We're going to begin our worship today singing in Psalm 145, 145, on page 444, singing to
June Warrington, verses 1 to 7.
O Lord, thou art my God and King, thee will I magnify and praise.
I will thee bless and gladly sing unto thy holy name always.
Each day I rise, I will thee bless and praise thy name time without end.
Much to be praised and great God is.
His greatness none can comprehend.
The theme of our sermon and service this morning is kingship, the kingship of God.
And so the Psalms are chosen to reflect that theme of kingship.
Lord, thou art my God and King.
And we stand.
If you're able to stand, please stand for singing.
O Lord, thou art my God and King.
The will I magnify and praise.
I will thee bless and gladly sing unto thy holy name always.
Each day I rise.
I will thee bless and praise thy name time without end.
Much to be praised and great God is.
Whose greatness none can comprehend.
Christ shall thy works present to rest.
The mighty acts show done by thee.
I will speak of thy glory.
The glorious grace and honor of thy majesty.
Thy wondrous works I will record.
By men the might shall be extolled.
Of all thy dreadful acts, O Lord.
And I thy greatness will unfold.
The utter shall abundantly.
The memory of thy goodness great.
And shall sing praises cheerfully.
Whilst they thy righteousness relate.
Now we're going to join together in prayer briefly before the children go through to their classes and to the tweenies.
Let's join together in prayer.
Almighty God, we thank you that we can sing your praises.
And that in singing your praises we can sing of your greatness, your majesty, your kingliness.
The glory that belongs to you and belongs to your throne, to your rule.
And we thank you today that we come together, O Lord, to uplift your holy name in worship.
We pray that you'd bless our children today as they come to join together here with us in the service.
And as they go through to Sunday school and to tweenies and also those in creche.
We thank you for them and we thank you, Lord, for the important place they have in the congregation.
And we pray that as we set them before you today, we pray that as they grow up and develop in their lives, that they may also do so in a positive way morally and spiritually.
Bless them and keep them, Lord, from all the evil that exists in the world.
We give thanks for your promise to your covenant children that you will be a God to them and that they will be your people.
We pray that that will be fulfilled in the experience of all our children here in this congregation and all the children of your church far and wide.
We pray today that you'd help them to learn about you and to learn about that salvation that you have provided for us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And give them, Lord, we pray, as they grow up to be more and more interested to learn of the glories of Christ, of the wonder and the amazing grace that has appeared in him as he came into the world to give himself and to die the death of the cross.
And so bless them, we pray today, and all of us involved in the service today, we pray that your blessing, Lord, will rest upon us, that your Holy Spirit will guide us whatever age we may be.
We acknowledge our need of your Spirit to work in our hearts.
Hear us, then, we pray, and pardon all our sin for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
Well, just over a week ago, I'm sure most of you saw the coronation or saw pictures of the coronation and some of the magnificence of the occasion.
Now, I want you to picture something.
I want you to picture yourselves in a car traveling at night on a very lonely road.
It's not a very nice night.
It's pouring rain.
And then your car gets a puncture.
And there are no other cars nearby for ages because it's a very little-used road out in the countryside, on the moorland, somewhere like that.
And now you are, and you're punctured, and you're not really sure just how to go about changing the tire or fixing things up so you can travel again.
And then all of a sudden, you see a car coming eventually, the lights of it coming in the distance, and then the car comes close to you, and it stops.
And you realize to your amazement that sitting in the back of it is the king.
And he gets out, and he says, can I help you?
And you explain to him what's happened.
And he says, well, do you have a jacket, or do you have an overall or something?
Yes, I've got one in the boot.
That's fine.
He says, I'll get it.
So he goes into the boot, and he puts on the overall, and he gets down, and he starts changing your tire, and it gets all dirty.
And, of course, after changing the tire, he needs to wipe his hands.
You would never believe that that was actually the king, but it is.
And after he's finished changing the wheel, and everything's okay for you to go, he says, that's okay.
You're on your way now.
Where are you heading for?
And you tell him where you're going, and he says, that's okay.
Just to make sure you get home safely, I'll follow you.
So off you go with the car, and the king's car follows you all the way until you get home.
Not very likely, you might think, happening in the ordinary case of things in this world, that you would find the king coming along and then stopping and changing your tire.
Could happen, but it's unlikely, really, isn't it?
You'd probably have some servant to do it for you.
But Jesus, the king of heaven, he actually came into this world on a journey, and he stopped when he came into the world, if you like to put it that way.
