SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2020

Read Psalm 145

Here are Preaching Notes for the day.  We will live-stream at 10:30 a.m. this Sunday via Facebook, you can meet in your car in the Church parking lot, and then it will be available after that online - look for the link on Church website. 

"Praise God Every Day"

Introduction

            A first grade teacher gave her class a fun assignment—to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful. It was Thanksgiving and though most of the class might be considered to be from poor families, they would still be celebrating the holiday with turkey and other traditional goodies of the season. These, the teacher thought, would be the subjects of most of her student's art. And they were.

            But Douglas made a different kind of picture. Douglas was a different kind of boy. He was the teacher's true child of misery, frail and unhappy. As other children played at recess, Douglas was likely to stand close by her side. One could only guess at the pain Douglas felt behind those sad eyes. Yes, his picture was different. When asked to draw a picture of something for which he was thankful, he drew a hand. Nothing else. Just an empty hand.

            His abstract image captured the imagination of the other students. The teacher asked the class, “Whose hand could it be?” One child guessed it was the hand of a farmer, because farmers raise turkeys. Another suggested a police officer, because the police protect and care for people. Still others guessed it was the hand of God, for God feeds us. And so the discussion went—until the teacher almost forgot the young artist himself. When the children had gone on to other assignments, she paused at Douglas' desk, bent down, and asked him whose hand it was.

            The little boy looked away and murmured, "It's yours, teacher."

She recalled the times she had taken his hand and walked with him here or there, as she had the other students. How often had she said, "Take my hand, Douglas, we'll go outside." Or, "Let me show you how to hold your pencil." Or, "Let's do this together." Douglas was most thankful for his teacher's hand.

Today Psalm 145 encourages us to think about God’s hand in our life.

Psalm of David

·         Some, but not every Psalm, has a superscription -- which is the little title line that often precedes the actual verse.  They usually tell you who wrote the Psalm or gives you musical directions. Superscriptions are actually in the Hebrew text, and not something added by English translators like typical section headings that help people like me find my way around the Bible.

·         In Psalm 145 the superscription reads tehilla ledawid, "a hymn of David."  Obviously most if not all of the Psalms are put to music and meant to be sung, but this is the only Psalm that uses the word that labels it as a "Hymn," or "Hymn of Praise."

·         You have probably heard the book of Psalms called the Psalter. This just another way of saying the book of Psalms is a hymnal. In a superscription in Psalm 145 has traditionally been used to describe all of the book of Psalms.

Hebrew Poetry

·         Poetry can employ any of several different literary devices. Rhyming is just one such tool, but not the one that applies today - especially since Psalm 145 is in Hebrew.

·         Another obvious/common poetic device is that of an acrostic (alphabetic) poem in which each line or set of lines is begun with a subsequent letter of the alphabet (e.g., Psalms 34, 37, 111, 112). The most extended acrostic poem is Psalm 119 in which the letter stanza consist of eight lines each. So - verses 1–8 begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, verses 9–16 with the second letter, and so on.

·         Psalm 145 is an acrostic poem.  There are 21 lines, each beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet (aleph, bet, gimel, daleth, etc.). One letter of the alphabet (nun) is lacking from the oldest Hebrew text, but another (though newer) Hebrew manuscript and several other ancient translations include the missing verse/letter as the second half of verse 13.  Most English versions include it - you will notice verse 13 is four lines instead of two because of the addition.

·         Another basic constituent of Hebrew poetry is the device of parallelism, a technique in which lines are ordinarily end-stopped and balanced according to meaning, syntax, and/or sound. For example: "You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty" (Ps 91:1).  The various elements balance each other: you who dwell /who abide; in the shelter /in the shadow; of the Most High /of the Almighty.

·         Synonymous parallelism is where the same thought is repeated twice in different but synonymous (‘nearly the same’) words. For example: "The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me" (Psalm 18:4). So the verse has two lines, with parallel meaning.  Knowing this helps us read Hebrew poetry, the Psalms in particular, and interpret what is being said.  It helps too because poetry is artful language and not just some kind of literal/literary science.

