Worship is the only proper response of our whole person to all that God is - acknowledge HIs greatness and His grandeur.
[0:00] Our sovereign God, you rule and control everything.
[0:17] Yet though you control it all, you're close to us and you love us because of who Jesus is and what he has done for us.
[0:32] Really what he's done for you for your glory. So thank you for your mercy, your grace, and your love. You show your constant goodness toward us as your people.
[0:49] We belong to you by grace. And you belong to us. Amen. Hear us as we pray.
[1:03] We pray for Travis and Karen and Nathan, for John and Laura, for Duane and Pat, Michael and Susanna, even for Laura. We pray for Carolyn, for Jane, Priscilla, Allie, for Sandy, Vicente, Steve, and Gwen, for Evie, for Judy, for my mom Julie, and for my wife, Chris, for Phoebe, along with Isaiah, Sadie, Josiah, Seth, Mercy, Jamin, for me.
[1:36] And those attending, Palmer, Deidre, Gary, Robin, Amanda, along with Caden, Naya, Tyler, Jace, Rylan. Lord Jesus, this is your church, your body, your people.
[1:52] We pray for us today. Father, work in us this new year that our desire for you would burn brighter.
[2:08] Our love for you would be deeper. Our commitment to Jesus and to his body would be stronger. Our knowledge of you and the gospel would continue to increase, resulting in greater praise and thanks.
[2:22] You would cause us to increase and abound in love for each other in this lost world. Help us to stand firm in you this year in the midst of distress and affliction.
[2:37] Strengthen and encourage us in our faith, not disturbed or distraught over the afflictions, trials, and battles we may have to face this coming year. Father, thank you.
[2:50] We get the joy to see Aaron. He's with us today. Thank you that he can visit with us. Use him for your glory at Colorado Christian University.
[3:03] May he honor you and live for Christ and have a deeper love for you and commitment and allegiance to you, oh Jesus. So, Father, we pray.
[3:15] May we remain faithful. And yet, as we just sang, it's not us, it's Christ who lives inside us.
[3:27] And do that we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Please be seated. Take your Bibles, please.
[3:55] And go to Psalm 150. If you're visiting with us and you need a Bible, there's one in the chair in front of you.
[4:05] Pull that out. Find page 456. Psalm 150. Psalm 150. Psalm 150. Psalm 150. We're gonna study this psalm.
[4:16] I thought it'd be a good psalm to study with the beginning of the new year. And again, as I said earlier, we'll jump back in the John's Gospel next Sunday.
[4:28] Psalm 150. Psalm 150. Page 456 in that black Bible. Psalm 150.
[4:38] Let me read. Hallelujah. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
[4:50] Praise Him for His mighty deeds. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound. Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing.
[5:01] Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals. Praise Him with resounding crashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
[5:14] Hallelujah. The book reads like this.
[5:26] But Sam turned to by water and so came back up the hill as day was ending once more. And he went on and there was yellow lights and fire within.
[5:37] And the evening meal was ready and he was expected. And Rose drew him in and set him in his chair and put little Eleanor upon his lap.
[5:50] He drew a deep breath. Well, I'm back, he said. And that's the ending of book three. Return of the King.
[6:01] Toll King's trilogy, the book trilogy to Lord of the Rings. And if you want a New Year's resolution, there you go. You can read the, you should probably start with The Hobbit and then read the trilogy, the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
[6:20] It would be a good series for you to read for this year, this new year. If you've read those books, you know what a sense of relief those few words were to you as you read them.
[6:33] Where a sense of relief gave you such satisfaction. Fulfillment. Maybe in fulfillment because you finished the books because they were so long.
[6:47] But then you went, oh, look at these appendices. And there's, I think Tolkien has like five appendices. The first one is like 200 pages or 300, I don't know, I don't remember.
[6:58] Anyways. But it gave you a sense of relief for Sam. Because after all that had happened, all the trials, the sufferings, the pains, the affections, the battles, finally, Samwise Gamgee could rest in peace.
[7:16] And that's the purpose of this psalm. The purpose of this psalm being the last psalm of the book of Psalms.
[7:31] Because at the end of the day, when it's all said and done, after all the trials, sufferings, afflictions, tribulations, the battles, the psalmist calls his readers, his hearers, God's people to praise, to praise Yahweh.
[7:54] Oh, I didn't get the thing. Thank you. And that's how I titled this New Year's message, Psalm 150, Hallelujah, praise Yahweh. Hallelujah, praise Yahweh.
