Summer Psalms // “Who is like the LORD our God?” (Psalm 113)

Well, this is a classic. Psalm of Praise, praise the.

Lord, Well, that's kind of what the Psalm says.

That's kind of the application. So I could sit down now, if you

like, but perhaps you'd like a little bit more than that, just

to show that I've put a little bit of work in praise, the Lord

says praise the Lord, you, his servants.

Which I assume is you praise. The name of the Lord.

Now that's a somewhat curious phrase.

Isn't it praise the name of the Lord?

Why not just praise the Lord? Why?

Praise the name of the Lord if you want to say thank.

You to someone you don't get to say thank.

You to their name or maybe. You do, I don't.

It's it's an unusual phrase. It's a little bit.

Curious, isn't it? So why is there this phrase that

says praise? The name of the Lord, and the

reason, I think, is that in the context of the Psalmist.

The name of the Lord is something incredibly important,

incredibly precious, and also incredibly informative because

it tells them, it tells him his. People not just who God is, but.

Something about who they are. And you can find the roots of

this sense of the preciousness of the name of God going right

back into the book of Exodus, which is kind of where you

first, where Moses is, discovers this familiar story they the

story. Of the burning Bush, Moses in

the burning Bush, which many of you may be familiar.

With where? Moses encounters God and God

commissions him to go and rescue his people.

From slavery in the land of Egypt, but alongside.

That something that happens is that God reveals his identity.

He reveals his. Name to Moses, and this is a

unique privilege that he gives just a little.

Bit from Exodus Three just to. Remind you, Moses said to God.

Suppose I go to the Israelites and.

Say to them the God of your fathers has.

Sent me to you, and they asked me, what is his name, and what

shall I tell them? And God said to Moses, I am who

I am. You could translate it.

I will be who I will be. This is what you are to say to

the. Israelites I am has sent me.

To you. God also said to Moses, Say to

the Israelites, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of.

Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has.

Sent me to you. And so here God reveals.

Himself when this really kind of mysterious form.

I am who I am. I will be who I will.

Be And in sense it's saying to Moses, I am something that's

beyond you. I am something that just is was

is is to. Come always, There always will

be. Something that you do not

define, says God. God is the one who defines who

God is. God alone defines who God is.

And the name the Lords that you see here, Well, this is.

What you find in in an English Bible where you see.

The Lord in written in little capital letters.

What? That's?

Actually doing is translating what you would see what you

could. Put in an English text as is.

Four letter name YHW. H which is kind of taken

straight across from the Hebrew. And there's a very, very long

tradition in in Jewish circles that you.

Don't even try and pronounce that.

And so rather than putting vowels in there because it's

just consonants, they translated when they when they saw it in

their text, they didn't try and say it, they said.

I don't. I instead, which means Lord,

which is why this is habit is. Carried over into our text.

Where it doesn't say the name of the Lord is YHWH, it says the

Lord that is. The name, in fact, the name of

the Lord, The Lord is. It's such a precious.

Thing that it's almost inexpressible.

To them. And this is the name that the

Psalmist is calling people to praise.

And this points to the glory of God.

Across the entire cosmos, I'd like to.

Draw attention to what and I call 3 dimensions.

You're being pedantic. You might call it four and come

to that in a moment. 3 or maybe 4 dimensions in which?

The glory of God is extended. Through our creation and in

which His name is to be praised. And the first one is through

time and you see this in the verse three from the.

Rising of sorry, let sorry verse.

I'll just take come on to verse three in a minute.

Let the name of the Lord be praised both.

Now and forevermore so, how long is the name of the Lord to be

praised? Is it just to?

The end of the service. Maybe to the end of Sunday,

because Sunday's a special day, isn't it?

Or maybe at a stretch. I'll take it into Monday

morning. Do we just praise God for a few

years? While things are going well and

then maybe we'll switch out of. That no the name of the Lord is

to. Be praised now and forever

through your whole life. Into your children's life and

your children's children's life throughout the generations.

God's name is worthy of praise. Right from the beginning and

right through to the. Farthest end you can even

conceive God. Reigns and God's name is to be

praised, so God is to be praised through.

Time at the 2nd dimension, arguably 2 dimensions.

I will call the horizontal verse three from the rising of the sun

to the place where it. Sets the name of the Lord is to

be praised. Now that sounds it could that

could be time as well. Just about couldn't be sunrise

to sunset 12 hours, so. Maybe we only need to.