He stopped, and he took note of us in our lostness.
And he came to help us.
He came to save us.
He came to do something much more important than fix up a broken car.
He came to fix up our broken lives.
And he put on the garment of our humanness.
He became human so that he would die the death he died on the cross, and then rise again from the dead.
And just as in our picture of the king saying, I'll follow you till you get home safely, that's what this king does as well.
When you come to believe in him and to trust in him, he gives you the assurance that your journey will not end until you've reached home in heaven, and he's going to be with you all the way.
And you know the wonderful thing is, when you get to heaven, he's there, and you find out it's his palace.
And you're going to be living with him in that palace forevermore.
What a wonderful king Jesus is.
To have done that, to have come into this world, to have put on our humanness, to have lived a perfect life, to have died the death he died on the cross for our sins, so that we might be saved.
This is eternal life.
Jesus himself said in John chapter 17, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
So think about it today.
There is no more wonderful story than the story that's true about King Jesus and what King Jesus has done so that we might live with him forever in his palace in heaven.
Now we're going to say the Lord's Prayer together.
Let's say the Lord's Prayer.
It's actually written out on the bulletin sheet if you need to follow it there.
Amen.
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
I'm going to sing again now from Psalm 72, Psalm number 72.
That's on page 92 in the Singed Psalms version.
The tune is Rocking Him.
And we'll sing verses 1 to 7.
Endow the King with justice, Lord, the royal Son with righteousness.
Your people, your afflicted ones, he'll judge with truth and uprightness.
The mountains will bring peace to them, the hills the fruit of righteousness.
He will defend and save the poor and crush all those who them oppress.
Psalm 72, page 92, and these verses 1 to 7.
Endow the King with justice, Lord.
Endow the King with justice, Lord, the royal Son with righteousness.
Your people, your afflicted ones, he'll judge with truth and uprightness.
The mountains will bring peace to them, the hills the fruit of righteousness.
He will defend and save the poor and crush all those who them oppress.
As long as sun and moon endure, so will he live time without end.
He'll be like showers on the earth, like rains that on morn fields descend.
The righteous wind will blossom forth throughout this everlasting rain.
Until the moon no longer shines, peace in abundance will remain.
We're now going to turn to read God's Word firstly in the book of Psalms.
The book of Psalms and Psalm 47.
And we'll read a few verses also from Luke's Gospel and chapter 19.
First of all, Psalm 47.
A psalm entitled to the choir master, a psalm of the sons of Korah.
Clap your hands, all peoples.
Shout to God with loud songs of joy.
For the Lord the Most High is to be feared, a great King over all the earth.
He subdued peoples under us and nations under our feet.
He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves.
Selah.
God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God.
Sing praises.
Sing praises to our King.
Sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth.
Sing praises with a psalm.
God reigns over the nations.
God sits on his holy throne.
The princes of the people gather together as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God.
He is highly exalted.
And we turn now to Luke's Gospel, chapter 19, a few verses from verse 28.
Luke 19 at verse 28.
And when Jesus had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
And when he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two
of the disciples saying,
Go into the village in front of you where on entering you will find a colt tied on which
which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying
it? You shall say this, the Lord has need of it. So those who were sent went away and found it just
as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owner said to them, why are you
untying the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing
their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the
road. As he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of
his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had
seen, saying, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the
highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, teacher, rebuke your disciples.
He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. Amen. May God bless that
portion of his word that we have read. Let's join together again in prayer.
O Lord, our God, as we give thanks for your word, we give thanks for the assurance that you bring us
in it, that you are our God, for the assurance that as you bring your people to know you, so you will
have them to give them your guidance and have them to be with you, and you're with them forevermore.
Lord, we thank you today for your kingship. We thank you for your royal reign over the whole universe,
and we thank you that that remains the case, however people may rebel against you.
Lord, we read elsewhere in the Psalms that the kings of the earth, the nations, rebelled against you
and sought to break the bands by which they were held together in obedience to you. And we pray,
O Lord, that as we find ourselves natively and as we find our hearts so naturally rebellious against
you, and as we find the world in which we live so much directed against obedience to God and acceptance
of his ways. We thank you for the way that your gospel brings to us, that call that is addressed
to us, O Lord, to come and avail ourselves of the freedom of the salvation that you have provided for
us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you that he has been exalted to this mediatorial kingship,
where having died the death of the cross and risen from the dead and being exalted to glory,
he is now set at the right hand of God on high, ruling until all his enemies be made his footstool.
