Tim Badger - Class 3: Praising God (Psa 150)

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is the 2018 Day with the Word. Our speaker is but a Tim Badger. His topic for the day is Closer to Our God, the Book of Psalms. This is class number three, entitled Hallelujah, Praising God. The reading was Psalm 150. Let us in.

2. 0:30

   All right, well that was a great lunch. I have a great appreciation for Mexican slash Californian, I don't know what else you call it, but they do a pretty poor job of it in Australia.

3. 0:49

   And it's really yummy over here. So, thank you. So, what we're going to be looking at is sort of shifting our focus, obviously, to the other most common theme in the Psalms, and that is praise. So, here's where we're at. We're looking at this one, and then our next session is going to be looking at sort of a different type of psalm altogether as well, that gives us instruction, but they're related.

4. 1:16

   So, when we come to Psalms, this is particularly what most people think of when they come to the Book of Psalms, that it's full of praise, which it is, but not completely full, as we've already seen, in terms of looking at the laments. And this is a common word that's used throughout Psalms and other places in Scripture, and that is the word Hallelujah.

5. 1:39

   And if you're not sure, I thought we'd just have a quick look at this so we're clear on it. It comes from two words, the word Hallel, which means to praise, or it comes from this idea to shine, to be bright, or to boast. And then Yah, which is an interesting form of the word Yahweh.

6. 1:58

   It's the contracted, poetic version of Yahweh's name, and it's used extensively throughout the Psalms. And other places, particularly in Isaiah, you'll find it, and you'll often find it as a clue to a psalm that's going on. So, when you come to Isaiah, there's a few psalms that are sort of embedded in the prophet's message, and he will use one of those, or a couple of those clues that indicate this is a psalm, and one of them is the use of Yah, the contracted form of Yahweh, he who will be.

7. 2:29

   So, that's all the way through. And this is a really important word that's picked up in the New Testament as well, and we'll see that a little bit later, in a different form in the book of Revelation. Well, before we look at these psalms of praise, brothers and sisters, and what they can tell us about what we can do in terms of drawing closer to God through praise, we have to remember how important praise is.

8. 2:55

   And we're told in Scripture that God feels, God thinks that praise is beautiful. That's one of the expressions that you find in Scripture, that he looks at praise when it's done in the right way, into his honor and glory, and he finds it a beautiful thing. So, that means that when you and I praise God, that's something that gives him great delight, when his people actually praise his name.

9. 3:20

   And this is what we find through the history of the children of Israel. So, let's just have a little sweep at some of the times when Israel and God's people praised him. Let's start in Egypt. When the children of Israel were brought through the Red Sea, and they were liberated from the Egyptians, they were really happy.

10. 3:42

    Being perhaps the first and most significant occasion for joy on a national level, in the history of Israel, the people and their leader couldn't restrain from singing and giving praise to Yahweh their God with their voices, instruments, and all of their might. Where is that recorded?

11. 4:03

    So, where is that culmination of their praise? Where is it? Exodus. Exodus 15. So, yeah, 14 is the lead up to it. And then, and away it goes in Exodus 15. That becomes a crucial song with all sorts of prophetic overtones through the rest of Scripture. And we know when the ark was brought back to Jerusalem under David, the people and their king were happy as well.

12. 4:26

    And they couldn't restrain from singing and praising and giving thanks to Yahweh with their instruments and joyful hearts in 1 Chronicles 15 and 16. An intense moment of national praise. And when the exiles came back after the long activity, the long captivity in Babylon, they were filled with happiness as well, brothers and sisters.

13. 4:44

    This was a moment, again, of national heartfelt praise to God. And we're told that the sound of their excitement and praise and thanksgiving was so loud from the tops of the new walls in Jerusalem that they were heard for a long way off in Nehemiah chapter 12. And I imagine, that's an incredible scene, to imagine them cruising around on the top of those new walls and absolutely praising God so much that it must have shaken the walls in some way.

14. 5:15

    They were confident they wouldn't come down, obviously. But the enemies, that would have just been an amazing thing for the enemies to witness and to see from a distance. And so when Jesus later comes riding on a colt and draws near to Jerusalem, the great multitude of his disciples again experienced great joy.

