Have a God-Praising Perspective!

[0:00] and go to the book of Psalms once again. We're gonna look at Psalm 33. That's right. Don't put her down, dada.

[0:19] Don't put her down. Psalm 33, if you're visiting with us, you need a Bible or you left your cell phone at home, probably a better thing for you to have done that. Turn to page, I'm just kidding, page 405 in that black Bible in the chair in front of you.

[0:34] 405, 405 you'll find Psalm 33. I was gonna say this last week and I forgot. We are gonna go into the Gospel of John. I'm doing just some sermons and Psalms.

[0:46] It gives me some time to study John. So I've been reading through the Gospel of John and then I've been also reading just some introductions to the Gospel of John. So this will be fun.

[0:56] It'll be interesting to see. It's been 15 years since I've done the Gospel of John. When I first came here, I started in the Gospel of John. And I did the Gospel of John, I think, in 48 weeks. So it'll probably be a little bit longer than that.

[1:08] But so it'll be fun to see if I'm any better. Travis has been here since then, since the beginning. Praise the Lord, you put up with me for that long, huh?

[1:18] Amen. It's as much as you put up with me, brother. I love you, man. Dear brother. Dear brother. Psalm 33. I'm gonna read it, then we'll jump in. Psalm 33.

[1:29] Sing for joy in Yahweh. Oh, you righteous ones. Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to Yahweh with the lair.

[1:42] Sing praises to him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to him a new song. Play skifly with a shout of joy. For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is in faithfulness.

[1:56] He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of Yahweh. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts.

[2:09] He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps and storehouses. Let all the earth fear Yahweh. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

[2:20] For he spoke and it was done. He commanded and stood fast. The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations. He frustrates the plans of the peoples.

[2:32] The counsel of Yahweh stands forever. The plans of his heart from generation to generation. Happy is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.

[2:43] Verse 13. Yahweh looks down from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. From his dwelling place he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.

[2:53] He who fashions the hearts of them all. He who understands all their works. The king is not saved by a mighty army. A war is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory.

[3:07] Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Verse 18. Behold. The eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him. On those who hope for his loving kindness.

[3:17] To deliver their soul from death. And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.

[3:29] For our heart rejoices in him. Because we trust in his holy name. Let your loving kindness, O Lord, be upon us. Even as we've hoped in you.

[3:46] I love these. Can you see the optical illusion? So here's the lady. She's looking this way. But then it's actually an older woman.

[3:58] There's her nose. There's her chin. See that? I love these. This is a famous optical illusion. I mean, many of you probably know this one.

[4:09] You can actually Google it. You can just see a whole bunch of them. They're kind of creepy. Some of them know what they put. I love this one, though. It's like one of the most famous one. You see a young woman. Or is it an old woman, right?

[4:24] You'll see the picture depending on your perspective. And sometimes, it's like you're fixated on that one part.

[4:34] But it's like you can't see the other one. And then somebody, like, points it out to you right here. Here's her eyelash. And here's her nose. You're like, oh. Oh, there's a young woman. It's like you can't see it, right?

[4:46] You need someone to help you. To show you that. And that's what we need. Someone to show us a different perspective on life. Because sometimes we get so entrenched in the way we're living our lives.

[5:03] And we need someone to come along and help us to see life in a different way. That's what this psalm does. It helps you to view life in a different perspective.

[5:20] In a different way. We need to have a God-praising perspective on life. So that's how I titled this psalm. Have a God-praising perspective.

[5:35] If you lose anything or miss anything in this message, don't lose this. This psalm is directing us to have a perspective that's praising God.

[5:46] A God-praising perspective. Here's a statement for you. This psalm challenges us to have a God-praising perspective on life.

[6:01] When we fill our minds with God's word, his work, and his wonders, it will give us that God-praising perspective. So you're going to see this theme in the psalm.

[6:17] In Psalm 33. An anonymous psalm. It's not titled. But the psalmist is trying to give you a God-praising perspective as you fill your mind with his word, which brings about his work, and then you see his wonder, and you're like, whoa!

