Psalm 116 and it's on page 615.
Psalm 116 beginning at verse 1.
I love the Lord for he heard my voice. He heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.
The cords of death entangled me. The anguish of the grave came upon me.
I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord. O Lord, save me.
The Lord is gracious and righteous. Our God is full of compassion.
The Lord protects the simple-hearted. When I was in great need, he saved me.
Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.
For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
I believed, therefore I said, I am greatly afflicted.
And in my dismay I said, all men are liars.
How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
O Lord, truly, I am your servant.
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have freed me from my chains.
I will sacrifice a thank-offering to you and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord.
Thank you.
Thanks, Chris.
I'm going to ask Tom.
He's going to come up and speak.
Before he does, I'm going to pray for Tom.
Is that okay?
Yep.
Easy.
Good now.
Let's pray for Tom.
Father, we thank you again for your goodness to us,
and we thank you for your gifts towards us in people.
We thank you for Tom.
And we ask now that you would help him as he preaches and seeks to explain this psalm to us.
We pray that our attention, our focus will be drawn not to him, but to you.
We pray that you would fill him and us with your Holy Spirit, so that we may not only hear your words, but understand them.
That they would take effect in our lives, changing us and transforming us.
And so we pray that we will all be encouraged and built up through what we are now going to do together.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Sorry, before you start, there are pens around.
If anybody wants to take notes, on the back of your new sheet, there's a little spot there.
If you'd like a pen, I have some here.
Anybody want one?
Okay.
Well, it wouldn't be right unless I had my usual Sunday morning greeting.
So, good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
So, as Johnny has mentioned, today we're going to be talking about love.
And by way of introduction, I'm going to talk a little bit about who or what do we love.
So if we can think of some things that we love in our lives.
And as Johnny mentioned, how do we know that we love them?
So I'm going to play a little, well, it's not a game, but a little exercise.
That if you know that I love these things, raise your hand, nod your head, whatever it might be.
So when I was younger, I loved the turtles.
Did anyone know that?
Yeah.
Now, I love football.
I don't know that.
Yeah.
I love grace.
Does anyone know that?
Okay.
And I hope that you all know that I love the Lord.
Some of these things were demonstrated.
So like with the turtles, people knew that I loved the turtles because I dressed up like Raphael.
The red turtle.
I had borrowed my mum's red bandana.
She didn't mind.
But yeah, so the way we show that we love things is we live it out.
We demonstrate that love.
So with football, I play football.
I talk about football.
With grace, I show her my love.
I tell her about my love.
And it's the same with the Lord that we need to show him that we love him.
We need to tell him that we love him.
Yeah, so this psalm is all about God's love.
So we're going to go behind the scenes first.
And we're going to look a little bit about this psalm and where it fits in with the Bible.
So a bit of background is that this psalm makes up what is called by the Jewish the Hallel.
This word means praise.
And if you haven't made the connection, Hallelujah means praise the Lord.
And Hallel is the Hebrew word for praise.
So there are six psalms in the Hallel, 113 to 118.
And these psalms form part of their liturgy, their customary public worship together, things they sing at feasts.
So it's part of that.
It's a psalm of praise.
And looking more specifically at this psalm, it's a personal experience of a man.
It could have been a king.
It may have been David.
But we're not told who it was.
So there's one man's experience of death.
When communally sung, that death may have been understood as a deliverance from Egypt of the Jewish people.
But nonetheless, this psalm is about the experience of God's love in the psalmist's life.
So this psalm can be roughly taken in two sections.
From verses 1 to 11, which is talking about God's love being shown.
And verses 12 to 19, where we can see the response to God's love.
Okay, so the first point is that the Lord loves the psalmist.
So when I was preparing this, what hit me straight away was the first four words.
I love the Lord.
And that's what I kind of focused on in preparing that it's about the psalmist's love for the Lord.
About how he loves the Lord.
But then in thinking a bit more, it's not actually his love that's primary.
It's God's love for the psalmist.
So as we read on, we see how God demonstrates his love to the psalmist.
