A Psalm of Praise

0:59She complains that I spend too much time at work. The complaints of wives were a little bit different. He doesn't like to listen to me. He takes me for granted. He's not romantic. One of these sets of complaints is largely rational. That is the complaints of the husbands. One is largely emotional, and that's the complaints of the wife. Now, does that mean that one is right and one is wrong? Absolutely not. What it simply means is that in a marriage, there are two elements that are present.

1:49And likewise, this morning, genuine praise contains both a rational and an emotional element. With our minds, we must understand who God is as He is revealed in the Word. Otherwise, we are not worshiping the true God. With our emotions, we must praise God as if we mean it. Otherwise, we are not worshiping God with all of our heart. Psalm 148 is found in the final section of the Psalms. The book of Psalms begins with what we call largely lament songs and ends with the five praise songs 146 through 150. Each psalm in this final quintet begins and ends with praise the Lord.

2:58The central message of Psalm 1 Psalm 148 is very simple. It's also the central point of our sermon. Everything and everyone in heaven and on earth should praise the Lord. Let me repeat that. Everything and everyone on heaven, in heaven and on earth, should praise the Lord. As noted by many commentators, the Psalm falls into very two clear, distinct sections. In verses 1 through 6, the command is, praise the Lord from the heavens. In verses 7 through 14, the command is, praise the Lord from the earth.

3:57Both main sections follow a sub-outline or sub-outlines within it. First, there's a list of everything and everyone that should praise the Lord, and then the reason why they should praise the Lord. In essence, there's a who and a why. So simply put, in this psalm, the psalmist is going to call upon angels and men, animate and inanimate forces, to unite. Praise to the Creator. Let us unpack this psalm. The first section begins in verse 1 with a threefold call to praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights.

4:55Now, the Psalm will continue in verses 2 through 4 with the roster of those who are in heaven. Now, think about it, not here on the earth, but above the earth, in heaven, who should praise the Lord. First, our angels. Praise Him, all His angels. Praise Him, all His hosts. Verse 2. The word angel refers to those created spiritual beings who lack physical bodies, but they possess individual personalities. The scriptures tell us that these angels, amongst many things, do the following: They praise God. They worship God. They rejoice in what God does. They serve God. They are instruments of God's judgment.

5:56They bring answers to prayer. They aid in. Winning people to Christ, they encourage in times of danger. The word host refers to a great number of individuals or to an army. And when in the scriptures you combine heavenly with host, it's really referring to the celestial army, which is under God's command. And of course, his celestial army is made up of what? Angels. So, given that angels and hosts are used in a heavenly context, remember, we're talking about in heaven, the use of angels and hosts in this is very likely a parallel reference.

6:45But this does raise a question: How can a psalmist, this psalmist, exhort the angels to praise the Lord? That is, how can a human being who in no sense is equal to the angels when it comes to the duty of praise exhort them to praise the Lord? I think the sense of what is happening in the psalm is this: the psalmist does it to stir himself up to join the angels in the heavenly chorus. As was just read earlier, we know. That in heaven we will join the angels around the throne, singing what? Worthy is the lamb that was slain.

7:41So, as such, this is not the psalmist commanding, ordering the angels to praise the Lord. It's really the psalmist getting excited about joining the angels, and you might be saying, Hey, let's go! Let's praise the Lord. That's the exhortation that is in this passage. Secondly, on this heavenly roster of those who should praise the Lord, are the inanimate things in heaven. Look at verses 3 through 4. Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all you shining stars. Praise Him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens. The highest heavens is literally the heaven of heavens.

8:34It refers to these distant galaxies and stars, or to the place where God dwells. The waters above the heavens is probably a reference to Genesis 1, where God separated the waters below the expanse from the waters above. It's really just a poetic way of acknowledging that the sky. Holds a lot of water, which we know when heavy rains fall. So, in this first section of the psalm, the psalmist calls on the inanimate things in heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, to praise the Lord. In the second main section of the psalm, the psalmist is going to call on the inanimate things and the non-human creatures of the earth. We'll see this in a second: fire, and hail, and snow, and mist, and stormy winds, and mountains, and hills, and fruit trees, and cedars, and beasts, and cattle, and reptiles, and birds to praise the Lord.

9:40So, we need to ask this question while we're still here in this first section. But the question would be the same not only to the inanimate things in heaven, but will apply to the inanimate things on the earth. And that question is: how can an inanimate thing that's unthinking praise the Lord? The most obvious answer is that all things created call attention to the glory of their Creator, who merely spoke them into existence. They provide a reflection, albeit faint, of the glory of God.

