Remember and Repent
Notes
Transcript
Introductory Matters
Introductory Matters
Last year we looked at Psalms 71-80. Most of those Psalms centered on the theme of God’s wrath…
We left off in the middle of book 3 (of 5) of the Psalms. (73-89)
A few notes about the Psalms, and this Psalm in particular:
This Psalm was written by Asaph. Asaph was a musician that was appointed by David, in 1 Chr. 6. There are 12 Psalms credited to Asaph. So the Psalm was likely written around 1000BC.
However, the book of Psalms overall is not compiled in the manner that it was written - as we will see in Psalm 90 - which was written by Moses. The arrangement of the Psalms is also not random. But rather it is intentional and theological. Many have made an association between the 5 books of Psalms and the 5 books of Moses. Each of the books has an intention in the manner that they were arranged by *maybe* Ezra or maybe some unknown compilers - but whoever arranged the Psalms did so intentionally. The first two books are the Psalms of David (though there are davidic Psalms after book two, but most are in books 1 and 2). We concluded book 2 last summer in Psalm 72. We’re in the middle of book three.
Concerning book 3, OT Scholar, Bruce Waltke writes:
“Book 3 anticipates Israel’s Exile. This is known as the dark book of the Psalter. Here Israel’s kings - the house of David - fail, and the sanctuary is destroyed. The book climaxes in Psalm 89 and its lament of the seeming collapse of the Davidic covenant.”
Since Psalm 74 the psalms have been centered on lament - specifically the lament of the exile of God’s people - and thus we ought to expect lament and somber themes in the psalms from this summer.
One last note about where we are in the Psalms. If you recall back to last summer. Psalm 78 is the 2nd Longest Psalm. It gives a history of God’s mercy to his people in the midst of their sinfulness. So as far as the order of the psalms the reader was just reminded a few Psalms before this of history of Israel - and their sinfulness.
(Ps 89 is the 3rd longest - so be prepared.)
This psalm breaks down into two sections easily. The first of which is praise, and the second is preaching. So similar to our worship service - the Psalm begins with singing praise to God, and concludes with preaching. From 1-5 we read a command to praise. The psalm then concludes with a two point sermon from the Lord
A Call to Remember.
A Call to Repent.
A Command to Rejoice
A Command to Rejoice
The passage with the instruction to sing praise out loud - even loudly - and accompanied with music. And verse 3 gives the occasion for this:
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.
The trumpet, the new moon and the full moon. These are all pretty important to the Hebrew calendar. But most specifically to one central month in the calendar. The 7th month, in Leviticus 23 - we read that the feast of trumpets marks the beginning of the 7th month - the beginning of the month was marked by a New Moon.
The Full moon - 15 days later. The Day of Atonement (10th day), the feast of tabernacles (15th Day until the 22nd Day).
(Reminder: That they were on a lunar calendar. Our next new moon is July 5th.)
So our feast day in verse 3 likely refers to the Feast of Tabernacles - or Sukkot. And if you recall back to earlier this year - the feast of tabernacles is when the second word of the Lord comes to Haggai. Now if you don’t remember any of that
or if you were not here — the importance of the Feast of Tabernacles is that it was an annual celebration when the people of Israel would dwell in tents, or tabernacles for a week to remember the wilderness and God’s faithfulness to provide for them. This is an important note to remember as we contemplate this Psalm. But also remember - as this Psalm is written they are exile. There is no temple for them to worship at. There’s a tension here. To remember God’s faithfulness in the past - and to remember God’s judgment upon sin.
Verses 4 and 5 refer to the legal command to celebrate the feast, and to praise God, and worship only him. And verse 5 also contains the first reference to Egypt - which is an
And for a people in exile, this text and this celebration is a bit like a child celebrating a birthday right after you have moved. or maybe remembering your wedding anniversary after your spouse has passed. it is bitter sweet. And that is an appropriate emotion to cling to as we move through this Psalm.
