’s commands and intentions for us or from His potential to use us. In the most hectic crisis of his life, David was used by God to write something that would help people for thousands of years.

Psalm 3:1 – Lord, how my foes increase! There are many who attack me.

It wasn’t just Absalom – David had lost the nation. The army was with his son. Some of his staff had switched sides. Other long-time haters came out of the woodwork against the king. Their attacks came in a variety of forms. Absalom’s was the most direct – “I’m going to kill you.” But then there was Ahithophel who had been a personal adviser who was now using his skill against David. There was Shimei, who had hated David ever since he took Saul’s place as king. He wasn’t a conspirator, but he made it his business to harass and insult David as he left Jerusalem. He screamed curses and threw stones at the king. And then there was Ziba. Ziba used David’s situation to better his own career by lying. He pretended to help but was selfishly profiteering.

Under this immense strain, the first word out of David’s lips is, “Yahweh!” He’ll call on that name 6 times in these verses – at least once in every section.

David’s desire was to be in the place God has called him – to be in his city, near the house of the Lord, in the position of service God had given him. All of that had been disrupted. And so David comes to the Lord and tells the Lord something He already knows.

It can feel silly to pray to the Lord about things He’s already aware of – but that’s everything! So why pray? Prayer is a tool God has given us so that we can develop closeness with Him and proper calibration for our hearts. In prayer we’re able to remind ourselves of Who God is and what He does. We’re reminded of what He has said in regard to our lives and His plans for us. In prayer we are able to relinquish ourselves to the Lord and invite Him to do what He wants to do in our lives. Prayer is one of the ways God gives us strength.[8] And prayer is a relational act. God is a Person and desires close, communicative friendship with us.

Psalm 3:2 – Many say about me, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah

Not only were there actual attacks, there was also the head-shaking gossips around David – people who said that he had it coming. They were saying that he had forfeited any right he had to divine help after all he’d done.[9] And, maybe they had a point. David had lied and stolen, cheated and murdered. He allowed one of his best friends to be slaughtered to cover up an affair. He broke the Law in moving the Ark of the Covenant, and because of him 85 priests and their families were butchered by Saul because they gave David a few loaves of bread.

But God’s help isn’t reserved for those who deserve it. Thank goodness, because none of us are worthy of God’s help. No, God’s grace is not about merit or payback or being good enough. In 1 John we’re told that it’s because of God’s great love that He helps us and brings us into His family. We don’t earn it, we receive it as a free gift.

John 1:12 – But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name

Many said of David, “God’s not going to take your calls.” But David didn’t believe that. Rolf Jacobson writes, “The quotation of the enemies’ speech…establishes the central theological issue of the Psalm – [will] God help the psalmist?”[10] That’s an important question for us to settle.

The verse ends with that word, selah (the first use in the Psalms). Scholars can’t agree on what it means. Some believe it was a musical direction – something like “make a crescendo.”[11] John Phillips suggests that the word may mean: “There, what do you think of that!” That may be a more helpful thought since we are readers of the Psalms, rather than singers like in David’s time.

Psalm 3:3 – But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.

David wasn’t alone in his flight. He had his mighty men with him. There were some soldiers and even 600 Philistines who came in support. But he recognized that they weren’t the answer. They weren’t his shield, the Lord was! And not just a little wooden shield that David would have to hold up under his own strength, blocking an arrow or two that might come from one direction. David said, “You, Lord, are a shield all around me.” Covering on every side.

David’s words here are tender and moving. In the short term, David needed a shield, or we might say a parachute. But he recognized that God was so much more. This Hebrew word for shield has a bunch of derivatives, one of which is the term used for the Garden of Eden.[12] That special, God-designed place, protected by a hedge all around and full of life and communion with the Lord.

Next, David says, “God isn’t just my shield, He’s my glory.” How was there glory in running for your life? How was their honor in this experience? David reveals that his self-worth wasn’t tied to a palace or a throne or his royal robes or the sword of Goliath. The Lord was his splendor. No one could take that splendor, that honor, that glory from him. And then he takes even another step into the tender kindness of God and says, “You’re the One who lifts up my head.”

We’re told in 2 Samuel that, as David fled the city, he went up the Mount of Olives barefoot and weeping. David recognized that the Lord was with him there, in his suffering, taking David’s head in His hands and lifting it up, as if to look him in the face and remind David of His love and presence. What a wonderful reminder of our Lord’s own visit to the Mount of Olives, where He went and suffered so that you and I could be rescued from our enemies of sin and death.

Psalm 3:4 – I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. Selah

David’s prayer was delivered out loud for everyone to hear. Of course, God could’ve heard it from the silence of his heart, but God’s people are commanded to sing aloud. Colossians 3, Ephesians 5. Singing our praises and prayers out loud is one of the best ways for us to make the most of these evil days. We’re told that, as we sing with and to one another, we are spiritually enriched.[13]

David cried aloud. He wasn’t ashamed for anyone around him to know about his dependance on the Lord. He wasn’t trying to hide his troubles. In fact, linguists tell us that the phrase could be translated, “Whenever I cry aloud, He answers me.”[14] This is how God consistently operates. Since He was faithful to David, we can be sure He will be faithful to us. His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 3:5 – I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.

David cried out for rescue, he said, “I know the Lord will answer me,” but then he doesn’t wait for the response! He goes to bed! If someone broke into your house, would you call 911 and say, “I need some help,” and then go back to sleep?

Now, David didn’t do that, he was running, but we see the incredible peace and confidence that has flooded his heart. It’s like when the angel finds Peter sleeping in his jail cell the night before he’s supposed to be executed. Those men understood that life is not about circumstances, it’s about communion with a loving God Who sustains His people. In this case, David had not received any patriot missiles or access to a secret fortress that Absalom couldn’t find. Instead of immediate, tangible assistance, the Lord simply sustained David with hope.

