Psalm 118 • A 7-11 Song

 

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Let me ask that you would look in your bibles this morning at Psalm 118.
That's page 511 in your Grace Bibles.
>>> Thanks, guys.
>>> With wonderful worship, we recognize that what we do is we join our hearts in worship, not just with those here, but with the saints of the ages.
And that is never more apparent than when we look to a psalm like Psalm 118, a different psalm than we have looked at in this summer series, because it is so clearly a psalm intended for corporate worship, that is obviously intended for the people of God to use to encourage one another.
In fact, it is what is known i--, as an antiphonal psalm, where the leader and God's people were expected to respond to one another.
Do you remember that Israel did that in worship at times in the Old Testament, even singing to one another from various mountaintops, one branch then the other responding in worship to God.
In this particular psalm, we recognize not just antiphonal readings but an intention of reminding people about God's faithfulness to them.
This is one of six psalms in the Old Testament that is identified as an Egyptian praise.
Now, they were not praising the Egyptians:  They were praising God for release from the Egyptians.
And particularly as God's people celebrated their release from bondage, they reminded each other year after year at Passover using this psalm of God's great release from slavery by His powerful right hand, which means at the Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with His disciples before His crucifixion, He and His disciples would have read and repeated this Psalm to one another.
I'm going to ask that you stand.
And this morning we're going to put on the video wall so that we're all looking at the same translation this Psalm, so that you can echo with your voice the words and worship of Jesus and His disciples, as I will read a phrase and then ask you to follow me reading these words from Psalm 118.
I'll read and then ask you to respond.
"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good."
>>> "For his steadfast love endures forever!"
>>> "Let Israel say."
>>> "'His steadfast love endures forever.'"
>>> "Let the house of Aaron say."
>>> "'His steadfast love endures forever.'"
>>> "Let those who fear the Lord say."
>>> "'His steadfast love endures forever.'"
>>> "Out of my distress I called on the Lord."
>>> "The Lord answered me and set me free."
>>> "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear."
>>> "What can man do to me?"
>>> "The Lord is on my side as my helper."
>>> "I shall look in triumph on those who hate me."
>>> "It is better to take refuge in the Lord."
>>> "Than to trust in man."
>>> "It is better to take refuge in the Lord."
>>> "Than to trust in princes."
>>> "All nations surrounded me."
>>> "In the name of the Lord I cut them off!"
>>> "They surrounded me, they surrounded me on every side."
>>> "In the name of the Lord I cut them off!"
>>> "They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns."
>>> "In the name of the Lord I cut them off!"
>>> "I was pushed hard, so that I was falling."
>>> "But the Lord helped me."
>>> "The Lord is my strength and my song."
>>> "He has become my salvation."
>>> "Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous."
>>> "'The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.'"
>>> "'The right hand of the Lord exalts.'"
>>> "'The right hand of the Lord does valiantly!'"
>>> "I shall not die, but live."
>>> "And recount the deeds of the Lord."
>>> "The Lord has disciplined me severely."
>>> "But he has not given me over to death."
>>> "Open to me the gates of righteousness."
>>> "That I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord."
>>> "This is the gate of the Lord."
>>> "The righteous shall enter through it."
>>> "I thank you that you have answered me."
>>> "And have become my salvation."
>>> "The stone that the builders rejected."
>>> "Has become the cornerstone."
>>> "This is the Lord's doing."
>>> "It is marvelous in our eyes."
>>> "This is the day that the Lord has made."
>>> "Let us rejoice and be glad in it."
>>> "Save us, we pray, O Lord!"
>>> "O Lord, we pray, give us success!"
>>> "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
>>> "We bless you from the house of the Lord."
>>> "The Lord is God."
>>> "And he has made his light to shine upon us."
>>> "Bind the festal sacrifice with cords."
>>> "Up to the horns of the altar!"
>>> "You are my God, and I will give thanks to you."