And we bless you, O Lord, today that in a world that is so given to opposing the gospel,
we give thanks that these things remain true. We pray that you would help us, Lord, to communicate
them, that great truth about you, whatever resistance we may find, whatever hostility we may find against
acceptance of these things. We pray, gracious one, that you would further equip and empower us and
enable us to hold forth the Word of God, to hold forth that life that is rooted in Christ Jesus,
and that seeks to live in obedience and holiness to him. Bless us then, we pray today, Lord, here as a
congregation of your people. We give thanks, Lord, that we can gather here regularly to worship you.
We thank you for your Word that we have in our midst. We thank you for the fellowship we hold with each
other. We thank you for the provision that you have made for us and continue to make for us in the
gospel. We pray, Lord, that this may be blessed to us, that all of these advantages and privileges
that we have may be blessed to us today. We pray that we may know you in this gathering,
a God who is so great and so majestic and so mighty, so eternal, even the heaven of heavens cannot
contain you, as Solomon said, let alone this house that I have built, as he said, of the temple.
And we thank you, O Lord, that while that is so true also of this building, yet you have been
pleased to make your people your residence, to come to occupy their hearts. We pray today that we may
know your presence here with us, that we may know, Lord, that you are here, that you are here with
your interest in us to bless us, with your concern that we would know you and know you better. We ask
your blessing to be with each one of us. Lord, we have our individual concerns, our individual places
in life, our individual responsibilities. We pray today that you would bless us and bless us together,
bless us in our homes and families. Lord, bless us, we pray, in a world that is so hostile to the very
idea of a biblical family and of your people being known as a people of the Lord. We pray today that
your word may truly come with power once again into our understanding. Open up our minds, we pray, to
further understand the things of the gospel and give us to be more and more concerned to live out the
gospel in our manner of life in this world. Bless again, we pray, all our children and young folks. We ask
that you would continue to provide for them and continue to encourage us and them in the things of God.
Lord, remember, we pray today those who have difficulties in their lives. We pray for those
we know ourselves as a congregation who today are facing various types of struggle, physically,
mentally, or spiritually. We ask that you would be pleased, Lord, to bless those at this time who
are laid aside in illness, in hospital, or at home, or in care homes. There are so many, Lord, who belong to
us as families in our communities and as a congregation. Lord, we pray for them today.
We thank you for the grace of recovery that you have brought to some. Lord, we thank you that there
are some today who attend church with us, who have been laid aside for some time, and we give thanks for
them and for their recovery. And we pray that that will be so for all others today, Lord, whom we know
are laid aside in illness. We pray for those who mourn. We continue, Lord, to remember those who have
lost loved ones, not only in recent times, but in times gone by. We know, Lord, that these departures,
these separations remain so very vivid and so very much a present experience, even though it
have happened in the past. We pray that you would comfort them today. We pray that your truth,
O Lord, will come to give them the assurance of your own support for all who come to trust in you.
We pray, Lord, today for those who have experienced bereavement and death and sorrow even in recent times
in our communities. Remember, we pray those who were caught up in road accidents. We pray for the
young driver of the road accident in Ballallon recently. We pray for her, O Lord, and ask that
you'd bless her as she's newly qualified, we understand. We pray for all relatives of the one
who was killed, and we commend them to you also and ask your blessing for them. Remember, too, those who
were in the accident in Ballallon in previous weeks, we pray for these boys and ask that you'd bless them,
Lord, at this time. And we pray that they may know what it is to turn to God and to know God's
strength and God's guidance on their lives. And we ask that you would continue to remember all today
who are struggling with their faith. We know that there are many instances, Lord, in the experience
of your people when they feel that their lives come to be shaken, and when they may begin to question
their relationship with you or question even your own wisdom. And we pray, O God, that you would help
them and you would help us all at such difficult times of struggle to regain our equilibrium and our
faith and place our trust anew in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is sufficient for all our circumstances
in life. We pray that you would remember our community at this time and all the ways in which
we seek your blessing, Lord, for our schools and teachers, for parents of pupils attending school, for
all the ways in which challenges face us, O Lord, in these areas also. And we do ask that you would
continue to give your blessing to those who seek to remain steadfast, to your own truth and to the
values of the gospel. Hear us, we pray now, and continue with us as we express and confess our
sins. Lord, we pray today for your forgiveness, for your cleansing of us, for our re-establishment
in your ways if we have gone astray from them. We pray, too, for those, Lord, today who have
truly gone away from following you and who have gone back into the ways of the world. Remember them,
Lord, we pray, and grant them the grace of recovery, too. Hear us now, we pray, and all for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Let's sing once again before we turn to Scripture. We'll sing this time in Psalm number 2.
