The Blessed Life: God is our King
The Blessed Life • Sermon • Submitted
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· 77 viewsThe eternal God deserves eternal praise from all He has made.
Notes
Transcript
12/13/20
Dominant Thought: The blessed life proclaims God as King!
Objectives:
I want my listeners to understand the responsibility for all peoples to bless God.
I want my listeners to praise the works of God to the next generation.
I want my listeners to see how the Psalms point to Jesus.
As we begin today, I want to play a game. I’m going to give you and abbreviation, and I want to see if you know what it means. It may be related to text messaging or it may simply be something that we have used before. For example, when people would actually write letters, then want to add something, they would use the letters, “PS.” Postscript. How about: ASAP—As Soon As Possible. LOL—Laughing Out Loud. FYI—For Your Information. G2G—Got to go. CU L8R—See You Later
The Psalms had a way to use letters to attract attention. There are a handful of Psalms that use a poetic device called an acrostic. We use it in English poetry, too. In these acrostic Psalms, they arrange the lines of the poem to go with their letters of their alphabet. The first line begins with the letter A, then B, C, D. Psalm 145 is one of those poems that begins with successive letters in the Hebrew alphabet. They had 22 letters. Psalm 145 reminds us that the blessed life proclaims God as King! In Psalm 145, we find the ABC’s for proclaiming God as King.
All Peoples
Bless God
in Christ.
First, All peoples are called to bless God.
All peoples begins with me. Listen to how the psalm begins.
I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Notice the first person use, “I will extol…I will bless you.” Before we can expect those around us to bless God, we must take responsibility to bless God. The word for extol means to lift up. So, my friends are we lifting up God. Do we respect and honor His name, His word, His ways?
Not only are individuals called to bless God, but the Psalm concludes with inviting all flesh to praise God. The word for “all” is used 17 times in these 21 verses. There is a universal nature to this Psalm.
My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
The worship of the king is for communities of people. Join me in praying that all peoples will bless God’s holy name forever and ever. The theme of all peoples is repeated again in verse 14, “all who are falling and all who are bowed down.” Again in verse 18, “all who call on him in truth,” and in verse 20, “all who love him.”
One way that all peoples can bless God is for one generation to praise God’s works to the next generation. Listen to Psalm 145.4-7 and 10-13.
One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power,
to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.
My friends, Psalm 145 reminds us our responsibility to commend the works of God to the next generation or to praise the works of God from one generation to another (Ps. 145.4). I want to see a generation of parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles excited about Jesus and showing and telling the good works about God. Everyone is wired up with different personalities, but each follower of Jesus should have an abiding passion of God’s works.
Here’s one way this looks. [Show picture of Hope and I, cleaning fish.] I try to get my kids outside and away from electronics as much as I can. Last weekend, we went fishing with our friend Kristopher. We caught lots of fish that day. Hope was able to catch fish. While we’re out catching fish, I’m able to tell the kids how cool God’s creation is. That is one way to share.
My friends, these are challenging times for our children. Last week, we remembered Pearl Harbor, an event that transformed a generation. For other generations it was Vietnam or September 11. We are living in one of those moments now for this generation. What this generation is enduring in their education experience and life in general will shape them the rest of their lives. Please seize this moment to invest in them to harness this experience with the truth and power of God.
Grandparents and extended family members, you are in a key position to influence your grandchildren or great grandchildren. For some, God may be giving you a second chance. All of us could have done better raising our own kids. Now that you have more life experience and more time in God’s word, you are in a key position to commend the works of God to the next generation. Maya Angelou says it this way, “Hope is born again in the faces of children. It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets” (Amazing Peace—A Christmas Poem).
One of the prayers that I pray each week for my children that I invite you to pray is for God to bring godly adults into their lives. Many of you in this room or online are an answer to that prayer. So, while the primary responsibility lies with the immediate family, we still need other adults to come alongside our parents to reinforce those godly values and truths from Scripture. That’s why the pray for me campaign to pray for our students is so important. Children need some relationships with other people outside their family to help bridge that gap to keep them in the faith and in God’s kingdom in the future.
All Peoples...
