WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.380 On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. 2 00:00:09.380 --> 00:00:21.800 All other ground is sinking sand. 3 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:44.520 We have been talking about worshipping God for the past few weeks. 4 00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:54.540 Even through the Christmas time, when we were talking about God, the Lord Jesus coming, a great deal of the focus has been on the nature of God, His glory. 5 00:00:54.540 --> 00:00:58.670 God is a glorious God and He is worthy of our worship. 6 00:00:58.670 --> 00:01:03.300 We have been thinking about God’s worth, and He is worthy of our worship. 7 00:01:03.300 --> 00:01:17.180 As we began to talk about worship, as worship is used in the Bible, it is used in two ways: It is used to talk about our overall life, all of life. 8 00:01:17.180 --> 00:01:21.800 We are to worship God in all of life with every activity. 9 00:01:21.800 --> 00:01:41.860 When the prophet Jonah was when God brought about that storm on the sea and the prophet Jonah was identifying himself to the other sailors, he says, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” 10 00:01:41.860 --> 00:01:44.250 He is talking about his whole manner of life. 11 00:01:44.250 --> 00:01:46.940 He is the worshipper of Yahweh . 12 00:01:46.940 --> 00:01:54.140 In contrast to those words, Psalm 102 says, “Worship the Lord with gladness. 13 00:01:54.140 --> 00:01:55.530 Come before Him with joyful songs.” 14 00:01:55.530 --> 00:02:10.480 These are the things that we are doing this morning: coming together to praise God, to call attention to the glory of God, and to remind ourselves of who He is, worshipping God in that way, to give Him thanks and praise. 15 00:02:10.480 --> 00:02:13.410 This morning we are coming to a Psalm of praise. 16 00:02:13.410 --> 00:02:16.020 We are going to look at Psalm 113 . 17 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:22.540 You may turn to that passage and follow along as we read. 18 00:02:22.540 --> 00:02:25.420 This is a Psalm of praise. 19 00:02:25.420 --> 00:02:42.600 It is one of the Psalms that, in all likelihood, the Lord Jesus sang with His disciples as they celebrated the Passover meal together. 20 00:02:42.600 --> 00:02:48.260 You remember the Gospels say that when they went out, they sang a hymn. 21 00:02:48.260 --> 00:02:57.000 In the traditions of Passover, they would sing these Psalms , Psalm 113 through 118 . 22 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:06.660 Some they would sing just before the Passover meal and some just after, because these are Psalms of praise. 23 00:03:06.660 --> 00:03:19.930 Psalm 113 was sung at most of the Jewish festivals. 24 00:03:19.930 --> 00:03:26.480 It is a hymn of praise to God. 25 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:31.820 This group of Psalms is called the Egyptian Hallel Psalms . 26 00:03:31.820 --> 00:03:34.860 The word Hallel means praise. 27 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:39.820 If you notice in verse 1, it says, “Praise the Lord.” 28 00:03:39.820 --> 00:03:44.280 In Hebrew, that’s a single word, that’s Hallelujah . 29 00:03:44.280 --> 00:03:45.520 Hallelujah . 30 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:49.060 You notice how the Psalm ends, Hallelujah . 31 00:03:49.060 --> 00:03:53.060 We sang a hymn this morning that was Hallelujah . 32 00:03:53.060 --> 00:03:59.190 It’s the same word in English, just brought over to English. 33 00:03:59.190 --> 00:04:05.020 The first part, the Hallel part, is to praise. 34 00:04:05.020 --> 00:04:08.340 And the Yah part is the name of God. 35 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:11.120 We are to praise Him, praise His name. 36 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:20.730 So this is this beautiful hymn, this beautiful Psalm , one of God’s hymns for us. 37 00:04:20.730 --> 00:04:31.320 We are going to look at this morning and meditate on why we are to praise God, why are we to praise Him? 38 00:04:31.320 --> 00:04:38.280 And pay some attention to the commandment for us to praise Him. 39 00:04:38.280 --> 00:04:45.940 So please follow along in your Bible as we read Psalm 113 . 40 00:04:45.940 --> 00:04:51.040 This is God’s holy word. 41 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:52.920 Praise the Lord! 42 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:57.580 Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! 43 00:04:57.580 --> 00:05:01.920 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever. 44 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:07.560 From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. 45 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:12.860 The Lord is high above all nations; His glory above the heavens. 46 00:05:12.860 --> 00:05:24.340 Who is like the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth? 47 00:05:24.340 --> 00:05:33.700 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people. 48 00:05:33.700 --> 00:05:39.400 He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children. 49 00:05:39.400 --> 00:05:41.860 Praise the Lord! 50 00:05:41.860 --> 00:05:48.760 Let’s ask God to bless the reading of His word as we think about and meditate on these words this morning. 