10:27Think as I read these. The expanse of the universe, the industriousness of ants, the explosion of spring wildflowers across the state of Texas, the majesty of the Grand Canyon, the blue water of the Caribbean, the grandeur of the Rockies, and the sound of the tide coming in and out all display the glory of God. As Psalm 19:1 declares, the heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.

11:22Do you know how many galaxies that there are in the universe? Astronomers' best guess is somewhere north of 100 billion galaxies. We are but one. Brothers and sisters, that's a lot. Do you realize how big and powerful our Creator actually is when we are but one of 100? Billion. That's what we can see. But there is an interesting fact: when we do look at these galaxies, when we do look at the stars, we can take a lesson from them. And albeit it's an indirect lesson. But think of it this way: they can provide for us a model of worship. What do I mean? First, their worship of God, their reflection of His glory, is always visible.

12:38Second, their worship of God is constant. It does not vary. And their worship of God, they always obey God. The order in this universe is not accidental. The order in this universe obeys its creator. And in so obeying it, provides us with an example of how to worship. So after giving the heavenly list that should praise the Lord, now look at verses five and six. And this psalmist is going to give two reasons that those in heaven should praise the Lord. First, the psalmist states that those in heaven should praise God because he created the Lord. Created them. Verse 5, for he commanded, and they were created.

13:37This is a clear allusion to Genesis 1, in which the repeated statement, and God said, introduces the creation and the various features of the world. The heavenly bodies owe their existence to the command of God who said, Let there be light, let there be animals, let there be creatures of the sea. Brothers and sisters, we'll deal with this later. Matter is not eternal. God is eternal. Matter exists because God commanded it to exist. Hold that thought. The second reason that the heavenly roster should praise the Lord is because he sustains them. Verse 6. And he established them forever and ever. He gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. God does not only create, he sustains, and he continues his rule of the heavens forever.

14:52That is the first main section of this psalm. Everything and everyone in heaven. Should praise the Lord. Now, we're going to consider the second main section: how everything and everyone on the earth should praise the Lord. Again, the psalmist starts with a roster of those on the earth who should praise the Lord. And that roster will be divided into two broad categories, so don't get confused, of singers. I want you to think of them as singers. We have non-human singers and we have human singers. The first non-human singers in verse 7 are sea creatures. Some of your translations have sea monsters.

15:45Now, whether or not this refers to those large aquatic animals like sharks in whales, or even if it refers to the great beast Leviathan in Job, the point is the same. These big creatures display God's glory. Now, some of you would sit there and say, How do they do that? How many of you have ever listened to the sound of a dolphin or a whale calling out? Do those sounds not have a simplistic? Haunting beauty. The second non-human singers are the elements of weather. Fire, think of lightning, hail, snow, mist, think fog, and stormy wind. Now, some of these are beautiful and serene, and others are awesome in their destructive power. Yet all of these elements of weather are under God's sovereign control. He sends or withholds them as he sees fit. If he sends rains and protects us from damaging storms, we should thank him. If he sends droughts or destructive hail or flood, we should humble ourselves before his amazing sovereign power.

17:24The point is this: the weather is not just a natural process. The gentle sound of a rain on a tin roof, the cleansing effect of a new snow, the rumble of thunder, and the haunting effect of fog all display God's glory. The third non-human singers are topological features and plants. Mountains, hills, fruit trees, and cedars in verse 9. How do these display God's glory? How many of you have been to New Mexico or Colorado and have heard aspen leaves shaking in the wind?

18:25How many of you would take a cup of coffee to your back porch every morning if your back porch backed up against a mountain range? Topological features display the glory of God. The fourth non-human singers are all kinds of animals, beasts, livestock, creeping things, and birds in verse 10. How can these singers display God's glory? Some may disagree with this, but what is the most beautiful sound that signals the arrival of summer? Is it not the buzz of cicadas in the evening?

19:14How many of you have bird feeders in your backyard for the sole reason of bringing their chirps and their melodies into your very yard? What I want you to do is to be a little bit of a buddy To understand, brothers and sisters, is nothing that God has created is excluded from his choir of praise. He has a praise choir, and nothing is excluded. What may sound to human ears like a cacophony of roars, grunts, squeals, and chirps is to God a sonorous symphony exalting him.

