"Praise and Hope - The Heart of the Psalms" (Scruggs) | Psalm 146

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Please stand for a reading from Psalm 146.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O 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 his faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets his 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, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the Lord.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Thank you.

Welcome to Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church.

My name is John Mark.

Good to be with each of you on this Lord's Day as we are actually concluding this morning the summer in the Psalms.

And you'll see before us the Psalms actually conclude with praise.

And that is meant for our lives and our stories.

According to Derek Kidner, this is a miniature of our lives and of our stories in Psalm 146 that it is moving us in a direction that is praise.

That's why this psalm begins with praise, our earthly praise, and it ends with eternal praise.

I wanted to begin with an illustration before we look at these three points this morning.

And this is from John Coltrane in an album he released in 1965, A Love Supreme.

And about that album, he wrote these words in reflection.

During the year 1957, I experienced by the grace of God a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life.

At the same time and in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privileges to make others happy through music.

He continues, I feel this has been granted through his grace.

And then he concludes, all praise be to God.

Here's the point.

He's reflecting back on his life, and he says, of his life, all because of God's grace.

And I'm going to work on this life project, and the conclusion of such a project is all praise be to God.

I use that example for some of you this morning.

You have had a similar experience.

You may be able to go back to a date on a calendar of a spiritual awakening.

You might be able this morning to reflect on your life and say, all of God's grace and all praise actually to God.

For others, you might be new to the church and you might even be wondering this morning, what is this?

This is unlike any concert I've ever been to.

Because we sing praise.

And hopefully, this psalm will give you insight this morning.

And even if it does feel weird and bizarre, we're so glad that you're here.

You could be at brunch and you're not.

Thank you.

For others, you might be able to relate to John Coltrane.

You might be new.

You might just be distracted.

What I mean by that, you may have caught yourself in a prayer wondering, did I just fall asleep?

Are we still praying or are we doing something else?

I'm going to look up really quick.

I'm not asleep.

I don't need to panic.

I am going to pray the rest of this prayer with my eyes open to make sure I don't miss anything.

Or you could just have the sense of there's so much that I need to do this week.

So much needs to be done, and I'm here, but I'm distracted.

Maybe it's the feeling of work of the weekend.

How does the weekend go by so fast?

You don't have to answer that, but the weekend seems to go by so fast.

But Monday is coming, and the weight of work we can start thinking and about, and then we can start feeling it actually in our bodies.

Some of you are like, I didn't feel that until you started describing that.

Thanks a lot.

So you're new, you're distracted.

And lastly, you you might be involved in the church.

I remember years ago in student ministry, um, our worship leader said to me, I can't play this song ever again.

I was like, okay.

Um could you please play the song one more time?

You know, but the point that he was making, and I think if if I'm transparent with you and wondering how God is using that, I can live in this fear that worship and I'm gonna take the Lord's name in vain.

It can become meaningless and heartless.

I've got to sing this song again.

And we can feel that and we can sense that.

And we can be fearful that we're not gonna be like the person in Psalm 1 who delights in God's word and lives out his ways.

We can be fearful as we're about to look at this second point, that what if I actually do find my trust, hope, and help in someone, ultimately and primarily that's not God.

We can live in those fears and for each wherever you are this morning, if you're new or distracted or wondering if this has become meaningless and heartless, lean in and listen.

Hopefully, one of these points will be for you as God speaks to you in his word.

But I do hope and I want to spend most of our time in the third point this morning, that we will actually behold your God and all the things that he has done on your behalf.

Let's pray as we consider these three points this morning.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we would pray that by your Spirit we would have eyes to see you this morning.

We would pray by your spirit that you would meet us where we are, that we would be reminded what all you have done on our behalf, and that we would consider all of life and our stories as praise.

That our week is sending us in a direction where we sing praise because our life is sending us in a direction where everything ends in praise to the Lord.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be with us now and speak to us.

We pray.

Amen.

Let's begin with our first point this morning.

Bless the Lord.

And it's also, you see in your passage, praise the Lord, or give glory to the Lord, or give credit to the Lord, or let the Lord actually be the center of your life.

