WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:19.599 Let's just bow our heads in prayer for a moment. Father, we give you thanks and praise that you 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:30.959 want your children to be near you, to be near your heart, to know that you love us and care for us, 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:37.439 that you hear our prayers, that you desire us to be near you and have the same view of the world as 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:41.759 you do so that we might be in harmony with you. Father, we give you thanks and praise that as your 00:01:41.759 --> 00:01:47.359 great heart for us. Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would come and move with gentle and deep 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:54.560 penetrating power, Father, to so continue to make us more like Jesus and to be near you. And we ask 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:59.920 these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Saviour. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:13.039 One of the reasons why people often are, don't, those who are outside the Christian faith don't 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:18.640 want to become Christians or are nervous if they're starting to think about becoming a Christian, 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:23.839 Christian, is that for a lot of people when they think of Christianity, see the Christian faith, 00:02:23.839 --> 00:02:30.479 they think that to become a Christian means that they will come into a smaller world, a narrower world, 00:02:31.279 --> 00:02:38.879 a cramped world, a diminished world. And they very naturally fear this, like who would like to 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:45.519 actually enter into a more narrow, cramped, diminished world? And they fear this. 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:53.439 And now, this psalm actually, in fact, it's really, this is just part of the whole providence of God. 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:58.879 Those of you who are watching this online, just to let you know that we aren't a church, 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:04.560 there's not 5,000 people out in the stands right here listening to the sermon, far from it. But 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:10.320 sometimes we can accidentally be like a mega church. So in some mega churches, when they have a sermon, 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:16.879 they're able to make a whole set to reflect what the sermon is. And by the providence of God, even 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:23.439 though we're a tiny little church, we're like a mega church today because the set actually is a 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:28.879 perfect counterpoint to the psalm that we're going to look at and this idea, this fear of being in a 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:33.439 narrow world. Well, what am I talking about? Well, very simply, the play that's on here at the, 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:37.519 we're meeting in a live theater, if you don't know that, if you're watching or listening online, 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:41.920 the play that's on in this theater right now is called The Death of a Salesman. 00:03:42.640 --> 00:03:47.280 And The Death of a Salesman is a famous play, I can't remember now, I think it might be from the 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:54.800 50s, but I can't remember when the date's from. But it's a, it's a play about despair. And no, 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:58.800 it's not, this isn't a spoiler alert, I mean, the play is called The Death of a Salesman. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:06.719 And so the play ends with the salesman committing suicide. And the play is about the fact that this 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:12.960 man has completely devoted himself to the American way. He wants to become a complete American, he's 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:18.879 given himself to trying to just live within this world, to make his way within this world, to make 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:25.519 lots of money, to be a success, to sell well, and he's completely sold himself to be in this world. 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:32.879 And by the end of it, he kills himself. He comes to a point of despair that suicide is the only way 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:41.120 forward for him. In contrast, the psalm that we're looking at today is a psalm that tries to help us to, 00:04:41.599 --> 00:04:48.799 to give up our small, narrow, this world only point of view, and to live in a big world, a big, 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:56.079 universe-spanning world, all open to us, that we are to, to dwell in and to rejoice with. And it 00:04:56.079 --> 00:05:02.319 tries to make us look at the world and see it as, as very, very, very big. So obviously there, there 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:11.519 can be some Christians who, because they've forgotten the Bible or not known the Bible, do create a type of 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:17.759 Christianity which is very, very narrow and very, very cramped and very, very fearful and very, very 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:24.799 restrictive. The Bible keeps trying to blow that up. And Psalm 148 is a psalm to blow that up and to 00:05:24.799 --> 00:05:30.399 have us look and see how big the world is. And it's good to be in a big world and take your place, brother 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:39.039 and sister, in this big world. So let's look at it. And it's going to be Psalm 148. Psalm 148, if you don't 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:42.560 have a Bible of your own, should have mentioned this earlier, there's a couple of free Bibles 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:46.560 there you can come and take. The words will be on the screen, but it's really good to have the Bible 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:51.520 of your own, right? And look and see that, that what I'm saying. Now, the first thing here, and this, 00:05:51.520 --> 00:05:56.879 this actually continues to fit with the difference between Psalm 148 and the play that's going on in 00:05:56.879 --> 00:06:02.480 this place, The Death of a Salesman. And it's a bit of a geeky point. There's two geeky points in this 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:09.200 sermon that I'm just going to share with you. I know most of you aren't geeky, nerdy types with 00:06:09.200 --> 00:06:14.879 the Bible. But for the three of us who are, this is where you really come into your thing, 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:20.560 because the geeky point here is actually really important. So take your Bibles and look at the 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:26.160 first three words of Psalm 148. This is the geeky point. What are the first three words of Psalm 148? 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:33.040 Praise the Lord. In Hebrew, it's one word. And if you look at what are the last three words 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:40.380 in Psalm 148? Praise the Lord. In Hebrew, it's hallelujah. Three words at the beginning, 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:44.300 identical three words at the end. And here's the geeky point. It's called a frame. 