Just bow your heads in prayer for a moment, please, while we remain standing.
Father, we give you thanks and praise that your word has treasures for us to see and to hear.
We give you thanks and praise that, Father, that as we read your word time and time and time again,
that you continue to help us to notice new treasures in your word.
We ask, Father, that you would do a wonderful and gentle but powerful work in our hearts this morning,
that your Holy Spirit would bring the treasures of your word into our heart,
that our hearts might treasure them, and that we might live upright, free lives
to your honor and your glory and the furtherance of your kingdom.
And we ask this in the precious name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Amen. Please be seated.
Amen.
So, I sometimes get to mentor people on how they speak and how they do sermons.
And one of the things I tell people when I'm trying to help them learn how to give a sermon or a talk
is I tell them that the sermon or talk always has to have a good introduction.
It should have some type of an introduction that gets people's attention
and sort of makes them curious about what's going to happen next.
So, I'm here to tell you that I don't have such an introduction today.
I also tell the young people, the young men or women that I'm helping,
that you can get away with saying you have no introduction once or twice a year,
but if you do it every week, then people will think that's a bit lame and you should work harder.
I tried.
I just couldn't come up with a good introduction for the sermon this week.
Maybe after the sermon's over, when you have coffee, you can say,
George, this would have been a perfect illustration to get people into the sermon.
So, there you go.
It's Psalm 33.
If you have Bibles, it would be great if you could look in the Bibles yourselves.
And for those of you who don't have Bibles with you, the text will be up on the screen.
And here's how the Psalm begins.
I'm going to sort of look at it in a group of chunks.
And here's how the Psalm begins.
And by the way, the Psalm begins by not really seeming like it says very much,
but there's actually something in this which really messes with your head
and sort of just blows up.
Like, it's actually quite an astounding statement.
But let's read it first, and I'll go back, and I don't know if you'll, maybe you'll notice it.
Maybe you won't.
We'll see.
Here's how it goes.
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous.
This praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre.
Make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
Sing to him a new song.
Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.
In other words, with exuberance.
And that's what it says.
Now, here's the thing which is actually quite astounding about this Psalm.
Over the last couple of years, I've become aware of the fact
that some of you know that I'm very interested in apologetics.
And over the last couple of years, I've become aware of the fact
that there's actually quite a powerful and persuasive argument
for the existence and the truth of the Christian God from music.
That's not something I had thought of before a couple of years ago,
but I've now read a couple of articles or parts of books
which make, I think, a quite convincing claim
that only in Christianity is there an explanation of music.
Now, here's the question, here's the issue.
There used to be a fellow who'd come to the 8 o'clock service,
and the reason he came to the 8 o'clock service
was because there was no music at the 8 o'clock service.
He really liked music.
He just hated music in church.
He thought all church music was just terrible
and was only a distraction.
And he came to realize one day
that it's not a spiritual gift to be grumpy,
so it would be just better if he only came to the 8 o'clock service
and never had to hear any music.
But most of us have had different types of experiences with music.
Experiences with music, something like this.
We've heard a piece of music, we've been at a concert,
and there's something about some pieces of music
that are transcendent,
that almost make you feel like you've left your body,
that there's something about it just so,
like you're touching something bigger than this physical reality,
something bigger than this world,
that there's some meaning here that you're entering into,
there's something just sublime and beautiful and transcendent,
and most of us have had some experiences like that with music.
Not every piece of music we hear,
but with some pieces of music that we hear.
It's just that there's something powerful, beautiful, transcendent,
uplifting, almost as if we've left our body.
Now the question is, how do we explain this experience?
Like, how does this experience make any sense?
Now here's where the apologetic comes in.
It's called an abductive argument.
It's not something that it proves,
it doesn't prove my point,
but it's a pointer,
it's a problem or a puzzle that only one viewpoint can sort of accurately explain it.
If you accept the basic story of Canada,
which is that ultimately everything came into existence
through some type of evolutionary process,
and what that means, it's a naturalistic process.
There's no God, no designer, no creator.
