All right, well as I said we get the privilege
to hear from Austin Duncan And we got to hear
from Austin yesterday for the men you guys were
here There's about a hundred of us actually yesterday
having breakfast together and enjoying singing
and time and the word and testimony and we got
to hear from Austin yesterday and Convinced him
to stay to stay this morning and preach to us
this morning. So we're excited to have him Austin
is originally from New Mexico He's a Lobo and
he and I yeah, he and I met down at seminary
some 20 years ago Maybe even longer and I think
we had maybe a couple classes together I don't
remember any of my classes from seminary, but
I'm here. So that's good and made it through
somehow. But during that time, I got to know
Austin and he has been down at Grace Community
Church in Sun Valley for the last 21 years there
and served there faithfully. I know that he was
the high school pastor there because one of our
very own Caitlin Schwitters, Austin was Caitlin's
high school pastor. And I know for some of you
out there, he was your college pastor as well
down there. So a couple of you have moved up
from Southern California here. So Austin, you've
already served our church by serving them, which
is a neat connect. connection to have and We're
excited to have him Austin's married has four
four teenagers four teenagers right now So he
is in the thick of it there, but Austin Why don't
you come on up and and preach the word to us
so we can welcome him up Not all pastors should
be tall, but I like when they are So that's a
good thing. Just a thought. Another thought is
God has greatly blessed this church, that's obvious,
because the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl. And
he has not poured his blessing on my Minnesota
Vikings. I know it doesn't make sense. I'm from
New Mexico, live in LA, and I'm a Vikings fan.
It's my dad's fault. So you're welcome. For Sam
Darnold, you're welcome. Anyway, that's Things
of Earth. Let's turn our attention to Things
of Heaven, and it's such a joy to be here, and
I'm grateful for the way God has actually blessed
this church, which is His Spirit building a people
in a place where the witness for the gospel is
so desperately needed. And I praise God for your
faith and the light that shines from you as you
gather here and then as you disperse and fulfill
the great commission in your workplaces and your
families and as you continue to display the awesome
glory of God in a place that desperately needs
it. So praise God for you and your faith and
this precious church. Greetings from Southern
California and so many wonderful connections
to this church and to Pastor Joe. I'm very grateful
and the other leaders who had me this weekend.
It was good to be with the men and eat bacon
and pancakes and things, manly things like that.
So that was what happened. Will you open your
Bible to Psalm 146? Psalm 146. The title of this
message is A God Worth Praising and Psalm 146
commands our attention this morning as it asks
us to carefully consider who it is that we praise
and how we praise God and why we should praise
God. But let's begin by reading this amazing
song. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh my
soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God while I have my
being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son
of man in whom there is no salvation. When his
breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that
very day, his plans perish. Blessed is he whose
help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the
Lord his God, who made heaven and earth the sea
and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever,
who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives
food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners
free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The
Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord
loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the
sojourners. He upholds the widow and the fatherless.
But the way of the wicked He brings to ruin.
The Lord will reign forever. Your God owes Zion
to all generations. Praise. the Lord. This is
the very word of the living God. May his spirit
write it on our hearts this morning as he fuels
and motivates our praise. Psalm 146 is common
language to us if we've ever dipped our toes
into the salter. that great collection of ancient
Hebrew songs, a hymn book from God's people that
has carried and sustained the faith of believers
for all these thousands of years. The Psalms
are a place where our hearts so often go when
we don't know where else to go. And some of them
we hold with great familiarity, the 23rd Psalm,
the Great Shepherd. song, and we know that that
will be the words read at so many of our funerals.
We've been instructed in the first Psalm that
there are two ways to live, the way of the righteous
and the way of the wicked, one accompanied by
eternal blessing and one by terrible consequences.
