Because He first loved us

Psalm 116 and it's on page 615.

Psalm 116 beginning at verse 1.

I love the Lord for he heard my voice. He heard my cry for mercy.

Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.

The cords of death entangled me. The anguish of the grave came upon me.

I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.

Then I called on the name of the Lord. O Lord, save me.

The Lord is gracious and righteous. Our God is full of compassion.

The Lord protects the simple-hearted. When I was in great need, he saved me.

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.

For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

I believed, therefore I said, I am greatly afflicted.

And in my dismay I said, all men are liars.

How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

O Lord, truly, I am your servant.

I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.

You have freed me from my chains.

I will sacrifice a thank-offering to you and call on the name of the Lord.

I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,

in the courts of the house of the Lord,

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord.

Thank you.

Thanks, Chris.

I'm going to ask Tom.

He's going to come up and speak.

Before he does, I'm going to pray for Tom.

Is that okay?

Yep.

Easy.

Good now.

Let's pray for Tom.

Father, we thank you again for your goodness to us,

and we thank you for your gifts towards us in people.

We thank you for Tom.

We thank you for Tom.

And we ask now that you would help him as he preaches and seeks to explain this psalm to us.

We pray that our attention, our focus will be drawn not to him, but to you.

We pray that you would fill him and us with your Holy Spirit, so that we may not only hear your words, but understand them.

That they would take effect in our lives, changing us and transforming us.

And so we pray that we will all be encouraged and built up through what we are now going to do together.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Sorry, before you start, there are pens around.

If anybody wants to take notes, on the back of your new sheet, there's a little spot there.

If you'd like a pen, I have some here.

Anybody want one?

Okay.

Okay.

Well, it wouldn't be right unless I had my usual Sunday morning greeting.

So, good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So, as Johnny has mentioned, today we're going to be talking about love.

And by way of introduction, I'm going to talk a little bit about who or what do we love.

So if we can think of some things that we love in our lives.

And as Johnny mentioned, how do we know that we love them?

So I'm going to play a little, well, it's not a game, but a little exercise.

That if you know that I love these things, raise your hand, nod your head, whatever it might be.

So when I was younger, I loved the turtles.

Did anyone know that?

Yeah.

Now, I love football.

I don't know that.

Yeah.

I love grace.

Does anyone know that?

Okay.

And I hope that you all know that I love the Lord.

Some of these things were demonstrated.

So like with the turtles, people knew that I loved the turtles because I dressed up like Raphael.

The red turtle.

I had borrowed my mum's red bandana.

She didn't mind.

But yeah, so the way we show that we love things is we live it out.

We demonstrate that love.

So with football, I play football.

I talk about football.

With grace, I show her my love.

I tell her about my love.

And it's the same with the Lord that we need to show him that we love him.

We need to tell him that we love him.

Yeah, so this psalm is all about God's love.

So we're going to go behind the scenes first.

And we're going to look a little bit about this psalm and where it fits in with the Bible.

So a bit of background is that this psalm makes up what is called by the Jewish the Hallel.

This word means praise.

And if you haven't made the connection, Hallelujah means praise the Lord.

And Hallel is the Hebrew word for praise.

So there are six psalms in the Hallel, 113 to 118.

And these psalms form part of their liturgy, their customary public worship together, things they sing at feasts.

So it's part of that.

It's a psalm of praise.

And looking more specifically at this psalm, it's a personal experience of a man.

It could have been a king.

It may have been David.

But we're not told who it was.

So there's one man's experience of death.

When communally sung, that death may have been understood as a deliverance from Egypt of the Jewish people.

But nonetheless, this psalm is about the experience of God's love in the psalmist's life.

So this psalm can be roughly taken in two sections.

From verses 1 to 11, which is talking about God's love being shown.

And verses 12 to 19, where we can see the response to God's love.

Okay, so the first point is that the Lord loves the psalmist.

So when I was preparing this, what hit me straight away was the first four words.

I love the Lord.

And that's what I kind of focused on in preparing that it's about the psalmist's love for the Lord.

About how he loves the Lord.

