Psalms - Songs for the Journey: Psalm 93 - God's Got You! | Pastor Phil Holcomb

Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is

an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,

with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.

We invite you to connect with us from wherever

you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our

mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed

by this week's sermon. Well, today we are beginning

a new series from the book of Psalms. And the

title of this series is Songs for the Journey.

Songs for the Journey. Some of you will remember

the perfect Sony Walkman. what you would do is

you would get that double tape recorder. Sorry,

this will make sense a little bit later to those

in the front row, but double tape recorder and

you would sit there on the radio and you would

wait for your song to come on or you would record

off the other tape and you'd press it really

quick to capture the song. And then you'd take

this mixed track. It was a lot harder in our

days, just to let you know. You'd take this mixed

track and you would gift it to somebody else

as... like a soundtrack for them to listen to.

Now, today we have Spotify and a lot of other

platforms that help us do this, tools that help

us do this. Sometimes when we go on a road trip

as a family, we'll put together a playlist. And

that playlist has songs that are thematic for

the journey we're on. And that's the intention

of this new series that we are starting this

morning. We're going to be unpacking the richness

of a psalm for three Sundays. And in that psalm,

it's going to be a song that is offered to you

as a sacred companion for your journey through

life. Psalms is a collection of books. It's actually

five books all put together. And there's lots

and lots of songs in there, poems in there. They're

spirit inspired. And what that means is the Holy

Spirit encountered a human being journeying along

in faith. and then inspired this writing. And

they are a gift from those people to you, to

myself, to the church. These songs, as that gift,

are something we want to gift to you and then

have you add to a much larger playlist for your

own journey in life. So before we continue on,

I want to invite you to pray with me. God, you

are God. And yes, we state that, but that changes

everything. Not only are you the one who has

created all things, but you sustain all things.

And not only do you sustain all things, but you

are king, you are sovereign over everything,

including our time right now. So we recognize,

remember that you are here. We submit to your

authority, your movement, and Holy Spirit, you

are so welcome to be moving in and through us,

opening our eyes, to see you more clearly, drawing

our hearts to love you more dearly, and our whole

being to follow you more nearly. We pray this

all in the wonderful and matchless name of Jesus.

Amen. What is our first song for the journey?

The first song for the journey is from Psalm

93. And it's a psalm that declares God's undisputed

kingship. It's a song that cries out, God's got

you. Now, before I was born, before you were

born, there was a different song that was shaping

us. And it's a song that carries us along in

life. And what is this song? It's a song of wondering,

am I safe? Am I secure? Who's got me? And from

that day on, you and I have been trying to answer

the root of that question. And we've been doing

this by reaching out and grasping towards different

things. It starts in a very planned way where

you do it with your parents and siblings and

things like that. But then eventually, you begin

to reach out and grasp a hold of life with your

own two hands. And there's this control, this

desire to control. But at the urge of it is,

I want to make sure things are going to be okay.

Now, there are times in life when we believe

that we are indeed in control, right? But then

there's times in life where we are well aware

that we are not in control. And Psalm 93 is a

different song. It's a song to play through your

journey. It's a song that declares the truth

of who is ultimately in control. So I want you

to have a listen first to this song, Psalm 93,

just five verses long. The Lord reigns. He's

robed in majesty. The Lord is robed in majesty.

He's armed with strength. Indeed, the world is

established, firm, and secure. Your throne was

established long ago. You are from all eternity.

The seas have lifted up, Lord. The seas have

lifted up their voice. The seas have lifted up

their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder

of the great waters. Mightier than the breakers

of the sea. The Lord on high is mighty. Your

statutes, Lord, stand firm. Holiness adorns your

house for endless days. The song has a shape

to it and it's a shape that we're going to go

through in three different parts. It begins with

eternity past, yesterday, establishing God's

legitimate kingship. Then it's going to acknowledge

the messy middle of where we are today, the present

reality, inviting you to turn to God in that.

And finally, it's going to call us to reach ahead

to the certain future of tomorrow. where the

reign of God as sovereign king will ultimately

and indefinitely and forever restore order, beauty,

and life. So to anchor us in the past, the psalmist

begins with a declaration. He says the following.

He says, the Lord reigns. Now, this is actually

talking about in the past tense, but it's also

helping us to know this isn't about convincing

you. It's about simply declaring or stating what

is. It's to move our heart to say, okay, the

Lord reigns. And as you read God's word, whenever

you see Lord all capitalized, it should signal

you to recognize that that's his personal name.