00:06:45.200 --> 00:06:54.120 It's a framing device. It's to try to set before you the, there's a frame, and the frame helps you to 00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:57.579 understand what's in the middle. And what's in the middle will help you to understand the frame, 00:06:57.579 --> 00:07:04.000 and it all fits together. And why this is such a brilliant counterpoint to being on a stage with 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:09.680 a plate called the death of a salesman is this. What the death of a salesman reveals is that the 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:17.680 average Canadian and North American lives in what some scholars call the imminent frame. And that's a 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:22.560 big sounding word. It just really means something like this. What is life to the average Canadian? 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:29.480 One dang thing after another, and then you die. And if you ask it at Tim Hortons, they won't use the 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:36.819 word dang. And that's what life is. One dang thing after another, and then you die. And within that 00:07:36.819 --> 00:07:42.560 imminent frame, because it's just one dang thing after another, that's pretty depressing. So what you 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:47.000 need to do is you still need to find some pleasure, you need to find some joy, and you need to find things 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:53.480 that you can give meaning to. But here's the problem with finding things that don't have any inherent 00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:58.980 meaning or value that you try to give them to. You give the thing meaning to. It's exactly like 00:07:58.980 --> 00:08:05.800 I have nine children. They're all old now. I have grandchildren too, because I'm ancient of days. 00:08:06.500 --> 00:08:09.060 And I'm not. That's God, ancient of days. I'm just old. 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:15.300 And, but you know, there was a time when our, you know, the kids, I don't know what they were, 00:08:15.379 --> 00:08:20.600 maybe, you know, there's some of the kids were like, you know, six, eight, you know, nine, 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:25.800 11, or something like that. And I think we were visiting somewhere. And the person had been to an 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:30.379 early version of a dollar store and given out a couple of these little tiny, plasticky, 00:08:30.980 --> 00:08:35.820 junky things, you know, to each of them. And they were, they're just young kids. They were really 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:43.320 excited to get them. But one of them was better than the other toys, at least to the kids. And they 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:48.660 fought over it. Now, I know it's hard to believe that I'd have children that would fight with each 00:08:48.660 --> 00:08:53.640 other, but I just had normal human children and human children fight. And they fought over this one 00:08:53.640 --> 00:09:00.440 particular little junky plastic toy. So I eventually had to intervene and deal with it. Now, for all of 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:07.360 you parents, half an hour later, how many of my children remembered the junky toy? Zero. 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:18.540 Where did that junky toy go a week after this incident? The garbage. You see, when something, 00:09:18.680 --> 00:09:23.960 in fact, has no inherent value, but you just try to put value on it, because you live in this imminent 00:09:23.960 --> 00:09:28.540 frame, and life is just one dang thing after another, you're not actually much better than the six-year-old, 00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:31.899 the eight-year-old, and the nine-year-old fighting over a piece of junky plastic. 00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:37.539 You might think it's really important for a moment, but you know it isn't. 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:44.240 And that's the frame of this world. It's not satisfying. Life is just one dang thing after 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:48.860 another. The things that he tried to put his meaning into come to nothing. And at the end, 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:56.659 he knows he's going to die, but before that, he commits suicide. This frame here, remember the 00:09:56.659 --> 00:10:00.579 first three words of the psalm, praise the Lord. The last three words, praise the Lord. It's a, 00:10:00.579 --> 00:10:06.719 it's a, literally, it's called a framing device to frame the entire psalm. And you can see right here 00:10:06.719 --> 00:10:12.699 off the bat, the Bible is calling us not to live in the frame that the average Canadian lives in, 00:10:12.759 --> 00:10:16.659 which is the imminent frame that life is one dang thing after another, and then you die, 00:10:16.659 --> 00:10:18.839 but a transcendent frame. 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:26.480 There is a God that does exist. As we're going to see in a moment, he is worthy to be praised. 00:10:27.220 --> 00:10:34.620 If we don't recognize his worthiness, that's on us, not on God. We are to grow into recognizing his 00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:40.940 worthiness. And we live between birth and death in a world where there is a God that does exist, 00:10:41.040 --> 00:10:45.879 that frames all things, who is to be praised. That's the frame that we're going to be in, 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:49.240 and that frame is going to help us to understand what goes on in the frame, 00:10:50.539 --> 00:10:54.600 with, like, in the net limits of the frame, and that also helps us to understand the frame. And 00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:59.820 that's what the rest of the psalm is. And, and so it goes, once again, it begins, praise the Lord. 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:06.039 Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Now, before I go any further, 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:10.919 here's, here's the second geeky thing, okay? I didn't lose you with the first geeky thing. 