It is believed this Psalm 146 was used daily as worship, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes the conclusion about the Psalms that we should read, pray, and sing the songs daily, and he encouraged multiple times during the day, so that we could get through the Psalms multiple times during a year, and that the Psalms would live deep inside God's people, and when they do, we would recognize these Psalms are about praise.

Again, sending us all into a direction.

But hopefully, this is made personal to you in verse 1.

We read, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.

And that O my soul is all that I am.

All that actually makes me me.

The uniqueness of the individual person, and I'm not sure if you've been in a setting before where you have been told at church, like, leave everything at the door.

Leave your stress at the door, leave your anxiety at the door.

Leave where you're hurting at the door.

Leave your relationships at the door.

You're like, how do I leave all those things at the door?

What kind of door are we talking about in a doorway?

Read Psalm 146.1.

Oh my soul, hear.

All that is me, hear.

All that is you, hear.

And give to the Lord and praise.

But we are realistic about life in the Psalms, are we not?

For those of you who have been following in the series, life is hard.

The enemy is real.

We might actually experience a lifetime and lament.

And from the verses we have later in this passage, we know what it's like to be the outsider looking in.

We know what it's like to be laid low.

We're realistic about all those things.

But then we find out in verse 2, it still is moving us to praise.

Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.

Another translation as long as I breathe, as long as I have life, as long as I am, I'll actually give praise to the Lord.

I'm going to go ahead and invite you.

I know we're in August heat, but go ahead and put this on your calendar.

And we will go to assisted living for Christmas carols.

And I think of this passage more in light of those folks who are in those rooms where we will enter in and somehow I've become the announcer, but I will, it feels like screaming.

I will scream, and I'm not going to do it here.

I'm going to try not to do it here.

Joy to the world, page 15.

I feel like I'm screaming at everybody.

And then you'll hear someone say, What'd he say?

And then I'll scream again.

It's like you can't hear me.

And then they will try.

You will see someone trying to find what page we're on and where are we.

And then you realize somebody has just dropped their booklet into the floor.

And I'm using this you can't hear me.

Some of you can't see words on a page.

Some of you can't remember what I just said.

And then joy to the world starts on the piano, and they just pick it up and start singing without seeing the words on the page.

And I have hoped one day if I am here and I can't hear, and I can't see, and I can't remember.

As long as I have breath, I will praise the Lord.

That's our first point.

All that's in me, for as long as I live, praise the Lord.

That moves us to our second point this morning.

Beware of princes.

We read in verse 3 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, and on that very day his plans perish.

According to David Pallison and in his words, who or what will you trust?

Who or what will you trust?

He writes, trust is one of the major verbs relating you to God or to someone else.

It could relate you to a false God.

It could relate you to a lie.

Do you place this type of trust, this major verb relating you to God or to someone else?

Meant only for God.

And he asks the question, is it actually misplaced?

In this passage, princes, or like we don't use that word, haven't used that word in common speech lately.

But princes is just a person, and that's why we have the Son of Man lowercase.

It's just a human person with power and influence.

Okay, it's the type of person we want on our resume.

It's the type of person when we call that we would like them to answer on kind of the second ring.

It's the type of person we really want to get on their calendar, but their assistant is reaching out again to cancel without rescheduling.

It's the individual with power and authority, and they could use that power and authority to change your life.

The word in the passage is salvation, or it could be rescue.

But then the psalmist is making the point, put not your trust.

So I think you can have relational connections with that person, but put not your trust, all of your life, all of you, in a person of power and influence, in a son of man who is there no there is no salvation.

And here is where it gets sobering.

Cause they are unable to save and rescue himself or herself from death.

So that means if they die, how can they save you and how can they rescue you?

And we have done this with family members.

You go into their desk and all the stuff that they were working on.

And it's incomplete.

And upon their death, it's complete.

And that's why the passage even says when his breath departs, he returns to earth on that very day.

His plans perish, even what his plans and a mental picture of the future dies with that individual.

I think a sobering illustration of this is Abraham Lincoln.