15. 5:33

    And the noise of their joy and praise was to their God, we're told, for they recognized their chosen king and gave him honor, Luke 19, if only for a moment. And in Revelation chapter 19, this is where we come in, the great harlot, when that great harlot, who has corrupted the whole earth, is overcome, and the smoke of her destruction rises forever, God's people will be happy.

16. 6:06

    And the sound of their praise to Yahweh and the joy of their hearts, we are told, brothers and sisters, will be as loud as mighty thunder. Imagine that. That is absolutely an amazing picture. As the sound of many waters, even the voice of a great multitude. Just come to Revelation 19. I know we're in the Psalms, but come to Revelation 19.

17. 6:32

    It's a beauty picture. And one that needs to be, and is, fundamentally part of our vision of the kingdom. So Revelation 19 picks up this theme of praise, and it tells us prophetically, brothers and sisters, that this is one of the great culminating events that will involve our praise in the future. And we believe, and our faith is, that all of us here, collected with all of the saints, from all of history, will be here in Revelation 19 when Jesus returns and conquers the great harlot, we are going to be there, and we will be praising God for the very fact that her smoke rises up forever and ever.

18. 7:18

    So, Revelation 19, verse 1, After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God. Now that's one of the rare occasions in the New Testament where the Hebrew is directly transliterated into the Greek. They don't make up a new word.

19. 7:39

    This is transliterated right from Hebrew. Alleluia! For true, verse 2, For true and righteous are his judgments because he's judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he's avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her. And again they said, Alleluia! For her smoke rises up forever and ever.

20. 8:02

    And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sat on the throne saying, Amen! Alleluia! Then a voice came from the throne saying, Praise our God, all you his servants and those who fear him, both small and great. You know what's interesting, brothers and sisters, in this section is all of the key elements of those doxologies that were at the end of every one of the five books of Psalms.

21. 8:28

    The blessing, the Amen, and the forever and ever. It's all there, all those elements. And we find them right at the end of the age in Revelation chapter 19 on the lips of the saints as they praise their God. And so you can see who that verse we quoted from, verse 6, And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude as the sounds of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering saying, Alleluia!

22. 8:51

    For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come. His wife has made herself ready. Now, amazingly, right, Handel decided to make a song on this using the Alleluia Chorus, right, which most of us love. And if you've ever been to the Messiah, I think I've been to it once years ago, I think everyone stands for that, right?

23. 9:16

    Is that the tradition? Yeah. The Alleluia Chorus one happens? Is that right? Yeah. Like most people in the audience traditionally would stand for that. And out it goes. And Handel Messiah composed a song, his Messiah, the music and all that. He composed it using the words from a, like, I won't sing it because I'm no singer.

24. 9:34

    But you know that, yeah, like, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! And it's so interesting to me, right? Because, like, it's based on Revelation 19 and the praise there, but he certainly didn't include anything about the harlot in that song. Can you imagine? Like, the smoke rises and rises. So bizarre. I don't think it would have gone down well in his time if he had it thrown at it.

25. 9:54

    But that's where it's based on, okay? And the joy, the hallelujah chorus, is actually still future for us when we will see that destruction take place in the victory of Christ and the saints over that system in the world. Beautiful. So praise is fundamental to God's people and it always has been. And we, brothers and sisters, need to make time for praise and do it deliberately, not just incidentally.

26. 10:17

    Incidentally, that's the point. There's a deliberateness to the praise of the Psalms where people in their life have thought about what God's done and is going to do and decided to praise him for it. Sat down and wrote out praise to God. Now here comes one of the challenges from the book of Psalms, brothers and sisters, that we'll just mention in passing now.

27. 10:38

    And that is, when you read the book of Psalms, there's another lesson that is just saying very simply to us that we can take away. And it's not only pray like this, but it's also do this. And the doing is, well, brothers and sisters, people sat down and wrote these out. Pen and paper or whatever they had back then.

28. 10:59

    Parchment and pen quilt or whatever it might have been. I'm not really sure. But you get the idea. One of the messages, I think, that's really obvious from looking at the book of Psalms and the fact that we have it is saying there is a lot of power for the people of God to sit down and write out a prayer.

