Humility of the Lord

Thank you very much for your welcome and prayers. Let me bring the greetings of Grace Church Montrose.

We are a free church of Scotland congregation up on the east coast.

If you don't know Scotland at all, there's Aberdeen, which is way north, and we're just a little bit south of them, a nice little seacoast town.

We actually haven't come from Montrose today, we've actually come from Ireland.

My accent might deceive you, but I am a very proud Irishman, and I'm very sad not to be there right now, but glad to be with you all.

So please keep open that passage you've got in front of you. We're looking at Psalm 113 today.

And this is where we begin. Let me tell you about, there was this photo, it was about 11 years ago, July 2013.

It kind of went a little bit viral. It was this picture of the Queen.

The Queen was visiting Kendal, this town in the Lake District in England.

As she was visiting the town, she was walking along the line where she encountered a Fijian soldier.

You see, she was walking along the line of the 1st Battalion of the Lancaster Regiment,

and they were all standing at attention before her, except for one, which was this Fijian soldier.

Because you see, where they were all stood straight, what he had done is he had sat down before her,

closed his eyes, bowed his head, and started clapping.

You see, for him, for Fijians in their culture, that's the way that you honour someone who is an authority,

someone who is above you, is to get down, bow your head, and clap them.

As you look over the broad scope of the Bible, the language, the pictures, the imagery of worship,

is always of bowing down.

It is of laying yourself prostrate before God.

Because in that way, we say, he is worthy.

Because he is supreme.

Because he is sovereign.

Because he is Lord.

This is the way that worshippers acknowledge the supremacy and the majesty of God.

But I want you just to return with me back to Kendall, July 2013.

And instead of imagining that Fijian soldier in front of the Queen,

I want you for a moment to imagine that you are that Fijian soldier.

And you've got down, you've sat down, crossed your legs,

bowed your head, closed your eyes, you're clapping.

And then I want you to imagine that after you've done that, you lift up your head.

And I want you to imagine that as you open up your eyes,

you see the Queen has got down on her, sat down in front of you,

and is looking right into your eyes.

That brings us right into the dynamic of this psalm that we've got here.

But more than that, that brings us right into the dynamic of the gospel itself.

The good news about Jesus.

Because what we encounter in this psalm,

the God that we worship,

as we take these words as our own,

the God that we meet in Jesus Christ,

that is the picture.

You see, here's the big thing that we're going to see today.

As we work our way through this psalm,

is that the Lord lowers himself.

The Holy One humbles himself.

The sovereign stoops down.

The transcendent condescends to us.

The God who gives himself,

we are going to meet the God who gives himself

in self-sacrificial love to us.

And through the psalm, as we work our way through this,

we are not just going to see how we worship God,

but primarily,

what we're going to see today

is the God who meets us

when we come to worship him in spirit and in truth.

As was mentioned,

this is the beginning of a little series

working through a section of psalms.

The psalms is a book in the Old Testament of the Bible.

This is the prayers, the songbook of the people of God.

And this little selection here,

Psalms 113 to 118,

they're known as the Egyptian Hallel Psalms.

Hallel is just the old word,

the Hebrew word for praise.

So you've ever heard anyone saying,

hallelujah, just what we have sang before.

That means praise the Lord.

And these are known as the Egyptian Hallel Psalms

because these are the songs that the people of God,

Israel would sing

when they gathered for this festival

that was known as the Passover.

The Passover is when the people gathered once a year

to remember this, the events,

the defining event for the people of Israel

when God liberated his people

from backbreaking, hope-sapping slavery in Egypt

and brought them out of that to be his very own people.

If you're ever reading through the Gospel of Matthew,

the Gospel of Luke, the accounts of Jesus' life,

there might be a little line that you just zoom by

but maybe not pay too much attention to,

but it's when they're gathering together

for the Passover meal,

the night before Jesus' death.

And it says this,

that they sang a hymn together.

And in all likelihood,

it was these songs,

Psalms 113 to 118.

You see, what they would do is they'd sing

Psalm 113 and 114 just before

they had the Passover meal.

And after the Passover meal,

they'd then sing 115 to 118.

Now, I know the series here is called

From the Lips of Jesus

because this is a reminder to us

as we work our way through these Psalms

over the next few weeks,

as you gather here Sunday by Sunday,

hear these Psalms preached.

One of the important things for us to remember

is this,

was Jesus singing these Psalms?

