RETELL GOD’S WONDERFUL DEEDS AND BRING NEAR HIS NAME.
The Year of God's Power • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1. Psalm 75:1 (NKJV) — 1 We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.
2. One of the important functions of corporate worship is recital, that is, a “re-telling” of the wonderful things that God has done.
3. Psalm 78:2–4 (NKJV) — 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, 3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.
4. In fact, the New English Bible is a little closer to the Hebrew: “Thy name is brought very near to us in the story of thy wonderful deeds.”
5. In the telling of the stories, your Name is brought near to us.
6. Gods Name is brought near to us through the stories we tell of the great things He has done.
7. God’s “Name” is part of his gracious self-disclosure.
8. God name is revelation of who he is (Ex. 3:14; 34:5–7, 14).
a. Exodus 3:14 (NKJV) — 14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
b. Exodus 34:5–7 (NKJV) — 5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
c. Exodus 34:14 (NKJV) — 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
9. God’s “Name,” then, is brought very near us in the story of his wonderful deeds:
10. That is, who God is, is disclosed to us in the accounts of what he has done.
11. Thus, the recital of what God has done is a means of grace to bring God near to his people.
12. Believers who spend no time reviewing and pondering in their minds what God has done, whether they are alone and reading their Bibles or joining with other believers in corporate adoration, should not be surprised if they rarely sense that God is near.
13. Here are the thanks that are prompted by memory, and memory by ‘recital’; that is, by a re-telling of the great things God has done.
14. Asaph, the writer of Psalm 75 praised God for His nearness and His wondrous works on behalf of the people of Israel
15. For that thy name is near thy wondrous works men declare.
16. God is at hand to answer and do wonders, even in our darkest days he is most near
17. Your name is near. God’s name represents His presence.
18. God’s ‘Name’ is his nature, his identity, himself.
19. Although he is everywhere and is never absent, he is ‘near’ when he is ready to manifest himself through his words and deeds (compare Phil 4:5).
20. O God, We Recount Your Wondrous Deeds
21. We are the ones to whom God’s name is near, we are the people on whose account God has done his wondrous, mighty, awesome deeds.
22. A lot of thought should go into the question of what believers should remember.
23. Asaph finds himself in great distress (77:1).
24. Its causes we do not know, but most of us have passed through “dark nights of the soul” when it seems that either God is dead or he does not care. Asaph was so despondent he could not sleep; indeed, he charges God with keeping him from sleep (77:4).
25. Memories of other times when circumstances were so bright that he sang with joy in the night hours (77:6) serve only to depress him further.
26. Bitterness tinges his list of rhetorical questions: “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?” (77:7–9).
27. What Asaph resolves to focus on is all the ways God has disclosed himself in power in the past. He writes: “To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High” (77:10)—in other words, he appeals to all the displays of strength, of the deeds of God’s “right hand,” across the years. “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds” (77:11–12). So in the rest of the psalm, Asaph switches to the second person, addressing God directly, remembering some of the countless deeds of grace and power that have characterized God’s dealings with the covenant people of God. He remembers the plagues, the Exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea, the way God led his people “by the hand of Moses and Aaron” (77:13–20).
28. Christians have all the more to remember.
29. As Asaph “remembered” the Exodus by reading Scripture, so we have even more Scripture.
30. We remember not only all that Asaph remembered, but things he did not know: the Exile, the return from exile, the long years of waiting for the coming of the Messiah. We remember the Incarnation, the years of Jesus’ life and ministry, his words and mighty deeds. Above all, we remember his death and resurrection, and the powerful work of the Spirit at Pentecost and beyond.
31. And as we remember our faith is strengthened, our vision of God is renewed, and the despair lifts.
32. Deuteronomy 4:7 (NKJV) — 7 “For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?
33. Joshua 3:5 (NKJV) — 5 And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
34. Psalm 26:7 (NKJV) — 7 That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, And tell of all Your wondrous works.
35. Psalm 44:1 (NKJV) — 1 We have heard with our ears, O God, Our fathers have told us, The deeds You did in their days, In days of old:
36. Psalm 71:16–17 (NKJV) — 16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only. 17 O God, You have taught me from my youth; And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
37. Psalm 77:11–12 (NKJV) — 11 I will remember the works of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. 12 I will also meditate on all Your work, And talk of Your deeds.
38. Psalm 79:13 (NKJV) — 13 So we, Your people and sheep of Your pasture, Will give You thanks forever; We will show forth Your praise to all generations.
39. Psalm 105:2 (NKJV) — 2 Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works!
40. Psalm 107:8 (NKJV) — 8 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lordfor His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
41. Psalm 107:15 (NKJV) — 15 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lordfor His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
42. Psalm 145:5 (NKJV) — 5 I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works.
43. Psalm 145:12 (NKJV) — 12 To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
44. Psalm 145:18 (NKJV) — 18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
45. Isaiah 55:6 (NKJV) — 6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
46. Lamentations 3:57 (NKJV) — 57 You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, “Do not fear!”
47. Retelling of God’s wonderful deeds brings His Name near to us
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