>>> "You are my God; I will extol you."
>>> "Oh give thanks to the Lord."
>>> "For he is good."
>>> "For his steadfast love endures forever!"
>>> Heavenly Father, we praise You with the people of the ages who came to a God who had made a way for them and claim again the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.
We lift heart and voice to You, recognizing that what You have done is given us cause to celebrate and to encourage one another with that celebration.
Grant that by what we hear and do this day in this place the steadfast love of the Lord that endures forever would be known by many.
This we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
Well, what would you say is the main message of this Psalm?
How about:  "His steadfast love endures forever"?
We actually repeated it five times, four times at the beginning, once at the end.
Just be glad I didn't choose Psalm 136 where it's repeated 26 times.
[Laughter]
The idea that repetition is part of God's worship hymnal is important for us to remember because of the way that we sometimes tease one another.
Here's a cartoon, just to remind you what we sometimes do to one another.
One man asked another, "Hey, what do you do for a living?"
And the other responds, "I write modern worship choruses.
I write modern worship choruses.
I write modern worship choruses.
I write modern."
[Laughter]
We all know the 7-11 tease, don't we?
That a worship song is just a 7-11 song, 7 words 11 times over, right?
[Laughter]
Now, there's a Christian blogger, John Mark Miller, who commented on this cartoon, and I want to read you his comments.
He says this:  "A senior adult shared this cartoon with me a few weeks ago and he thought it was funny, as did a guest speaker at a ministry lunch a few days later and he thought it was funny.
But I noticed not everyone laughed.
Some grew quiet and withdrawn.
Why the icy silence?
Because we know this isn't a joke.
It's a passive-aggressive attack on worship songs which speak to our hearts in a powerful way.
And we've endured this sort of drive-by shooting more times than we can count."
So just to be fair, here's the flip side of the worship debate.
You ready?
Another cartoon.
And this is a man before an elaborate organ dressed to the hilt, we might note.
And he says, "For me, electric instruments," like the guitar that the young man with the long hair is holding, "for me, electric instruments just distract from the true focus of worship."
And, of course, we recognize he may have more distraction than he recognizes going for him.
What are we demonstrating, but that sometimes our personal tastes blind us to ourselves, our unrecognized assumptions, even the contradictions in the principles that we don't recognize that we are projecting.
Yes, it's easy to tease one another for worship songs that have repetition and believe that those of high taste and high class don't do that and not really examine the classic Handel's "Messiah" in which the word "hallelujah," remember?
 7 Hallelujah hallelujah  7
 7 Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah  7  7
>>> Remember?
[Laughter]
A hundred and sixty-seven times!
[Laughter]
And not many people complain about it being a shallow and vapid worship ton--, song, you know?
We somehow give a break if it seems high brow enough.
Now, there's no question that the Bible itself condemns vain repetition.
The Bible itself does not commend what is shallow and inappropriately repetitious without thought.
But at the same time, the Bible clearly not only praises but exemplifies worship that has repetition in it.
Why?
Because of what the repetition accomplishes in the hearts of God's people when it is rightly used.
What repetition is obvious here?
We're already cited it in verse 1:  "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!"
And then it's repeated four times.
Why do you think?
Clearly one reason is for our memory.
We repeat things so that things will be memorized.
I mean, what is the obvious takeaway of this Psalm?
"The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
It's the beginning; it's the end.
You're supposed to hear it and walk away with it.
That's the idea.
And it's, by the way, it's not just the takeaway:  It's the regular way that this Psalm was used.
Yes, this Psalm was celebrated at the Passover of the people of God, particularly from the time that they had returned from being exiles in Babylon.
So for 500 years up until the time of Christ, this Psalm would have been repeated every year and the phrase, "The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
If you were a Jewish child, by the time you were 20, you would have at least heard that phrase 100 times.
And, by the way, there are other psalms that repeat it.
You would have probably heard it at least 500 times, sinking deep into memory:  "The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
You cannot forget that.
