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Introduction
Amen.
Let us pray.
Praise Befits the Lord (vv.1-3)
This tells us what type of praise we should sing.
Do you remember that David was a musician?
That he would play in the courts of Saul when the Lord sent an evil spirit into him, and David’s playing would calm him?
Surely, we must use our skills and our talents, our most excellent gifts in music and worship, to praise the Lord.
He is righteous.
We are to give shouts of joy!
That’s a challenging one for me.
I don’t like shouting in general.
The Lord is Steadfast in Love (vv.4-5)
Have you ever heard anyone argue that the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New?
I have.
In fact, I had a high school English teacher who insisted that they were two separate gods.
He claimed that because the Old Testament God seemed so wrathful, it couldn’t be the same God who came down to earth to save humanity.
Unfortunately his observations from scripture drew the wrong conclusions.
If he had been faithful to study the scriptures closely, he would have seen just how loving and true God is, from the beginning, throughout human history, throughout the time of Jesus, and even now.
The fact is, God’s steadfast love does not change.
And I think it’s these verses, verses 4 and 5, that cut to the heart of what this psalm is all about.
They give us the why behind why we’re able to sing to the Lord with such praise.
And it’s this very fact of the Lord’s steadfast love that I want you to meditate upon this morning.
The word that’s used for steadfast love here is Hesed.
Hesed denotes a type of faithfulness, a loving devotion, a loving righteousness.
It’s the type of faithfulness that one would expect in a marriage relationship, except that when it’s used with God, it goes a whole lot further.
Why?
Because the word of the Lord never changes.
Think of all the things around you that change.
When you pass by your neighbor’s house and you see the paint peeling off, you know that at one point in time that paint was new.
But because of time and exposure to sun and the elements, that layer of paint has begun to chip.
At one point in time that tree in your yard was just a sapling.
How big is it now?
What will it be like in 100 years?
Maybe it will be gone.
You wake up in the mirror and look and see another wrinkle, another grey hair, or a difference in your height.
That’s change.
But God never changes, and his word never changes.
And neither does his attitude toward you.
He remains steadfast.
He’s the sure and steady anchor.
He’s the rock of ages, the fortress for our defence.
And these verses speak to the steadfastness of God’s word.
Part of living in a fallen world means that things deteriorate around us.
But with God, because his ways are righteous, because he is perfectly just, because he is without sin … there is no death.
There is no deterioration or shadow due to change.
He remains steadfast and constant.
Need an example?
Well, just look at creation.
The whole earth is filled with his steadfast faithfulness.
And that’s exactly what we see in the next few verses
Steadfastness seen in creation (vv.6-7)
If you want tangible evidence of God’s faithfulness, consider this: Has a mountain fallen upon you recently?
Have you woken up with a whole new landscape outside your house each new day?
Has the earth been thrown off of orbit to rotate too close to the sun or too far away from it?
Has another planet crashed into ours?
God is in control of the universe.
At his word planets and stars and galaxies were made … and they still remain in place to this day.
The stars and heavenly bodies were given to mankind so that they would be able to mark time.
So if you want a picture of the steadfastness of God’s word and character, consider the things that have been there since the beginning of marking time.
Not only is God in control of the stars and the sun and the moon and the planets, he’s also in control of the earth, the weather.
We’re told that he gathers the waters of the sea as a heap.
Just as you might gather sand together to make a pile, so the oceans are with the Lord.
God’s the one who sets boundaries for the oceans and seas.
He puts the deeps in storehouses.
The whole earth is not covered in water … why?
Because the Lord has stored away that water, whether in our Earth’s mantle or in our polar ice caps, they have been stored away.
If you want a picture of God’s faithfulness, consider the fact that we have a world map of continents and when you study that map, you don’t expect it to change much during your lifetime.
Looking at creation and the world around us should give us a picture of God’s steadfastness.
And if he is steadfast with creation, why should he not be steadfast toward us?
A fitting response (vv.8-9)
The fitting response of people, of humans, to witnessing God’s power in his word and the fact that things can materialize and take substance according to his will should be awe.
Complete and utter amazement, and respect, and worshipful reverence.
When was the last time you were in awe of the Lord?
Sometimes we lose sight of our awe of the Lord when we think we know it all.
Maybe we become complacent and set in our ways, and we cling on to the knowledge that we have, trying to find our hope and our steadfastness in them.
We rely too deeply upon our experience to guide us or our previous studies to the point that we fail to notice the new message that God is bringing, whether through life or through his scriptures.
If you think that you know a lot and that you are so great because you have so much experience … think again.
With the Lord there are new joys each and every morning.
Just because you’ve been on this earth sixty, seventy, eighty years, doesn’t mean there isn’t more to learn.
There’s still so much more of the Lord and his ways to discover.
With the Lord there are always opportunities to further gaze and wonder at his majesty and greatness.
With the Lord there are opportunities to learn something a new way, and to not lean upon your own knowledge but upon his.
Remember the Proverb?
“Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
When you rely on the Lord’s ways, and you acknowledge him and you seek to find him, he will draw near to you.
He will make your paths straight.
Holding onto our knowledge, limited as it may be, even though it could be good knowledge, will not necessarily lead you down the right paths always.
Only the Lord will do that.
Because he knows when that knowledge that you have should be applied and in which circumstances.
And maybe your present context, your present circumstance demands something of you that your former knowledge cannot supply.
Only through trust in him and his guidance will you be able to walk through the challenge ahead.
So God is loving and steadfast and we should stand in awe of him.
God’s counsel remains the same (vv.10-12)
One thing that is frustrating to me about any long-lasting human government is that there are so many laws.
You could be breaking a law right now and not even know it.
I looked up some laws for our state: Did you know it’s illegal to catch a fish by throwing a rock at it?
I don’t see why you would need to, but it’s still a law in the books.
It’s also illegal to fake wrestle.
I suppose it’s all or nothing with us, either you wrestle fully or you don’t wrestle at all.
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