And everything he did in his life was about, towards the end of his life, was about saving the union.

Can he keep actually the union together?

And I recognize there are a lot of other people involved, okay.

Recognized.

But to save the union.

And when he was assassinated, even on that very night, he was unable to save himself.

But those who went to the Lincoln Memorial before the pool's been messed up, as you go to the Lincoln Memorial, you'll read these words about Abraham Lincoln.

In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union.

Guess what lives forever?

It's not Abraham Lincoln.

It says the memory of Abraham Lincoln enshrined forever.

In that moment, he's not living, he's not doing, he's not saving, he's not rescuing.

It's the memory of Abraham Lincoln for those who can remember, and that is true of every president, that is true of every person.

And that's why the psalmist is saying, put not your trust in princes and a son of man in whom there is no salvation.

When his breath departs, he returns to the earth.

And on that very day, his plans perish.

Instead, that does lead us to our God, to the Lord.

And Psalm verse 10 that actually rules and reigns forever.

He is alive, he is doing, he is saving, he is rescuing.

But before we get to that verse, let's begin with verse 5.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.

And if you go back and follow the story of Jacob beginning in Genesis 25, which is the story of God's people, going to Genesis 50 and all the way to Exodus 1.

For some of you, you will get this reference.

For others, you can ask those around you in the car later today, and hopefully they can explain in a way that they feel comfortable.

If you go back in the story of the people of God, there's triangulation, there's calculated liars, there's trickery.

But it goes back in the 90s to the Jerry Springer show that I found out this week actually went all the way to 2018.

It would be like that kind of crazy story of a family that you see on Jerry Springer, then you're like, this is so unreal, I've got to turn this off.

Those people God identifies himself with liars, messy, calculation, sneaky, and then the story of Jacob specifically is desperate for his father's blessing.

I want you to see me, I want you to prove me.

I want you to give your words a blessing, and I know that they will actually be life-changing.

And he gets those words by tricking his father that he's his brother in the story of Jacob and Esau.

But the blessing is no trivial matter.

If you look over it later this afternoon in Genesis 27, it does change his life.

And then we find out in Genesis 32, the same Jacob that gets his father's blessing, we find out as he wrestles with God that he's still desperate for God's blessing.

And in the conclusion of this fight at sunrise, Jacob says, and what God says of him, all of your human striving, all of your desperation, all in need of actually God's blessing, and God gives it.

In this desperation for approval from everyone around him, and in this desperation of human striving, I wonder if that's what we are most desperate for today.

For God to see us and for God to know us, and for God to approve our life, and for God to actually give his blessing.

And here's the point that I'm trying to make.

The God of Jacob is also the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac.

And will he be your God?

And will he be my God?

But it is the type of God that identifies with such people and families that would be on Jerry Springer.

I will be your God, and because I am your God, I'm going to send you actually in a new direction.

And that's why we read from there who made the heavens and the earth.

So the God of Jacob, the same God of creation, involvement in creation as creator, involvement in creation as sustainer.

And I could be here all day with these illustrations, but it Is the same creator of the bright light in August, the summer storm, the field of wildflowers, a magnolia in bloom, the colors of hydrangeas, and of all of that we could say, praise the Lord.

It's the bite of food that we had last night, a steak.

Praise the Lord.

But the crowning of creation, going all the way back to Genesis, is not light in August.

It's not a wildflower.

It's not what we eat.

It's actually humanity.

And the image of God, he created them, male and female.

He created them.

And in this common grace, he wants to be our God.

And not only does he want to be our God, he is our creator, but he also wants to be in relationship with us.

Did you catch that?

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.

And then we find out this.

Who keeps faith forever?

Okay, if you're new.

Okay, if you're distracted.

Okay, for those who are wondering if this is meaningless and heartless.

No trust in princes.

Who is the one trusting in you and faith in you in this passage?

It's actually the Lord.

It's about the Lord.

Praise to the Lord.

And praise to the one who keeps faith forever.

Another translation of that, who remains faithful forever.

I'm not sure if you've been caught up in the buzz of Alan Levi and Theo of Golden.