Psalm number 2 on page 2 of the Psalm books. The tune this time is Finart.
Psalm number 2, singing verses 1 to 6.
Why do the heathen nations rage? Why do the peoples plot in vain? Earth's kings combine in enmity,
how rulers join against God's reign. They take their stand against the Lord and challenge His
anointed one. Let us break off their chains from us. With their restraints, let us be done.
Psalm 2, verses 1 to 6 to God's praise.
Why do the heathen nations rage? Why do the peoples plot in vain? Earth's kings combine in enmity,
a ruler's kings combine in enmity, and the rulers join against God's reign. They take their stand against the Lord and challenge His
anointed one. Let us break off their chains from us. With their restraints, let us be done.
The one enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord on high derides them all. Then He rebukes them in His wrath, His rage and
terror on them fall. The Lord has made it known to them. My chosen King I have installed. On Zion my own home.
Holy hell, He is the one whom I have called.
Now let's turn back for a short time to Psalm 47. In the book of Psalms in Psalm 47, we'll look at the whole
psalm and something of its content, but we can just read verses 6 and 7.
Sing praises to God. Sing praises to our King. Sing praises, for God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm.
I'm sure there were many sermons preached on kingship in some way or other over the past couple of weeks, following on from the coronation that took place in London.
And this is a psalm that really speaks about a coronation or an enthronement. And it is a psalm that really pulsates with excitement, with joy, with anticipation.
It's a psalm that sets out not just any king, but God as king. And as you know, God's kingship was represented in the kingship of the Old Testament kings.
Not in the persons themselves as such, because there were some really bad ones, but in the kingship and the concept of kingship over Israel was a reflection of the kingship of God Himself over His people.
And so as you come to this psalm, you can see how vibrant it is with praise to God, with an acknowledgement of His right to rule, an acknowledgement of the fact that He is the King,
and it's a psalm that has a very far-reaching message. It's really, in a sense, a prophecy of the kingship of Christ, kingship of God, as it came to be revealed in Jesus Himself,
and as it exists in Jesus, exalted to the kingship of the universe after having come into this world and died the death of the cross and risen from the dead.
And so you have all of that packed into the psalm in terms of its fulfillment, as it came to be fulfilled in Christ, especially in the New Testament age onwards.
So here's, first of all, a call to revere God the King. A call to revere God the King in verses 1 to 4.
And then you have, secondly, a chorus of praise to God the King in verses 5 to 7.
And thirdly, you have a congregation in homage to God the King in the final verses of the psalm.
And we'll try and bring out some of the main points in each of these sections of the psalm,
following that same theme of kingship with which, of course, the psalm is taken up.
A call to revere God the King, then, first of all. Look at how it begins.
Clap your hands, all peoples. Shout to God with loud songs of joy.
For the Lord the Most High is to be feared, a great King over all the earth.
And you notice immediately that it's a call to the whole earth. It's a call that's universal.
It's a call not just to the people of Israel or Judah, to David's people. It's a call to the whole earth.
Clap your hands, all peoples. Shout to God with loud songs of joy. For He is King over all the earth.
In other words, all nations are called through this great psalm to come to acknowledge God as King.
It's a vision of God's universal authority and claim.
God's universal authority and claim.
They actually reject the kingship of God, the sovereignty of God, even the existence of God.
That does not make it untrue.
And we're living in a day when that, of course, not that it's new, but it's very much to the fore in people's thinking.
That we worship someone who doesn't exist.
That even if God does exist, He can't actually be sovereign.
Look at everything that's happening in the world.
Why doesn't He control these things if He's really in control?
All of these sort of questions, and some of them are difficult to answer.
But the one thing that's unquestioned is the Bible's presentation of God as the King.
And the Bible's presentation of the claim of the King over all human life, every human life, and every aspect of human life.
You cannot dethrone God.
However much people attempted, however much people may dethrone God in their hearts,
and reject the idea of Him being in charge of their lives,
that still remains the case that God is King.
And today God is King.
He's on the throne of heaven.
He's on the throne of the universe.
And this call that goes out through the gospel to all people to come and acknowledge God,
and even acknowledge Him with loud songs of joy, with a shout of joy.
It's the universal call of the gospel, isn't it?
And you notice it is songs of joy.