This summer when I had my stroke there were two passages of Scripture that the Lord sent us that gave us hope when we didn’t know what was going to happen. The first was John 11:4, where Jesus said of Lazarus, “This sickness will not end in death.” The second was this Psalm. Night came, I had been admitted, and they told Kelly she couldn’t stay. So, I was alone, wondering and worrying, and felt impressed to listen to this Psalm. Even though at the time we had no medical fixes or answers to some of our big questions, the Lord supported us with hope.

Absalom had every advantage: He had numbers and weapons and popular opinion and better tactical positioning. But the Lord doesn’t need earthly power to sustain us. David knew it, so he got some rest. As Christians, we are invited to enter into this rest. Jesus said, “Come to Me and I will give you rest.” Hebrews tells us to make every effort to enter into this rest as we walk with the Lord.

Psalm 3:6 – I will not be afraid of thousands of people who have taken their stand against me on every side.

He didn’t have to be afraid because he had an all-powerful shield on every side. He was still in danger, but he knew the Lord was on the way.

Imagine you were playing poker and your opponent showed his hand: Four aces. That’s the kind of hand that can clear the table. But, if they show four aces while you’re holding a royal flush, it doesn’t bother you at all. Their powerful hand has no chance against yours.

On the spiritual level, we’ve been dealt a royal flush. There is no better hand. God has dealt you His grace, His goodness, His attention, and affection. He’s dealt you gifts and a spiritual family and special opportunities. Our part is to do what David did: Believe! He believed and rested.

Psalm 3:7 – Rise up, Lord! Save me, my God! You strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.

These sort of lyrics don’t usually make their way into our modern worship songs. There are a variety of Psalms that have this kind of language that scholars call “imprecatory prayer.” We know that David was a prophet, but he wasn’t in a vengeful mood. He showed almost unreasonable mercy to Shimei during this saga. And when it was time to fight he told his soldiers to “treat Absalom gently.”

Verses like these remind us that God is going to avenge. He is going to bring a full and fierce judgment on His enemies that cannot be escaped. And it reminds us that wickedness really does need to be restrained. Job and Joel describe the wicked as monsters with fangs and that breaking those fangs meant the innocent would not be devoured but delivered. We’re so used to seeing injustice and so used to the world calling evil good that we can be shocked by true justice.

Now we are on the other side of the cross. And on this side of the cross, Shimei isn’t our enemy – Satan is. Christ has commanded us to pray for our human enemies and persecutors. We’re to bless them, not curse them. We’re to understand that God loves those individuals just like He loves us and He wants to save them from the wrath they deserve just like He saved us.

God is a Warrior and He is going to repay the wicked for all that they do. It won’t be a slap on the wrist – it will be everlasting death in the Lake of Fire. But God’s hope (and ours should be too) is that all those enemies would repent and be saved rather than perish in their sin.

Psalm 3:8 – Salvation belongs to the Lord; may your blessing be on your people. Selah

David started in crisis. He ends in complete confidence not only for himself but for all God’s people. Which would include, by the way, many who were currently involved in the rebellion against him. That’s how powerful God’s intervention can be. He can bring rebels back into the fold. Some of the people who drew the sword for Absalom would later sing this song in the Temple, recognizing that God not only helped David, He helped them, too.

You see, the help God offers is not just a payday loan or a Saturday night special. God is offering salvation. And He alone can offer it. What is His salvation? It’s the same word that David used for “help” up in verse 2. This is one of those beautiful Bible moments. We discover that the word there is: yeshua. It’s a noun and a name. When you bring the Hebrew name into Greek it becomes Jesus!

The help we need isn’t a sword, it’s a Savior. When we call out for help, God gives Jesus. He is our refuge. He is our stronghold. Jesus, Who gives us His strength and His comfort and His love, His mind and His heart. Jesus, Who changes every perspective and makes sense of every circumstance. Jesus, Who is the Rock on which we can build our lives, Who loves us with an unfailing, loyal, kind love. Jesus, Who speaks and it is done. Jesus, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, Who has invited us to rule and reign with Him. That’s the help God has for those who call out to Him. He’s listening for your call even now.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty#Mutiny
2 Bounty Museum
3, 6 ibid.
4 See Jerome, Aquinas, C.Hassell Bullock Psalms Volume 1: Psalms 1-72
5 John Goldingay Psalms Volume 1: Psalms 1-41
7 James Montgomery Boice Psalms Volume 1: Psalms 1-41
8 Matthew 26:41
9 John Phillips Exploring Psalms: An Expository Commentary Volume 1
10 Rolf A. Jacobson The Book Of Psalms
11 Phillips
12 Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
13 Colossians 3:16
14 Gerald H. Wilson The NIV Application Commentary: Psalms Volume 1

This Song’s Gonna Get Stuck Inside Your Heart (Psalm 145)

Research shows that 90% of us suffered an infection in the last week. We call this bug an “earworm.” It’s when a song gets stuck in your head. The technical term is Involuntary Musical Imagery, and it is “a phenomenon that occurs spontaneously and without conscious control.”

One article writes, “Wandering minds and stress seem to make people more vulnerable to earworms. And, if you’re a chronic worrier, you’re not only more likely to have an internal soundtrack, but you’re also more likely to be bothered by it.”

Whether it’s Baby Shark or Mmm Bop or Kung Fu Fighting, we’ve all had the experience of a song rattling around our head that we couldn’t wait to silence.

This is where Psalm 145 comes in. This was a song David voluntarily put into his head every day. He planned on singing it forever. Though it isn’t one of the most famous Psalms, it is one of the best.

It is the last of David’s songs – at least, it is the final Psalm to bear his name. In the superscript it is called “A hymn of David” (or your version may say a praise of David). J.J. Perowne writes, “This is the only Psalm which is called a Tehillah (a praise or hymn), the plural of which word, Tehillim, is the the general name for the whole [book].” John Phillips writes, “It brings all of David’s other [psalms] to a climax.”

In the Jewish Talmud, which was used by rabbis to establish practices, customs, and culture, Jews were instructed to recite this Psalm three times per day.

