Blessings of Worship
Notes
Transcript
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
Psalm 148:7-13
Prayer
Prayer
Adoration: King of Creation, name alone exalted, majesty above earth + heaven!
Confession: …we have sinned: listened to counsel of wicked instead of delighting in Word/followed temptation instead of turning to you//may we be humbled before you b/c of our sin
Thanksgiving: Those who humble themselves before you in repentance, you exalt!
Supplication: Help us to delight in your Word => eyes on you, to grow; praise: you have known us! Conform us to Christ; Mothers: endurance, hope, faith; Barren: comfort, hope, faith; SGC—that they would stand firm in one Spirit, striving side by side for gospel/not frightened by any opponents, but faithful to You in the face of hostility/rest for Bryan in his upcoming sabbatical => renewed for further shepherding; drug addictions in PDX; church in Latin America: faithfulness + clear gospel + grow
Family Matters
Family Matters
MD flowers, Wednesday fellowship meal, Workday (20th 9-12), Kyleigh Shower (20th, 1 pm), Brunch by the Men for the ladies (21st, 9:45)
Benediction
Benediction
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Sermon
Sermon
Intro
Intro
So easy to get blessing wrong…
to totally misunderstand what the blessed life is.
Not just ‘people out there’ = prosperity gospel preachers/humanists (blessing = finding happiness in yourself)
Us too!
We just learned that “delighting in God’s Word” brings blessing—
Why? Might think—
“Maybe if I just learn enough of God’s rules + principles = I’ll get good at doing life = I’ll experience more blessing.” => not completely false, but if that’s all you have, you’ll crash and burn!
“Maybe there’s just something mystical about the Bible—at least if I read the right passages, it will make me feel better, and I’ll be blessed...” => shred of truth… not it!
“I believe it b/c Psalm 1 says it, but I’m not sure why…”
We’ve learned how blessing comes to you (delighting in the Word), what it looks like (= a fruitful tree), but not what it is—what is at it’s core
Interesting: Psalm 1 and 2 are placed at front of Psalter to say, “delight in these Psalms, and you will be blessed” + “take refuge in Messiah, and you will be blessed” (going to see that in a few weeks… )
OK. So if that’s how it begins: ‘here’s where you find blessing’… how does it end? With 5 psalms of worship!
Why does it begin + end that way? With how to receive blessing//with the worship of God?
What does worshiping God have to do with blessing?
***Worship itself is the most central part of blessing!***
Today we’re going to see this ‘blessedness of worship’ by delighting in one of those last five psalms of worship: Psalm 147
A: The Delight of Worship
A: The Delight of Worship
Command to Praise: Worship is Delightful + Fitting
Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
**What doing? Giving you a reason to praise...
I would have said: b/c the Lord is worthy… true… but not what said here
It is good to worship b/c it is pleasant + fitting
Pleasant: OK translation… but maybe that word is too lightweight… maybe, “for it is delightful” => psalm wants us to come away thinking, “there could be no higher delight than this”
Fitting: again, a good translation, but the meaning: “what in all creation could be more fitting than God’s people giving him praise?”
But why is it so deeply delightful + fitting? It’s a psalm, not an epistle… not going to tell us directly why. Answer is found in experiencing the Psalm.
[Delighting in his Grace]
The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Why did Jerusalem need to be built up?
=> had become so wicked, that the Lord had sent a Babylonian army to destroy the city
+ scatter the people (became refugees, forced to move to other countries)
What did it mean to belong to God’s people at that point?
=> great city = destroyed (w/ temple)
+ driven out of the land where God had dwelled w/ his people
+ brokenhearted/wounded from all of this suffering => caused by sin + injustice
Might expect: the Lord deserts wicked Jerusalem for good…
We read: ‘The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers… (etc.)
This partially fulfilled @ return from exile… truly fulfilled in Christ, who gathers us to the Father + binds up our wounds w/ his own
The point?