Shout to God with loud songs of joy,
for the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared.
And of course, when the Bible uses the word fear in that context, the fear of God,
it doesn't mean cringing before a tyrant.
This is no tyrant.
This is no despot.
This is no dictator before whom people just are afraid to even show their faces.
When it says fear the Lord, it really is equivalent to love the Lord,
respect the Lord, pay homage to the Lord,
lovingly accept His authority.
That's what it's really saying.
Songs of joy.
I shout to God with loud songs of joy.
God is not today a God who forces people into some way of thinking that they don't want themselves.
Of course, we're all, of course, naturally opposed to God in our heart, in our sinful human hearts.
But how does Jesus win our hearts?
How does God win our hearts?
Well, you have the answer to that in the book of Psalms as well.
Another psalm of kingship, one of the great psalms of kingship in the Old Testament in the book of Psalms is Psalm 110,
which Jesus Himself quoted on one occasion in His time on earth.
The Lord says to my Lord,
How does God actually come to bring people to acknowledge Him?
How does He come to bring them to accept His kingship?
Well, it says,
Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power.
They will come to offer themselves freely on the day of your power.
When you came to accept Jesus Christ, a Christian, as a Christian,
when you came to accept Jesus Christ, you who are Christians today,
you didn't actually accept Him against your will.
You accepted Him by God renewing your will,
by the grace of God changing you inwardly in your attitude to God and to His truth.
He made you willing, as that psalm said, in a day of His power.
One of the greatest things about God and His grace is that He turns our life around in a positive way
so that we are no longer at enmity with Him.
We come to accept Him, to acknowledge Him, to love Him, to fear Him
through the change that He affects in our hearts and our minds.
He makes us willing in a day of His power.
And you know, this is really something that meets the deepest longings and yearnings of our human hearts.
We don't realize it at the time until God actually brings us to know the reality of His truth
and of His existence and of His salvation and of our need.
But all the yearnings of the human heart after happiness, after satisfaction,
are really due to the fact that there's a vacancy there for God.
And there's a vacancy there for God which nothing else can fill
in the way that His salvation and His presence does.
Somebody once put it,
In creation, God is above us.
In the law, He is God against us.
But in the gospel, He is Emmanuel,
God with us, God like us,
God for us.
This is the God this Bible speaks about, this psalm speaks about.
God in His greatness,
God in His grandeur,
God in His magnificence,
God in His majesty,
God in His universal sovereignty.
But He's God with us in Christ.
God is Emmanuel.
God has come into this world
to show His concern for us as sinners that we might live.
And in order to bring us to possess
that salvation,
He makes us willing
in a day of His power.
Here's a call to revere God the King.
How do you see Him today?
What's your relationship with God like?
What kind of relationship is it?
You know that He's the King from the teaching of the Bible,
but is He willingly your King?
Is He willingly on the throne of your own heart?
Have you come to willingly accept Him?
Have you come to say to God,
Lord, Your Word teaches me
that You need to make me willing
in a day of Your power.
Make me willing.
I need You.
I want You.
I can't have satisfaction in my human life without You.
Make me willing.
Bring me the satisfaction I was created for.
Bring me to accept and acknowledge
and bow to Your kingship
and to Your right to be my God.
Clap your hands, all peoples.
Shout to God with loud songs of joy.
And you see, He says,
He chose our heritage for us,
the pride of Jacob whom He loves.
Jacob's another word for Israel, of course,
for the people of Israel or Judah.
He chose our heritage for us.
The pride of Jacob really is just another phrase
to describe the land,
the pleasant land, the Canaan
that God had provided for His people.
The pride of Jacob,
really equivalent to the glorious land of Canaan,
if you like.
And you know how much in the Old Testament
Canaan is spoken of so positively,
a land flowing with milk and honey,
the best of all things in the land of Canaan.
That's the inheritance God on earth
had prepared for His people Israel,
but that's just an emblem.
That's something that's symbolic
of a much greater and a much better land,
the land of heaven,
the land in which there is,
in which there is no lack.
And that's really today
what God is saying to us here.
He chose our heritage for us.
It's a special allocation by God
of an inheritance for His people in Christ in heaven.
And you know, this is really reminding us,
powerfully reminding us,
reminding us so that we will sing praises to God
that we haven't chosen the kind of eternity
that is going to be the eternity for God's people.
How could we have possibly chosen
what heaven is going to be like in Christ?
But God has done it.
The very thing He knew we needed,
the very thing He knew deep down
was the vacancy of our lives, of our souls.