But then in thinking a bit more, it's not actually his love that's primary.

It's God's love for the psalmist.

So as we read on, we see how God demonstrates his love to the psalmist.

So we see in verses 1 to 2, that the Lord hears the psalmist's cry for mercy.

The psalmist was in a terrible situation.

Death was very close to him.

But he cried out to God.

And the Lord heard him.

So in verses 1 to 2, I love the Lord, for he heard my voice.

He heard my cry for mercy.

Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.

So our God is a God who listens.

He's not a far off and distant God who we can't be in touch with.

But he is one who hears and answers when we talk to him.

Okay, so how else does the Lord show his love to that psalmist?

He delivers him from death.

We are made aware of this, again, terrible situation that the psalmist is in in verse 3.

The cords of death entangled me.

The anguish of the grave came upon me.

I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.

Okay, so this man is in fear of death.

He suffered anguish.

As we read, he was overcome by trouble and sorrow.

Yet the Lord delivered him from that situation.

In verse 6, we see that he was in great need and the Lord saved him.

In verse 8, he declares that his soul has been delivered from death.

His eyes from tears and his feet from stumbling.

So the Lord has shown to the psalmist his great love by delivering him from death.

Okay, and another way in which the Lord shows his love is that he protects him.

So in verse 6, it says,

The Lord protects the simple-hearted.

When I was in great need, he saved me.

Okay, so the psalmist comes out with a statement of how the Lord protects the simple-hearted.

It's just a simple, sincere, it's not complicated.

He trusts and that's it.

There's no complication about his faith.

And the psalmist has the assurance that the Lord will continue to protect him.

It's not, he says this in the present tense.

The Lord protects.

It's not a past thing only.

It's not only for the future, but it's a present protection for the simple-hearted.

Okay, so having looked at how the Lord demonstrates his love to the psalmist,

we can ask, why does he show that love?

Okay, so in verse 7, we can see that the Lord shows his love to the psalmist so that he can rest.

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.

In the Lord's deliverance and protection, the psalmist can rest.

A good note I saw on rest was that he can enjoy a state of unthreatened well-being,

knowing that the Lord is protecting him.

So he can rest.

Another reason why the Lord delivers the psalmist is so that he can walk before the Lord.

So in verses 8 and 9.

For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

So delivered so that he can rest, and delivered so that he may walk before the Lord.

And this walking for the Lord, living his life for him, is a public thing.

It's in the land of the living.

It's not in his bedroom.

It's not in his own house.

It's in the land where there are people all around him.

And we see in verse 10 that these things come about by faith.

So that resting and that walking for the Lord is by faith.

In verse 10 it says,

I believed, therefore I said, I am greatly afflicted.

So these, in verse 4 and verse 10 and 11, there are quotations.

And I think those can be taken as the psalmist's prayer when he was in trouble.

So it was his faith that caused him to cry out to God.

And it's through his faith that he can rest.

And that he can walk and live for God.

So now having, we can see how this psalm talks to us about how the Lord loves the psalmist.

How he does that and why he does that.

We can move on to talk about how the Lord loves us.

This psalm points us to how the Lord loves us.

So how does he show that love?

As I previously mentioned, this psalmist may have been a king.

It may have been David.

But there is a king who went through anguish, trouble and sorrow for us.

Let's look back at verse 3.

It says,

So when preparing this, what came to mind was Jesus' experience in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He was overcome by trouble and sorrow because of what was ahead of him.

Listen to his words in Matthew.

Then he said to them, this is Jesus speaking,

My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me.

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed,

My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.

Yet not as I will, but as you will.

So he cried out to his father that if it were possible,

that this task that God had prepared for him would be taken away.

But he was obedient.

He followed through with what God the Father had planned for him.

And Jesus was delivered over to death at that time for us.

So that we can have life.

We, like the psalmist, are in danger of death.

Not only a physical death, but also a spiritual one,

because of our rebellion against God.

Because of our natural state,

we deserve to be separated from God because he is perfect.

We have a sinful nature and we deserve to be separated.