Praise God, when the sun's shining, well, absolutely not.

We've already had. That sorted out in the previous

verse. We praise God now and forever,

so all time is included. This is geographical.

This means from the east where the sun.

Rises into the West. So how far is that early?

Part of the 20th century there were.

There was considerable interest amongst some adventurers and

explorers in being the 1st to get to.

The North Pole and the South Pole, and so you.

Have various inspiring characters like Fritschoff,

Manson. Who?

Who got married? Probably left his wife.

Behind, sailed off in. His boat the front and

deliberately froze it into the Arctic sea ice, hoping.

That it would drift across the pole.

And he got back home to his wife about five years later.

And she apparently was still happy to.

See him, even though he hadn't actually got.

To the North Pole he just got. Quite close.

He had an amazing adventure on the way.

Or you've got. People like Roald.

Allenson and. Robert Falcon Scott trying to

get to the South Pole and Amundson got there first.

Amundson actually was also the. One of the first to go over the

North Pole in a balloon, remarkably.

He wasn't the first to walk there.

Now I'd like you to imagine an adventurer.

A couple of decades after. This he's thinking.

I need a quest. Tell you what?

North Pole and South Pole are already done.

I am going to go to the West Pole so.

Gets out the compass, equips his expedition.

And they set off to the West. Following the compass, keep

going, compass is still pointing W there must be further to go.

We've gone 10,000 miles, but it's still pointing West.

Let's keep going 20,000 miles. Ah, still to go West. 30,000

miles Things are looking a little bit familiar around here,

but it's still WI will carry on. West And eventually they realize

they cannot get to the West Pole.

So they think okay, I'll try the.

East Pole instead. Go back, you know. 50,000 and

they can't get there. You cannot get to the West Pole.

You cannot reach the end of the West.

It keeps on going. You cannot get to the end of the

East. It keeps on going.

Now the psalmist may not have thought about it in exactly

these terms. Because he may not his sense of

what shape the. Globe was may not have well,

people knew. People had a pretty good idea.

That it was spherical by maybe the 3rd century BC and.

Probably before, but the point is that the psalmist here.

Is saying the glory of God. Belongs to the farthest.

Extremes that you could imagine. You cannot reach the end of the

realm in which God reigns. You cannot get to the end of the

area of the world of the. Cosmos, we might say.

In which God is to be praised. So that's.

Kind of my horizontal dimension. Now this might seem a bit

confusing, how I'm now going to talk about what we can call the

vertical. Dimension the Lord is exalted.

Over the nation is glory. Over the heavens.

So the glory of the Lord goes this way as well it goes.

Upwards and in one sense you can say this.

Is just going into space. And yes, this is true, because

the glory of God goes. Throughout the entire cosmos.

But actually, what we're. Talking about here in the sense

is God's glory, his reign over the hierarchy of.

Powers, whether human or even heavenly, the angelic powers.

And what's interestingly here and interesting here is that

we'll see going a bit. Further down that God.

Reigns not just in heaven, but over heaven.

So God doesn't just sit in heaven looking down on the

earth, He. Sits somewhere exalted above

that. Looking down even on heaven and

then beyond that to the earth. And so, throughout the entire

heavenly realm, God's glory is. Seen and God is to be praised

and so various. Dimensions all-encompassing.

If you can invent some more dimensions, it'll apply.

There as well. I'm sure the mathematicians

amongst you could probably do something like that.

Maybe there are others, but this applies everywhere and all

places. And so the Lord, it says, is

exalted. Enthroned on high you could.

Literally take that as the Lord goes up to.

Sit down. He goes up to this highest.

Place and sits down, of course, on a throne.

And then he looks down from this incredible height looks.

Down on the world and. I don't know how we can get a

sense of what it's like. Looking down on the world like

that, I mean we we flew to France.

A little while again, you've got.

That experience as you go up in a.

Plane that you you things just get smaller and smaller and

smaller things that seemed quite large.

When you were on the. Ground that you know the.

The immenseity of Birmingham is spread out there before you.

And as you go up, Birmingham. Gets smaller and smaller.

Thankfully, some people might. Say, and the big houses and the

small houses start to look the same.

They're indistinguishable as as you go up.

Things get smaller and then you get to the point where as you go

above the clouds, because it's the UK and it's.

Suddenly everything below that is is is irrelevant because you

just see us this. Wonderful sea of white and

everyone below it's. Just a Gray rainy day, and you

are. Exalted above England.