We know that the Word of God lamp to our feet
and a light to our path because of Psalm 119
as it extols the virtues of Scripture and what
we mostly know is that the Psalms constantly
teach us a word that is available to believers
in almost every language without change and that
is Hallelujah, the word that opens and closes
Psalm 146, a word that has the covenant name
of God, an affectionate abbreviate version of
that name, Yah, and Halle, a verb speaking of
praise, to praise Yah. Hallelujah. It's the way
the psalm begins with that. call of praise, we
translate it, praise the Lord, hallelujah, it
closes with that same word, hallelujah, as does
the entire rest of this set of Psalms. Pastor
Joe read to us Psalm 150, and if you wander over
there in the 147, it begins in verse one with
hallelujah, and it concludes in verse 20 with
hallelujah. 148 begins in verse one with hallelujah,
praise the Lord. And in verse 14, praise the
Lord. 149, same deal. Starts with hallelujah,
ends with hallelujah. And as we read in scripture,
reading 150 says, praise the Lord and praise
the Lord. This final collection of Psalms is
put together at the end of the book, a book called...
book of praises, Telaim, it's now concluding
with this group of songs, five of them that have
a riveted focus on the importance of what has
sustained God's people through all their trials
and victories and that is the centrality of praising
God. I love missionary biographies and when I
find myself discouraged, I like to read John
G. Patton. I've read his autobiography a bunch
of times. I can open it to almost any spot and
pick up the story at any point and find both
encouragement and adventure. It's almost like...
Indiana Jones for Christians. He had an incredible
missionary endeavor to the New Hebrides. It's
called Vanuatu now, but it's Oceania, the Polynesian
kind of near Australia out in the scattering
of hundreds, even thousands of islands that had
not had any gospel witness in the 19th century
until the first missionary arrived on the shore
of an island called Tana and were within minutes
killed and eaten by cannibals. Ten years later
John and his precious wife Maggie would move
there and begin a work and that work would last
for about three years and Maggie would succumb
to a fever shortly after the birth of their daughter
who also died of sickness. His mission seemed
like a failure and it was against all odds that
he went. Maybe the most famous story of his being
sent into this dangerous place was the warning
that the mission board gave him. They told him
that it was unwise for him to go and to take
his young wife and to try to start a family in
this far -flung and heathen environment. One
of the mission board told him, you will be eaten
by cannibals. He looked at Mr. Dixon and said
but you sir will be eaten by worms someday and
It didn't matter to him the danger it didn't
matter to him the the struggle that was before
him and his his his faith sustained through the
most difficult Circumstances the death of his
wife and daughter he would shortly thereafter
under threat to his own life Flee the scene and
when he got back to Scotland more criticism more
contempt. Some even told him, you should have
stayed and died in that place. Your faith is
weak. But instead, the Lord used the next few
years for him to raise funds so that he would
return and serve there for a total of 40 years
with his second wife and his children. And he
had, in his first stay, a very difficult and...
seemingly fruitless ministry, but in a second
stay, by the end of it, almost the entirety of
that chain of islands was converted to Christ.
They went from people who ate people, who worshipped
spirits and demons and the ground and the trees
and the plants and the sea, to followers of Jesus
Christ, saints who praised God and said, Hallelujah.
It's songs like this that sustain the faith and
worship of God's people. And it's my prayer that
that's what will happen with this song today
as we consider it together. To understand this.
Song is to understand what it means to praise
God a phrase that's constantly on our mouths
whether you say it in its original hallelujah
form or you sing it in a plethora of praise songs
that just simply like the Psalms tell us praise
the Lord and I want you to look at this and understand
that this song really does present to us an opportunity
to understand that more deeply to refine our
worship because it shows us God in His unending
faithfulness. It shows us that God is a living
God unlike human helpers in contrast who can
only fail us and it proves to us that God alone
is worthy of lifelong praise and deep trust and
all this worship rightly belongs to Him and to
Him alone. I think the psalm divides neatly into
three parts. First, a commitment to praise in
verses one to two. And I'd like to talk to you
about what it means to praise God, such a Christian
phrase that maybe we don't fully comprehend its
depth and significance. So a commitment to praise
in verses one to two is the psalmist's heart.