But like God shows in verse 5 to the psalmist,

his graciousness, righteousness and compassion,

likewise he does to us in Christ.

Listen to this in Romans 5 verse 8.

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So we deserve not only punishment in the future,

but we deserve immediate punishment,

that is death, for our rebellion.

There's nothing stopping God,

apart from his own grace towards us,

from ending everything now because of our sin.

But God has delivered us from that.

And then by faith,

he promises to protect us

and give us life for all eternity,

trusting in what Jesus has done.

So like the psalmist,

we can see how the Lord loves us

and how he's shown it to us in Christ.

And likewise,

there are also reasons why he delivers us.

So again in verse 7,

we can have rest.

We can have perfect rest in Jesus

and listen to his invitation to us

in Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Come to me,

all you who are weary and burdened,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you

and learn from me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

We can have rest in Jesus

because he has done it all for us.

We don't need to earn God's love.

He has already loved us.

And yeah,

when speaking this,

when preparing,

rest is something that

I need to preach this to myself

as much as to anyone else.

That we can have rest

from fear of punishment,

rest from feeling the need

to earn a salvation,

rest from fear,

rest from worry,

rest from feeling

that you have to get everything right.

Rest from everything

because of what Jesus has done.

So,

another reason,

just like the psalmist,

is that we are delivered

so that we can walk

before the Lord.

So we can rest

in Jesus

and we are delivered

so that we can walk

before the Lord.

And again,

it's in the land of the living.

God saves us

and then sends us

into the world

to be his witnesses,

to demonstrate

that love that he has shown us

to other people.

And again,

this resting

and walking

comes by faith.

In verse 10,

I believed,

said the psalmist,

therefore I said,

I am greatly afflicted.

And it's through faith

that we can rest,

through faith

that we can walk.

So we need to trust

in him

and we will find rest

and we will be commissioned

to live for him

in this world.

So we have seen

that the Lord loves the psalmist

and the Lord loves us.

But how did the psalmist

respond

to the Lord's love?

Okay.

The psalmist

loves the Lord.

In verses 1

and in 12 to 19,

we can see

the psalmist's response

to the Lord's love

that was shown to him.

As I mentioned earlier on,

what I focused on

initially

was the psalmist's love.

But that in fact

was a response

to God's love.

Listen to this.

I love the Lord

for he heard my voice.

He heard my cry

for mercy.

So it was the love

expressed

because of love

towards him.

And as we read

through the rest

of the psalm,

we can see

how he responds.

In verse 12,

the psalmist asks

the question,

How can I repay

the Lord

for all his goodness

to me?

He then goes on

in the following verses

to explain to us

how he responds

to the Lord's love

towards him.

Okay.

So in verse 13,

it says,

I will lift up

the cup of salvation

and call

on the name

of the Lord.

One translation

of the Bible

puts it like this.

I will take

the cup of salvation

and call upon

the name of the Lord.

I think this is helpful

to understand

what is meant

by this lifting up

of the cup of salvation.

That it's a receiving

of what God has done.

The receiving

of God's love.

It's not something

that he needs to do

to add on

to what God has done,

but it's something

that he needs

to receive,

receiving God's love.

From what I understand

about the cup of salvation,

that this could be

referring to a cup

of wine drunk

by the Jews

at a meal,

which would then

result in a

thank offering.

They had sacrifices

at Thanksgiving

in the Old Testament.

Or it could be

referring to the cup

drank at the

Passover meal.

But whatever cup

has been referred to,

it's been in reference

to Thanksgiving

for what God has done.

So in response

to God's love,

the psalmist is thankful.

And we can see

that thankfulness

in verse 17.

I will sacrifice

a thank offering

to you

and call

on the name

of the Lord.

So,

in receiving

God's love

with thankfulness,

he calls

on the name

of the Lord.

So he is thankful

for what God has done

and he calls

on the name

of the Lord.

The Lord is the one

that he will call on,

who he will cry out to

for help.

He is the one

he can trust in

and depend on

for the rest of his life.

Like in verse 2,

I will call on him

as long as I live.

So another response,

so there's being thankful,

calling on God's name

and service.