00:11:10.919 --> 00:11:19.579 So this geeky thing's important. It actually is really, really, really helpful. And that, that is 00:11:19.579 --> 00:11:27.299 this. There's a literary device. If, if I told you that I was looking for my church key, 00:11:28.299 --> 00:11:34.599 I don't know what it is, folks. The last couple of years, I have become an expert at losing my church 00:11:34.599 --> 00:11:40.699 key in my house. I think when we finally move, they'll eventually find 50 church keys in different 00:11:40.700 --> 00:11:45.360 places in my house, or there's house elves or something that steal just the church key, not the 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:52.420 others. Anyway, so I'm looking for my church key, and I might tell you that I looked high and low. 00:11:53.780 --> 00:11:57.900 And what does high and low mean? It's called a merism. I think I'm pronouncing it correctly. It 00:11:57.900 --> 00:12:03.620 means you look everywhere. I look high and low. You know, if you're looking for your, looking for 00:12:03.620 --> 00:12:08.680 something, I mean, we had some people on our street, they're, they have a neighbor whose dog keeps 00:12:08.679 --> 00:12:14.899 escaping. And the kids and all go out, and they look far and wide. It means you look everywhere, 00:12:15.139 --> 00:12:20.199 right? So there's a, a similar type of device that's all the way through the Bible, and it's called 00:12:20.199 --> 00:12:25.620 heaven and earth. And you, when you see heaven and earth, you're to understand it as being a way of 00:12:25.620 --> 00:12:31.219 saying high and low or far and wide. It means everywhere, everything. Heaven and earth is a, a poetic 00:12:31.220 --> 00:12:37.680 way, a memorable way of saying everything. And so what this psalm does, here's the geeky 00:12:37.680 --> 00:12:45.420 point. It takes that merism, and it, it pauses between heaven and it pauses between earth. So if 00:12:45.420 --> 00:12:50.779 you look at verse one, praise the Lord from the heavens, and you look at praise, at verse seven, 00:12:50.920 --> 00:12:54.860 praise the Lord from the earth. You have the heavens and the earth. It's a way of expressing the 00:12:54.860 --> 00:12:59.759 everything. And now what it's going to take is this big abstract idea, everything, which would go, 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:06.080 we all snooze. And it does these concrete things to make him, you realize that he really means it. 00:13:06.460 --> 00:13:10.759 And, and what you can think of is you're, if you're the one praying this psalm, it's as if we all say, 00:13:11.179 --> 00:13:17.059 to get together, because we're the psalmists, who say, okay, everything above the planet, 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:24.939 praise the Lord. And then in verse seven, everything on the planet, praise the Lord. And that's in a sense 00:13:24.940 --> 00:13:30.280 what's being acted, and it's trying to say everything, praise the Lord. So, so look how it, 00:13:30.280 --> 00:13:35.600 it works out then poetically. We'll read it from verse one to, to verse four. And it goes like this, 00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:42.140 praise the Lord, praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights, praise him all his angels, 00:13:42.640 --> 00:13:48.580 praise him all his hosts, praise him sun and moon, praise him all your shining stars, praise him you 00:13:48.580 --> 00:13:55.740 highest heavens and you waters above the heavens. Those first four verses. Everything above the planet, 00:13:57.100 --> 00:14:03.340 praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praising the Lord isn't just something limited to human beings, 00:14:04.020 --> 00:14:10.180 geeky types of nerdy Christians. And in a sense, the, the, the Christian faith is calling you into this 00:14:10.180 --> 00:14:15.580 big universe and big world where even the universe is praising, is praising the Lord. 00:14:15.580 --> 00:14:22.580 Now, some of you might say, well, George, here's, okay, George, whoa, time out. George, come on, George. 00:14:23.220 --> 00:14:28.240 This ancient cosmology, this is why I can't be a Christian. Waters above the heavens and the heavens, 00:14:28.379 --> 00:14:33.800 like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. First of all, it's poetic language. A lot of times when people 00:14:33.800 --> 00:14:39.300 complain about stuff, they want to replace this brilliant, beautiful, memorable, poetic language with 00:14:39.299 --> 00:14:47.539 the most boring, imaginable, nothing, I don't, don't mean to insult civil servants, the most boring, 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:55.279 imaginable civil servants speak that nobody remembers. So that's the first thing. Okay, you can have your 00:14:55.279 --> 00:15:00.079 civil service speak and I'll have the waters above the heavens and we'll see which one remembers which, 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:05.800 okay, but actually what it is, it's actually a brilliant feature of the Bible, is that the Bible 00:15:05.800 --> 00:15:14.300 uses simple ingrained understandings in the human psyche and observational language, which makes it 00:15:14.300 --> 00:15:21.780 cross-cultural and cross-temporal. You think about it for a second, it's just, it's a natural part of 00:15:21.780 --> 00:15:26.160 human consciousness that if you're going to have deliverance, it's going to come from on high, 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:32.860 not all of a sudden burst up from underneath your feet. That's a very, very different type of beast 00:15:32.860 --> 00:15:38.319 that jumps up from the ground than one that comes from above to deliver. And then the rest of it's 00:15:38.319 --> 00:15:44.199 just observational language, everything above the planet. Now, what did they think in their head when 00:15:44.199 --> 00:15:48.939 they wrote it? I don't know, who cares? Doesn't matter what they think. Read C.S. Lewis's brilliant essay 00:15:48.939 --> 00:15:53.899 called Horrid Red Things, you can Google it, absolutely brilliant. And it's just really a simple 00:15:53.899 --> 00:15:59.419 observational thing. Everything above the planet, praise the Lord. What's above the planet? Well, 00:15:59.459 --> 00:16:04.279 there's angels, there's the highest heavens, there's, there's, you know, clouds, you can call them 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:09.139 clouds, you can call them the waters above the heavens, you know, and there's everything above the 00:16:09.139 --> 00:16:14.919 earth, the planet, praise the Lord. That's the command. It's just simple observational language. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:20.960 And then the other thing is you might say, okay, come on, George, how on earth can the stars praise 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:25.139 the Lord? Well, I'm going to talk about that at the end of the sermon, because it's also, it's just as 00:16:25.139 --> 00:16:31.420 easy to believe stars doing it as creeping things and beasts, so I'll get to it later on. So then it 00:16:31.420 --> 00:16:38.780 says, you know, so if you live in the imminent frame of the average Canadian, you only do something, 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:44.440 you only pray something if it helps you get through the night, right? I mean, that would be what a very 00:16:44.440 --> 00:16:50.360 typical secular Canadian would say. They say, hey, listen, George, I'm an open-minded guy, just don't 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:58.280 push your way on me. And you know, if, if reading evening prayer gets you through the night, good on 00:16:58.280 --> 00:17:05.039 you. For me, it's bourbon, you know, and a good movie. That's what gets me through the night. But if 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:08.299 that's what gets you through that, good enough. No, no, no, that's not what the Bible here is saying. The 00:17:08.299 --> 00:17:12.960 Bible is just, is saying something, because that's like an imminent frame point of view. There's just 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:17.180 really why life is just one dang thing after another, and then you die. So whether it's a 00:17:17.180 --> 00:17:22.420 matter of having some alcohol, or whether it's spending some time doing online poker, or whether 00:17:22.420 --> 00:17:27.819 it's crossword puzzles, or whether it's praising, you know, whatever works for you. But no, no, no, 00:17:27.840 --> 00:17:33.620 that's an imminent frame. The Bible is also going to make it very, very flexible in a big world about 00:17:33.620 --> 00:17:40.759 being able to do different things. But the heavens declare the glory of God. There is a creator. 