And in all likelihood,

these were the Psalms that Jesus himself sung

the night before he knew

he was going to the cross to die.

When we worked through these Psalms ourselves

up in Grace Church Montrose,

I called these the King's Last Hallelujah.

I like a little bit of a word play

because you see,

the night before his death,

Jesus didn't have a last hurrah,

but he led his people

to praise the Lord.

And that's what we're going to do

is we work our way through this,

hear this,

and we will all take these words as our own

and sing them to the praise of God.

I've got two points for us today,

so if you're note takers,

two nice and simple points.

And the first one is this,

praise our God.

Praise our God.

So here's a helpful tool for us

as we,

in our Bible reading kit,

it might seem obvious,

but sometimes I've learned

saying the obvious is really helpful to do.

If you see a word repeated

over and over and over again,

then maybe we should pay attention to it.

If we see a word repeated,

we can be confident that it's important.

You might think of it in these words.

If I'm sat at home on the couch

watching Ireland beat South Africa in the rugby

and I hear,

Kieran,

Kieran,

Kieran,

Kieran,

I know something is important,

it's happening.

You see,

I'm being summoned.

And here,

we are being summoned to praise God.

Look at these first couple of verses.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the name of the Lord.

Let the name of the Lord be praised.

The name of the Lord is to be praised.

Five different times we see that here.

We are being summoned to praise here.

But maybe we might just pause and ask a question.

So we're being called to praise the Lord.

But this might be a question that you've been asked before.

Maybe it's a question you've wanted to ask,

but you never wanted to say it loud

because it doesn't sound like a Christian thing to do.

But does God need to be praised?

We're told that we need to praise God,

but does God himself need to be praised?

How would you answer that question if someone asked you?

What would you say to them?

Well,

here's my answer.

Well,

no.

Of course,

he doesn't need to be praised.

God is the one who is perfectly and eternally happy.

He is the one who is in perfect and in eternal harmony.

Father,

Son,

and Holy Spirit joined together in beautiful and perfect love.

No,

he doesn't need our praise,

but he deserves it.

He deserves our praise.

For what and who he is,

for what he is doing for us,

what he has done for us,

and what he will do for us.

But I think we could also take this in a slightly different direction.

God doesn't need our praise,

but we do need to give it.

You see,

we are worshipping creatures.

We always want to give ourselves,

devote ourselves to something.

As Augustine,

that great doctor of the soul,

some of you might have heard this before,

as he said,

our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.

You see,

there's a trajectory of the heart,

a compulsion to worship something,

to adore it,

to give ourselves over to it,

to sacrifice ourselves to something.

And only God,

only God,

the true God,

the living God,

Father,

Son,

and Holy Spirit,

only he,

the one who has called us,

cleansed us,

and claimed us as his very own.

Only he can satisfy our hearts.

But I want us just to focus on verses two to three for a moment.

Do you notice there's kind of like a little bit of a sandwich here.

Let the name of the Lord be praised,

beginning of verse two,

and then the end of verse three,

the name of the Lord is to be praised.

See that there?

Praise,

name of the Lord,

name of the Lord praised.

This is kind of a feature of the Psalms.

It's a feature of kind of Hebrew poetry,

where they sandwich things,

and they want you to focus in on what's going on here in the middle.

And have a look at what the saying here in the middle tells us a bit about the nature of our praise of this God.

We are to praise him both now and forevermore,

from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.

Both now and forevermore,

we worship an eternal God,

no beginning,

no end,

and our worship is to match that as best as we can.

But it's not just about time,

but it's also about geography.

You see that there,

from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.

You'll all know the saying,

won't you?

The sun never sets on the British Empire.

But one day,

it will.

One day,

the British Empire will fade.

The sun will set on us.

But God doesn't just dwell over Britain.

God doesn't just dwell over Israel.

God sits enthroned over his eternal kingdom,

over everything.

And when we are called to praise him,

from the setting of the sun to its dawning and all the way around,

we join in with the praise of creation,

as the way the world was meant to be.

But what are we praising?

Does this look strange to you?

It says we're to praise the name of the Lord.

It doesn't say that we praise the Lord,

but we praise the name of the Lord.

You might have seen my little man running around here.

He was born last year,

and when we were thinking about naming him,

we finally came to,

we called him Ruan Fraser Padder Kelleher.

So Fraser Padder,

they're his middle names,

and they come from our family,

different people within our family,

Fraser and Padder.

Padder is just Irish for Peter.