That's the name Yahweh. And so this isn't leaving

any room or openness to say, well, I think a

God reigns. Or maybe your God reigns. It is to

say the God that has met us and giving us his

name, Yahweh, reigns. It's as though saying it's

clear without a doubt. And then the psalmist

continues on and he says, he, God, is robed in

majesty. Yahweh's kingship is identified with

this royal robe that he's wearing. time when

the psalmist was writing, the robe was like signifying,

hey, that guy has the legitimate authority. If

I see whoever has this throne, that's the one

with authority. Now, as many of you knew, I grew

up in the wonderful country of Kenya, and there

was a symbol there culturally called a rungu.

It was like a staff or a club that was held in

your hand. And this was actually from the Maasai

tribe, I believe, that was passed along. And

so whoever held the rungu in their hands had

the authority. So again, as siblings, you know

we were all trying to get a hold of that rungu

in our hands. So there's a monument in Nairobi

that shows this, a picture of somebody's hand

holding this symbol of legitimate authority.

That's the picture that is given with this robe

in Psalms. It's the sign that God is the one

who reigns. And the psalmist then adds the following.

He says, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed

with strength. Not only is goodness and beauty

the testament to God's reign, but he's also armed

with strength. So when we read through the Psalms,

there's this important technique that is used.

A lot of poetry uses rhyming, right? The Hebrew

people, when they were using poetry, they would

use that as well, but they also rhymed. concepts

or ideas. So you would put together two different

phrases, and this is important if you go through

this book of Psalms to recognize it, two different

phrases that say the same thing in a different

way so that you get a bigger understanding and

maybe it hits you at different parts. And that's

what is happening here when the psalmist continues

and says, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed

with strength. But he adds another Peace to this.

Another dimension. And he says, indeed, indeed,

the world is established, firm, and secure. Indeed.

Indeed, creation itself reveals the robe of majesty.

It's as though you have been invited to head

out to Khao Yai or up to Chiang Mai and get into

the mountains where there's no lights. And you

look up at the sky and you see the stars up there.

And it's like that. is the robe that adorns God

and declares his kingship. So the word indeed

there. This morning, as we are sitting here together,

something incredible is happening. You and I

are going to travel a million kilometers. Now

that has nothing to do with the length of my

sermon being extra long. But this is just the

reality of where we are on this planet that we

call home. So right now, as you sit here on Earth,

beneath you, the Earth is rotating at 1 ,600

kilometers per hour. That's faster than any airplane

that flies today. 1 ,600 kilometers per hour.

And it's a speed so smooth, you don't even feel

it. Otherwise, you'd have... be grabbing onto

your chair. And our planet is not only rotating

like that, it's also orbiting around the sun

at 107 ,000 kilometers an hour. We are zipping

around the sun and it still takes a year to get

all the way around it. That's not all. We are

racing through the Milky Way galaxy at roughly

828 ,000 kilometers per hour. So think about

this. At this very moment, you're traveling at

unimaginable speeds. Speeds that create this

dance of movement of nearly a million kilometers

per hour that's got a perfect precision to it,

held in this gravitational choreography. And

it allows just the right tilt of the earth, 23

.5 degrees. Why? So that we have this stable

climate. We have seasons. We have something that

can sustain the rhythms we need in life. The

distance from the sun, the angle of the tilt,

the velocity, and its atmosphere all align with

this impossible precision to support your life.

We read at the very beginning, in the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth. Now the