That's what He's provided for us.
He has chosen our heritage for us.
Could you have chosen a better heritage?
Could human beings anywhere have chosen
a better heritage than the salvation
that God has chosen for His people in Christ,
which culminates in that heaven
from which there is no parting?
This fulfillment that really meets
every aspect of our human need.
You remember how Peter put it in his first epistle,
Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has brought us again to a living hope
by the resurrection of Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled and unfading,
that is reserved in heaven for you
who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation.
You cannot improve on that.
And there's no need to,
because He's chosen it for us
so that we can enjoy it forever.
You know, that's why our first catechism,
as we learned, most of us probably,
many have at least learned,
the catechism from our youngest days,
what is man's chief end?
Really the same thing as saying,
why was man created?
Why does man exist?
Man's chief end is to glorify God.
Mustn't leave it there, though.
And to enjoy Him forever.
Man's chief end is to glorify God
and to enjoy Him forever.
How is it made possible for sinners
who have rebelled against God?
It's made possible because God came into this world,
because God came in the person of Jesus Christ,
because God gave His Son to the death of the cross,
because Jesus rose from the dead,
because He's at the right hand of God,
because the King makes us willing in a day of His power.
That's how it's all possible.
He brings us back to the enjoyment of God.
Are you enjoying God?
Are you in living fellowship with Him?
Has the bridge between you and God been mended?
Are you reconciled to God?
Is He your friend?
Is the King your friend?
That's what it's all about, isn't it?
To be feared, to be loved,
to actually accept the heritage He chose for His people.
We can say that, again, it's something like this.
Somebody quoted what heaven is like,
what this inheritance,
what this heritage of Jacob,
this heaven is like.
It's days without night,
joys without sorrow,
sanctity without sin,
love without stain,
possession without fear,
friendship without envying,
communication of joys without lessening,
and they shall dwell in a blessed country
where an enemy will never enter
and from which a friend will never depart.
A land into which an enemy will never enter
and from which a friend will never depart.
That is the heritage God has chosen for His people
that's ours freely in Jesus Christ.
A call to revere God the King.
We need to move on.
Secondly, a chorus of praise to God the King,
verses 5 to 7.
God has gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God.
Sing praises.
Sing praises with a psalm.
Well, that's really a reflection, if you like,
of probably the ark being returned to Jerusalem
in the time of David.
You find that in 2 Samuel chapter 6,
where with great celebration,
the ark was returned to Jerusalem
in the proper way as God Himself had specified,
having failed to do that the first time.
And the celebration is something akin
to what you find in this psalm.
It's really, in a sense,
God represented in the ark
as it went up to Jerusalem.
It's really saying here,
God has gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God.
But it's more so the case in its fulfillment
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who could have anticipated
when this was written in David's day
in the Old Testament?
How could they have possibly anticipated
that this would be true
of the Lord Jesus Christ,
of the King in our nature coming,
having died the death of the cross
and risen from the dead,
to have gone up back to heaven
with shouts, with acclamation,
with acceptance of Him
as the great King?
That's what happened.
Psalm 24, another great psalm
of acknowledging the kingship of God.
Open up, you gates,
so that the King of glory may enter in.
That's just what happened.
This is already the case,
that Christ has gone into
the glory of His palace in heaven.
The Lord has gone up with a shout.
And of course,
having gone up in that spiritual sense
means that He must also have come down,
which is what He did.
He came down,
and Paul in Ephesians
twice captures this for us,
Ephesians 1,
verses 19 to 23.
We don't need to read them all,
but this is what he says,
where he prays that
the Ephesians will have their eyes,
the eyes of their hearts enlightened,
that you may know
what is the hope
to which He has called you,
what is the glorious riches
of His inheritance in the saints,
what is the immeasurable greatness
of His power toward us who believe,
according to the working
of His great might,
that He worked in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead
and seated Him at His right hand
in the heavenly places,
far above all rule and authority
and power and dominion
and above every name that is named,
not only in this age,
but also in the one to come.
And He put all things under His feet
and gave Him as head
over all things to the church,
which is His body,
the fullness of Him
who fills all in all.
There's the other wonderful emphasis there,
that all of this has happened
for the benefit of His people.
He rules over the whole of the universe,
and it's for the benefit
of His own believing people.
What a privilege is yours today
that this King, as your King,
holds everything in His hand,
rules everything,
directs everything,
for your benefit.
Same in chapter 4 of Ephesians.