00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:44.680 Well, we'll get to that in a moment. Here's why it's completely different. Look, 00:17:44.940 --> 00:17:48.559 look at what he does now. Here's the final geeky point. There was three geeky points. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:55.680 The frame, the merism, the heavens, and then the earth, another way of saying everything. And the 00:17:55.680 --> 00:18:04.319 final one is each half gives you an explanation about what's going on and what you should praise God 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:11.359 for. And look at it. You'll see here in verses 5 and 6, and then you're going to see it again in 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:18.240 verses 13 and 14. Let them praise the name of the Lord for... Now there's a reason, an explanation, 00:18:18.819 --> 00:18:23.179 what you should be praising him for. That's how the poem is structured. Let them praise the name 00:18:23.180 --> 00:18:30.539 of the Lord for... There's three things. He commanded and they were created. He established 00:18:30.539 --> 00:18:37.640 them forever and ever. He gave a decree and it shall not pass away. These are the three things. 00:18:38.340 --> 00:18:46.160 Now the first thing is he created... In verse 5, he commanded and they were created. Another way to put 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:54.920 it is, God just said the word and it was. He said stars and there were stars. He said earth and there 00:18:54.920 --> 00:19:02.220 was earth. He said sky and there was sky. He said light and there was light. He just says it and it is. 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:08.880 Makes it out of nothing. Creation ex nihilo. That's what this text is telling us. He speaks a word and it is. 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:16.720 Now you just compare that to the ancient myths with, I don't know, odd animals and other things doing 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:23.580 things to create the world or you compare it to the idea of a catastrophe of the ancient unity of our 00:19:23.580 --> 00:19:30.640 friends to the east and there's this ancient unity that gets destroyed and creation's like a terrible 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:37.740 tragedy and out of that you get this entirely different sense of God says it and it is. He says it and 00:19:37.740 --> 00:19:41.720 it says beyond that you can ask me over coffee. This actually continues to open up the door to science. 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:48.279 But the next thing really shows why it is that science... It's interesting. This psalm, 00:19:48.859 --> 00:19:58.940 it helps to understand why when we walk in the bush on a beautiful day or if we're out on a trail 00:19:58.940 --> 00:20:06.700 somewhere, it almost feels as if the world... You have a sense of there's meaning and almost as if it wants 00:20:06.700 --> 00:20:07.640 to say something. 00:20:09.799 --> 00:20:13.880 And this is telling you you're on to something. That's a clue. 00:20:14.580 --> 00:20:17.759 But this psalm is also why science got invented. 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:24.440 But science that does not end up just making all of reality into like plastic that you can just rape 00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:26.819 and pillage and do whatever you want with it. 00:20:26.819 --> 00:20:31.620 But a science where there's real limits, where there's an integrity to the created order. 00:20:31.619 --> 00:20:34.619 Sorry, I'm getting a bit too weird. Look at the text. 00:20:35.439 --> 00:20:37.119 Let them praise the name of the Lord, verse 5. 00:20:37.919 --> 00:20:42.000 For he commanded and they were created. That's the first reason. You praise the Lord because 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:48.379 he said a word and it existed. The second thing is he established them forever and ever. 00:20:49.379 --> 00:20:56.699 And this is important in two senses. The first thing is this, that if tomorrow we didn't know if the sun 00:20:56.700 --> 00:21:05.799 would rise, you can't have science. If we think that on another galaxy gravity doesn't exist, 00:21:06.539 --> 00:21:11.460 you can't have science. You need to have a continuity in the entire universe. 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:18.900 And by the way, this is completely radically different than the ancient world. 00:21:18.900 --> 00:21:25.180 And for those of you who are really into philosophy, the limits of skepticism, Hume said there's actually 00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:30.460 no reason inherently to believe that the sun will rise tomorrow other than custom. 00:21:32.360 --> 00:21:39.180 The Bible here says that God not only has created all things, he established them forever and ever. 00:21:39.540 --> 00:21:44.540 And it's because of that that you have a stable universe that the scientific and engineering types 00:21:44.539 --> 00:21:50.619 amongst us can go and do science and can go and do engineering. But it also opens up the whole 00:21:50.619 --> 00:21:56.379 door to miracles. Look again at this word in verse 6, he established them forever and ever. 00:21:57.200 --> 00:22:04.639 The original language, it literally says that God caused them to stand. And the idea here is that 00:22:04.639 --> 00:22:11.279 not only did he establish the sun and the moon and the planets and gravity and all of that, 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:18.579 but he also caused them to stand. And the image is this. So I often, when I'm in the office, 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:25.079 our ministry space, I usually try to work on the ground floor and the others will be working on the 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:30.279 upper floor. And if I was to yell up the stairs and say, come on downstairs, and they'd all come and 00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:38.420 they'd stand waiting for me to tell them what I called them down for. That's why they'd be downstairs 00:22:38.420 --> 00:22:45.960 standing. They've come down to here. Okay, George, what do you want? And that's the image here. 00:22:47.160 --> 00:22:52.800 It's the image then that on one hand, God has created the entire universe so that it's established 00:22:52.800 --> 00:22:58.640 and all, but he hasn't said, oh, I'm going to lock myself out of the creation. All of creation 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:04.539 has been maintained by me. You know, the engineers, the physicists, the astronomers, the scientists, 00:23:04.539 --> 00:23:11.339 you can all bet your life on it. Go ahead and study this thing, find out the laws. But if I want, 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:18.299 they're all waiting to do my will. It gives you a picture of why it is that when Jesus is on the boat 00:23:18.299 --> 00:23:25.799 and there's the storms and the waves and he says, be still, Jesus is God, the son of God, the second 00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:31.819 person of the Trinity, and all the created order have been maintained by him and they're waiting for him 00:23:31.819 --> 00:23:34.599 to give a word of command and they do it. 