=> Worship the Lord for his unexpected forgiveness and compassion toward sinners and sufferers
=> Look to him as the only source of mercy + healing for the broken heart;
=> Delight in his grace
[Delighting in his Power + Understanding]
but not only grace that demands our worship:
He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
‘determines’ = counts; not an estimate: he names each one
=> naming = authority over: as their Lord, he measures their number + names each one
=> add enough zeros, and you can mathematically represent the approximate number of starts that scientists believe exist… but you cannot actually picture or grasp that number… each one a vast, burning orb
=> behold your God: he effortlessly numbers, names, and commands them!
And so: “his understanding is beyond measure”
=> “number” = “measure”
=> comparison: the whole mind-numbingly vast creation, he measures and commands as King over it all; but none can measure him—he is measureless
The point?
=> delight in his infinite wisdom and power!
=> and did you question if he could really build up Jerusalem? Gather in the exiles?
[Delighting in his Redeeming Justice]
The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.
With measureless understanding, he uses his power to redeem the humble + judge the wicked.
delight in your God—he is able!
Conclusion: Do you see? It is good to delight in God’s perfections.
“Better is one day in his house than thousands elsewhere”—access to God, to worship him, is the highest and most central blessing… but why?
B: God Takes Delight in the Weak Worshiper
B: God Takes Delight in the Weak Worshiper
look at the next stanza—vs. 7-11
[Command to Praise]
Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre!
Again, a command to praise… why?
[God’s Sovereign Power in Creation = Doesn’t Care About Human Power!]
He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.
What does this picture?
He gives food to the young ravens, crying out from the nest: physically, it is the mother bird who brings the food—yet the psalm says, “this is an act of God”
Contemplate this:
=> though the water cycle covers the heavens w/ clouds
+ pressure fronts prepare rain for the earth
+ sun and rain make grass grow on the hills...
=> yet: it is more ultimately God who does all these things
=> he “upholds the universe by the word of his power”
=> every sub-atomic particle//fiber of the universe exists and moves by his will and command
so here, he cares for the most minute things in his creation: a blade of grass, a drop of rain, a baby bird… according to his infinite power, by which he causes everything that happens
What’s the point? His power is immeasurable, vast, total—critical to understand the whole psalm!
[Instead, Delights in Those who Fear + Hope = Worship]
Given God’s total sovereign power, what do we need to know?
His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
Why this talk of horses + the legs of a man? = military might.
Do you really think that impresses God?!
=> chariots of Egypt?
=> M1 Abrams? nuclear arsenal?
What are you going to impress God with? A: Nothing! Psalm wants you to see: very idea of impressing God = insanity!!!
If we cannot impress him, then how will we relate to him? A: fear + hope
Fear = the attitude that comes from getting a gimps of his sovereign power
=> but, doesn’t say ‘well, if you fear him, you have a chance to relate to him’: if you fear him, he takes pleasure in you
=> means something like, “in that moment when you are struck silent by the unapproachable majesty of God… paradoxically, in that moment he is near to you”
+ ‘he takes pleasure in those who fear him’ very close to Ps. 1: he knows those who delight in his Law => we come to fear him through his Word, and so we are known by him
Hope = in what? Steadfast love = his faithfulness to build up Jerusalem, heal the broken hearted even when they’ve made themselves his enemies = ultimately, his faithfulness to redeem sinners
=> Do I belong to this God? Does he know me?
=> Do you fear him? And, have you hoped in his steadfast love, which has come to you through Jesus Crucified?
=> That hope/faith in God’s redeeming love + power at the cross is what brings you to him and saves you.
=> You could try to trust in some kind of strength—to empress God w/ your prowess/good deeds/righteous heart… insanity!!!
=> Who experiences salvation? The one whose hope is in GOD’s POWER to redeem.
But… not just about salvation—this is a Psalm about Worship
=> What is at the heart of true worship? Fear + Hope…
+ recognition of God’s total power, absolute holiness, pure goodness, merciful kindness…
+ especially as we learn them in his Word
=> Only fitting way for weak, sinful little creatures to relate to Almighty God
=> But… surprise: the Lord takes pleasure in weak little worshipers like us!
