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[0:00] I shall sing to God's praise from Psalm 24, Psalm 24, and from verse 5 through to the end of the psalm.

[0:19] He from the Eternal shall receive the blessing him upon, and righteousness even from the God of his salvation. This is the generation that after him inquire, O Jacob, who do seek thy face with their whole heart's desire.

[0:38] Ye gates lift up your heads on high, ye doors that last foray be lifted up, and so the King of glory enter me. But who of glory is the King?

[0:50] The mighty Lord is this, even that same Lord that great in might and strong in battle is. Ye gates lift up your heads, ye doors that do last foray be lifted up, that so the King of glory enter me.

[1:08] But who is he that is the King of glory? Who is this? The Lord of hosts and none but he, the King of glory is.

[1:19] He from the Eternal shall receive the blessing him upon. The baik stitches from the captive and得uses.

[1:30] Born in the kingdom in arrival, catches through the arthritis of theоляh. And the все who has reached the same point, wheedling God. Meet God eternal shall receive the blessing him upon. Give the blessing heaven upon and righteousness in all the dawn of His life beyond.

[1:59] This is the generation of love after Him and Christ.

[2:12] O Jacob, who will seek Thy place with their own heart to be shy.

[2:25] Ye gates lift up your heads on high, ye Jerusalem's glory.

[2:39] Be lifted up, so the King of glory enters me.

[2:51] The two of glory is the King, the mighty Lord is this.

[3:05] In that, dear Lord, that great in might, and strong in water is.

[3:17] Ye gates lift up your heads, ye doors, towards the earth was for me.

[3:32] Be lifted up, so the King of glory enter me.

[3:44] But to this day I live is the King of glory, who is this?

[4:00] The Lord of hosts and nobody, the King of glory is.

[4:12] And we turn once again to the passage that we read together from the Old Testament Scriptures, the book of Psalms, in Psalm 118.

[4:32] We can read again just a few verses. Verse 17, I shall not die, I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death.

[4:48] Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord. This gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter.

[5:00] I will praise thee, for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. And so on. But you'll remember that we have been looking at the six psalms that have been given the title of the Egyptian Hallel, beginning at verse, at Psalm 113, through to this last of the psalms, Psalm 118.

[5:36] This is the longest of these psalms, and it is probably the psalm of the six that is most often referred to within the New Testament Scriptures.

[5:54] Not necessarily direct quotations, from the psalm, but references and allusions that are clearly identifiable as coming from this psalm.

[6:08] The theologians suggest that at least 35 times we find this psalm recorded from or referred to.

[6:20] we can remember that the psalms were part of the ongoing rituals of the Lord's people prior to the coming of the Lord and after the Lord's coming.

[6:44] he himself, he himself, we are led to believe as he celebrated the Passover, would have had the words of these psalms on his lips.

[7:00] and I think that is probably what is most remarkable that not only can we find in the scripture a Lord referring to passages that speak of himself and teaching others concerning who he is and what he is in the world to accomplish.

[7:30] But that in part there are also occasions when the scripture is being fulfilled in his experience and he is able to recognize that and speak of it accordingly.

[7:57] This psalm, as we've noticed in other psalms, they are psalms that are sung in a peculiar way, in a particular way. It's hard for us perhaps to be able to understand the way that the psalms were spoken or sung because in translation it doesn't quite manage to bring the thought processes before us.

[8:29] But it is thought that as the people of God journeyed towards Jerusalem to worship God that at a set point in their journey they would have the words of this psalm and others on their lips.

[8:50] One of the commentators or the commentators Kyle and Delidge who are the scholars in the Hebrew tongue psalm.

[9:02] They describe the psalm in the way that it is being heard on the lips of those who are either singing it or repeating it.

[9:19] Together they would sing the opening part of the psalm. The first 19 verses they would sing collectively. the people and the Levites.

[9:32] Then when it comes to verse 19 they would sing that verse as they stood at the entrance to the gates of the city or the gates of the temple if they got that far.

[9:49] And then in verses 20 to 27 the Levite who were with them would join with the Levites who were inside the temple and they would sing the verses 20 to 27.

[10:09] And then verse 28 would be a response and verse 29 would be sung together. Now that's just one version of how the psalm would be used.