And so we see here various people instructed to remember, right?
First the nation, that's verse 1.
Then, in general, following the nation, Israel specifically in verse 2.
The worship leaders in verse 3 are to remember and say, "The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
Then individuals are themselves to remember:  "The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
Why do we do that?
We do that because there are messages we want to sink deep into people.
We do that with one another, right, if you're raising kids, some point early for their own safety, you teach them their address and phone number, right?
Now, I've had many phone numbers in my life, but I can remember the very first one I was taught when I was, I don't know what, three or four:  E-X-8-2-0-4-8.
And people go, "What is E-X?"
We used to have exchanges, remember?
E-X-8-2-0-4-8.
Where did you live?
995 End Field.
I had to remember.
I've forgotten a lot of other things, but I remember those things from my childhood that were to be sticking.
And we teach our kids those kinds of things.
"Remember your lunch money."
Right?
"Don't talk to strangers."
"Put on clean underwear; you might be in an accident."
[Laughter]
I don't even know what that means.
[Laughter]
"You are precious to us.
Drive carefully."
"Jesus loves you."
Over and over and over again because we want it to be part of the very fiber of people's being.
And the psalmist and the Lord Himself who inspired this Word wanted to sink into us to memory beyond our forgetting:  "The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
After the first service, one of the dear older couples came to me after the service and the wife said to me, her husband now spending lots of time in a hospital because he doesn't remember much of what's happening in life now, and she says, "He doesn't always even remember me.
But when nurses came to help him this week, he sang to them 'How Great Thou Art.'"
Deeper than memory, deep in the fiber of our being:  "The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
So when the fish don't bite and the sun don't shine and the job doesn't come and the relationship comes undone, when health crumbles and age creeps, when life is long and love seems lost we remember.
 7 The steadfast love of the Lord  7
 7 Never ceases  7
 7 His mercies never come to an end  7
 7 They are new every morning  7
 7 New every morning  7
 7 Great is Thy faithfulness O Lord  7
 7 Great is Thy faithfulness  7  7
>>> Just remember that.
It's worth repeating.
"The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
We repeat things that we want others to remember.
And we emphasize the repetition when we believe it will actually save lives.
We emphasize to save lives, even if we don't always recognize when the information may be used.
We say to children, we teach them, "If it ever happens to you, if your clothes ever catch on fire, don't run.
Stop, drop, and roll."
What do you do?
Will ever need it?
I don't know, but if you need it to save your life, stop, drop, and roll.
If someone falls in the water, if they're not swimming and you need to help them, don't make your first effort to jump in after them; both of you might drown.
Instead, reach, throw, row, go.
Reach first.
Then what happened?
Throw.
Then row.
Then go.
Why?
Because lives are at stake.
And so we teach things that we want to be remembered with emphasis.
And the psalmist is doing exactly the same thing.
He says in verse 5 distress comes:  "Out of my distress I called on the Lord; and the Lord answered me."
I want to emphasize that as much as the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever, we are in a real world.
And I want you to remember it when the distress may come.
And what are you to remember in that time of distress but verse 6:  "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
The Lord is on my side," there it is again, "as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me."
Now, as believers who have understanding, we recognize that phrase, "the Lord is on my side," has been hijacked by men and movements to justify aggression and selfish gain.
And we have to just acknowledge that.
But having said that a phrase out of the Scriptures can be misused is not to take away from us that this is one of the core verses expressing what a covenant God does for His people:  "I am on your side."
Particularly to the people of Israel at this time when they are receiving a word after their sin has led them into slavery from which God wants to release them, now again in exile, in slavery, trying to build a nation again.
And to hear God say to rebellious, sinful, backward people who don't even remember their own history, "I'm on your side.
I'm for you.
I am your advocate.
I do not want you to forget that."
It's the heart of a covenant-keeping God to say, "I am yours.
I am for you now."
