Who is Like You, LORD?
Summer in the Psalms • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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If you have opened your pew bibles already or opened your bible on your device, you will see that Psalm 89 is a long Psalm....the third longest in fact. So we won’t be ready it in its entirety. What I’d like to do is take us through the structure of the psalm and read selected portions.
This is a difficult psalm to preach because there are parts of it that are difficult to read. It begins beautifully by expressing strong confidence in and praise for the covenant faithfulness and sovereign power of the LORD, Yahweh.... but as it draws to a close it asks questions of God and makes accusations towards Him that can be difficult to hear. We are left wondering if we can really talk to God that way?
46 How long, Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?
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There is something very important about the content and structure of this psalm that in a very real sense becomes the word of the Lord for us this morning....a word of strength and encouragement particularly for those seasons in life when God feels especially absent.
And those seasons are definitely part of our experience aren’t they? We don’t always come to a worship service like this feeling thankful to God or with praise on our lips. Sometimes we live with deep disappointment in God.
The psalmist is certainly experiencing that, but in his prayer to God he doesn’t start there.
Following an outline from one of the commentators I read, the psalmist starts by acknowledging God as
1. Faithful in Love (89:1-4)
1 I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. 2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself. 3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, 4 ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’ ”
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The psalmist acknowledges that the faithful love of God is confirmed in the covenant that he made with David and his lineage. David’s throne is the tangible expression of God’s throne. David’s earthly throne is what makes manifest God’s heavenly throne. How did Israel know that their God ruled the heavens and the earth? They saw David’s throne. They served their earthly king.
And the Lord had made a most significant promise to David and his descendants:
2 Samuel 7:11–16 (NIV)
‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’ ”
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The psalmist in the opening verses of Psalm 89 is giving praise to God for the very promises that God had already made through the prophet Nathan to David the King.
The psalmist continues now by acknowledging God as:
2. Faithful in Power (89:5-18)
The heavenly host reveres Him.
5 The heavens praise your wonders, Lord, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. 6 For who in the skies above can compare with the Lord? Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings? 7 In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him. 8 Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.
Did you notice the phrases: assembly of the holy ones, heavenly beings, council of the holy ones? all different phrases describing the same thing.
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[Explain ANE understanding of heavenly host, divine council....in the Bible these are not gods, but GOD alone with His angelic beings.]
And we read too of God’s heavenly power displayed in the way He rules and subdues the chaos within creation.
Psalm 89:9–11 (NIV)
9 You rule over the surging sea (Yam); when its waves mount up, you still them. 10 You crushed Rahab like one of the slain; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies. 11 The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it.
Sea = Yam
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I wonder if a fresh word from the Lord today might be:
“You rule over the burning forests; when its flames mount up, you extinguish them.”
[aside on climate alarmism, environmental emergency, growing anxiety and mental health issues especially among our younger generation]
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Rahab
RAHAB THE SEA MONSTER (רַהַב, rahav). A name for a primeval sea monster defeated by Yahweh (Isa 51:9). A symbolic name for Egypt (Psa 87:4; Isa 30:7).
Rahab and the Chaoskampf Motif
The Hebrew word “rahab” (רַהַב, rahav) occurs six times in the Old Testament. It appears to be a name for one of the sea monsters that figure prominently in the ancient Near Eastern Chaoskampf (“battle-with-chaos”) motif, where a deity battles a sea monster (symbolizing chaos) to bring order from chaos and become supreme among the gods.
7 to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.
9 Awake, awake, arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through?
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The psalmist continues to acknowledge that
God is for us!
17 For you are their glory and strength, and by your favor you exalt our horn. 18 Indeed, our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.
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And now we come to one of the more lengthy sections of the psalm. And the reason for that is this: the psalmist recognizes that one of the primary ways God has revealed his faithfulness toward and his care for his people is by providing them with a King .... a King who will embody the covenant faithfulness of God with his people.
19 Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you said: “I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have raised up a young man from among the people. 20 I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him.
24 My faithful love will be with him, and through my name his horn will be exalted. 25 I will set his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers. 26 He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.’ 27 And I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. 28 I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail. 29 I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure.
These are words from God! A strong promise from Him to remain faithful to His servant David.
35 Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness— and I will not lie to David— 36 that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; 37 it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.”
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And this is how the people of Israel would not have heard that as just words for David or for his lineage.....they would have heard that as words for them. “This is our King! These promises fall to us!”
Now as we listen to this Psalm, and as we hear them through our KING, Jesus Christ, who in the NT is referred to as the Son of David, we are reminded of dozens of promises that fall to us. And we see in the person of Jesus all the power and majesty and holiness and love and faithfulness that is attributed to God in Psalm 89. And he’s come among us as our King!