29. 11:17

    Whether it's prayer of praise or prayer of lament. And I don't know if you've ever done that. But the first time that I realized you could do it, which kind of seems obvious, but you didn't think of it as in person, is, I'm pretty sure this is how it went. I remember, and this sounds a bit dodgy, but I'll just tell you anyway, I remember taking my sister's diary that was locked.

30. 11:41

    And I was looking through it. I'm like, oh, wow, a diary. And what I actually found was prayers written out. And that wasn't the juicy kind of thing that I was looking for. But the amazing thing was, I suddenly saw, I remember seeing it there, that my sister had written out a prayer.

31. 11:59

    And I'm like, whoa, like, okay. And since then, it's made me think that I don't do it all the time brothers and sisters, but I definitely had a book that I wrote out prayers from time to time in. And if you, if you take away one challenge from the, our studies together this week, this weekend, is to make yourself the challenge of writing out a prayer.

32. 12:21

    And I can tell you one thing for certain, you will experience something very different than just saying a prayer like you might do at the end of an evening or something like that. If you sit down and write out a prayer, you will immediately, probably, most people's experience of this, and I get my, I get my year 10s to do this.

33. 12:39

    And the immediate reflection is, wow, how do I do this? Like, how do I even introduce it? How do I start? And that's where then you suddenly open the Psalms and you can borrow phrases and let that just flow. And you can experience this idea of actually stopping and thinking about what you're praying about far more than what happens when we just kind of rattle off in prayer sometimes at the end of an evening.

34. 13:05

    It takes a lot longer. It takes time and investment, but I can assure you that the power of doing so is very great. And I encourage you to do that and experience what that means because that's one of the lessons that's coming clear from the book of Psalms that people wrote these out.

35. 13:23

    And so you can do that with praise. And one of the challenges I want to add to that then as we think through and you get some ideas of what praise is all about from what we're going to look at is I'm going to set some homework because I'm a school teacher and I love doing that.

36. 13:40

    I'm not going to be checking. I'm marking it, obviously. But my challenge to you is next two weeks try and find time, make time. We don't find it. Let's try and make time to write out some sort of hymn of praise. And if you're not poetic, don't worry. But if you can write out the things that you are praising God for and I don't mean just a little list of thank yous but write out a prayer that is predominantly praised.

37. 14:05

    Try it. It's challenging and it might stir you to think about where you are at in your understanding of praise to God and what you actually do praising for. So it could be the creation around you if you've just been on a hike. It could be for your family, for your ecclesia or for all of those things and that's what people do praise God for.

38. 14:25

    But try it. In the next two weeks sit down and write a psalm of praise to God and see what it does for your own mind and discipleship. So the people of God are a happy people despite the trials that come along. And you know, brothers and sisters, when you look at the book of Psalms as a collection like we've been doing, the beginning of the book of Psalms starts off predominantly with lamentations like Psalms of Lament and there's some praise in there.

39. 14:52

    But by the end of the book of Psalms, there's one thing for certain and that is by the time you get all the way to the end into the 140s and 50s and so on that, or 150, that the psalmist is saying or the group that have finally compiled it under divine inspiration that the people of God will eventually move from lament and trials and come through to praising God.

40. 15:15

    And there's this huge focus on praise at the end of the book of Psalms. So despite whatever has happened through the life of his saints and the history of his people and all those ups and downs and laments, despite all of that, at the end of the day, the people of God are a happy people because they have an absolute definite hope that no matter what happens, even if their own life is taken from them, brothers and sisters, there is nothing that can change the hope that we have.

41. 15:44

    And that's the message of the book of Psalms as we'll see as we come to the end that despite everything that's come before from Moses to the exiles, we have every reason still at the end of the day to find every reason to praise our God because everything that we actually need has been taken care of.

42. 16:04

    And that's the beauty of praise in the Psalms that we have. 1 Chronicles 16 verse 10 says this, Sing to him. Sing Psalms to him. Talk of all his wondrous works. When was the last time? This is a little self-reflection. When was the last time in a conversation with a brother or sister or posts on Facebook or whatever it is, when was the last time you were talking about the wonderful works of God to your brothers and sisters?