51 00:05:48.760 --> 00:05:58.920 Father, we are so grateful to You that out of Your abundant kindness, You reveal Yourself to us in Your word and You instruct us through Your word. 52 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:03.460 We thank You, Father, for this Psalm’s instruction to praise You. 53 00:06:03.460 --> 00:06:12.260 We thank You, Father, for the truths that this Psalm presents to us, which are some remarkable reasons why we are to praise You. 54 00:06:12.260 --> 00:06:28.780 We ask, Father, that You bless us this morning as we study this passage, that we hear Your voice this morning through Your word, that You open our heart to do what it says, to truly praise and worship You. 55 00:06:28.780 --> 00:06:38.060 And Father, that You instruct us through this word, so that we are better equipped to know You and appreciate the God that You are. 56 00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:43.780 Help us in these ways, Heavenly Father, we pray in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. 57 00:06:43.780 --> 00:06:48.010 Amen. 58 00:06:48.010 --> 00:06:54.890 Worshipping God is about value. 59 00:06:54.890 --> 00:06:58.780 We have made that point before over the past few weeks. 60 00:06:58.780 --> 00:07:16.480 The word glory, one of the Old Testament words translated glory in our Bible, is the Hebrew word Kavod , which means weighty, significant, or valuable. 61 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:18.740 God is precious and valuable. 62 00:07:18.740 --> 00:07:28.880 When we worship, we are crediting value. 63 00:07:28.880 --> 00:07:39.770 Everyone, Christian or not, everyone in this world worships. 64 00:07:39.770 --> 00:07:43.520 We are created to worship, and you cannot help it. 65 00:07:43.520 --> 00:07:47.640 There are things that you value more than anything else. 66 00:07:47.640 --> 00:07:52.020 That thing you value more than anything else is what you worship. 67 00:07:52.020 --> 00:07:56.480 It may be the things you have. 68 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:58.920 Some people value their wealth. 69 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:03.340 Some people value the pursuit of wealth. 70 00:08:03.340 --> 00:08:15.580 A young person may have a dream of what he wants to do in life or to achieve, and that becomes an overwhelming thing to him. 71 00:08:15.580 --> 00:08:20.160 That dream could be the thing he values more than anything else. 72 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:26.080 Those things you value more than anything else are what you are worshipping. 73 00:08:26.080 --> 00:08:39.880 This passage, among many in God’s word, is teaching us, instructing us that the most valuable thing, the most valuable person to worship is God Himself. 74 00:08:39.880 --> 00:08:43.500 There is nothing that compares with Him, nothing. 75 00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:48.520 God alone is worthy of our worship . 76 00:08:48.520 --> 00:08:53.100 This Psalm begins with the command for us to praise. 77 00:08:53.100 --> 00:08:55.180 We are to praise the Lord. 78 00:08:55.180 --> 00:08:56.840 “Praise the Lord. 79 00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:58.640 Praise, O servants of the Lord. 80 00:08:58.640 --> 00:09:01.780 Praise the name of the Lord.” 81 00:09:01.780 --> 00:09:06.940 The instruction here is to the servants of the Lord. 82 00:09:06.940 --> 00:09:13.840 This passage is addressing those people who belong to the Lord, who have been purchased. 83 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:20.160 In our case, as Christians today, you can see it very clearly from the New Testament perspective. 84 00:09:20.160 --> 00:09:35.560 We have been purchased by the Lord Jesus Himself, who paid for us, redeeming us from a place of sin, from the kingdom of darkness. 85 00:09:35.560 --> 00:09:37.000 We become His. 86 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:42.300 If you are not a servant of the Lord, then you do not belong to Him. 87 00:09:42.300 --> 00:09:44.700 We belong to the Lord Jesus. 88 00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:46.140 We are His servants. 89 00:09:46.140 --> 00:09:49.400 That’s a New Testament truth that is indisputable. 90 00:09:49.400 --> 00:09:57.770 No matter who you are, if you are truly a Christian, then you are a slave, a servant of God. 91 00:09:57.770 --> 00:10:05.220 There is no greater honor in this world than to be a servant of Christ. 92 00:10:05.220 --> 00:10:13.340 You might remember how the Apostle James begins his epistle . 93 00:10:13.340 --> 00:10:18.460 It’s an interesting thing because James was an earthly brother of the Lord. 94 00:10:18.460 --> 00:10:21.920 He was one of the Lord Jesus’s half-brothers. 95 00:10:21.920 --> 00:10:25.980 He grew up in the same house that the Lord Jesus grew up. 96 00:10:25.980 --> 00:10:28.240 He ate the same food. 97 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:31.040 He may even have slept in the same bed. 98 00:10:31.040 --> 00:10:37.160 He knew Jesus as a brother all his life. 99 00:10:37.160 --> 00:10:43.840 In the early church, James was one of the leaders of the early church. 100 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:47.280 He carried a great deal of authority. 101 00:10:47.280 --> 00:10:56.720 Nobody could point to any negative thing about James. 102 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:02.440 He was the primary leader of the church in Jerusalem. 