[0:00] The following message is given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens,! For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.
[0:12] ! Psalm 113, verse 1. Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord.
[0:30] Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.
[0:49] The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?
[1:11] He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.
[1:26] He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.
[1:39] Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord. As Michael, remind us as the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God abides forever.
[1:54] May God bless the hearing and the preaching of his word. Well, I'm not really a baby guy.
[2:05] Now, as a baby making a sound, right when I said that, it's not personal. I'm not really a baby guy. I grew up in a family of boys, all boys. I never babysat, never really interacted with babies.
[2:19] In fact, the first diaper I changed was the diaper of my oldest son, and my wife enjoyed laughing at me in the hospital. I doubt I would have chosen to hang with babies if given a chance.
[2:33] They seemed so boring and breakable. Yet, when my first son, Rev, was born just over 12 years ago, I was utterly fascinated.
[2:46] Now, the first couple months were slow, because all he did was eat and sleep. But before long, he began to be captivated by the world around him.
[2:56] He was captivated by lights. I remember watching him walk into rooms, or not walk into rooms, but be held and carried into rooms. And the lights are opening up around him. And these little books that were just contrasts, black and white, and these contrasts that began to amaze him.
[3:12] But before long, I love the way he began to express himself and his excitement. He began to study people. Now, we are a people-watching family.
[3:23] But he began to study people, almost as if he already knew they were the most fascinating thing God makes. I remember calling home from the office one time, finishing up a sermon.
[3:38] And my wife put him on the phone, I don't know, maybe eight months old or something. And we had a little conversation, just going, mmm. And he'd go, mmm. I'd say, mmm.
[3:49] And he'd go, you know, it's just back and forth. And we began to interact. And I remember one point, I used to love this thing he would do when he'd get excited. If he was laying down, I would get in his face and begin to smile and talk to him.
[4:02] And he'd begin to make this cooing, slurring sound. He'd kick his legs down and stick his belly up and just convulse in joy and excitement. It was as if he couldn't help but rejoice and respond to the world around him.
[4:20] His little heart was a desire factory. Though he was too young to communicate it or even understand it, he wanted joy more than anything else.
[4:32] It wasn't something he had to try to do. It was a part of who he was. He was hard-riored with unrelenting desires to see and know and taste and treasure and rejoice.
[4:45] I came to see something that all of us already know. Rev was created for worship. Worship. So too are you and I. We as human beings are always wanting, chasing, loving, fearing, and worshiping someone or something.
[5:00] What makes us unique as creatures of God is not that we can do things animals can't do. It's not that we can talk or reason or write complex computer code or form relationships or any of those things.
[5:15] What makes us unique as creatures of God is that we can worship. More precisely, what makes us unique is that we can worship God. We alone of all creation are formed and appointed to this activity.
[5:33] The praise of God is the most normal human activity. And again and again, the Psalms, a whole book of Psalms is written to call us back to worship and praise God, to urge us to return to this most normal human activity, this most fundamental calling, this most awesome privilege, the worship and praise of God.
[6:00] It's what we're made for. And yet something we need to be continually called to do. In a way, where we're going with Psalm 113 is let us continually worship and praise God for His glory and His grace.
[6:15] Let us continually worship and praise God for His glory and His grace. One or three points. This first one is praise the Lord at all times.
[6:26] Praise the Lord at all times. This psalm begins with a call to praise. Now that's not surprising. This would be in the category of a hymn of praise song.
[6:36] And so it's not surprising that a hymn of praise begins with a call to praise. And then we see it in verse 1. Praise the Lord. Praise those servants of the Lord.
[6:47] Praise the name of the Lord. But three times we see that word that Taylor defined for us. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Admire, adore, honor, and exalt the Lord, the God who is God and the God who is our God.
[7:04] John Webster says it like this. If praise has a single center, it is in the acknowledgement that God is God and God is our God.