43. 16:37

    just as raw as it is, as the beautiful day and say, this is an amazing day that God's created and thinking about all those things because brothers and sisters, that's what you find in the Psalms. That's what people are doing who know and feel passionately that they're in covenant relationship with God. They appreciate those things.

44. 16:56

    They talk to him. So, sing to him, sing Psalms to him. 1 Chronicles 16.10. Talk of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek Yahweh. That's amazing. What an amazing command. And what a great challenge for us to make sure that we keep our minds focused on praise, even when life can be hard, to find those reasons to praise God.

45. 17:22

    Well, we said earlier that Psalm 145 was sort of the last Psalm. Let's go there. And I'm going to explain why that sort of is the case. Alright? So, it seems like the compilers of the book of Psalms in its end format had Psalm 145 at the end. And you remember that there was no Amen, Amen sort of part to the doxology.

46. 17:56

    Do you remember when we were looking at that at the end of Psalm 145? But we mentioned that Psalm 146 to the end actually forms that sort of final conclusion to the book of Psalms. And I think that's the way we need to see these. And it's deliberately put this way. That Psalm 146 to 150 are actually the final crescendo for the whole book of Psalms.

47. 18:20

    Despite everything that's come through over history under divine inspiration these five Psalms were put at the end to teach us one final pushing lesson about life and our prayers to God focused on praise. And I want to show you how this happens because brothers and sisters I think all of us would agree that there's things in Scripture that convince us of divine inspiration that this is the hand of God.

48. 18:46

    Prophecy obviously and all those things but just the way it's written time and time again shows us that this is the hand of God. Let's have a look at how this works. So let's say the collection is ended and the final five Psalms are tacked on the end with a deliberate ending message.

49. 19:05

    So Psalm 146 Well the first thing you might have noticed is that the beginning of Psalm 146 starts with Hallelujah so praise Yah that's what it literally says in Hebrew praise Yah but it also ends with that same phrase so have a look at the end of verse 10 praise Yah so Hallelujah right and so does Psalm 147 it starts with Hallelujah and ends with Hallelujah so does Psalm 148 and 149 and 150 all of excuse me all of those last five Psalms are known as the Hallelujah Psalms one of those little collections of Hallelujah Psalms because they all start and finish with the exact same expression in Hebrew Hallelujah praise the Lord now that should tip us off that there's something going on here there's a deliberate construction they put it together but there's so much more than that brothers and sisters each one of these Psalms as we're going to see has a different a different focus on this whole exhortation to praise Yahweh so let's just have a look and see if we can figure out what it is now I'm going to try and put them in these columns and I'll make these slides available in PDF or whatever so you don't have to scratch everything down and I do have a handout of something after this but let's just build a picture and read carefully these last five Psalms what is the focus of Psalm 146 well clearly it's praise but in what sense well here we go verse 1 hallelujah praise Yahweh oh my soul will I live I will praise Yahweh I will sing praises to my God

50. 20:59

    will I have my being now there's a focus there brothers and sisters this is clearly an individual who's taken up the exhortation to praise Yahweh right this is what an individual person saying I'm going to praise God while I have my being with all of my might that's what I'm going to do so if you put it together there's little clues fairly consistently in this Psalm that tell us what the focus is of this Psalm and this is praise coming from the individual right look at the look at what we've got here oh my soul will I pray will I live I will praise and then it goes on in verse 5 happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help so this is talking about individuals in their own circumstances the blind the lame whoever they might be that they personally have the God of Jacob for their help and that's why this individual person and those individual circumstances are praising God Psalm 146 has a definite focus that praise is coming from the individual him or herself and then you have a little clue to what's going to happen next it says towards the end in verse 10 Yahweh shall reign forever your God O Zion to all generations so suddenly this person turns the psalmist and addresses Zion Israel Jerusalem Judah and says your God lives forever to all generations shall reign for all generations so when we come to Psalm 147 look what's happened this is amazing to me this is a hallelujah psalm but the shift in focus is really apparent look who's praising God in Psalm

