Summer Series 2023 // The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice [Psalm 97] (Luke Williamson)

Father again, we just pray. Yeah.

We exalt you. And that's what we want to do

this morning. Lord, thank you for Luke, and

his willingness to come, and share the message that you have

put on his heart. And Lord, we just pray that

you'll give him Clarity of thought and mind, is he, as he

does that. And Lord, just pray that we

would have hearts open to hear what you want to say to us.

And that will be willing to be molded and changed.

Changed by Your Word, Lord. Yeah, again, thank you for

Luke's passion for, for you, and for your word and we just pray

that it changes us this morning, just pray in Jesus name, amen.

Hello. Yes, yes.

So today we'll look at Psalm 97 and it's likely not certain but

it's it's likely next one. That it's part of a liturgy that

was used in Old Israel. That includes the other Psalms

in round about the 90s, not the 1990s but some 90s and so on

like in Psalm 95 Says come let us sing.

So maybe that was for a festival celebration related to kingship

and in the middle of it we've got Sam's 97 and right on either

side of it, 96 and 98 and Dan, very kindly read out 96 for us

today are narrowing each other and they're both saying God is

going to come and judge the Earth. and then in the middle of

them, we've got 97, which has got the, most Vivid and direct

District description of God, coming and judging And poetry as

we know of and has structure and the structure of this one, you

could say that this 126 is on the top.

And then verse 8 to 12 hours of the bottom and they're kind of

balancing each other, and 126 days is got the earth and the

heavens. And it says rejoice and be glad

then 11:52 has got Zion and the daughters of Judah and says, be

glad and rejoice. And then right in the middle

saves shame on idolaters and these points are very finely

balanced, 126 has 42, Hebrew words and h-12 has 43.

Now, let's read the thumb and just keeping the structure in

mind. The Lord Reigns let the Earth

Rejoice. Let the many coastlands be glad

clouds and thick Darkness are all around him righteousness and

Justice are the foundation of his throne.

Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries.

All around his Lightnings light up the world, the Earth sees and

trembles the mountains melt like Wax before the Lord.

Before the Lord of all the Earth, the heavens Proclaim his

righteousness. It all people see his glory.

All worshippers of images are put to shame who make their

boast and worthless Idols worship him.

All you gods. This eight Zion he is, and his

glad and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of your

judgments O, Lord For You O Lord we've just been singing.

This, haven't we For You? O Lord, our most high over all

the Earth you are exalted far above all gods.

Oh, you who love the Lord hate evil.

He preserves the lives of his Saints.

He delivers them from the hand of the wicked light is sown for

the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.

Rejoice in the Lord O you righteous and give thanks to His

holy name. Now, poetry often gives us many

things that we can visualize. So how we're going to approach

this today is we're gonna make a list of a lot of things in the

psalm that were able to visualize and just go through

them. And at the same time, we'll be

going through the first half of the verses and jumping ahead as

appropriate to the second half in that way.

We'll cover it. Okay, let the many coastlands be

glad well, why coastlands nowadays, you can fly in a plane

from any one. Place.

To any other place, doesn't make much difference of a coastal

and, or not as much as it used to.

But before planes, if you lived, deep in the Inland of one body

of land, then the only way that you're ever going to hear about

somebody, Deep in the Inland of another body of land was through

the coast lands in the middle. Here's a pretty picture of a

coast land and there's the little Coastland running around

there. Yeah.

So the port cities would be very important and the ancient world

was more International and more connected than we give it credit

for. But if you did hear about the

Inland of another consonant, it would be through that Coast

land. So the coast land does not not

the place where you have your Beach vacation it's it makes you

think of the whole International scene.

Like some 96 that Dan read out sing to the Lord, Lord, all the

Earth. Now, let's picture Thunder and a

throne and fire and lightning and mountains.

And the Lord's presence and the Lord's coming is spoken of in

terms of a storm also. And I'm going to read a couple

of other great passage in the Psalms which have this Psalm 29

few verses from it, the voice of the Lord is over the waters.

The the god of Glory Thunders, the voice of the Lord flashes

forth flames of fire. The Lord sits enthroned over the

flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king

forever. Psalm 18, starting at verse 9.

The Lord Bao the heavens and came down.

Thick Darkness was under his feet, he rode on a cherub and

flu. He came swiftly on the wings of

the Wind. By the way, a cherub is not a

baby angel. It's a very awesome Angel.

He made Darkness his covering his canopy around him, thick

clouds dark with water out of the brightness before him, hail

stones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.

The Lord also thundered in the heavens and the most high

uttered, his voice. Voice.

Hail stones and coals of Fire. Storms were about one of the

most powerful things the Ancients ever experienced and

for us to bad weather is pretty up there.

In terms of powerful things that we know about is we've seen on

the news with Auckland and the coromandel recently So, it is

fitting that they describe God's power and presence in terms of a

storm. Now, to the Canaanites bail was

the storm God, and they would often refer to him as the most

high. But sounds like this, the

challenge that and they say no God, the true God of Israel is

the lord of the storm, and he is the real most high.

So this time it brings together Joy.

