Remembering His Covenant

We're going through seven weeks in sermons looking at the seven genres of psalms, right?

We started with wisdom psalms.

And what are wisdom psalms?

They're giving us there's two paths of life, only two.

There's not infinite paths of life, right?

No, there's only two options, and there's two outcomes, right?

And why is that wisdom?

Because it's not self-evident for a lot of us, right?

We think there's infinite number of possibilities, infinite number of outcomes.

No, wisdom psalms teach us there is two paths, two outcomes.

We went through Psalms of praise and lament and thanksgiving.

Last week we talked through Psalm 23, Psalms of confidence in God.

Today we're looking at Psalms of Remembrance.

Next week we'll be looking at messianic Psalms.

And the encouragement to us, as I was kind of just reflecting, as I've been reading through the Psalms, is just the question: what does your heart sing?

What does your heart sing?

What is your worship to God?

What is your psalm to God?

Right as we're reading the Psalms, it's often easy to reflect on, oh, David's heart was so passionate.

He believed God so faithfully.

He loved God, but then to sit and reflect of what is my song to God?

What is my song to God?

So I encourage you in an email this last week to consider writing a psalm, a psalm to God.

What does your heart sing?

What does your heart say?

What do you declare?

What do you believe?

What are you remembering about God?

And if you do write a song, I encourage you to send it to me.

We might do something with it in two weeks.

Some people have already sent me their psalms.

I'll read some of my psalms.

But the encouragement really is for you to reflect.

What is your heart of worship?

How are you personally impressed by God?

Right?

It's easy to look at other people and see, wow, these people were so impressed by God.

They believed God so faithfully.

How are you personally, experientially, impressed by God?

What about Him captures your heart?

Or you're just so amazed.

You can't help but overflow with gratitude, praise, declaration.

What do you why do you think or know that he is worthy of all worship?

Worthy of your worship?

We use that phrase often.

He is worthy of worship.

Why do you personally think he is worthy of your worship?

How do you love him?

So the encouragement in the next two weeks, write out a psalm to God.

Write out a psalm to God.

What does your heart sing?

With that, I'll pray for us and then we will get started.

But Jesus, we do just thank you, God, that you fill our heart with worship.

Or in each of us, Lord, have unique experience, unique life, Lord, unique situations where we can praise you uniquely in our life circumstances, in our in our life history, in our story.

And Lord, I just pray that you would continue to just develop us as a people of worship who love you, who worship you, who who proclaim your goodness, Lord, and that it is continually on our lips, God, that Lord, our hearts are full of praise.

Lord, that we know why you are worthy of our worship.

Lord, and it is, it is, it is personal, it is experiential, it is who we are.

Thank you, God.

Amen.

I imagine a lot of us can grow complacent in all relationships.

As I was kind of thinking through this exercise, you know, it's easy.

You know, we might be really excited about one relationship, or we might be very impressed where we see beauty, but over time we become less impressed.

I'm afraid the same can be true with God, sadly.

Um, if I was in a marriage where I no longer can where I was no longer considering how I love the other person, I could grow complacent or distant, right?

I could say, well, oh, I loved them last year.

Or I told them I loved them a couple years ago, or I told them I love them 35 years ago on the altar, right?

No, we can grow complacent in that relationship if we're not continually reflecting on how we love them.

The same is true of God.

Every day is a new opportunity to praise God.

Today is your moment, your opportunity to love God.

It is an opportunity to express your love for him, to tell him you love him, to worship him, to tell him why he is amazing, why he is beautiful.

Every day is that opportunity to celebrate him.

Um, I think sometimes we can be around the things of God, but we we we lose sight of being amazed by God, always asking things from God, or even discussing things about God, right?

God, I need these things.

Or I want to talk about God, or all the things I know about God, never moving toward God.

So the encouragement really in this exercise, what is your heart sing to God, is to reflect his why you believe he is beautiful, why you know him to be good, why you say he is worthy of your worship.