David is not only planing to sing this song forever and ever, he’s also invited all of us to join with him. And what a great song to sing! I’m glad we were able to hear it read before we go through the text. Because what stands out the most is how incredibly optimistic David is about God and life and the future. We live in pessimistic times. But God’s people always have reason to be optimistic. We always have reason for overflowing joy. Because our God is great. He is good. He is with us. And He is doing all that He has promised, without fail and without hesitation.
So, today, we’re all invited to get this lovely song stuck in our heads and our hearts.

Psalm 145:1-2 – A hymn of David. 1 I exalt you, my God the King, and bless your name forever and ever. 2 I will bless you every day; I will praise your name forever and ever.

This song is an acrostic. Each verse starts with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. David liked doing that. 5 of his Psalms follow this pattern. But he’s not being formulaic. It’s clear that he is overflowing with real excitement. Herbert Lockyer said this Psalm is “vibrating with praise to God.”

David opens with, “I exalt you, my God the King.” We don’t know what part of life he was in when he wrote this, but throughout his life his heart remained in this position. Even though he was king, chosen by God, the giant slayer, the man who won the hearts of Israel, his goal was to make the Lord high and honored. Despite David’s power and prestige, he understood that God alone was worthy of praise. To “bless” isn’t just to say nice things, but to kneel in salute and obedience.

He identifies the Lord as God and King. As God, He is the Creator, the Sustainer, the Savior. As King, He is the Decider, Director, and Commander.

David reveals a few thoughts about himself: First, he was concerned with giving the Lord glory. Second, he recognized that he, David, was going to live forever. And he wanted to worship God every day, not just in this life, but for all eternity. Phillips again writes, “David determined never to let a day go by without discovering some way to freight it down with praise.” What a great reminder this is for us that we are able to involve ourselves now in eternal activities. This temporal life can have a great eternal impact, not only in serving the Lord but in bringing Him worship.

Psalm 145:3 – 3 The Lord is great and is highly praised; his greatness is unsearchable.

David did a lot of praising. He wrote a lot of songs. But, every time, when he paused to think about God his conclusion was always the same: The Lord is great! Great in power. Great in love. Great in redemption. Great in generosity. The more he thought, the more he came to the realization that we could never come close fathoming the greatness of God. One resource said, “When humans utter words of praise for God, it is as though they were drawing a sunset with only a pencil.”

Psalm 145:4 – 4 One generation will declare your works to the next and will proclaim your mighty acts.

Generations are known for things. The Lost Generation gave us electricity. Baby Boomers gave us the moon. Gen X gave us the tech revolution and Millennials give us a headache. Actually, research shows that Millennials are the most optimistic generation our country has ever known.

David wants us to think about the spiritual impact of our generation. We are responsible to hand the faith off from one generation to the next. We’re privileged to give the younger believers after us a living faith, full of the testimony of God’s power, greatness, and goodness. The Bible shows us what happens when God’s people shirk this responsibility.

Judges 2:10-12a – 10 That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel. 11 The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals 12 and abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors…

We often talk about the Christian life as a race. That’s an analogy Paul used. It’s a good one. But this reminds us that it’s also a relay race. We pass the faith forward to those who will run the next leg.

Psalm 145:5-6 – 5 I will speak of your splendor and glorious majesty and your wondrous works. 6 They will proclaim the power of your awe-inspiring acts, and I will declare your greatness.

Listen to this lovely excerpt: “To create an atom. What a mighty work! To pack within the confines of a speck of matter, so small the eye can never see it, enough power to annihilate a city. What a mighty act. To create a galaxy. To people it with suns and stars, novas and supernovas, quasars and black holes, to toss millions upon millions of stars into space like fireworks. What an act.”

God has acted through history, through miracles, through creation, through revelation, through empires, and – amazingly – He acts through you and me.

John 14:12a – 12 “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do.

The Lord wants to shine the splendor of His glory through the testimony of your life. Your life demonstrating His greatness. That is accomplished in part when we publicly praise God.

Psalm 145:7 – 7 They will give a testimony of your great goodness and will joyfully sing of your righteousness.

God is not only great in power, He is also great in goodness. There have been many powerful rulers in this world. Very few have accomplished much good. God is altogether good. And for the rest of the song, David focuses on the lavish, compassionate grace of the Lord.

Perhaps today you’re angry at God for some situation in your life or some past suffering. God is not the cause of your sorrow. He is the answer for it. In another song, David wrote this:

Psalm 34:8 – 8 Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in Him!

Reading Psalm 145, we conclude that to know God is to be filled up with joy and enthusiasm for Who He is. If we’re not excited about the Lord, if we’re not excited about giving Him praise, there must be a misalignment in our hearts. It’s not that Christians are to go around acting like there’s no problems in life. But David – who was no stranger to real problems – says, “Every day we can overflow with joyful singing.” This giving of a testimony is like the “bubbling up of a fountain of water.” One source tells us this phrase indicates frequent and enthusiastic proclamation. When we find ourselves feeling like a well that has run dry, we should remember that talk Jesus had with the Samaritan woman. We should put ourselves in her position when we read:

John 4:10, 14 – 10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.” 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well, of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

And then the Lord went on to talk to her about true worship and how God desires it.

Psalm 145:8 – 8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love.

We can not talk too much about God’s grace. Christians are sometimes hesitant to really admit how vast God’s grace is. His grace is ample enough to redeem men like Nebuchadnezzar, Saul of Tarsus, the heathens of Nineveh. Thank goodness! Because we are no different than any of them, not in our hearts. Romans explains how we were hostile toward God, at war with Him, but by His grace He made a way to reconcile us to Himself and make us new, giving us a hope and a future.

He does so because of His faithful love. Most of us know the Greek word “agape” which is defined so well in 1 Corinthians 13. We’re less familiar with an important Old Testament term for God’s love: hesed. It speaks of when a weaker party is in desperate need, unable to help themselves and then a stronger party willfully chooses to act on their behalf out of a loyal, caring love. When God describes His hesed love for us, He uses this image of being slow to anger and great in compassion. Verse 8 repeats what God said in Exodus 34. As Moses stood on the mountain, God came down and passed before him, and in that moment, of all the things the Lord could have said, what He chose to reveal was this: “I am a God of compassion and grace, slow to anger, abounding in love. And I am the One Who maintains this love to a thousand generations.”