And then he shows us in verses three and four,
there's a caution against misplaced trust. a
caution against misplaced trust and in that verse,
I think we'll see a temptation that's familiar
to all our hearts as we put our confidence in
things that are not God and we consider other
means of sustaining and helping and hoping that
are less than God. It's a trap we all fall into
throughout the course of feeble faith. And then
thirdly and finally this psalm expands into this
beautiful testimony of blessing and we'll call
that a call. to trust the forever faithful God,
a benediction, a blessing, a beatitude that begins
to wrap up the entirety of the Psalms and point
us towards not just the end of the Psalms, but
the end of our existence in this world and the
goal of our existence being the continued and
eternal praise of a forever faithful God. So
let's dive into this song in those three parts.
First, a commitment to praise in verses one to
two. I love his opening word, hallelujah, hallelujah,
oh my soul. That abbreviated covenant name of
God, Yah, the word for praise given twice. And
then in verse two, a modified version of that
word that speaks of singing praise. I will, you
could say make music to or sing praises to my
God. So it says, praise Yah. 37 times in the
psalm, it's plural. So it's calling all the people
to praise. And so it has a corporate sense to
it as most of the Psalms do. Praise, the order
is, oh my soul, yah. And then verse 2, oh I will
praise Yahweh while I live or all my life. And
now it brings that corporate praise into an individual
focus. I will praise, I will sing praises to
my God, to my God. while I have my being or as
long as I live. It's a commitment to praise for
the entirety of the believer's life. It's a call
for all the believers to gather together as individuals
trusting and as a body of people worshiping and
together trusting and proclaiming the excellencies
of God. That's what praise is. But sometimes
we think the Psalms are trying to hit us in the
head with a praise club. What I mean is it's
easy to say, hey, y 'all should really praise
more than you do, don't you think? It's like
the prayer thing. It's easy to feel convicted
about your prayer life if the preacher says,
so how much are you praying? Very few are going,
nailed it. To ask you about your praise life
is similar. And I don't think that's what this
psalm is doing, though it is commanding you to
praise. I don't think it's asking you or scolding
you that your praise is insufficient. Our praise
is always, for the entirety of our lives, insufficient.
It's not enough. Acts 17 25 says, God is not
served by human hands as if He needed anything.
In other words, God doesn't need your praise.
He's not lacking something if your praise isn't
to the highest decibel. But He does command your
praise. And it's not a scolding that this psalmist
gives as he invites his fellow believers to join
him in praise. It's not a burden that he's...
putting on your shoulders that makes you feel
some sense of guilt. You need to be strongly
exhorted that you ought to praise more than you
do. We're all aware of the insufficiency and
meager offering that we bring in our praise.
And when we are reminded of it, I don't think
it helps us much. And the solution is not to
be scolded about insufficient praise, but to
be encouraged on the nature of praise. To understand
praise is to arrive at a place of deeper love
and worship of God. Christopher Ash in his excellent
commentary on the Psalms says, to know is to
praise. In other words, the way that you fuel
your praise so that you can join the song presented
to us in 146 and on each Sunday morning as you
gather and unite your voices to heaven together,
the way that you amplify that praise is not by
turning up the volume externally of your voice
or increasing the frequency of your petitions
or extolling God more than you do, expanding
the number of times you sing. sure you sing in
your car, make sure you sing at night, sing before
your bed, that kind of thing. Instead, I think
the solution is that the psalm is presenting
is that to know is to praise. In other words,
it's a theological reason. How are we to increase
or amplify our praise? It's by increasing or
amplifying our understanding, our knowledge,
and our experience of who God is. This is what
praise means. C .S. Lewis, in his book Reflections
on the Psalms, speaks of his childhood distaste
for the palms in the Psalter. As he read the
Psalms as a hard -hearted young person, he thought
God sounded like a granny demanding attention.