[10:24] There are many opinions as to how the actual breakup of the psalm would take place. But the idea is that there are words which are spoken or sung and there are responses to that.

[10:41] And you probably have seen this before in different ways, not necessarily in a scriptural setting. but we also know that as well as this particular use in the liturgy of the people that as far as the singing of praise is concerned, that when they sat at the actual Passover, that parts of the psalm form part of the prayer that would be cited in the Passover.

[11:18] And even that itself is a complicated process because sometimes you find that those who are very, you would call them experts in the mode of worship amongst the Jewish people, there are differences of opinion as to what actually takes place.

[11:43] The number of cubs, for example, that are used in the Passover, and the points at which certain words of liturgy appear.

[11:55] But it doesn't really affect our understanding as to the importance of the words that are being used and the centrality of them in the experience of God's people and the enlightenment encouragement that God brought when these words became meaningful, when they became words that in the right place began to make sense.

[12:27] And God is always the God who brings light to bear upon his word. You know that and I know that. There are times we may be familiar with these words.

[12:39] We've already heard mentioned in prayer how the psalm features in our own liturgy on a large day, especially within our own experience.

[12:50] We would sing the words of Psalm 118 verse 15 onwards at a certain part of the service and every one of us would have a grasp of what these words mean.

[13:03] We would have an understanding of what these words mean. They mean something to us and they mean something very distinct and sometimes God brings more light to bear upon our own understanding.

[13:20] But it is a psalm that is full of spiritual matter and it is a psalm that is full of Christ. It is full of Christ and I think that is the thing that I would want us most to take with us from a consideration.

[13:42] It is the biggest of the six psalms, the biggest, the most content to it and any part of it deserves further attention.

[13:55] But it is, I believe, a psalm that is pre-eminently about the Lord and psalm begins with thanksgiving and ends with thanksgiving and it reminds us of something that is running throughout the six psalms that we've been looking at.

[14:16] It reminds us of the nature of God's covenant love, the enduring nature of it and the fact that while our love for him may sometimes walk and do in his does not.

[14:33] It is ever the same as a steadfast love. His faithfulness to his people is not something that ever comes into question.

[14:44] one of the divines that we refer to Philip Ross he speaks of these psalms in the following terms.

[14:56] He says the Hallel as a whole narrates the story of this love in accounts of the Lord's commitment to his people individually and corporately.

[15:09] These words of confession regarding God's goodness therefore also becomes uniquely for Jesus a statement of intent.

[15:21] He expects not merely to live out a story of the Lord's love to himself as an individual but to bring all of God's people into a full and enduring experience of his covenant love.

[15:36] So that you can understand what he is saying you could read these words coming from the mouth of Christ and Christ being able to testify and witness to God's commitment to himself and God's continuing love to himself and the persuasion that he has of that relationship that is unique.

[16:02] But his own role as the covenant head of his people is such that what God promises to him is something that his people will derive benefit from all hinging of course upon his own commitment and fulfillment of what he had committed to as the redeemer of his people.

[16:31] Well as I said for the sake of his short time together there is just a few thoughts arising out of what I believe is probably the most encouraging part of the psalm for us all that we can confidently assert that this psalm clearly enunciates and the scripture bears testimony to that that Christ is at the heart of it.

[17:00] it is a psalm that he himself refers to and applies to himself. Remember in Matthew's gospel he has to correct the impression that many have concerning him that he is an imposter and that he is somebody who is not of God's choosing or appointment and when he he speaks to his enemies and they are his enemies because they are determined to not only dispute Christ's declarations concerning himself but use that as a means by which to bring about his destruction and in chapter 21 he gives them a parable of the householder who planted a vineyard and so on and then

[18:09] Jesus goes on to say following on from that did you ever hear did you never read in the scripture the stone which the builders rejected the same must become the head of the corner this is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes therefore he says the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind them to powder and when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard these parables they perceived that he spoke of them and when they saw to lay hands on him they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet Christ understands the words of the psalm and his application offered to his enemies is understood by them for what it is again in

[19:15] Mark's Gospel chapter 21 the same same psalm is quoted and the same experience is again emphasized those husbandmen said among themselves this is the heir come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours and they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard what shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do he will come and destroy the husband men and will give the vineyard to others have you not read the scripture the stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner and they saw to lay hold on but feared the people for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them and they left him and went their way in Mark's Gospel this is against the background of just a few short chapters before that