God has every right to be angry at any one of us. He is altogether right, we are altogether wrong. Each one of us has gone astray in blasphemous rebellion against our Creator. But instead of revenge, God acts to redeem. His great, gracious, compassionate love endures forever.

Psalm 145:9 – 9 The Lord is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made.

An unbelieving world scoffs at this. People love to blame God for every difficulty and tragedy. But they do not consider the fact that it is our sin that has brought death, sorrow, and suffering into the world and that God stands ready at every moment of every day to rescue anyone who calls to Him. This week the news was full of reports on Hurricane Ian in Florida – the need for rescue and help. God has made Himself available to rescue any soul of any person in any place and any time. He is not a God Who loves some and hates others. And even while people reject Him, He still pours out common grace for them. The sun rises on the evil and the good. The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous. The breath of the Almighty gives each of us life day by day.

Psalm 145:10-13a – 10 All you have made will thank you, Lord; the faithful will bless you. 11 They will speak of the glory of your kingdom and will declare your might, 12 informing all people of your mighty acts and of the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; your rule is for all generations.

There is a day coming when all will be made right on earth as it is in heaven. We’ll all be on the same page. The King will be ruling all the earth from His throne in Jerusalem. It’s a great thing to know King Jesus is coming back to do all He’s promised. We talk about great leaders from the past. We learn about the great things Lincoln did and said. But he’s never coming back to be president again. We may wish he would, but it’s not going to happen. But Jesus is alive and He is returning and His reign will be established on this earth and His Kingdom will have no end.

Psalm 145:13b-16 – The Lord is faithful in all his words and gracious in all his actions., 14 The Lord helps all who fall; he raises up all who are oppressed., 15 All eyes look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Our leaders don’t keep most of their promises. We’re used to it. The Lord keeps them all. There’s nothing good He can’t do. And what He does is kind and generous. Generally speaking, kings are not known for helping the oppressed, they’re known for being the oppressors. They are not the ones doing the feeding of the hungry. They’re typically the ones piling up things for themselves. But the King of kings places His gentle hands on each of us to help and to lift and to provide. The Lord gives support to all who fall. The term speaks of someone who is stumbling or failing or being defeated. God sees us collapsing and says, “I will Personally take you in My hand.” And He is mindful of every aspect of our lives. It’s not just about eternal salvation. He also genuinely cares about our daily needs. Jesus invites us to go to Him, asking: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

God loves to satisfy. The old Coverdale Bible of 1535 says He opens His hand and fills all living things with plenteousness. But we also note that the Lord does His work “at the proper time.” Ultimately, every need will be met in the Kingdom. In the here and now, the Lord still meets needs, but we wait in expectation for the total fulfillment of His rescue and provision. Meanwhile, God works in our lives, bringing spiritual fruit in its season. There are going to be spiritual seasons in our lives as God’s plan unfolds. Not every season is the same. Not every season is as fruitful. Not every season will have the same number of storms. But we can be sure God is mindful of every day, every need, every situation we find ourselves in.

Psalm 145:17 – 17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all his acts.

He doesn’t cut corners. He doesn’t pick favorites. He doesn’t take bribes or flip flop on His principles. He doesn’t ignore inconvenient problems or follow the trends. He is always righteous and He has pledged Himself to us, not out of obligation, but out of love and loyalty.

Psalm 145:18 – 18 The Lord is near all who call out to him, all who call out to him with integrity.

We’ve heard all of these amazing things about God’s power and His activity and His dependability and His generosity and His character. Now, most wonderful of all, we’re told He is near to us. The most mighty, most important Being that has ever existed has taken the trip to show up at the door of your heart. And He comes to that door and He knocks, hoping you’ll open the door and let Him in so that He can dwell with you in love and friendship forever.

He is near to those who call. He will not invade a closed heart. He will not force a person to receive all this grace we’ve been talking about. He waits for you to choose to allow Him in.

If you are not a Christian and you hear all this great talk about the Lord’s goodness and you think, “I want access to these things,” you can have it all! The Lord is waiting for you to call out to Him in faith, turning from your sin and believing in your heart that Christ is the Son of God.

Romans 10:9 – 9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Revelation 22:17 – 17 Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let anyone who hears, say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely.

But be warned: The more you reject this invitation, the more you ignore the Lord’s knocking on your heart, the further you push God away and the door seals more and more tightly.

Isaiah 55:6-7 – 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive.

Psalm 145:19 – 19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry for help and saves them.

The point is not that we get whatever we want. This is not a verse that proves the health-and-wealth heresy. Take the verse together. What is it that the people want? They are crying out for rescue. They call out for deliverance. And God fulfills that desire. He is always able to hear and to save.

Psalm 145:20 – 20 The Lord guards all those who love him, but he destroys all the wicked.

God’s wrath is just as real as His grace. Grace doesn’t mean everyone is saved. It means anyone can be saved. But those who refuse to be hidden in Christ await judgment without the protection of grace. Some folks in Florida decided not to evacuate, but to face the hurricane themselves. And some paid with their lives because they were no match for the fury of the storm.

You are no match for God’s wrath. All you and I deserve is death because of our sin. We are wicked.

That’s not a word we use much anymore. What makes a person wicked? To be wicked is to be guilty. It means to be a person whose sins have not be washed away. It means to deny Christ and to refuse to bow in worship to Him. It means to ignore the offer of salvation God is graciously making to you. He says, “I will cleanse you of your sin and give you a new heart.” So, repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out. If you won’t, then you will be destroyed. Only those who do the will of God can enter His Kingdom.

Psalm 145:21 – 21 My mouth will declare the Lord’s praise; let every living thing bless his holy name forever and ever.

David ends where he began. This was going to be the song he put into mind again and again, day after day. And he invites us to join the chorus. He closes his final Psalm, essentially saying, “This is my every day reality. God is great. God is good. God is gracious. God is near. I can worship.”