I've been in the church long enough to know that we think an awful lot about other people, right?

It's constantly we think an awful lot about our own life.

We can be consumed with our own life.

We can even think even a whole lot about the church, right?

What we want different music.

We want the chairs different, we want the carpet different, we want something else different, we want the preacher different.

We can think an awful lot about the church.

Again, slowly losing sight of the one that we are gathering to worship.

He is the one who is worthy of our attention, our affection, our pursuit.

We don't spend near enough time simply being amazed by God, enamored by God, looking to God, loving God, because he is awesome, he is beautiful, he is good, right?

And as we pursue him, as we see him, our hearts respond in worship.

I think the beauty of human life is that each of us are given a unique situation, a unique life, and in that we have a unique opportunity to bring a song to God.

No two are alike.

It's a song that only you can sing, a praise to Him in our unique situation and story.

So that's my encouragement for two weeks, just to reflect on your own in your own way.

God, why do I praise you?

What do I know is good about you?

What do I love about you?

If I'm going through hard times, how am I lamenting toward your faithfulness?

What do what is my own song saying?

You can write it out, you can reflect on it, you can pray it.

But the encouragement for two weeks, we just focus on what is your heart of worship to God, personally, experientially, uniquely.

Thought I'd give you a couple tools.

If you want to go through this exercise and just talk through the types of poetry we see in Psalms, types of poetry you see in Psalms.

In English language, most languages actually, poetry is driven by rhyme and meter.

Stripe, driven by rhyme and meter, meter being you know the flow of the song.

In Hebrew poetry, it's driven by neither, which works out beautifully.

Why?

Because if you've ever tried to translate one language's rhyme and meter to another language, it doesn't work, right?

Because the words don't match, right?

One, it may rhyme in one language, it doesn't rhyme in the next.

Or one language, it might be one syllable, it might be three in the next.

In Hebrew poetry, they didn't use rhyme and meter in their poetry, they use other elements to convey poetry.

Um, I'll go through some of these parallel synonyms.

For example, Psalms 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of God.

The skies proclaim the work of his hands.

The heavens and the skies are declaring and proclaiming the glory of God.

And what is the glory of God?

The work of his hands.

You see this throughout Psalms.

It is parallel synonyms.

Instead of them saying, Hey, the glory of God is the work of his hands, they write it more poetically.

The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim what is the glory of God?

The work of his hands.

Another thing we see in Hebrew poetry is the antithesis, especially in wisdom literature.

We we saw in Psalms 1.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, the antithesis of that, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Another thing you'll see through the Psalms is similes and metaphors.

Most famously, Psalm 42.

As the deer pants for flowing streams, so my soul pants for you, O God.

Another one you'll see throughout the Psalms is the climactic poetry, or some people call it the stairstep poetry.

Probably most famously Psalm 29, starting out with, ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Continues on, ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name, then goes on about the voice of the Lord, climaxing in his temple, all cry glory, right?

And the psalm is building up to this statement of glory.

Most famously in Psalm 119, right?

Why is Psalm 119 so long?

Because it goes through all the Hebrew alphabets and has eight verses for each letter.

But it's Psalm 119 is a famous acrostic, and even in our Bibles, it it shows the Hebrew letters generally in English Bibles.

But there it's not the only acrostic.

There's other acrostics, not all of them are complete, but an acrostic is just using the first letter of the alphabet as your beginning of the line used in Hebrew poetry as well.

But most commonly, the most common tool or element in Hebrew poetry is called a chiasm.

It's called a chiasm.

Has anybody heard of a chiasm?

A chiasm is deeply integrated in both Hebrew literature and Hebrew poetry.

Some people will go even so far to say that chiasms is the nature of Hebrew poetry, and everything else is just using chiasms.

Some people will say every psalm has some sort of chiastic elements to it.

Most people will say that almost every psalm has some sort of chiasm in it.

I'll explain what they are, but chiasm was so deeply integrated in the way Jewish people wrote, the way they thought, the way the Psalms are written, and the way poetry was brought about.