[8:06] And we need to be reminded of praising Yahweh. Not just as we close out 2022, but as we begin this new year, 2023.
[8:25] I'm reminded of praising Yahweh because that is what thrills our souls most, or at least should, right? this is what should satisfy us the most.
[8:40] This is what should store our hearts the most, enjoying and worshiping God. It should. Because after all the trials, afflictions, and battles, we give praise to our great God.
[9:00] So we need reminders of this. That's why it's inscripted in Scripture forever.
[9:13] Forever we will read this, Psalm 150. The Psalm of praise. After all the trials, and the afflictions, and the battles that we have faced, and that we will face, we give praise to our great God.
[9:32] Worship is the only proper response of our whole person to all that God is. We acknowledge His greatness and His grandeur. It's a response.
[9:45] As we understand who He is, we respond to Him. We worship Him. We bow down before Him. Stephen Lawson, he says this, quote, God is infinitely magnificent and exponentially supreme.
[10:01] All worship should reflect this. Because God is the sovereign Lord, absolutely holy and incomprehensibly august, worship is awe-inspiring for all who know Him, end quote.
[10:15] And of course, we deal with our sin at first. We come before Him as we are, and yet we see who we are before a holy God.
[10:30] But once we deal with our sin, we can have this communion and union with God because we can have it through the Lord Jesus Christ who took our sin and were pardoned or declared righteous, the one who died in our place and rose from the dead.
[10:47] So we can come into the presence of the living God and give Him all the praise, the glory, the honor, and the majesty with our voices corporately as well as our lives individually.
[11:02] That's why the psalm begins and ends with praise. It begins, praise Yahweh, it ends, praise Yahweh. Hallelujah, hallelujah. It begins and ends like that. So it begins, it ends, praise Yahweh, and then in the middle of the psalm, the text, it asks and also answers four different questions, four different questions for us about praising Yahweh.
[11:31] Here's question number one. Where do we praise Yahweh? Where do we praise Him? Two aspects. Number one, in His earthly sanctuary.
[11:43] Notice, hallelujah, praise God, in His sanctuary. Now, this has to do with the earthly temple in Jerusalem. That's where God dwelt going back to Exodus 40 with the tabernacle.
[11:59] The glory of the Lord came upon the tabernacle. And then when Solomon built his temple in 1 Kings, the glory of the Lord came upon that temple. That's what the psalmist is talking about. That's where God's people approached Him.
[12:13] And even more specifically, they were able to approach Him on the Day of Atonement. So where do we praise Him? The psalmist says, excuse me, in His sanctuary, but number two, in His heavenly sanctuary, His earthly sanctuary and His heavenly sanctuary.
[12:32] Next part of verse one, praise Him in His mighty expanse. Now, this could convey one of two aspects, either His heavenly sanctuary and glory, His heavenly temple and glory, or the stars of the heavens.
[12:50] Either way, it's the expanse. It's everywhere. There's a summoning to both animate and inanimate objects to praise Him.
[13:04] So everywhere, not just in a location, but everywhere. Where do you praise Him? Everywhere. Anywhere and everywhere.
[13:18] We're called to give Him the praise He deserves anywhere we find ourselves. And this is key because people seem to relegate worship to a particular place, i.e., one has to go to church.
[13:35] Now, you have two slippery slopes here. Here's the first slippery slope where you have to go to church to worship.
[13:47] You have to go to a place. Like this is the place where you're supposed to worship. We call this the sanctuary or the worship center. Well, that's a slippery slope.
[14:00] Because from this psalm, it's not about this building. You worship God anywhere and everywhere. And then another slippery slope is, well, I don't need to gather with God's people.
[14:11] I can do it whenever I want. Well, the psalmist says we should come together to worship God as His people. So, here, the psalmist wants to remind us that it's not about a place.
[14:26] But how and who? Jesus picks up on this in John chapter 4. Come on, John chapter 4. What do you know? We're in John again. Doggone, just can't get away from that gospel.
[14:37] Can you? We worship in the Spirit and in truth and the focus of our worship should be on the Father, on the Father, upon Him, and specifically, the Son.
[14:49] John 4, 23 and 24. So, it's not about coming to this building. Friends, this building is no more holy than my bathroom.
[15:00] And my bathroom is an unholy place. But it's about God's people coming together to give Him the praise. Destroy the buildings.
