“Praise Songs” – Psalm 66

We have a lot for which to be thankful, don’t we? Not the least of which is a beautiful building and sanctuary. We have the freedom to be here and we enjoy each other’s company as we worship. We have air conditioning and heat, a fridge full of stuff to eat and drink over in the Fellowship Hall. We are able to pay all of our bills. We even have doorstops on almost all of our doors!

Some of us used to joke about how when we become a rich church, we will know it when we use doorstops instead of bricks. The other day, Troy finished putting doorstops on the doors in the Fellowship Hall and I threw the door brick over under the steps and told Troy ,“So…this is what it feels like to pastor one of those rich, uppity churches.”

So, I’m thankful even for the little things that God has provided including doorstops. But I also realize that not everybody is as blessed as we are physically and financially. Not everybody is able to worship in a beautiful sanctuary. Some of you may have seen the same picture I saw this week of a church in the Philippines worshiping as they stood in water that was up to their knees due to the typhoon that recently hit there. Not only that but that typhoon killed about 5000 (last I heard) and displaced 4 million. And yet even with all that I will still say that God is awesome.

But the Philippines is not the only place hard hit. Much closer to home in Indiana and Illinois more than 25 tornadoes hit just last week. And what the day before had been neighborhoods are now just slabs of concrete with debris stacked on top. Those tornadoes and typhoons are often called acts of God and I understand that thinking but I will stay say that our God is awesome.

Planned Parenthood just opened a $6.5 million state of the art abortion clinic in south Ft. Worth , ironically right next to the Gladney Center for Adoption. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2009, 784,507legal induced abortions were reported to CDC. I’m sure many more were done but those are real, though conservative, numbers. What the day before had been a baby in a mother’s womb is now discarded debris stacked in a trash can. This country is spiritually and mentally sick to allow such a thing to continue and yet those centers have government funding. But even with all that going on I continue to say that we serve an awesome God!

Even closer to home I know that there are people right here in our community that lack the basic necessities of life. Food, shelter and clothing are scarce and not guaranteed for another day for many right around us even while there are million dollar mansions within walking distance of those people. There are people right here this morning that are hurting physically, mentally, spiritually and financially. It’s not fair. It’s not right. It’s painful. And someone might ask me this morning how I can dare stand up here, knowing all of the sin and heartache and poverty and problems of this world, and continue to say that God is good.

“Oh, it’s easy for you to say. You’re not knee-deep in water. You have clean clothes and a full belly. Your life is all rainbows and lollipops compared to those you just mentioned and you have the nerve to say that God is good?” Yes! I have the nerve. Yes, I have the gall and the audacity to say that the God I serve is good, not just sometime but all the time! I may not understand His ways. I may go through pain. I may lose my family, my job, my church and my friends but I say that God is awesome. He is good. He is merciful and generous.

And I can stand here and say all of that because I have seen it in my own life but I can also see it in scripture, the very Word of God that I stake my eternity upon. And if nothing else I say that God is awesome because the Bible tells me to! And that’s enough! It’s enough! It is enough that the psalmist tells me to and it is certainly enough that God tells me to and right here in Psalm 66 it tells me to “say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!” And so I stand here this morning and if I am not obedient in any other thing I will be obedient in proclaiming to you that I am in awe of God and His deeds are awesome!

And if that doesn’t make sense to you or if my audacity offends you, then please hear me out as we draw to a close our November Thanksgiving series entitled “Praise Songs”. We end our look at some of the books of Psalms or“praise songs” as they were known with Psalm 66. And I would give anything to be able to hear this song being sung with music in its original language. It must have been beautiful to hear. But its words are still beautiful to read and are powerful words of praise.

So, join with me as we read Psalm 66. For the director of music. A song. A psalm.

¹ Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
² Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious.
³ Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power
that your enemies cringe before you.
⁴ All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing the praises of your name.” Selah

⁵ Come and see what God has done,
his awesome deeds for mankind!
⁶ He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the waters on foot—
come, let us rejoice in him.
⁷ He rules forever by his power,
his eyes watch the nations—
let not the rebellious rise up against him. Selah

⁸ Praise our God, all peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;
⁹ he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
¹⁰ For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
¹¹ You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
¹² You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.