51. 22:45

    147 verse 1 for it it is good to sing praises not to my God anymore to our God and it's pleasant and praise is beautiful there it is Yahweh builds up Jerusalem he gathers together the outcasts of Israel heals the broken hearted binds up their wounds he counts the number of the stars and he calls them all by name that's clearly a reference to the Abrahamic promises look at what the focus is great is our Lord and mighty in power his understanding is infinite look at verse 7 sing to Yahweh with thanksgiving sing praises on the harp to our God look at verse 12 praise Yahweh O Jerusalem praise your God O Zion for he has strengthened the bars of your gates he has blessed your children within you he makes peace in your borders and fills you with the finest of wheat and if we didn't get the point look at verse 19 he declares his word to Jacob his statutes and his judgments to Israel he has not dealt thus with any nation and as for his judgments they have not known them hallelujah so here's the focus brothers and sisters of Psalm 147 this is praise from the nation that's who's praising God in Psalm 147 this is the ecclesia this is the nation our God Jerusalem Israel sing on the harp to our God praise your God O Zion and the interesting thing is what we're going to find with each of these they have a different focus of praise brothers and sisters and I feel that's kind of ringing is that ringing to you okay I'll try and stay away

52. 24:31

    from it a little bit Psalm 146 anticipated what the next psalm is going to be right the focus of praise in that psalm and there it was this is coming from Zion right there's Zion your God of Zion right there in verse 12 and now there's a little hint of what the next psalm is going to do as this begins to escalate from the individual to the nation and now the focus of Psalm 148 is this presence of the I think this is so exciting look what it says Psalm 148 now praise is coming to the Lord from the heavens and it lists all the things in the heavens verse 2 3 4 5 and 6 heights angels hosts moons stars heavens of heavens waters let them praise the name of the Lord verse 5 for he commanded and they were created he also established them forever and ever and made a decree which should not pass away and then verse 4 says praise Yahweh from the earth and he mentions everything in the earth including people right look what it says sea creatures !

53. 25:37

    hail, snow, clouds stormy wind fulfilling his word mountains and all hills fruitful trees beasts and so it's a recap on Genesis chapter 1 so do you see what's happened in Psalm 148 praise has now gone up a level it started with the individual now the whole nation's involved and now all of creation is praising God was his sisters and that's what this psalm anticipated at the end of Psalm 147 and it goes to another level in Psalm 149 and you can see what's happening in this book the psalmist and the way this is putting together is bringing us to this absolutely certain ending of total and utter praise to God from everything and everyone so the end of Psalm 148 mentions the saints and that is exactly where praise is coming from in Psalm 149 have a look at Psalm 149 and I'll just put that on there the first clue that this is now talking about the saints who are redeemed is in verse 1 sing to Yahweh a new song and that phrase is absolutely loaded as we know with the future age after redemption has taken place in full and his praise in the assembly of saints let Israel rejoice in their maker and the children of Zion be joyful in their king now in a sense brothers and sisters it's not just coming from the nation anymore as 147 was this is coming from a redeemed people and how do we know that well look what it says verse 3 let them praise his name with a dance let them sing praises to him with the timbrel and harp for Yahweh

54. 27:24

    takes pleasure and his people and he will beautify the humble with salvation you see what it's getting at this is the saints redeemed with Christ how do we know it's with Christ verse 5 let the saints be joyful in glory let them sing aloud on their beds which is just a great little image let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute on them the written judgment this honor have all the saints and that's exactly what Revelation 19 is talking about do you see what's happened praise has started individually nationally all of creation the new creation and then if you couldn't get any more of what this is what this is doing what it's saying brothers and sisters in almost a a way that's hard to contain Psalm 50 caps off everything in this message of praise and says this over and over and over again look at Psalm 150 it's an incredible song and sometimes neglected perhaps praise the Lord hallelujah that's the what of this song now it's going to answer where praise God in his sanctuary and praise him in his mighty firmament and now it's going to answer why why do this praise him for his mighty acts and praise him according to his excellent greatness and now it's going to answer how do we do it and interestingly brothers and sisters this is the largest section of the psalm praise him with the sound of the trumpet