It's just, you know, when the Big Bang happened,
just the very nature of the type of matter that got created
and the way everything got propelled out of that, you know, massive bang,
that sort of just inevitably one thing happens after another
and after another and after another and after another,
and eventually there's life and there's eventually you and me,
but there's no purpose, there's no meaning,
there's no direction.
It's just one thing that happens after another.
It's all completely and utterly a coincidence and an accident
that the things that we see in the world and exist
are just the way they exist.
Now, obviously, most people don't really think about that very much
because if they thought about it very much,
it's actually a very terrifying thought.
It's actually a very terrifying way to understand the world
and understand yourself.
But think about music.
If, in fact, that account is correct,
that it's just one thing that happened after another,
there's no design, no intent, no purpose,
it's just cause and effect.
If that is the case, then our experience of music,
well, music and all is just an accident.
That's all it is.
If maybe at that big bang,
things had been a billionth of a billionth of a billionth
of a billionth of a billionth of something different,
there wouldn't be any music,
just like there wouldn't be any of us.
It's just purely and utterly a coincidence and an accident.
And that means that if you think there's something significant about music,
if when you're hearing certain pieces of music,
there's something in there that transports you,
that gives you a sense of something more,
then what you're experiencing is a delusion.
By the way, you know, one of the best scenes that sort of partially captures that,
one of my all-time favorite movies,
like lots of other people, is The Shawshank Redemption.
And it's not a movie for everybody.
There's some really sort of very brutal types of scenes
sort of about a third of the way into the movie.
But if you've seen that movie,
there's that time in the movie when he takes over
the place where the intercom is.
And he plays opera music.
And it completely and utterly transfixes all of the inmates.
And you see that for a while they're not in prison.
They're transported.
They experience something bigger than beyond themselves.
But once again, our current philosophy
basically says that those things are merely an accident.
They have no meaning.
And if you think they have a meaning,
that's just an illusion.
You fooled yourself.
Only the Christian faith ultimately helps you to understand
that your experience of music...
Well, here, if you could put up the first point, Claire,
that would be very helpful.
Music is not a meaningless accident
whose power is a delusion, a sin, or a trap.
It's beyond that.
But as you know, for many parts of Islam,
music is something to be...
When the Taliban come, music stops.
In a sense, in a Buddhist and Hindu worldview,
in some ways, music is a bit of a trap.
It connects you to this world.
And from a naturalistic perspective, it's a delusion.
And I would say that music is not a meaningless accident
whose power is a delusion, a sin, or a trap.
In fact, if you could put up the next point, Claire,
that would be very helpful.
The triune God inextricably wove music into human beings.
Now, not inexplicably, inextricably.
Very similar sounding words, but they're something quite different.
Inextricably means you can't remove it.
That when God created human beings,
he created us in such a way that music,
the ability to appreciate music and understand music
and want music,
is something just woven into us
that can't be removed from us.
Where do I get that?
Well, look at verse 1 again.
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous.
Praise befits the upright.
In other words, there's something about praise that fits.
It fits with how God made human beings.
It fits with how the universe is.
And it's not just praise.
It's praise involving music.
Because it continues in verse 2.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre.
Or with the six-string guitar.
Or however many strings there are in a piano.
Make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
Sing to him a new song.
Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.
See, what the Bible is saying here
is that God has woven music into human beings.
And he's woven music into human beings
so that there is a way to use music
which connects us to him.
In other words, it's very, very clear.
Unlike what our culture says,
when a person, any person,
it doesn't matter if you're a Muslim, a Buddhist, an atheist,
it doesn't matter if you're a Hindu,
it doesn't matter who you are,
but when you experience music,
and when you're experiencing music in such a way
that it sort of lifts you out of yourself,
it's a bit transcendent,
there's just something you feel
that's beautiful and significant about it,
you're having a window into what the real world is.
God created you so that there would be times
when you experience music
and feel there's meaning and transcendence.
And I actually think only the Christian view explains
and makes that experience understandable.
Now, it's also very interesting
that it's not just music
that God has woven into our nature,
but also, in some ways,
goodness and love and beauty and justice
are somehow or another woven into us as human beings
and woven into the created order.