20:01If our dancing can bring praise to God, why not the dance of the loons on a Minnesota lake? If the trumpet and handles Messiah can express praise, why not the trumpet of an African elephant? Notice in verse 11: finally, there's a second category of singers who joins this choir. And this second category is exhorted to praise God. And of course, it is the human voice. What I want you to do is to think this psalm is not unlike Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that goes on and on and on. And at the very end, human voices join the instruments of the orchestra. To produce its stunning finale. That's what's happening here.

21:06All that's in heaven, inanimate, all that's in the earth, inanimate and animate, has praised God. And now humans join this praise. The psalmist calls upon all kings and peoples, princes and rulers, young men and maidens, old men and children to praise the Lord. Consider how neither gender nor age, neither power nor esteem, is a limitation to praising God. Rather, the call to praise God transcends all boundaries that divide humans into opposing factions. What is evident is that no human is so exalted to be exempt from the obligation to praise God, and no human is too common to be excluded from that privilege. Even those humans who, because of their gender, class, or status, are routinely dismissed, have a welcome voice in God's choir of praise. I want to dwell on this for just a few more seconds and consider some few examples. Now, many of you like to watch. TV. And you like, some of you like to watch shows that deal with lawyers. And there's a rule: a lawyer should never ask a question of a witness unless you know what the answer is. So some could apply the same here. I am going to ask the children to assist me in showing how children can praise the Lord. Youth, you may have to step in and help because I don't want to be left hanging here.

23:01But can children praise the Lord? From day one, children, you have been taught, if you were in church, to praise the Lord. And I want you to help me. I'll start the first part and you pick up the second part. And you can sing out. And youth, you might want to help the younger ones. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. How many of you from young learned how to praise the Lord?

23:52Children can praise the Lord. Youth, young people, you can praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. You can praise the Lord for your beauty, your vitality, and your ability to heal quickly. Older people, that's why I have a name right here, as I have to remember what my name is. Older people should praise God for what God has given to them, for the years that we have known God and seen his wonders. And as we begin to see our physical bodies declining, we can also rejoice at the prospect of being with Christ forever. Simply put, all from the greatest and most powerful to the least and weakest, from the oldest to the youngest, can and should praise the Lord.

25:06So, having set forth the roster of those on earth who should praise the Lord, the psalmist now gives us three reasons that those on the earth should praise the Lord. First, for his name alone is exalted. This is a statement of exclusive monotheism. It's in contrast to the polytheism. That prevailed throughout the world at this time. Second, God's glory or majesty is above earth and heaven. This justifies the call to praise God from the heavens and from the earth because all exist within the realm of his sovereign kingship. Third, God is to be praised for his redemptive activities. Notice in verse 14: he has raised up a horn for his people. Praise for all his saints. For the people of Israel who are near to him praise the Lord.

26:17We're not familiar with this raising up of the horn, but this is an imagery that probably could refer to Yahweh's past military deliverance of Israel from its enemies. Or it can be an eschatological promise of a future restoration of Israel. Or it could be some composite of both, but the point here in verse 14 is: redemption is linked with creation as a cause for praising God. Thus, the overarching universal claim of Psalm 148 is that the proverb. Purpose of all that exists, known and unknown, seen and unseen, is to give adoration and praise to God. Or, as stated earlier, everything and everyone in heaven and on earth should praise the Lord.

27:22Let us close with three final practical applications. First, we are to worship the Creator and not the creation. We are to acknowledge God as the author of the created order rather than to worship nature as if that product were itself its own self-creation. This is clearly seen throughout the Old and New Testaments. Just a quick example. Paul, Colossians 2:18, tells the Colossians not to be deceived and not to worship angels. Stephen in Acts 7:42 in his sermon says that the children of Israel, of children of God, of children of Israel, came out of Egypt and just literally within days, what are they worshiping? A man-made idol of gold. 2 Kings 17, 21 tells us that Ahab worshiped the sun, the moon, and the stars.

28:31And we know in Romans 1 that man is prone to worship the creature rather than the creator. Simply put, the Old and New Testaments show that worshiping creation was a reversal of what creation was supposed to do. Creation was not made to be worshipped. Creation was made to give praise to God. Now, this view of creation being made to give praise to God contrasts with modern-day pantheism. Pantheism is that view that God is in everything and everything is God.