So you have a first idea, then you might have a second idea, then you might have a third idea, then you have a central idea.

Oftentimes in a chiasm, this is their main point of what they're trying to communicate in that story or in that psalm.

And then they mirror it going backward.

They'll go, the mirror of that third idea, the mirror of the second idea, the mirror of the first idea.

If that doesn't make sense, I'll kind of show you some images in a second.

But for example, last week we went through Psalm 23.

Psalm 23.

A lot of Jewish scholars will say, this is clearly a chiasm.

Starting out with this, he makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.

The central idea of middle point changes to a third person to a first person.

You are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

It continues on.

First person.

If you look through the psalm, you'll see the mirrorings mirroring ideas on either side of Psalm 23.

They're intentionally writing it to both mirror the concepts, but also to make to highlight a central idea, often in the middle.

This is the story of Noah in Genesis.

So it wasn't just Psalms that it's used in Hebrew literature.

The story of Noah in Genesis is a clear chiasm, right?

And if you if you read through the three chapters of the story of Noah, you can begin to see, okay, they're mirroring the same ideas on either side of this middle point that God remembers Noah.

They're intentionally doing this, right?

And it's not the only chiasm in Genesis.

There's several others that are clear chiasms.

It's the way, again, Jewish people were writing.

It's not only in the Old Testament, though.

And again, it's throughout the Old Testament.

For example, the book of Ruth, the whole book is a clear chiasm where there's they're they're mirroring ideas on either side with a central idea.

John starts out, John chapter one, with a very clear chiasm.

Very clear chiasm.

John is a very Jewish thinker.

He's writing a very Jewish book.

John chapter 1 is a very clear chiasm where you, again, if you reflect on those first 18 verses, you'll see that he is mirroring both ideas, coming to a central point that he gave them authority to become children of God.

John 1 · chapter mention

Some people will say that the whole book of John, again, is a chiasm.

Why?

Because they're reflecting on why did John put these stories on either side of this main point?

You know, and they're saying, I think he intentionally did it because he was a Jewish writer that was deeply ingrained in Jewish thought, Jewish poetry, and the way they loved to write was through chiasms.

And why do they do that?

I don't know.

But it just the nature of their writing was very chiastic, where they would intentionally reflect on mirroring ideas onto a central idea.

And John, you you see it pretty clearly actually in certain situations where it's not historical, it just seems to be put in a different order.

And it seems like it's intentional, driving home in his most likely the central theme of his point was in the story of Lazarus coming to light.

So and again, John isn't the only place that we see chiasms, but I think it's important at least to understand the concept because Paul uses chiasms at different times.

The the Psalms are deeply integrated in Chaiasms.

Throughout the Old Testament, you'll see them.

The amazing thing about Hebrew poetry, too, it to me it reminds me a little bit like Shakespeare.

They don't explain everything, right?

They don't tell you, okay, here's point A, and now here's point B, and then here's the main point, and then and then vice versa.

No, you have to deeply reflect on it.

Okay, why are they mirroring these ideas?

What is the main point they're trying to get after?

Um, the Chism in Psalm 105, this was one commentator's view, um, he he he saw as fairly simple.

It's starting as an invocation to praise, moving to the covenant of promise, talking on the protection of the Lord with a central theme of the provenance of the Lord, and then mirroring that going backward.

Um, we'll be in Psalms 105 if you want to turn it in your Bible, but in in kind of reading others and just reflecting, I kind of wrote a slightly different chiasm where it starts with praise, clearly starts with praise, then moves to covenant, then moves to this concept of sojourning, then moves to the descent into Egypt.

The central verse, verse 24, God made them fruitful and more powerful than their neighbors, and then it mirrors that going back.

The exodus from the Egypt, the Israel sojourns in the wilderness, the covenant with Abraham ending back in praise.

Again, chiasms, especially if you're reading Psalms, if you don't have some concept of what they're doing, what Hebrew writers, Jewish writers were doing, you'll totally miss the whole point of why they're paralleling certain things.