103 00:11:02.440 --> 00:11:04.640 How does he begin his letter? 104 00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:16.300 He begins the letter, “James, a bondslave, James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” 105 00:11:16.300 --> 00:11:19.640 It tells you who Jesus is by someone who knows. 106 00:11:19.640 --> 00:11:25.740 He is the Lord who is worthy of all of our service, of all of our worship. 107 00:11:25.740 --> 00:11:35.070 So this passage is addressing the servants of the Lord and instructing us what we are to do. 108 00:11:35.070 --> 00:11:36.310 We are to praise Him. 109 00:11:36.310 --> 00:11:39.480 We are to give honor to His name. 110 00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:42.880 Verse 2 calls attention to the name of the Lord. 111 00:11:42.880 --> 00:11:48.880 Verses 1 and 2, the word name is repeated several times. 112 00:11:48.880 --> 00:11:50.600 “Praise the name of the Lord. 113 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:58.820 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth, from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” 114 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:03.820 It calls our attention to the name of God, to His name. 115 00:12:03.820 --> 00:12:07.620 The very first word is, “Praise the Lord.” 116 00:12:07.620 --> 00:12:16.520 When you see the word Lord in all caps, three times in this passage it mentions the word name. 117 00:12:16.520 --> 00:12:20.940 But look how many times the actual name of God is mentioned. 118 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:40.440 If you look in your Bible, if it’s like mine, if you see the word Lord in caps and small caps, they distinguish it that way to let you know that it is the name that is there. 119 00:12:40.440 --> 00:13:06.580 When the Jews would come across the name Yahweh , we sometimes say Jehovah , the same word describing the same thing, the same name of God, praise Yahweh , praise Yahweh . 120 00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:14.720 When the name is mentioned, they would say Adonai , which means Lord. 121 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:18.080 So it’s translated as Lord in our Bibles . 122 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:25.600 But when it is the actual name and not the word Lord, they put it in capital letters so that we know. 123 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:35.960 Look how many times it shows up this way in this Psalm : in verse 1, in verse 2, in verse 3, in verse 4, and in verse 5. 124 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:41.800 It’s over and over again, the very name of God is in this Psalm . 125 00:13:41.800 --> 00:13:44.080 It’s calling attention to the name. 126 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:51.060 Why is it calling attention to the name of God? 127 00:13:51.060 --> 00:13:55.560 We need to think about the name of God. 128 00:13:55.560 --> 00:14:00.040 The word Yahweh itself, what does it mean? 129 00:14:00.040 --> 00:14:10.780 It’s something of a question because it’s difficult to understand exactly the meaning of the name. 130 00:14:10.780 --> 00:14:20.660 As I said a few moments ago, we may not even know exactly how to pronounce the name because the Jews did not pronounce it. 131 00:14:20.660 --> 00:14:26.660 When we say Yahweh , that is as far as we know today the most likely meaning. 132 00:14:26.660 --> 00:14:34.930 When we say Jehovah , that is probably not as correct. 133 00:14:34.930 --> 00:14:39.640 There is a good reason we say that. 134 00:14:39.640 --> 00:14:49.060 The letters Yahweh in English would be Y H W H. 135 00:14:49.060 --> 00:14:53.180 In Hebrew, you just get four consonants. 136 00:14:53.180 --> 00:14:59.600 It was not until the Middle Ages that they put the little vowels in. 137 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:21.140 When the Masoretes in the Middle Ages put in the vowels for the name of Yahweh , they put the vowels in not for Yahweh , but for the word Adonai , because when they would come to that passage, it was a little reminder that we are not saying Yahweh , we are saying Adonai here. 138 00:15:21.140 --> 00:15:29.680 When you put the vowels for Adonai together with the word Yahweh , you get something like Jehovah . 139 00:15:29.680 --> 00:15:32.400 That is how we say that. 140 00:15:32.400 --> 00:15:38.460 It’s an English word for the name of God. 141 00:15:38.460 --> 00:15:46.700 It’s probably acceptable to God, but that is likely not the way it was originally pronounced. 142 00:15:46.700 --> 00:15:54.050 So people today say Yahweh , but you do not know exactly how the name was pronounced. 143 00:15:54.050 --> 00:16:04.580 It is a word where the letters form the verb of being in the Hebrew language. 144 00:16:04.580 --> 00:16:15.700 That is why in the Old Testament , God, when He first introduced Himself to Moses, says, “I am.” “Who is it that is sending you?” 145 00:16:15.700 --> 00:16:17.500 “I am” is sending you. 146 00:16:17.500 --> 00:16:23.930 The very name of God has to do with His existence, His being. 147 00:16:23.930 --> 00:16:36.960 These are some of the things we need to learn about His name. 148 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:46.120 The fact that He has a name and that He has revealed His name to Moses and to us means that He is a person. 