It used to be, you know,
you can't have people who want to claim,
you don't meet them very often right now
because we're in a,
we're in sort of like a witch-hunting,
absolutist culture right now.
Like we went from a relativist culture
to a witch-hunting, absolutist culture,
like in the blink of an eye.
But when I used to have discussions
with people who claimed they were moral relativists,
they couldn't actually argue for moral relativism,
nor could they argue for any type of thing at all in society
without assuming the reality of moral truths
and truths of justice
and the demands of love.
Like it was actually impossible.
One wag put it that it's like trying to argue with somebody
that, who claims that air doesn't exist,
but they can't actually even say a single word to you
without breathing air.
But they're completely blind to it.
And so the Bible actually shows something quite beautiful.
It's for people outside of the Christian faith,
it's, this gives a bit of an understanding
about why as people grow within the Christian faith,
there's a type of beauty and power to it.
Look at verses 4 to 9.
It goes like this.
For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice.
The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
You know, just before I pause, before I go any further,
I mean, what this is saying here is that
that God spoke the world into existence,
and when he spoke the world into existence,
not only did he design human beings
so that music is something inextricable to them,
and from music as well, art,
but that also being right, like the goodness,
and that type of justice or balance and fairness,
and steadfast love was also woven into the created order.
Verse 6,
If you could put up the third point, Claire,
that would be very handy.
What this text is saying very clearly
is the triune God spoke,
and the universe came into being.
There's no necessity.
Everything is, to use fancy philosophical language,
everything is contingent.
God just decided it would be good,
and he spoke it into existence.
Whether that ends up being a deep creation
with a long history as seen in the Big Bang
or some other type of mechanism,
there's lots of different ways
that Christians can easily connect this view
with what science is discovering.
In fact, actually,
one of the things which you should,
those of you who aren't familiar,
you should watch some videos by James Tours,
who's an award-winning chemist and engineer
at the University of Houston,
and one of the things which isn't talked about very much
in academic circles,
is that the great breakthroughs
that have been happening in the fields of biology
and biochemistry in the last several decades
have come about because people on one level
are fundamentally rejecting evolution,
and rather than trying to figure out
how this happened by chance,
they now look at it as something designed
and are trying to figure out how it's designed.
And it's not talked about formally
that they've rejected evolution,
but they're functionally acting
as if evolution doesn't exist,
as if things are designed,
looking for the design,
and then trying to figure out
all the features of it.
So there's no problem with this statement
with science,
but you'll notice,
if you could put up the next point, Claire,
that would be handy.
The created order reflects
the goodness, justice, beauty,
and love of the triune God.
See, that's why love is so important to us.
That's why truth is so important to us.
A couple of years ago,
I was at an apologetics event,
and I was on the stage
because I had done a very small presentation.
That actually was the presentation on,
it was a presentation
when we did an apologetics conference
on intelligent design.
And one of the questions that came to me
from the answer was,
from the audience was,
one of the questions that came from the audience
was that, George,
don't you think it's impossible
to know the truth?
Don't you think just, you know,
because of the way science works
and because of bias and all of these,
it's impossible to know the truth
and speak the truth?
And that was the question,
and my answer was very simple.
Do you want me to give you
a true answer or not?
And everybody laughed.
Because, of course,
this individual wanted me
to give a true answer,
and they've already answered
their question.
They wanted a true answer,
not a false answer.
It was just a,
it was a non-question,
a question that we think
we're being smart and clever with,
but actually doesn't,
it's not smart or clever.
But we all know that human beings
need love.
Then we crave it.
And we know that at the end of the day,
we want to know the truth.
I mean, that's really under attack
in North America.
Morris will tell you,
if you come to the 8 o'clock service,
I give a shorter sermon,
but I also give some fairly politically
incorrect comments
at the 8 o'clock sermon
because I know everybody's there
and it's not on YouTube.
And so I don't have to worry about it
haunting me down the years.
But, you know,
increasingly in our culture,
language is being changed
in such a way
not to help us know the truth,
but to stop us
from knowing the truth.
It's one of the reasons
our culture is increasingly in trouble,
is that language is being changed
to obscure the truth
rather than helping us
to know the truth.