29:17Pantheists worship the creation, not the creator. This view is in contrast to naturalism. Naturalism is what undergirds most of modern science. Naturalism is that belief that everything that exists in the universe is physical, material matter. And naturalists will turn their God, turn their backs on the God who actually created that matter. And let me pause and speak to maybe one or two of you in the audience. Who are secular naturalists? Let me, that is, those of you who believe not in God, but who believe that all that matter is, is all that exists in the world. It just happened to come to pass. It just happens to be in order. And you say, it is so naturally ordered, why do we need a God? It just took care of itself. For those of you who hold to that belief, know this. The psalmist is saying the exact opposite. The conclusion you should be drawing is that the massive intricacy, the ordered regularity of the world, demands a creator. You should be saying, what kind of a God made this?

30:56And that is the God you should be praising. Simply put, Psalm 148 has much to say to the 21st century. It may be that God is more ignored today than praised. It may be that modern man is attempting to shut out God out of the world, the very world he created. And it may be that mankind is blind to the purpose of creation. And how that creation reflects just a little bit of the glory of God.

31:36This is too bad. The true purpose of creation is to instruct us that God is the creator of the universe, the sovereign of the universe, and is worthy of our praise and adoration. We are to worship the creator, not creation. Second, we are to be a steward of creation. Just because we can give voice to the praise that is native to all of creation, we are not to ignore the need to care for God's creation. We humans have a unique responsibility not only to call upon the rest of creation to praise God, but to attend to its well-being so that it survives and endures in order to praise God.

32:33In other words, we have an obligation to support and nurture the highest beings in heaven, the lowest beings on earth within reason, so that their voices continue unabated in the universal combined chorus of praise. And if you don't believe me, that creation aches. For this, if creation groans to be able to praise God, look at Romans 8:20 through 23, where Paul tells us: For the creation, the perfect creation was subjected to futility, not willingly. It didn't want to do this, not because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only creation, but ourselves, who had the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoptions as son, the redemption of our bodies. Simply put, our task as caretakers of creation is to accentuate, not to interfere with, the creation's capacity to worship and praise God. And finally, number three, we are to praise God for our redemption. Whereas the praise of creation was rooted in God having created it and sustained it. The praises of God's people in verses 13 and 14 are rooted in his redemption of his people. I want you to notice in verse 14 that God plans to redeem us, and he has four references to us. First, we are his people.

34:53He chose us. He has redeemed us. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price. We are his people. We are his saints. We are set apart from this world. We are to be salt and light. We are his saints. Third, we are the people of Israel. This, again, points to God's sovereignty. He chose Abraham, who miraculously gave his son Isaac. Of Isaac's two sons, Jacob and Esau, God chose Jacob, changed his name to Israel. He preserved the sons of Israel through 400 years of slavery in Egypt, brought them miraculously out of slavery, placed them in the promised land, and when they sinned, sent them into captivity in Babylon. But he brings them back to the land from the lineage of Israel so that through David he would bring the Savior to the world.

36:00We enter into God's covenant promises to Israel through faith in this Savior, Jesus Christ. And finally, we are to be a people near to him. As Derek Kidner said, this is the climax of this psalm and actually of the gospel. Paul concurs when he writes in Ephesians 2: But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And he came and preached to you who were far away. And peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

36:53Brothers and sisters, if you are near to God through the blood of Christ, then the final exhortation of this psalm is appropriate. Praise the Lord. But there may be others in this audience who are not near to God through the blood of Christ. My appeal to you is to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. You must recognize that God is holy. You must recognize that you are sinful. You must recognize that you cannot save. Yourself because of your sin in front of a holy God. But by placing your faith in Christ's perfect work on the cross, His work can save you. And by placing your faith in that work, you can become a believer. And if you become a believer, all of us in this room will join you in shouting, Praise the Lord.

38:00Let's pray. Father, this is a very simple psalm. Everything and everyone on heaven and on earth should praise the Lord. As we walk away today, may we remember that all that you have created, both inanimate and animate objects, do bring you glory. May we never take for granted the creation. That you have brought forth. And may we never take for granted our responsibility to be a steward of it. But may this psalm remind us that we are never to worship the creation itself, but that it is a roadmap, a signpost to tell us of your incredible glory, even if it's just a small reflection of that glory.

39:35We thank you. We thank you for your Son, whose death on the cross has secured our salvation. And we thank you that creation and redemption are very often in the scriptures merged together. For you planned from the beginning of the world to raise up a people that you would redeem, who would one day join the angels in praising your glory. It is in your Son's name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at New Life. CS dot net