David wasn’t being naive. It’s just that he was a praiser. We can look at some of the openings to his Psalms and see that he kept this praising mindset in some of the most trying circumstances. We find him writing songs of praise in caves and in the wilderness, at his baby boy’s funeral and when on the run from another son who is trying to kill him. He’s praising when he seized by Philistines and when his house is under surveillance. He’s praising on his bed and under the stars. Morning and evening, in danger and deliverance. David’s choice was, “My mouth will declare the Lord’s praise.”

A large-scale study found that Don’t Stop Believing is one of the most common earworms. Of course, we don’t know the original melody for Psalm 145, but the next time Don’t Stop Believing finds it way into your brain, remind yourself to believe this final song of David. The greatness of God’s power and work and majesty and mercy and compassion and generosity and faithfulness and goodness are worthy of our praise every day because every day He is pouring out His grace for us and we have the joy of pouring back a hymn to Him, every day, forever and ever.

Thank You At Your Service (Psalm 100)

What makes a Thanksgiving meal? This week, some of you were able to enjoy special items that only come out once a year. Others had to endure traditional horrors that issue from the kitchen. Americans love Thanksgiving. When it comes to the feast we usually go big. 20% of all the turkeys eaten each year nationwide are eaten on that one day. At the Thanksgiving table, the average American eats upwards of 3,000 calories.

These last few years, between COVID and spiking food costs, maybe Thanksgiving dinner looked a little different for some folks. Or maybe you are the kind of person who wants to go non-traditional each year. One way or another, we had to think through what makes a thanksgiving meal.

In ancient Israel, there was a prescribed meal that individuals could bring to the Lord as an act of thanksgiving. It was known as the ‘peace’ offering or the ‘fellowship sacrifice,’ and it had some interesting features. First, it wasn’t just the burning of an animal on the altar – it was to presented with unleavened cakes, mixed with oil and leavened bread. And it was an offering that you would share with the Lord. With the burnt offering, the whole animal was put on the altar. With a sin offering, part of the animal was burned outside the camp, some of its blood was sprinkled here and there, and the fat was dealt with on the altar. But the thanksgiving offering was a meal you shared. The Lord would ‘consume’ a portion on the altar, the priests would be given some, and then the offerer would take the rest to enjoy with his family or any other ritually clean person.

This special act of worship even had a soundtrack provided in the book of Psalms. It’s Psalm 100. Many Psalms are full of thankfulness, but this is the only one identified specifically for the giving of thanks. Though it was the accompaniment for a ritual in the Lord’s House, it is by no means limited to the tribes of Israel. It’s a song given to all the world, inviting us to consider God, to be reminded of His love toward us, and then to praise Him with joyful thanks. But it doesn’t only tell us to do it, it shows us how we can. It shows what makes a thanksgiving offering to the Lord.

Psalm 100:1 – A psalm of thanksgiving. 1 Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord!

We can’t imagine all nations unified in one heart, worshipping God. Mankind today is too divided. We see, in our own nation, the fracturing effect of sin and selfishness and pride. But this verse reminds us that, one day, all will be reconciled by the power of Jesus. In His Kingdom, all the nations of the world will flow to the Mountain of God to worship Him, in Person, in His house. Instead of shouting at one another, we will shout with one another. That day is coming. For Christians, this verse is a prophecy and a keepsake. Since we know we will receive this coming Kingdom, the book of Hebrews tells us to apply Psalm 100 now and to do so with thankfulness and worship.

The first direction we’re given is to “shout triumphantly to the Lord.” Now, on average, we’re a more conservative and reserved group. But there are times when we shout, right? In times of exhilaration or anticipation. We shout on roller coasters or when a home run sails over the wall. Imagine going to a concert where one of your favorite bands are playing. It would be strange if the lights dimmed and the band walked out to silence. When they enter, the crowd erupts in excitement and praise.

God has made each of us with personalities and peculiarities, but He gave us emotion on purpose – because He is an emotional Being. God’s desire is that we be enthusiastic when we worship Him. Not for show – not to draw attention to ourselves – but that our worship be lively in our hearts. The Bible Knowledge Commentary puts it this way: “[We] are not to be subdued in [our] praise to Him.”

When we gather, the attitude of our hearts should be one of anticipation and triumph because we are coming into the presence of God Himself. Because we have been ransomed by Jesus, saved from sin and death. Because our Lord is the One Who will, one day, wipe away every tear from our eyes. By Him we are victorious over sin and suffering and struggle because our God is true and He is alive and He is with us. For individuals, the thanksgiving sacrifice was a freewill offering, just as you are freely gathered here today and the spiritual thanksgiving offering begins with a mindset of anticipation and triumph and enthusiasm for the Lord.

Now, this can be the attitude of our hearts any time, but when Christians gather together there is a wonderful, unique ability for us to praise God and for Him to minister to us. Joseph Benson writes:

“In all acts of religious worship, whether in secret or in our families, we may be truly said to come into God’s presence; but it is in public worship especially that we enter into his gates, and into his courts, as expressed [in] Psalm 100.”

Psalm 100:2 – 2 Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

To worship God is to serve Him. That’s not the only way we serve God, of course, but bringing an offering of thankful praise to God is an act that He delights in. Singing is serving! We’ve all had to learn to bring certain things with us when we go out, right? Depending on where you want to enter, you have to think, “Do I have my mask? Do I have a vaccine passport?” When we come into the assembly of God’s people, this verse would have us ask, “Do I have my glad and joyful song?”

It is often difficult to feel joyful. We are hurting. Those around us are suffering. We have shortages and concerns and pressures and fears. God knows these things. So how could He be so callous as to ask us to be glad? Is He some cosmic Marie Antoinette who is ignoring the real problems we deal with? We know that isn’t true.

Psalm 56:8 (NLT) – 8 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.

The Bible shows us that our sufferings, though unpleasant, are immensely useful when it comes to forming us into the people God wants us to be, in demonstrating the power of God to a lost and dying world, and in personally drawing us nearer to God. To give way to joy in the midst of sorrow is one of the greatest abilities of the Christian life. Beaten and bleeding, fastened in agonizing stocks, we listen in as Paul and Silas sing praises in the dark. The world was changed because of it.