But there was no real inherent meaning to those names that we chose them for.

We tend to impose meanings on names,

don't we?

So when my wife,

Sarah,

she suggested,

the name Oliver for a boy.

I say,

no way.

I knew an Oliver when I was seven years old,

and I'm not calling any child of mine that.

Apologies for any Olivers who are in here,

who are watching online.

But back here,

names functioned differently.

They told us about the character of an individual,

or the purposes of a person.

So Peter meant rock,

that it was on the profession of Peter,

that Jesus would build his church.

And the name of the Lord here,

you can see it there,

in all capitals,

is Yahweh.

Yahweh,

Yahweh,

in Hebrew,

means,

I am that I am.

I was that I was.

I will be what I will be.

It means two things,

chiefly.

First,

that God is self-existent.

God is self-existent.

God is self-existent.

God is self-existent.

God is self-existent.

My life,

your life,

all our lives,

are dependent on something that is external to us.

The oxygen that we breathe,

the food that we'll eat after the service today,

the water that we drink.

But God himself

depends on him and him alone.

You see,

when God first reveals his name,

there's a story in the book of Exodus,

where Moses encounters a flaming bush.

And that flaming bush is a picture of this,

because you see,

the bush was a flame,

but nothing was burning.

For a fire to keep going,

it must consume up something for energy,

but it wasn't consuming anything,

because it was a picture

of the self-existent God.

I am who I am.

Because you see,

not only is God self-existent,

but he is unchanging.

Unchanging.

Who he was then,

he is now.

Who he will be in the future,

he is now.

Who he was before the world began,

he is now.

Who he will be when the world ends

and we are with him in glory,

that is who he is right now.

And there are two chief things in particular.

He is unchanging in his character

and in his promises to us.

And what we are doing here

when we are saying,

praise the name of the Lord,

praise the Lord,

we are inviting one another

to do this.

And when you look throughout scripture,

there's three principal directions

that we sing.

We sing directly to God.

We say,

you are worthy,

you are good.

But we can also sing to ourselves.

Bless the Lord,

oh my soul.

So we sing upwards,

inwards,

but we can also sing

outwards as well.

Before we were in Montrose

and before that,

before we were in Brossy Ferry

and before that,

we were in St. Andrews.

You know,

St. Andrews is known as

England's most northerly town

and it's also known

as the 51st state of America.

There's a lot of Americans there

and there was a lot of Americans

in our church.

One was a good friend of mine.

And seeing the way

that scripture spoke about

how we sing

out towards one another,

so persuaded by that,

what he would do then

during church

is when there were songs

about singing to one another,

he would look around

and other people.

He would flash his pearly whites

and try to encourage one another.

Now all the Brits,

as you can imagine,

put up their blinkers

and said,

please don't look at me.

This is really uncomfortable.

But what we are doing

when we take these words

as our own,

as we sing them

and we will sing

these words afterwards,

we are encouraging one another.

Praise the name of the Lord

because he is worthy

to be praised.

And what are we singing

when we sing this psalm?

And this is where

we're going to move into

and this is the meat

of this psalm.

We are calling on one another

to come and see

the incomparable gods,

the peerless one.

Because if our first point

is this,

praise our God,

our second point is this,

for who is like

the Lord our God?

For who is like

the Lord our God?

And so for our note takers

this morning

and even those

who aren't taking notes,

this is it.

This is what I want you

to take away from

today's sermon.

This is what I want.

If you only remember this,

this is brilliant.

God is both high

and humble.

He is both lifted up

and lowly.

High and humble,

lifted up and lowly.

This is the God

that we meet

when we worship him

through Jesus Christ.

We know this,

that God is most holy.

He is most just.

He is most wise.

But the particular focus

in this psalm,

as we call on one another

to praise the Lord,

we are saying to one another,

see his sovereignty,

see his majesty,

behold his power

and his authority.

Have a look at me

in verses four to five.

The Lord is exalted

over all the nations,

his glory above the heavens.

Who is like the Lord our God?

The one who sits

and thrones on high,

who stoops down

to look on the heavens

and the earth.

God is supreme

and transcendent.

He is the one

who looks down

from the heights.

And this isn't

a geographical descriptor here.

So it's not that

he's going to pass the moon

or he's beyond

the Milky Way.

This here refers

to his dominion,

his rule.

You see,

he is enthroned

enthroned

as the reigning king

over all the cosmos,

over all the universe,

over all the earth,

over all our lives.