[7:18] If there's a single center to what the psalm is trying to get into our skulls, it is that God is God and God is wonderfully our God.
[7:30] The psalm continues and tells us to praise the Lord at all times. Look at verse 2. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting.
[7:42] Let the name of the Lord be blessed. Let it be extolled. Let it be magnified. Let who he is and what he has done be lifted up.
[7:59] At all times. You see the clause there. From this time forth and forevermore. Forevermore. From now to the end. Regardless of what happened. I love the way, be thou my vision.
[8:10] Says it. Heart of my own heart. I don't exactly know what that means. But heart, maybe the inner core of my heart. Heart of my own heart. Whatever befall. Still be my vision.
[8:23] O ruler of all. Just like Psalm 34. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. So he's saying at all times, bless the Lord and in every place.
[8:35] Look at verse 3. From the rising of the sun to its setting. From the rising of wherever the sun cast its ray throughout the day.
[8:51] That place is a place the Lord must be praised. It's a way of saying everywhere. By mentioning the beginning.
[9:03] And moving on to the end. At all times and every place, let the name of the Lord be praised. But the call to praise is also specific. Look in verse 1. He says, praise the Lord.
[9:13] Praise, O servants of the Lord. The psalm. This psalm is not calling anyone and everyone to praise him.
[9:24] Psalm 150 does a great job. Let everyone who has breath praise the Lord. But that's not what this psalm is doing. Not calling anyone and everyone to praise the Lord. Nor is the psalm calling the priest.
[9:35] Or the singers or the worship leaders to praise him. Those who can carry a tune are not the ones called to praise him. He says, praise the servants of the Lord. The people of God.
[9:46] The highest title given to any creature under the sun is servant of the Lord. And that title is given to every one of his people.
[9:58] I love the way Psalm 116, which we will get to study in a couple weeks. I guess Lord willing. My favorite text. He says, O Lord, I am your servant. You have loosed my bonds.
[10:13] You set me free. Once I served sin and served Satan and served the powers of this world. But now I serve the Lord. You've loosed my bonds.
[10:25] How many times I've prayed that to the Lord? I am yours. And so praise is the most normal human activity. How much more so for those who are his servants.
[10:35] Those who are called to live for his glory. But why does this passage. Why in three verses does it command us to praise the Lord five times? Now I am a thick in the skull kind of guy.
[10:49] It takes a long time on the uptake. But why five times in three verses? Here it is. Because praising God is not often natural, easy, or spontaneously welling up inside and flowing out.
[11:03] So praising God, gathering with the saints to praise God, often feels like wearing a new shirt. Or showing up at a party in which you do not know anyone.
[11:19] Praise is often awkward and difficult. When we gather on Sunday mornings to worship God, regardless of how long we've been around or how familiar we are with the rhythm and the songs, praise is often a challenging, somewhat unrewarding experience.
[11:42] It may be because our minds easily wonder, which they do. One second we're relishing the words. A few seconds later we're rehearsing tomorrow's to-do list or yesterday's discouragement.
[11:56] It's often because we're easily distracted by a child walloping his brother. A water bottle slamming to the floor. I've already heard three in this message.
[12:08] Just kidding. Did hear one, though. Or by our tendency to constantly compare ourselves to others around us.
[12:18] Even though praise is the most normal human activity, especially for the people of God, it's something we must learn to do by the grace of God.
[12:29] Praise this side of heaven is under the shadow of the fall. Praise is often frustrated by our physical frailties, our aching back, our worn-out legs.
[12:44] Praise is hindered by hardship, dogged by doubt, gutted by gnawing guilt. Praise is tainted by our tendency to make everything about ourselves, to be evaluating everything according to what we think, what we feel, what we want, so much so that we don't praise God.
[13:03] So therefore, until heaven, praising God involves work. One of my heroes, Johnny Erickson Tada, has lived with quadriplegia for 55 years as of this June.