149 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:48.060 People have names. 150 00:16:48.060 --> 00:16:53.490 The idea of the personhood of God is indicated by the fact that He is named. 151 00:16:53.490 --> 00:16:54.730 He is not impersonal. 152 00:16:54.730 --> 00:16:57.330 He is not like a force. 153 00:16:57.330 --> 00:17:04.100 He is a personal God that we worship. 154 00:17:04.100 --> 00:17:13.170 The fact that He has called Himself is based on the idea of existence, being. 155 00:17:13.170 --> 00:17:18.980 It calls attention to the fact that God is eternally existent. 156 00:17:18.980 --> 00:17:20.780 He has no beginning. 157 00:17:20.780 --> 00:17:23.140 There is no end. 158 00:17:23.140 --> 00:17:28.960 God is eternally forever existent. 159 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:32.580 That tells us a lot of things about God. 160 00:17:32.580 --> 00:17:39.820 It means that God is beyond what we can know in Himself. 161 00:17:39.820 --> 00:17:41.350 We cannot imagine. 162 00:17:41.350 --> 00:17:47.920 Is it difficult to imagine something going on forever and ever? 163 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:52.280 We have eternity written in our hearts, it tells us in Ecclesiastes . 164 00:17:52.280 --> 00:17:58.100 We imagine and we expect an eternal future. 165 00:17:58.100 --> 00:18:06.100 Yet, because we are finite creatures, it is hard for us to comprehend something like eternity. 166 00:18:06.100 --> 00:18:10.140 God is eternal. 167 00:18:10.140 --> 00:18:11.190 He never changes. 168 00:18:11.190 --> 00:18:17.460 He is completely trustworthy because He never changes. 169 00:18:17.460 --> 00:18:22.720 The key verse in this Psalm is verse 5. 170 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:28.780 Who is like the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high? 171 00:18:28.780 --> 00:18:34.560 Who is like the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high? 172 00:18:34.560 --> 00:18:38.260 The answer is, no one. 173 00:18:38.260 --> 00:18:43.880 No one is like the Lord our God. 174 00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:48.860 God is infinite and glorious. 175 00:18:48.860 --> 00:18:54.940 We cannot know exactly what He is like. 176 00:18:54.940 --> 00:18:59.680 Our minds cannot comprehend God in an ultimate sense. 177 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:08.420 You cannot wrap your mind around God because God is far too great, too wonderful for us to be able to comprehend Him. 178 00:19:08.420 --> 00:19:11.370 We will never be able to do that. 179 00:19:11.370 --> 00:19:16.180 We are never going to fully know all there is about God. 180 00:19:16.180 --> 00:19:21.340 It will take eternity to come to an understanding of who God is because God is eternal. 181 00:19:21.340 --> 00:19:27.560 So He is greater than we can imagine. 182 00:19:27.560 --> 00:19:30.540 He is far greater than we can imagine. 183 00:19:30.540 --> 00:19:37.880 The only way that we can know anything about God is for Him to tell us about Himself. 184 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:39.200 God is spirit. 185 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:40.810 What can you know about a spirit? 186 00:19:40.810 --> 00:19:43.820 It is invisible. 187 00:19:43.820 --> 00:19:50.660 Unless the spirit communicates to you, you are not going to know the mind of the spirit. 188 00:19:50.660 --> 00:20:00.760 The only way that we can know something about God is for God to tell us, and He does that through His revelation, especially through His holy word. 189 00:20:00.760 --> 00:20:03.340 He tells us things about Himself. 190 00:20:03.340 --> 00:20:07.220 Even then, you cannot wrap your mind around Him completely. 191 00:20:07.220 --> 00:20:13.220 You cannot comprehend Him in any complete way. 192 00:20:13.220 --> 00:20:29.220 The language that the Bible uses represents God bending down to us, to our level, which is one of the themes of this Psalm as we read it. 193 00:20:29.220 --> 00:20:41.140 When we start thinking about God and when we come to the Bible, and we ask ourselves, who is like God? 194 00:20:41.140 --> 00:20:47.060 The Bible describes God to us using figures of speech. 195 00:20:47.060 --> 00:20:59.400 The Bible takes something that we are familiar with and uses that to teach us something that is true about God, but that thing is not like God in any ultimate sense. 196 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:04.300 For example, God is a Father. 197 00:21:04.300 --> 00:21:21.460 By that, we know that just like a father has compassion on his children, the verse in Psalm 103:13 says, “Like a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.” 198 00:21:21.460 --> 00:21:28.200 God is like a father in that a father has compassion on his children, and God has compassion on us. 199 00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:32.240 We learn something about God by relating Him to an earthly father. 200 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:35.200 Is an earthly father like God? 201 00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:37.060 Not in any ultimate sense. 202 00:21:37.060 --> 00:21:38.740 God is far beyond it. 203 00:21:38.740 --> 00:21:43.840 We cannot comprehend God completely because God transcends all of this. 204 00:21:43.840 --> 00:21:45.880 God is outside of all of this. 205 00:21:45.880 --> 00:21:53.520 When God created, take all of the universe, everything that is in this universe that God created, everything. 