Next week, we'll probably have a lot of young people back here going to college again, a lot of young people starting school, even this past week.
I think of a year ago when the President of Wheaton College, Phil Ryken, a friend of some of you in the room and a friend of Kathy and me, surprised new students and parents with a shocking sermon.
The President of Wheaton College, a Christian school, said to students and to parents that because of the pressures of fundraising, which had become so intense, of trying to be a Christian school in an increasingly secular culture, trying to maintain accreditation from secular agencies, trying at the same time to maintain peace in the faculty, dealing with all those issues that he was at the same time dealing with personal issues, he said that the previous semester, not years ago, not way back in his youth, just the previous semester he had considered taking his own life, that the pressures and the intensity had become so great that he could not take it anymore.
He talked about his own parents coming, and while he lay on the floor putting their hands on him and praying for him; of how believers and friends prayed for him; how his wife, because he could not sleep at night, would stay up and read the Psalms to him, just to give some respite to his soul so that he could have enough peace that he could sleep.
"The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
"I'm on your side; I am your helper; I will be with you," so that he could sleep.
Some of you know those we--, those words, those nights.
I was hard pressed.
The enemy was around me on every side.
I couldn't stop thinking of those things.
The darkness was closing in.
And it's in that distress that the Lord says not only remember, but I want you to hear with emphasis with the repetition that makes it sink into your heart:  "The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
"I am for you.
I am on your side."
And the depth of that is in verse 7 as the Lord actually uses the word, "The Lord is on my side as my helper."
I know it's simple words in English, but I want some of you to remember when the first time that word is used in the Bible.
Genesis 2 and verse 18, as God looks at Adam and says, "It is not good for a man to be alone, and so I will provider a helper who is fit, who is suited for him."
An intimate, effectual one to be with him, one who becomes one with him, one who supports and lifts up and is intended to make life good.
And what God promised through the marital relationship He is now saying about Himself.
"I am so for you that closer than a brother, closer than a friend, I come to be your helper," with infinite intimacy and care saying, "I'm for you now."
So that you remember with emphasis what He says.
It's because when distress comes, we have to remember verses 8 and 9.
"It is better to take refuge, therefore, in the Lord than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in pence--, in princes."
We hear with such emphasis, "The Lord is our advocate," that the Lord is going to endure in His steadfast love.
And the reason we have to hear that is because of the contrast.
In a real world, danger will come.
Verse 10, "All nations surrounded me."
Verse 11, "They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side."
Verse 12, "They surrounded me like bees."
Some of you recognize why the repetition is here, the reality of a world in which you are surrounded by opposition, in which day and night you can't help thinking about it, in which the thoughts and the opposition and the worry is like bees stinging you; you can't get it out of your hair; you can't get it out of your eyes.
It's just coming at you all the time.
And that reality is stated by the psalmist so clearly.
We sing similar things.
"When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down, when I was sinking down, sinking down, under God's righteous frown, Christ Jesus gave His crown for my soul, for my soul."
We just have to repeat it sometimes.
"Lord, I'm just surrounded."
You can't be in a position of responsibility or authority without at times knowing what it means just to be surrounded.
Think of the various people who through the ages are singing this Psalm to one another in worship.
Surely early on it was the Israelites who were actually in slavery, in Babylon.
They have been taken from the Promised Land because of their rebellion.
Their king has been killed.
They have been put in lines, the men with fishhooks in their lips, to take them to a foreign land.
Now they are entirely surrounded by an enemy who oppresses them, who enslaves them.
And they sing, "I am surrounded by my enemy."
And then finally when they are released a generation later, they go back and remember to rebuild Jerusalem with Nehemiah, but the nations surround  them and mock them and laugh at them and will not help them.
"Why are you building a wall?
Do you think that you measly little Israelites can defend yourself against us?"
And then later, in the upper room, it is the disciples with the Jewish leaders who are threatening to arrest them and to arrest their leader, and they are saying, "We are surrounded; we are surrounded."