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:42.919 And it gets more cool with the next one, believe it or not. Verse five, let them praise the name of 00:23:42.919 --> 00:23:48.139 the Lord for he commanded and they were created. He established them forever and ever and he gave a 00:23:48.139 --> 00:23:59.939 decree or a law or a rule and it shall not pass away. Why did science start to develop in human as a 00:23:59.940 --> 00:24:07.140 way of looking at the world and analyzing the world in a Christian context? The cumulative, you know, 00:24:07.259 --> 00:24:13.500 cleverness is equally distributed or not distributed amongst human beings. It doesn't matter if you're a 00:24:13.500 --> 00:24:21.460 caveman or a professor at Columbia or Harvard. It's equally distributed cleverness and inventiveness, 00:24:21.460 --> 00:24:29.539 but science of looking. What goes on? They read this and read this and read this and read this and read 00:24:29.539 --> 00:24:33.460 this and it's part of the liturgy and they're part of their prayers and it's part of their, it becomes 00:24:33.460 --> 00:24:40.579 part of their consciousness and one day they think, God has said that the universe is made according to laws. 00:24:40.579 --> 00:24:43.199 Let's go find them. 00:24:46.399 --> 00:24:47.679 Let's go looking. 00:24:50.059 --> 00:24:59.339 And the whole idea of laws in the natural world, in an ordered world, in a stable world, develops. 00:25:00.579 --> 00:25:08.299 And it's so beautiful. The same text of the fact that the stars and the wind and as we're going to see 00:25:08.299 --> 00:25:13.440 the beasts are praising the Lord that makes you think that if you're out in a place and that you're 00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:18.799 far from the city and there's a type of a stillness which you just can't get in the city. And by the 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:24.859 way, the Bible is not anti-city. It's just not the point of this analogy. And you almost have a sense 00:25:24.859 --> 00:25:30.359 as if there's something that has to be said or a message trying to be communicated to you. Why it is 00:25:30.359 --> 00:25:37.059 that people go to the bush and the mountains to commune with nature. And on one hand, it is a clue 00:25:37.059 --> 00:25:46.339 that only Psalm 148 answers. And the same Psalm that justifies that clue that there is something 00:25:46.339 --> 00:25:54.279 is the same clue that allows the engineers and the scientists to make the shoes and the rubber and the 00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:57.899 poles and the phone and the cameras that you use to enjoy nature. 00:25:57.900 --> 00:26:07.440 I love being a Christian. I love being a Christian. Only in Christianity is this held 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:18.420 together like this. It's absolutely spectacular. But there's more. There's more. And you see that in 00:26:18.420 --> 00:26:23.420 the second part, right? So the second part is the heavens, everything above the earth. And now verse 00:26:23.420 --> 00:26:31.120 seven, it's as if he says, okay, everything above the earth, praise the Lord. Now everything on earth, 00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:37.759 everything on this planet, praise the Lord. And I really mean it. And look what happens. Verses seven 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:46.979 to 12. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and 00:26:46.979 --> 00:26:55.759 mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts and all 00:26:55.759 --> 00:27:03.559 livestock, creeping things and flying birds, kings of the earth and all peoples, that's people groups, 00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:10.480 princes and all rulers of the earth, that would be leaders of business and of culture and of education 00:27:10.480 --> 00:27:20.299 and civil servants, young men and maidens together, old men and children, everything. Whatever is in the 00:27:20.299 --> 00:27:28.119 deepest part of the ocean, whatever is in the deepest crevice, praise the Lord. The wild animals, 00:27:28.740 --> 00:27:39.500 your pet dog, your pet canary, praise the Lord. Your kids, the prime minister, the prime minister of Nepal, 00:27:40.659 --> 00:27:49.299 the ayatollah, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And then it's all peoples and it really means it. And then 00:27:49.299 --> 00:27:53.799 it gives you the three reasons. And it's going to begin at verse 13. And now what you need to 00:27:53.799 --> 00:28:01.000 understand now is it's not as if, okay, the stars have one reason, but we have completely different 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:05.519 reasons. No, what you need to do is the whole psalm, remember because it's heaven and earth, 00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:11.839 it's everything. So this explanation, what's going on in the first explanation helps you to understand 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:18.799 it's in harmony with this next bit. And this next bit helps you to understand the first bit better. 00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:23.779 It's, it's, you have to understand it as if it's a harmony, as if it's a duo, as if they're singing 00:28:23.779 --> 00:28:30.379 back and forward to each other to communicate, you know, one particular truth. It's a harmony. It fits. 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:34.879 It, you can interplay. You can think about this to think about this. And then as you think about this, 00:28:34.899 --> 00:28:37.759 it makes you think about the other one more. And that makes you think about this one. 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:43.640 And that's the way you understand it. And there's three reasons given to praise the Lord for this 00:28:43.640 --> 00:28:48.319 next bit. And look at, they're very, very, some of them are very surprising. So it's assuming, 00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:56.160 by the way, that human beings were created and hence had a design. That's assumed. It also shows 00:28:56.160 --> 00:28:59.859 a bit of a hint of the fall, the fact that this, but we'll get to that in a sec. Let them praise the 00:28:59.859 --> 00:29:07.420 name of the Lord. Verse 13, for his name alone is exalted. His name alone is exalted. And, 00:29:07.420 --> 00:29:15.380 and what this means is that his name, he is worthy of being praised. There's like real worth. It's not 00:29:15.380 --> 00:29:25.640 just invented worth. So when I went to Zimbabwe, I was back in March to help teach local pastors. 00:29:27.539 --> 00:29:32.519 I went looking to see if I could get Zimbabwe currency. And what I discovered is you can get 00:29:32.519 --> 00:29:37.279 Zimbabwe currency. You can't get any Zimbabwe currency in Canada unless you happen to meet 00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:42.480 somebody who was in Zimbabwe, got some currency and would give it to you. And that even when you 00:29:42.480 --> 00:29:49.139 go to Zimbabwe, they basically don't want you to pay for anything in Zimbabwe currency because they 00:29:49.139 --> 00:29:58.220 inherently view their own currency as worthless. I paid for everything. I paid for every single 00:29:58.220 --> 00:30:04.160 thing with a U.S. dollar. I could have said, here's a thousand. I can't remember what the 00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:09.740 currency is for Zimbabwe. I could give you a thousand or ten thousand of these. Ten thousand 00:30:09.740 --> 00:30:14.559 of the Zimbabwe currency were two one dollar bills. They wouldn't even think about it. They'd pick the 00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:20.660 two one dollar bills from the U.S. because they have real worth. The other stuff doesn't. 00:30:20.660 --> 00:30:26.860 And so what this is saying is that God has real worth, not just subjective worth. It has real worth. 