¹³ I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
and fulfill my vows to you—
¹⁴ vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
when I was in trouble.
¹⁵ I will sacrifice fat animals to you
and an offering of rams;
I will offer bulls and goats. Selah

¹⁶ Come and hear, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.
¹⁷ I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.
¹⁸ If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
¹⁹ but God has surely listened
and has heard my prayer.
²⁰ Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!

Now, you may have heard me say a word that we don’t normally say when we read through here. The word “Selah” is normally just skipped over and ignored even though it is part of the original manuscript. But I learned something this week that I want to share with you.“Selah” is found 74 times in scripture and 71 of those are in the Psalms.And the reason is it found so often in the Psalms and nowhere else is because it is an instruction to pause in the middle of a song.And as we have learned, the psalms were praise songs used in worship by the ancient Hebrews, hence the title of the sermon series.

“Selah” doesn’t just mean to take a break from singing. It is not the time that the guitar player does his jamming solo.And it’s not so the leader can improvise and tell everybody to “put your hands in the air like you just don’t care” or anything like that.“Selah” means to pause the singing so you can reflect on the words you just sang because they are important and you should soak them in.

I love how one commentary colorfully interpreted it as, “There.What do you think of that?” So, looking at the first paragraph or so, they would sing what we have as verses 1-4, ending with, “All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing the praises of your name.” And then the leader would stop and look at the people and say, “There.What do you think of that?Meditate on that for a few seconds.Think about what you are singing.”I love that and just had to share because I had never known that before about such a common word.

So, this psalmist, who was a king and may have been King David or maybe Hezekiah, obviously wants the people to mean what they are singing as they worship using the words he has written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.And I believe he wanted them to see 3 things.He wanted them to see that this king was a happy man, a humble man and a holy man.And looking at verses 1-4, it’s pretty easy to see that he is a happy man. And who wouldn’t be a happy man when you see God for Who He really is as this psalmist obviously has.

We have talked at different times lately about the importance of praising God just for Who He is, and not just for what He has done for us.It’s easy to praise God for the new house, new car, new wife, etc.But as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, God likes to be recognized as such and that should be at the top of our prayer list.It should be one of the first things we think about as we worship and talk or sing about how great God is.

And that is where the psalmist starts and it obviously makes him happy.He starts by looking forward to a time when all the earth will rejoice and praise God. This is probably a reference to the millennial reign of Christ after the rapture of the church.This time will last 1000 years according to Revelation 20 and it is during this time that the lion is said to lay with the lamb and Micah 4 tells us that there will be no more war and “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”

If you don’t hear all the earth praising God now, just wait.His enemies will cringe before Him and all the earth will rejoice at the sound of His name.But the psalmist not only looks forward to what is coming with praise, he also looks backward with praise as he recounts what God has done in the lives of His children.

He looks back to the times when God protected and provided for His people and there are 2 times that he may be talking about in verse 6 where he says that God turned the sea into dry land.He may be talking about the Jordan or the Red Sea .Either time is worthy of looking back and saying, “Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind!” as he did in verse 5.

But remember how the psalmist even knows about those times.He knows because they collected 12 stones out of the Jordan River and stacked them up as a remembrance of what God had done and they were told to tell their children and their grandchildren what happened there when they saw those stones.That’s exactly what we are doing with this goofy little glass here on the pulpit.We have seen how God protects and provides and we want to be reminded of it especially when we worship.And as we worship, we, like the psalmist are happy because of it.

Then he ends that section with that word “Selah”. He says, “There.What do you think of that?”But then he goes on to say that not only is he a happy man but he is a humble man in verses 8-12.

John Flavel has said, "They that know God will be humble and they that know themselves cannot be proud."We learned last month about what God requires of us as Micah 6:8 says, “and what does the Lordrequire of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”The question of why do bad things happen to good people will never be fully answered this side of Heaven but sometimes one of the answers to that question is that it happens to humble us.God allows us to go through difficult times in part so that we will see Him and ourselves in a new and correct light.

The psalmist recounts some times in Israel ’s history where this may be the case.He uses 3 metaphors to describe these times in verses 10-12.He talks of captives being thrown into prison; prisoners turned into slaves and defeated troops overrun by chariots.And as difficult as these times were for Israel , and nobody is saying that they weren’t incredibly difficult, (maybe you can relate) the psalmist still starts this section praising God for these times.