[6:34] I see life in a whole different way. God speaks. The action happens.

[6:46] You see his attributes, and it brings praise. So there's the theme. There's the formula, if you will. Another way to say it.

[6:58] God's word produces his work, which displays his wonder, and it should evoke a praise response to him, from all people, really, but especially from his chosen people because of who he is and what he's done for them.

[7:17] What he's done for us. I mean, who is the word? It's Jesus. What has he done? He's died. What great wonder or attributes has shown God's love, his justice, his grace, and his mercy.

[7:33] So what's the response? I trust Jesus. There's the gospel. See? The psalmist, he knew what he was doing. So it should evoke a praise response to our God when you have that life, God-praising life perspective.

[7:53] And you're gonna see the, I'll use the word emotions. One, two, three, four.

[8:04] Emotions. That are actually actions. They're decisions, but they're also emotions that are part of the psalm. Four of them. Fear, desire, joy, and hope in God.

[8:19] Fearing God, desiring God, joy in God, and hoping in God. Those are the responses he wants to evoke, to provoke in you.

[8:33] And I'll define them for you. Fear, dumbfounding awe. When you're at the ocean and the waves are crashing, it's like you're scared, but you're in awe at the same time.

[8:50] There's a healthy fear. The Grand Canyon, like, wow, this is amazing. Wow, this is scary. I don't wanna jump off this. No. But it's, wow, this is shocking.

[9:03] Desire, you want him more. Pleasure, you take pleasure in him. Joy, you so enjoy and love your God. It makes you so happy.

[9:16] And then hope, you wait on him. You trust him. So when we have this God-praising perspective, it evokes these responses.

[9:30] A response of fear, of desire, of joy, and of hope. That's what you see throughout the psalm. Notice how he begins. Give praise to Yahweh, verse one through three.

[9:44] There's six calls to engage in praise in just three verses. Notice. Sing for joy, Yahweh, oh you righteous ones. Sing for joy. Joy is the soul of praise. Unceasing, overflowing joy is joy because he deserves our very best praise.

[10:01] I so enjoy you. You sing aloud with jubilant exultation for all that he is and all that he's done.

[10:13] Oh you righteous ones. Righteous because they belong to him. Righteous ones to the upright ones who seek to live godly, God-pleasing lives for him.

[10:27] Notice he says the next part of verse one, praise is becoming to the upright. There's nothing else better for us to do as believers, as followers of Jesus.

[10:40] Our task as well as our pleasure is to praise and make our boast in the Lord. It's fitting. Praise is becoming. It's fitting. A fitting response for us who are right with him.

[10:55] Verse two. Give thanks to Yahweh with the lair. Sing praises him with a harp of ten strings. Praising God and thanking him with all these different instruments.

[11:07] We're his people. We're so grateful for him. We're grateful for all that he is and all that he's done for us. And we've had I don't think we have a lair today but we did have strings a little bit more than ten.

[11:24] Only six here. We're praising God. Verse three. Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

[11:34] A new song lifting our voices to God saying together as his people because it's such a joy to have each other sing. Don't you want to hear each other sing the gospel?

[11:47] Don't you want to hear each other sing these words? Nothing wrong against a band. But when the music is so loud you can't even hear yourself sing. There's something wrong with that.

[11:59] Shouldn't we hear each other sing? That's the whole point of that. And it's new in the sense that we sing from a renewed heart bringing a fresh awareness of who God is and what he's done for us.

[12:13] That's why he says a new song. And notice end of verse three again play skillfully with a shout of joy. There's songs where we shout and for many of you it's probably better for you to shout than to sing.

[12:25] Praise God. So we say to you please don't sing but you can shout go ahead. So somebody's shouting then we probably know that you're not a good singer. But I didn't say that.

[12:38] Well maybe I did. Okay so anyways moving right along. Hallelujah. Notice verse four. Here's the reason.

[12:50] Because and here's where we get to this theme. Because of his word his work and his wonder. Notice. For the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is in faithfulness.

[13:09] The method by which God governs the world whatever God has appointed or commanded it's right it's his word. Another way to say it is his counsel or his ordinance.