Paul again mentions it,
but this time it's in terms
of equipping the church,
equipping the church
for the work of the gospel.
The Lord has gone up.
The Lord has gone up with a shout.
Sing praises to God.
You know, verse 6 there really
is reminiscent of a chorus.
That's why I've given
the point here, the title,
the chorus of praise to God the King,
because this reminds you
of a chorus or of a group of people
just together singing praises.
And sing praises to God.
Sing praises.
The repetition there
is reminiscent of a great crowd
gathered together
at a different point saying,
yes, praise to God.
Praise to God.
Hallelujah.
It just shows you
how wonderful even the words
of Scripture are
that they can convey
such a message to us.
praise to God.
It's a crowd of people singing
praises repeatedly to God.
For God is King of all the earth.
Sing praises with a psalm,
it's translated there.
Now, nothing wrong with that translation,
but it's the same word you find
in the titles of some of the psalms,
a maskel,
a Hebrew word maskel,
which has a root
meaning something like
wisdom or understanding.
So you could really translate this
sing praises with a maskel,
sing praises with understanding.
That's such an important point
when we're coming to sing praises to God.
And it is important
that we sing praises to God.
You might say today,
I don't have much of a voice to sing.
It doesn't matter.
Use it.
Sing praises to God
because He's worthy
that we sing His praises.
Not that we just are there
when His praises are being sung
by other people.
Sing praises.
Join in the praising.
Join in the singing of the praise.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 14,
Paul mentions this
amongst the other things
that he says there.
He's correcting them in some ways
as to how they were emphasizing
so much speaking in tongues
or praying in tongues
or singing in a way
that wasn't understandable
by other people.
And this is what Paul says there
in verses 13 and 14.
For if I pray in a tongue,
my spirit prays.
My mind is unfaithful.
What am I to do?
I will pray with my spirit,
but I will pray with my mind also.
I will sing praise with my spirit,
but I will sing praise with my mind also.
Now he's reminding us there
that it's possible to have
either one or other of those,
but it's best to have both.
You can sing praise with your mind
so that just merely following mechanically
the words of a psalm,
whatever you're singing.
But it's not with your heart.
You can sing praise with your heart,
if you like,
if you're used to the words
and your heart is in it,
but maybe not reflecting
on the words that you're singing.
And Paul is saying there,
and the Bible is saying to us,
when we're singing the praise of God,
it's to be both.
It's to be, first of all,
singing with the mind,
with the understanding,
thinking of the words we're singing,
contemplating the meaning
of the words we're singing.
And the more we do that,
the more it will actually mean
that we're singing with the heart,
that our heart is really in it.
I'm not saying this because
this congregation are not good singers,
or because you're not entering
into the singing of praise.
I'm not saying that at all.
It's just that we have to remind ourselves,
especially when we become familiar
with the words of the psalms,
that we always need,
however much we know them by heart,
we need to think about the meaning of them,
and let that flood into our understanding,
and then our emotions,
our feelings, if you like, as well,
that we sing with the heart
and with the mind.
He's saying here, sing.
Sing praises with understanding.
Sing praises with a psalm.
So there's a call to revere God the King,
a chorus of praise to God the King,
thirdly, a congregation
in homage to God the King.
Look at verses 8 to 9, conclusion.
The princes of the people gather
as the people of the God of Abraham.
God rules over the nations.
Again, he's just repeating the same for emphasis.
The princes of the people gather
as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the shields of the earth belong to God.
The shields there being another way
of expressing the leaders of the earth,
following on from the mention
of the princes of the people.
The leaders of the people gather
as the people of the God of Abraham.
In other words, that's really anticipating
one people of the Lord
drawn from all the peoples in the world.
Remember God's promise to Abraham
in Genesis 12,
I will bless you.
I will bless you greatly.
And in you,
all the families of the earth
will be blessed.
What he meant by that was
Jesus, the descendant of Abraham,
as he came to be
the Savior of his people.
Well, there is the promise to Abraham,
in you, all the families of the earth
will be blessed, or through you.
The leaders are all gathered together.
It's an anticipation of the final gathering
of all God's people
drawn from wherever they may be.
And they're all gathered
to sing the praises of God
and to acknowledge that he
is highly exalted.
Now, if you reflect upon
the coronation of over a week ago,
you may not have seen it,
but you have seen photos, I'm sure,
if you didn't see
any of the proceedings themselves broadcast.
And you know that
part of the procedure,
well, near the end of it especially,
was that King Charles
was given a scepter
and an orb.