Read verses 8-9 again in context of all these bad things happening.“Praise our God, all peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard; ⁹ he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.”Do you know what kind of person says those things? I hate to say it because I wish there was an easier way to get this kind of wisdom but the kind of person that talks like that is an experienced person.Only through experience can you look back at all the hard times and still be able to see that God is good.Only through experience can you give God humble praise even in the midst of those hard times because it is only through experience that you are able to see how God continues to protect and provide even while allowing you to be humbled so that in the end you will be more like Jesus and for the good of His Kingdom.

And just like James chapter 1 tells us to count it all pure joy when we face trials of every kind for in the end it brings us everything we need, this passage also says something similar that proves what James said.The psalmist doesn’t try to say it didn’t hurt or that it was even fair.He simply says at the end of verse 12 that, God, you have brought us through all of that into a place of abundance.

I think about the story of Job that proves that.I think about the life of Joseph, the life of Daniel, David, Ruth and Esther.I also see that it is going to happen in the lives of Cody and Monica and for Carol and for the Amermans and my parents and for everybody here; maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow.But this life is a wisp of smoke and if I have to wait until Heaven to see that place of abundance then I believe Romans 8:18 and I know that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.Oh, there needs to be a “Selah” right there because when I stop and reflect on that I can’t help but be humble and give God praise just like the psalmist.

But the psalmist wasn’t only happy and humble, he was also holy.Look at the last section, verses 13-20.There is a distinct change in the psalm at this point.When you praise God it brings you happiness but it also allows you to see Him better.Then when you see Him better, you start to see yourself better.And when you see yourself in contrast to God you will want to be holy.You will want to be like Him and He is holy but you will also want to please Him more and He is pleased with our holiness.But you will also see that holiness is just the best way to live.

C.S. Lewis said, “How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets real thing, it is irresistible.”It is irresistible when you see it in God and it is irresistible when people see it in you.And to be holy simply means that you are different or set apart for divine use.

When the psalmist says he is going to fulfill his vows and bring animals for sacrifice, that is his way of being obedient.

We are no longer under the Old Testament Law but we still are to be obedient.Everybody knows we are to be obedient to the 10 Commandments but there is more to it than that for us.We don’t have to bring animals to sacrifice for our sins anymore.Jesus is our sacrifice.But we are told to do many other things besides just the 10 Commandments. Do you know that just the idea of being holy is a command?

We are to be holy as He is holy.We are to forgive.We are not to gossip.We are to love.We are to show respect where it is due.We are to have faith, not worry, pray at all times, encourage each other daily, consider each other more important, not love money, work at anything you do with all of your heart…and we are commanded to praise.And he ends 15 with “Selah”. Meditate on that.Meditate on how we are to be holy.Reflect on what that means to you right now.What is God telling you to do to be obedient and holy?

Do you need motivation to do that?Reread verses 17-19.^“I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue. ¹⁸ If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; ¹⁹ but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.”

The idea of holiness is a command but it also comes with benefits.He’s not saying he is perfect.That’s not necessarily holiness.He said he did not cherish that sin.He didn’t keep doing it or make excuses for it.He didn’t cry out, “Why me, God?”He cried out “God forgive me!”He didn’t waste time feeling sorry for himself or dragging guilt around like a wet blanket.He had a relationship with God and through that relationship he found joy and peace and the ability to end by saying, “Praise be to God.”

Praise was on his lips and he wanted everyone to know.That’s what happens when we see God and ourselves correctly. It makes us happy, humble and holy. Isn’t God awesome?

Invitation

Grab your bulletin and let’s sing that last song, “Give Thanks”.

“Praise Songs” – Psalm 101

Now, before we get started, if you don’t mind, I would like to call us into a real quick business meeting to discuss and vote on a few things that the Leadership Team has been discussing for a while now.  We have identified some problems that we have here at Christ Fellowship and have come up with a way to do away with most of them.  So let’s just consider ourselves to be called to order and we can vote on these items.  I’ll read through them and then we can go back and discuss as needed.

First on the agenda is the problem of gossip that a few of us have.  Even though we are not part of the problem or part of the solution, some of us like to talk about one another and we realize it needs to stop.  So the Leadership Team has suggested that we vote to make it a rule that all members will live their lives in such a way so that we will not have anything to gossip about.  That will make our lives a lot easier.

Second on the agenda is the problem that some of us have about lying.  We know that it’s wrong but it just comes pretty natural to some of us so what the Leadership Team has suggested is simply that everyone will just assume that everything we say is the truth and we ask that you not try to check up on it or prove us wrong.  So in a minute we will vote that everybody would believe everything everybody else says.

