Mark Gouge, Message November 22, 2015 Take your Bible and open up to Psalm 113 if you would. Psalm Chapter 113 and what a beautiful time of worship this morning; Bryan and the musicians, unbelievable. Thank you for taking us into God’s throne room so we can lift up His wonderful name. Amen? And this morning I want to talk to you about the name of the Lord is worthy to be praised. Not anything else, not anybody else but the person of God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen? While you are turning there, I want to summarize a familiar story. I live with three little girls and I will be honest, it is one of my favorite movies as well; and as I explain this, you will probably recall seeing it yourself or maybe even other cartoons or movies that go into a small little snippet and recap this story. But in a far away, long ago kingdom, Cinderella is living happily with her mother and father until her mother dies. Cinderella’s father remarries a cold, cruel-hearted woman and makes Cinderella the servant of the house. She has two step-sisters, Drizella and Anastasia. And when her father dies, Cinderella’s wicked step-mother turns her into this servant. Meanwhile, across town, there is a king who has a son and it is time for that son to marry. And he calls every eligible maiden in the kingdom to a fancy ball where his son is able to choose his bride. Cinderella has no suitable party dress, so enter her two friends, Jacque and Gus, the little mice and some birds, they lend a hand in making her a dress. But the evil step-sisters rip it apart. And at this point, enter the fairy godmother, the pumpkin carriage, the royal ball, the celebration, the stroke of midnight and the glass slipper left on the steps as she runs away. Everybody with me? Then the prince comes and finds that slipper and throughout the next foreseeable future, he goes around the village trying to see whose foot fits in that slipper. And he eventually comes to Cinderella. The slipper fits and she is taken from a servant girl in the house, lifted to the top of the seat in the kingdom. And what a story. And I am sure as you hear and see a story like that, all of us can identify at some point, right? We probably wish that somewhere along the lines in our life as a kid, maybe even in your job, maybe even in your community, you have thought or daydreamed about going from an insignificant, unknown person to someone who is exalted, right? I know, for me as a boy, I wanted to be Michael Jordan or Larry Byrd or Cal Ripkin. I am an Oriole fan, by the way. And maybe you have had a similar situation in your life. But as we look in Scripture, we see a very similar overall, overriding truth. You and I were lost and dead in our trespasses and sins. And God saw fit to leave His high and exalted throne to come to this earth to seek out, to condescend and stoop down and to change the lives of the poor and the needy and the sinful. And that is what we are going to look at this morning. Let’s read Psalm Chapter 113 together if you would. “Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised! The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory is above the heavens! Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princeswith the princes of His people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. (Say this last line with me) Praise the Lord!” Amen! Let’s pray. Father, as we look into Your Word this morning, I pray that You would grip our hearts, Lord, to help us understand that You and You alone are worthy of all of our praise. We love You this morning and ask that You would speak to us in a real and powerful way. In Your name I pray. Amen. This is a wonderful Psalm and this Psalm starts a section of six consecutive Psalms called the Hallel. And this particular set of Psalms they were sung on recited at several of the Jewish feasts, in particular that of the Passover. And before the Passover meal, they would sing or recite Psalm 113 and 114. Following the meal, they would sing or recite Psalm 115, 116, 117 and 118. And if you think about, we are not given in Scripture, but if this were to be true to think about as the Lord celebrated the Passover in that Upper Room with His disciples, that this could be a set of Psalms that they sung or recited which gives particular attention…turn over one page to Psalm 118. When you think about the fact that the Lord may have sung these words right before He is handed over and betrayed. Verse 6, “The Lord is on my side, I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Verse 17, “I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord.” Verse 22, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” And then Verse 26, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.” What a thought to think that the Lord Himself may have actually sung that Psalm or recited it before He is taken out and betrayed. So as we look at this Psalm and we describe the very nature of the Lord this morning, I want us to see how the Lord is described so that we will glorify Him who is worthy of all of our praise. This morning as we look at it, I want us to see how the Lord is described in Scripture so that we will glorify Him who is worthy of all of our praise. As we look at it, I want you to see first of all an invitation to praise. Here in the Psalm, three times in the first verse and then the very last line, we are given a declaration, Praise the Lord! It is not a suggestion. It is not an option. It is a declaration. And I think it is worth noting that it is repeated. Maybe as a child you remember this, those of you who are parents, maybe you go through this similar thing. Do you have to repeat yourself to your kids or do you remember that as a child? Right? I mean, now Sue has to…I don’t ever get frustrated with the kids and have to repeat myself…but maybe something like this. Girls, put your plate in the sink. And they continue talking, playing. Girls! Put your plate in the sink! Right? And they still don’t respond. Then you get a little bit more forceful and there is a period after every one. Girls.Put.Your.Plate.In.The.Sink…and they still don’t listen, right? And then it comes to a crescendo, right? GIRLS, PUT YOUR PLATE IN THE SINK! And you have to wipe the spittle off your mouth, right? Has that ever happened to you? Just me, I guess. I think it is worth noting that the Lord is telling us, praise Me. Honor