[13:17] Listen to the work. It requires her to praise God day in, day out. We have this for you. This is a Q&A.
[13:29] She says, am I happy? I make myself be happy. I make myself sing because I have to. The alternative is too frightening.
[13:43] My girlfriends will tell you in the morning when I wake up, I know they'll be coming into my bedroom to give me a bed bath, do my toileting routines, pull up my pants, put me in the wheelchair, feed me breakfast, and push me out the front door.
[14:01] I lie there thinking, oh God, I cannot face this. I'm so tired of this.
[14:12] Are you tired? I'm so tired. My hip is killing me. I'm so weary.
[14:22] I don't know how I'm going to make it to lunchtime. I have no energy for this day. God, I can't do quadriplegia. I can do all things through you as you strengthen me.
[14:37] So God, I have no smile for these girlfriends of mine who are going to come in here with a happy face. Can I please borrow your smile? I need it.
[14:49] Desperately, I need you. That's someone who's realized he's praising God and it's going to be a fight. It's tooth and nail every day and all the way.
[15:03] If Johnny can do it for 55 years, let's chase after her, you know? So let me commend a new posture when we gather on Sunday mornings. Instead of your plastic church smile, which I have no one in mind on that, instead of your, I'm holding it together as best as I can grimace, instead of your staying on the sidelines, not going to get too serious composure, bring your game face.
[15:33] Maybe score underneath your eyes a little bit as you walk in. And then at the first note of the doxology, game on. Because yes, where are two or three are gathered in my name?
[15:47] The Lord says, I am there, but so too is the accuser. So too is my sin that distracts me. So too is the hardship that drags me down. And so I'm coming to fight.
[15:57] I'm coming to wage war. I'm fighting for my life. I'm going to sing regardless of whether I feel it completely, because it's true. These are the truths that anchor my soul. I'm going to clap regardless of whether I can clap in rhythm or I'm overflowing with joy because he's worthy.
[16:14] I'm going to shout regardless of whether I see it clearly because he's so wise. I'm going to raise my hands, not always because I'm filled with joy, but because I'm desperate for God. One of my favorite passages that I pray through, play through in my mind as I'm singing to the Lord is Psalm 143, 6.
[16:30] I stretch out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you like a parched land. You might come in here overflowing. I come in here fighting every day. My hands are out.
[16:44] I don't want to play the game. I'm desperate for you. So bring your helmet and your pads next week. Let's do this.
[16:56] Point two, praise the Lord for his glory. Praise the Lord for his glory. Praise the Lord at all times and praise the Lord for his glory. This psalm continues with a stunning description of God's greatness and glory.
[17:11] Look at verse 4. He says, The Lord is high above all nations. His glory above the heavens. You see the repeating of the above there.
[17:22] This is a way of talking about the Lord's power and rule. The Lord's high above. The name of the Lord is to be praised from the rising of the sun to its setting because the Lord is high above every king, every ruler, every puppet.
[17:37] He is the ruler over all. He's not just above. He's high above all the nations, all the kingdoms of this world. And his glory is above the heavens.
[17:54] His glory is above the heavens. Now, glory is one of those words we throw around so much that I doubt we really know what it means. It's a word that just means heavy, weighty.
[18:06] It's a word used in scripture to describe the weightiness, the worth, the value of God. His glory is above the heavens. Isaiah 6 helps us understand the angels are ceaselessly calling to one another before the throne of God.
[18:21] Holy, holy, holy. This is a picture of the throne room. It's a picture of what's going on right now. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.
[18:33] Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. We might think that the whole earth is full of his holiness.
[18:50] Right? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. But it says it's full of his glory. So, there's an important connection.
[19:04] We're to make between God's holiness and his glory. You know, the holiness, as you probably heard it defined, is often talking about how God is separate from all that is not God.
[19:17] So, everything that is made is not God. And God is separate. He's distinct. All of what he's made is in time. He is outside of time.