So we see in verses 1 to 2, that the Lord hears the psalmist's cry for mercy.
The psalmist was in a terrible situation.
Death was very close to him.
But he cried out to God.
And the Lord heard him.
So in verses 1 to 2, I love the Lord, for he heard my voice.
He heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.
So our God is a God who listens.
He's not a far off and distant God who we can't be in touch with.
But he is one who hears and answers when we talk to him.
Okay, so how else does the Lord show his love to that psalmist?
He delivers him from death.
We are made aware of this, again, terrible situation that the psalmist is in in verse 3.
The cords of death entangled me.
The anguish of the grave came upon me.
I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
Okay, so this man is in fear of death.
He suffered anguish.
As we read, he was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
Yet the Lord delivered him from that situation.
In verse 6, we see that he was in great need and the Lord saved him.
In verse 8, he declares that his soul has been delivered from death.
His eyes from tears and his feet from stumbling.
So the Lord has shown to the psalmist his great love by delivering him from death.
Okay, and another way in which the Lord shows his love is that he protects him.
So in verse 6, it says,
The Lord protects the simple-hearted.
When I was in great need, he saved me.
Okay, so the psalmist comes out with a statement of how the Lord protects the simple-hearted.
It's just a simple, sincere, it's not complicated.
He trusts and that's it.
There's no complication about his faith.
And the psalmist has the assurance that the Lord will continue to protect him.
It's not, he says this in the present tense.
The Lord protects.
It's not a past thing only.
It's not only for the future, but it's a present protection for the simple-hearted.
Okay, so having looked at how the Lord demonstrates his love to the psalmist,
we can ask, why does he show that love?
Okay, so in verse 7, we can see that the Lord shows his love to the psalmist so that he can rest.
Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.
In the Lord's deliverance and protection, the psalmist can rest.
A good note I saw on rest was that he can enjoy a state of unthreatened well-being,
knowing that the Lord is protecting him.
So he can rest.
Another reason why the Lord delivers the psalmist is so that he can walk before the Lord.
So in verses 8 and 9.
For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
So delivered so that he can rest, and delivered so that he may walk before the Lord.
And this walking for the Lord, living his life for him, is a public thing.
It's in the land of the living.
It's not in his bedroom.
It's not in his own house.
It's in the land where there are people all around him.
And we see in verse 10 that these things come about by faith.
So that resting and that walking for the Lord is by faith.
In verse 10 it says,
I believed, therefore I said, I am greatly afflicted.
So these, in verse 4 and verse 10 and 11, there are quotations.
And I think those can be taken as the psalmist's prayer when he was in trouble.
So it was his faith that caused him to cry out to God.
And it's through his faith that he can rest.
And that he can walk and live for God.
So now having, we can see how this psalm talks to us about how the Lord loves the psalmist.
How he does that and why he does that.
We can move on to talk about how the Lord loves us.
This psalm points us to how the Lord loves us.
So how does he show that love?
As I previously mentioned, this psalmist may have been a king.
It may have been David.
But there is a king who went through anguish, trouble and sorrow for us.
Let's look back at verse 3.
It says,
So when preparing this, what came to mind was Jesus' experience in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He was overcome by trouble and sorrow because of what was ahead of him.
Listen to his words in Matthew.
Then he said to them, this is Jesus speaking,
My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
Stay here and keep watch with me.
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed,
My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.
Yet not as I will, but as you will.
So he cried out to his father that if it were possible,
that this task that God had prepared for him would be taken away.
But he was obedient.
He followed through with what God the Father had planned for him.
And Jesus was delivered over to death at that time for us.
So that we can have life.
We, like the psalmist, are in danger of death.
Not only a physical death, but also a spiritual one,
because of our rebellion against God.
Because of our natural state,
we deserve to be separated from God because he is perfect.
We have a sinful nature and we deserve to be separated.
But like God shows in verse 5 to the psalmist,
his graciousness, righteousness and compassion,
likewise he does to us in Christ.