For Asaph, and his readers, the Psalm is a warning concerning the punishments for disobedience.
For the reader after the Psalms have been compiled - they long to return to the land, and rebuild the temple so that they might worship God as they ought to. But also remember the reason for why they were in exile.
V. 5 - language i had not known - foreigners brought in - Jer 5:15, Dt 28:49.
Then in the end of verse 5 we have a change of speaker as the writer introduces the first person - and the remainder of this Psalm until verse 16 is delivered in the first person - and thus spoken as a sermon from the Lord.
And like any good sermon it is steeped in references to the Old Testament.
These Old Testament references primarily serve the purpose of reminding them of who they are, who God is and how they should respond.
A Call to Remember
A Call to Remember
5-7 refers to the Lord delivering them from slavery. The language not known is Egyptian. God delivered them in their distress from the slavery of Egypt.
7 In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
In the secret place of thunder - Ex 19:9, Psalm 18:11-14.
This refers to Mt. Sinai as the Lord spoke to Moses. As we read in Exodus 19:9, 16.
Waters of Meribah mentioned in verse 7 - Exodus 17:7.
This event is where the people quarrel and the Lord tells Moses to strike the rock so that they might receive water.
So in verse 7 the Lord reminds the people of his deliverance of them from Egypt, his given of the law to them at Sinai/Horeb.
He also speaks to them of their sinful quarrelling and his mercy upon them.
We ought to remember our past as a history of God’s faithful lovingkindness in the midst of our wretched sinfulness.
And while verse 8 begins the admonishment… this is still rooted in remembering what God has done. Let’s look at verse 8:
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
This should probably seem a little familiar. Especially if you were in Sunday school last week - or you attended
The Lord here uses language that ought to remind them of Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the Shema.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And then verse Ps 81:9-10 also brings reference to Ex 20:2-3 yet in reverse order.
9 There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
Verse 9 is a reference to the first of the 10 commandments. You shall have no other gods before me - and then in verse 10 we read something that is almost identical to the preamble of the 10 Commandments.
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
They are reminded of the First of the 10 Commandment, and what Jesus would call the first and greatest commandment.
As verse 8-10 provide this reminder of who God is, and what he has required of them.
And now as the people of Israel were to look back and remember what the Lord had done for them. So Christians ought to as well. Remember your sins so far as to remember you savior. Recall what the Lord has done for you by redeeming you from slavery to sin.
But also remember that the Lord has forgiven - do not remember your sins to wallow in the self pity of your depravity - but rather your sins so as to remember the goodness of the God who has forgiven them.
That statement is reserved for those who have placed their faith in Jesus. Who believe in him as Lord and Savior.
Remember who God is. Remember the God who saves you… but that remembrance should also drive you in the same direction that this Psalm also points the reader. Repentance.
So as we get to the second part of the sermon that is spoken by the Lord here in (and our third point… I realize now how confusing that sentence is…)
After the Lord has reminded them of who he is, what he has done for them, and their responsibility of obedience he then calls them to repent.
A Call to Repent
A Call to Repent
As we turn to the language of the repentance in this second point we first see the indictment of what the people are guilty of:
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.
They don’t listen to God and they don’t submit to him.
But things have not changed much at all. Today we still resist listening to God’s voice. And we also claim that God has spoken when it is just something that we really want to do.
How do we listen to his voice? How do we discern what God is saying?
Open his word.
We are far too quick to allow the words of the serpent in the garden to slither through out teeth… Did God really say?
This is ultimately the issue dividing churches on what is sin. Dividing churches on who can be a pastor. Who can get married. Who defines what righteousness is.
The Bible speaks into an answers all of those things. But those outside the church reject it - and even some with in the church ignore it.
We ought to pray and carefully live our lives in accordance with what the word of God says.
We also still refuse to submit to God.
We do this every time we sin. Every time that we think we know what is best. Any time we have the thought “I know what the Bible says I should do but I really would rather sin.”