Me. Glorify Me. Let’s look at what praise means. It is not a half-hearted declaration. You know, sometimes we can get half-hearted with it, right? Well, praise God, it is Friday. You know, praise God it is 5:00, the work shift is over. Or whatever. We get maybe loose with it. But here, praise means to admire, to ascribe all worth to, to eulogize, to praise, to exclaim Hallelujah. Praise is when we can see and acknowledge the Lord in all of our lives for who He is and realize He is worthy of all of our admiration, all of our affection, our full effort, not a half-hearted effort, a full effort in ascribing Him the praise that is due His name. Charles Spurgeon said, “Prayer and praise are the oars by which a man may row his boat into the deep waters of the knowledge of Christ.” Our praise is to be directed to Him and not any other affection. It is easy for us to have our attention, our affection, our worth ascribing to other things, isn’t it? It is easy, unfortunately. So as we think about that this morning, what are some things in your life and our lives that pull our attention and pull our time and our admiration from Him to other things? We also see in Verse 1 the one who is to be praising and hearing the plea and invitation, Lord. We need to be careful to point out that he is actually clarifying who he wants to praise Him. Look at Verse 1, “Praise O servants of the Lord.” Here we understand that the Lord is talking to the nation of Israel and they have all reason to praise Him. They can look back in their history and understand that their family, their ancestors were slaves and servants in Egypt. And God miraculously delivered them. God was with them, even as they grumbled and complained in the wilderness. God was with them every time they set up a false image, God would come and rescue them. We teach this in Kids Church. If you want to write it down, it is free. I call it the ABCDE of the sin cycle in the Old Testament. Israel would Abandon God’s rules and principles. B, they would be put into Bondage. C, they would Cry out for deliverance. D, God would Deliver them. And E, there would be Ease in the land. But unfortunately, they would go right back to abandoning God and His principles. And yet, God still loved His people. God would rescue His people. And here he says, “Servants, praise Me.” And as we come to know the Father through salvation in Christ, we are the ones to be crying out. And His servants are the best people to praise Him, not anybody else. We know Him best, right? We should know Him best. We receive the most favor from Him. And let us, as His people, never be empty of praise for God. May it constantly be on our mind. Not once a year on a Thursday in November, but continually. Then we see described who is to be praised. We know the answer to this, don’t we? God is to be praised. Let’s look at how it is described for Him. It says, “The name of the Lord.” We are to exalt the revealed character from Scripture, magnifyd His every attribute, all His being, all His doings and revere the very name of God. Some of the things we don’t see in this passage. We are not to praise Him for our things and possessions. We can thank Him for that, right, but we are not to praise those things. We have an amazing church. We have an amazing campus. But you know what? We are not even to praise the church. We are not to praise our campus. We are not to praise our favorite music or our favorite whatever, our favorite Life Group, our favorite discipleship time. We are to praise One and it is a God that we can know personally. Spurgeon said, “We are to be bringing glory to His name, success to His cause and triumph to His truth.” We are to be worshiping the very character of God, which reminds us how gracious it is that He even was graceful and merciful enough to reveal Himself to us, right? He was under no obligation to do so. He was under no obligation to let us know through His Word that He is holy and that we are not and that He provided a way of salvation for us. He is under no obligation. But praise His name, He did! In today’s age, names are but mere labels to identify and distinguish one from the other, right? And sometimes when we name our children, we have names that mean something to us, but it is not the same as it was in the time of Scripture and times of the past. In fact, nicknames are probably more so, right? Hey, there is Speedy. Hey, there is Shorty. Hey, there is Opie which still isn’t funny, by the way. In Scripture, names reveal and describe God’s character. In a broad sense of the term, God’s name equals all that the Bible teaches about Himself. And we are to bring praise to His name. And this is so deep and so powerful, we could spend weeks talking about this. We know in I Corinthians Chapter 10 Verse 31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.” And in order to do this, we need to know Him and who He is. Recently, I was challenged by a mentor and father of the faith in my life in my prayer time. And I spent time with this man and I spent a lot of time with him and I love him. We were having dinner one night and he was telling me about how God challenged him in his prayer time, which eventually challenged me, which eventually led to this message. He said he was going through the Lord’s guide of prayer, you know, when the disciples said, “Teach us to pray,” and He gave them a guide to do so. He said, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed it be Your name.” And he said, “As I went through that, I got stuck on that.” And so it led to a deep study on the name of God. And as he described that, I went into a deep study of that and found that this is a part of our prayer time that we shouldn’t pass up. It has completely changed my prayer time. And we find several names of God revealed throughout Scripture and I am going to talk about them for a few minutes before we dissect the rest of the passage. Wayne Gruden in his book, Systematic Theology, references Herman Bavink’s list of names given to God. Some of these are from creation. So as you go through Scripture, you see that he uses some names that He likens Himself to from creation. He is referred to as the lion, an eagle, a lamb, a hen, the sun, the morning star, a light, a torch, a fire, a fountain, a rock, a hiding place, a tower, a shadow, a shield and a temple. From our experiences with Him, He is referred to as the bridegroom, a