In verses 14

and 16 and 18

we see how

he wants to serve

the Lord.

He's talking about

fulfilling his vows

about how he is

God's servant.

Again,

fulfilling my vows

to the Lord

in the presence

of all his people.

So the psalmist

declares himself

to be someone

who is going to

serve the Lord.

And again,

it's not a private matter,

it's a public thing,

to be lived out

in the presence

of all the Lord's people.

So the response

is to God's love,

receiving that love,

being thankful,

calling on the Lord

and service.

So having looked

at the psalmist's response,

let's ask the question,

what will our response be?

Do we love the Lord?

What is our response

to God's amazing love?

Will we,

like the psalmist,

take the cup of salvation

and call on the name

of the Lord?

Have we received

what the Lord

has done for us?

It's not something

we need to do more,

but it's an accepting

of what he has done.

So as I mentioned,

the cup of salvation

could be referring

to a cup drunk

at the Passover meal

called the cup

of redemption.

And this is something

that the Jews use

at the Passover meal

to symbolize

the blood

of the Passover lamb

back in the times

of Egypt

when that blood

saved them

from the punishment

that the Egyptians

faced

of the death

of the firstborns.

And Jesus,

on the night

that he was betrayed,

while observing

the Passover meal,

he took a cup

and he used it

to symbolize

his own blood.

Not the blood

of the lamb

of long ago,

but his own blood

shed for us.

So have we received

that cup of salvation

that Jesus offers

to us?

The salvation

that is available

to us

by faith.

That in Jesus'

blood shed for us

for our sin,

we can be forgiven

and enjoy

spending eternity

with him.

Okay,

so have we received?

Do we call

on the name

of the Lord?

In verse 13,

I will lift up

the cup of salvation

and call

on the name

of the Lord.

So this calling,

it's not just

a vocal exercise,

it's a living exercise.

It's not just

a verbal

expression,

it's not just

words.

In Romans,

Paul says,

for everyone

who calls

on the name

of the Lord

will be saved.

And it's not

just a verbal

thing.

The word

that Paul uses

for calls

is the same

that he uses

when talking

about how he

appeals to Caesar

in Acts.

In that case,

he was asking

that his case

as he was arrested

would be judged

by Caesar.

He was throwing

himself on

Caesar's mercy.

He was submitting

to Caesar's

authority.

And there were

implications of

calling on Caesar.

He would have to be

obedient to Caesar's

ruling.

Whatever Caesar said,

that is what would go.

He had to be obedient

to Caesar's procedure,

the way of doing things.

And it's exactly

the same with us.

That calling

that we need

to do on the Lord

is an obedience

to God's authority.

It's to throw

ourselves at his

mercy

and to

submit to what

he wants for us.

But it's not

submission to a

tyrant

or to a far-off

king,

but to a loving,

gracious,

righteous,

and compassionate

God that we can

see in this psalm.

Verse 5,

The Lord is

gracious and

righteous.

Our God is

full of

compassion.

So have we

received?

Do we call on

the name of the

Lord?

Do we respond

with thanksgiving?

So like the

psalmist,

he offered a

sacrifice of

thanksgiving to

the Lord.

But for us,

we don't need to

offer those same

types of sacrifices

like they did in

the Old Testament.

But we have a

different way of

doing things.

And Paul explains

a bit about this

in Romans chapter

Romans 12 · chapter mention

12.

Therefore I

urge you,

brothers,

in view of

God's mercy,

to offer your

bodies as

living sacrifices.

Holy and

pleasing to God,

this is your

spiritual act of

worship.

So this is our

sacrifice done to

God.

This is our

thank offering.

This is to

offer ourselves

in service to

him out of

thankfulness for

all that he has

done.

So this

verse in Romans

also talks about

service.

Another way that

the end of it can

be translated is

that this is your

rational service.

And the word

that's used there

is logikos,

it's the Greek

word, and that

means logical.

And when Paul

says in view of

God's mercy,

the logical thing,

the rational thing

to do is to

serve him because

of all that he

has done for us.