Next, because some of us have some financial problems, we are going to vote that the state of Texas would just collect $1 from every person in Texas and give that total to us here at Christ Fellowship.  $1 is not too much to ask and since there are about 26 million people here in Texas that should just about take care of all of us.  I expect that vote to be unanimous here in just a minute.

And lastly, we get to my favorite issue because I struggle with this so much.  Some of us are chronic over-eaters and that’s real hard to overcome so we are going to vote that restaurants would just cut back on the calories in their meals.  Of course we don’t want them to cut back on the good taste but I’m sure they can figure out a way to make things still taste good without all the calories.  So, that is the last thing we will be voting on.  What do you think about those?

Any discussion?  Sounds pretty easy to me.  In fact, I’m afraid it’s a little too easy, right?  Don’t you wish it worked that way?  Don’t you wish that when you had a problem with something or someone that somebody would just change so you don’t have to?  In fact, some of you may have even prayed about things like this and what does God usually tell you?  God says, “This may sound crazy but instead of changing everybody else, I think I’m going to work on your character.”

And you can whine and complain and moan about how unfair that is because you are a pretty good person and besides that you are comfortable with who you are and you shouldn’t have to change.  But what usually happens?  Instead of changing the other person, God starts to work on giving you patience.  Instead of removing problems, God often times give you wisdom to get through.  Instead of making your life always comfortable, God says His grace is sufficient for you.

In Psalm 101, we see that David has learned this lesson.  Evidently God knew that David would have a great influence over thousands of generations to come later and so God allowed David to go through some very difficult times so that he could encourage us all these years later and inspire us to live more godly lives.  Because as we continue our look at the Psalms in our series entitled “Praise Songs”, we have seen God a little more clearly.

Praising God will always make Him be seen more clearly.  When we make the choice to praise Him, He will make the choice to reveal Himself to us just a little bit more.  And when we see God clearer, we also start to see ourselves clearer and in contrast to Him.  And when we contrast our lives with God, it will make you humble.  In fact, you will start to see a connection between seeing God clearly and fearing Him.  And the more you see of Him the more you want to see.  And the more you see the more you want to be more like Him and then our flaws start to bother us more and more.

And in Psalm 101, David starts out praising God but immediately turns to telling God what he is going to do to make changes in his own life so that he is more like God in every aspect of his life.  No wonder God said David was a man after his own heart.  David wasn’t perfect by any means but he saw that change starts here, not there.  When you are tired of life treating you so bad, you are better off asking God to change you rather than your surroundings.

People pray all the time that God would show them what job they are to take.  And they should pray that.  We know that God is concerned with every aspect of our lives and wants to hear from us and wants to show us His good and perfect will.  But I am convinced that God is not as concerned about where you work as He is how you work.  Are you doing what you are supposed to do where you are?  If not, then why should God give you something different?  He is more concerned about you being more like Him than climbing the corporate ladder.

So let’s turn to Psalm 101 to see what David says and does about becoming and making sure he stays the man he is supposed to be.

I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise. ² I will be careful to lead a blameless life— when will you come to me?  I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart.  ³ I will not look with approval on anything that is vile.  I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it.  ⁴ The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil.   Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate. ⁶ My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me.  ⁷ No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.  ⁸ Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the Lord.

Yes, it’s true.  You may be thinking that I tend to gravitate toward the Davidic psalms and you would be right.  I have said before that when I read through psalms just for fun I usually cherry-pick the ones that say, “Of David”.  I feel like I know David.  I have admired him since I was a young boy reading about David as a young boy and so I feel like we are almost friends.

 

And it is for reasons like this that I love to read what David wrote.  This psalm or “praise song” was probably written when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem.  David had tried to bring it to Jerusalem before but had gone about it the wrong way and so was unsuccessful.  But now the Ark was there, as was the Spirit of God in a new and real way.

 

Now what sets David apart from most of us is that David wasn’t making a deal with God.  David was not telling God that if He did such and such that David would be a good person.  Sometimes we tell God that IF God does His part then we will do our part but David is not saying that here.

 

David is writing a praise son and starts with praise but quickly sees his life in comparison to God and realizes that God is holy and so David vows to be holy as God is holy.  David has read 3 different places in Leviticus where God tells His people to be holy as He is holy and so David vows to be holy.  He doesn’t bargain with God.  He has seen God a little more clearly through his praise and he sees his desperate need for holiness and so he continues his praise by telling God that he will have a holy character.  He will make sure to have holy colleagues and he will be holy in his calling.

