Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is
an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.
We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our
mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. Well, today we are beginning
a new series from the book of Psalms. And the
title of this series is Songs for the Journey.
Songs for the Journey. Some of you will remember
the perfect Sony Walkman. what you would do is
you would get that double tape recorder. Sorry,
this will make sense a little bit later to those
in the front row, but double tape recorder and
you would sit there on the radio and you would
wait for your song to come on or you would record
off the other tape and you'd press it really
quick to capture the song. And then you'd take
this mixed track. It was a lot harder in our
days, just to let you know. You'd take this mixed
track and you would gift it to somebody else
as... like a soundtrack for them to listen to.
Now, today we have Spotify and a lot of other
platforms that help us do this, tools that help
us do this. Sometimes when we go on a road trip
as a family, we'll put together a playlist. And
that playlist has songs that are thematic for
the journey we're on. And that's the intention
of this new series that we are starting this
morning. We're going to be unpacking the richness
of a psalm for three Sundays. And in that psalm,
it's going to be a song that is offered to you
as a sacred companion for your journey through
life. Psalms is a collection of books. It's actually
five books all put together. And there's lots
and lots of songs in there, poems in there. They're
spirit inspired. And what that means is the Holy
Spirit encountered a human being journeying along
in faith. and then inspired this writing. And
they are a gift from those people to you, to
myself, to the church. These songs, as that gift,
are something we want to gift to you and then
have you add to a much larger playlist for your
own journey in life. So before we continue on,
I want to invite you to pray with me. God, you
are God. And yes, we state that, but that changes
everything. Not only are you the one who has
created all things, but you sustain all things.
And not only do you sustain all things, but you
are king, you are sovereign over everything,
including our time right now. So we recognize,
remember that you are here. We submit to your
authority, your movement, and Holy Spirit, you
are so welcome to be moving in and through us,
opening our eyes, to see you more clearly, drawing
our hearts to love you more dearly, and our whole
being to follow you more nearly. We pray this
all in the wonderful and matchless name of Jesus.
Amen. What is our first song for the journey?
The first song for the journey is from Psalm
93. And it's a psalm that declares God's undisputed
kingship. It's a song that cries out, God's got
you. Now, before I was born, before you were
born, there was a different song that was shaping
us. And it's a song that carries us along in
life. And what is this song? It's a song of wondering,
am I safe? Am I secure? Who's got me? And from
that day on, you and I have been trying to answer
the root of that question. And we've been doing
this by reaching out and grasping towards different
things. It starts in a very planned way where
you do it with your parents and siblings and
things like that. But then eventually, you begin
to reach out and grasp a hold of life with your
own two hands. And there's this control, this
desire to control. But at the urge of it is,
I want to make sure things are going to be okay.
Now, there are times in life when we believe
that we are indeed in control, right? But then
there's times in life where we are well aware
that we are not in control. And Psalm 93 is a
different song. It's a song to play through your
journey. It's a song that declares the truth
of who is ultimately in control. So I want you
to have a listen first to this song, Psalm 93,
just five verses long. The Lord reigns. He's
robed in majesty. The Lord is robed in majesty.
He's armed with strength. Indeed, the world is
established, firm, and secure. Your throne was
established long ago. You are from all eternity.
The seas have lifted up, Lord. The seas have
lifted up their voice. The seas have lifted up
their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder
of the great waters. Mightier than the breakers
of the sea. The Lord on high is mighty. Your
statutes, Lord, stand firm. Holiness adorns your
house for endless days. The song has a shape
to it and it's a shape that we're going to go
through in three different parts. It begins with
eternity past, yesterday, establishing God's
legitimate kingship. Then it's going to acknowledge
the messy middle of where we are today, the present
reality, inviting you to turn to God in that.
And finally, it's going to call us to reach ahead
to the certain future of tomorrow. where the
reign of God as sovereign king will ultimately
and indefinitely and forever restore order, beauty,
and life. So to anchor us in the past, the psalmist
begins with a declaration. He says the following.
He says, the Lord reigns. Now, this is actually
talking about in the past tense, but it's also
helping us to know this isn't about convincing
you. It's about simply declaring or stating what
is. It's to move our heart to say, okay, the
Lord reigns. And as you read God's word, whenever
you see Lord all capitalized, it should signal
you to recognize that that's his personal name.