[19:27] Reigning over all things. He's self-existent. I mean, he has life in himself and needs nothing else to help him out. No food, no drink, nothing like that. He's self-sustaining. Doesn't need sleep.
[19:38] He always lives. He's holy in that way. He's self-sufficient. And so, the glory of God is the holiness of God going public.
[19:50] It's the separateness, the greatness, the self-existence of God going on display on the billboards of the world. This is how it works. Psalm 119 says, the heavens declare the glory of God.
[20:03] They declare it. Now, they don't have mouths. They don't have vocal cords. But they declare it. The mountains and stars and hills, though, they don't make God glorious.
[20:15] They don't add to his glory. If we could go so far to say that. They show it off. They display it. They take it public.
[20:27] This invisible God who reigns in heaven in glory, he goes public in the heavens. And so, too, Isaiah 43 says, every person under the sun is stamped in his image and called to live for his glory.
[20:43] Each person marked with unerasable, inerasable dignity. But we don't make God glorious. But we do strive to say it.
[20:57] And to point to it and call others to adore him from his intelligent design, his sovereign goodness, his defined wisdom. And so, we can say with the angels, the whole earth is full of his glory.
[21:09] But what does it mean still? If I could push this a little bit more. That his glory. So, the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah 6. But right here it says, his glory is above the heavens. What's that mean?
[21:25] What's it mean that it's above? It means that we don't have the full story. We don't see it all. We see through a glass dimly.
[21:36] Whatever that 1 Corinthians 13 is. We see through a mirror dimly. We don't see the whole story. We have a few press clippings. We have a few headlines. We have a few pictures. But there's so much more to his glory.
[21:50] So, it's saying in a few words, the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. He's the God who was and is and is to come. He's separate from all that is made. He's not dependent on anything that is made. He does not need anything that is made.
[22:02] Everything is made, in fact, from the overflow of life in himself. He is the fullness of life and beauty and power and wisdom and righteousness and justice.
[22:13] And the whole earth is full of his glory. But like Job said, that's just the outskirts of his ways. That's just a faint tracing of his greatness.
[22:28] Psalm continues with awestruck wonder that only fits one who has glory that's above the heavens. Look at verse 5. Who is like the Lord our God who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens of the earth?
[22:43] Now, this is one of those who is like our Lord statements that fill Isaiah and Exodus 15, other places. But this one is one of the best. One translation does it well.
[22:53] It says, Who is like Yahweh our God, enthroned so high he needs to stoop to see the sky and earth? The Lord is seated on high.
[23:05] That's just a way of saying that the Lord is like a king. He doesn't sit down. He's a spirit. His spirit is omniscient and omnipotent.
[23:17] He's everywhere, sees everything. But he's on his throne to reign, and he reigns over all nations. He's seated on high. And in order to see the heavens, he has to stoop.
[23:29] Much like you have to stoop to throw a log on the fireplace, or to make your way into the crawl space, or to change a diaper, the Lord has to stoop to see the heaven.
[23:44] You thought it was great. The Lord has to stoop to see it. What is that Milky Way galaxy?
[23:55] Let me get down on a knee so I can see it, because he's so much greater. You see, that's what he's trying to say. He's so much greater than all that is made. These are just the outskirts. This is a faint picture of what he is in and of himself, and implied in this emphasis on stooping is a stinging rebuke.
[24:17] We don't dig deep into the glory of God. We don't grapple with his immensity. We become bored with the praise of God because of all the things we've got to do.
[24:31] We become distracted from the praise of God because of all the plans we have for our life. We get tired of the praise of God. It seems so samesy. How great is the Lord.
[24:44] How great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've sung it. What? Have you sung it enough to get it? Our apathy reveals nothing about him and so much about him, so much about us.
[24:56] John Piper says in the church, our view of God is so small instead of huge, so marginal instead of crucial, so vague instead of clear, so impotent instead of all-determining, so uninspiring instead of ravishing, that the responsibility to live for the glory of God is a thought without content.