206 00:21:53.520 --> 00:21:59.340 All of the cosmos, everything that has been created by God. 207 00:21:59.340 --> 00:22:01.410 Think about all of that. 208 00:22:01.410 --> 00:22:04.600 God is not in it. 209 00:22:04.600 --> 00:22:06.360 He created it. 210 00:22:06.360 --> 00:22:12.280 If you think of all the stuff of the universe, think of it as a Venn diagram, a circle. 211 00:22:12.280 --> 00:22:15.970 This circle represents all the created things. 212 00:22:15.970 --> 00:22:17.870 God is out here. 213 00:22:17.870 --> 00:22:20.440 He is on the other side of that circle. 214 00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:25.400 He created it outside of Himself, and He is not part of it. 215 00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:30.060 Is it any wonder that we cannot completely comprehend Him? 216 00:22:30.060 --> 00:22:32.240 The Bible uses these figures of speech. 217 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:36.800 We used one of them in a song a while ago, the solid rock. 218 00:22:36.800 --> 00:22:38.860 God is like a solid rock. 219 00:22:38.860 --> 00:22:41.250 That means that He is absolutely trustworthy. 220 00:22:41.250 --> 00:22:43.520 He is the foundation that we can trust. 221 00:22:43.520 --> 00:22:44.360 He will be there. 222 00:22:44.360 --> 00:22:52.240 In this uncertain world where all sorts of things are happening, God is a solid foundation. 223 00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:55.720 We can trust Him. 224 00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:58.000 Does it mean that God is a rock? 225 00:22:58.000 --> 00:22:58.690 Hardly. 226 00:22:58.690 --> 00:23:00.870 It is a figure of speech. 227 00:23:00.870 --> 00:23:02.030 God is a strong tower. 228 00:23:02.030 --> 00:23:05.360 He is a fortress, the Scripture says. 229 00:23:05.360 --> 00:23:10.680 All of those figures of speech teach us a truth about God. 230 00:23:10.680 --> 00:23:16.360 As we come to know these truths about God, it increases our trust and our knowledge of Him. 231 00:23:16.360 --> 00:23:18.240 We get to know Him better. 232 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:23.460 But the knowledge of God is an infinite process. 233 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:27.800 So we are learning these things about God. 234 00:23:27.800 --> 00:23:34.280 As we learn these things about God, when we truly learn them, it should stir our heart to worship and praise Him. 235 00:23:34.280 --> 00:23:37.080 That is what this Psalm is all about. 236 00:23:37.080 --> 00:23:45.680 This Psalm is about instructing us in who God is so that we recognize how glorious He is. 237 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:49.100 He is our glorious God. 238 00:23:49.100 --> 00:23:55.140 Sometimes in the Scripture, we learn about God through the things that He has done. 239 00:23:55.140 --> 00:24:00.320 The passages call attention to something that God has done, the creation of the universe. 240 00:24:00.320 --> 00:24:01.910 We know that God is a mighty creator. 241 00:24:01.910 --> 00:24:03.960 He is infinitely powerful. 242 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:10.080 We can get that from that. 243 00:24:10.080 --> 00:24:23.900 It also talks about God: interceding working miracles doing all sorts of glorious things And that is to teach us truths about who God is. 244 00:24:23.900 --> 00:24:29.980 So He creates, He brings deliverance, He works miracles. 245 00:24:29.980 --> 00:24:33.860 But in all these things, He is transcendent. 246 00:24:33.860 --> 00:24:36.810 Look at verse 6. 247 00:24:36.810 --> 00:24:44.580 That calls attention to the fact that God is transcendent. 248 00:24:44.580 --> 00:24:50.880 “Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and the earth.” 249 00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:53.460 He humbles Himself. 250 00:24:53.460 --> 00:24:58.100 “Who humbles Himself to behold the things in the heavens and in the earth?” 251 00:24:58.100 --> 00:25:03.860 God humbles Himself to bend down to look at the heavens. 252 00:25:03.860 --> 00:25:10.110 The vastness of the stars, the infinite universe, its greatness is beyond our imagination. 253 00:25:10.110 --> 00:25:13.320 We cannot comprehend the universe. 254 00:25:13.320 --> 00:25:18.420 The distance between the stars is measured in light years and in thousands of light years. 255 00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:24.740 If you could travel at the speed of light, it would take you thousands of years to go from some stars. 256 00:25:24.740 --> 00:25:32.080 The nearest star to our sun is apparently four light years away. 257 00:25:32.080 --> 00:25:41.060 If you could travel at the speed of light, it would still take you four years to get to the closest one. 258 00:25:41.060 --> 00:25:52.540 There are vast numbers of stars and galaxies, thousands of galaxies and millions of stars in a galaxy. 259 00:25:52.540 --> 00:25:56.530 When God looks at that, He has to bend down. 260 00:25:56.530 --> 00:25:59.340 That is the idea. 261 00:25:59.340 --> 00:26:09.930 If you are thinking of God in a physical way, and this is an analogy, God has to bend down just to see the stars. 262 00:26:09.930 --> 00:26:14.980 He is far greater than anything that we can comprehend or imagine. 263 00:26:14.980 --> 00:26:18.320 God is glorious. 