That's the name Yahweh. And so this isn't leaving
any room or openness to say, well, I think a
God reigns. Or maybe your God reigns. It is to
say the God that has met us and giving us his
name, Yahweh, reigns. It's as though saying it's
clear without a doubt. And then the psalmist
continues on and he says, he, God, is robed in
majesty. Yahweh's kingship is identified with
this royal robe that he's wearing. time when
the psalmist was writing, the robe was like signifying,
hey, that guy has the legitimate authority. If
I see whoever has this throne, that's the one
with authority. Now, as many of you knew, I grew
up in the wonderful country of Kenya, and there
was a symbol there culturally called a rungu.
It was like a staff or a club that was held in
your hand. And this was actually from the Maasai
tribe, I believe, that was passed along. And
so whoever held the rungu in their hands had
the authority. So again, as siblings, you know
we were all trying to get a hold of that rungu
in our hands. So there's a monument in Nairobi
that shows this, a picture of somebody's hand
holding this symbol of legitimate authority.
That's the picture that is given with this robe
in Psalms. It's the sign that God is the one
who reigns. And the psalmist then adds the following.
He says, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed
with strength. Not only is goodness and beauty
the testament to God's reign, but he's also armed
with strength. So when we read through the Psalms,
there's this important technique that is used.
A lot of poetry uses rhyming, right? The Hebrew
people, when they were using poetry, they would
use that as well, but they also rhymed. concepts
or ideas. So you would put together two different
phrases, and this is important if you go through
this book of Psalms to recognize it, two different
phrases that say the same thing in a different
way so that you get a bigger understanding and
maybe it hits you at different parts. And that's
what is happening here when the psalmist continues
and says, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed
with strength. But he adds another Peace to this.
Another dimension. And he says, indeed, indeed,
the world is established, firm, and secure. Indeed.
Indeed, creation itself reveals the robe of majesty.
It's as though you have been invited to head
out to Khao Yai or up to Chiang Mai and get into
the mountains where there's no lights. And you
look up at the sky and you see the stars up there.
And it's like that. is the robe that adorns God
and declares his kingship. So the word indeed
there. This morning, as we are sitting here together,
something incredible is happening. You and I
are going to travel a million kilometers. Now
that has nothing to do with the length of my
sermon being extra long. But this is just the
reality of where we are on this planet that we
call home. So right now, as you sit here on Earth,
beneath you, the Earth is rotating at 1 ,600
kilometers per hour. That's faster than any airplane
that flies today. 1 ,600 kilometers per hour.
And it's a speed so smooth, you don't even feel
it. Otherwise, you'd have... be grabbing onto
your chair. And our planet is not only rotating
like that, it's also orbiting around the sun
at 107 ,000 kilometers an hour. We are zipping
around the sun and it still takes a year to get
all the way around it. That's not all. We are
racing through the Milky Way galaxy at roughly
828 ,000 kilometers per hour. So think about
this. At this very moment, you're traveling at
unimaginable speeds. Speeds that create this
dance of movement of nearly a million kilometers
per hour that's got a perfect precision to it,
held in this gravitational choreography. And
it allows just the right tilt of the earth, 23
.5 degrees. Why? So that we have this stable
climate. We have seasons. We have something that
can sustain the rhythms we need in life. The
distance from the sun, the angle of the tilt,
the velocity, and its atmosphere all align with
this impossible precision to support your life.
We read at the very beginning, in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. Now the
earth was formless and empty. Darkness covered
the surface of the watery depths and the spirit
of God was hovering over the waters. Fast forward
to the apostle Paul and he writes in Colossians,
he says, for everything, everything was created
by him in heaven on earth. Things we see, things
we don't see, whether thrones or dominions, rulers,
authorities, everything has been created through
him and for him. He is before all things and
in him, all things hold together. This is declaring
God's undisputed right to reign. And the question
is not, is Yahweh the king? The question is actually,
do you accept that truth? Are you intentionally
allowing his kingship to shape and form you every
moment of every day? The psalmist is going to
continue and he rounds it off. He says, your
throne was established long ago. You, God, are
from all eternity. Once again, two ideas put
together to complement each other, helping to
call us to a bigger understanding of what he's
doing. From the beginning, God was and is and
will always be. Even though we are traveling
at speeds that should vaporize us, there's this
beautiful fragility that requires us to acknowledge
that God is king. What does the first part of
this psalm call us to do? Well, it calls us to
anchor ourselves, like setting down an anchor
that holds a boat steady in its place. It calls
us to anchor ourselves in the past, in the certain
reality that God is king. Here's a very practical
invitation for you. Start your morning off before
you do anything else, especially before you touch
your cell phone. Start your morning off by getting
down on your knees. Maybe even lie flat on the
ground. And what you're doing is you're having
your body represent the reality that you are
held by God as king. And this is a slow shaping
and forming. It's something that will begin to
shape the way you go through your day. So that's
an invitation to try that for the next 30 days.