Listen to this in Romans 5 verse 8.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
So we deserve not only punishment in the future,
but we deserve immediate punishment,
that is death, for our rebellion.
There's nothing stopping God,
apart from his own grace towards us,
from ending everything now because of our sin.
But God has delivered us from that.
And then by faith,
he promises to protect us
and give us life for all eternity,
trusting in what Jesus has done.
So like the psalmist,
we can see how the Lord loves us
and how he's shown it to us in Christ.
And likewise,
there are also reasons why he delivers us.
So again in verse 7,
we can have rest.
We can have perfect rest in Jesus
and listen to his invitation to us
in Matthew chapter 11.
Come to me,
all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
We can have rest in Jesus
because he has done it all for us.
We don't need to earn God's love.
He has already loved us.
And yeah,
when speaking this,
when preparing,
rest is something that
I need to preach this to myself
as much as to anyone else.
That we can have rest
from fear of punishment,
rest from feeling the need
to earn a salvation,
rest from fear,
rest from worry,
rest from feeling
that you have to get everything right.
Rest from everything
because of what Jesus has done.
So,
another reason,
just like the psalmist,
is that we are delivered
so that we can walk
before the Lord.
So we can rest
in Jesus
and we are delivered
so that we can walk
before the Lord.
And again,
it's in the land of the living.
God saves us
and then sends us
into the world
to be his witnesses,
to demonstrate
that love that he has shown us
to other people.
And again,
this resting
and walking
comes by faith.
In verse 10,
I believed,
said the psalmist,
therefore I said,
I am greatly afflicted.
And it's through faith
that we can rest,
through faith
that we can walk.
So we need to trust
in him
and we will find rest
and we will be commissioned
to live for him
in this world.
So we have seen
that the Lord loves the psalmist
and the Lord loves us.
But how did the psalmist
respond
to the Lord's love?
Okay.
The psalmist
loves the Lord.
In verses 1
and in 12 to 19,
we can see
the psalmist's response
to the Lord's love
that was shown to him.
As I mentioned earlier on,
what I focused on
initially
was the psalmist's love.
But that in fact
was a response
to God's love.
Listen to this.
I love the Lord
for he heard my voice.
He heard my cry
for mercy.
So it was the love
expressed
because of love
towards him.
And as we read
through the rest
of the psalm,
we can see
how he responds.
In verse 12,
the psalmist asks
the question,
How can I repay
the Lord
for all his goodness
to me?
He then goes on
in the following verses
to explain to us
how he responds
to the Lord's love
towards him.
Okay.
So in verse 13,
it says,
I will lift up
the cup of salvation
and call
on the name
of the Lord.
One translation
of the Bible
puts it like this.
I will take
the cup of salvation
and call upon
the name of the Lord.
I think this is helpful
to understand
what is meant
by this lifting up
of the cup of salvation.
That it's a receiving
of what God has done.
The receiving
of God's love.
It's not something
that he needs to do
to add on
to what God has done,
but it's something
that he needs
to receive,
receiving God's love.
From what I understand
about the cup of salvation,
that this could be
referring to a cup
of wine drunk
by the Jews
at a meal,
which would then
result in a
thank offering.
They had sacrifices
at Thanksgiving
in the Old Testament.
Or it could be
referring to the cup
drank at the
Passover meal.
But whatever cup
has been referred to,
it's been in reference
to Thanksgiving
for what God has done.
So in response
to God's love,
the psalmist is thankful.
And we can see
that thankfulness
in verse 17.
I will sacrifice
a thank offering
to you
and call
on the name
of the Lord.
So,
in receiving
God's love
with thankfulness,
he calls
on the name
of the Lord.
So he is thankful
for what God has done
and he calls
on the name
of the Lord.
The Lord is the one
that he will call on,
who he will cry out to
for help.
He is the one
he can trust in
and depend on
for the rest of his life.
Like in verse 2,
I will call on him
as long as I live.
So another response,
so there's being thankful,
calling on God's name
and service.
In verses 14
and 16 and 18
we see how
he wants to serve
the Lord.