I thought I would just go through Psalm 105 to give an example of how chiasms work in scripture.

Starts with praise.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, verse 1.

Call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wondrous works, glory in his holy name.

Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice, seek the Lord and his strength and seek his presence continually.

The Psalm starts with calling us to praise, to glory in his holy name, to calling us to seek him.

Those who rejoice in God seek God.

I find it interesting that a worshiper is often one who seeks him, who investigates him, who searches for him, who is intent or focused on him, who wants to know him, who is in pursuit of him.

I've known many people who their hearts sing a song continually.

I'm like, these people are a person of worship.

The common theme across everyone I met is they are a seeker of God.

They want to know God, they're seeking his presence continually.

David is described as having a heart after God.

Heart after God.

It's rarely discussed, at least from my experience, of what that exactly means.

We know that David had a heart after God, but what does it mean?

It means his heart was pointed continually toward God.

He possessed a deep desire to follow God, to know God, everything in him wanted to delight in God.

He sought God, he looked to God, he was had affections towards God.

He was seeking his presence continually.

Presence is a word we use pretty often, it seems like in the Protestant church now.

The presence of God.

But what is it?

Presence in Hebrew is really just face.

We translate it presence in English because seek his face continually is just wasn't kind of out of out of the translator's idea, but the word is just really his face.

We're seeking his face continually.

We want to be near him, we want to know him, we want to understand him.

I think it's interesting.

Praise begins with our posture pointed toward God.

Praise begins with our posture pointed toward God.

As I started out of encouraging us, what is your psalm to God?

What is your song?

What do you what are you singing?

What are you praising?

What do you love about him?

Right?

It starts in our posture towards God.

Oftentimes, again, we can be around God, near God, near the things of God, losing sight of the awesomeness of God.

So praise begins with our posture, our heart after God.

What are we praising in this verse?

Remember the works that he has done.

This is known as a psalm of remembrance, calling to remembrance the things he has done, his miracles, the judgments he uttered.

O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

It's interesting when David brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem or to the city of David at that time.

This was one of the songs recorded in Chronicles that they were singing.

Psalm 105, a psalm of remembrance, remembering the wondrous works of God.

But what are they remembering?

What are psalms of remembrance?

Is it just remembering general ideas or things?

No, they're remembering his covenant.

Remembering his covenant.

It goes into the next section.

The covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, To you I will give the land of Canaan as a portion for an inheritance.

Covenant is not a word that we use very often.

We use it in maybe certain certain contexts, but it's not a word that comes up a whole lot.

But to understand scripture and the and the nature of God, covenant was it was integral to the way God related to humanity.

And the Psalms of Remembrance are primarily remembering his covenant.

They're remembering what he had covenanted to.

Help explain that a little bit.

What is covenant?

If you're not familiar, covenant is a binding arrangement between two or more parties.

Sometimes they're equals, but often they involve a more powerful party obligated to show loyalty to a weaker party.

It's basically two parties binding themselves in relationship.

It is, in fact, defining the relationship in very certain times.

It's certain terms.

It's covenanting your relationship based on certain terms.

When someone joins the military, they don't merely sign an employment contract, right?

No, they swore an oath of allegiance to support and defend the Constitution.

And from that day forward, they belonged to something larger than themselves.

The nation commits to them, they commit to the nation.

But with God, he makes covenant commitments.

And there is no bargaining or bartering.

The sovereign Lord dictates the term.

Covenant is so integral to understanding the scope of scripture, the history of God's interaction with humanity, we can't understand it until we understand that he operates based in covenant.

In fact, all scripture is God interacting with humans through a series of covenant.

God operates in covenant that is always defining a relationship and he binds himself to it.

That it makes sense.

I will explain it.

So God is operating with humanity, always based on covenant, right?

And starting with Adam.

He defined the relationship and he bound himself to it.

What did he tell to Adam?