earth was formless and empty. Darkness covered

the surface of the watery depths and the spirit

of God was hovering over the waters. Fast forward

to the apostle Paul and he writes in Colossians,

he says, for everything, everything was created

by him in heaven on earth. Things we see, things

we don't see, whether thrones or dominions, rulers,

authorities, everything has been created through

him and for him. He is before all things and

in him, all things hold together. This is declaring

God's undisputed right to reign. And the question

is not, is Yahweh the king? The question is actually,

do you accept that truth? Are you intentionally

allowing his kingship to shape and form you every

moment of every day? The psalmist is going to

continue and he rounds it off. He says, your

throne was established long ago. You, God, are

from all eternity. Once again, two ideas put

together to complement each other, helping to

call us to a bigger understanding of what he's

doing. From the beginning, God was and is and

will always be. Even though we are traveling

at speeds that should vaporize us, there's this

beautiful fragility that requires us to acknowledge

that God is king. What does the first part of

this psalm call us to do? Well, it calls us to

anchor ourselves, like setting down an anchor

that holds a boat steady in its place. It calls

us to anchor ourselves in the past, in the certain

reality that God is king. Here's a very practical

invitation for you. Start your morning off before

you do anything else, especially before you touch

your cell phone. Start your morning off by getting

down on your knees. Maybe even lie flat on the

ground. And what you're doing is you're having

your body represent the reality that you are

held by God as king. And this is a slow shaping

and forming. It's something that will begin to

shape the way you go through your day. So that's

an invitation to try that for the next 30 days.

Begin to do that every single morning. and have

that shape inform you. Now, you may say, well,

I've done that, and life still has all kinds

of chaos and problems that hit us. Well, remember,

this is a Holy Spirit -inspired psalm, and so

God knows that not only is the fact that he is

king a reality that we grapple with, but the

present messy middle that we experience, the

today of life. is also something that the psalmist

acknowledges and calls us to. So we move from

yesterday to today, our present experience. And

here's what the psalmist says. He says, the seas

have lifted up, Lord. The seas have lifted up

their voice. The seas have lifted up their pounding

waves. Directly behind me, kind of up in that

direction, is a prayer room. And there are some

people praying for you. for us as we are gathered

here this morning. It's an incredible gift. But

on the back wall of that prayer room is a painting

that whenever I'm in there and I'm praying with

others or praying by myself, the painting always

seems to just draw me to look at it. Now, what

is this painting? I'm not going to show it to

you. Why? Because I want you to know where the

prayer room is. So go find it and look at the

painting. But I'll describe it for you. It's

a chaotic ocean scene with a massive wave that

is crashing down on this tiny little boat. And

there's light coming in from the side. But it's

such a chaotic scene that it draws you to recognize

something that is true of what we experience

on a day -to -day basis. I want us to return

to Genesis 1, something we may have passed over

when we first read that. So God says that the

deep void darkness was there and the Holy Spirit

was hovering over it. This is a chaotic sea.

It's an image of a chaotic sea. And God was at

the very beginning hovering over this. And then

what does he do? He creates beauty, life, and

order out of that. And he separates the land

and the ocean, gives us a space for there to

be something we can stand on, something that

is secure. Now, why do I mention this? Because

for the Hebrew people, when they're writing in

the Psalms, they're wanting you to have a picture

of what culturally was their framework. And for

them, the sea was a place of chaos, absolute

chaos and destruction. And in fact, there was

believed that there was a Leviathan or a sea

monster. We read about this in the book of Job.

that is stirring up chaos in that area. These

weren't sea -bearing people. These were people

who stuck to the land for the most part. So that's

kind of the worldview that is shaping them. During

the COVID pandemic, as the world was altered

forever, in certain ways, there was lockdowns,

there was a loss of jobs, there was death of

loved ones. There's changes to our patterns and

rhythms of life. There was a mathematician from

the UK named Kit Yates did some calculations

that struck me during this time. Using the number

of estimated cases of COVID and the size of the

particles of the SARS -CoV -2 virus, Yates went

on to estimate that there were about two quintillion

That's 2 times 10 to the 18th power. I was going

to write it, but it would have taken me a few

more weeks to represent that. Seems like a lot,

right? Two quintillion. Of course, the world

was altered with that. Two quintillion particles.

However, the size of the diameter of these particles

is 100 nanometers. It's so small that if you

collected the virus across the entire world for

the full length of COVID and you put it into

one tiny container, it would not even fill up

a single Coke can. That's what threw our world

off course. There's a fragility we have to be

aware of in the life that we live. So the question

is, do you have things under control? Particles

that could be contained in a single soda can

change everything. So the question, have you

got this? Do you really? And so the psalmist

uses these pounding waves as a symbol to say,

hey, this is a reality of our life in the middle.

It can feel like a chaotic ocean that we are

engaged in. So we try to grasp or control, or

we may despair and say, it's too big. I can't

handle it. So I want to, with those words, bring

us to a very familiar story. It's a well -known

story that's recounted in three of the four Gospels.

And it's a story of Jesus and his disciples crossing

the lake in a boat, something that was very normal

for them. And I want you to think through both

the psalm that is calling us to recognize the

waves crashing in upon us and the story that

we know well. This isn't some simple miracle.