He's talking about
fulfilling his vows
about how he is
God's servant.
Again,
fulfilling my vows
to the Lord
in the presence
of all his people.
So the psalmist
declares himself
to be someone
who is going to
serve the Lord.
And again,
it's not a private matter,
it's a public thing,
to be lived out
in the presence
of all the Lord's people.
So the response
is to God's love,
receiving that love,
being thankful,
calling on the Lord
and service.
So having looked
at the psalmist's response,
let's ask the question,
what will our response be?
Do we love the Lord?
What is our response
to God's amazing love?
Will we,
like the psalmist,
take the cup of salvation
and call on the name
of the Lord?
Have we received
what the Lord
has done for us?
It's not something
we need to do more,
but it's an accepting
of what he has done.
So as I mentioned,
the cup of salvation
could be referring
to a cup drunk
at the Passover meal
called the cup
of redemption.
And this is something
that the Jews use
at the Passover meal
to symbolize
the blood
of the Passover lamb
back in the times
of Egypt
when that blood
saved them
from the punishment
that the Egyptians
faced
of the death
of the firstborns.
And Jesus,
on the night
that he was betrayed,
while observing
the Passover meal,
he took a cup
and he used it
to symbolize
his own blood.
Not the blood
of the lamb
of long ago,
but his own blood
shed for us.
So have we received
that cup of salvation
that Jesus offers
to us?
The salvation
that is available
to us
by faith.
That in Jesus'
blood shed for us
for our sin,
we can be forgiven
and enjoy
spending eternity
with him.
Okay,
so have we received?
Do we call
on the name
of the Lord?
In verse 13,
I will lift up
the cup of salvation
and call
on the name
of the Lord.
So this calling,
it's not just
a vocal exercise,
it's a living exercise.
It's not just
a verbal
expression,
it's not just
words.
In Romans,
Paul says,
for everyone
who calls
on the name
of the Lord
will be saved.
And it's not
just a verbal
thing.
The word
that Paul uses
for calls
is the same
that he uses
when talking
about how he
appeals to Caesar
in Acts.
In that case,
he was asking
that his case
as he was arrested
would be judged
by Caesar.
He was throwing
himself on
Caesar's mercy.
He was submitting
to Caesar's
authority.
And there were
implications of
calling on Caesar.
He would have to be
obedient to Caesar's
ruling.
Whatever Caesar said,
that is what would go.
He had to be obedient
to Caesar's procedure,
the way of doing things.
And it's exactly
the same with us.
That calling
that we need
to do on the Lord
is an obedience
to God's authority.
It's to throw
ourselves at his
mercy
and to
submit to what
he wants for us.
But it's not
submission to a
tyrant
or to a far-off
king,
but to a loving,
gracious,
righteous,
and compassionate
God that we can
see in this psalm.
Verse 5,
The Lord is
gracious and
righteous.
Our God is
full of
compassion.
So have we
received?
Do we call on
the name of the
Lord?
Do we respond
with thanksgiving?
So like the
psalmist,
he offered a
sacrifice of
thanksgiving to
the Lord.
But for us,
we don't need to
offer those same
types of sacrifices
like they did in
the Old Testament.
But we have a
different way of
doing things.
And Paul explains
a bit about this
in Romans chapter
12.
Therefore I
urge you,
brothers,
in view of
God's mercy,
to offer your
bodies as
living sacrifices.
Holy and
pleasing to God,
this is your
spiritual act of
worship.
So this is our
sacrifice done to
God.
This is our
thank offering.
This is to
offer ourselves
in service to
him out of
thankfulness for
all that he has
done.
So this
verse in Romans
also talks about
service.
Another way that
the end of it can
be translated is
that this is your
rational service.
And the word
that's used there
is logikos,
it's the Greek
word, and that
means logical.
And when Paul
says in view of
God's mercy,
the logical thing,
the rational thing
to do is to
serve him because
of all that he
has done for us.