 

You say, “Todd, why do you use the word holy when it’s not in there one time?”  Well, the word “holy” simply means to be set apart or different and that is exactly what David is promising to do here.  And I want you to notice where he starts.  David was the king of Israel and I’m sure there were problematic people crossing his path every day but David doesn’t start with them.  He starts with David.

 

In verses 2 and 3 David starts with himself by saying he will be careful to lead a blameless life.  Again, no, David was not perfect but he didn’t use that as an excuse.  How many times have you heard someone who has been caught doing something wrong say, “Well, nobody’s perfect”?  I hear people all the time say, “Well, everybody sins every day.”  Really?  Why?  We don’t have to.  In fact, sin ought to be out of the norm for us.

 

It should be out of character for us to sin, not something so commonplace that we do it everyday like brushing our teeth.  And where is the hardest place to stay blameless?  You know, it’s real easy to be holy and blameless sitting here in the pews.  It’s pretty easy to stay holy and blameless any time people are watching.  But David says in verse 2 that he will be blameless as he walks around in his house.

 

When nobody else is watching and he can do anything he wants, he knows that God is watching and his relationship with God is so important that he vows to stay holy even when nobody is watching.  That’s the very definition of character.  That’s integrity.  That’s being obedient. 

 

It’s also hard to do.  So, look at what David says he is going to do or not going to do, actually.  In verse 3 he says he will set before his eyes no vile thing.  The dictionary says that vile means low in worth, account or condition.  David knows that it is difficult to stay pure and different and separate from the world so he is not going to spend time keeping up with the Kardashians.

 

David tells God that he is not going to surf the web and that after he finds what he needs on there then he is going to turn it off and walk away.  David vowed not to spend time reading books or playing video games that are of low worth or of no account.  And let me tell you why he didn’t do those things.  David didn’t do those things, not because they are necessarily wrong in and of themselves.  They might not necessarily be wrong but those vile things, those worthless things are the one thing.

 

Hear me on this.  When somebody is caught doing something horrible so many times somebody will ask them, “How did this happen?  How did you get so deep into something so horrible?”  And they always answer, “I don’t know.  One thing just led to another.”  Well I am here to tell you that the vile thing is the one thing and it will lead to another.  It always does if left to itself.  Put no vile thing before your eyes. 

 

My sister’s family has this verse printed out and posted on their TV set.  It should probably be on your TV, your computer, your book shelf, everywhere.  Job said something similar in Job 31:1. “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.^”  Print those verses out and let them remind you where to draw the line.  Don’t draw the line at nudity or witchcraft or too much violence.  Draw the line at “vile” and keep your character holy.

 

In verses 3-5, David talks about how he keeps his colleagues holy.  When I read this I immediately thought of the Book of Proverbs.  Proverbs has a lot to say about picking good friends and keeping good people around you.  I turned over there to see what I could find and didn’t have to look very long.  Proverbs 13:20 says, “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.^” Proverbs 12:26 says, “The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”  And 14:7 says, “Stay away from a fool, for you will not find knowledge on their lips.”

 

The author of Proverbs should know about such things since, like David, he was also the king of Israel.  And as David’s son, Solomon surely saw his father model this truth and knew how important it was to keep holy colleagues.  But David goes on to describe what he is talking about at the end of verse 3.  He says “the deeds of faithless men, I hate.”  What are the deeds of faithless men?  Are those the ones who murder and steal and are into the occult?  No, David was in no danger of having anything to do with those kinds of people who did that regularly.

 

“Faithless deeds” are things done without asking or waiting on God.  When you don’t have faith that God is going to do what He said He would do, you try to do those things yourself.  And David knew that that kind of thinking was not only displeasing to God, in fact, Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it is impossible to please God.  But not only that, David knew that kind of thinking was a cancer that would metastasize into every aspect of life and he said he hated that.  He had no room in his life for that and would shake that stuff off like a man who had been bitten on the hand by a snake.

 

And in verse 4 he says he will have nothing to do with evil.  The word used here for evil means just the opposite of one who brings peace.  It has the picture of a beast prowling around looking for something to kill.  We have all had people like that in our lives.  We probably didn’t think of them as a beast waiting to kill us but we certainly can see how they will kill our peace.  Some people just don’t seem to be happy unless they are miserable and when they are miserable they want you to be miserable.  And when you are miserable, you don’t want to praise and pretty soon there is a barrier between you and God.  David will have none of that and neither should we.