And actually,

it's important to remember

that this describes

Jesus.

Jesus as he was

before he came

to live on earth.

Jesus as he is

as the resurrected king.

the one who is

in the form of God.

The one who has been

exalted above

every other name

in all of creation.

You see,

no politician,

no empire,

no multinational corporation,

no army,

nothing,

no one

compares

to the Lord

our God.

In some senses,

we might just think

to ourselves,

this is a rhetorical question.

There's no real answer

to this.

No one can compare

to him.

Sometimes,

after I've

watched highlights

of Ireland being amazing

at rugby,

this is the last comment

on that one today,

I look at the comment section

on different highlights,

whether that's

rugby,

American football,

another type of football,

whatever it is.

And you see,

one of the comments

that always strikes me

is you talk about this.

If a player has done

really well,

it says this.

He's gone into

God mode today.

And all I think

to myself

when I read that

is what a low,

impoverished,

diluted view

of God that is.

You see,

God isn't just

an amplified version

of ourselves.

He's not Clark Kent

after taking off

the suits

and putting on

his cape.

God is above

and beyond

us.

But it's not just

the rhetorical question

here.

Actually,

it gives us

a slightly

surprising

answer.

Have a look with me

at verse 6.

So we'll go through

from verse 5.

Who is like

the Lord our God,

the one who sits

enthroned on high?

And then look at

verse 6.

Who stoops down

to look

on the heavens

and the earth.

That word there

for stoop down,

that literally means

to humble,

to lower,

to abase

yourself.

And what do we

see here?

God comes

down,

stoops down

low,

humbles

himself,

abases

himself.

He enters

into our mess

to look

at us,

look into

the eyes

of his people.

In verses

7 to 9

here,

the psalmist,

the person

who wrote

this psalm,

they evoke

stories

and examples

of God

entering

into

and serving

the lowly.

Like

Joseph,

taken from

a hole

in the ground,

taken from

slavery

and prison,

and seated

with the

princes of

Egypt.

Or

King David,

the forgotten

son who

was made

king

over Israel.

But

verse 7

here in

particular,

he raises

the poor

from the

dust and

lifts the

needy

from the

ash heap.

And

this language

is actually

taken directly

from the

song of a

woman called

Hannah.

There's a book

in the Old

Testament called

One Samuel.

And it opens

up with the

story of

Hannah,

this lady

who had

fertility

issues.

She couldn't

bear children.

And she

was mocked.

And she

was slandered.

And God

in his grace

and kindness

gave her a

son whom

she named

Samuel.

And this

is the song

that she

sang.

that God

raises the

poor from

the dust

and lifts

the needy

from the

ash heap.

He seats

them with

princes,

with the

princes of

his people.

And what

I want to

say here,

as these

words are

put down

in the

psalm for

us to

sing,

these words

here,

verses 7

to 9,

these are

not promises

of what

God is

going to

do for

us.

But these

are pictures

of his

grace to

his people

and a

reminder

of the

way he

comes low

to meet

us in

our mess

when we

are face

down in

the mud.

So if

there are

people here

this morning,

we've got

family or

friends,

who might

be

struggling

with

fertility.

Verse 9

doesn't say

to you that

God doesn't

love you

because of

that.

But it's

saying look

at the way

that he's

loved and

cared for

people in

the past.

This is a

picture of

his grace

to his

people.

You see,

God has

acted in

history.

And

supremely,

we see

that in

the way

that he

acted through

his son,

Jesus.

You see,

so much of

religion,

isn't it,

is so

often we

think that

there's this

ladder that

we've got to

climb and

clamber our

way up.

and that

maybe,

just maybe,

we might

get to

the top

in time

and we

might just

meet God

at that

moment.

What an

amazing picture

we get in

this psalm

that says to

us that God

comes down to

meet us because

we just cannot

get up that

ladder.

we've tried

and we've

fallen and

we've slipped

down and

we just

cannot do

it.

And God

comes down to

meet us and

encounter us

in his grace.

But just have

a look at

the imagery

there.

It says

this,

he raises

the poor

from the

dust and

lifts the

needy from

the ash

heap.

Ash

heap could

also be

the refuse.

Whatever it

exactly means,

you see,

both of

these are

materials,

whatever they

are,

they get

thrown out.

They're

kind of

things that

get caught

up on the

bottom of

your foot

that you

try to

wipe off.

before you

go in and

stand on

the carpet.