And if we don't know the truth,
we can't solve problems.
We need truth.
We need justice.
We need these things.
And only the Christian,
only the Christian scriptures
explains why these are such deep needs
and why we can't actually
function without them.
Even people who are acting
profoundly unjustly
try to frame what they're doing
within the language of justice.
Putin's invasion of Ukraine,
completely unprovoked,
a completely and utterly terrible act,
he, of course,
will try to give you
a justice reason for it.
And that's very telling.
And it also shows you
this next bit
because, of course,
you know,
the thing that we might want to say,
George,
you know,
that's all a very,
very nice way of talking
about the created world.
But the fact of the matter is,
George,
that, you know,
the world has elements like that.
Partly you're true,
but, I mean,
there's the war in Ukraine,
there's terrible injustices
all around the world.
Some of the people here
in this congregation
have been delivered
from profound evil
and profound injustices,
death squads,
terrible abuse.
And so, George,
just to talk about
all of these things
isn't very helpful.
We might even say,
George,
that's the problem I have
with religious people like you.
And I would just say to them,
well, that's fine,
you can have problems
with religious people,
but you can't have problems
with the Bible
because those objections
are anticipated
in the very next movement
of the psalm.
They are.
Look and see at verse 10.
It doesn't just say,
oh, yes,
everything is just,
you know,
bluebells and happiness
and, I don't know,
little unicorns
and all that.
No, no, look at verse 10.
The Lord brings
the councils of the nations.
Another way to understand
the word nations
is people groups.
The Lord brings
the council of the people groups
to nothing.
He frustrates
the plans
of the peoples.
The council
of the Lord
stands forever.
The plans
of his heart
to all generations.
Blessed is the nation.
Blessed is the people group.
Blessed is the person
whose God is the Lord.
The people
whom he has chosen
as his heritage.
So,
what this text
is saying here
is that the reason
that there is evil
in the world,
there are terrible
injustices in the world,
that in fact,
there are people
and people groups
who desire things
and plan things
and organize things
and seek things
and pursue things,
and the things
that they seek
and the things
that they pursue
are very contrary
to how the purpose
is that God
is woven into human beings
and he's woven
into the created order.
He's made us
to know truth
and we tell lies.
He's made us
to desire truth
and we desire lies.
He's made us
to be faithful
to each other
and we betray each other.
He's made sexuality
to work
in a particular way
and we've rejected
those ways
that he's made sexuality
to work.
and he's made us
to love beauty
and we love ugliness.
He's made us
to encourage
and we tear down.
He's made us
for these types of things
and we do
these types of things
and sometimes
we know why
we're doing them
and sometimes
we don't know
why we're doing them
but that's what's going on
in the earth
and that's what's going on
in people's hearts
and one of the things
that the psalm is saying,
yes, I know
these things are going on
but you also need to know
that you can never
erase my purposes.
Try as you might.
You can't erase them.
My purposes are unfailing.
They're intergenerational.
They will last
until all things
come to the end
that I determine
is the end.
Not Apple.
Not the Supreme Court.
Not the Liberal Party
or the Conservative Party
or any party.
It is my end
which will be the end
that ultimately comes.
If you could put up
the next point
that would be very helpful.
You see,
the human problem
is not
that you have desires
and pursue purposes.
That's not the problem.
I mean,
here is where
Christianity
parts paths
very profoundly
with Buddhism
at a very,
very deep level.
It says that
there's so much
noble and beautiful
about Buddhism
but at a very deep level.
They're trying
to do something
which will erase you
as a human being
and take you
in a desire
and a direction
that God does not
want for you.
You see,
the problem isn't
that you have desires
and you pursue purposes.
The problem is
that you cannot
have desires
or purposes
without them
being tainted
by a rejection
of God
and an exalting
of yourself.
That's the problem.
That's my problem.
You know,
when I'm preparing
a sermon
and that's something
that God wants me to do
and do I
take a turn of phrase
to try to make it
look like I'm wise?
Do I even tell you
that
as a way of making it
look that I'm wise
that I know
that I'm being foolish?
And do I say
that next thing?
You know,
you can have
this endless loop
and all you can say
to that is
shut up, Satan.