Enough about Hebrew, poetry, for now this is all you need to know-etry... We have talked about how Hebrew poetry communicates, now let's talk about what Psalm 145 is saying.

Some specific ways that God’s hand touches our life

·         Writing the elementary-age lesson that went in the Sunday In A Box for this week - I thought about how in Psalm 145 David was making a list of his reasons for praising God. His reasons for giving thanks to God. It occurred to me that most often when I give thanks and I make a list, and it is a list of things. I thank God for stuff. And then I was reminded that it is also right for us to move beyond "stuff and thank God for who God is as well. David does a good job of both of those...

·         If you went through Psalm 145 with two different color highlighters, and with one color you highlighted everything that God does for us... then if you used a second color and you highlighted the attributes of God (who God is) - then most of the Psalm is now highlighted. But, the Psalm would not be cleanly divided (like first half is one color and second half another). Both of these themes permeate David's "list."

Let's consider the things that God does for us.

We Give Thanks (Praise) for everyTHING God has done

·         Just copying some of the language - here's a list of things that God does in Psalm 145: he is good to all, gives them food, saves them, fulfills the desires of those who fear him, upholds, lifts up, satisfies, watches over, is near to all...  In reference to doing 'things,' such "works/deeds" are brought about by God's power/greatness...

3Great is the Lord and most worthy of

praise; his greatness no one can fathom.

4One generation will commend your

works to another; they will tell of your

mighty acts.

5They will speak of the glorious splendor

of your majesty, and I will meditate on

your wonderful works.

6They will tell of the power of your

awesome works, and I will proclaim your

great deeds.

·         Works, Deeds, Power, Greatness... is the language used to describe everything God has done for us.

God is Great, God is Powerful, and God is Mighty

·         Historically, many have taken the adjective Great and made it part of their name: Alexander the Great, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great. However, we recognize that God alone is great! Furthermore, his greatness is unsearchable (v. 3). No one ever has or ever will fully fathom the depths of his greatness (check out God's love in Ephesains 3:17–19). Not all the minds of all the ages using the most advanced scientific equipment can capture all that God is. The glorious splendor of God’s majesty is blinding and breathtaking and beyond comprehension or calculation (v. 5).

·         God's mighty acts are awe-inspiring and his greatness is without limit and that even with intensive search no one can find its depths. Psalm 145:3 “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.” The word “fathom” comes from the ancient word fadym which was the word for "thread." A thread was used to measure the distance between two things. Our word "fathom" then came to mean to measure something, such as the depth of water under a ship to see if it can safely pass over. The question we ask this morning, “Is God sufficient for our needs?” Is God deep enough to supply what we are lacking? Can we safely trust God to be mighty enough, powerful enough, and near enough to help? Are God’s resources adequate for our need?

·         We are used to limitations in life: We all have a limited amount of time. We have a limited amount of patience. We have a limited amount of money. We have a limited amount of strength. We have a limited amount of insight. But God has no limits. We can never exhaust the resources of God with our needs. How can we understand the unlimited nature of God’s greatness?

Illustration: (David Finch)

·          When I was a teenager I went to Lake Tahoe for the first time. I was impressed with the vastness (and coldness) of the lake. I also heard the legend that the bottom of Lake Tahoe has never been found. It was easy to believe when I looked at the beautiful blue lake.

·         The truth is that Lake Tahoe is the eighth deepest lake in the world. On July 4, 1875, two men actually discovered the deepest point in the lake to be 1645 feet by lowering a weighted champagne bottle on fishing line from the side of their boat. Following the invention of sonar, soundings by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that depth. Lake Tahoe is so large that if the lake were tipped over, its contents would cover California in 14.5 inches of water. Tahoe could provide every person in the United States with 50 gallons of water per day for 5 years. The evaporation alone from Tahoe over the course of one year could supply a city the size of Los Angeles for 5 years. And Lake Tahoe is a small lake compared to Lake Superior (120 times as large) and the world’s largest lake, the Caspian Sea (576 times as large). 