This is God demonstrating his control of all

things, his might over it. And so the psalmist,

rather than calling us to just grasp harder,

frantically run around, you saw a switch that

happened in one of the disciples. I think it's

Peter there who says, we're going to die. But

he points his yelling out towards Jesus. Who's

sleeping. Let's look, though, at the psalm. Actually,

go back. Mightier than the thunder of the great

waters. Mightier than the breakers of the sea.

The Lord on high is mighty. Okay, so we've had

one verse that declares the power of the waves,

and the second one declares God being stronger,

more powerful, mightier. So turning to God in

the messy middle of today is in fact what the

majority of the book of the Psalms is, in these

things that we call laments. These are crying

out in the existence of the life we live today,

and it's turning all of that into an expression

towards the God that we serve. And so what I'm

going to do is invite us to listen to a lament

together. It's a lament of asking Jesus to wake

up when he's sleeping in the boat. Because that's

the question that would be ringing in our own

hearts and minds at that point. Why are you sleeping?

We're going to die, right? Just like the disciple

declared. But I want you to think through what

storm, what waves are crashing upon you right

now. Perhaps it's hit you completely out of nowhere.

Perhaps you had a part in it and you've kind

of helped to cause some chaos in the life that

you live around you. And so listen to this song

of lament and turn your attention to God in and

through it. Jesus, when you're gonna wake up,

when you're gonna wake up, how can you sleep

when we're in need? Just one word. from the maker

and all the ways be sealed just one touch from

the healer and all will be made well so Jesus

when this raging sea Jesus when you gonna wake

up when you gonna wake up how can you sleep when

we're in need just one word from the maker and

all the waves will be made still just one touch

from the healer and all will be made well just

one word from the maker and all the ways will

be made still just one touch from the healer

When are you going to wake up, Jesus? Why are

you sleeping? See, Jesus sleeping is not a picture

of God for a moment off of his throne or asleep

on the job. His sleeping is actually evidence

of the upside down reality that Jesus was living

in. Actually, better said, the right side up

reality. Jesus could sleep in the middle of the

storm because he was so firmly rooted in his

father's kingship. that he could fall asleep

in that space. The one who you anchor yourself

to, the Lord who reigns, is the one who's here

in the middle and he's present with you. The

question is, when things hit, what do we do?

Do we turn towards him or do we grasp for more

control? And it is now that we are going to turn

our attention to the last. piece of this psalm.

We turn our attention to the future and we begin

to experience that now. So is tomorrow secure

is the question that we ask in this place. So

the first part of the song, Psalm 93, it established

that God had a legitimate reign, a credible reign.

He had a position to be reigning. But it didn't

just leave it at that. We might be tempted. Oh,

it also gave that he had the capacity. He has

the ability to cause and move and he has the

strength to do so. So we may say he's credible.

He's got the capacity. Let's follow that. But

that is not a complete form of leadership or

reigning. There's something deeply important

missing there. In fact, if you just put those

two together, it represents God's enemy, Satan.

He had credible reason to reign when we rebelled

and gave him our own allegiance. And he has a

capacity to reign as well. So there's something

missing. And here the psalmist is going to draw

that out. He says, your statutes, Lord, stand

firm. Holiness adorns your house for endless

days. days. Psalm 93 ends with a picture of being

under the rule and reign of God in a personal

way that doesn't just have his capacity and his

credibility, but it also speaks to his character.

And you put those three together and you've got

a king worth following. It's a picture of a house,

a new place that we live in, a new rule and a

reign that we place ourselves underneath, and

that guides our life going forward. Like the

beginning of creation, God was hovering over

the chaotic deep and spoke a word that brought

life and beauty. Whose work was it? It was God's

work out of his nature. And God's response to

the disciples, it actually didn't depend on them

doing everything correctly. In fact, it seems

that they joined in on the chaos, as the clip

showed very clearly, and the disorder. But once

again, it wasn't their work. It was God's, out

of his nature, that brought a calm to the storm,

simply speaking words and bringing order in that

space. These are his statutes. This is what holiness

is. And the picture is that of a house for eternity

to come, adorned and decorated with the essence

of who God is. The Bible makes this very clear

in the book of Revelation when it describes the

home, our eternity, the space of what we will

be in. And this is what he says. Then I saw a

new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven

and the first earth had passed away, and there

was no longer any what? No longer any sea. Many

of us know that passage. We may have read it

so many times. We're like, okay, no sea. I don't

really know what is meant there. You should be

thinking Psalm 93. You should be thinking Genesis

1. You should be thinking the Leviathan from

Job, bringing this all together to be like, there

is a future where there is no more. No more disorder.