[20:16] Jesus was making his way towards Jerusalem the crowds were flocking to him he was sitting on the court of Anas and people were applauding and lauding him as the coming Messiah but so quickly after that his enemies declared their intention and desire to destroy him if at all possible it was just fear of the populace that kept them back from doing it there again so this is a psalm that Jesus identifies with he identifies himself as the one of whom the psalm speaks prophecy was fulfilled not just in his passion being identified as the one of whom the psalm speaks but the reaction of the people prophetically declared is again revealed to us the apostle

[21:26] Peter when he is preaching in the book of Acts refers to the same psalm he refers to it again in his first epistle and in the first chapter Paul similarly identifies the Lord Jesus as the one of whom the psalm speaks in his comments the commentator Harry Richard states the following Christ the cornerstone either makes or mars stabilizes or scatters designs or destroys to receive Christ is to receive life to reject Christ is to bring death that is the simple statement that arises out of the words of the psalm and the imagery is simple it is graphic it is recognizable we may not be as familiar with it in our day and generation but those who built edifices in those days be they walls of buildings or walls of gardens or whatever they would need to gather together stones and the stonemason would sit there and he would as you would imagine he would isolate stones and reject stones they would put some in a certain position reserve some for other positions and it was quite a simple task to take that image and apply it to here but the key thing as far as the psalmist is concerned is that the stone the very stone that is rejected by the builders the builders are the

[23:24] Jewish authorities the Jewish religious authorities they reject the corner stone they reject the cap stone different words used there Jesus had a God given place within the scheme of salvation and yet they did not recognize it as such and when we read the scripture this was something that the scripture alerted us to it alerted the religious readers of the day to that very truth that when the Messiah came that this would be evidence of it if you remember if you read through Isaiah he more than once makes reference to the fact that that this would be an identifiable feature of the rejection of

[24:28] Christ in Isaiah chapter 28 wherefore hear the word of the Lord ye scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem because you have said we have made a covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement when the overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us for we have made lies a refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves therefore thus saith the Lord God behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious cornerstone a sure foundation he that believeth shall not be kissed judgment will I also lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and water shall overflow the hiding place so the typology the example that we have in this psalm is not just something that's unique to the psalm it's consistently found within various prophetic disclosures was rejected by them,

[27:18] God has rightly exalted and given a name above every name. He made them to be head over all things to the church.

[27:34] And that is something that needs to be emphasized, needs to be remembered, needs to be held as dear.

[27:46] Because Christ himself wants us to understand this is what the world is about. They are either for him or against him.

[27:57] They are rejecting him or they are receiving him, identifying with him or at enmity with him. And the psalm puts that full before our eyes.

[28:13] One of the commentators I was reading made mention of the fact that verse 23 was quoted by Field Marshal Montgomery.

[28:27] This is the doing of the Lord. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. And it seems that Field Marshal Montgomery, at the end of the Second World War, in appreciation of the deliverance that he believed was wrought by the hand of God, he quoted this psalm and applied it to that deliverance.

[28:57] Now it was, of course, that is not the meaning of these words in the first instance. These words of the psalm, verse 23, is looking to a greater victory, and a victory that is secured by the way of death and resurrection of Christ.

[29:13] But what struck me was that I would find it very difficult to believe that there are many politicians today, many generals today.

[29:26] I know there are Christian politicians and Christian generals who have familiarity with the scripture, but there are very few and far between. And very few of them would declare openly their knowledge of the scripture, or their knowledge of the salvation brought by Christ's hand, or the part that God would play in it.

[29:50] And when we see the political shenanigans that are going on in the world today, there is barely a mention of God, or the dependence upon God in that. But what we know to be true is this, that this Christ, who is in doing what he has spoken of as doing here, is securing a victory over the last enemy.

[30:21] He is securing a victory over death and the grave and the one who holds the power of death in his hands. Now the psalmist clearly has that in view.

[30:38] But in this psalm, when it speaks of this journey, this march, this procession to the temple, and some people debate what temple it was, which was at the old temple, the temple that was rebuilt, what historical period that they are referring to.

[31:07] It doesn't really make much difference. But when he is talking about the gates, open to me the gates of righteousness, I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord.