Things that

get thrown

out,

forgotten

about.

And what

we're told

here is

that the

dust,

the ash

heap,

which is

fleeting,

unimportant,

that's where

God comes

down to

meet us.

Let me

tell you

about a

lady called

Josephine

Butler

quickly.

Josephine

Butler was

lived in

the

19th

century.

She was

born into

a well-to-do

family.

Her father

was a

cousin of

a prime

minister

during that

time.

She married

a Church

of England

vicar,

lived with

him in

Oxford,

then moved

to Cheltenham,

wasn't really

taking a step

down,

and then

finally he

got a job

in Liverpool.

Now,

no offence

to anyone

who's from

Liverpool,

but it

was a

major

step

down

from

both

Oxford

and

Cheltenham.

And when

she moved

there,

she went

to a

workhouse.

Now,

if you've

never heard

of what a

workhouse

is,

a workhouse

was the

kind of

place that

women who

couldn't

survive in

the streets

anymore,

that's where

they went

to.

This was

the last

chance

saloon.

They did

very basic,

hard,

manual labour.

The workhouse

she went to

was a place

that they

did oakum

picking.

You know,

the ropes

that they

throw into

the docks,

they pull

those out

and there

was little

tiny material

that they

would have

to take

out with

their hands.

It was

really hard

work.

And she

came and

sat down

with them

in their

circle while

they were

doing this

one day,

and they

laughed at

her,

dressed well

amongst the

women that

everyone else

had forgotten

about.

But she

kept coming

back,

and they

started

taking her

seriously.

Fast

forwarding,

she met

a young

woman in

that group

called Mary

Lomax who

just couldn't

cope anymore.

So she

and her

husband took

Mary into

their home.

They fed

her,

clothed

her,

and welcomed

her in.

One day,

Josephine

Butler's

husband was

speaking to

her,

and Mary

Lomax said

this,

Sir,

you have

brought me

into your

beautiful

home.

You have

treated me

as if I

was your

own daughter,

as if I

had never

done anything

wrong.

I have

seen Jesus

in you.

A dust in

scripture

means that

which is

fleeting and

unimportant.

death.

But it

also can

be a

picture of

death.

Remember

what we

said,

Jesus

sang this,

he prayed

this on

the night

before he

went to

the cross,

as he

confronted

his own

death.

death.

Jesus,

the Lord,

lowers

himself

to the

dust.

He

lowers

himself

to death

to lift

us up

to life.

as Paul,

who was

one of the

leaders in

the early

church,

said,

writing to

the church

in Philippi,

he said

this,

that Jesus

humbled himself

by becoming

obedient to

the point

of death,

even death

on a

cross.

Or,

as he says

elsewhere,

is that

we have

been raised

up with

Christ Jesus,

seated with

him in the

heavenly realms.

God raises

the poor

from the

dust and

lifts the

needy from

the ash.

You see,

everyone who

puts their

trust in

Jesus is

raised up

from the

dust and

from death

to live

with him.

The one

on high

humbles

himself to

raise us

up from

death.

The

exalted

one

lowers

himself

so that

he might

exalt

the lowly

ones.

So just

as we

close,

remember

at the

beginning of

the service

we took

a moment

to look

through the

eyes of

that Fijian

soldier and

we imagined

what it

might be

like if

the queen

lowered

herself to

look at

him eye

to eye.

I want

to take

us to

another

scene,

something

that really

happens.

Remember we

spoke about

Peter a few

times,

the one

named

Rock.

There was a

time when

he looked at

Jesus eye

to eye.

Jesus,

the Lord

of heaven

was bowed

down before

him and

took on the

role of a

servant

and he

washed the

feet and

he washed

the dust

off the

feet of

Peter,

cleaning

him,

claiming

him,

calling

him to

be his

very own.

You see,

this is the

God that

we worship.

This is the

God that we

praise.

And so,

how can we

finish this?

Praise the

Lord.

Let us

praise the

Lord.

Praise the

Lord.

God our

Father,

we thank

you for

your grace

which is

beyond our

capacity to

grasp

the

magnitude

of your

mercy,

the

unfathomable

depths of

your love,

the

humility of

your son

Jesus.

Jesus.

But what a

glorious thing

to know

that not

only have

you met

us in

our mess,

saved us

from our

sin,

but that

through

Jesus,

you have

lifted us

up into

new life.

And so,

God,

we praise

you.

we praise

your holy

name.

It's in

Christ's name

we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

you