Just keep going.
It can taint,
there's a tainting
of even God's
good purposes
towards my exaltation.
You know,
they say that
one of the things
if God,
when God eventually
is,
that's a terrible
way to put it,
some of us
have been praying
that God will give us
a building of our own
that we can use
365 days a year,
24-7.
And one of the things
that people who help
you raise money say
is that when you make,
let's say you get
a building
or you get some land
but you have to
remodel the building
or completely change
the building
or you have to
build something
on the land,
one of the things
that people always
wonder first,
whether they acknowledge
it or not,
is where will I
be able to sit?
Like,
how does this fit me?
And of course,
nobody wants to say
I'm opposed to the plan
because there's not
a place for me.
Nobody's going to say that.
We can come up
with other reasons
about cost
or this or that,
but that's just
a very powerful
human drive.
You see,
the Bible
has a profound
insight
into the human heart,
a profound insight
into the human heart
that doesn't leave us
in despair
but gives us hope.
Look at this next
long section
which,
well,
just look,
verses 13 to 19.
The Lord looks down
from heaven.
He sees all the children
of man
from where he sits
enthroned.
He looks out
on all the inhabitants
of the earth.
He who fashions
the hearts of them all
and observes
all their deeds.
The king
is not saved
by his great army.
A warrior
is not delivered
by his great strength.
The war horse
is a false hope
for salvation
and by its great might
it cannot rescue.
Just sort of pause there.
We'll just stop
at verse 17.
Now,
you know,
here's something
which,
just listen to this text.
It's actually,
if you ask my wife
at coffee time,
she'll tell you
that in many ways
I am still
a mystery to her.
We're going to be married
42 years in October.
She would say
that in many ways,
George,
she'd say,
he's a mystery to me.
And maybe not
with the same amount
of forthrightness.
I mean,
in some ways,
Louise is a bit
of a mystery to me.
And you know,
if I'm honest,
I'm a bit of a mystery
to me.
You know,
when sometimes
you ask yourself
or think,
why did you do that?
I mean,
there doesn't really
seem to be a reason
why sometimes
you do what you do.
Where the reason
you realize
is really like
a stupid reason
that you think,
why on earth
could I have been
so stupid
to do that?
But you know,
if you could put up
the next point,
that would be
very helpful.
You are a mystery
to yourself,
but you are not
a mystery
to the triune God.
He sees your heart
and your deeds.
You are a mystery
to yourself,
but you are not
a mystery
to the triune God.
He sees your heart
and your deeds.
Right?
That's what was
in verses 13 to 15.
The Lord looks down
from heaven.
He sees the children
of man.
Where he's enthroned,
he looks out
on all the inhabitants
of the earth.
He sees Steve
and Louise
and me
and Andrew
and Lisa
and Rachel
and Diane
and Morris.
He sees each one
of us.
And he who fashions
the hearts of them all
and observes
all their deeds.
He's the one
who created us
to have a center,
a heart.
And he sees our hearts
and he observes
our deeds.
It's why you and I
are not mysteries
to him.
Which is why
the Bible
can be so profound.
Because it's ultimately
he spoke the Bible
into existence.
I mean,
obviously there was
a human process
to it.
And notice
how he,
this psalm
written,
who knows,
maybe 2,500 years ago,
maybe 3,000 years ago,
it nails
the anthem
of the average
Canadian heart.
There's a song
that we sing
to ourselves.
And there's a song
that television
and media
sings to us.
And it's encapsulated
in verses 18 to 17.
16 to 17.
We don't recognize
it at first.
The king is not saved
by his great army.
A warrior is not delivered
by his great strength.
The war horse
is a false hope
for salvation.
By its great might
it cannot rescue.
But if you could put
up the point, Claire,
doesn't this sound familiar?
The anthem
of the Canadian heart?
I need to be king.
I need a more
powerful entourage.
I need to be
a powerful warrior.
I need powerful
techniques and tools.
You know,
the problem I have
in my night,
right,
you know,
if the things
that are going on
in my family
or in my workplace
are all right now,
if I could only be
like the king,
if I could only
have more power,
and the fact
the matter,
not only do I
need more power,
but I need more people
to get around me
and to gather
to be like my entourage
to help with this project.