He didn't like the way that the God of the Bible
seemed to be scolding people and demanding, praise
me, praise me, praise me, praise me. What would
change Lewis's mind was an understanding that
God was not centered on man, but that God, because
He is the greatest, is centered on God. That
God offers, in inviting us to praise and worship
Him, He offers us what is best, Himself. And
He won't settle for anything less than best.
And so when God extols God and invites us to
participate and be the recipients of the blessing
of knowing the all good, all wise, that manifold,
excellent God, He theologically gets us to a
place to increase our understanding and commitment
and experience and obedience towards God and
those experiences fuel our understanding and
knowledge so that our praise comes from something.
This is simply what praise is. Lewis says it
like this, the most obvious fact about praise,
whether of God or of anything. strangely escaped
me. I thought in terms of compliment, approval,
or giving honor. I'd never noticed that all enjoyment
spontaneously overflows into praise unless shyness
or the fear of boring others has deliberately
brought it into check. He continues, the world
rings with praise. Lovers praising their Mistresses,
Romeo praising Juliet, and vice versa. Readers,
their favorite poet. Walkers, praising the countryside.
Players, praising their favorite game. Praise
of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses,
colleges, countries, historical personages, children,
flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles,
and sometimes even politicians. We praise what
we love. We praise what we adore. We praise what
we find worthy. We root for what excites us.
And if you don't have any praise in your tank,
you don't fill your tank with praise, praise,
praise, praise, praise. You fill your tank with
God, who He is and what He's done. Do you want
to fuel and motivate your praise church? Then
understand more deeply the glory of God in the
gospel that he gave you his son the only one
who ever praised God sufficiently and completely
in every moment of his human existence in every
span of his divine existence in inter trinitarian
love Jesus is the only one who rightly and fully
praises God until our hearts are full of that
same love and affection and appreciation of who
God is to us in Christ, then we can understand
what it means to say, praise the Lord. Hallelujah
is a call to understand and love and follow and
obey and marvel at the wondrous works of God
in redemption, in salvation and in our own testimonies
and world today. So as He provides for you and
your family, as He meets your needs, as He walks
with you through a burdensome trial, as He promises
to never leave you or forsake you, all of that
fills the tank of our hearts. and our affections
and causes us to say, praise the Lord. That's
how this psalm begins. Not with a burdensome
exhortation to praise, but an invitation to understand
why God is so worthy. Worthy enough that verse
two, this is something that consumes the psalmist's
entire life while I live. I will sing praises
to my God while I have my being. And it is the
short span of life that becomes a thematic element
of this song. As we move to the second portion
of this song, Caution Against Misplaced Trust,
in verses three and four, it's just that idea
of the brevity and vapor -like nature of life
that becomes the focus. He issues us a warning,
a helpful warning. A caution against misplaced
trust. We see it in verses 3 and 4. Look at it
with me. Do not trust in princes. Do not put
your trust in princes. Let's pause there for
a moment. Is that a problem for you? Harry and
William never crossed my mind. I don't care about
that. I'm American. Not interested. One was just
gallivanting in Montecito anyway. Maybe I do
think about it sometimes. But I definitely have
no trust in the princes. But if we immerse ourselves
into the context of this song, as it was originally
sung by the Hebrew people, it was a real temptation.
And if we think about it for a second, it is
for us as well. for Israel, it was a temptation
for them to rely on surrounding nations. The
Middle East now and the Middle East then was
marked by turmoil and war. And it would have
been the covenant people of God's intention of
self -preservation as they were under attack
constantly. And so to align themselves with Egypt
or Assyria, large massive superpowers, made a
lot of sense in a geopolitical sense. They were
constantly by their own prophets warned against
such thinking to not rely on foreign powers or
other princes. The poor who are featured in the
second half of this song would also be reliant
on those who had means. Princes were those who
were the wealthy ones, the ones with power and
influence and protective abilities and for the
very poor in society they would look to their
own princes their own rulers their own leaders
their own kings to find protection if you were
a friend of the king you were in a good and privileged
privileged position he helps us understand even
a people who are princeless exactly what he's
talking about And it suddenly becomes very relevant
and very convicting. Verse three, do not put
your trust in princes. In a son of man, the Hebrew
word is Adam, who has no salvation, his spirit
goes out. Verse four, his breath departs. He
returns to the earth. Adama, there's a little
poetic play going there with Adam, man, and Adama,
the earth, the ground. And on that day, the day
he goes to the earth, the day he dies, his plans
perish. The word plans, if it's the same verb,
it is the same verb in Jonah 1 .6, where the
sailors look at Jonah and they say, get up. and
call on your God, perhaps He will take notice.