Verse 2 also helps us to remember something tender and precious: We come before God with joyful singing because that’s what He is doing for us.

Zephaniah 3:17 – 17 The Lord your God is among you, a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in his love. He will delight in you with singing.”

Now someone might ask, “How can I be happy to worship in this way if it is an obligation?” Well, first of all, the choice is yours. The Lord calls us to this life and this mindset for our good, but He will not force us. But maybe you came in today thinking, “Lord, it hurts so bad, I just can’t be joyful.” The Lord understands. He loves you. And He invites you to worship Him gladly all the same. Think of it this way: If you were being asked to dig a hole all day, it would seem a chore. But what if you were asked to dig a hole alongside those who love you the most and that, at the bottom of that hole you knew you would discover a priceless treasure? I imagine we would happily take up the shovel.

Psalm 100:3 – 3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his,—his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Worship is more than just a feeling of exuberance and gladness. To be true it must find its source in Who God is. That pumpkin pie you ate had more ingredients than just pumpkin filling. In this verse we move from the heart to the head. We are to acknowledge Who God is, who we are in relation to Him, and what His intentions for us are. We can’t worship rightly or effectively unless we know the truth about God. This is why Church worship that is purely emotional without proper theological content or understanding is ultimately unsatisfying. If it’s all about our feelings or eliciting a certain kind of behavior from the congregation, then it won’t be on target, because the aim is wrong. The Lord must be the focus because He is God and He is to be the object of our adoration.

Of course, the unbeliever says, “there is no God.” Or, “I’m god.” Or, “It doesn’t matter if there is a god.” But this is a matter of supreme consequence. We must pause and acknowledge not only that God exists, but Who He is. He is the Creator – and therefore Owner – of all things. It’s His breath in your lungs. It is by His grace that the sun rose this morning and our hearts keep beating (more than 5,000 times before our service is over). This God has called out to us – all the people of the earth – and He has invited us to know Him and follow Him and give ourselves to Him.

Why did God make us? He didn’t have to. He wanted to. He made us as special creations – exceptional above any other creature – so that He might love us and so that we might commune intimately with Him. He made use to be His chosen people and so that He could adopt us into His family. We are His. And the Bible, page after page, shows that He is our Maker, our Master, our Father, our Redeemer, our Friend, our King. And, as this verse says, our Shepherd.

We’re a lot like sheep. We’re not too smart, not too strong, we like to group up, and we need to be cared for. By the way, research shows that we are getting dumber as a species. But that’s ok, because we have a Good Shepherd Who knows how to care for us – One who has made it His business to lead us to green pastures, still waters, places of rest and growth. Sadly, we all, like sheep, have gone astray. That’s what sin does. It drives us from this loving Shepherd. We’ve gone our own way. But that’s why Jesus came – to pay the penalty for the wrongs we’ve done, to stand in our place and receive the punishment for our rebellion against God. He died and rose again and now He is our Shepherd, gathering us and tending us and carrying us in the folds of His garment. You belong to God. He looks at you and says, “You are Mine!”

Psalm 100:4 – 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.

You can’t just go to the houses of ‘important’ people. There are lots of rules when visiting the White House or the Vatican. J.K. Rowling was in the news last week because some activists posted her address online. J.K. doesn’t want you coming to her house! Now consider what God has done. The King of kings has flung open the doors to His house and invited all the world to come in.

But who may enter? David asked that question in Psalm 24. The answer: The one who has clean hands and a pure heart. That presents a problem. Because there is none righteous, no not one. But, in addition to opening up the way into His house, God has also taken it upon Himself to give us cleansing. In Isaiah 1 God says something dramatic and astonishing. He says, “Come, let’s settle it. Though your sins are scarlet, I’ll make you white as snow.” It is accomplished by the power of His grace through the blood of Jesus for those who will believe and receive His salvation. When we approach Him in faith and obedience He will take us, poor and wretched as we are, and He will clothe us in His garments of salvation, His robe of righteousness and thereby we can enter into His presence unafraid and undefiled. Knowing what God has done, how could we not rush in with thankfulness and praise?

Verse 4 shows that once in, our duty is not to try to prove ourselves before God or work to keep the robes He’s freely given us. Our duty is simply to receive from Him and worship Him and love Him. Charles Spurgeon writes, “So long as we are receivers of mercy we must be givers of thanks.”

The proper, spiritual thanksgiving meal includes blessing His name. It’s not just that we’re generally happy to be alive, or generally thankful that God exists, but that the focus of our praise be God Himself and His holy name. The Name of Jesus, which is above every other name in greatness and power and authority. His name is “perfumed poured out.” At His name, demons tremble and are subject and there is salvation is no other name, but in the name of Jesus – a name which means Yahweh is Salvation. His name is Emmanuel, which means God with us.

As we come into the Lord’s presence we should fill up our thoughts with Who God is and what He has done. His power does not abate. His greatness does not diminish. His Kingdom will never end. And His love will never fail!

Psalm 100:5 – 5 For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.

We’ve heard again and again that God is love, but what would it matter if the quality of His love was lacking? Don Juan was a fictional character who devoted himself to “loving” many women, right? Or we see famous womanizers today, who – in some sense – have a great capacity for what they might call love. But it’s an impure love – a love of self. That is not how God loves. His love is faithful. It is characterized by mercy and loyalty and acts of deliverance. He has bound Himself to us with this love, not because of what we can do for Him but because of His desire to lavish us with His salvation and help and kindness. This love is the standard by which we measure goodness and compassion and affection. And, in reflecting on it, our hearts should well up with thanksgiving.

In 1875, Christina Rossetti wrote a poem titled, In The Bleak Midwinter. Speaking of our Lord, Jesus Christ she wrote:

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a Shepherd I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him, Give my heart.

This is what we can offer when we gather together to be in God’s presence: Hearts that are full of thankfulness and understanding of what God has done. Psalm 100 shows us that one way we can give our hearts is through singing together the praises of our King. No longer do we have to cart in sheep or bulls. Now we are able to bring melodies in a banquet of worship, knowing that as we sing to Him, He sings over us. Knowing that every hurt, every sorrow, every fear will one day be dealt with, because our Lord, our Shepherd, has overcome them all. And now we can live life in His presence, as members of His house, full of strength because of the joy He has given us.