00:30:26.980 --> 00:30:33.019 It has worth that one of the problems with planes flying into Zimbabwe is that the government wants 00:30:33.019 --> 00:30:40.040 to pay in Zimbabwe currency and the planes only want to be paid in U.S. dollars. And it causes a bit of a 00:30:40.040 --> 00:30:46.540 problem in terms of planes going there and refueling and everything like that. They only want to get paid 00:30:46.539 --> 00:30:51.420 in something that has real worth, that's recognized as worthy. And that's the same idea. When saying 00:30:51.420 --> 00:30:59.299 exalted, God really is truly of worth. And then the second thing is, so that's the first reason. 00:30:59.700 --> 00:31:04.279 Why do you praise him? Well, he actually is worth it. He's exalted. The second one is, 00:31:04.619 --> 00:31:10.480 his majesty is above earth and heaven. Now this is, again, a transcendent idea. And earth and heaven, 00:31:10.480 --> 00:31:17.779 you see the mirrors above everything, above bugs, above the deeps, above stars, above angels and 00:31:17.779 --> 00:31:24.700 archangels and thrones and dominions and powers, the entire angelic hierarchy above them all is his 00:31:24.700 --> 00:31:32.220 majesty. And majesty has these other ideas to it in the original language, and we should have it as well. 00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:38.259 It can also be understood as splendor. It can also be understood as beauty. It can also be understood as 00:31:38.259 --> 00:31:46.339 glory, but it's not just splendor and glory and beauty. It has a weight to it. 00:31:49.720 --> 00:31:53.240 It's like those of you who like a weighted blanket. 00:31:55.059 --> 00:31:59.519 You're feeling maybe a little bit stressed at the end of the day. You want to sit and watch TV with a 00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:05.440 weighted blanket, and feeling the full weight of the blanket is very comforting. And this beauty and 00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:13.200 splendor and majesty has a weight to it. And there's times you sense that you can just, you know, on this 00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:18.740 side of the grave, even on this planet, you can see things of real beauty, or you can hear something of 00:32:18.740 --> 00:32:26.960 spectacular beauty. And just for a moment, you almost want to sag, but not sag in a bad way because it's 00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:32.460 despairing because you've gotten defeated, but just sort of almost, just go like this, because it's so 00:32:32.460 --> 00:32:43.400 beautiful. So beautiful. It's the sag of woe, not defeat. That's why God should be worshipped and 00:32:43.400 --> 00:32:49.900 praised. And now here's the third thing which is really surprising. Verse 14, he has raised up a 00:32:49.900 --> 00:32:57.160 horn for his people, praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him, and then the 00:32:57.160 --> 00:33:02.519 final frame, praise the Lord. So what's going on here with this imagery? Now, by the way, this imagery, 00:33:02.740 --> 00:33:06.759 you see it show up in the New Testament. If you read the book of Luke later, and 00:33:06.759 --> 00:33:17.820 Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, burst into a prophetic praise. And in it, he mentions this 00:33:17.820 --> 00:33:23.180 phrase of God raising up a horn for his people. It's a phrase that's in lots of different Psalms, 00:33:23.180 --> 00:33:28.720 and it's here. And the idea, horn is an idea of strength. So what it is, is that God has done 00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:37.660 something for his people. He's done something to raise up strength. He's brought down some strength, 00:33:37.840 --> 00:33:44.720 a strength that will raise up. And the strength is completely and utterly centered on a person. 00:33:45.560 --> 00:33:51.160 And the idea of him doing, bringing strength in the form of a person that will raise up 00:33:51.160 --> 00:33:58.680 is an image of salvation. There's only one person in history that that describes. 00:34:02.200 --> 00:34:13.900 Jesus. God, the Son of God, come amongst us. God's strength to save. That's why you see the early 00:34:13.900 --> 00:34:18.519 apostles, they could preach the whole gospel just from reading the Psalms and the prophets and the law. 00:34:18.519 --> 00:34:24.219 They could see it all the way through. All these times, it's said, of God sending us a horn for his 00:34:24.219 --> 00:34:31.340 people. This person, a strength that comes from God into human beings to raise them up and deliver 00:34:31.340 --> 00:34:36.820 them. This is an image of God's promises. And by the way, you see the other thing which is just so 00:34:36.820 --> 00:34:43.099 beautiful about it. There's this beautiful harmony between all of the hearts, parts. There's this 00:34:43.099 --> 00:34:49.019 harmony of there is a God who's created all things by his very word. And this same God is the God who 00:34:49.019 --> 00:34:54.679 establishes things and guarantees that the sun will rise tomorrow and the day after that and the day 00:34:54.679 --> 00:35:00.940 after that. And the same God who has done this with decrees that we can learn from science is the same God 00:35:00.940 --> 00:35:06.259 who is completely and utterly worthy of being praised. And he is the same God who saves. 00:35:06.260 --> 00:35:13.700 You don't have to have in Eastern religions and the Eastern world a cosmic tragedy and some other 00:35:13.700 --> 00:35:20.340 source of a savior that points the way to salvation. You don't have to have one God who creates and 00:35:20.340 --> 00:35:26.600 another God who destroys and another God who saves. There's this beautiful picture of there's just this 00:35:26.600 --> 00:35:35.300 beautiful harmony of creation and sustaining and majesty and glory and splendor. And God does it all. 00:35:35.300 --> 00:35:41.280 And God is the same one. Only he can come and save his people who need saving. And how is it described 00:35:41.280 --> 00:35:49.300 to be saved? Look at it again. It's so beautiful. We're described as his people, his saints. Praise for all 00:35:49.300 --> 00:35:53.220 his saints. You know another way to describe that, to translate the word saints in the Old Testament? 00:35:54.019 --> 00:35:55.460 His beloved ones. 00:35:57.680 --> 00:35:59.240 His beloved ones. 00:35:59.239 --> 00:36:01.239 His beloved ones. 00:36:01.239 --> 00:36:11.359 For the people of Israel who are near to him. And this near to him means he's near to be heard. He's near in your 00:36:11.359 --> 00:36:18.099 times of sadness. He's near in your difficult times, in your times of success. He's near you. And there's 00:36:18.099 --> 00:36:22.979 another sense of it here as well. And you get to understand it if you remember the story of the 00:36:22.980 --> 00:36:28.760 prodigal son in the New Testament. A story that Jesus tells. And he tells the story of there's two sons. 00:36:29.320 --> 00:36:32.320 And one son goes. He wants the father dead. 00:36:32.599 --> 00:36:34.480 Wants his inheritance. In other words, dad, 00:36:35.500 --> 00:36:36.760 hurry up and die. 00:36:37.240 --> 00:36:39.039 And I'm tired of waiting for you to die. 00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:42.300 So give me your money now. And he goes off and he wastes all of the money. 