It's that phrase, take notice, like maybe He'll
help us, maybe He'll intervene. What the psalmist
is teaching us is that our trust in any human
salvation, our trust in any human helper, or
to use the language of the psalm in verse 5,
help and hope, what we're looking for from the
God of Jacob, help and hope will not ultimately
or savingly be found in any human means. You
follow me on that? In other words, there are
all kinds of people that we count on that are
dear to us and precious to us who have We believe
our best intentions in their minds who are advocates
for us. Maybe it's your boss at work. You're
grateful to have a benevolent head of your department
or a CEO who likes you and who's looking out
for you and you have a tendency throughout the
year to look to that person and know they are
for me and therefore my position is secure. Or
maybe you're happy in a particular political
climate and you look at the leadership in that
climate and you think now I'll be safe or more
likely you're not happy and you think we're moving
to Texas. That's it Feel the covered wagon we're
reversing this thing I'm from California I get
it so that tendency let's duck and hide and find
protection in this world in a different circumstance
or environment or maybe you at your annual checkup
and praise God I survived the men breakfast by
the way it's not easy to do my dear friend Scott
was here last time and I sent him a picture of
me and Joe and I just said pray for my heart
So, thankfully I have no discernible body fat,
so I'll be fine. It's totally fine. What was
I talking about? Bacon. Sorry, this happens to
me. I'm out of practice. Okay, so here's the
thing. You go to your annual visitation with
your doctor, and you get a clean bill of health.
No triglycerides, whatever they test, everything's
cool. and you leave quite sure and satisfied
that your kale diet is holding you up. It's all
those things that we have a temptation to trust.
It's the ordinary human means of protection of,
again, the language of the psalm, help and hope.
The question I would ask you is, who's your first
call if you're in trouble? Whether it's for advice
or help or a financial bailout or Assistance
or whatever it is. Who's your first call when
you pick up your phone? That's a prince That's
human helpers. I Love that song abide in me that
him by Henry F light they sing it at football
That's you know football games in the UK I don't
understand football and I don't understand why
they sing a hymn together. They're like drunk
and singing this abide with me thing. Google
it, it's interesting. Not now, after church.
But I love that hymn and I've watched these massive
soccer stadiums of people singing these words
which have tradition and the national connection
but they sing these words intended for the people
of God to worship in this hymn. They go like
this, when other helpers fail. comforts flee
help of the helpless abide with me that's what
it means to not trust in princes to not have
our confidence in humans because every single
helper that you've ever relied on will have a
funeral but God is different and that's why this
psalm expands into a beatitude. You know the
beatitudes, Jesus's famous sermon on the mount
where he says blessed are the peacemakers, blessed
are those who are poor for they'll inherit the
earth, blessed is, that's a beatitude. The Psalms,
you'll remember, open with one. Psalm one is
a beatitude, a promise, a blessing, a... Word
of assurance Remember Psalm 1 says Blessed is
the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked
nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in
the seat of scoffers But his delight is in the
law of the Lord and in his law. He meditates
day and night. He'll be like a tree planted by
living water. That's the blessing. That's the
promise. That's the assurance that's given. It
said blessed is the man. Happy is the man. Blessed
of God is the man. And the Psalms scatter that
language throughout all the Psalter, five books
of Psalms, 150 of them in all. and over again,
you'll find that little formula, blessed is the
man. 25 times. In Psalms, 25 different beatitudes
that promise and ensure God's blessing on a man
who is aligned with God, who is a righteous man,