 

Don’t keep close company with those who will destroy your peace and keep you from praising God.  That’s not holy and those are not holy colleagues.  Lastly, David talks about his vow to keep holy in his calling.  David’s calling was to be king.  He was anointed by God, called by God and blessed by God as king.  For most of us, that can be hard to relate to.  We may have a few princesses in here but I don’t think any of us are kings.  But wherever God has called you, we should model our lives after David where he says in verses 6-8 that he wants those around him to be blameless.

 

No one who speaks falsely will be around him for very long.  In verse 8 he says every morning he will put them to silence.  Do you know why he will do it every morning?  Because every day they come back.  Every day somebody is going to cross your path who has evil intent as David defines evil.  Every day has the opportunity for somebody to come into your life to try and distract you, confuse you, lie to you or steal your peace.  And every day you have to do inventory about those that you choose to take up residence in your life.

 

Now, you know I am not saying to never have any association with people like this.  I’m saying, as David said, that you have to be careful who you choose to confide in; who you choose to be close friends with; and if those people are not holy, different and separate to God then you will not be holy either.

 

But it starts with you.  Your holiness is ultimately dependent on you and your relationship with God through His Son Jesus.  And the more you praise Him, even in the bad times because your faith is like that, the more clearly you will see Him and the more clearly you will see yourself in contrast to Him.

 

Invitation

 

I Sing Praises To Your Name - Bulletin

 

 

“Praise Songs” – Psalm 95

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  How many of you have nothing for which to be thankful?  How many of you have lots of things for which to be thankful?  How many of you just wish Thanksgiving was over and done so we could get on with Christmas because you need some more stuff?  I don’t know about you but I don’t need any more stuff and I love the Thanksgiving holiday.  And if you can’t think of anything for which to be thankful, you and I seriously need to talk!

I’m thankful for this time and this place.  I’m thankful for this group of people who consistently prove themselves to be loving and generous even to people who are not members here or to people who can’t repay you.  I’m thankful for the freedom we have to meet and the health we all have that allows us to be here.  I’m thankful for my family.  I watched the Billy Graham special on TV the other night and afterward heard several people talk about his integrity and how he never had any kind of sexual or financial scandal and I was reminded of my dad.

Pop rarely had stadiums full of people to preach to but he was always faithful to do and say what God wanted him to do and say and never a hint of anything inappropriate.  And he did that for something like 50 years!  That’s pretty incredible to me.  And I say all that just to say how thankful I am for him and my family for modeling how a Christian is supposed to act.  And while very few of them are perfect, I am very thankful for them.  J

I’m thankful for my dogs, even the new puppy.  I’m thankful for my house and a reliable car; for my health, for friends, for history, for all kinds of blessings that God has given me.  And did you catch that last one?  Did you hear me say I was thankful for history?  Is anybody else here thankful for history?  Do we have any history teachers here today?  I figure they are pretty thankful for history but maybe for reasons that differ from mine.

I haven’t always been thankful for history.  I remember history class in school, trying to memorize all those dates and places and wars and generals.  I understand that those who don't study the past will repeat its errors.  But I’m pretty sure that those who do study it will find other ways to mess up.  But today I’m thankful for history because it proves God’s goodness, His mercy, His forgiveness, love, generosity and power.  That’s why we have this little jar of pebbles up here.  This is a reminder of our history that shows God’s provision and protection over this church when we are obedient.  If you don’t know what it is, I would love to tell you about it later.

And while there are blessings for obedience, history also reminds us of what happens when we rebel against all-powerful God.  It is quite the motivation for us to stay true to what He wants us to do when we remember the consequences of disobedience.  We don’t want to dwell on the past and be drawn into joy-sucking guilt that comes from remembering all the bad things we might have done.  But a healthy remembrance of the consequences will certainly keep us from repeating them.

And that is exactly what our psalm is all about this morning.  We can be thankful for history because it reminds us of the good things God has done and it helps us stay obedient as well.  Let’s look at Psalm 95.  It’s not near as long as the psalm we looked at last week, you will be glad to know.  There are only 11 verses but they are packed full of good, rich, life-giving words for us to live by.  And it is believed to have been written by my favorite psalmist, David.  So that’s good too.  And we know that David was the author, not because it says so in the psalm but because the Holy Spirit revealed it to the author of Hebrews who quotes it in Hebrews 4:7 and gives the credit to David.