But also take notice of how God punishes the people in verse 12:
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.
This is similar to Romans 1:24-25.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
They knew God’s word, they chose not to obey it. So God allows them to sin - and shipwreck their own lives, ruin their own country and defile their own land.
One of the main differences is that Romans shows us that no one is free from from the law of God. All have sinned - no one has the excuse to say “well I didn’t know”
Promise
The text then concludes with a promise, and a warning from God.
READ 14
In v. 14 - God promises that if they would return then he would subdue their enemies. This ought to remind us of Deut 28. In that text, the Lord promises that if the people are obedient to his word then he will bless them. This includes chasing away their enemies - and giving them peace.
In the New Covenant - we have something greater. We know Jesus as the prince of peace. The price who has in his body broken down the wall of hostility between believers. In the church, our enemies are made into friends, brothers, sisters. There is no place for two people who understand the gospel to be enemies. And one day, he will return and in his judgement he will stomp out evil.
Yet Jesus calls us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. (Matt 5:44). Vengeance belongs to the Lord, not to us - he will repay and he will judge appropriately.
But we also have the promise that God will punish evil, and stomp out wickedness. On the day of judgement those who hate God will be judged.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. 16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who hate God, and those who have been born again through faith in Jesus and given a new heart to love him.
But those who hate the Lord will be punished. On the day of judgement they will cower…
Hebrews 10:31 tells us
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The Psalm does not end on a note of judgement but on a promise of blessing. That if the people repent God will feed them with the finest of wheat and honey from the rock. Honey doesn’t normally come from rocks - but honey was a delicacy then - a sweet provision come from a rare place. God is promising to give them the greatest of all blessings if they repent.
And in Christ we have the greatest of all blessings. We are given peace with God, forgiveness of sins and a restored relationship to our creator where our sins once separated us.
This is a festal psalms and in the feasts we see them ultimately pointing the Christ.
The feast of tabernacles, when this song was sung, was celebrating when God’s people dwelled in tabernacles in the wilderness and God provided for them. However, that feast always intended to point us toward Christ - when God tabernacled among his people - when God dwelled in human flesh flesh so that he could provide salvation for the people who do not listen to his voice, or submit to him. For those who have stubborn hearts. In Christ, we are given new hearts - the Holy Spirit regenerates us - removes out heart of stone and gives us a new heart. Removes our stubborn heart - and gives us a heart that desires to do the will of God - to listen to his word and to submit to him. Those who place their faith in Jesus desire to walk in his ways.
The Scriptures teach us that a mark of loving God, of loving Christ is to obey his commands.
Yet as Jesus fulfilled the law, he left us with another feast. A feast that much like the feast of Tabernacles reminds us of what God has done - and it also reminds us of what he is going to do.
The feast was set to remind the people of what God had done - next week we will approach the Lord’s Supper with a similar attitude. To do this in remembrance of what God has done. But we also observe the Lord’s Supper with a reminder of what he is doing. As I mentioned each month when we take - and as I will mention next Sunday - we take this until he returns.
The call to remember and repent within the context of a feast is by no means foreign to us. In fact, next Sunday we will observe exactly this. As we observe the Lord’s Supper we are called to do so in remembrance of him. This is an essential part of the Lord’s Supper.
Application:
As I close I want to draw our attention back to the beginning of the psalm. The Command to Praise. God as the most glorious being is the only one worthy of worship - and we ought to do just that.
But we also ought to praise God properly - the Psalm begins with a command to praise. The psalms elsewhere state that everything that has breath should praise the Lord. The book of Revelation anticipates a day when everyone tribe tongue and nation will … as the law showed the people of God how they ought to worship - so does the Bible still show us how to worship.
Philippians encourages us to, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” The live of a Christ should be filled with joy and rejoicing.
And I hope that as we close our service singing of the great grace of God that we do so joyfully and with love as we remark of the gift of forgiveness that is given to all who believe.