who meditates on God's Word, who does not fraternize
with the wicked. On and on, it promises repeated
blessings. 25 different occurrences scattered
somewhat evenly throughout all 150 Psalms. And
then finally, the very last one. the book of
Psalms before you'll hear it on the lips of the
Lord Jesus Christ in his most famous sermon is
in Psalm 146 verse 5 and this is the beginning
of a call to trust the forever faithful God verses
5 through 10 but it's a beatitude verse 5 blessed
happy is the man Just like Psalm 1, just like
that Sermon on the Mount, blessed is the promise
of assurance. Well, who is blessed? Blessed is
he whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope
is on Yahweh, his God. There is an assurance
of blessing, of God's pardon, of God's favor,
of his smile being upon your life. as other helpers
and humans and princes have failed to comfort
you, to help you, and to give you hope as you
come to realize that no medical practitioner,
no politician, no spouse, no parent, no mentor,
no pastor can ever give you full help and hope
and you're only... hope for blessing and hope
for help and help in hope as you look to the
future is in God and God alone. This is your
promise of blessing. This is the call that this
Psalm is making after instructing you to praise
God from a full tank of understanding of God's
gospel and God's mercy and love and then warning
you as fallen creatures who understand the sway
of temptation to trust in humans instead of trust
in God, to trust in things we see instead of
things we don't see. Now it calls us with a beautiful
voice to a blessing of help and hope in the God
of Jacob whose hope is on Yahweh his God. What
an awesome invitation to hear the words blessed.
is he whose help is in the God of Jacob is a
reminder that both corporately the God of Jacob
is a way of talking about the God of Jacob is
the father of Israel Jacob has all the tribes
associated under his protection and rescue but
Jacob is also a man a rascal of a man who wrestled
with God and eventually succumbed to God's mercy
in his life and was a friend of God and received
the kindness of God in his testimony in the book
of Genesis and ultimately was transformed by
God and so I think here too you have an individual
reminder of Jacob's story And you have the testimony
of the people of God that he protected and preserved
throughout redemptive history. Blessed is he
whose help is the God of Jacob and whose hope
is in Yahweh his God. Help and hope are what's
promised. Because God doesn't need to aspirate
like humans who eventually go from dust to dust
and back to the earth from which they came. breath
is borrowed from their creator. God the creator
of all of us is offering us happiness and blessing
in his unbreakable help and hope. And now the
psalmist wants to encourage us with grammar,
poetic grammar, but it's still grammar. There's
big grammar here. Hate talking about big grammar
on a Sunday, but you gotta, it's better than
big pharma. Look at big grammar. Not big grandma,
that's different. Big grammar. Verse seven. Verse
six, I'm sorry. There is nine participles. What's
a participle? ING is the best way to think about
a participle. Why a participle? Why am I using
that word? Because if something is ing, running,
walking, it's a continual movement, right? We're
walking, we're not walked. We're running, we
didn't run yesterday. These are participles.
They're words, nine of them. That's a lot. Lined
up poetically. In Hebrew, poetry isn't like cat,
hat, mat, rat, fat. In Hebrew, poetry has sounds
that are alike, but it's mostly about structures.
Words that line up. And he's lined up, if you
look at your Bible in verse six. these nine words
that should be ing kind of words, starting with
the word making, heaven and earth, the sea, and
everything in them. And so God is portrayed not
as the one who created the world, but as the
one who is creating the world. In other words,
like Colossians says, Christ upholds all things
in himself. By the power of his word, God is
making and. ordering and sovereignly in charge
of the heaven, the earth, the sea and its chaos,
everything in them, all under the auspices of
the meticulous ongoing sovereignty of the creating
God. And then there's only one definite article.