He said, You have life and blessing just on obedience.

And what was the obedience to?

Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Obey God's commands.

They would receive life and blessing.

He covenanted his relationship with Adam based on a condition that if you don't eat from the tree of knowledge and good and evil, then you will experience the tree of life.

Right?

The relationship between God and humanity began in covenant, but it was conditional.

Don't eat from the tree of knowledge and good and evil.

What did Adam do?

He broke the covenant.

He ate from the tree of knowledge and good and evil.

Get to Noah.

And it says, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord regretted that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I've created from the face of the land.

He sent rain, he saved Noah through the Ark, Noah and his family through the ark.

And if you remember, after Noah came out of the ark, God said, I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut out by the waters of the flood, never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

In this case, God again established covenant.

What was the sign of that covenant?

It was the rainbow.

Was it conditional?

No.

Required Noah and his sons to do nothing.

He coveted, he defined what how he would act toward humanity, saying, Never again will I destroy the earth with flood.

A few chapters later, with Abraham, he establishes another covenant.

He says, I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

And if you remember the story from the Old Testament, Abraham cut the animals in half.

They were on either side.

The furnace of fire, representative God, passed between, saying he was binding himself to that covenant.

Abraham was asleep, requiring nothing of Abraham.

So it was a covenant given to Abraham, a covenant by God, saying, This is what I will do.

I will make of you a great nation.

I'll bless you, make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

In your name, all in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

It was a covenant given to Abraham.

The sign of that covenant was circumcision.

Was it conditional?

No.

It required Abraham was asleep.

It was a promise of land, descendants, and blessings.

After the return or after the ex the exodus from Egypt, there we find the next covenant of God.

We call it the Mosaic Covenant.

The Mosaic Covenant.

He writes, If you indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom and a priest and a holy nation.

In this case, the covenant is conditional, that Israel will enjoy the blessings of land depending on their obedience to God's law.

So this Mosaic covenant, the giving of the law, was the terms of the relationship was I will bless you as long as you keep the law.

It was a conditional covenant.

It says in Scripture that the sign of the Mosaic covenant was the Sabbath.

So at this point, we've had four covenants of how God is defining his relationship with humanity, starting with Adam.

Adam broke the covenant.

Then Noah, okay, no longer will I flood the earth.

Then Abraham, in you I will make in you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

And it's not conditional on you at all.

But the Mosaic covenant was conditional on the people of Israel.

If they obey the law given by Moses, they would enjoy the blessings of God.

Next one we've we come across is the Davidic covenant.

It says in Psalms, You have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one.

I have sworn to David, my servant, I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations.

It's the promise of a Messiah.

God is promising a coming Messiah through the descendants of David.

It's again not conditional on anything that David could do or his descendants.

It is an everlasting dynasty established, culminating in the Messiah, Jesus.

And then finally we get to the new covenant.

The new covenant.

And when did when did Jesus say that?

It was the giving, it was the Passover meal just before his crucifixion.

He's describing there is a new covenant.

You ever wondered why we call them New Testament and Old Testament?

Testament just means covenant in Latin.

And so instead of using an English version, we just we just go back to the Latin version.

But it's it's saying the whole concept of the New Testament is describing the new covenant.

It's God outlining his relationship, dictating how how he is relating to human humanity, and that the forgiveness of sins, a new heart, the indwelling Holy Spirit, eternal fellowship with God through Christ comes merely through faith.

It is blessing secured by Christ's finished work on the cross.

So we call it the new covenant that's superseding the old covenant, which was the Mosaic covenant.

But really, the old testament is a series of five covenants, right?

This Old Testament, the old covenant is five covenants.

Several of them are still, he is still bound to.

Why?

Because it's not conditional on the person's reaction.

It's not conditional on David, it's not conditional on Abraham, it wasn't conditional on Noah.

The point is that is to understand the arc of God's interacting with humanity.

He acts through covenant, based in covenant, defining how he will interact with us, how he relates to us.