Begin to do that every single morning. and have
that shape inform you. Now, you may say, well,
I've done that, and life still has all kinds
of chaos and problems that hit us. Well, remember,
this is a Holy Spirit -inspired psalm, and so
God knows that not only is the fact that he is
king a reality that we grapple with, but the
present messy middle that we experience, the
today of life. is also something that the psalmist
acknowledges and calls us to. So we move from
yesterday to today, our present experience. And
here's what the psalmist says. He says, the seas
have lifted up, Lord. The seas have lifted up
their voice. The seas have lifted up their pounding
waves. Directly behind me, kind of up in that
direction, is a prayer room. And there are some
people praying for you. for us as we are gathered
here this morning. It's an incredible gift. But
on the back wall of that prayer room is a painting
that whenever I'm in there and I'm praying with
others or praying by myself, the painting always
seems to just draw me to look at it. Now, what
is this painting? I'm not going to show it to
you. Why? Because I want you to know where the
prayer room is. So go find it and look at the
painting. But I'll describe it for you. It's
a chaotic ocean scene with a massive wave that
is crashing down on this tiny little boat. And
there's light coming in from the side. But it's
such a chaotic scene that it draws you to recognize
something that is true of what we experience
on a day -to -day basis. I want us to return
to Genesis 1, something we may have passed over
when we first read that. So God says that the
deep void darkness was there and the Holy Spirit
was hovering over it. This is a chaotic sea.
It's an image of a chaotic sea. And God was at
the very beginning hovering over this. And then
what does he do? He creates beauty, life, and
order out of that. And he separates the land
and the ocean, gives us a space for there to
be something we can stand on, something that
is secure. Now, why do I mention this? Because
for the Hebrew people, when they're writing in
the Psalms, they're wanting you to have a picture
of what culturally was their framework. And for
them, the sea was a place of chaos, absolute
chaos and destruction. And in fact, there was
believed that there was a Leviathan or a sea
monster. We read about this in the book of Job.
that is stirring up chaos in that area. These
weren't sea -bearing people. These were people
who stuck to the land for the most part. So that's
kind of the worldview that is shaping them. During
the COVID pandemic, as the world was altered
forever, in certain ways, there was lockdowns,
there was a loss of jobs, there was death of
loved ones. There's changes to our patterns and
rhythms of life. There was a mathematician from
the UK named Kit Yates did some calculations
that struck me during this time. Using the number
of estimated cases of COVID and the size of the
particles of the SARS -CoV -2 virus, Yates went
on to estimate that there were about two quintillion
That's 2 times 10 to the 18th power. I was going
to write it, but it would have taken me a few
more weeks to represent that. Seems like a lot,
right? Two quintillion. Of course, the world
was altered with that. Two quintillion particles.
However, the size of the diameter of these particles
is 100 nanometers. It's so small that if you
collected the virus across the entire world for
the full length of COVID and you put it into
one tiny container, it would not even fill up
a single Coke can. That's what threw our world
off course. There's a fragility we have to be
aware of in the life that we live. So the question
is, do you have things under control? Particles
that could be contained in a single soda can
change everything. So the question, have you
got this? Do you really? And so the psalmist
uses these pounding waves as a symbol to say,
hey, this is a reality of our life in the middle.
It can feel like a chaotic ocean that we are
engaged in. So we try to grasp or control, or
we may despair and say, it's too big. I can't
handle it. So I want to, with those words, bring
us to a very familiar story. It's a well -known
story that's recounted in three of the four Gospels.
And it's a story of Jesus and his disciples crossing
the lake in a boat, something that was very normal
for them. And I want you to think through both
the psalm that is calling us to recognize the
waves crashing in upon us and the story that
we know well. This isn't some simple miracle.
