Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 110 (part3).

I have a lovely wife!

When I come home from a hard day at work; do you know what she does for me?

She makes me a cup of tea.

[P] I sit down in my beanbag, and enjoy a bucket of tea – I rest, relax, work is done.

Fantastic!

But I don’t sit down until the job is done.

When it is completed then I get to sit down.

There is something in sitting that puts the seal on the work.

If you are standing, chasing around, it is because you are busy – there is work still to be done.

Sitting meant that you had finished your work.

When I sit down in my beanbag with a cup of tea, I have a rest [P] – I am worn out after a hard day’s work.

But God is omnipotent!

He doesn’t need to rest.

[Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Everlasting God, יהוה, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.]

Yet the Bible says that He rested!

[Genesis 1:31–2:3 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.

By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested (it says it again) from all His work which God had created and made.]

The whole concept of the Sabbath was born there.

You worked six days and rested on the seventh.

Notice that you don’t work six billion years before you get to rest!

But God was not worn out by His creating this universe – the very idea is ridiculous!

That is not why He rested; rather it was because He had completed what He set out to do.

He rested; sat back and enjoyed a work well done.

Revelled in His handiwork.

We have the record of what God created on the different days in chapter 1 of Genesis.

Six times it says that God saw what He made and that it was good: [P] “He saw that it was good”: the light in (v.4), the separating of the dry land from the water in (v.10), the creation of plants in (v.12), the creation of the stars in (v.18), the creation of the fish and birds in (v.21), and the creation of the land animals in (v.25).

But in (v.31) it says: [P] “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

It was when it was all completed that He said that it was “very good”.

All the parts separately were “good”; but they were components of the whole.

Each, although individually good, held together in one cohesive whole; fitted together and integrated into one creative masterpiece.

I had a bit of an insight into this the other day.

Rhoda, Nathaniel and I went around to Robin and Pauline’s.

Robin was in the workshop working on a guitar – there are guitars everywhere!

Robin showed me some of what he has been doing.

There was one he was making for Johnathon – I think Robin was pretty pleased with it – there was this inlaid work around the sound-hole and poker-work for the headstock; but the neck was not attached to the body.

[P] The guitar was not finished yet.

Now, I can see Robin examining his work and saying – that has come out well, he is pleased with what he has done – “he sees that it is good”.

He examines it as he goes along; but there is still work to be done.

What he has done is really good, he is pleased, satisfied, it couldn’t be better BUT you can’t play a tune on it!

It isn’t finished yet!

Robin He sees that this needs doing or that needs adjusting.

He can’t rest yet because it isn’t completed.

But when the guitar is put together, strung, tuned; Robin finally gets to play it!

[P] To see how it sounds!

Notice that he is sitting down to play.

Satisfied with a finished work!

Not only were the individual parts good; but now it is complete!

It is very good!

There is nothing more to be done!

He can sit down in a beanbag and have a cup of tea!

He rests; not because he is exhausted; but because of satisfaction in a job well done, the satisfaction of completion! [P] God was not worn out from creating the universe; it was the rest of taking delight in His handiwork – a job well done!

יהוה and His Son, the personification of wisdom, working together, took delight I their handiwork: [Proverbs 8:27–31 when He established the heavens, there I was (that is wisdom speaking), when He drew a circle upon the face of the deep, when He made skies from above, when He founded fountains of the deep, when He assigned his limits to the sea, that waters shall not transgress His command, when He marked the foundations of the earth, I was beside him, a master workman, and I was delighting day by day, rejoicing before Him always, rejoicing in the world of His earth, and My delight was with the children of humankind.]

You sit down when the job is done, completed, finished.

This is the idea that was latched onto by some in the early church when they read Psalm 110.

We have been having a wee look at the use of this Psalm in the New Testament.

[P] Last time I spoke, we looked at Jesus’ use of this Psalm; from it He showed conclusively that the Messiah had to be more than merely the son of David [P].

I used the passage in Matthew 22; but the same incident is recorded in Mark 12 and Luke 20.

Jesus based His interpretation on the first 6 words of this Psalm: [P] “The Lord said to my Lord” – not, perhaps a phrase that we would draw great spiritual truth from; but Jesus did!

But if Jesus drew truth from just a few introductory words; the writer of the book of Hebrews used even fewer words – in fact, just one!

The word: [P] “SIT”!

The word Hebrew “sit” in Psalm 110:1 not only means “sit” but to “dwell” – Abraham and the patriarchs were nomads, living in tents, moving from place to place.

The Israelites travelled through the wilderness – always on the move.

When you got to “dwell” in a place, “sit” it was an end to being on the move; it implied: “rest”; rest from all your wanderings.

Now the person who wrote Hebrews picked up on this concept of “rest” from this word “sit” in this verse.

Psalm 110 was about the Messiah and in it יהוה tells Him to “sit”; to “rest”.

[P] Hebrews makes basically the same point three times, using this verse – and that is not the only point the writer of Hebrews makes from this verse.

Funnily enough, the book of Hebrew was written to Hebrews!

You know, Jews.

They had become Christians, believed in Jesus; but things had got tough, they had got a bit disillusioned; and they were thinking of going back to their old religion, Judaism.

The writer is really concerned about this tendency and is at pains to point out how much better the Christian faith is to the Jewish religion, with all its ceremonies, priests and sacrifices.

He compares the temple rituals with what Jesus did.

Let’s pick it up in: [Hebrews 10:10–18 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

(that is what Jesus did – one sacrifice, effective for all time never to be repeated.

In contrast, in the Jewish religion:) Every priest stands (they were always busy, never finished) daily ministering (they had to repeat it every day) and offering time after time the same sacrifices, (it went on and on, the same old thing) which can never take away sins; (and it was totally ineffective) [P] but He, having offered one sacrifice (in contrast to the many) for sins for all time, (effective forever) sat down (finished, completed, so he sat down) at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.

(there is the quotation of Psalm 110:1) For by one offering (in contrast to the many) He has perfected for all time (effective forever, nothing more needed.

The job is done completed.)

those who are sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

(nothing more is needed)] – see the emphasis on a completed work which needs nothing more done – the contrast between the standing priests, who always had more to do; and Jesus sitting who had completed what He came to do.

He did it once and it is effective forever!

A perfect effectual sacrifice!

Hallelujah!

Glory to His Name! Talking of “perfect”, may I digress onto vacuum cleaners?

[P] We used to have vacuum cleaner like this.

I am not saying that it was perfect, but in its day, the Tellus, was the last word in vacuum cleaners.

You may be partial to your Dyson or Electrolux; but “Tellus” will remind you of a Greek word [P] “τελος” – it means “end” or “finish” it is the root of that word “perfected” in (Hebrews 10:14).

When something is perfect, you don’t do anything more.

Anything else you do will make it less than perfect.

So, the verb from this root, not only means [P] to end or finish, but to succeed, accomplish your purpose, perfect.

When something is perfect, accomplished, at an end, finished; then you can sit down.

These Jewish Christians were in danger of going back to a religion that accomplished nothing, “could never take away sins”; was forever busy but never actually getting anything done.

But Jesus had finished the work with one perfect sacrifice that was effective forever.

I mean, which would you choose?! Something that didn’t work that placed continued demands; or a perfect, effective, accomplished work that was finished and needed nothing more done?