But no less reality is Jesus Himself who leads in the worship song, who actually, can you imagine Jesus saying the words?
Verse 11, "They surrounded me on every side, surrounded me.
They surrounded me like bees."
Verse 13, "I was pushed hard, so that I was falling."
"Oh Lord, take this cup from me, but not my will; your will be done."
I was pushed hard and all the enemy surrounds me.
Our hearts 
Somehow know the necessity of not just echoing the goodness but echoing the reality of the distress.
And the psalmist actually allows us to do it.
It was so hard.
It pushed me hard.
But the end of 13 is so beautiful:  "But the Lord helped me."
There's the language of helper again.
Even in the midst of the struggle, even in the midst of the pain, the Lord is there to help.
He is my helper.
He's not waiting for me to get it fixed.
He's not waiting for the enemy [inaudible], but He's here to help.
And that we may need to remember many times present and future.
One of the wise and visionary elders of this church wrote to me this past month something that I want to read to you as we may as a church need to remember from time to time.
The Lord is our helper, and the Lord is on our side, even when we are surrounded by opposition.
He wrote, "The recent Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage must be addressed with a patriotism that remembers the great American right of freedom of religion was established by pilgrims fleeing persecution.
In my opinion, a consistent theme now required from the leadership of our church is that persecution of Christians is coming to America.
It will no longer be socially acceptable to be a Christian, casual or otherwise.
The difficulties ahead won't be a fect--, a function of our inability to legislate morality or control the Supreme Court.
The reason for the persecution cuts deeper and runs across the scriptures and our own history.
The reason for the persecution is the offense of the cross, which millions of our brothers and sisters across the globe already suffer on a daily basis."
If you have read the more recent reports of what is happening to Christians under the rule of I.S.I.S., it is so shocking we cannot say it here, but what is even more amazing is that there are believers who are saying, "The Lord is on our side.
This is not the final chapter.
God is our helper.
The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
Our elder writes, "By persecution, the church will be refined as if by fire.
The blood of the martyrs is still the seat of the church.
We need to prepare our hearts and those in our congregation for a bigger battle than the moment, a spiritual battle where victory can only be in the Lord, not just in governments, not in the courts."
Why?
Because of verse 8:  "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in men.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes."
Mighty men.
"Yes," he goes on to say, "we have social and political responsibilities, but we do not trust them."
We thrun--, turn to a Lord who say, "I will maintain My covenant.
I will help My people.
Though the fires be great, I will maintain My covenant for the sake of My name, even in a world of persecution."
And it is that God who says, "My steadfast love endures forever, beyond this, forever," that causes us to trust and to turn to Him.
It is for that reason that the psalmist, speaking to a people under persecution, begins now to turn up the intensity for even more repetition, as though saying, "Listen, not just for memory, not just for emphasis, but because of the opposition that will come, you must have this a part of your daily thought, so much so that when the opposition comes you can only think of the things of the Lord."
Verses 14:  What would you think?
"The Lord is my strength," verse 14, "and my song; he has become my salvation."
Verse 15, "Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous."
Whether in worship or at home worship, in the corporation or in the family:  The things of God are our song.
They become part of us, part of our lives, not just because we sing of our salvation but because we remember our Savior.
Verse 15 right in the middle:  "'The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!'"
Why the right hand over and over and over again?
Because we remember this is a Psalm for a people who were looking forward to a Messiah.
We desire rescue.
The right hand of the Lord must come.
It's the right hand of the Lord that holds the sword of power.
And here the psalmist is proming--, promising with the voice of the Savior:  "The right hand of the Lord does valiantly."
We remember not only that Christ sits at God's right hand, not only intercedes for us at God's right hand, but He actually is the right hand of God.
It is Psalm 98.
Do you remember?
"Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand, his holy arm have gotten him the victory."