[13:22] God speaks his word and it produces an action. That's why he says and all his work whenever God is faithfully brought to pass it's the execution of his word.

[13:36] His words are put into action faithfully and truly because notice he brings up in verse five. well excuse me the end of verse four.

[13:47] In faithfulness he loves righteousness and justice the earth is full of the loving kindness of Yahweh. Notice you see the wonders or his attributes. That's the word I'm giving his attributes or his qualities excuse me or his excellencies.

[14:00] The word wonders because the W has got to go together. Word, work, wonder. See? Preachers like doing stuff like that. Words excuse me wonders or attributes righteousness justice his hesed the covenant keeping faithful steadfast love of God.

[14:21] His faithfulness notice he loves righteousness conduct and justice are right as a rule of judgment. God is the standard of what is right and true.

[14:38] Righteousness means he loves his glory and is committed to preserving his glorious name. John Piper says the unswerving allegiance to the value of his name that's what righteousness means.

[14:49] It's a good way to define that. I mentioned just a few moments ago his loving kindness his faithful steadfast covenant keeping love towards his people.

[15:02] You're going to see that. So you see this theme he's going to truck through the rest of the psalm starting in verse 6 all the way to the end this word work and wonder and he's going to focus on two aspects creation and election.

[15:20] So notice and then he's going to call for a response. Notice first in creation you see the word and the work and then the wonder and should evoke a response and the response should be fear because of the wonder God's omnipotence and sovereignty.

[15:36] notice how he works through this verse 6 by the word of the Lord the heavens were made. You see that?

[15:47] He spoke and then there's an action. The creation of the universe was by God's very word created by God maintained by God preserved by God and here's the exact expression of his mind the product of his will and then he says next part of verse 6 and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts that's another way to express the first part of verse 6.

[16:13] It's a parallelism. So the breath is the operation of his commanding omnipotence. The whole universe was declared by the Father executed by the Son in the power of the Spirit.

[16:28] in Genesis 1-2 John 1-1 Hebrews 1-4 So as soon as he spoke the universe came into existence.

[16:43] Here is your great God. Notice verse 7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap He lays up the deeps and storehouses so He enclosed the waters within certain invisible barriers.

[16:58] waters they're laid up and stored by Him in special places with ease and why does He mention the sea and the ocean? Because of the power of the ocean the power of the sea the storms that come up and they can destroy so much water can, can it?

[17:17] But God rules the sea and it's and it's and it's and it's notice the response verse 8 let all the earth fear Yahweh the response fear Him let all the inhabitants of the world stand in all of Him that's what fear means you think of it and you've probably read and I understand in some cases rightly so a respect but friends this goes beyond respect it goes beyond just simply respect there is you stand in total absolute dumbfounded awe of God and the idea is when you look at the seas and you're on the sea and you see the power of the ocean there's an awe that you have for it an awe but also a fear like whoa that's amazing wow I really love that but wow

[18:22] I don't want to touch it the Grand Canyon wow that's really amazing wow I love that wow it's very scary but wow I really love looking at that you see that's the power of the word fear that's what that means so God created all all are dependent upon Him and He says that all the earth fear Him it's senseless inconceivable that man doesn't respond that way to God that's His sinfulness we are little weak people we should fear Him interesting here in verse 8 it's not just a command it's actually almost like a prophecy this is a command as well as a prophecy all are commanded to fear but also fearing our mighty God will be universal when Christ returns in all His glory because what does Paul say in Philippians chapter 2 every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord one day they all will fear won't they they will notice

[19:42] He says this is the reason why there in verse 9 4 here's His omnipotence here's the power of God He spoke and it was done He commanded and it stood fast by a simple knot of His head everything came into existence fiat creation is what it's called He only needs to speak the word and what He wills comes into being from Latin ex nihilo out of nothing here's His great power I mean does this not bring fear and satisfaction to our souls in the midst of life and everything happening in life should this not put us at ease the one who called us into existence who can easily return us to dust we're worms in His sight and yet what did we just sing Jesus you're so strong and kind see having that life perspective not just