·         Your use of water could never personally exhaust the limits of Lake Tahoe. In the same way whatever your need might be you can never exhaust God’s supply. In Philippians 4:19 we are told “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

·         He provides food and sustains all life. Think of the vastness of the universe. Our sun is 93 million miles away; a light year is almost 6 trillion miles, and the Milky Way is 100,000 light years in diameter, and that is a small galaxy. He upholds it all (v. 15–16).

·         In ancient Greece it was customary for peddlers who walked the streets with their wares to cry out, "What do you lack?" The idea was to let people know they were in the vicinity, and also rouse the curiosity of the people. Coming out of their houses they would want to know what the peddler was selling. It might be something they lacked and needed, or simply something they desired.

·         What do you lack? God has exactly what you need.

            To know that God is powerful is good. To know that God's character is gracious takes our praise to the next level. A person who recognizes that God is gracious, loving, and merciful understands God more completely than a person who merely realizes that God is powerful.

            David is better than most at giving thanks for who God is.  Instead of talking about just 'things,' and what God can do, he gives thanks that God is powerful, kind, close to all who call on him, and wonderfully good.

We Give Thanks (Praise) for WHO God is...

7They will celebrate your abundant

goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

8The Lord is gracious and

compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

9The Lord is good to all; he has

compassion on all he has made.

·         Use your Hebrew poetry knowledge to see how Good/Compassion are used as synonymous parallels...

·         This is just a partial list of God's attributes in Psalm 145: righteous, compassionate, gracious, good, slow to anger, near to all, rich in love, loving, faithful, holy.

God's Goodness

·         Our concept of goodness needs stretching.

·         We throw that word—good—around barely even grasping its full meaning. Some department store Santa asks little Timmy, “Were you good this year?” and Timmy says, “Oh, yes, Santa, I only kicked my sister a few times.”

·         What if you ask your spouse, "Where have you been?" and they answer, “Don’t worry, honey, I was good.”  That is not very satisfying, is it?

·         Or the head of a sales team skirts a scolding for failing to close a key deal by playing on the boss’ vanity: “I know if they’d had a chance to meet you, Steve, they’d have bitten for sure.” On the way out of the meeting, a co-worker whispers slyly, “Oh, you’re good.”

·         Do you get the picture? The concept of good, for us, is a sort of squishy thing. I’m good because I could have been worse. I’m good because others are worse. It’s not quite the same, however, as actually being good, is it? Even when selfishness or pride isn’t the driving motivation, we often settle into a limited definition of good simply because we lack experience with something more good still. For example, people thought the iPhone 10 was good, until an even better iPhone 11 was produced.

·         Verse 9: "The Lord is good to all." The message of the Scriptures is that God alone is good in the absolute sense. In fact, the Anglo-Saxon word good comes from the word God. In its original definition, goodness meant godliness.

·         If we’ve seen any deterioration of goodness in our time—and the daily news and our experience plainly suggests we have—it is because we have turned our gaze away from God and forgotten what goodness looks like. “O taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the one who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8)

God is Gracious

·         Like the prodigal son who was welcomed home after his rebellion, so God welcomes home his children. This is Grace. In spite of all the wrong that I have done, the Lord is gracious and compassionate to me.

·         During a British conference on comparative religions, experts debated what, if any, belief was unique to Christianity. They began eliminating possibilities. The Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from the dead. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. “What's the rumpus about?” he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, “Oh, that's easy. It's grace.” After some discussion, the others had to agree.

·         The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. Other religions, if you listen closely to their teaching - offer a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional. God’s grace sets us free from trying to earn God’s forgiveness. Common sense tells us that we can never meet the standards of God’s holiness. Grace tells us that everything is all right in spite of so much in you being so wrong. God is: - righteous, compassionate, gracious, good, slow to anger, near to all, rich in love, loving, faithful, holy.

·         In an earlier psalm we are reminded of God’s grace and mercy toward us. “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10).