But I've watched a number of his interviews, and almost every time he said, Yes, I wrote this book, it's a manuscript, I proved to myself that I can do it, and then I put it in a drawer for nobody to read.

And his friends are like, okay, you can go ahead and pull that out and we'll read it.

And they do.

And they tell him that he actually needs to do something with it.

And in every interview, at least that I have seen, which is not all of them, it's the ones that I can find, at this moment, he starts crying.

And he says, You need people in your life who believe in you.

I hope that any one of you could stand on this stage and there will be people behind you who believed in you.

Now, when Levi will look at the audience he's addressing, he said, I hope you have someone who believes in you.

Teachers, I hope you are believing in your students.

Parents, I hope you're believing in your kids.

Where does this come from?

Well, I think in this passage, how much more does it mean in a God that believes in you?

That is faithful to you.

And it's an eternal type of faithfulness.

And I think that's why in this passage, we have a faithful God who is keeping you.

We know it's the Lord, and that's why Lord, all caps, is used 11 times.

And this is the covenant making and covenant promising and covenant keeping Lord.

And we do know everything about this passage that is said of God is actually true in Jesus, according to Hebrews, this eternal covenant, where God, fully God and fully man, becomes a person.

And this is why this is important.

It's the biblical notion of love and the biblical notion of faithfulness.

Quote, for God to demonstrate covenant commitment through actions that serve the other person's interest and well-being.

So for the other person's interest and for the other person's well-being.

God's word, and not only is it God's word, it's creation, but not only is it God's word and creation, it's actually embodied in Jesus Christ.

Where, according to Tim Keller, to meet God's suffering and powerless people, instead of being far from us, God comes near us and his son by being a person, Keller describes, he cared so much that he became a helpless baby boy to poor parents.

And then he concludes, Praise the Lord.

Because we do know in the life of ministry of Jesus, all those that we read about in this passage, the oppressed, those in need of food who are hungry, the prisoner, and specifically in verse 8, the Lord opens the eyes of the blind, is the first time that this is mentioned in the Psalms.

And we know by Luke 4 that Jesus is the one who was literally opening the eyes of the blind and spiritually opening the eyes of the blind.

This is embodied in Jesus in his life and ministry, and also in his death to conquer sin and death on the cross, to his bodily resurrection.

And for those who are in Christ, that is where the story is going.

A king who rules and reigns forever, and we experience body and soul, the resurrection and life with God for all of eternity.

And that's why the Psalter ends in praise in verse 10 The Lord will reign forever, you, your God.

And then Ozion or Jerusalem was used to express the place where in the Old Testament God earthly would dwell.

And now what we know now of Jesus, this is used in this passage.

Ozion is actually meant for God's people.

God's people is now where God actually dwells.

And he will dwell with them forever.

And I will conclude with this going back to the opening words from John Coltrane about that 1965 album.

He would actually die two years from that date.

And I wonder, and it's an invitation to consider, if you considered yourself and your life right now, could you conclude the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament and God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit that we could say all of God's grace and the cause of all of God's grace, praise be to God.

The story now and in the future is going in a direction.

And that direction is praise.

And it is sobering again.

You're like, John Mark, you have mentioned death more than I want to hear for like the next year or so.

But thank you.

I'm not coming back if you're preaching.

But is it not a great way for the story to end?

Praise.

Not in the hospital, not in assisted living, not in dying alone.

Praise.

Eternal praise.

And it's not just a solo in the first verse.

We sing praises and we're doing it together.

And we are invited to consider on this day earthly praise until we experience eternal praise.

It's an invitation for us to consider as we've looked at bless the Lord, beware of princess, and behold your God.

Let's close in prayer.

Father, again, we are grateful for this Lord's day.

And we would continue to be reminded what your word has to say to us.

I would pray that we would leave today considering the call to worship.

We would leave today following through the order of liturgy.

And we would also leave affirming together a hymn of praise and an a doxology.

And we would be reminded and convicted by your spirit.

All of life is moving in a direction that praises the Lord.

I pray that we would experience such praise even now.

In the name of Jesus, we do pray.

Amen.