[25:19] The words come out of our mouths, but I ask the average Christian to tell you what they know about the glory of this God that they are going to live for, and the answer will not be long. This psalm is calling us to stop the fascination with ourselves.
[25:40] Get out the telescope for the Lord, this great God. Dig deep into it. Do not rest until we're completely amazed.
[25:51] Point three, praise the Lord for his grace. Praise the Lord at all times. Praise the Lord for his glory. Praise the Lord for his grace. The next three verses unveil what God does after he stoops and looks far down and who he helps.
[26:11] First, the Lord raises the poor. Look at verse 7. Now this is a bit jarring. If you're following the way of thought, the Lord is like way up in the heavens, so massive and amazing.
[26:28] He stoops down to look, and then suddenly, it just flies to what he does toward people.
[26:40] Verse 7, he raises the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He raised, the first thing he does is he raises the poor.
[26:53] To-do list number one, raise the poor. Notice the emphasis upon where he raises the poor from. This little verse, but it says he raises the poor from the dust.
[27:08] He raises the poor from the ash heap. It's very pointed, trying to say he's, he's raising them from the dust, from the ash heap. There's no more desperate place. The dust and the ash heap are the place where the trash and waste is gathered to be burned.
[27:28] There, the poor rummage to find anything that's useful and warm themselves beside smoldering fires. Day after day, discarded by society, the poor and needy lay beside the fires covered with the ash of burned waste.
[27:47] There they lay at the place where no one wants to go, longing for something to change. I remember as a kid, growing up, there was a house no one dared to go by and to walk up to.
[28:02] It was a couple blocks down from the YMCA, my hometown, and we would walk by the Y, walk up to the Y, play ball or something like that, but we would make sure not to go by this house.
[28:14] There was a Boo Radley type of guy living there. Something had happened to him. There were rumors, but no one knew. Whatever happened, he was different now.
[28:26] He had long, streaking, black hair, completely unshaven. He was often walking around the yard, talking to himself, clearly wrestling with voices in his head.
[28:39] Most of the time, he was wrapped in a bed sheet or a blanket. We knew where he lived. We knew where the house was, and we were careful to not get close.
[28:51] The same is true of these poor and needy. The dust in the ash heap is not on the way to the supermarket. It's outside of town where people go.
[29:10] They don't know where else to go. They lay there where no one wants to go, in the place that smells of ashes, fires, and refuse.
[29:20] And they're there because no one else was there for them to turn to. But that's the first place God goes. What's that mean?
[29:40] He goes to the poor. He raises the poor. He lifts up the needy. He makes them sit with princes. He who's seated on high.
[29:51] Psalm 75 says, the bringing down of one king and the raising up of another is from the hand of the Lord. So he who's seated on the high just throws someone down to put a poor man up.
[30:04] We all love these rags-to-riches stories, and this one's just stunning. It's a stunning change of events. It's a stunning reversal of fortune. This poor man, of whom no one thought of, no one cared about, and yet the Lord cares about him, and the Lord goes and finds him and raises him up.
[30:22] But it's important to remember that the psalm here is not an isolated incident. We're not giving specific details to say, oh, that happened then. This is not just a random occurrence.
[30:35] This is what the Lord can do. This is what the Lord delights to do. This is what the Lord will do in the end. That's what we're supposed to take away from this psalm. This is what the Lord can do, delights to do, and will do in the end.
[30:47] We see this again and again throughout the story of the Bible. The one who gets God's gaze again and again and again are the widow. He pursues the widow.
[30:58] He protects the victim. He provides for the fatherless. We see it in the story of the Exodus. The people in slavery, suffering under oppression, forced to make bricks without straw, and they cry out to the Lord.
[31:09] None of their neighbors care. Pharaoh doesn't care, but their prayer, Deuteronomy 2, Exodus 2, goes from their mouth all the way up to the Lord. I just love that.