Think of some of the promises of God that we experience through Christ:
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
11 You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
This is our King! This is who God is and this is what he has done for us! I’m sure all of us can agree that these words give us a most wonderful assurance and strong encouragement.
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But then the psalm takes a difficult turn.
38 But you have rejected, you have spurned, you have been very angry with your anointed one. 39 You have renounced the covenant with your servant and have defiled his crown in the dust.
42 You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice.
44 You have put an end to his splendor and cast his throne to the ground. 45 You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with a mantle of shame. 46 How long, Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? 47 Remember how fleeting is my life. For what futility you have created all humanity! 48 Who can live and not see death, or who can escape the power of the grave? 49 Lord, where is your former great love, which in your faithfulness you swore to David?
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What happened? What happened such that a song of poignant praise turned to a lament of agonizing despair?
We can’t be certain but most believe this psalm was written in the early days of Israel’s exile into Babylon. For them the year 586 BC would be a memorable as 9/11 is for many of us. Israel’s King was dethroned, the Temple destroyed, the Holy City sacked, and the people of God dragged away as slaves like they once were in Egypt centuries earlier.
The psalmist is experiencing a crisis of faith and the only words seem fitting are: How long, Lord? Why are you hiding? Have you abandoned us? Are your promises really true?
You know, it strikes me, that as difficult as it may be for us to hear these kind of words directed towards God, there’s a gracious invitation that we find in them too. And the invitation is quite literally to cast all our burdens upon the Lord, even the burden of experiencing his absence.
Many of us have been in that place, and I daresay I’m sure some of us are there now. That place where we genuinely wonder if God has forgotten about us, abandoned us, or dealt us a bad deal.
“Lord, I’ve done my best to serve you. In my family, how I’ve raised my children, how I’ve served my community, how I’ve carried out my work.... and for what? Look what’s happened.....where are you in all of this?
Many of us have been there..... we’ve felt this, we’ve experienced the sharp disconnect of the psalm from Praise to Pain.....it can be when a tragedy strikes, a sudden death of a loved one, a terminal illness, a broken marriage, a loved one leaving the faith.
It can be experienced alongside a severe depression…or other forms of mental health issues.
Lord, where are you in all of this?
The psalm itself, doesn’t answer this question does it?
But the Biblical story does move us in a particular direction...
Listen to these words again and think about how they might apply to another King in the line of David. Let me read again vv. 41-45.
41 All who pass by have plundered him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. 42 You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice. 43 Indeed, you have turned back the edge of his sword and have not supported him in battle. 44 You have put an end to his splendor and cast his throne to the ground. 45 You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with a mantle of shame.
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What’s striking is how directly those words apply to precisely what our Lord Jesus experienced. He was plundered and scorned. His enemies rejoiced and their hand was exalted. Jesus himself felt forsaken by God. In fact what we find is that Jesus willingly entered into that very place of suffering and abandonment. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,” was his cry.
This is where Psalm 89 takes us…into that place where our King, the Son of David entered into our sin and shame, our pain and brokenness, our longing and lament. His lips spoke the language of lament with us.
On of my former preaching professors, Dr. Stan Mast, tells this true story that he heard from a Lutheran pastor in Arizona.
I recently heard a Lutheran pastor in Arizona tell the true story about a friend who is a hospital chaplain. This chaplain called on a woman who was dying of lung cancer. She did not receive him well. She was an embittered Catholic who said, “I hate the church. Get the hell out of here.” As he slunk out of her room, the charge nurse caught his sleeve. “She gets two cigarettes a day at 3 PM. Come back then and take her to the smoking area.”
That’s exactly what the chaplain did. But nothing happened. She sat and smoked in smoldering silence. But he kept coming back. After a number of days, she began to tell her story, a story of a hard life filled with abuse and deprivation, and now this sentence of death. One day, after one more expression of bitterness and despair, she asked the chaplain to get her a crucifix. And even though he wasn’t Catholic, he did.
When she received that crucifix, she clasped it to her chest and held it there, day after day. Then, just two days before she lapsed into a coma and died, she said, “Do you want to know why I wanted this crucifix? It reminds me that he knows. There is nothing I’ve been through that he hasn’t been through. He knows. He’s been there.”
He’s been there, even there in the darkness of the cross, when he cried out with the writer and readers of Psalm 89, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Because he has been there, we never will be, even when we are convinced that we are. (Stan Mast, CEP) https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2018-07-16/psalm-8920-37-2/
This finally dear friends in the Christian response to suffering. In our expressions of brokenness and despair, we have profound assurance that our Lord and Saviour is there with us in our suffering. Jesus has endured the depth of God forsakenness so that we never have to....even if we are in a season of life right now where it feels like we are.
Exalting Jesus in Psalms 51-100 The God Who Is Faithful (Psalm 89)
The most important time to believe that God’s promises never fail are when they seem to have failed.
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