And God's love is deeply connected to covenant.

The most prominent Hebrew word used to express God's love is rooted in covenant.

Hesed Barry was talking about it a couple weeks ago.

We mostly translate it love, sometimes loving kindness.

It's generally used to describe the love of God.

We don't have any really real good way to translate it.

Why?

Because it is about covenantal love.

Hesed is not just love, but it's love plus loyalty.

And it's not just loyalty in general to a person, it's loyalty to the covenant.

What has he committed himself to in this relationship?

And it's not just loyalty, but it's loyalty plus love.

Hesed goes beyond feelings to a commitment and not just a general commitment, it's a commitment to the covenant that he has bound himself to.

It means faithfulness to a relationship, to act in a loyal, loving way to a person based on promise.

The arc of the script of the Bible is really one of God covenanting with humanity to find how this relationship works.

Right?

In Christ, the new covenant, now the relationship works, but that through faith we can receive his righteousness.

We can be forgiven of our sins.

This is how this is he's defining how we we interact, and he is he's bound to it based on his hesit, his covenantal love.

He is loyal to his promises.

The way that God gave us to understand concept to understand covenant is really just in marriage.

We call it even in scripture, it's called the marriage covenant.

Probably the most common way that we use the concept of covenant.

It says in Ephesians 5, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother, be united to his wife, the two will become one flesh.

This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church.

He's saying the marriage covenant is really just demonstrating that the bigger concept of covenant between Christ and the church, the bigger concept of covenant between how God relates to us as humanity in Christ.

Marriage demonstrates covenant.

It's not merely to make us happy or get us where we want to go in life.

It's a matter of covenant.

And if you remember, covenant is a binding arrangement between two or more parties.

Binding arrangement between two or more parties.

Marriage reveals to us how we covenant with God.

I think you know it's most would probably agree we've slowly lost this idea of a marriage covenant, right?

For at least in a lot of my friends, you know, it's marriage is a is a moment potentially, but this whole idea that God instituted it to teach us how covenant works, that we're bound in it, is kind of lost, especially my generation.

I thought it'd be worth worth just mentioning.

Protestants historically have kind of have found two permissible reasons in scripture where we are freed from this covenant of marriage.

The first from Jesus in Matthew, I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, which in that context was clear, is an adultery.

And marries another woman, he also commits adultery.

The second one mentioned in Corinthians, if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.

But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so.

The brother or sister is not bound in such circumstances.

God has called us to live in peace.

Historically, since the Reformation, Protestants have found these two kind of permissible reasons why the covenant, where we're freed from a marriage covenant, abandonment, either they in this in the most literal translation, the unbeliever leaving or divorcing, then that person is free or adultery, the other party committing adultery.

The point is that marriage is a covenant.

Then demonstrated the nature of covenant and covenantal love.

Again, we mostly lost sight of that today.

Where marriage is a temporary agreement that we can change at any time based on feelings or situations, but in reality, God has given us marriage as to teach us the whole concept of covenant.

And why is he teaching us covenants?

So we understand how he is binding himself in relationship with us.

He's bound himself through six covenants made through scripture.

We're currently in the new covenant of Christ.

So when the Psalms of Remembrance, there's not a whole lot of them, but they're generally reflecting on the covenant faithfulness of God.

The reflecting on, okay, he has covenanted to us in this way.

He has bound himself to these promises.

And so the remembering, not just just you know good things about life, right?

The remembering his faithfulness to his covenant and how that's demonstrated in history continues on in how they this psalm is expressing Psalm 105, verse 12, the God demonstrating his faithfulness to his covenant with Abraham when they were few in number, of little account, sojourners in it.

Psalms 105:12

Wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.

He allowed no one to oppress them.

He rebuked kings on their account, saying, Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm.

Then they descended into Egypt.

When he summoned a famine on the land, he broke all supply of bread.

If you remember the story, they were in the land of Israel.

There was a famine, they went down to Egypt to get bread.