I mean,
you know,
one of the problems
with people nowadays
when we talk about romance
and part of the problem
with saying
that we have a soul friend,
and there's real truth
in that,
but there's also
a trap in it
because what we're
really looking at
is somebody
who's going to be
part of our entourage
who's just supporting,
like,
we say we want
like somebody
who's like a,
like we have
a soul connection,
but really what we want
is somebody
who's just going to
help me be me,
and you can see it
just in the whole way,
you know,
anyway,
you know,
but I need to have
more people around me
who are powerful,
I need to,
and I need to be
a more powerful warrior,
I need to be able
to handle these things,
I need to be able
to handle the boss,
I need to be able
to handle my neighbors,
I just need to be
more powerful,
I need to have,
sort of be like the king,
I need to have people
around me who are
going to help me
be powerful,
who are powerful,
and I need to be
more powerful,
and dang it all,
I need more powerful
techniques and tools,
like I need the newest iPhone,
I need the newest laptop,
I need the newest sound system,
I need these things,
and what are we told
all of the time,
not only do you need
these things,
you deserve these things,
you deserve that F-150 truck,
you deserve that Audi,
you deserve that technology,
you deserve this holiday,
and that's the message
of our culture,
it's the anthem
of the Canadian heart,
that's what God sees,
he sees your heart,
he sees the anthem
that you sing to yourself,
and that you like it
when others sing this anthem,
and we just sort of
automatically assume
that it's those,
this anthem reflects
how God understands
and sees the world,
when we have any time
to think of God
as maybe having
some type of place
in our life,
but it's a complete
and utter shock
that God completely
ignores these people,
look at what it says,
in fact,
you could put up point eight,
point eight is just
a quoting
of verses 18 to 19,
it's my final point,
but it's just quoting
18 and 19,
behold,
the eye of the Lord
is on those who fear him,
on those who hope
in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver
their soul from death
and keep them alive
in famine,
what is famine?
Famine is when you don't
have the entourage,
you don't have
the powerful warrior,
you don't have
the powerful tools,
and you're not king,
and it's a famine,
and his eyes are on you,
his eyes are on you,
and me,
when we call out to him
that he would deliver us.
Just to start
to wrap things up,
you know,
you look at that verse 19,
that he may,
18 and 19,
behold,
the eye of the Lord
is on those who fear him
and those who hope
in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver
their soul from death
and keep them alive
in famine,
it's this picture
of people who've come
to realize that they,
it's like the anthem
of the Canadian heart
is playing all of the time
and all of the time
and all of the time,
and in the midst
of all of it,
sort of in between it,
you realize that
you need mercy
from God,
and it has this,
you know,
beautiful promise
of his delivery
from death.
If you have Bibles
and you turn
to 2 Timothy chapter 1,
verses 8 to 14,
I think it's,
I think it'll be up
on the screen
for those of you
who don't have Bibles.
Listen to this,
these words of Paul
written towards
the end of his life.
Therefore,
do not be ashamed
of the testimony
about our Lord,
nor of me,
his prisoner,
but share in suffering
for the gospel
by the power of God.
Here's the thing,
who saved us
and called us
to a holy calling,
not because of our works,
but because of his own
purpose and grace,
which he gave us
in Christ Jesus
before the ages began,
and which now
has been manifested
through the appearing
of our Savior Christ Jesus,
who abolished death
and brought life
and immortality
to light
through the gospel,
for which I was
appointed a teacher,
which is why
I suffer as I do,
but I am not ashamed,
for I know
whom I have believed,
and I am convinced
that he is able
to guard until that day
what has been
entrusted to me.
Follow the pattern
of the sound words
that you have heard
from me
in the faith and love
that are in Christ Jesus
by the Holy Spirit
who dwells within us.
Guard the good deposit
entrusted to you.
Back in the psalm,
they hope that God
will deliver them
from death,
and they're looking forward
to that great deliverance
of death
that will come in Christ.
So how should we live?
Turn back to Psalm 33.