[31:21] When you imagine these words to be in the mouth of God's people, as they come, and as it were, stand before the gates and demand access, not one of them would have that right of access on the basis of their own righteousness.

[31:42] The righteous gates of God are barred against all comers, except those who have an equivalent righteousness.

[31:55] John, in his writings in the book of Revelation, tells us that there is nothing that will go into heaven, nothing that is impure, no person or no thing that is not clean that will be able to get in there.

[32:20] And if all we have is based upon our own self-righteousness, then it would not be a surprise to find the gates of heaven barred against us.

[32:32] But the one who is at the heart of these words, the Lord Jesus Christ, that has the right to say, open to me the gates of righteousness.

[32:45] I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord, whose access is assured, and whose entrance is to the place of God.

[32:57] And all who are in him, all who are by faith united to him, are assured of that fact. I, he says, am the way, the truth, and the life.

[33:08] I am the door of the sheep. I am the way of access to the Father. No man comes to the Father but by me. And if we put these words in the mouth of Christ, how often do we sing these words on the Lord's day of our communion, the right hand of the Lord is exceedingly exalted, the right hand of the Lord doeth vanity, I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord.

[33:43] And so on. We sing these words with gusto, we sing them with certainty, we sing them because we believe that by faith in Christ, this is a truth that is to be realized in our experience, because of him, because of what he has secured.

[34:02] And as we sing these words, you can think of it, we sing these words with the belief that these words can be some bias as those who have that persuasion that Christ has given us the right to sing these words and to sing them with the certainty that they possess.

[34:32] And if we imagine our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus, as he prepares to go to the cross as he sits with his brethren, with the disciples, as he partakes of the sacrament, prior to that, as he partakes of the Passover, these words would have been on all their lips.

[35:02] How clear a vision would he have of what that meant for him to endure what he had to endure in order to secure these words as words that would be their words of celebration and rejoicing.

[35:22] He has fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of his own people and it is on that basis we are assured of entry into his joy.

[35:34] this is the gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation.

[35:47] A psalm of rejoicing, a psalm of thanksgiving, a psalm which focuses upon the finished work of Jesus Christ even before that work.

[35:59] It was finished in the eternal councils, it was finished in the purposes of God but that is not the end of the matter. It has to be fulfilled.

[36:11] It had to be fulfilled in the experience of Christ. If we go on in the psalm it says bind bind the sacrifice with cords even to the horns of the altar the psalmist says and I was thinking of these words and I have to say that I need to think more of them before I can venture a clearer picture of what these words mean.

[36:38] I was reading something and you know when you imagine these words being fulfilled literally the journeying people of God making their way to offer their sacrifices to God when they're making their way to the temple they're not going empty handed they're carrying with them a procession of animals that will be put on the altar that will be sacrificed and that is part of what we have here but the passion of whom it particularly speaks the passion of the Lord is one who by his own will bound himself to the altar of God and his sacrifice is a sacrifice that is freely offered and that brings blessing to all who are in him well may

[37:44] God bless to us our reflections on these terms let us pray have a blessed God we acknowledge you your goodness to us in reminding us of of the fact that your word is speaking so often about many things that we may not have previously given consideration to the various parts of the worship of your people that was part and partial of the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ and we give thanks for the fact that we can look back at his life and find him as a youth attending the temple sitting in the courts in the precincts of the temple with the elders and reading the scripture with them even the scriptures that spoke of himself and there is a wonder in these things and we give thanks that it was his business to do the father's business that was his meat and drink and even though it meant that he himself was that sacrifice of which all these other countless sacrifices spoke he still took delight in doing your will we bless you for it and ask your blessing upon all your people wherever they are this night whoever they may be whatever their lot is that there is one to whom we are all drawn and that he has secured victory for us by way of the cross bless us together in his name cleanse from sin in

[39:40] Jesus precious name we ask it amen we're going to conclude singing the garlic from psalm 118 psalm 118 the last three verses of the psalm psalm 118 the last three verses pian hichkoro hyn To all good miss leaving california Thank you.

[41:29] Thank you.

[41:59] Thank you.

[42:29] Thank you.

[42:59] Thank you.

[43:29] Thank you.

[43:59] Thank you.

[44:29] Thank you.

[44:59]  Thank you. Thank you.