And and somehow it becomes irrelevant to you what's going

on down there. It's just like little little

insects, in fact. In Isaiah 40, Isaiah likens.

Gods looking down on the earth to looking down on insects, he

says. He sits in throned above the

circle of the earth. And its people are like

grasshoppers. They're like grasshoppers.

They're. Tiny and irrelevant and.

Well, maybe they're not irrelevant if you are a keen

biologist, but they are. Something that the point is that

they're so. Small and so shrunken you can

imagine being irrelevant. Now you know one grasshopper

compared to another grasshopper. Maybe you get the more proud

grasshoppers which have. Achieved more in.

Life and I I started. Off as a biologist, actually,

And. I have a I like some insects and

one of my favorite insects. Is is what you might call the

greatest of the British grasshoppers.

It's. Called tetagonia Veridissima,

which goes under the English name The Great Green Grasshopper

and when you hear the phrase, the.

Great green grasshopper. You might imagine something,

let's say size. Of A and in a lorry, you know,

enormous. Great thing.

Terrifying. You know.

Towering over all the other grasshoppers, Actually, the

great green. Grasshopper is still only about

that big. Compared to the presumably the.

Little brown grasshopper. Maybe that's not the technical

term which is about that big. And so when God looks down on

the earth that all the pride of all the celebrities.

And all the rulers and all the famous people.

To be honest, it all just merges into one.

It does not look impressive as God looks.

But now we find in this song a truly extraordinary move.

It does actually say God Stoops to look down.

He's coming to check the grasshoppers out.

He Stoops. Down to look at these

insignificant characters he Stoops.

Down to look. On the heavens.

That's that point I made already.

He's above the heavens. To see the heavens, God looks

down and he looks down to the earth.

And you might imagine after all this, that God looks down and

things Grasshoppers. So what?

I've got. Maybe better things to do?

But this is not what happens. It says he goes right.

Down in amongst these people. And he goes and finds not the

most impressive or the richest. Or the most famous He goes and

seeks out the poor and the needy.

You can imagine perhaps God's You know the.

As you descend, you see maybe a great city with palaces.

And temples and and. Beautiful things and you come

down towards it. You think Okay, surely?

As God looks down, he will focus on these bits.

See the wealth? But as you come down, actually

God's gaze shift. It appears as the way the

psalmist is putting it shifts. From the center, from the

palaces, from the centers of wealth to the outskirts of the

city and to the rubbish heap, the ash heap.

The slums. And this is where God.

Focus his attention. On the needy and on the poor.

And it says He raises them. So this God who is exalted

throughout all of eternity throughout.

All of that horizontal dimension, all that vertical

dimension, sees the poor and the needy and cares he has.

He notices, and he does something about it.

He lifts that. He raises.

The poor from the dust lifts the needy from the ash sheep.

And one thing I find quite striking about this is is is

actually. I mean, it's not so obvious in

in the English text here, but there's a.

Verbal link between when it talks about.

God being exalted and what he does to the needy, he takes

this. Needy person and exalts them.

He takes them up with him, and he does that to sit them with

Princess, with the Princess of his people.

So he takes an interest and he cares.

He exalts the lowly. Now this is a pattern that you

find regularly throughout the scriptures in fact.

Another fairly well known. Perhaps you may.

You may be familiar. With the beginning of 1 Samuel

we have the. Story of Hannah, who is longing

to have children and can't have children and yet God answers her

prayers. She's barren and God gives her

children. And you can see the echo there

with. Verse nine, he settles the

childless. Woman in her home as a happy

mother of children. But.

Actually, in one Samuel 2, Hannah sings a song and in that

song she uses almost the exact same phrasing as we get in Psalm

113. It says this is verse.

One Samuel 2 Seven to 8, the Lord sends poverty and wealth.

He humbles and he exalts. He raises the poor.

From the dust. Lifts the needy from the ash

heap he seats. Them with Princess and has them

inherits a throne of honor and so you can see this is a.

Theme that occurs again in the game now.

A really good echo actually is also.

Found of one Samuel 2 in the beginning of Luke's Gospel.

Again in the beginning of Luke's Gospel, Luke.

Chapter One, we have someone who in some ways is a little bit

like. Hannah We have Elizabeth, the

wife of Zechariah, who's elderly.