264 00:26:18.320 --> 00:26:20.800 He bends down even. 265 00:26:20.800 --> 00:26:29.500 He stoops low so that He can even see the heavens. 266 00:26:29.500 --> 00:26:46.080 You might remember in the book of Genesis in chapter 11, the nations getting together because they all spoke one language. 267 00:26:46.080 --> 00:26:48.120 They decide to build a tower to heaven. 268 00:26:48.120 --> 00:26:53.980 They are going to come together and do this great event. 269 00:26:53.980 --> 00:26:59.160 The Scripture says, God came down to see what was going on. 270 00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:01.860 He came down there just to see what they were doing. 271 00:27:01.860 --> 00:27:03.710 What are they up to down there? 272 00:27:03.710 --> 00:27:06.850 That is a figure. 273 00:27:06.850 --> 00:27:10.140 It is the idea that God is so great. 274 00:27:10.140 --> 00:27:14.220 He is beyond us in that way. 275 00:27:14.220 --> 00:27:15.800 God is glorious. 276 00:27:15.800 --> 00:27:19.550 He is absolutely wonderful. 277 00:27:19.550 --> 00:27:25.920 He is absolutely glorious. 278 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:32.560 When we are thinking about God, we recognize that He is above all things. 279 00:27:32.560 --> 00:27:38.010 “The Lord is high above all the nations; His glory is above the heavens.” 280 00:27:38.010 --> 00:27:41.560 He is way above the nations. 281 00:27:41.560 --> 00:28:01.860 You might remember the passage in Isaiah where it explains to us that all of the nations of the world, which are powerful and great to us, you think about armies and conflict and wars and the power. 282 00:28:01.860 --> 00:28:16.240 Sometimes you have nations that put all their military on parade so that people can be impressed by the mighty power they have, or they send their jets over in a display of power. 283 00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:35.640 It tells us in the book of Isaiah that all the nations together are like dust on the scales to God. 284 00:28:35.640 --> 00:28:51.660 That dust is too insignificant. 285 00:28:51.660 --> 00:28:56.400 That is exactly what that passage means. 286 00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:01.850 The nations, the power of the nations in relation to God is absolutely insignificant. 287 00:29:01.850 --> 00:29:04.600 It is nothing to Him. 288 00:29:04.600 --> 00:29:06.820 God is that great. 289 00:29:06.820 --> 00:29:08.370 God is that glorious. 290 00:29:08.370 --> 00:29:09.800 He is that powerful. 291 00:29:09.800 --> 00:29:11.570 He is that wonderful. 292 00:29:11.570 --> 00:29:15.160 He is way beyond anything that we can possibly comprehend. 293 00:29:15.160 --> 00:29:18.630 He is more than we can ever imagine. 294 00:29:18.630 --> 00:29:28.980 He is the God who stoops, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and the earth. 295 00:29:28.980 --> 00:29:30.600 Why does He do that? 296 00:29:30.600 --> 00:29:33.770 Why does God humble Himself? 297 00:29:33.770 --> 00:29:39.360 He humbles Himself so that He can raise up the poor. 298 00:29:39.360 --> 00:29:47.660 He has pity on the needy person. 299 00:29:47.660 --> 00:29:51.260 He humbles Himself to lift them up. 300 00:29:51.260 --> 00:29:54.880 He humbles Himself to lift us up. 301 00:29:54.880 --> 00:29:58.090 That is the God that we worship. 302 00:29:58.090 --> 00:30:01.550 He is not just a glorious God, an infinite God. 303 00:30:01.550 --> 00:30:03.770 He is not just a transcendent God. 304 00:30:03.770 --> 00:30:05.390 He is not just immense. 305 00:30:05.390 --> 00:30:15.140 That is the old word that theologians used to use years ago. 306 00:30:15.140 --> 00:30:18.430 The immensity of God, they used to say. 307 00:30:18.430 --> 00:30:23.530 It is talking about the fact that God is so incredibly big. 308 00:30:23.530 --> 00:30:28.980 He is infinitely big. 309 00:30:28.980 --> 00:30:33.410 Yet, He is not just immense in that way. 310 00:30:33.410 --> 00:30:35.230 He is also imminent. 311 00:30:35.230 --> 00:30:37.160 He is right here. 312 00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:39.200 He bends down to us. 313 00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:43.750 He comes down to us in order to raise us up. 314 00:30:43.750 --> 00:30:47.000 That is the story. 315 00:30:47.000 --> 00:31:00.000 This Psalm was one of the Psalms in the series of Psalms that expresses praise to God because of God’s deliverance. 316 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:12.120 In Psalms 113 to 118 , you can see how Psalm 113 is praise to the Lord. 317 00:31:12.120 --> 00:31:18.160 Psalm 115 talks about praise to the Lord. 318 00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:23.740 Psalm 116 , all these Psalms are praising God. 319 00:31:23.740 --> 00:31:25.970 Psalm 117 , “Praise the Lord, all nations. 320 00:31:25.970 --> 00:31:27.310 Laud Him, all peoples.” 321 00:31:27.310 --> 00:31:33.620 It is calling attention to the universal worship of God. 322 00:31:33.620 --> 00:31:39.780 That is part of Psalm 113 . 323 00:31:39.780 --> 00:31:42.020 “Praise, O servants of the Lord. 324 00:31:42.020 --> 00:31:43.640 Praise the name of the Lord. 325 00:31:43.640 --> 00:31:50.980 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever, from the rising of the sun to its setting.” 