It is Christ Himself who is now presented as the advocate, the Messiah who comes to do the work of the Lord, which means He is not just salvation and Savior:  He is the rescuer of His people, which is what God is promising in verse 17 and following.
"I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.
The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death."
Now you have to just kind of let your mind do what God Himself intends and recognize Jesus would have been saying these words at the Last Supper.
"I shall not die but live.
I have been disciplined severely for the sins of the world, but I shall be rescued from death."
It is the same Jesus who for weeks has been saying to His disciples, "The Son of Man will go to Jerusalem and will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes.
And they will arrest Him and they will flog Him and mock Him and spit on Him.
He will be crucified.
And three days later He will rise."
And Jesus, who has been saying that, is now with His disciples in worship saying to them, "I shall not die but live."
But the beauty of this is not just that it applied to Him, but He is giving us words that are to apply to us.
That we who are God's people redeemed by the right arm of God can look at the world and say, "What can man do to me?
I shall not die but live."
Yes, they may hurt.
Yes, they may take things away.
But I think some of you know this; you're in positions of responsibility or pressure where you know.
You can identify with a Phil Ryken who says, "Everything was pressing on me."
What if you knew that experience right in this moment and say, "What can man do to me?"
Yes, they can take my life, but I have eternal life.
Yes, they can take my family, but Jesus holds them.
"The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
And they are eternally His.
They can take my reputation, but I shall receive a crown of righteousness from the right hand of God.
And the King of the universe shall declare me His own.
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases."
Yes, breath in this life may be snuffed out, but the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
This is not the final chapter.
Even if I die now, I shall not die before the Lord.
Eternal life is mine.
Jesus said, "I shall not die but live," and I follow Him.
I am united to Him.
His promises are mine.
And for that reason, I speak with the intensity of the psalmist to say, "I recognize that though God might send me through severe discipline, He shall not give me over to death.
It will not have the victory."
And that promise is so good for my heart and my soul when it seems that there is nothing in this world that could offer me anything.
But what God is actually offering me is Himself.
Verse 19, "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them."
Now, again, if you can hear Jesus saying that, do you sense it?
Passover meal:  He knows the soldiers are coming.
He knows the crucifixion is ahead.
And He says to God, "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter in."
But it's not just His words; it's what you and I, by the work of Jesus Christ who has taken our sin upon Himself, who has taken it away as far as the east is from the west, gives us the right to say that we shall stand before the gates of heaven and shall say with the authority of Jesus Christ, "Open wide the gates of righteousness, that I may enter in."
And the gates open because of the One who is our helper, our right hand warrior of God who opens the gates for us that death itself shall not have the victory.
How does He do that?
Verse 22, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
We so often take that last verse to rejoice in creation.
But the actual context of the verse is salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected, the rock of our salvation who is Jesus Christ Himself:  That stone rejected by men has instead become the cornerstone, the foundation of our eternity in the temple of God, so that the apostle Paul will say what?
That Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, rejected by men, but on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself the chief cornerstone, we have access to God.
Jesus Himself took this verse and applied it to Himself, saying He was the stone rejected by men who had become the cornerstone.
And so we begin to understand that what God is willing to do for your sake and for my sake is not just to open the gates of righteousness but do it by the rejection of His Son, who would become the foundation of your hope and mine as He took on Himself our unrighteousness to open to us the gate of righteousness as we ascend to heaven with no sin, with no stain because of the work of Jesus Christ in our behalf.
If you begin to recognize that, you begin to recognize where we go in worship.
He has opened the way.
He has provided a way that is eternal.
What do I do then?
Verse 25:  We pray.
"Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!"
Probably better interpreted victory:  "Give us your victory."
If You really can open the gates of righteousness, if You have a plan beyond this life itself, if You provide a righteousness that's not my own, then, God, save me.
How does He do that?
Verse 26, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord."
Do you recognize those words?
"Blesses is he who came in the name of the Lord, who comes in the name of the Lord!"