[20:52] His omnipotence look His sovereignty in verse 10 His sovereignty ruling all things He nullifies the counsel of the nations He frustrates the plans of the peoples He breaks or violates their counsel He restrains the plans of mankind He forbids it and not just His sovereignty ruling all things His sovereignty ordaining all things verse 11 the counsel of the Lord stands forever the plans of His heart from generation to generation His purpose will stand here's the uninterrupted plan of all things especially the salvation of His people God is the ultimate motive of everything that takes place in human history He's ordaining all things see when you have that perspective on life that should bring us comfort and joy and fear because we see how greater God is why am I fearful of this fearful of this virus fearful of death death why the plans of His heart from generation to generation what He wills

[22:11] He brings what He desires He makes happen our God is a sovereign powerful God fear Him be in all of Him so here again He's showing the word the work and the wonder in creation now here in verse 12 He moves into election you see it a little bit because He expands it out to all people but then He really narrows down His love for His people in election again the word work wonder and the response you'll see fearing God but now it's different because it's from His people because of His election His omniscience His omnipotence and also because of His love because notice how He changes things in verse 12 happy is the nation whose God is the Lord this is not talking about America America don't use this verse to talk about

[23:13] America because notice how it qualifies itself the next part of the verse the people whom He's chosen for His own inheritance specifically this is talking directly to Israel it's got nothing to do with America don't apply that to America this is God's chosen nation and now we as the church are the chosen nation the holy race as Peter says in 1 Peter 2 happy will be the ones whose God is Yahweh He's chosen us here is the grand doctrine of election God chooses people to be His own there's one choice within His creation one people to be His inheritance and there's one people of God before the foundation of the world that's us as people it's election not based on your foreseen faith based on His sovereign gracious choice that's how He shows how great He is and notice

[24:15] He displays this wonder the word and the work and then the wonder notice the wonder He brings up here is His omniscience in verse 13-15 again He brings us out with all people then He narrows down for God's chosen people the Lord looks from heaven He sees all the sons of men from His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth He who fashions the hearts of them all He understands all their works God does not sit idle in heaven uninvolved in the things of the world which He created He knows all from where His throne is in heaven He governs all parts of the world with absolute intelligence and wisdom He knows all here's His omniscience He sees all He fashions everything young and old rich or poor VIP or beggar all of them here's

[25:17] His penetrating gaze God sees all people no one can hide from Him He directs man's thinking more than man is aware notice He says the end of verse 15 the hearts of them all He who fashions the hearts of them all who understands all their works even the wicked craftily deceitfully secretly planning works sinful actions of man the eyes of God penetrate into their dark secret places they cannot hide from Him they can never diminish God's absolute knowledge of them and notice He brings up not just His omniscience notice He brings up the other wonder His omnipotence verse 16 He's bringing up these worldly provisions they're useless they're vain four the king's not saved by a mighty army three a warrior's not saved by a great strength a horse a false hope for victory the position the king who's intoxicated with his own arrogance that's vain a power of army the might of a thousand men that's useless prowess a warrior when his time comes his speed is not going to save him nor his strength any provisions like the horse the horse is a grand commodity especially in times of war in this time period it does not grant hope it doesn't grant you victory people talk so much of armies heroes money power stuff but the lord alone is our strength dependence upon stuff is futile so he brings out the omniscience the wonder of god's omniscience he brings out the wonder of god his omnipotence now notice how he narrows things down here in verse 18 behold look there's emphasis look at this the eye of yahweh is on those who fear him on those who hope for his loving kindness the eye of love is on those who fear him he sees us particularly he knows his people omniscience though we're not rich we're not powerful we're protected by god's great favor because we fear him we're his we belong to him he sees us particularly so our response towards his wonder we fear him we stand in awe of him on those who fear him on those who hope for his loving kindness the word hope here is actually the word wait but it actually does mean to hope in his or for his chesed we have confident assurance he'll keep his promises because of his covenant keeping steadfast faithful love for his people friends he will never go back on his word because if he goes back on his word then he's not faithful to himself god will always be faithful to himself he's always going to be faithful to his word so therefore he's going to be faithful to his people else he'll stop being god he will watch over us because he loves us you see how this changes your perspective on life when things