What greater blessing could their possibly be, than this:
=> to have your heart filled by seeing the measureless power and faithful love of God,
=> and for God to take pleasure in you when you turn to him in this way?
A’: The Delight of Worship
A’: The Delight of Worship
Now that we’ve seen that:
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
Again, command to praise
Why?
[Delighting in the Curse Reversal for Zion]
For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you. He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
Another picture of devastated, ruined Zion, restored to life
Children = common way to refer to God’s people => now no longer in exile, but flourishing within God’s city
Again:
=> partly fulfilled when they returned from exile in Babylon
=> true fulfillment at the cross, when by Jesus’ death on our behalf, we were brought from darkness to light, into the kingdom, as God’s children
=> total fulfillment in the New Creation, when all will be peace and blessing
Yet even in the NC, center of blessing will to know God in Worship
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Center of blessing will be to see the infinite God (in a manor of speaking) face-to-face
=> to know the Father far more deeply through the Son far more deeply, overflowing so much more with the Spirit
=> to know him unclouded by everything that clouds our vision now, even as he knows us.
Point of seeing all this? To delight in his grace, that he would save us and make himself known to us in this way!
[Delighting in His World-Governing Word]
But now, as with the first few verses, switch from praise for grace to praise for power…
He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
Here again we see the power of God in nature…
He gives snow: physically, it is certain conditions in the atmosphere which cause snow. Yet, the psalm says, “this is an act of God”
Again, contemplate this:
=> though it is certain temperatures and pressures that bring about snow, hail, wind...
=> yet: it is more ultimately God who brings them.
=> every sub-atomic particle//fiber of the universe//flake of snow//particle of air in a gust of wind exists and moves by his will and command
Who can stand before the bitterness of his cold? A: no one!
But… when he decides to melt them, they are gone.
Point? Praise him for his total power and infinite wisdom by which he governs all of creation!
---
Now, extra element here: his Word
=> his swift-running Word brings the snow (vs. 15)
=> he sends out his Word again, and melts it (vs. 18)
=> he “upholds the universe by the word of his power”
=> so, God’s Word is that by which he creates and upholds all things
OK. Cool. But why bring ‘Word’ into this psalm of worship? What’s the point?
[Delighting in His Covenant-People Forming Word]
look at the very next verse:
He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his rules. Praise the Lord!
Odd note to end the Psalm on?
What’s the point of saying that other nations, aside from Israel, don’t know God’s Word?
God made Israel into his covenant people by giving them his word + related to them through his word
=> nothing intrinsic to Israel made them God’s people… without his Word, they would have been just like every other nation
=> but in his grace, God gave them his Word => made them his own people
=> that’s what these verses are celebrating
=> in some sense, the same word by which God upholds the world is the same voice by which he speaks and so makes his people his people...
The same is true for us: we are his people because he has given us his Word.
=> By his Word, centered on the gospel, he has made us his people
=> By his Word, we know him, behold him—see his power and grace, worship him!
The point? Worship him for his grace in giving us his word and making us his people.
But also: do you desire the blessing of knowing + worshiping him? Go to his word, with a desire to meet him there: ex. go to Psalm 147, behold his majesty, and worship.
[Conclusion]
Now, I know it often isn’t as easy as that…
Wisdom needed:
=> grows over time—be patient + persevere
=> get help from others—you were never meant to grow in the faith in isolation from others
How about when you’re tired, hurt, in mental anguish? Shameful, guilty, afraid? The idea of joyful worship just doesn’t seem realistic!
We’re going to see that delighting in the Word—worship to God—takes on some very surprising forms in the psalter
But for now, what Psalm 1 and Psalm 147 show us is that blessing is found in delighting in God’s Word—the place where we meet and know and delight in and worship God...
Let this define our private practice of the faith throughout the week
Our life together gathered on Sunday morning
And everything in between
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