My ESV Bible says, who, a bunch of times, it
sounds like an owl broke out. It was verse six,
seven, eight, who, who, who. There is only one
who, and it's in verse six, who, keeping faith
forever. And I think the poet intentionally puts
the definite article who on keeping to remind
us that this is an attribute of God. He is forever
faithful. The word faithful or faithful in Hebrew
is the same word for truthful. The idea is that
God can never lie. He can never break his promises.
You preached about this last week in Psalm 36.
Shay, baby. And that's exactly right. God is
unable to lie. He is faithful and unbreakable
in his faithfulness. And so it says who, pointing
directly at God, keeps, or is keeping faith forever.
So he's making heaven and earth. He's keeping
faith forever. Verse seven, he is acting, and
now no more who, acting justice for the oppressed,
giving bread to the hungry. And then five Yahwehs,
Yahweh loosening the prisoner free, Yahweh opening
the eyes of the blind, Yahweh raising up those
who are bowed down, Yahweh loving the righteous.
Verse nine, Yahweh protecting the strangers.
Nine participles telling you that God is working
right now for your help and your hope. And the
lower you are, the more you can be assured of
this promise. That's why he's highlighting the
poor, the prisoners, the bowed down. The Bible's
not woke right now. It's not talking about the
disenfranchised. It's talking about people who
are low, who are poor, who are oppressed, people
who are hurting. And I don't care how much money
you have or what color your skin is, you can
be in a place of destitution if you understand
who you are and who God is. That's fundamentally
what's most important about us, not our socioeconomic
class. That's what God is highlighting here.
So what is God doing for the lowest of the low?
Well, God... in His forever faithfulness. God
who offers His people the only help and hope
that will never die is keeping and making and
acting and giving and loosing the prisoners free
and opening the eyes of the blind and raising
up those who are bowed down and loving the righteous
and protecting the strangers. Five -fold Yahweh
is doing this and His name is repeated and repeated
in His making and keeping. acting and giving
and freeing and opening and raising and loving
and protecting and that work goes on and on and
on into all eternity that's why we ought to praise
God not because we're not that good at praising
God we should praise God because he's worthy
of it worthy of our attention worthy of our affection
worthy of our trust as we look to the one who
blesses us with his help and hope. And then the
Psalm shifts gears, grammatical gears. Now it's
going to do different verbs. Verse 9, Yahweh
protects the strangers and then it shifts. He
upholds the widow and the fatherless. The Bible
lays special emphasis on the people of God and
their God. and his concern for those who do not
have the ordinary means of help and hope. A spouse,
a parent. Widows and orphans are the special
object of God's care and historically the church's
care commanded by the New Testament because they
don't have the ordinary means of human help.
And so God underlines them, downshifting from
this chorus of keeping and acting and giving
and freeing, to say that He upholds the imperfect
tense. I think it's a future. In other words,
it's a promise that God says, I will uphold them.
I'll sustain those who need sustaining the most.
And it shifts right back into that warning mode.
But the wicked he brings to ruin. He wrecks their
own way. The other path of Psalm 1. And then
this triumphant blast. Also the imperfect talking
about future. Like this will happen without a
doubt. He will uphold the widow and the fatherless.
He will bring the wicked to ruin eventually,
and finally, and fully. And how sure can you
be that God will take care of the least of these?