I Gotta Have More Cymbal! (Psalm 150)

Songwriters call it “staggered.” It’s when a song is arranged so that it starts with one vocalist or instrument, then adds more vocals and instruments gradually.

Behind Blue Eyes by The Who is a good example. It starts with a single guitar… Then a single vocalist comes in… Then more and more vocals…
Then the bass… Then another guitar… Then 2:20 into it, the full band.

Metallica’s Enter Sandman and In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins are similarly staggered.

If you’re much of a classic rock fan, you can probably think of a few songs that start calm, but build, then at a certain point, you gotta crank the dial to full as they bring it. Stairway to Heaven, for example.

OK, you’re a fan of Country Music. The first staggered song that comes to mind: The Gambler, by the late Kenny Rogers. It opens with some finger picking… Then vocals… Then there’s some kind of percussion that sounds like a combination of a wooden block and dripping water. Instruments continue to build after that until the full band joins in.

Psalm 150 is staggered, and it builds:

It opens with what reads like a vocal solo in verses one and two.
In verses three through five, no less than eight instruments are introduced one-at-a-time, and some of those are plural.
The last verse is a turn-the-dial-to-full volume involving “everything that has breath.”

We’d expect nothing less from the closing psalm.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Your Praise Is Possessive As God’s Plan For You Builds, and #2 Your Praise Is Progressive As God’s Plan For You Builds.

#1 – Your Praise Is Possessive As God’s Plan For You Builds (v1-2)

The psalms are songs. We may not have the sheet music; but we must remember that they are songs.

In our commitment to teach verse-by-verse, we are driven to exposit the psalms as we do the historical books, or the Gospels, or the Epistles. If we do that with psalms, we are cheating ourselves.

Songs tend to elicit emotions and feelings. There’s nothing wrong with being inspired to feel by a psalm. In fact, we should get emotional.

If Psalm 150 doesn’t elicit strong feelings, we’re not doing it justice.

Psa 150:1  Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament!

The final five psalms begin and end with “Praise the LORD,” i.e., “Hallelujah!” It’s good to be reminded that “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

There is going to be a lot of praising in our future. We won’t be sitting around playing harps, doing nothing. It’s more like everything will be so truly awesome that praising the LORD will be a constant. There’s a scene in chapter five of the Revelation where “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” of angels break out in praise, followed by “every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them… saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

In our psalm, the people of God were gathered at His “sanctuary,” probably the Second Temple.

Around 586BC, King Nebuchadnezzar’s troops destroyed the first Temple – built by Solomon. They were held as captives in Babylon for 70 years.
The Second Temple was built by Zerubbabel and others after the Jews returned from captivity. It is sometimes called, Zerubbabel’s Temple. In New Testament times, Herod was remodeling Zerubbabel’s Temple into the magnificent structure most of us think of today. It is sometimes referred to as Herod’s Temple. But Herod’s Temple is still considered to be the Second Temple.

(If you’re counting, the Temple that we read about in the Great Tribulation will be the third).

The Temple in Jerusalem was the real estate on the earth that God had prescribed in order to meet with Israel. Concerning the Ark of the Covenant that would be placed in the Holy of Holies in the Temple, we read in Exodus, “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel” (25:22).

I’m sure you’ve been to a music concert of some sort. The audience listens excitedly to the performance.

If the psalms have taught us anything, it is that in the sanctuary, the people were not an audience. They were participants.

Today, in the Church Age, there is no physical Temple. “Sanctuary” has a different meaning. At least two, in fact:

Jesus makes His sanctuary in the individual believer. In First Corinthians 3:16 we read, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

Jesus also makes His sanctuary among His people collectively. In Second Corinthians 6:16, speaking of the gathered believers, the apostle Paul said, “For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM. I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.”

We’re not an audience when we are gathered as the church. By our very presence, we are expected to be participants. Pastor Chuck Smith used to say that we are the choir.

Corporate worship should not be a performance. The worship team is here to lead us into our singing so that, all together, we are praising Jesus.

“Praise Him in His mighty firmament!” can be translated, Praise Him in the heavens.” The psalmist’s thoughts became elevated beyond life on the earth. He became aware that he was standing in the presence of Almighty God… In the specific place on earth that the LORD chose… Surrounded by the universe.

Think of it like this. David once sung, “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:4).

It was that same awareness that all the universe, and the earth in it, and the Temple on the earth, was created with the sole purpose of God having a relationship with me; with you; with whosoever will believe on Him.

Nonbelievers think it is ignorant and arrogant to suggest that the earth has that much significance in our vast universe.

That is largely because they scoff at, and immediately dismiss, special creation. When you approach Genesis as literal history, given to us by God (Who was there), you see that creation was necessary so that He could make man in His image, and walk in a loving relationship with us.

Is that arrogant? I’d say it was romantic.

How many songs are there about what you’d give to the one you love if only you could?

Your Song has been covered by many artists:

I don’t have much money, but boy, if I did,
I’d buy a big house where we both could live.
I know it’s not much, but it’s the best I can do.
My gift is my song and this one’s for you.

In All I Have to Give, the Backstreet Boys sing, “I wish I could give the world to you but love is all I have to give.” Not very original, but you get the idea.

Well guess what? God IS in a position to give the world to us. His love for us is extravagant. Why wouldn’t He create a universe for us?

Have you watched It’s a Wonderful Life this season? Trying to convey his love for Mary, George says to her, “What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word, and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.”

The word I’m using to convey all this is possessive. It’s a word that can carry a negative connotation. But not if you are in love. As a romance word, it is endearing. It suggests a healthy desire to keep and protect the one you love.

Psa 150:2  Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!

We might be tempted to think of “His mighty acts” as the parting of the Red Sea for Moses; or the day the sun stood still for Joshua; or the global flood in the days of Noah. Mighty acts indeed!

