A God Worth Praising

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

Psalms 146:5

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

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

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

1 Corinthians 11:23

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