55. 29:23

    praise him with the lute and harp praise him with the timbrel and dance praise him with stringed instruments and flutes which is literally what the word psalm means psalm means to strike the strings to sweep the strings verse 5 praise him with loud cymbals and if you sort of missed the point praise him with clashing cymbals let everything that has breath praise Yahweh hallelujah that's the final word the final note of this entire collection of prayers brothers and sisters of the saints from Moses to the exiles and the message that we're being given brothers and sisters is that we have cause to reflect on the reasons to praise God as individuals in our life psalm 146 there's so many reasons we just need to stop and do it don't we we need to make praise in our life deliberate intentional not incidental spontaneous absolutely but not just haphazard from the sense of like hope it happens sometime this is something that people are choosing to do and they're sitting down and thinking how great God is and deliberately praising him for that and how much of a help that can be in our life if we choose to do it if weeks go by brothers and sisters and we don't praise God for anything except for thanking him for our daily meals how impoverished can we be and how mindless of who the God is that we live and serve every day and that's what they're telling us these psalms to praise God as individuals and if we're doing that brothers and sisters then our ecclesia let's say from a national point of view our ecclesia

56. 31:23

    that's our parallel our brotherhood should be and would be praising God just the same and that's cause to reflect isn't it for Thousand Oaks and Reseda and Verdugo and Simi and all of our ecclesias that is absolutely worth thinking about where our praise is at to God and it doesn't have to boil down to whether and I know this is a challenge at times I was recently chaining back at Brighton for just a Sunday morning and the brother had chosen the hymn that he was a visiting brother from Perth and he chose the hymn and I can't ever remember singing at Brighton so it was like alright we'll give it a go and nobody knew the hymn and it was very like and it was the most awkward time I think you probably had that experience before in your ecclesia but that to me that's not actually what this is getting at like that we're awesome at singing although that is I think something worthwhile to invest time into and putting well says when you praise God do it skillfully when you play an instrument do it skillfully sing with your voice everything that's true but at the heart of this clearly brothers and sisters is the sentiments behind that and the sincerity devotion that that involves you don't have to be an expert singer or singing in tune I'm certainly not but this song isn't getting there he didn't give us the sheet music did he he gave us the sentiments and the passion and the sincerity that can encourage us and so as an ecclesia I think that's something that we can think about

57. 32:57

    maybe that needs to be on our agendas at the business meeting to think about how as an ecclesia are we praising God how does that happen how can Psalm 147 help us to think about that that is worthwhile doing because that's what the people of God do in appreciation and then we look at creation around us and see how that praises God and be appreciative of that how everything that he made will praise him and will do even more so in the future when the curse is removed and the motivation for that is Psalm 149 because we know that's exactly what we will be doing in the kingdom that's a primary role that we will have as brothers and sisters in Christ redeemed through Jesus Christ praising God and the lamb in the kingdom age and all the earth will witness that and finally brothers and sisters the final note is just praise God for all it's worth and that's what Psalm 150 tells us so all of those things brothers and sisters are exhortations to us on an individual ecclesial and brotherhood level and everything else that helps us to realize the importance of praise and that is the final message of the book of Psalms that brothers and sisters through whatever life brings us we can always find reason to come back to praise God for what he has done in the past you know I don't know have you ever done this it's something that just struck me some time ago that I've never done before but have you ever praised God for delivering Israel from Egypt it's an interesting question because

58. 34:44

    in a sense I don't know if you're like me but sometimes I read these things in Psalms that's what they praised God for because that was kind of relevant to them that God had redeemed their nation from Egypt that happens all the way through history ever since that happened but that is our history brothers and sisters that event that led Israel out of Egypt and God worked salvation for his children that is part of God's whole story of salvation and we just as Israel in the wilderness should be just as thankful and just as appreciative and just as impressed that God redeemed his people back there from Egypt and that's something we can still praise God for that's what you find sometimes the psalmist doing in the Psalms is going all the way back to that incident as a typical way that God works for his people and redeeming them out of Egypt and of course our focus is now going to focus around the Lord Jesus Christ look at Psalm 150 says praise him in verse 2 for his mighty acts praise him according to his excellent greatness now if we can praise God for Israel's deliverance from Egypt brothers and sisters well that was just like a smidgen like a shadow of what God has done through Jesus Christ saving us from the real enemy the real Egypt of which Egypt was just a shadow that is sin and death itself and we no matter what we're going through in life being in Christ Jesus through faith we can still praise God that he has met our every need salvation from sin is the bottom