This is God demonstrating his control of all
things, his might over it. And so the psalmist,
rather than calling us to just grasp harder,
frantically run around, you saw a switch that
happened in one of the disciples. I think it's
Peter there who says, we're going to die. But
he points his yelling out towards Jesus. Who's
sleeping. Let's look, though, at the psalm. Actually,
go back. Mightier than the thunder of the great
waters. Mightier than the breakers of the sea.
The Lord on high is mighty. Okay, so we've had
one verse that declares the power of the waves,
and the second one declares God being stronger,
more powerful, mightier. So turning to God in
the messy middle of today is in fact what the
majority of the book of the Psalms is, in these
things that we call laments. These are crying
out in the existence of the life we live today,
and it's turning all of that into an expression
towards the God that we serve. And so what I'm
going to do is invite us to listen to a lament
together. It's a lament of asking Jesus to wake
up when he's sleeping in the boat. Because that's
the question that would be ringing in our own
hearts and minds at that point. Why are you sleeping?
We're going to die, right? Just like the disciple
declared. But I want you to think through what
storm, what waves are crashing upon you right
now. Perhaps it's hit you completely out of nowhere.
Perhaps you had a part in it and you've kind
of helped to cause some chaos in the life that
you live around you. And so listen to this song
of lament and turn your attention to God in and
through it. Jesus, when you're gonna wake up,
when you're gonna wake up, how can you sleep
when we're in need? Just one word. from the maker
and all the ways be sealed just one touch from
the healer and all will be made well so Jesus
when this raging sea Jesus when you gonna wake
up when you gonna wake up how can you sleep when
we're in need just one word from the maker and
all the waves will be made still just one touch
from the healer and all will be made well just
one word from the maker and all the ways will
be made still just one touch from the healer
When are you going to wake up, Jesus? Why are
you sleeping? See, Jesus sleeping is not a picture
of God for a moment off of his throne or asleep
on the job. His sleeping is actually evidence
of the upside down reality that Jesus was living
in. Actually, better said, the right side up
reality. Jesus could sleep in the middle of the
storm because he was so firmly rooted in his
father's kingship. that he could fall asleep
in that space. The one who you anchor yourself
to, the Lord who reigns, is the one who's here
in the middle and he's present with you. The
question is, when things hit, what do we do?
Do we turn towards him or do we grasp for more
control? And it is now that we are going to turn
our attention to the last. piece of this psalm.
We turn our attention to the future and we begin
to experience that now. So is tomorrow secure
is the question that we ask in this place. So
the first part of the song, Psalm 93, it established
that God had a legitimate reign, a credible reign.
He had a position to be reigning. But it didn't
just leave it at that. We might be tempted. Oh,
it also gave that he had the capacity. He has
the ability to cause and move and he has the
strength to do so. So we may say he's credible.
He's got the capacity. Let's follow that. But
that is not a complete form of leadership or
reigning. There's something deeply important
missing there. In fact, if you just put those
two together, it represents God's enemy, Satan.
He had credible reason to reign when we rebelled
and gave him our own allegiance. And he has a
capacity to reign as well. So there's something
missing. And here the psalmist is going to draw
that out. He says, your statutes, Lord, stand
firm. Holiness adorns your house for endless
days. days. Psalm 93 ends with a picture of being
under the rule and reign of God in a personal
way that doesn't just have his capacity and his
credibility, but it also speaks to his character.
And you put those three together and you've got
a king worth following. It's a picture of a house,
a new place that we live in, a new rule and a
reign that we place ourselves underneath, and
that guides our life going forward. Like the
beginning of creation, God was hovering over
the chaotic deep and spoke a word that brought
life and beauty. Whose work was it? It was God's
work out of his nature. And God's response to
the disciples, it actually didn't depend on them
doing everything correctly. In fact, it seems
that they joined in on the chaos, as the clip
showed very clearly, and the disorder. But once
again, it wasn't their work. It was God's, out
of his nature, that brought a calm to the storm,
simply speaking words and bringing order in that
space. These are his statutes. This is what holiness
is. And the picture is that of a house for eternity
to come, adorned and decorated with the essence
of who God is. The Bible makes this very clear
in the book of Revelation when it describes the
home, our eternity, the space of what we will
be in. And this is what he says. Then I saw a
new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven
and the first earth had passed away, and there
was no longer any what? No longer any sea. Many
of us know that passage. We may have read it
so many times. We're like, okay, no sea. I don't
really know what is meant there. You should be
thinking Psalm 93. You should be thinking Genesis
1. You should be thinking the Leviathan from
Job, bringing this all together to be like, there
is a future where there is no more. No more disorder.