So, let’s read Psalm 95.  You should have a Bible there in front of you if you didn’t bring one.  I believe it to be very important that you see what God’s Word says and not to just hear it read.  Psalm 95 says:

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.

³ For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
⁷ for he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice,
⁸ “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
    as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
⁹ where your ancestors tested me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

I only have 2 real points today.  I want us to look at praising God and how and why we are to do that.  And I want us to look at provoking God and how and why we should not do that.  Everybody likes to be praised.  Everybody needs to be praised.  You can tell people that didn’t grow up with nurturing parents because they are the ones who praise themselves and then hope that you will join in.  I heard the story about the little boy that said, “Daddy, let’s play darts.  I’ll throw and you say, Wonderful!”

But we don’t praise God because He is a needy youngster.  We praise God because, according to the psalmist, we have joy!  That’s what he says in verse 1 and for some of you that may be quite the assumption.  I stand up here and watch how you sing and some of you look like, instead of singing, “Just A Closer Walk With Thee”, you ought to be singing, “Just A Little Closer To Getting Out Of Here”.  It ought not to be that way.  We ought to have joy in our lives if anybody does and it ought to show in our worship.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years. His mind, wit and work earned him the unofficial title of "the greatest justice since John Marshall." At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained his choice of a career by saying: "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers." (http://www.sermonillustrations.com/)

Ouch!  That stings.  That’s awful.  But it makes me wonder how many people visit a church and never go back because of the attitudes and actions (or lack of) of the people in the church.  We learned again last Wednesday night that part of the fruit of the Spirit is joy.  And you get that joy, not by trying to get joy, but by focusing on being closer to and more like Jesus.  Do you know that Jesus wants you to have joy?  John 16:24 says, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”  He wants you to be full of joy and we should.  James 1 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” because in the end you will not lack anything.

And do you know what people who don’t lack anything do?  They shout!  David says to shout out loud to the Rock of our salvation!  Let me tell you something.  I went to a football game the other day.  I don’t even like football but I went because I like the people I see there.  I’m a social footballer.  But do you know what I did there?  Some guy was running somewhere and he did it pretty well, I thought, and so I shouted.

I shouted because some kid I didn’t know outran some other kids I don’t know in a game that I don’t remember who won and matters very little in the scheme of things.  How much more should I get excited and shout when I think about the Rock of my salvation.  When I think of God’s unfailing strength as a fortress and refuge for me, I get excited.  Who do I call when I need help?  I call on God and He answers me and he protects me and He provides for me.  He is my deliverer from Hell and from guilt and shame.  

David knew this as well as anybody since he literally had to hide in caves and buildings to keep Saul from killing him.  And David would cry out to God and God answered him and protected and provided for him.  So, David says to shout.  Get excited.  Now, I know, I understand that not everybody is vocal in their worship.  I’m not saying you should fake it or be dramatic about it.  I won’t judge you in your worship.  In fact, I’ll make a deal with you.  If you want to worship with your hands up and jumping up and down or crying and laughing, that’s just fine.  I won’t pay much attention to you because your worship is not about me.  And if you want to worship quietly, that’s fine too because your worship is not about me.

But let me tell you about the average unbeliever (and probably too many believers).  Their life pretty much consists of going to work, taking the kids to soccer practice and watching TV where they can vicariously have some excitement through a movie star.  And they save up all year so they can take a vacation to go have some excitement somewhere so they don’t go crazy the other 51 weeks of the year.

And if they come to church and see us looking and acting like undertakers, as Justice Holmes said, then what’s the attraction?  There is a good movie on.  I might as well go play some golf.  At least there is some excitement to it.  Folks we have been bought with a price and redeemed from Hell and to Heaven!  That’s kind of a big deal.  We have a Rock of salvation that we can count on today and every day.

Come before Him with thanksgiving and with music and song.  That’s how we are to praise God.  Now let’s look at why we are to praise God.  The reason is not just because He is our Rock.  In fact, our worship of God is not all about any of us.  It’s about Who He is and what He has done, not just in our lives but in all of creation.