Let's rejoice and also judgment in authority.

Now, the joy is because the authority is good and the

judgment is, right. Is righteousness and Justice

that are the foundation of God's Throne.

There's two and the judgment is also a rescue think of The

Exodus. Israel being rescued from Egypt

and brought up out of Egypt from being stuck there and at the

same time the Egyptians and Pharaoh would being judged.

So as the very Judgment of them that means the rescue of the is

the children of Israel. And Skip ahead to the verse 10.

He delivers his Saints. Well, not every saint has

delivered from every danger all the time right now, but in the

final judgment, although all be resurrected and it will be

Vindicated. So that's something to be joyful

about, right? That's why we're joyful about

judgment. Judgment is a rescue.

It's a vindication Let's talk about thunder.

So isn't Darkness supposed to be bad?

Well, it's often a symbol for evil, but not here here, it's

dark clouds and gods Riding the Storm as we've seen.

And in Israel's history, the presence of God often comes with

a cloud and the cloud veiled his glory because it's just too

great for us. We're going to spend a fair

amount of time on this because this is key and look passage

that has this in Exodus 19. Starting this texting.

So Israel is encamped near to Mount Sinai and on the morning

of the third day, Thunder, roared and lightning, flashed

and a dense Cloud came down on the mountain.

There was a long loud blast on the Ram's Horn and all the

people trembled. Moses LED them out from the camp

to meet with God and they stood at the foot of the mountain, all

of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended

on it in the form of Fire. The smoke billowed into the sky,

like smoke from a Brick Kiln and the whole Mountain shook

violently at the blast of the Ram's, Horn, grew, louder, and

louder. Moses spoke and God thundered

his reply, the Lord came down on the top of Mount Sinai and

Called Moses to the top of the mountain.

So Moses climbed the mountain. And then God gives them

instructions to make the tent of meeting meeting with God, they

make the 10th contented all finished and chapter 40.

The tenth of all finished and the cloud covered the Tabernacle

of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the Lord

filled. The Tabernacle Moses could no

longer enter it because the cloud settled down over it and

the glory of the Lord filled it, And then later on when they

build the temple which is like the Tabernacle.

But it's a building the same thing happens.

Cloud comes down as the Lord's, Glory fills the temple.

And I also want to read without comment.

A verse from ahem, you might know, Immortal invisible, Great

him. And one verse that says, great

father of Glory, pure Father of Lights, the Angels adore thee,

all bailing their site, all praise.

We would render oh help us to see tis.

Only the Splendor of light. Hi Dorothy.

So, in the storm we're thinking of God's Throne, righteousness,

and Justice are the foundation of your throne.

God is the king and he has the authority to judge.

Now, Elizabeth, the second was given a sword at her coronation.

And I guess child's. The third will soon be given one

and in the some we don't see God with a sword that we see him

with fire and fire is what he can use to judge speaks of

judgement. for our Monarch in England, that may be largely

ceremonial, but with God has power as very real So in the

ancient near East the king and the people would make a

covenant. Make a promise he'll be a king

and they'll be a good people and the good King is a king.

Who keeps that promise? Good King is a promise keeper

and God is righteous because he keeps his promise to be a good

King. He fulfills because commitment

by ruling in a good way and in a just way And the NIV Study Bible

has a good note, says it that the whole idea of a throne being

established by righteousness and Justice was proverbial in

Israel. So what better place to look for

it, then in Proverbs and Proverbs 25 5, the King's throne

will be established and righteousness.

And 2914. If a king Faithfully judges, the

poor, his throne will be established forever.

Remember that we read a couple of other Psalms which talked

about the storm before one of them was Sam 18.

And what that was actually talking about was King, David

was talking about God, coming to rescue him, he was drowning and

all his enemies. And God came in.

This big storm, the poetically to rescue him.

So that's the king and that some.

So obviously they love the theme of God's.

Saving the king, the anthem of England is God, Save the King

and that's, that's a quote from the sand, some 20 but other

storms also rescue with God, not always saving the king.

I like some 89 says, well, you know, the monarchy has fallen

God, what are you doing? and part of the answer to that

is God, Save the King and God is the king.

It's both end. It's in addition to the davidic

king, Is a growing appreciation of a Divine King.

Let's talk about the mountains. Mountains, often mean, three

things and scripture, they can mean something very enduring,

the vet, they look like the very Pillars of Creation in Psalm 96

with Stan readout. It talked about how gloriously

firmly established the Earth is and that's to God's credit him.

He made it. So firmly, another thing about

mountains is that's where you build fortresses, that's very

important. It is a very real threat, threat

of raids or invasions and the third thing was at their places

of worship. We know that Moses and Israel

met with God on Mount Sinai. Also in the Bible often places

of false god worship and the prophets are always saying how

bad it is, that people are going to the high places to worship

false gods. well, if the sun tells us the mountains melt like

Wax before the Lord, then, however, we're thinking of

mountains is telling us that God is supreme He's more enduring

than the very pillars of his own creation.