[15:12] God's people can still come together. God's people can still come together. God's people can still come together. God's people can still come together. So, where do we worship Him? Everywhere and anywhere. And as we gather together, the corp of body come together and anywhere and everywhere.
[15:23] Right? Okay. Where? Got it. Second question. Why? Why do we praise Him? He answers this question first. You'd be thinking he'd do it last, but he doesn't.
[15:34] He deserves us to praise Him everywhere and anywhere. Where? Now, why? Why do we praise Him? Here's the first reason. for His great conduct. Verse 2, praise Him for His mighty deeds or His mighty works, His works of creation, providence, salvation, judgment, discipline.
[16:00] His great power displayed. His absolute infinite great works that He's done. What He's done for His people. And redemption, providence, discipline.
[16:15] And the psalmist, it's almost like He's saying, hey, remember what was written about from Psalm 1 to Psalm 149? I'm trying to remind you of that.
[16:26] Remember what these other psalmists wrote about? This is what God's done. His great conduct. He's created His people. He saved His people. He providentially watches over His people.
[16:38] He disciplines His people. All of these acts from Yahweh, the reader has seen in the Psalms and even has seen from Genesis to Job.
[16:58] You see the works that God has done. His great conduct. Why do we praise Him? For His great conduct. Second, part to this, two reasons.
[17:08] One, for His great conduct. Two, for His great character. Next part of verse 2. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. His great being.
[17:20] His absolute, infinite, great attribute, excellencies. He's independent. He's immutable. He's eternal.
[17:33] He's omnipresent. He is wisdom. He's truth. And His goodness and His love, what flows out of His goodness and love is His mercy and His grace and His compassion.
[17:46] He's peace. He's just. He's omnipotent, sovereign, perfect, glorious. This is who He is. The greatness of our God.
[18:01] You notice something. Talks about His works, His conduct and then His character. His works and then His identity. Notice, we see who God, what God has done first and then who He is.
[18:18] Interesting. That's been the focus of John's gospel, hasn't it? The identity and mission of Jesus. What is the greatest way, what is the greatest way that God displays His identity?
[18:34] What is the greatest way that God displays His conduct, His works, His deeds? The greatest way He's shown His identity and mission is in His Son, the Lord Jesus. He is the ultimate self-expression of God the Father.
[18:52] The ultimate self-revelation of God. It's Jesus. And, what has He done? Jesus has gone to the cross for us. Notice how the psalm is looking back but it's also looking forward, isn't it?
[19:10] To who Jesus is going to be and what He's going to do. Where? Why? Now notice the third question, how?
[19:25] How do we praise Him? You see this in verses 3-5. It's like a mighty orchestra that He displays here. Verse 3, praise Him with trumpet sound, like a ram's horn.
[19:40] Praise Him with harp and lyre. The lyre's kind of like a harp-like portable instrument. Maybe similar to the guitar.
[19:53] Look at verse 4. We got the D word here, praise Him with timbrel and dancing. Are you supposed to say that here? Is that allowed? And these two often went together.
[20:03] We've talked about this before. the former, the timbrel or the tambourines were used by women when they danced after God gave them victories. Miriam did that. When the nation of Israel came out of the Red Sea, she gathered women.
[20:17] They celebrated the Lord dancing for Him with tambourines. And now, by the way, speaking of that D word, there's something to be said about this idea where people say, well, you shouldn't dance.
[20:33] And I think because the sensuality is normally involved with dancing, right? Versus dancing to our God and an expression of your body to God and who He is.
[20:47] That's a huge difference, isn't it? Huge difference. So, with trumpet, with harp, I think I put this up here. Oh, yeah, I did. Okay. So, with a trumpet, with harp, with dancing, notice verse four.
[21:04] Praise Him with timbrel and dancing. Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe, strings and flutes. Strings is a general term for stringed instruments. Flutes were pipe-like percussion instruments.
[21:17] Praise Him with loud cymbals, he says. And then, praise Him with resounding cymbals, literally crashing cymbals. So, the loud cymbals are like smaller, high-pitched type cymbals, similar to castanets, and then larger, louder, more crashing type cymbals.
[21:39] Now, the psalmist did not intend to convey every instrument here. Well, he didn't put this instrument, so we shouldn't use that. No, no, no, no. If we're gonna worship the Lord together, we shouldn't use it.
[21:51] No, no, no, no. It's not. It's not to cover every instrument as if these were the only instruments to be used. No, no. He listed these out as samples of the different instruments to be used to praise Yahweh.