Not being able to have. Children and yet miraculously,

God. Transforms their situation and

she encounters Mary and parley. In response to her encounter

with Elizabeth, Mary sings this extraordinary song where using

slightly different vocabulary. She makes the same kind of

point. This is Luke 1 52 He he God that

is. Has brought down rulers from

their home home Thrones, but has lifted up the humble.

He's filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich

away empty. And So what you see here is that

when Jesus comes, it's. As though things get turned

upside down, there is a reversal in which God.

The High and exalted one in Jesus.

Comes and things change. The lonely.

And the poor are lifted up the rich.

Well, there's a reversal those who decide to.

Hold on to their wealth and their pride and their privilege

in their hubris? Well, maybe temporarily They're

allowed to. But don't forget, they're just

the bigger grasshoppers. And to.

Hold on to your bigger grasshopper status.

And not allow God to lift you up is the way of futility.

And so this. Is a theme that we find in the

New Testament that when Jesus comes there is a reversal.

And Jesus comes. We see.

Psalm 113 start to be. Fulfilled in a new way and just

as I I'm coming towards the end of this.

Now I just want to draw one other link here.

I'd like just to draw a line, in a sense, between Psalm 113 and

another passage which I. Think may be familiar some view

which is in Philippians 2 and Philippians two.

Paul is writing. To people he knows in the church

in the Greek town of Philippine and encouraging them to behave

well to each. Other And he said you need to

think in your actions with each other behave like Jesus and.

This is what he said. Now as you listen to this

passage, which I'll read to you just.

Hold also in your mind the movement we get in Psalm 113 as

God Exalted. On high looks down and comes

down and lifts up. It's not exactly the same

movement here, but. You have got this similar sense

of a vertical. Move.

I think so, Paul said. This in your relationships with

one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus Who?

Being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God.

Something to be used to his own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature.

Of a servant. Being made in human likeness and

being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on

a cross. Therefore, God exalted.

Him to the highest place. And gave him the name that is

above. Every name that at the name of

Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under

the earth, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ

is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

What we see in. Philippians too.

Is the compassion of God embodied in Jesus as Jesus?

Comes down into the depths and into the darkness.

And saving power, and therefore God exalted.

And this takes us, in a sense, full circle.

Here we started off talking. About the name of God that

exalted holy. Incomparable name the name that

almost. Many of thought shouldn't even

be spoken because it's so precious.

And now we find this set of Jesus that God gave.

The name that is above. Every name.

What is the name that is above? Every name this is, this starts

to get hard to get your head round.

But in a sense, what's going on here is Paul is emphasizing.

That in G if you want if you want to ask the question, ask

the question who is God? What is the God the identity of

God And you had this is it's it's all.

Tied up with the name. Now we know that when we see

Jesus. We see the name of God somehow

made flesh, that the Jesus is somehow included in that name in

a way that theologians has. Spent many centuries wrestling

with because it's just. So awesome and wonderful.

And so we see in Jesus the. Revelation of God we see in a

sense Psalm 113 played out in a in a different way, we see God

revealed to us God's. Identity is shown to us.

God has shown himself as glorious the One.

Who transcends all dimensions vertical through.

Time horizontal, and if you want to know what God's like, you

have to hold. On to that that God is so.

Awesome and ungraspable, but if you want to know what God is

like, look at Jesus. Who came as a man died.

On a cross on the ash heap outside the city.

In the slum from which the poor media lifted up, in effect you.

Want to know God hold these things together Because then you

see actually that Jesus is lifted up.

Into that same glory that we talked about.

From the song and as you just. Wind this up.

I mean, I wonder whether whether you'd indulge me in this just as

a way of finishing this off. Can we perhaps reread the song

together again as we just? Wind this up.

Wind this up so. If you can find it in front of

you, all of the various. Sheets floating around which

have it. On as well, and perhaps we could

stand together. And let's just read this.

Together looking as as we read at the movements that we see

throughout the song. Thinking about how God has his

glory spreads throughout. The entire cosmos.

And yet he comes down to meet with us.

So, Psalm 130, let's do this together.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord you, his

servants. Praise the name of the Lord.

Let the name of the Lord be praised.

Both now and forevermore, from the rising of the sun to the

place where it sets. The name of the Lord is to be

praised. The Lord is exalted over.

All the nations his glory above the heavens, who is like the

Lord our God. The one who sits enthroned on

high, who Stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth he

raises. The poor from the dust and lifts

the needy from the ash. He seats them with Princess.

With the Princess of his people, he settles the childless.

Woman in her home as a. Happy mother of children, praise

the Lord. Oh man.