He's stronger than fortresses stronger than whatever, we might

have safety or our security and he is high above all supposed

Gods. As in the later, verse you are

exalted far above all gods And finally, let's talk about the

heavens, the heavens Proclaim his righteousness.

Now, the Bible proclaims to us God's message and Christ reveals

God to us, but for us, Whoever has not heard of those

proclamations. There are still the heavens

whether you do or don't have the Bible or of heard of Christ, you

have God's creation all around you.

You have got the sky above, you can just look up in this, there

can see his amazing work. Nobody is no one's responsible

to know everything about God, but we responsible to know what

we can. We responsible at least to look

up and see the sky and appreciate that.

There's a creator. Here are some photos of the sky

of a Hamilton taken by my dad. And I want to read Psalm 19:1

Psalms 19:1

and four saves the heavens declare.

The glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork,

their voice is the voice of the heavens.

Goes out to all the Earth and their words to the end of the

world. Everybody's hit it.

And in Romans 1:20 Paul makes a similar point for every ever

Romans 1:20

since the world was created. People have seen the Earth and

Sky through everything God has made, they can clearly see his

invisible qualities. His eternal power and divine

nature, so they have no excuse for not knowing god.

We'll pull Faith. The skies are showing God's

power, his divine nature and in our sun today, the heavens are

showing his righteousness. How did the heavens show God's

righteousness? Will the heavens show us day and

night and the seasons and the seasons bring us the Bounty of

the Harvest. So God's bountifully his strong

as goodness by providing that. And he's also showing his

consistency and his ability to keep promise.

Has by the, the steady continuing repetition of the day

in the night and the seasons. Let's talk about idols.

So people have no excuse for not knowing god.

We should acknowledge Him at least seeing the heavens

acknowledging him as the Creator, someone who created us,

not someone that we created. Not someone that we created with

our hands like a wooden Idol and not someone that we thought up

with our minds. Catch the tone of verses 6 and

7. So, we're seeing God's glory and

all worshippers of images are put to shame those who make

their boast in worthless, Idols worship him, all you gods

Remember this, is that little pot in the Middle with a

scornful tone and right after it we go back to the tone of

rejoicing in our second half. And we've covered a lot of that

second half already by jumping ahead, but I want to cover a

couple of turns of phrase, which might be unfamiliar.

The daughters of Judah. So Judah is one of the tribes of

Israel. And after Israel, split due to

became the southern part of the Southern Kingdom.

So, Judah, is that territory of that tribe and is capital is

Jerusalem, which has the hill of Zion.

And the daughters of Judah, are the surrounding towns that

belong to it? And I also want to talk about

the verse that says light is sown for the righteous and joy

for the upright in heart. So someone is scattering seeds

on the ground and in that world where pretty much everyone did

Farming Farming made its way into their language a lot for

example, the prophet Hosea talked about sewing.

He said you should so righteousness and then you can

Harvest love and in another place he says, watch out if you

sow the wind because then you'll reap the Whirlwind, you'll have

as the Whirlwind and reap the Whirlwind made its way into

English as a It's a phrase that means to face terrible

consequences. So I do like how the ESV which

I've been using for the saint that has daughters of Judah and

it has light and so on and it shows something of the rich way

that psalmist's wrote. But if in your translation, you

have towns of Judah and light shines or light Dawn's, that's

also great because light is sown.

And Daughters of Judah, is Not clear English and Clarity is a

very important translation priority.

So there's a trade-off and different translations have

different strengths but the NLT which has light shines is great

and I love it and I love the ESV as well.

So, if I was to pick one thing and take away today to remember,

from all of this, it's rejoice. And it's a call to what I'm

going to call a solid Joy, not like a frothy shallow Joy.

So a frothy shallow Joy is maybe for example being flippant or

careless or or a selfish selfishly focused on happiness

and and maybe the opposite of that is being very grumpy and

gloomy and you know especially if you're focusing on morals as

very easy to be grumpy and gloomy.

But It takes the wisdom from the psalm and from many other

scriptures to teach us to be serious and joyful and then you

have a solid Joy of very heavy very reasonable Joy.

And it gives us a reason for the joy is that God's Authority is

good and God will judge justly. It's not a naive Joy because

when we don't ignore the unpleasant realities like there

is such a thing as idol worship and it's shameful and in one of

the verses of the psalm we hate evil, we know that there is much

Authority. That is misused, whether it's

from a boss, or a king, or a prime minister or a head of a

household. And But we know that at the very

top of the tree of authority, the most high is good and he has

good authority. Oh you who love the Lord hate

evil and Rejoice. O you righteous?

His judgment is a rescue. It's a Vindication and his rule

is a faithful, keeping of a promise.

So let the son help us to have a very gutsy kind of joy.

Right, let's pray. Father in heaven, we hear your

call to rejoice. And with good reason.

You are the king you judge. In one day, you will carry out

the final judgement. and you are good and just Lord, you still

lie. Give us the seasons, the day,

the night. You're a faithful promise,

keeping King, and God, and you are the true most high.

Over all the Earth. We thank and praise you.

In Jesus name? Amen.

We thank and praise you. In Jesus name?

Amen.