He had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

His feet were hurt with fetters.

It's interesting.

God sent Joseph.

If you read the story, it doesn't quite feel that way, but his feet were hurt with fetters.

His neck was put in a collar of honor, of collar of iron, until what he had said came to pass.

The word of the Lord tested him.

What was that word of the Lord that they were that Joseph was having to remember?

It was the word of covenant, promised to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, right?

Joseph is remembering the word of the Lord, and that word was tested.

Clearly, he was in prison.

He had a crazy situation.

The Lord, the word of the Lord tested him.

The king sent him and released him.

The ruler of the people set him free.

He made him Lord of his house, ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom.

Then Israel came to Egypt.

Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

Israel descended into Egypt.

It is a testing, right?

It seems the opposite of what God had promised.

Abraham, if you're in that moment at that time, right?

This seems farther and farther from the promise of God.

The central point, verse 24.

The Lord made his people very fruitful, made them stronger than their foes.

The Lord did this.

These people in Egypt, oppressed, isolated, far from this land of promise.

Says the Lord made them fruitful, even stronger than their foes.

And then we find the mirror going back up to the final verses of the chapter.

He turned their hearts to hate his people.

He turned the hearts of the Egyptians to hate his people, the Jewish people, to deal craftively with his servants.

He sent Moses his servant and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

They performed his signs among them and miracles in the land of He sent darkness and made the land dark.

They did not rebel against his words.

He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die, their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.

He spoke, and there came swarms of flies and gnats throughout their country.

He gave them hail for rain and fiery lightning bolts through their land.

He struck down their vines and fig trees and shattered their trees of their country.

He spoke and the locusts came, young locusts without number, which devoured all the vegetation in their land and ate up the fruit of their ground.

He struck down all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their strength.

Then he brought Israel out with silver and gold, and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.

Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of dread of them had fallen upon them.

Exiting from Egypt, God being faithful to his covenant.

Then sojourning in the wilderness.

On the other side, we were it was the patriarch sojourning in Israel.

He spread a cloud for a covering and fire to give light by night.

They asked, and he brought quail and gave them from heaven in abundance.

He opened the rock and water gushed out.

It flowed through the desert like his river, then finishing back with covenant, for he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant, final with finally with praise.

So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing, and he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of it, of the fruit of the people's toil, they might that they might keep his statutes and observe his law.

The chiasm of Psalm 15 105, starting with praise, focusing on the covenant with Abraham.

It was not conditional, it was a promise of God that this is how this relationship will function.

Then the sojourning patriarchs didn't look like the the this covenant would come to fruition.

They descent into Egypt, God making them fruitful and more powerful than their neighbors, as the central verse of the passage, and then exiting from Egypt, sojourning in the wilderness, going back to the covenant of Abraham, finishing with praise.

The remembering God's covenant and his faithfulness to the covenant.

So when we write Psalms of remembrance, what are we remembering but his new covenant?

We have communion every week.

What is the sign of the new covenant?

Is communion.

It's for us to remember, not just to reflect the death of Christ, though we are doing that, is to reflect on the covenant that he has made with us.

And that through faith, his death is sufficient, and we have received his righteousness.

And until we fully attain that in heaven, you know, we're sitting with knowing Jesus face to face, we're remembering his covenant.

God, I'm believing in your promise.

I'm reflecting on what you have bound yourself to.

I know that you have promised this and you have covenanted it, and you can't break your covenant.

Why?

Because your Hesed, your love is covenantal.

It's not merely love, it's also loyalty to the covenant.

And it's not merely loyalty, it's also love.

It's the Hesed of God.

So as we reflect, just on remembering why do we why do we want to remember the covenant of God?

It keeps us believing in his power, believing in his faithfulness, believing in his word, that he is trustworthy, that he is good, that he that we can trust his salvation.

I just wanted to finish back with what does your heart sing?

What does your heart sing?

Again, we I kind of started with it's easy for us to sometimes be around God.