326 00:31:50.980 --> 00:31:55.130 That is saying that we are to be praising this great and glorious God. 327 00:31:55.130 --> 00:31:59.160 We are to be doing it all the time. 328 00:31:59.160 --> 00:32:01.880 We cannot do it all the time, can we? 329 00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:07.260 We take time to sleep and we are distracted by all sorts of things. 330 00:32:07.260 --> 00:32:13.060 But the name of the Lord is to be praised from this time forth and forever. 331 00:32:13.060 --> 00:32:15.000 That means continually. 332 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:16.440 And from where? 333 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:22.100 From the rising of the sun to its setting. 334 00:32:22.100 --> 00:32:26.860 That means geographically. 335 00:32:26.860 --> 00:32:30.080 As a little church, we cannot do that. 336 00:32:30.080 --> 00:32:31.420 You cannot do that individually. 337 00:32:31.420 --> 00:32:35.540 As a little church, we cannot accomplish that very far, can we? 338 00:32:35.540 --> 00:32:39.000 Though we try. 339 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:40.540 Justin is part of this church. 340 00:32:40.540 --> 00:32:47.460 He and his wife are celebrating and worshipping God two hours before we started. 341 00:32:47.460 --> 00:32:55.240 Next week, Jared will be in Africa, so probably six or seven hours before we are worshipping, he will be worshipping the Lord. 342 00:32:55.240 --> 00:32:55.880 You get the picture. 343 00:32:55.880 --> 00:33:13.640 If you take that and you start thinking about worshipping God, we have a wonderful church here, but the handful of people that we are all together is important to God. 344 00:33:13.640 --> 00:33:20.060 But God is praised through our brothers and sisters who belong to Jesus Christ worldwide. 345 00:33:20.060 --> 00:33:29.100 There is no place on earth right now where there is not a worshipper of God, a true saved individual of God. 346 00:33:29.100 --> 00:33:40.250 As the sun passes around this world, as that process continues to happen, there are those people of God who are praising God and worshipping God. 347 00:33:40.250 --> 00:33:41.470 We are part of that. 348 00:33:41.470 --> 00:33:44.330 We are to be part of that great worship of God. 349 00:33:44.330 --> 00:33:53.780 We are to be worshipping Him, and His praise is to be eternal, and it will be eternal forever and ever. 350 00:33:53.780 --> 00:33:56.900 So He is our glorious Lord. 351 00:33:56.900 --> 00:34:01.120 He is infinite and mighty and immense. 352 00:34:01.120 --> 00:34:02.900 Yet He comes down to us. 353 00:34:02.900 --> 00:34:07.100 He bends to come down to us. 354 00:34:07.100 --> 00:34:14.060 The reason that He does is to raise the poor from the dust, to lift the needy from the ash heap. 355 00:34:14.060 --> 00:34:27.900 The picture of that ultimately is what Jesus Christ has done for us. 356 00:34:27.900 --> 00:34:33.260 Christ is the one who humbled Himself to save sinners. 357 00:34:33.260 --> 00:34:40.760 When Mary wrote her Magnificat , she borrowed from this Psalm and from Hannah’s Psalm . 358 00:34:40.760 --> 00:34:52.600 She calls attention to the fact that her soul exalts in the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God my Savior. 359 00:34:52.600 --> 00:35:13.440 When Jesus Christ came into this world, remember Philippians 2 , in the passage where it says, “Jesus Christ, who although He existed in the form of God, didn’t regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men. 360 00:35:13.440 --> 00:35:21.860 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. 361 00:35:21.860 --> 00:35:27.870 And for this reason also, God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him a name which is above every name.” 362 00:35:27.870 --> 00:35:40.520 That is God bending down, to the place of entering into this world as a man, and the ultimate slave and servant. 363 00:35:40.520 --> 00:35:49.200 He gives Himself over to death for you in order to lift us up. 364 00:35:49.200 --> 00:35:55.440 When it says here, “He raises the poor from the dust and He lifts the needy from the ash heap,” that is what He has done for us. 365 00:35:55.440 --> 00:36:05.280 He has lifted us up from the mire and the dirt of this world and brings us up and seats us with the King of Kings in the heavenly places. 366 00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:09.020 That is what Jesus Christ has done for us. 367 00:36:09.020 --> 00:36:11.960 That is who He is. 368 00:36:11.960 --> 00:36:17.960 If you understand this, how could you not worship Him? 369 00:36:17.960 --> 00:36:19.680 How could you not praise His name? 370 00:36:19.680 --> 00:36:20.930 Bring glory to Him. 371 00:36:20.930 --> 00:36:32.100 There is nothing more precious, more valuable, more glorious than this infinite God who stoops to save . 372 00:36:32.100 --> 00:36:39.420 As we do these things, as we come to know God, it stirs our heart to worship Him. 373 00:36:39.420 --> 00:36:43.140 We are to worship Him. 374 00:36:43.140 --> 00:36:51.440 It says, “He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children.” 375 00:36:51.440 --> 00:36:56.790 Those lines you find from Hannah’s prayer . 376 00:36:56.790 --> 00:37:14.460 It is a powerful example in the culture of the day, when the barren woman was a person who had very little respect. 377 00:37:14.460 --> 00:37:23.140 God is able to bring deliverance as He did for Hannah, as He did for Sarah, as He did for Mary. 378 00:37:23.140 --> 00:37:29.240 God can bring about glorious blessing. 