[31:21] That's where your prayers are going. All the way up to the Lord. And so he intervenes. He rescues him in a most profound way. This is the story of the gospel.
[31:34] Derek Kidner, kind of an understated writer. What do I mean by that? He doesn't write like we text with five exclamation points.
[31:46] He says, verses 7 to 8, 7 and 8, anticipate the great downward and the upward sweep of the gospel, which was to go even deeper and higher than the dust and the throne of princes from the grave to the throne of God.
[32:10] Now that's amazing. They anticipate the great downward, upward sweep of the gospel. The downward reach of the gospel wonderfully goes deeper than the dust. It goes deeper than the grave.
[32:22] It goes all the way down to the wrath and fury we deserve and we're destined to receive. And wonderfully, the upward sweep of the gospel goes higher than princes among men.
[32:32] It goes to the throne of God where we're declared righteous, where we reign with him forever. So I would invite you to find yourself in the sweep this morning through the gift of faith through Jesus Christ.
[32:44] You can find yourself in the sweep on the way to the throne of God where you have been set right forever and more. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you believe that he was raised from the dead, you will be saved, Romans 10 says.
[32:58] So come unto him and hide in him. And so this, beloved, is what the Lord can do. This is what the Lord delights to do. This is what the Lord will do in the end.
[33:10] It's all going here. It's all headed here. It's no guarantee.
[33:36] That circumstances will change immediately, completely, and without resemblance.
[33:48] It's going somewhere, but it may be slow. Johnny is still in a wheelchair, but it is a precious gift, to say you're in the sweep.
[34:10] One thing I would commend to you, maybe. You can find yourself in the sweep by saying, I'm not going to hell.
[34:27] My circumstances may not change. These things may not get prettier, but I'm waking up in the morning saying, I'm not going to hell. I love the way John 6 tells us about this wonderful sweep from our Lord.
[34:43] For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing and no one of all that he's given me, but raise it up on the last day.
[34:57] So the Lord goes first to the poor. How's that? Second, he goes to the barren woman. Look at verse 9a. He says, he gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.
[35:13] Now this, maybe the poor, this just seems odd. This is the next category, but I think by the end you'll agree with me that it's not odd at all.
[35:25] If the calling of God is to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth, and if the most fundamental way women participate in that calling to fill the earth is through the bearing of children, then barrenness is a most distressing circumstance.
[35:41] That's the story of the Bible. That's what Sarah and Hannah, Rachel, and so many are telling us.
[35:52] And when they conceive, you remember Sarah, she laughed. Rachel laughed, amazed, rejoicing, overcome with gratefulness.
[36:06] Again, it's meant to underline this dramatic change of events, this dramatic reversal of circumstances. The Lord comes and immediately changes everything by giving the gift of a child.
[36:19] This is what the Lord can do, delights to do, and will do in the end. And if you're barren, if you're longing for children, I believe God wants to build your faith right here.
[36:36] God cares. God wants to give you the desires of your heart. God wants you to pray for the desire of your heart, for a home to be the joyous mother of children.
[36:49] So there's another dramatic reversal, but I think all of us are meant to see something here that's very important. It's been said before that parents are your past, and children are your future.
[37:05] Children are not merely an answer to prayer, which they are if you want children. If you're trying to obey Genesis 1 and you want children, it's an answer to prayer, but it's also a promise of a future, right?
[37:19] It's a promise of your name being carried out. You might not care much about that. A legacy being carried forward. I like to say Kim is her parents' we made it baby.
[37:34] And on April 29, 1975, the day before Saigon fell, my in-laws fled with their two young children, Yim and Phuong.
[37:46] That's Kim's two siblings from Vietnam. They had $40 to their name. And some papers. In God's providence, they made it to Nashville, Tennessee, one of the first refugees to our state.