No more rebellion. No more death. And that is

what is meant by that phrase there. The chaotic

water and the disordered reality is no more.

Here's the question. What song, brothers and

sisters, is forming you in your journey in life?

What do you do when you become aware that In

fact, you're actually not in control. Well, I

want to invite you to allow this song, Psalm

93, to shape your life. Moment by moment, so

you are formed into the likeness of Christ. How

do we do this? Well, we anchor ourselves in the

past, in the certain rule and reign of God. He's

the one who's holding this world together even

though we are spinning around at speeds we can't

even conceptualize and that's just a piece of

the reality we live in. So we hold on to that.

And then in the present reality of life where

we're standing in the middle, what do we do?

We turn towards our God and we bring him the

expression of where we are at. That's two parts,

right? There's a third part. We hold on to the

future and we hold on to the certain promise

that is made evident in Jesus who stood over

that storm and with a word calmed it. And we

know, hey, if you can do that and you've promised

that the new heavens and new earth will have

no more chaos and disorder and rebellion and

death, then it is as good as finished. Now, to

help you remember, what shape am I forming right

here? The cross. The cross, right? So just keep

this in mind as you journey through life and

allow the shape of the cross to be what shapes

and forms your journey through the song of Psalm

93. You may have noticed some decorations up

here, right? What are these from? Easter. It's

not because somebody forgot the memo to take

them down that Easter is gone and we're going

forward. Rather, there's something called Easter

Tide. Easter Tide is this space between Easter

Sunday all the way up to Pentecost, 50 days of

time. And what has the church done with that

space? They have invited us to continue to live

into the truth of Easter, of Holy Week. So this

is what we're going to do with this passage today

and close it out in this way. Palm Sunday was

a day of declaring that the king had arrived,

sitting on a robe of sorts on his donkey, coming

into Jerusalem. What was the cry? Hosanna, blessed

is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jesus

rides into your life and into my life, and he

comes in as the declared king. Now, whether or

not we see him as that is beside the point. We

are called to anchor into the truth and allow

him to be king. But Psalm 93 then calls our awareness

to a time of storm, a time of tumultuous experiences,

a time in the middle, the messy middle. So following

the triumphal entry, we have the last supper

and we move to the garden of Gethsemane, to the

crowds taunting the king like the waves. Crucify

him. The king is whipped. He's spit on. He's

mocked. And then he's crucified. And like he

is sleeping, he's nailed to the cross in his

death and then buried in a tomb. And it's at

this point that that time he's crying out that

says, hey, it looks like that old enemy is actually

stronger and he's defeated. We're trying to rob

you of the truth of God's kingship. The chaotic

seas of life that you're experiencing are well

known to Jesus. and to his followers. So we turn

to the king who's lifted on the cross and we

look to him who actually cried out a lament on

the cross. And he said, father, why have you

forsaken me? Straight out of the book of Psalms,

he cries out a lament to his father who he knows

is in control. And though it looks as though

all is lost, Christ on the cross is actually

doing a work in that space that we could never

do for ourselves. anchored into the firm foundation

of that. And in the present moment, something

is happening here. Psalm 93 then calls us to

hold on to the unshakable guaranteed future.

And folks, this is far from wishful thinking.

This is based on the fact that Jesus calmed the

storm. And it is based on the fact that yes,

he was in the tomb. Yes, he willingly came into

our lives, into the chaotic reality that is here.

But as we wait from Friday until Sunday morning,

and as Jesus lied dead in that tomb, not even

death itself could contain our God and our King.

Bursting forth, he rose to new life. All that

is the essence of who God is, all of the control,

the legitimate power, the trustworthiness, his

statues, his holiness, they're all represented

in this resurrection that comes forward. So brothers

and sisters, this is reason to celebrate. This

is a song worth turning on and having shape and

form our life again and again and again. There's

a very clear shape to it. And we want to invite

that to match each moment of your day as you

go through it. It is definitely a song that is

worth listening that God says, I've got you.

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And remember to join us next week. God bless

you.