00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:44.460 He has the other son, the elder brother, 00:36:44.860 --> 00:36:48.880 who's apparently the good guy who just hangs around the dad all the time and works hard. 00:36:48.880 --> 00:36:56.059 And then finally, the younger son, the prodigal, he comes and he realizes that his life's a wreck. 00:36:56.360 --> 00:37:02.920 And he'd be better off as a slave for his father than what's going on. And he doesn't expect anything 00:37:02.920 --> 00:37:10.680 more than that. And then you discover the heart of the father. And the heart of the father is 00:37:10.680 --> 00:37:17.780 that ever since his son left, he was looking and hoping that his younger son would return because 00:37:17.780 --> 00:37:24.940 he loved his son. And the son does return. Before the son even gets there, the father rushes to him. 00:37:25.580 --> 00:37:30.760 Before he does his little speech and the father just ignores it. And in a sense, I mean, he receives 00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:34.760 it because he's glad to have his son back, gives them the robe and all of that. And here's the thing 00:37:34.760 --> 00:37:41.800 about the story. One of the many things about the story. The elder son is angry that the father has 00:37:41.800 --> 00:37:48.680 welcomed the younger son back. You see, the older son was physically close to the father. 00:37:49.680 --> 00:37:53.519 But the older son's heart was far from the father. 00:37:53.519 --> 00:38:01.380 You can go to church all your life and have a heart that's far from God. 00:38:03.099 --> 00:38:08.820 You're not near him and you have not, you don't have his heart near you and his heart isn't near you. 00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:16.099 That's what near to him means. It means we're near to the father's heart, what he loves. 00:38:16.900 --> 00:38:20.659 We sense that he loves us and we want to love what he loves. 00:38:20.659 --> 00:38:24.679 We don't want to be like the elder brother, just close in ritual. 00:38:25.859 --> 00:38:28.460 We want to be close to him, near to him. 00:38:29.139 --> 00:38:31.559 And know that our God is near to us. 00:38:34.359 --> 00:38:38.599 Praise the Lord. It's really interesting. You go back and read the book of Romans, read chapter 8. 00:38:39.059 --> 00:38:42.899 And there's a part here where now you can understand why Paul in Romans chapter 8 said, 00:38:43.239 --> 00:38:48.119 all creation is groaning in longing for the redemption of the human race. 00:38:48.119 --> 00:38:51.599 Why is one of the reasons that the stars should praise the Lord? 00:38:51.759 --> 00:38:56.699 Because God redeemed a people to be his beloved who are near to him. 00:38:57.319 --> 00:39:04.699 That's one of the reasons why the stars and the wind and the wild animals should praise the Lord. 00:39:04.699 --> 00:39:09.579 Just in closing, a couple of things about praising God. 00:39:15.339 --> 00:39:23.439 So first of all, if you're here and you haven't given your heart to Christ, that's where you have to begin. 00:39:23.839 --> 00:39:26.219 He wants you to be near him. He came to save you. 00:39:26.219 --> 00:39:29.239 Like, this is your opportunity. 00:39:29.239 --> 00:39:33.779 If you feel a tug on you, if you think, you know what, I wish Christianity were true. 00:39:34.500 --> 00:39:37.859 I mean, Christianity is so neat to talk about the universe that way. 00:39:38.019 --> 00:39:44.899 It's what fantasy, it's what poetry talks about, but it's also how scientists and mathematicians talk about. 00:39:45.039 --> 00:39:47.039 And these things aren't in fighting but in unity. 00:39:47.179 --> 00:39:49.239 And it's also to make me one with him. 00:39:49.239 --> 00:39:53.879 Like, there's no time now better than to just pause here and just call out to Jesus and say, 00:39:54.000 --> 00:39:56.279 Jesus, you've come to save me. 00:39:56.699 --> 00:39:58.639 I want you to be my savior. 00:39:58.899 --> 00:40:00.379 Please take me and never let me go. 00:40:00.439 --> 00:40:02.199 There's no better time than right now to do that. 00:40:03.059 --> 00:40:04.399 But a couple of other things. 00:40:05.559 --> 00:40:09.599 One of the problems we have with praising the Lord is that we emotionalize it. 00:40:10.579 --> 00:40:12.659 And what we need to do is then when we say, 00:40:12.739 --> 00:40:15.699 Okay, George, the Bible says I have to praise the Lord. 00:40:16.539 --> 00:40:18.119 Okay, I don't feel like praising the Lord. 00:40:18.119 --> 00:40:21.480 So what can I do to start to feel like praising the Lord? 00:40:21.759 --> 00:40:22.519 That's a false. 00:40:22.920 --> 00:40:27.460 The Bible is not saying manipulate your feelings to feel a type of praise feeling. 00:40:27.559 --> 00:40:28.599 That's not what the Bible is saying. 00:40:28.699 --> 00:40:30.039 It's telling you to do something. 00:40:30.880 --> 00:40:35.900 So what you need to do is think about praising the Lord a little bit like you think about brushing your teeth. 00:40:36.699 --> 00:40:37.659 Now, I don't know about you. 00:40:38.279 --> 00:40:42.839 I don't expect mystical experiences or ecstasy when I brush my teeth. 00:40:44.380 --> 00:40:45.219 Maybe you do. 00:40:45.940 --> 00:40:47.199 I'd love to hear why. 00:40:48.119 --> 00:40:53.440 Look, if, in fact, you had an ecstatic experience while brushing your teeth, 00:40:54.079 --> 00:40:56.380 you might be almost too embarrassed to tell anybody. 00:40:57.119 --> 00:40:58.779 You might not even want to tell your best friend, 00:40:58.859 --> 00:40:59.980 You know, I had the weirdest thing happen. 00:41:00.039 --> 00:41:02.519 I was brushing my teeth, and I had an ecstatic experience. 00:41:03.380 --> 00:41:05.119 Like, you just brushed your teeth. 00:41:05.359 --> 00:41:06.380 So just praise the Lord. 00:41:06.380 --> 00:41:10.160 And maybe you'll get an ecstatic experience. 00:41:10.599 --> 00:41:12.400 Maybe you'll have some emotions that go with it. 00:41:12.660 --> 00:41:13.720 But don't wait for that. 00:41:13.800 --> 00:41:14.599 Just praise the Lord. 00:41:14.900 --> 00:41:18.140 The second thing is, if the Bible says to be praised the Lord, 00:41:18.139 --> 00:41:21.960 and you say, you know, and you don't want to and you can't, 00:41:22.359 --> 00:41:23.940 then here's an idea. 00:41:24.159 --> 00:41:25.500 Be honest with God. 00:41:26.819 --> 00:41:29.559 I mean, he already knows that you don't want to, 00:41:30.379 --> 00:41:32.920 or you can't, or your heart's too heavy. 00:41:34.099 --> 00:41:34.579 Tell him. 00:41:34.579 --> 00:41:36.759 Just tell him. 00:41:38.940 --> 00:41:40.199 And here's the other thing. 00:41:40.360 --> 00:41:43.340 I mean, the Bible allows us to be sad and all of that. 00:41:43.619 --> 00:41:47.019 And, you know, I think in heaven we'll find out it's a little bit like the widow's mite. 00:41:47.119 --> 00:41:49.340 You know, the two women had virtually no money, and she gave them, 00:41:49.679 --> 00:41:52.299 and Jesus said she gave more money than the rich guys. 00:41:52.840 --> 00:41:55.719 Because some of us have just, you know, we're, you know, at a certain age, 00:41:55.719 --> 00:41:58.779 we're just really healthy and all of that, and so it's easy to do it. 00:41:59.279 --> 00:42:02.559 But, you know, it might very well be that in heaven you'll find at that time 00:42:02.559 --> 00:42:05.559 when you'll say, you know, Father, I can't praise you. 00:42:05.659 --> 00:42:06.799 I know you're my Father in heaven. 