[38:06] Gradually, they made a home. One of the coolest things when they, when her mother died, is we found a bulletin from this little Methodist church that said, the winds have arrived.
[38:19] We need $517 to pay their rent for the next six months. They gave my family a legacy.
[38:31] $570 is all it took. They found jobs. They found schools. They found a place to live and a way to pay the bills. And 10 years later, they decided to have a baby.
[38:45] Her name's Kim. Give it up for mom and dad. Because they made it. They made it.
[38:58] Do you see? They said, we're going to be okay. We're going to have a future. And again and again, that's what you see when God keeps giving another generation.
[39:08] In Scripture, He's saying, I'm with you. I'm for you. You know, when God rescued the poor and needy Israelites and brought them to the Red Sea, He led them to the wilderness. And when the first generation began to die off, God promised, I'm not done.
[39:21] He gave them children. He promised to lead those children into the promised land. When the people had strayed, began worshiping other gods. When God brought judgment upon them and drove them into exile.
[39:31] When they were strangers in a foreign land, God came to them and said, I'm not done. I'm going to come to you. The later glory will be better than the one before. I will deliver you. I will restore the old glory.
[39:42] I'll make it better than before. I'm going to raise up a new generation. I'm going to raise up Nehemiah to rebuild and Ezra to proclaim. I'm going to rebuild the temple. The same is true for you because of the gospel.
[39:52] Your life is not going off a cliff. It's going somewhere better. He's promised the best is yet to come. These are the things the Lord does.
[40:03] He delights to do. He commits to do. He rescues. He raises the poor and needy. He reverses fortunes and reverses circumstances. He gives children. He gives a future. He gives new life.
[40:14] He gives a beginning. He's the one who raises the dead. These are the things the Lord does and he will not forsake them. All this, beloved, is helping us see something very important.
[40:25] Praise is not just the most natural human act. It's not just the most normal human act, the most fundamental human calling, not just the most awesome privilege of the people of God.
[40:36] It is the great revolutionary act. You want to be a revolutionary? You got Che Guevara's shirt at home. You want to be a revolutionary? Praise.
[40:47] It's a refusal to give up, to give in, to roll over. It's a refusal to say there's no way forward. My God raises people from the dead and that's what praise says.
[40:59] It's a refusal to say. It's a refusal, it's a refusal of no to sin and death, to Satan's sickness and disease. It's a call to hope, even hope against hope. Even hope against hope and broken mirrors and broken down lives.
[41:12] Even hope against hope and debilitating disease and pain and illness. It's a call to believe that God is God, God is our God, and God is still committed to these things.
[41:26] Let's start a revolution every Sunday to give him the praise he deserves until he makes everything new.
[41:42] Interestingly enough, this psalm was one of the psalms sung by the people of God at Passover. They would sing Psalm 111 to 118 at Passover.
[41:56] As people remembered God delivering them from Egypt and the angel of death passing over the house, they ate the unleavened bread. And afterwards, while they were eating, they sang Psalm 111 and 112.
[42:08] Afterwards, they sang the next four. On the night that our Lord Jesus was betrayed, he sang this psalm before going out to the garden to conquer sin and death for poor, needy, broken sinners.
[42:25] and now, he's given us this psalm to sing until he returns. He's coming back.
[42:39] And when he does, I want him to find me committed to the revolution. Praise in God for his glory and his grace.
[42:53] Let us pray. Father in heaven, we cast ourselves completely to you. We offer ourselves completely to you. We pray that you'd help us to rest in you.
[43:08] We pray that you would raise up a people here that sing, that praise your name, that are so amazed by your glory and your grace that put in the work and fight for joy in Christ.
[43:27] Would you come and help us? Would you buoy us by your Holy Spirit making sufficient our feeble efforts to honor you and glorify you and live lives worthy of you?
[43:43] We thank you. We praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a message given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.
[43:54] For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com. Thank you. Thank you.