We can be around communion, we can be around this great message of salvation that in faith he has covenanted to give us his righteousness through his death and resurrection.

We can we can hear that and get used to it, or we can remember it, and our heart can be impressed by it, never moving beyond the amazing grace of God.

What captures your heart?

Why do you think or know that he is worthy of your worship?

How do you love him?

Throughout Psalms, many many of the passages tell us to sing to him a new song, or that he put a song, a new song, in my mouth.

Or Psalm 96, sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing to the Lord a new song.

John Piper writes, When new songs are being written and sung to the Lord, we're singing to him.

Something is happening in the church.

It's a sign of unusual life and vibrancy.

People are not just living off the spiritual capital of previous generations or even a spiritual capital of our own life and previous experiences or moments.

No.

We are dealing vibrantly with the living God, and our songs are being sung to Him.

So that is our hope.

I've talked about our vision.

For the next six months, I think one of the things we're just going to push into is becoming a people of worship.

Becoming a people of worship.

And how do we become increasingly a people of worship?

There's a vibrancy of knowing the living God.

It's not spiritual capital of previous generations.

We can use that and find life in it, whether it's in Psalms or other hymns or what or or or even recent songs that people are writing.

We can find life in it.

But it's our heart message or it's our heart cry.

We're never growing complacent.

We're never growing complacent.

Becoming a people of worship.

So my encouragement to you write out a song to God.

What do you love about Him?

What's how why is He amazing to you?

The beauty of the cross.

Why is that amazing grace to you?

How does it move you to worship?

How does it stir you, encourage you, compel you, make you amazed that God is faithful to this covenant?

I'm clinging on to it the rest of my life.

I've heard that awaken an awakened church is a church that sings.

An awakened church is a church that sinks.

And the point isn't that we're just singing the songs.

I think the point they're getting after is that our heart is singing.

Our heart is after God.

Our heart is moved toward God.

Our heart is amazed by God.

Our heart is in love with God.

Our heart is continually thankful towards God, right?

So the awakened church is really just being awakened to who God is.

So as a people, as what we want to press into for six months, we personally, experientially, we don't want to just be complacent.

We don't want to use the spiritual capital of previous generations or even our own life.

Ten years ago, oh yeah, I was so in love with God.

No, we personally want to celebrate his faithfulness, know his goodness.

So consider writing some sort of song to God.

It could be a type of poetry, you could use parallel synonyms, you can make it climac, building up to something big, and all in his temple I'll cry, glory.

You can use antithesis, acrostics, you can try a Hebrew writing of a chiasm, similes, metaphors, or just even your own prose, really.

I don't think it matters.

I think that the point is being thoughtful and you personally writing out what how what does your heart sing?

An awakened church is a heart, is a church that sings.

Our hearts sing to God, and so that's what we're praying into, believing.

Why?

Because we want to be a people who know God.

As we know God, as we see the beauty of God, we respond in worship.

He is faithful to his covenants.

And so with that, I'll pray.

And if you're given communion, feel free to come up and get the plates.

But Jesus, we do just thank you, God, that Lord, you reveal yourself, Lord, that we can trust your covenant, Lord, that it is you've bound yourself to this, to, and you've defined the relationship very clearly, Lord, and and you continually through the history of humanity, you've defined your relationship with humanity in covenant, and you don't break your covenant.

Your love is faithful.

And so, Lord, we just celebrate that we can rest in the covenant of Christ.

That, Lord, that we have received your forgiveness, we have received your mercy, your grace, purely just as a matter of our receiving of faith, God.

And um, as we walk and continue um in faith, Lord, that you will be faithful to save us.

So, God, I just pray that um each of us would just be encouraged in that today, thankful for that today, moved in that today, Lord, just that it we would know not be able to be complacent in just the goodness of God.

And that as even we remember um in this moment of what you've done for us, Lord, that our hearts would just be full of praise.

Thank you, God.

Amen.

Feel free to pass those up.

And again, I we we read it every week.

Jesus said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

What is