“Bless God” is the second letter for our ABC’s of proclaiming God as king. Psalm 145 opens in verse one with “my God and King.” Then, later in verses 10-13, we have reference to God’s kingdom.
All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power,
to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.
Psalm 145 is another King Psalm that reminds us who really is ruling the universe. No matter who sits in the White House and whether you agree or disagree with our president or governmental leaders, Psalm 145 reminds us who really is King. His kingdom is one of power and glory and might and endures through all generations. Eugene Peterson translates verse 13 as, “you never get voted out of office.”
Psalm 145.8-9 gives us a great reminder of what kind of King our God is. These verses are a refrain that appear throughout the Old Testament first given to Moses at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 34.6. These verse are the most often quoted sayings in the Old Testament and at least three other times in the Psalms.
The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
Verses 8-9 give us a good picture of who Jesus is: gracious, merciful, slow to anger (literally, long of nose), and abounding in steadfast love. Isn’t that the type of king you want?
In Psalm 145.13-20, David gives us ever more pictures of the words and works of God.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.
The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
Derek Kidner shares How God provides for His people (Psalms 73-150: An Introduction and Commentary).
Help for those who are falling (145.14). The New English Bible says, “straightens backs that are bent.”
Food for all creatures (145.15-16). Jesus taught us to ask the Father to “give us this day our daily bread.”
Answers for those who pray (145.18-19). The word for near could include being within earshot, but may also include closeness of friends.
Protection for those who are His (145.20). God watches over His people in the midst of the wicked.
Those are the reasons we can bless God, but what does it look like? We lift up the name of from verse one and we bow down in verse 14. We also call out to Him in prayer as in verses 18 and 19.
When we bless God through these Psalms, we bless Christ which completes our A, B, C’s.
All Peoples Bless God in Christ.
Christ sang these psalms. The was his song book. Christ prayed these psalms. This was his prayer book. These Psalms are sung by him and for him.
What’s beautiful about the Psalms is that they were found on the lips of Jesus on the first Easter evening. The risen Christ meets his followers and asks for some fish to eat and then said.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Do you realize that this Psalm of David written 1,000 years before Jesus was written with Jesus in mind? When you read the Psalms, you are reading a book about Jesus. This may be one reason that the early church encourage new Christians to start reading the Psalms before they read the gospels.
Psalm 145 praises God who in Christ is has come near. After the angel appeared to Joseph, Matthew records a prophecy from Isaiah 7.14.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
The Lord is near. Immanuel, God with us. God is a God who is a king who has come near. That is what we celebrate this season as we near Christmas.
As God came near in Christ, he continues to reign forever. In the gospel of Matthew, he continues his portrait of Jesus as king with the wise men in chapter two.
The wise men set off on a journey with a question for king Herod, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?” (Matthew 2.2). The wise men had seen his star in East and had come to worship this newborn king. Once they find king Jesus, they fall down and worship Jesus (Matthew 2.11).
Worshippers of God is who we are not just what we do. David is calling all people throughout history to embrace their identity as worshippers of God who will continually offer praise to God.
Psalm 145 is bookended with the phrase forever and ever in verses 1,2 and 21. Since God is eternal, then His reign and His praise will never end. The eternal God deserves eternal praise from all He has made. It is as simple as A-B-C.
5 Day Devotional Guide on Psalm 145
Dominant Thought: The blessed life proclaims God as King!
You may want to refer to the sermon notes for further discussion. Take a moment to read the assigned Scripture and then reflect or discuss the questions. Customize this outline to your situation. Here are some questions to ask from the Discovery Bible Method:
What are you thankful for today or this week?
What challenges are you facing?
Have 2 or 3 people read the scripture out loud.
Can you summarize this passage in your own words?
What did you discover about God from this passage?
What have you learned about people from this passage?
How are you going to obey this passage? (What is your “I will” statement?)
With whom are you going to share what you have learned?
Based on this passage, what can we pray about?
Day 1: Psalm 145.1-3
Day 2: Psalm 145.4-7
Day 3: Psalm 145.8-9
Day 4: Psalm 145.10-13
Day 5: Psalm 145.14-21