husband, a father, a judge, a king, a man of war, a builder, a maker, a shepherd and a physician. And these are just a few. There is an exhaustive list in Scripture. Even though God has no body and we are given great detail in who He is based on the name of the Lord, we are given in Scripture actual names for Him. And I want to look at them for just a minute. Elohim is one of the names in the Old Testament and it is used over 2500 times in the Old Testament. And it means that He is the One True God, the supreme. He is superior over all. And there are compound names from Elohim. I am going to list just a few of them that I got my beginning prayer time in and it is phenomenal. He El Shaddai. He is the Almighty standing above all. He is El Elyon. He is the Most High God. He is El Olam. He is the Everlasting God. No beginning, no end, He is. The next name is Yahweh. It is used over 5300 times. His name was so sacred that after the Exodus, they wouldn’t even say it. They used a different name, Adonai and over time, Adonai and Yahweh were compounded together to come up with the name Jehovah. And there are a few names through Scripture that we see. He is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides. We know the scene, right? Abraham and Isaac. Abraham, I want you to take your son up on the mountain. I want you to sacrifice him there. Excuse me, God, is this the amen son that You have been promising me forever and now You want me to take him up and sacrifice Him? That is exactly what I want you to do. And he gets up there and you know the story. He binds him up and he is ready to make the sacrifice and God stops him. And there is a ram on the other side of the hill. God provides. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my banner. Exodus 17 describes after the Israelites defeated the Amalekites, Moses erected a statue for all to see and remember, the Lord is our banner. He is over us. And I love in I John where it says, “The Lord’s banner over us is (what?) love.” He is Jehovah Shalom; the Lord is our peace. Does that rest on your soul? All the things in life? Guess what? He is Jehovah Shalom. He is Jehovah Sabboath, the Lord of hosts. I Samuel Chapter 1 describes Him as the Commander in Chief. He is the Commander of Hosts. He is our Jehovah Sabboath. There is Jehovah Roi, the Lord is my Shepherd, Psalm 23. Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord is my righteousness, which is awesome because you and I stand before God with no righteousness of our own. He became our righteousness for us, Amen? There are other names in Scripture, Adonai, Theos, Kurious, Father. As we got to the New Testament and some throughout the Old Testament, direct us to Jesus Christ Himself. And I want to read a list of names and I want you to think about each one. He is Emmanuel. He is the I AM. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the Lamb of God. He is the Morning Star. He is the Vine. He is the Word. He is the Lord of Hosts. He is the Rock. He is the Almighty. He is the Messiah. He is the Light of the World. He is our Savior. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the Redeemer. He is our Anchor. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is Wonderful. He is Counselor. He is Living Water. He is the Bread of Life. And praise God, He is our Advocate before God Himself. He is the Only Begotten. He is Jesus. He is Savior and Lord. And He is Worthy of all of our praise, Amen? Because of His great name, we can with utmost confidence and deepest humility attribute all the worth that is due His precious name. So I ask you this morning, how is your praise for God? Yours, not the person next to you, not the person down there who really needs it, you know what I mean? I am talking about you and I am talking about me. How is our praise? Then we see when and where He is to be praised. Look at Verse 3, “From the rising of the sun to the setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” We are to praise Him from this time now and forevermore. It is to be continual and one that does not cease. Time is not to be an issue. We are to be continually praising Him. If you are awake, you are to be praising Him. And somehow, some way, in my sleep, I want that to even bring praise to God. Amen? Also, think of eternity. There is no time. Charles Spurgeon said…and by the way, I do read more than Spurgeon. I have another quote from somebody else in a minute. “Praise is the rehearsal of our eternal song. By grace we learn to sing and in glory we continue to sing. What will some of you do when you get to heaven if you go about grumbling all the way? Do not hope to get to heaven in that style, but now begin to bless His name.” Just as time is not to be an issue, neither is space. “Let the whole earth, from the east to the west, be praising Him. Let all the nations be praising Him. If the sun rises in that place, let that place be praising Him.” Everyone is to be enjoying the benefits of praising God, which drives us to our mission. We need to carry the gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ to those who have no idea that they are to be praising Him. If you walk out this door and make a left and go around over near our nursery, if you are in the BX, there is out in the lobby area, there is a wall. Have you all seen it yet? There is a wall with a list of countries and people groups who have never heard the name of Jesus. And they are responsible. They are accountable to God. That should shake us that those people have no idea of the great name of Jesus. May that drive us to go. May that drive us to help people get there to go. And I think of the scene in Revelation Chapter 7 where it says, “After this I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne, before the Lamb of God, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands crying with a loud voice saying, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne. He is worthy of all of our praise.” Church, as we grow strong together, let’s be a church that praises Him! Praise in your private worship! Each day, all day. Then as we gather as a body, may it be an incredible, joyful celebration.
- L. Moody said, “I don’t care where it is, what part of the world it is in, if we have a praise church, we will have a successful Christianity.” I believe that, don’t you?
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