So as the

psalmist offers

his service to

the Lord,

in verses 14,

I will fulfill

my vows to

the Lord,

16, I will

fulfill my,

18, I will

fulfill my

vows to the

Lord, and

16, he

declares himself

to be God's

servant.

And just like

the psalmist,

so should we

declare ourselves

to be servants

to the Lord.

But what does

that service

look like?

What is it

like to serve

God?

Well, it's

to live as

he wants us

to.

He wants us

to get to

know him

more through

reading his

word, through

talking to him,

through spending

time with his

people.

He wants us

to be

representatives for

him in this

world, doing

what he would

do, saying

what he would

say, if it

were him in

that situation.

He wants us

to make him

known to other

people through

what we say

and how we

live.

We need to

live God's

way, not

our own.

We need to

live like

Jesus lived.

So, in

response to

God's love,

do we receive

what he has

done for us?

Are we

thankful?

Do we call

on his name

and will we

serve him?

And one of the

ways, as we've

seen, that the

psalmist responds

is with rest.

And that, too,

should be our

way of

responding.

We can be

responding by

resting in all

the ways that I

was mentioning

earlier.

And that

resting is one

of the ways in

which we can

publicly

demonstrate our

love for the

Lord.

Resting in

Jesus.

People will

notice that we

are a peaceful,

a joyful,

a loving people

because of that

rest that we

have.

So, like in

the case of

the psalmist,

these acts of

receiving, of

thanksgiving, of

calling, of

service, of

resting, are

all public

demonstrations of

our own love

for the Lord.

So, as sinful

people, we will

never be able to

love the Lord as

we should.

We'll never be

able to love him

as he wants us

to love him.

But thanks to

God's amazing

grace, his love

for us doesn't

depend on whether

we love him or

not.

He has already

loved us.

The title of

this, of what

I'm talking about

is, we love

because he first

loved us.

And it is

Jesus' life that

counts for us if

we trust in him.

He is the one

who loves God

as we should.

And because of

God's grace,

through faith in

Jesus, it's as

if we are

not only Jesus

has done it, it's

as if we have

done it as well

by faith.

So we can rest

in Jesus, that we

don't need to love

God any certain

amount, any degree

before being loved

by him.

That's already

done.

God has already

loved us.

And then we are

free to respond to

God's love by

loving him in

return.

So from this

psalm we can see

how the Lord

loves the

psalmist.

And he shows

that love to

him and has

reasons for it.

And it's the

same with us.

It points to how

the Lord loves

us.

Again, he

demonstrates it to

us and there are

reasons for it.

The psalmist's

response to God's

love is in loving

him in return.

And then the

challenge is, do

we love the

Lord?

Do people around

us know that we

love the Lord?

If I were to do

that same exercise

at work or in

college or in

school with my

friends or if you

did it with your

friends, would

people raise their

hands?

Would people nod

their heads if

they asked?

If you asked, do

you know that I

love the Lord?

Let's make that a

challenge.

Can we make that

known to other

people that we

love the Lord?

Can we, like the

psalmist, declare in

verse 1, I love

the Lord?

And it's because of

how he first loved

us.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you

for your great love

to us.

thank you that

before we were

born, before we

could walk or talk,

you loved us.

And Lord, thank you

that that love

doesn't depend on

what we do.

It just depends on

you and how much

you love us.

Thank you for your

word which teaches

us about your love.

love.

Thank you for how

you have loved the

psalmist and

demonstrated that

to him for our

benefit as well as

his.

Thank you for how

you love us in

Christ.

Please help us to

trust in what Jesus

has done, that he

has taken our

punishment.

And by faith we

can have life.

thank you for the

psalmist response

modelling how we

are to respond to

your love in

loving you in

return.

Please help us to

love you as we

should in a

public way, not

just on a Sunday,

not just with our

church family, but

amongst our

friends, to be

someone, to be

people who are

known to love the

Lord.

Lord, please

help us with

this.

Help us to be

confident in our

love for him.

Lord, thank you

that you teach us

and Lord, thank you

that you help us to

live as you want us

to.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.