So as the
psalmist offers
his service to
the Lord,
in verses 14,
I will fulfill
my vows to
the Lord,
16, I will
fulfill my,
18, I will
fulfill my
vows to the
Lord, and
16, he
declares himself
to be God's
servant.
And just like
the psalmist,
so should we
declare ourselves
to be servants
to the Lord.
But what does
that service
look like?
What is it
like to serve
God?
Well, it's
to live as
he wants us
to.
He wants us
to get to
know him
more through
reading his
word, through
talking to him,
through spending
time with his
people.
He wants us
to be
representatives for
him in this
world, doing
what he would
do, saying
what he would
say, if it
were him in
that situation.
He wants us
to make him
known to other
people through
what we say
and how we
live.
We need to
live God's
way, not
our own.
We need to
live like
Jesus lived.
So, in
response to
God's love,
do we receive
what he has
done for us?
Are we
thankful?
Do we call
on his name
and will we
serve him?
And one of the
ways, as we've
seen, that the
psalmist responds
is with rest.
And that, too,
should be our
way of
responding.
We can be
responding by
resting in all
the ways that I
was mentioning
earlier.
And that
resting is one
of the ways in
which we can
publicly
demonstrate our
love for the
Lord.
Resting in
Jesus.
People will
notice that we
are a peaceful,
a joyful,
a loving people
because of that
rest that we
have.
So, like in
the case of
the psalmist,
these acts of
receiving, of
thanksgiving, of
calling, of
service, of
resting, are
all public
demonstrations of
our own love
for the Lord.
So, as sinful
people, we will
never be able to
love the Lord as
we should.
We'll never be
able to love him
as he wants us
to love him.
But thanks to
God's amazing
grace, his love
for us doesn't
depend on whether
we love him or
not.
He has already
loved us.
The title of
this, of what
I'm talking about
is, we love
because he first
loved us.
And it is
Jesus' life that
counts for us if
we trust in him.
He is the one
who loves God
as we should.
And because of
God's grace,
through faith in
Jesus, it's as
if we are
not only Jesus
has done it, it's
as if we have
done it as well
by faith.
So we can rest
in Jesus, that we
don't need to love
God any certain
amount, any degree
before being loved
by him.
That's already
done.
God has already
loved us.
And then we are
free to respond to
God's love by
loving him in
return.
So from this
psalm we can see
how the Lord
loves the
psalmist.
And he shows
that love to
him and has
reasons for it.
And it's the
same with us.
It points to how
the Lord loves
us.
Again, he
demonstrates it to
us and there are
reasons for it.
The psalmist's
response to God's
love is in loving
him in return.
And then the
challenge is, do
we love the
Lord?
Do people around
us know that we
love the Lord?
If I were to do
that same exercise
at work or in
college or in
school with my
friends or if you
did it with your
friends, would
people raise their
hands?
Would people nod
their heads if
they asked?
If you asked, do
you know that I
love the Lord?
Let's make that a
challenge.
Can we make that
known to other
people that we
love the Lord?
Can we, like the
psalmist, declare in
verse 1, I love
the Lord?
And it's because of
how he first loved
us.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you
for your great love
to us.
thank you that
before we were
born, before we
could walk or talk,
you loved us.
And Lord, thank you
that that love
doesn't depend on
what we do.
It just depends on
you and how much
you love us.
Thank you for your
word which teaches
us about your love.
love.
Thank you for how
you have loved the
psalmist and
demonstrated that
to him for our
benefit as well as
his.
Thank you for how
you love us in
Christ.
Please help us to
trust in what Jesus
has done, that he
has taken our
punishment.
And by faith we
can have life.
thank you for the
psalmist response
modelling how we
are to respond to
your love in
loving you in
return.
Please help us to
love you as we
should in a
public way, not
just on a Sunday,
not just with our
church family, but
amongst our
friends, to be
someone, to be
people who are
known to love the
Lord.
Lord, please
help us with
this.
Help us to be
confident in our
love for him.
Lord, thank you
that you teach us
and Lord, thank you
that you help us to
live as you want us
to.
Amen.