00:42:06.880 --> 00:42:09.299 I know you're almighty, and I know you're loved, 00:42:09.400 --> 00:42:11.820 but, you know, I'm still mourning the death of my brother, 00:42:11.980 --> 00:42:14.340 or I'm mourning the death of my sister or my mom, 00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:15.719 or it's the anniversary of this. 00:42:15.799 --> 00:42:18.759 I just, I know you're God, and I know you're great, 00:42:18.799 --> 00:42:20.940 and I know I should be able to praise you, but I just can't. 00:42:20.940 --> 00:42:24.460 That might be the greatest praise you do all in years, 00:42:24.840 --> 00:42:29.179 because it came out of a time of sadness and heaviness. 00:42:32.559 --> 00:42:38.559 It's easier to deal with life if you praise the Lord. 00:42:38.840 --> 00:42:40.179 It won't make your life better, 00:42:40.739 --> 00:42:43.940 but if you're reminded that there is a great God and a big God, 00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:48.059 it is way easier to deal with those hard things in life 00:42:48.059 --> 00:42:49.440 when you're praising the Lord. 00:42:50.500 --> 00:42:51.279 Use means. 00:42:51.519 --> 00:42:52.199 Come to church. 00:42:52.460 --> 00:42:53.820 It might be that you come to, you know, 00:42:53.900 --> 00:42:55.519 sometimes you're too sad to come to church, 00:42:55.599 --> 00:42:58.299 but it might be that you really just desperately need to come to church, 00:42:58.300 --> 00:43:03.440 and you might just be that person standing there in the middle of the congregation 00:43:03.440 --> 00:43:04.360 or off on the edge, 00:43:04.600 --> 00:43:07.800 and the congregation's praises can wash over you. 00:43:09.380 --> 00:43:13.380 Allow your brothers and sisters in Christ and the church to help you. 00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:16.660 And use some other means. 00:43:17.680 --> 00:43:20.140 We're going to do a mean right now in closing. 00:43:20.139 --> 00:43:28.400 It's going to be on the screen, hopefully. 00:43:28.579 --> 00:43:29.159 Have that clear? 00:43:30.119 --> 00:43:31.519 So what we're going to do right now, 00:43:31.599 --> 00:43:33.000 before I give the closing prayer, 00:43:33.699 --> 00:43:37.199 there's this ancient thing from the Book of Common Prayer 00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:43.599 called the Benedicti Omnia Opera. 00:43:44.379 --> 00:43:45.400 It's a canticle. 00:43:45.400 --> 00:43:49.059 And if you use the old Book of Common Prayer, 00:43:49.180 --> 00:43:50.099 Morning and Evening Prayer, 00:43:50.180 --> 00:43:52.480 one of the things that the Morning Prayer does is it's really brilliant. 00:43:53.820 --> 00:43:57.099 The early Reformers, right in the mid-1500s, 00:43:57.119 --> 00:44:00.619 they wanted to have everybody to be able to praise and read the Bible. 00:44:01.360 --> 00:44:04.380 And so what they did is they had a systematic way of reading the Bible, 00:44:04.380 --> 00:44:09.440 and after you'd done some prayers and read some Psalms, 00:44:09.519 --> 00:44:10.440 you'd read a Bible passage, 00:44:10.539 --> 00:44:11.980 they'd have something that you'd say together. 00:44:11.980 --> 00:44:16.820 And what the Reformers did is they made this very, very simple and easy, 00:44:17.400 --> 00:44:21.500 but they took things from the old monastic offices. 00:44:21.820 --> 00:44:26.179 So things which Christians had been doing for over 1,000 years beforehand, 00:44:26.820 --> 00:44:29.639 they simplified so that ordinary people could do it. 00:44:30.019 --> 00:44:33.920 And one of the things that monks were doing for 1,000 years beforehand 00:44:33.920 --> 00:44:37.800 is they took Psalm 148 and they made it bigger 00:44:37.800 --> 00:44:42.220 so that they could actually be as part of every day 00:44:42.220 --> 00:44:45.340 they would pray Psalm 148. 00:44:46.240 --> 00:44:48.640 And one of the things the English Reformers wanted to do 00:44:48.640 --> 00:44:50.680 was to, in a sense, make everybody into a monk. 00:44:52.440 --> 00:44:55.420 And so they made it so that it was easy to do morning and evening prayer. 00:44:55.500 --> 00:44:58.140 So we're going to stand and we're going to say together 00:44:58.140 --> 00:45:00.360 the Benedictine Omnia Opera. 00:45:00.820 --> 00:45:02.120 And as you'll hear in a moment, 00:45:02.320 --> 00:45:05.300 it's actually just an expansion of Psalm 148. 00:45:05.300 --> 00:45:06.580 And we're going to say it together 00:45:06.580 --> 00:45:08.220 and then I'm going to give our closing prayer. 00:45:08.360 --> 00:45:08.980 So let's stand. 00:45:09.700 --> 00:45:11.860 And it's the Benedictine Omnia Opera. 00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:14.380 It's in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. 00:45:14.519 --> 00:45:16.360 It's one of the two readings that you would do 00:45:16.360 --> 00:45:18.440 or things that you would say or sing or pray 00:45:18.440 --> 00:45:20.420 after you've done your Old Testament reading 00:45:20.420 --> 00:45:21.780 and before the New Testament reading. 00:45:22.340 --> 00:45:25.200 And it can be put to music. 00:45:25.980 --> 00:45:28.420 And here's how it goes. 00:45:28.420 --> 00:45:58.420 Please may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may 00:45:58.420 --> 00:46:00.840 O ye showers and dew, blessed ye the Lord. 00:46:00.840 --> 00:46:20.980 O ye winds of God, bless ye the Lord. O ye fire and heat, bless ye the Lord. O ye winter and summer, bless ye the Lord. O ye dews and frost, bless ye the Lord. O ye frost and cold, bless ye the Lord. O ye ice and snow, bless ye the Lord. 00:46:20.980 --> 00:46:50.980 O ye may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may 00:46:50.980 --> 00:46:58.800 the Lord oh all ye fowls of the air bless ye the Lord oh all ye beasts and 00:46:58.800 --> 00:47:05.440 cattle bless you the Lord all ye children of men bless you the Lord oh 00:47:05.440 --> 00:47:09.820 let Israel bless the Lord oh ye priests of the Lord bless you the Lord oh ye 00:47:09.820 --> 00:47:17.079 servants of the Lord bless you the Lord oh ye spirits and souls of the righteous 00:47:17.079 --> 00:47:21.219 bless you the Lord oh ye holy and humble men of heart bless you the Lord oh 00:47:21.219 --> 00:47:29.239 Ananias Azarias and Misael bless you the Lord and together glory be to the 00:47:29.239 --> 00:47:34.819 father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now 00:47:34.819 --> 00:47:41.340 and ever shall be world without end amen Ananias Azarias and Misael are the 00:47:41.340 --> 00:47:46.760 Latin versions of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego let's pray father we ask that 00:47:46.760 --> 00:47:51.760 you instill within us a desire to praise instill within us and grow within us 00:47:51.760 --> 00:47:57.400 habits of praise make us to be a people of praise help us father when the world is 00:47:57.400 --> 00:48:02.280 beating us up and drawing us down that we would lift our eyes from these things we 00:48:02.280 --> 00:48:06.840 know that we have to deal with them it's not escapism but father lift our eyes that 00:48:06.840 --> 00:48:11.920 we might spend time every day praising you for who you are and we thank you father that 00:48:11.920 --> 00:48:17.680 you have created us to praise you you sustain us to praise you you redeemed us to praise you 00:48:17.680 --> 00:48:22.120 and that we will for all eternity praise you and we thank and praise you for these things we 00:48:22.120 --> 00:48:27.800 thank and praise you for Jesus who makes us right with God and we say all these things in his 00:48:27.800 --> 00:48:29.760 precious name amen 00:48:36.840 --> 00:48:46.730 may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may