In the context set by verse one, His “mighty acts” would be His redeeming the human race by His plan to come into the world as the God-man to die in our place on the Cross. When you think about them, the flood, the Red Sea, halting the sun, were all performed by God for one purpose: To further His plan to provide the world with the Savior, Jesus Christ.

What a great start to this last psalm. The people of God were in the one place in the entire universe where the presence of God was revealed to them in a mighty way.

Wherever we are, gathered together, collectively, we are that place in the universe where God manifests His presence in mighty ways.

Jesus is possessive of us. We ought to be possessive of Him. We do it by not allowing anyone, or anything, to distract us from our beloved Bridegroom.

#2 – Your Praise Is Progressive As God’s Plan For You Builds (v3-6)

I think it’s safe to say that You’re a little bit Country, and I’m a little bit Rock n’ Roll.

Musical styles… Musical instruments… Song selection. Christians are never going to agree. And it doesn’t seem Christians want to agree to disagree.

Can we take our cue for corporate worship from the psalms? Even if we wanted to, it would be hard. Biblical Archaeology Review noted the following:

There are no ancient music notations to inform us on the music arrangements of psalms. What’s more, even though the collection of Biblical psalms as we know it from the Hebrew Bible was established quite late, the oldest psalms were likely composed already in the 14th century BC, from which we have no adequate documentation from Israelites themselves. We do not possess depictions of people performing psalms. The Bible does not tell us much about how psalms were originally performed.

God has wisely not prescribed any single liturgy. We have freedom to worship Him in new ways, with new songs.

We can say, from Psalm 150, that just about every instrument available was employed.

Psa 150:3  Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp!
Psa 150:4  Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
Psa 150:5  Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!

Before we move on, I should say something about “Praise Him with… dance.” Every few years, dance gets reintroduced into worship, usually at an influential church. It’s mostly what you’d call ‘interpretive dance,’ a soloist or a troop praising God through their movements.

The Hebrew word for “dance” used here is machol. Since it’s a Hebrew word, in a Jewish context, let’s let a Jewish resource explain it to us:

The Bible doesn’t tell us what their dancing looked like exactly, but early Jewish literature presented the machol as a circle dance. The 16th century Jewish sage known as the Maharal of Prague explains that in a circle every person faces God, who is in the center, equally and divinely connecting to Him from all sides. At all Jewish simchas (festive occasions) such as weddings, or bat mitzvahs, and many of the Jewish holidays, you will see Jews cheerfully dancing in circles with arms tightly locked as brothers.

If you want to dance at church – lock and loop. You can use the ga-ga pit. We can rename it the Machol Pit. You can do a Machol Minuet… Or a Machol Moonwalk.

I don’t think the list of instruments in Psalm 150 was meant to be exclusive. The psalmist meant to convey that any and all instruments could be used in praising the LORD in song. Stringed or wind or percussion – properly arranged to bring attention to the LORD – use them.

One of our guiding principles here at CalvaryHanford is to recognize the gifts and abilities of the believers who decide to lock arms with us (so to speak). With regards to those who lead us as the choir… If there were no guitar players, but there were piano players… We’d be piano-led, because that’s God’s gifting to us.

If there were no musicians at all, we’d sing a cappella.

We do have some basic, bedrock ideas about style:

We prefer contemporary choruses over hymns; it’s just who we are. We were a result of the revival historians call the Jesus Movement. One of the questions we asked and answered was, “Why should the devil have all the good music?

We like order rather than chaos, so we don’t open-up Sunday mornings to the congregation sharing their individual spiritual gifts.

We can’t be sure that this psalm was staggered, starting with vocals then adding instruments one at a time, then more instruments, crescendo-ing with “loud cymbals” and “clanging cymbals.” But I’d like to think so.

Psa 150:6  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!

I read somewhere this week, “Every breath is the gift of God and praise is the worthy response we should make for that gift.”

Derek Kidner noted that the literal phrase is, “Let all breath praise the Lord.” Then he commented, “His glory fills the universe; His praise must do no less.” .

John Trapp wrote, “We have all as much reason to praise God as we have need to draw breath.”

G. Campbell Morgan said, “The one condition of praise is the possession of breath, that is to say, life received from Him must return in praise to Him.”
Albert Barnes said, “Let a breathing universe combine in one solemn service of praise.” He was thinking ahead to eternity when the universe will have been redeemed and restored by God’s plan for it. Praise will be the vey air that we breathe.

There’s a lyric in a song by Chicago that captures a sense of what our praising God on earth is like: “Only the beginning of what I want to feel forever.”

What do I mean, your praise is progressive? Simply that you grow in praise as you make progress along God’s plan for your life. Every up, every down, and all that is in between, can further your awe at the wonder of His love for you.

Every morning you awake, God’s mercies are yours to experience in news ways. Every blessing, every buffeting, takes you deeper into His love for you.

You don’t just make progress on your path. You make progress in knowing Jesus.

When I was a young believer, Pastor Don McClure quoted Psalm 103:7, “[God] made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel.” He pointed out that Israel knew of God, through His works. But Moses knew the ways of God – His heart, His purposes, His character. He had progressed.

If you want to know the ways, and not just the works, of God, start by embracing grace. If you’re going to err, err on the side of grace. Read the Bible with grace in mind, not law. Prefer the spirit of the law, not the letter of it.

Here’s a gauge: In your Christian walk, and in ministering to others, do you emphasize what you must do for God? Or do you emphasize what God has done for you?

Thus ends the Book of Psalms. Alexander Maclaren said, “Psalm 150 is more than an artistic close of the Psalter: it is a prophecy of the last result of the devout life, and, in its unclouded sunniness, as well as in its universality, it proclaims the certain end of the weary years for the individual and for the world.”

We sing a song here, Golden City. One of its lyrics is,

Soon your trials will be over
Offered up by mercy’s hand
A better view than where you’re standing
A doorway to another land

F.B. Meyer said, “Your life may resemble the psalter with its varying moods, its light and shadow, its sob and smile; but it will end with Hallelujahs! if only you will keep true to the will and way and work of the Most Holy.”