·         One of the most famous sermons ever preached was the sermon by Jonathan Edwards entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It is a remarkable sermon, designed to stir a complacent congregation. In it Edwards warns his audience that they are in danger of being cast into Hell at any moment. “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell,” Edwards says, “and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock.” The picture Edwards paints is not a pretty one. “Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it….”

·         So why doesn’t God just let us go? What is stopping us from this terrible descent? David tells us: Though God’s wrath is real, it is not quickly stirred. He is “slow to anger.” But more than that, David says God is “rich in love.” This is the committed love of God that compels him to keep his promises even when we do not keep ours. It is faithful love that is often expressed in the form of a covenant. And amazingly, it is an attribute of God’s faithfulness that is often emphasized in contexts where God’s people have been unfaithful.

God is faithful

·         In addition to God's power and love, we should praise God because he helps those who are bowed down with grief or adversity. He has promised never leave us. God has proven throughout history he is faithful. God keeps his promises. God lifts up those who have fallen. God sustains those who are ready to fall. God provides for our needs and desires. In Psalm 94:18 we read, “When I said, ‘My foot is slipping,’ your love, O Lord, supported me.” And again in Psalm 37, “The steps of the Godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.”  For the Lord holds them by the hand.

Another attribute: God is near

·         Another characteristic of God we see in this Psalm is God's nearness to us. God is nearby to each of us and attentive to our special needs. He promises to hear our prayers and save us. These are great and powerful promises. We see this characteristic played out throughout scripture: he is near to all of us, he fulfills desires, and he watches over all.

So what should our rightful response be in the face of all that God has done and all that God is? Here's a list of verbs in the Psalm that can help spell out an answer - we are to: praise, extol, command, tell, speak, meditate, proclaim, celebrate, sing, call on...  We are to praise God.

PRAISE

·         The word "every/all" is repeated 16 times throughout the Psalm, emphasizing the unlimited comprehensiveness of who will praise the Lord and of that for which the Lord is to be praised.

"Every/All, Unlimited..." these describe God, but not us. Thus praise needs to be directed beyond ourselves to that which is truly worthy of worship. (praise/worship might be synonymous parallels in most verses BTW)

·         The mighty acts of God inspired awe and even fear in those who experienced them. Contrast this with the perspective that shapes the worship experience in so many churches today. We are more concerned with comfort and familiarity. We want to sing songs that we like and hear an interesting sermon.

Illustration: (John Koessler)

·         Some years ago when I had a job working in the mailroom for one a major auto company, I came across a magazine that focused on the city of Dallas, Texas. As I thumbed through it, I was amazed to find that one of the regular features of that magazine was a review of area churches. It was just like the review you might read of a play or a local restaurant, only it focused on the church service. It rated the music, the sermon, and the general feel of the church.

·         This is the mentality that Skye Jethani writes about in his recent book The Divine Commodity. Jethani argues that churches today have turned God into a commodity—that they are marketing experiences and producing consumers instead of worshipers. Jethani describes the thinking this way: “If our worship gatherings are energetic, stimulating, and exciting enough then people will attend, receive what’s being communicated, and be spiritually transformed.” “The justification for this approach is simple,” Jethani explains, “people won’t come to a church that’s boring. And what qualifies as boring is defined by our consumer/experience economy.” So the Disneyworld becomes the standard of comparison for Sunday school. And Conan Obrien becomes our role model for preaching. “In Consumer Christianity,” Jethani writes, “the shepherd becomes showman.”

·         There should be a kind of worship and commendation going on. When you love and believe something, you talk about it with gusto. People love all sorts of things. I love my family, woodworking, Pringles, football, and a host of other things. I talk about all these things; you do not have to coerce me to do so.

It is obvious, from start to finish, this psalm is aimed at showing the greatness of God and inviting others into the joyful worship of our great God.