No more rebellion. No more death. And that is
what is meant by that phrase there. The chaotic
water and the disordered reality is no more.
Here's the question. What song, brothers and
sisters, is forming you in your journey in life?
What do you do when you become aware that In
fact, you're actually not in control. Well, I
want to invite you to allow this song, Psalm
93, to shape your life. Moment by moment, so
you are formed into the likeness of Christ. How
do we do this? Well, we anchor ourselves in the
past, in the certain rule and reign of God. He's
the one who's holding this world together even
though we are spinning around at speeds we can't
even conceptualize and that's just a piece of
the reality we live in. So we hold on to that.
And then in the present reality of life where
we're standing in the middle, what do we do?
We turn towards our God and we bring him the
expression of where we are at. That's two parts,
right? There's a third part. We hold on to the
future and we hold on to the certain promise
that is made evident in Jesus who stood over
that storm and with a word calmed it. And we
know, hey, if you can do that and you've promised
that the new heavens and new earth will have
no more chaos and disorder and rebellion and
death, then it is as good as finished. Now, to
help you remember, what shape am I forming right
here? The cross. The cross, right? So just keep
this in mind as you journey through life and
allow the shape of the cross to be what shapes
and forms your journey through the song of Psalm
93. You may have noticed some decorations up
here, right? What are these from? Easter. It's
not because somebody forgot the memo to take
them down that Easter is gone and we're going
forward. Rather, there's something called Easter
Tide. Easter Tide is this space between Easter
Sunday all the way up to Pentecost, 50 days of
time. And what has the church done with that
space? They have invited us to continue to live
into the truth of Easter, of Holy Week. So this
is what we're going to do with this passage today
and close it out in this way. Palm Sunday was
a day of declaring that the king had arrived,
sitting on a robe of sorts on his donkey, coming
into Jerusalem. What was the cry? Hosanna, blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jesus
rides into your life and into my life, and he
comes in as the declared king. Now, whether or
not we see him as that is beside the point. We
are called to anchor into the truth and allow
him to be king. But Psalm 93 then calls our awareness
to a time of storm, a time of tumultuous experiences,
a time in the middle, the messy middle. So following
the triumphal entry, we have the last supper
and we move to the garden of Gethsemane, to the
crowds taunting the king like the waves. Crucify
him. The king is whipped. He's spit on. He's
mocked. And then he's crucified. And like he
is sleeping, he's nailed to the cross in his
death and then buried in a tomb. And it's at
this point that that time he's crying out that
says, hey, it looks like that old enemy is actually
stronger and he's defeated. We're trying to rob
you of the truth of God's kingship. The chaotic
seas of life that you're experiencing are well
known to Jesus. and to his followers. So we turn
to the king who's lifted on the cross and we
look to him who actually cried out a lament on
the cross. And he said, father, why have you
forsaken me? Straight out of the book of Psalms,
he cries out a lament to his father who he knows
is in control. And though it looks as though
all is lost, Christ on the cross is actually
doing a work in that space that we could never
do for ourselves. anchored into the firm foundation
of that. And in the present moment, something
is happening here. Psalm 93 then calls us to
hold on to the unshakable guaranteed future.
And folks, this is far from wishful thinking.
This is based on the fact that Jesus calmed the
storm. And it is based on the fact that yes,
he was in the tomb. Yes, he willingly came into
our lives, into the chaotic reality that is here.
But as we wait from Friday until Sunday morning,
and as Jesus lied dead in that tomb, not even
death itself could contain our God and our King.
Bursting forth, he rose to new life. All that
is the essence of who God is, all of the control,
the legitimate power, the trustworthiness, his
statues, his holiness, they're all represented
in this resurrection that comes forward. So brothers
and sisters, this is reason to celebrate. This
is a song worth turning on and having shape and
form our life again and again and again. There's
a very clear shape to it. And we want to invite
that to match each moment of your day as you
go through it. It is definitely a song that is
worth listening that God says, I've got you.
If God is calling you to support our ministries,
you will find giving options on our website.
And remember to join us next week. God bless
you.