His orb, I think, was in his left hand,
the scepter in his right hand.
The scepter being an indication
of his temporal kingship,
kingship in terms of
temporal worldly authority.
And the orb in his left hand,
as it really represents the world,
if you like.
But above both of them,
at the tip, at the top of each of them,
is a cross.
A cross representing Jesus.
Jesus.
Because although Charles held
the scepter indicating
temporal kingship,
he's under the kingship of God.
And as he held the orb
indicating the whole world,
it's not that he was the king
of the whole world.
What he was acknowledging
is that he belongs to that world
of which Jesus is the king
because the cross,
a cross sits above the orb as well.
There is an emblem,
if you like,
of acknowledgement of God as king.
God as king of kings
and lord of lords.
God as the rightful king.
God as the king
before whom we come joyfully
to express our acknowledgement
and obedience and homage
to him as our king,
as our God.
God as the king
so that the coronation really,
for all its pomp
and all its ceremony,
it's really a pale reflection
of the kingship of God
and of coming to acknowledge him
as the king of all things.
Jesus holds the whole world
in his hand.
He is the universal king.
He has all of history
and the world's development
in his hand.
And we're thinking of that today,
aren't we,
as we say,
sing praises to God,
sing praises to our king,
for God is the king
of all the earth.
And maybe
one of the most amazing things
about it is that
the hands today
that hold
the regalia
of kingship in heaven
are the hands
that were nailed
to the cross of Calvary.
Because the king came
into this world
to die
and to die the death
he died on the cross.
And when he was risen
from the dead,
you remember,
one of the things he did
to the disciples
was he showed them
his hands
and his feet
so that they would know
the reality
of two things.
One,
this is the Jesus
who died.
Two,
this is the Jesus
who is now alive
forevermore.
Jesus,
the king.
Sing praises
to our king.
Let's pray.
Lord,
help us,
we pray,
willingly to acknowledge
your kingship,
your right to rule
over the world
in which we live
and our own lives in it.
Help us to acknowledge you
and confess you
truly
and lovingly
and obediently
as our king.
We give thanks,
Lord,
that you have revealed
to us your right
to rule over us.
We pray for that
willing acknowledgement
that would come
to give ourselves
into your hand
as your subjects.
we bless you today
for the extent
of your rule.
We bless you
for the quality
of your rule.
We thank you
for the prospect,
Lord,
that your people
have in their
believing lives,
the prospect
of entering
into the palace
of the king
to abide with him
forevermore
on that great day
when he comes.
Receive our thanks,
we pray now,
and pardon our sin
and cleanse us
for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
Well, we're singing
in conclusion
in Psalm 45,
Psalm 45,
on page 270,
singing to a tune,
Dennis.
We're singing
verses 12 to 15.
This is really
a psalm of marriage,
a marriage between
the prince
or the king
and his bride,
which we associate
with the Lord
and his people.
and here is
the bride being
addressed in verse 12
as to her
marriage to the king.
And all the way
through,
we find an emphasis
there on her
relationship with the king,
her beauty
and the beauty
of the king
as together
they enjoy
marriage life,
married life.
And of course,
as the Lord
and his people
in spiritual
marriage together.
So we'll sing
verses 12 to 15.
The daughter
then of Tyre
there with a gift
shall be
and all the wealthy
of the land
shall make their suit
to thee.
The daughter
of the king
all glorious is within
and with embroideries
of gold
her garments
wrought have been.
She cometh to the king
in robes
with needle wrought.
The virgins
that do follow her
shall unto thee
be brought.
They shall be brought
with joy
and mirth
on every side
into the palace
of the king
and there
they shall abide.
These verses
in conclusion.
The daughter
then of Tyre
there with
a gift
shall be
and all
the wealthy
of the land
shall make
their suit
to thee.
The daughter
of the king
all glorious is
within
and with
embroideries
of gold
her garments
wrought
have been.
She cometh
to the king
and robes
with needle
wrought
the virgins
that
to follow
her
shall
unto thee
be brought.
They shall
be brought
with joy
and mirth
on every
side
into
the palace
of the king
and there
they
shall
abide.
After the benediction
I'll go to
the main
door.
Now may the
grace of the
Lord Jesus
Christ
the love
of God
the Father
and the
communion
of the
Holy Spirit
one God
and one
king
be with you
now and
evermore.
Amen.
I love
with you
your
said
to
me
for
you
could
say
that
he
does
economically
have
ox
other
instances
that
him