Here is Jesus, descending the Mount of Olives, going into Jerusalem before His crucifixion.
And the people exprecting an earthly rescue, the Messiah King to come and throw over the Romans, begin in ecstasy to throw down palm branches and their cloaks and to say, "Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
And they praise Jesus as He was coming into town, not recognizing what He would do.
At that same time at the Passover Festival, as Jesus is coming down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, in order to celebrate the Passover, scholars estimate that roughly a quarter million lambs would also be being driven into the city for the sacrifice of Passover.
And out of the 250,000 lambs, God would choose just one to perform His glory.
Who was that one lamb?
It was Jesus.
And that Lamb sacrificed for us from before the foundations of the world being laid was the one that God chose.
And the response of God's people, no mystery to you now, is verse 27, "The Lord is God; he has made his light to shine upon us."
Think of Jesus saying the next phrase:  "Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!"
Even Jesus, as He is celebrating the Passover, is telling the people, telling the disciples, "Bind the sacrifice to the altar.
Perform the festival, that God's wrath might pass over and He would deliver His people."
And Jesus Himself now leads the people, not just with intensity but to the final purpose of the psalm, even the final purpose of worship, which is ecstasy.
We sometimes can forget it, we Presbyterians, we frozen chosen, you know, that worship is not all cognitive.
Sometimes it is meant just to release the heart from the troubles and the anchors of the world.
"Lord, can You just lift me above this for a moment?
Can you just let me see the glories of eternity and the steadfast love of the Lord that endures forever?
That I can rise above us and in ecstasy praise my God."
And it happens.
Verse 28, "You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!"
It's what worship is meant to do.
It's what the rep--, repetition can be about when God leads us by heart as well as by head, that we are somehow lifted beyond ourselves, lifted beyond the moment, and we know the ecstasy of a God who redeems beyond the moment and the trial and the tragedy.
In St. Louis this last week, the violence erupted again near where Kathy and I have lived, near where we have friends, and we were reminded of a dear friend, the funeral of whose son we attended a few years ago.
The son had been involved in gangs and drugs and violence and by the amazing work of the right arm of God had been saved, had acknowledged Jesus as his Savior and had turned from the gangs and the violence and the drugs.
And as a result, he was murdered.
And at the funeral service of that young man in a church whose tradition is not like ours, in some way a church whose tradition may be more biblical at times, the mother of that child, despite the tragedy, knelt at the casket and raised her hands and said, "Thank You, Lord.
Thank You, Lord.
Thank You, Lord."
She would not stop saying it.
"Thank You, Lord.
Thank You, Lord.
Thank You, Lord, for saving my son."
And eternity had transcended the earthly as what she had done by heart as well as by head had affirmed:  "The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever."
This was not the victory over him.
This child had a greater victory, because the Lord had saved her son by the gift of His Son.
It is Jesus who has made the way for you and for me, so that you and I can truly sing with hearts that rise above the moment, "Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul.
Thank You, Lord, for making me whole.
Thank You, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation, so rich and free."
Thank You, Lord, that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.
Remember that.
It is worth repeating.
>>> Father, so work Your Word into our hearts.
We face a world that does not love the gospel nor love You.
But You have loved us and loved us with a love that never ceases.
Help us, Father.
Some of us face trial and heartache even now.
Some of us know what it means to be surrounded, surrounded, surrounded.
The troubles don't go away.
They are like bees coming at us again and again.
Help us to remember that the Lord is our helper and the evidence is that He sent His right hand, even Jesus our Savior, the Cornerstone on which we build, because He was rejected that we could be accepted.
He took our unrighteousness that we could be Your righteousness.
He opened the gates of heaven that we could follow Him.
When our hurts are so great that our heads can't even factor it, let our hearts feel the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.
We pray in Jesus' name.

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Daniel 1 • Standing Your Ground

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Psalm 103 • Remembering Dust