Conclusion

·         Seeing God for who he truly is results in joyful worship and compelling commendation/praise. We adore and talk about what we love. This message was meant to put the focus on who God is so that we recognize our love and joy should be directed toward him. A heart flooded with thoughts of the splendor of God and what he does can no more conceive of an end of praise than it can conceive of an end of God himself!

·         The way the book of Psalms ends contributes to the perspective of David and the book as a whole.  The last Psalm with David's name in the superscription is 145.  It concludes with his resolution that, "My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever" (145:21).  The five Psalms that follow (146-150) all begin and end with "Praise the Lord," (which is Hallelu Yah in the Hebrew).  As the sequels to Psalm 145, they represent the book's fulfillment of David's resolve to praise God forever.  He is doing what he said he was going to do, and praises God every single day. 

·         We know people with talent. David had talent. He was a singer, a songwriter, amongst so many other things. We've heard today in worship and have heard even recently some beautiful music! Some people with real talent. We tend to shy away and reserve praise for people like that. Our voice is too small. Our offering to meager. The day will come, when we will all praise the Lord. And it will come easily. It will pour out of us. On that day when we reach heaven, and are in the presence of God it will just pour out of us! One of the greatest gifts the church gave my family was the trip, a vacation. We planned it out. We went to California and planned our route - where we would stop. High on the list was to see those great big redwoods and sequoias. We did our homework. How to get there. What to expect. We looked at the old pictures where the trees were so large that they had cut tunnels in them with old cars going through them. We read about the tallest and the biggest and the grandest trees in the whole of the United States. We had high expectations. But when we got there, when we stood at the base of the trunk, and it went from here to here. When it filled our site completely. When we looked up and stared at how huge it was. Wow! Wow! Despite all the talking about the trees, being there in the presence of that tree was more than amazing. Overwhelming. -- When we are in the presence of God we will be overwhelmed. Overcome. With joy and gladness in praise and worship and it will pour out of us! It will come so easily from us. We will join a host of angels and seeing God's praise. And everything else will fade away and all of this world as well.

·         On this side of heaven... If we think of God’s nature—his grace, his power, and his goodness—I can’t help noticing how they are all embodied in the person and work of Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again by the power of the Almighty. On this side of the Cross, the most appropriate way to give praise to God is to bow the knee to Christ. For the Psalmist the most obvious way to respond to the grace, power, and goodness of God is through speech. Verse 21 says: “My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.” But for us, this side of the Cross, the only way to praise his holy name is to praise the name of Jesus.

16You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

Today Psalm 145 encourages us to think about God’s hand in our life, and Give Thanks/Praise.

Psalm 145

1I will exalt you, my God the King; I will

praise your name for ever and ever.

2Every day I will praise you and extol

your name for ever and ever.

3Great is the Lord and most worthy of

praise; his greatness no one can fathom.

4One generation will commend your

works to another; they will tell of your

mighty acts.

5They will speak of the glorious splendor

of your majesty, and I will meditate on

your wonderful works.

6They will tell of the power of your

awesome works, and I will proclaim your

great deeds.

7They will celebrate your abundant

goodness and joyfully sing of your

righteousness.

8The Lord is gracious and

compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

9The Lord is good to all; he has

compassion on all he has made.

10All you have made will praise you, O

Lord ; your saints will extol you.

11They will tell of the glory of your

kingdom and speak of your might,

12so that all men may know of your

mighty acts and the glorious splendor of

your kingdom.

13Your kingdom is an everlasting

kingdom, and your dominion endures

through all generations. The Lord is

faithful to all his promises and loving

toward all he has made.

14The Lord upholds all those who fall

and lifts up all who are bowed down.

15The eyes of all look to you, and you

give them their food at the proper time.

16You open your hand and satisfy the

desires of every living thing.

17The Lord is righteous in all his ways

and loving toward all he has made.

18The Lord is near to all who call on him,

to all who call on him in truth.

19He fulfills the desires of those who fear

him; he hears their cry and saves them.

20The Lord watches over all who love

him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

21My mouth will speak in praise of the

Lord. Let every creature praise his holy

name for ever and ever.