379 00:37:29.240 --> 00:37:33.960 It is a gift of God that makes these transformations. 380 00:37:33.960 --> 00:37:39.140 Makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children. 381 00:37:39.140 --> 00:38:01.060 I was reading this past week, I happened to stumble across an article by a lady who, more than 20 years ago, she was a college professor and she was a lesbian. 382 00:38:01.060 --> 00:38:14.440 She had a pastoral friend, a man who was a pastor, who invited her over to his house to have dinner with his wife and family. 383 00:38:14.440 --> 00:38:16.180 His children were there. 384 00:38:16.180 --> 00:38:21.140 She comes in and he is absolutely kind to her. 385 00:38:21.140 --> 00:38:28.300 She is overwhelmed by that because she did not expect that. 386 00:38:28.300 --> 00:38:32.560 She thought she was going to be there to be condemned. 387 00:38:32.560 --> 00:38:42.420 She had a butch haircut and a series of earrings in her right ear, which signified her identity. 388 00:38:42.420 --> 00:38:45.660 She was shocked that that was the response. 389 00:38:45.660 --> 00:38:48.580 She decided she wanted to know more about it. 390 00:38:48.580 --> 00:38:50.940 She began to attend worship with them. 391 00:38:50.940 --> 00:38:53.420 They were going to a Presbyterian church. 392 00:38:53.420 --> 00:39:05.560 That Presbyterian church would sing hymns like we do, but they also had a book called Psalms for Singing , which were out of the Psalms set to music. 393 00:39:05.560 --> 00:39:10.080 They sang this Psalm . 394 00:39:10.080 --> 00:39:19.450 She was so enthusiastic about this because she wants to get to know God and she is expecting God to accept her just as she is. 395 00:39:19.450 --> 00:39:26.200 She is singing this Psalm with great fervor. 396 00:39:26.200 --> 00:39:32.920 Then she gets down to this last phrase which says, “He makes the barren woman abide in the house and a joyful mother of children.” 397 00:39:32.920 --> 00:39:34.840 She thinks, “Oh my goodness.” 398 00:39:34.840 --> 00:39:38.760 That is chauvinism. 399 00:39:38.760 --> 00:39:42.000 It confronted her with the way she was thinking. 400 00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:46.720 This is probably the verse that brought her to the Lord. 401 00:39:46.720 --> 00:39:52.720 Is it not amazing how God can use some amazing verses to bring people to the Lord? 402 00:39:52.720 --> 00:39:58.920 Because it confronted her with the way she was thinking, and she realized, “Wait a minute. 403 00:39:58.920 --> 00:40:12.720 I am not measuring up to the way God thinks.” 404 00:40:12.720 --> 00:40:16.060 As a result, she came to the Lord. 405 00:40:16.060 --> 00:40:18.260 God changed her thinking. 406 00:40:18.260 --> 00:40:21.120 She married a man who became a pastor. 407 00:40:21.120 --> 00:40:22.680 They had children. 408 00:40:22.680 --> 00:40:26.190 She was the fulfillment of this very verse. 409 00:40:26.190 --> 00:40:36.480 It is a remarkable story, and it is true, and it has happened probably thousands of times. 410 00:40:36.480 --> 00:40:40.580 God reaches down and saves the individual person. 411 00:40:40.580 --> 00:40:52.920 He reaches down and saves the poor individual, raises him up to the Lord, to sit with princes, to sit with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. 412 00:40:52.920 --> 00:41:01.220 He saves the downcast person, raises them up. 413 00:41:01.220 --> 00:41:07.940 This is the thing for all of us. 414 00:41:07.940 --> 00:41:09.760 Is your trust in this great God? 415 00:41:09.760 --> 00:41:13.380 Is your praise to this great God? 416 00:41:13.380 --> 00:41:23.820 Have you experienced that lifting up that only God can do through His bending down to us? 417 00:41:23.820 --> 00:41:27.460 Let me close with that and pray for us. 418 00:41:27.460 --> 00:41:32.760 Father, we thank You for Your kind grace, Your great mercy. 419 00:41:32.760 --> 00:41:49.240 We thank You, Father, for Your love for us that is expressed to us by Your humbling Yourself, by bending down, by stooping to our level. 420 00:41:49.240 --> 00:41:59.540 Especially in the person of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who perfectly reveals the God You are. 421 00:41:59.540 --> 00:42:21.980 Because of Your work, Father, I remember the hymn by Frederick Faber who prayed in his hymn that he wrote, “Yet I may love Thee too, O Lord, Almighty as Thou art, For Thou hast stooped to ask of me the love of my poor heart.” 422 00:42:21.980 --> 00:42:24.700 Father, we thank You for that. 423 00:42:24.700 --> 00:42:40.020 We thank You that through this great invitation that comes to us through Jesus Christ, recognizing that Christ, that God Himself, that You alone satisfy the thirst of the soul. 424 00:42:40.020 --> 00:42:49.280 Father, we thank You that You have reached down to us and invited us to join in the praise and in Your worship. 425 00:42:49.280 --> 00:43:01.880 Help us to worship You, Father, in all the ways that You deserve worship, both in the praises that we offer You verbally and in the very life that we live for You. 426 00:43:01.880 --> 00:43:07.320 We ask, Lord, that You lead us in such praise, that You guide us to it. 427 00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:11.300 We thank You, Father, for the great privilege in the name of Christ. 428 00:43:11.300 --> 00:43:26.880 Amen. 429 00:43:26.880 --> 00:44:00.340 Grace, mercy, and peace.