[22:08] And, speaking of music, there's something to be said when a full orchestra or if a band, a band if you will, leads the people into singing and the music gives a loud sound of great praise.
[22:27] Something to be said for that. And yet, there's also something to be said if the music drowns out the singing of God's people. It drowns out the singing to God of God's people.
[22:40] I think there's something to be said for that too. All in balance, right? So he's answered three questions so far. To where, why, how, and now the fourth question.
[22:56] Who praises Him? Verse six. That everything that has breath praise the Lord. Who? All that has breath.
[23:07] Everything, everyone. It encompasses all of creation in heaven and earth. All should give Him the praise He deserves.
[23:21] And then, the psalmist ends it. Same way he began. Hallelujah. Praise Yahweh. Again, a perfect way to end the book of Psalms as the psalmist brings it all to a close.
[23:37] because when it's all said and done, we give praise to God. He wants the readers of his psalm and the readers of the song of this psalm to hear his, his encouragement and his exhortation.
[23:58] And, as the psalmist ends, this way, we, we can begin the new year this way. Well, we bring our wholehearted devotion and praise to God this year.
[24:14] We worship our God not just corporately but individually with our lives. We bring our wholehearted devotion and praise to God.
[24:26] It's a challenge. It's a, an exhortation to us. Maybe make it personal. Will I bring my wholehearted devotion and praise to God this year?
[24:43] As I look forward to what you're gonna do in the coming year. God, help me to praise you, my devotion to you. Another question to ask, will we passionately pursue God this coming new year?
[25:01] Will we passionately pursue Him praising God this coming new year? And encouraging those of you who don't know Christ, you're in here, excuse me, you don't know Jesus, you haven't trusted Christ Jesus, now is the day of salvation, now is the time for you to trust Christ.
[25:18] Today, come, receive Jesus, receive the gospel, receive who Jesus is and what He's done, He'll forgive you and pardon you, He'll show you grace.
[25:32] So you compassionately pursue Him, and the first way you start praising Him is trusting His Son, Jesus. Suddenly, this is a good passage to remind us of our devotion to Christ, which results in a life filled with praise to Him.
[25:50] because after all the trials and afflictions, as we're about to face trials, afflictions, and battles, we give praise to our great God.
[26:05] May we begin and end this new year with this kind of response to our King, the Lord Jesus, and I thought it would be most appropriate, I mean, it's the first Sunday of the month, that's when we normally celebrate the Lord's Supper, and I thought about not doing that, but I went, no, no, no, I think it's good, we should do that, because as baptism is an ordinance that speaks about our beginning of our life with Christ, the Lord's Supper is the ordinance that tells of our continual love and devotion to Christ, our communion with Him.
[26:44] What a great way to renew that for this new year. saying, Lord, I want to praise you, I don't know what you have in store for me, but I'm taking the Lord's Supper, I know I'm a sinner, but you forgive me, because here I am, laying myself out before you, what do you have for me this coming year?
[27:07] I'm ready to worship. I want to encourage you in that. Let's take a moment, let's pray, let's ask the Lord to do that in us. Father, we're grateful for this psalm, we're grateful that you wrote this psalm for us.
[27:24] We seem to forget very easily, well, we'll forget ten minutes after the service. So help us, we pray, that the trajectory of our lives will be to praise you.
[27:38] Thank you. Thank you. And may this ordinance that we partake together, the bread and the juice, may it remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus and the mercy that you show us at the cross.
[28:08] And may we renew once again our commitment to you. And may it also remind us, not just that you've changed us, but you'll return again to take us home.
[28:24] Maybe it'll be this year. Maybe you'll return this year in 2023. Or maybe you'll just take us home this year in 2023. May this be a time celebrate you, celebrate the gospel, Christ, his identity and mission, and praise you and give you thanks for showing us your kindness.
[29:06] I want to encourage you to take a few moments to prepare your heart to partake of the Lord's Supper.
[29:17] Remind yourself of the gospel. You're reminded you don't deserve it. Yes, it's true. You're a sinner. Yes, it's true. Remind yourself of grace as well.
[29:29] Examine your heart. Remind yourself of grace, the cross. grace. And after a few moments, we'll sing the song, There Is One Gospel.
[29:46] Perfect song for a time like this. But just take a few moments and do that. Jane, would you play softly, There Is One Gospel? There Is One Gospel. There Is One Gospel.
[30:03] Potě–¸ One Gospel. The One Gospel. H One Gospel. G Nature shot.
[30:26] The Last Gospel. The