[29:17] come at you in this life and it brings you to the point where you begin to doubt the greatness and the power of god and his love go back to this psalm for the lord our god is on our side his mercy is upon us how easy it is for us to forget this and be consumed with this life isn't it so easy i do it we do it don't we we forget notice verse 19 to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine to deliver snatch or take away to rescue them from death here's the finality of death jesus says i'm the resurrection of life though man dies he will live so he will keep us in himself always and notice though he says to keep them alive in famine preserved in famine he doesn't say from famine he says in famine sometimes life is filled with famine we must wait upon god in these temporal things because his hand will not delay long we can depend upon him in other words he will be with his people in times of famine and in times of feasting there's that god praising life perspective and then what he does the psalmist he closes the psalm by giving these final ways to praise him here's these final ways to praise the lord and this is where we come up with the other responses of desire joy which we saw earlier and then also hope so he begins verse 20 our soul waits for the lord and the word wait here it actually means to long for our soul longs for god or our soul desires yahweh why do we long for him why do we desire him notice he says he is our help and our shield i can depend upon him he's my protection he's my reliance we cast ourselves with confidence upon the fatherly love of god for us i want to desire him our soul desires him because he's my protector i want him more so we long for god notice he says in verse 21 we rejoice in god we desire god we rejoice in god verse 21 for our heart rejoices in him because we trust in his holy name our joy and happiness is found in god alone because we trust in his holy name he's trustworthy a happy joyful heart is the product of trusting and loving our great god a happy joyful heart is the product of trusting and loving our great god and do you need to trust him today are you here and you're not a follower of jesus you need to become a christian one who loves and trusts him do you need to repent and trust christ you can become one of his own repent and trust christ turn from your sin and follow jesus he'll save you he'll forgive you you can be confident of his covenant love so we desire god we rejoice in god and last

[33:18] we hope in god let your loving kindness your love your covenant love be upon us even as we've hoped in you because we are his people he loves his people he chose us let your loving kindness the lord be upon us even as we hope in you and here the word hope means it means wait or trust in him so he manifests his covenant love even as we hope in him even as we trust in him a fervent prayer and desire to hope in him and trust in him alone that's a response when we see his word and the work and the wonder a response of fear a response of desire the response of joy and the response I have hope that gives you a whole different perspective on life doesn't it through through every crisis as we put our hope in him our god will sustain and support us because we're his chosen people whom he loves see this is why the psalmist is he's he's trying to provoke something in you he's trying to evoke in us a response of fear of desire of joy and hoping in god he's trying to bring that out in your life so god's word produces his work which displays his wonder and it should evoke a praise response to him from all people really especially from his chosen people because of who he is and what he's done the greatest way that god has spoken his word and brought about the action to display who he is is in jesus he's the word the act of his death will show the mercy loving compassion of god for us sinners that should evoke a trust in him a joy thankfulness fear desire the psalmist is pricking you to respond that way we're challenged from this psalm to have a god praising perspective on life so may we fill our minds with his word and see his work and we'll see his wonder who he is it will give us that god praising perspective let's pray and ask for god to do that in us our father it's hard for us to think this way it's hard for us to live this way life comes at us at 250 miles per hour and it's easy for us to lose sight give us your grace to walk in wisdom but we need your grace to walk in trust in joy in fear and desiring

[37:21] you and hoping in you we seem to have a hard time defaulting to that so work in us as your people we pray and thank you we're so thankful that all the times we fail that your covenant love remains the same because Jesus you died for those failures there's your grace once again so if you would take this minute you know a minute and a half whatever between you and the Lord a time of silence where you can fill your mind with the word and the work and the wonder of God fill your mind with his truth fill your mind with his promises fill your mind with his attributes and you know what we'll do we'll sing a couple songs we'll pray let this be this time between you and the

[38:50] Lord to respond in this way please do that now