59. 36:21

    line and that is his mighty act and his excellent greatness brothers and sisters if coming out of Egypt drowning the Red Sea was mighty what we witness when someone is baptized into Jesus Christ and their sins are washed away and what we see in the atonement and the principles of Christ and the destruction of sin that is the greatest act God has ever done Egypt and coming to the Red Sea pales in comparison and that is something that needs to develop praise ourselves and motivate ourselves to praise God not just around our baptism but something that we should be aware of every day and every week that that is what God has done for his people we praise him for his mighty acts and according to his excellent greatness you know just out of interest brothers and sisters and showing that this is deliberately there to teach us and help us I'm going to give you this as a handout if you're interested and you can use it for bob marking whatever but all those five psalms are actually anticipated in Psalm 145 but let me just show you how this works you might not be able to read all those details but just look Psalm 145 anticipates every one of those psalms in the order in the right order look it it starts off in verse one this has been noticed on a number of different levels but let's have a look I will extol you my God I will bless your name every day I will bless you that's Psalm 146 and then as you move through the Psalm 4 6 and 7 one generation

60. 37:55

    shall praise your works to another men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts Psalm 150 they shall utter the memory of your great goodness that's Psalm 147 all your works shall praise you oh Lord that is Psalm 148 all your sins shall bless you they shall speak of the glory of your kingdom that's Psalm 149 and all flesh shall bless his holy name forever and ever that's Psalm 150 and you see how deliberate that is brothers and sisters and how important it is to take this message seriously that we can't go through life without praising God and if we're finding ourselves in that position that something's not right in our appreciation in our discipleship for what God has done for us and will do in the future so I guess this is the point brothers and sisters in the end the Psalms are telling us that we as a people individually and collectively need to be a people of praise you know Paul says in first Corinthians chapter 15 he says if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most pitiable right obviously the inverse of that is true we it's not just this life only we Christ has risen from the dead the great mighty acts of God are completely displayed before us we have hope of a future to come so the inverse must be true of all people on the planet brothers and sisters we have all men are the most happy and have the most reason to praise God that's true and we need to try and remember that in our walk in daily life and

61. 39:44

    so when the weights of the world come around us in daily life and work and all those things we have to deliberately sit down with our family don't we and find a reason to praise God before we do the readings or after we do the readings or around the dinner table not just on Thanksgiving once every November or if you're in Canada it's October I think right it's true that's something that's so fundamental to discipleship and daily life and that's what the Psalms are encouraging us you know when we look at these things and I just want to end on this little note brothers and sisters it's a little bit of a digression but something that I feel strongly that I need to remind myself all the time about Bible study and looking at things like this and trying to draw lessons and looking at how things are written in the dynamics of how God's done that in such an intricate way we must never forget these two warnings and the first one is from brother Robert Roberts and I love this and it's something that we need to do if the Bible is God's voice in this case the Psalms to every man that has ears to hear which it demonstrably is which a classic brother Robert it is for every man by himself and for himself to seek to understand it and to extend the benefit he may have received now that's true brothers and sisters when with the Psalms everything that we're doing this weekend in any Bible study that it's something that we we want to encourage personal Bible studies look at them and

62. 41:13

    draw those things out of the Psalms and pray with it but it's something that's going to affect us in something that we can then share to others and what it says to talk of all his wondrous works that's going to be something that we're able to do if we're absorbing God's word on our own something we can take to Bible class something we can take to Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp and whatever it is and the things that we're saying are praise not rubbish gossip we're a people of praise brothers and sisters not character assassination of other people whatever whatever differences we have with them if we're that type of people and we're that type of ecclesia or that type of brotherhood for that matter where will we stand before God when Christ returns if we have been more obsessed with criticizing and tearing down than building up and praising God and that is a powerful thing to remember the other one that I wanted to show you is just this to keep in mind with all these things we've been mentioning this is William Tyndale and he says if these lessons be not written in thine heart then as all the scripture shut up as a kernel in the shell so that thou mayest read it and commune of it and rehearse all the stories of it and dispute wittily and be a profound sophister and yet understand not one job thereof so brothers and sisters when we have our Bible study weekends together let's make sure that we're taking away and putting into practice the things that we're learning and in this case let's go away and find

63. 42:52

    deliberate reason to praise our God Florida Florida Thank you.