And how sure can you be that God will have victory
over His enemies? Well, it's the same tense in
verse 10. Yahweh will reign forever. Will God
reign forever? Yes or no? You can talk at this
part. Yes. As sure as God's eternal reign is,
so sure is his upholding and sustaining of the
widow and the fatherless. As sure as God's reign
forever is, his final and ultimate victory you've
been reading about in your scripture readings
on Sunday morning, so sure is that he will bring
the wicked to ruin. But the ringing truth that
this psalm ends with before its final book end
of praise Hallelujah is Yahweh will reign forever,
your God Zion to all generations. It's a call
to trust the forever faithful God who is telling
you that you can praise your Maker as long as
you have breath. All the days of your life will
not pass without His sustaining, His help, His
hope, and His blessing. Our God is a God worth
praising. On his second stay in Vanuatu, John
Patton had an occasion where he was being chased
by a bunch of angry natives. He didn't know exactly
why. What had riled them up was all kinds of
feast days and pagan rituals and Stuff would
happen and it seemed to be gospel progress and
then next thing you know he's being chased and
under threat of being beaten to death and killed
and this shady chieftain tells him climb up in
the tree and he doesn't trust this guy but he
has nothing else to do and so he climbs up in
this big leafy jungle tree in the middle of the
night. and he spends the entire night listening
to the cries of these savage people thirsty for
his blood, literally. And he doesn't know what's
gonna happen. But in his autobiography he looks
back on that scene and he describes it this way,
I climbed into the tree and was left there alone
in the bush. The hours I spent there live all
before me as if it were but yesterday. I heard
the frequent discharge of muskets and the yells
of the savages, yet I sat there among the branches
as safe in the arms of Jesus. Never in all my
sorrows did my Lord draw nearer to me and speak
more soothingly to my soul than when the moonlight
flickered among those chestnut leaves and the
night air played on my throbbing brow as I told
all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone.
If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge
to spend many nights alone in such a tree to
feel again my Savior's spiritual presence to
enjoy His consoling fellowship. Sometimes the
safest place that you can be is not surrounded
by the means of protection that you and other
humans have provided for your family. Sometimes
the safest place you can be is up a tree, all
by yourself, muskets and clubs going off all
around you, knowing Jesus has got you in the
tree. When he went to the synagogue, he read
Isaiah 61. Its language is almost exactly like
the verses of 146, 6 through 9. And as Jesus
read those verses, that he'd be the one who would
give sight to the blind and free the captives.
He knew that that spiritual power was his and
he would accomplish it on the cross. And so as
we prepare for the Lord's Supper in just a moment
after I pray, I want us to be mindful of that
reality. He's the only one that truly praises
God. He's the one who can be with us for help
and hope. He's the only one that we can rely
on. Apart from Him, we'll find no capacity, no
permanence, no continuance, and no future. When
other helpers fail and comforts flee, He is the
help of the helpless, and He abides with us.
Father, thank You for Your Word. Imprint that
kind of faith on our hearts as we trust Jesus
sincerely. In His name, amen. Amen. Austin, thank
you. so much for that. We get to turn our attention
to communion, as he has said. And men, why don't
you guys go ahead and make your way down. The
music team's making their way up here as well.
And you guys can start passing out the communion
plates together. And just as a reminder, the
communion is set forth in scripture from our
Lord Himself as a way of remembering His death.
On the cross and it's designed for believers
if you're a believer in Jesus Christ We want
you to partake in this time of communion if you're
not a believer in Jesus Christ who's asked that
you allow the plate to pass and and To continue
on and while you guys are sitting there Just
want to ask of you guys to take a moment and
thank the Lord and praise the Lord That he is
our help that he is our hope that He has offered
to you, forgiveness of sin, and to really just
take a time just to meditate on those things
as the elements are being passed, and then I
will direct us through taking those elements
together. So just take some time alone right
now to do that. First Corinthians chapter 11
the Apostle Paul recounts what happened on the
night that Jesus was betrayed and the night that
the communion table was instituted for His disciples
and then for the church later on and he says
in first Corinthians 11 verse 23 says for I received
from the Lord What I also delivered to you that
the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed.
He took the bread And when he had given thanks,
he broke it And he said, this is my body, which
is for you. Do this in remembrance of me, church.
Let's take the bread together in remembrance
of the body of Christ. Goes on, he says, in the
same way, he also took the cup after supper,
saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance
of me for as often as you eat this bread and
drink the cup. You proclaim the Lord's death
until he comes. Church, let's take this together,
proclaiming the Lord's death. Lord, thank you
for the communion table. What a reminder it is
of the forgiveness of sins that we have in Jesus
Christ. There is no other name under heaven by
which man can be saved. Only through Jesus We're
thankful for that or may we praise you Each and
every day you are help and you are our hope in
Jesus name. Amen