The fact that we are to approach Him with joy does not mean that we are to be flippant or irreverent.  We should always remember His majesty as is described in verses 3-5.  The ancient pagan world had different gods for every aspect of life and for every corner of the world but the psalmist describes everything as fitting in God’s hands.  The One Who created all things holds all things and controls all things.  That is the definition of majesty.

Years ago I traveled up through Colorado and into Wyoming and Montana through the most beautiful country I had ever seen.  The mountains were majestic.  The rivers were majestic.  The valleys covered in flowers and wildlife…were majestic.  And I use that word “majestic” today because that was the word that kept coming to me as I went along.  And it’s surprising because until then I don’t think I had ever actually used the word before.  “Majestic” just didn’t fit into my vocabulary.

 

But it is the perfect word to use to describe the creation of the King.  It is appropriate to use that word when it is the King that created, sustains and controls all of that.  Now I want you to look at verses 6 and 7 again.  It says to “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; ⁷ for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”

 

Do you notice what it doesn’t say to do?  It says nothing about speaking.  The psalmist says we are to come, bow down and kneel.  There is a time for coming with loud shouts and singing for joy and there is a time to just be still and know that He is God, submitting yourself to Him and His Kingdom knowing that we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.  How do we praise Him?  With loud shouts and with silent submission.  Why do we praise Him?  Because He tells us to and because he is worthy and because we have joy in that knowledge.

 

The end of verse 7 starts a transition from encouraging us to praise to discouraging us from provoking.  I’m quite sure that nobody here this morning would say they have ever tried to provoke God.  We would never do that.  We know better, right?  So, we can just skip over this part since it surely doesn’t apply to us at Christ Fellowship.

The nation of Israel was God’s chosen people.  It still is.  They are special to him and only He knows why He chose them but He did.  And they knew it.  He told them over and over from Genesis and Exodus on.  And so surely because they were special He would overlook a small amount of provoking.  It wasn’t really a big deal.  When the psalmist mentions Meribah and Massah he is reminding them of the time in the desert when they didn’t know where they were going to get water and they were ready to stone Moses.

 

It was just a short lapse of faith.  They weren’t trying to provoke God.  They were just starting to get thirsty and uncomfortable and things looked bad so they complained a little bit.  That’s all.  How did they provoke God?  It says they hardened their hearts.  They forgot Him.  They shut Him out of their situation and relied on their own knowledge and ability.

 

God’s special people temporarily hardened their hearts in forgetfulness and look what God said in verses 9 and 10.  “…though they had seen what I did.  ¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation.”  By just being forgetful of God, they suffered His wrath for 40 years.  If God’s chosen, special people can suffer for that, who are we to think that the United States should be any different?  Who are we to think that we as individuals or even as a church will not suffer God’s wrath if we harden our hearts in forgetfulness.

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

 

But do you know what the worst of it is?  You know how we provoke God; by forgetting Him and not acknowledging Him but the reason why we should not provoke God comes in the very last verse.  “They shall never enter my rest.”  Can you imagine God’s special people wandering around in circles out in the desert just waiting to die?  Can you imagine the futility of life?  How difficult it must have been to struggle through life day in and day out only so at the end you can die?

 

But that is the price we pay even today when we disobey.  When we harden our hearts in forgetfulness of all that God has done or we lack the faith He requires of us, do you know what happens?  We miss out on His rest.  We miss out on His peace and joy and the ability to just let our hands hang down and know that He is God and that he is in control and that he loves us.

 

How much is that worth?  How much would you pay to have that kind of peace?  If you knew that in the end everything was going to be ok; that everything was going to work out for your good and the good of God’s Kingdom, would you pay $1000?  A million?  Everything you have?

 

Let me tell you a secret.  That’s what God wants.  He wants all that you have.  He wants your effort, yes.  And, yes, I’ll even tell you He wants your money.  But He also wants your sin.  He wants your guilt.  He wants your pain and your fear and your doubts and your regrets and He will trade you all of that for all that He has.

 

He says, give me your worries and I will give you rest.  Give me your regrets and I will give you joy.  Give me your life and I will give you the life of my Son Jesus.  I will give you a full life here on earth plus all the riches and glory of Heaven when you die; co-heirs with Jesus to everything that the Creator, Sustainer and Controller can give.

That’s what happens when you trust Jesus to be your Sacrifice and your Savior.

Pray with me.

 

History will reveal how much God has been at work in our lives and we should sing praise for that.  Let’s turn to page 227 and sing “Praise Him, Praise Him” loudly and with great joy!