The first thing is,
if we spend our week
and our time
singing the anthem
of the Canadian heart,
then we need to,
we either need to come
into that relationship
with God
where we call out to him
to save us
and deliver us,
but once we've done that,
we need to come
and recommit.
We need to hear God's word
to remind us
of what's true.
We need to gather
around the Lord's table
to remember
what Jesus did
for us on the cross,
and in a sense,
every Sunday
is a time
for us to gather
and say,
some of us will say,
I've been at best
an ordinary Christian
this week,
and some of us
might come and say,
I've been a terrible,
crappy, horrible Christian
this week,
and I really need
to come
to recommit,
not to be saved
again
and again
and again,
but to recommit,
to affirm the creed,
to hear God's word,
to remember who Jesus is
and what he did
for me on the cross.
I need that.
Listen to verses 20 and 21.
Our soul waits for the Lord.
He is our help
and our shield.
Our heart is glad in him
because we trust
in his holy name.
We need to recommit.
And the second thing
we need to do
is pray.
The psalm ends
with a one-sentence prayer.
The psalmist turns to God
and says,
let your steadfast love
be upon us
even as we hope in you.
I mean,
we need to gather
to recommit
and we need to learn
how to pray.
He's made us
to talk to him
and we need to gather
and say,
Father,
Lord,
let your steadfast love
be upon us,
be upon me
even as I hope in you.
Help me to hope in you.
And then the final thing
is actually
if you put up
the first three verses,
we need to gather
and sing.
We need to sing
God's praises.
We need to come together
and shout for joy
in the Lord,
O you righteous.
Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the Lord
with the lyre.
Make melody to him
with the harp
of ten strings.
Sing to him
a new song.
Play skillfully
on the strings
with loud shouts.
We need that.
God's made us
to sing his praises.
Just in closing,
as I finished working
through the outline
of my sermon last night,
we had some people over,
some of my grandkids.
I had some sound-cancelling
headphones on
and I'd finished working
and I,
while I was working
on this sermon,
I listened to Arvo Part.
I don't know how many
of you are familiar with him.
He's an Estonian
Christian composer.
He might have just died recently,
if not,
he's very old.
And his music is just
transcendently beautiful.
And as I,
as I,
as I finished the preparation,
I just,
I mean,
how could I not?
I just was convicted
that I just really needed
to hear God's praises
being sung.
And so,
one of my favorite,
over the last couple of years,
I love Austin Stone Worship's
live version
of Great is Thy Faithfulness.
And I,
I just,
I just had to put it on.
And my grandkids
probably thought I was weird
because my eyes were all moist.
Because I just loved
hearing them sing
Great is Thy Faithfulness,
their live version
at the Gospel Coalition
Women's Conference
in 2018.
And that's how I finished
preparing for the sermon.
And if I could have
waved a magic wand,
we'd all stand up
and watch it right now
on the screen
and sing along.
But we won't.
We're just going to stand
and close with prayer
and then we're going to go
into intercession.
And we're going to sing
some more later
and we're going to recommit
around the Lord's table.
Let's stand in closing
in prayer.
You might not like the version,
but if you're looking
for a really,
to my mind,
powerful version
of Great is Thy Faithfulness,
check out Austin Stone
Worship's live version
of that song.
Let's pray.
Father,
we give you thanks
and praise
that you know our hearts,
you know our deeds
and still you love us.
We give you thanks
and praise
that you know our hearts
and deeds
and you sent your Son
to die for us,
that we might hope in you
and in hope in you
that we might have
eternal life,
an eternal life
that begins on this side
of the grave
and will continue
through the valley
of the shadow of death
into the new heaven
and the new earth.
We thank and praise you,
Father,
that your word helps us
to understand
why love and justice
and righteousness
is so important to us.
We thank you
that your word helps us
to understand
why music can have such power
and we ask, Lord,
that you help us
to sing lustily unto you,
that you help us
to recommit every week
when we gather
with your people
and that we might learn
to pray as you have prayed.
Father,
we ask that your steadfast love
would fall upon us
and rest upon us
and move deep within us
as we hope more
and more in you.
And we ask these things
in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior.
Amen.