A World That Sings

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Psalm 65 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song. 1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. 2 O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. 3 When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. 4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple! 5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; 6 the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; 7 who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, 8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. 9 You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. 10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. 12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

Prayer

Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Teach us, now, that yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. In Jesus name, Amen.

Part 1: Wondrous Submission

The Lord’s Prayer opens with what is called the address—“Our Father, who is in heaven.” It is then followed with the first request, “hallowed (or, holy) be your name.” When we prayed this a moment ago, we weren’t praying that God’s name, as a thing, would be holy—it always has been, and always will be. Instead, we’ve asked that God would work in us a submission to, and a wonder at, that holy name. Submission and wonder.

Psalm 65 is an expression of both things.

The first verse opens with this statement, “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.” God being in Zion is enthronement language. God is on his throne, in the holy place of his kingdom, and two things are due him: praise and vows.

This first verse, like so many of the psalms, is the mission statement. It’s the focus of what comes after. The rest of the psalm explains the how and the why of this verse. This is a very human way to go about things. We often know what we should do or think, but need the how and why to be moved to obey it. That’s both a good and bad thing. It’s bad because if we are not satisfied with the how or why of a what, we might fail to do it.

For example, God has said that he is working all things for good (Ro 8:28). Therefore, when things go south, we are to remember this and embrace it is as ultimately a good thing (Jas 1:2-3). There’s the what and the why, but where’s our how, huh? How do we do that?

Psalm 65 will teach us, and it will teach us with the dual blessings of submission and wonder.

Look at verse 2.

“O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.”

The submission is obvious—all flesh shall come before God in Zion. There’s many ways to understand this.

First, there is the reality that nothing is hidden from God. He’s watching ants cut leaves in Brazil, and knows how many acorns Palo Cedro squirrels have hoarded away for winter. Nothing is hidden from him, “all flesh comes before him,” in a general sense.

Second, all humanity will stand before God. If you’ve ever wondered where guilt comes from, here’s your answer. The guilty conscience of homo sapiens is the red alert of this broken world. Every human being has this, and, apart from grace, is trying to shut it up and turn it off.

Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

It’s this guilty conscience that is behind so much of what is called mental health and disorders. We hear a lot about gaslighting, these days. The worst gaslighting you can imagine is to be drawn into deep sin, burdened under its weight, and then told that it doesn’t exist. We are just animals in a random universe.

We know there is a problem, but the world is telling us there isn’t.

This is why the first part of verse 2 is such a relief; such a grounding thing. “O you who hear prayer.” This broken world and the forces at work within it have no power over this One who hears prayer.

There is a third and final way this could be understood: all flesh will come before in the end. Not in judgment, but in redemption. This present world is temporary; at some point, it will be wrapped up, and give way to a kingdom without end. In those days, God’s creation will bask in his presence without fear of being consumed, for sin will be done away with.

What a wondrous thing this is.

Keep this picture in mind, and look at verses 3 and 4.

Psalm 65:3–4 “3 When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. 4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!”

This is why we do not need to fear coming before God, and this how it is possible for God not only to hear our prayer, but to delight in it. Our sin has been atoned for, and we are no longer separated from our Creator.

The only cure to a guilty conscience is the atonement of Christ. Without it, there is only madness and disorder.

But there is blessedness for the one who has been brought near to God.

Ephesians 2:12–13 “… remember that you were at [one] time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

This is what verse 4 is ultimately referencing. The person who is in Christ has been brought near to God. Though their body remains on earth, for a short time, their real soul is seated in a real, heavenly place.

It is this kind of wonder that fuels our submission. Why is praise due to God? Because of the great mercy he shows sinners in their salvation. What is the purpose for this salvation? The glory of God and the good of man. How are we to perform the “vows” of verse 1? In wondrous submission.

Part 2: A World That Sings

There’s another aspect to the first four verses that deserves mentioning, and I’ll point it out in the form of a question:

What comes to your mind when you think of praise, vows, prayer, repentance, and nearness to God? It’s either heaven or church. This similarity isn’t a coincidence. When we worship on the Lord’s Day we are getting a microscopic preview of heaven. Church serves as a living reminder of what is to come—we are coming before the Lord to praise him.

So we have this sense of a worship service in this psalm, and it doesn’t go away. Take that thought and hold onto it, we’ll come back to that. Let’s look at verse 5:

“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas…”

God answers the prayers of his people with awesome deeds. We’ve already talked about the most important one, which is the fact that Christ has atoned for the sins of those who love him. We could end there and be eternally satisfied, couldn’t we? But God has more in store for us. Christ redeems more than just his people, and this sets the stage for the remainder of the psalm.

We see that the hope of people is wrapped up with the hope of all creation.

When Adam sinned in the garden, death entered the world through that sin. Sin has not only destroyed humanity’s fellowship with God, but the cosmos itself. The lion no longer plays with the lamb, but devours it. Sickness and death now grow in the gardens of the world.

This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 8:19–23

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but 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 we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Here is the hope that both people and all creation have for their redemption: that God will do away with death—that the world will, at last, be what we all sense it was supposed to be. Complete.

This world is groaning, but we long for one that sings.

The rest of my sermon will focus on this.

Beginning in verse 6, the psalmist takes us across the world and reminds that we do live in a world that sings, and that God is telling a story about himself in every part.

Mountains

“… the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might.”

The mountains are our first stop, as they always have been. Eze 28 describes Eden as a mountain. Noah’s ark descended on Ararat, a mountain. Abraham bound Isaac in Moriah, on a mountain. Moses received the law and met with God on Sinai, a mountain. Jesus brought three of his disciples and was transfigured before them—on a mountain. At every level, we see the might and power of God.

Mountains sing of the might of God.

Seas

Verse 7 and part of 8, “who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.”

The seas are our next stop. Throughout the Bible, the seas represent chaos. In chaotic judgment, God flooded the world. In his rebellion, Jonah fled to the sea. Isaiah describes the wicked as “the tossing sea, which cannot rest.” This is why it is closely linked to the tumult of the peoples. The chaos of the ocean is the chaos of wicked people. Tossed back and forth, filled with monsters, and destructive, they are one and the same.

And so, when the disciples were battling a storm on the Sea of Galilee, and saw the Lord Jesus walking on those waters, they were beholding a man with a kind of authority that only God should have.

And when they saw him rebuke the seas and command them to be still, they witnessed that authority flash forth in power.

When Christ finished his work and sent his church into the world, the process of verse 8 began. All the ends of the earth are receiving the Gospel message, and are believing.

The disciples of Jesus saw him bring peace to sinners and to the seas.

Both of which sing of the mighty power and grace of God.

Morning and Evening

Look at the last half of Verse 8, “You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.”

Here is an image that I think has entered my top 10 favorite themes in the Bible. The psalmist takes an aspect to daily life and a part of nature, and gives it a voice. Morning and evening go about their duties, shouting for joy. They are obeying the Master, joyfully.

Humanity has progressed in its understanding of what is out there, beyond our planet. David never saw the Sun as we can now see it. No one before 1975 knew what the surface of Venus looked like.

God has placed us in a time and with an ability to peer into his work like never before. With devices in our pockets, we can peer into the heavens and see him bringing morning and evening to this planet.

Is there anything more wondrous than looking up there, and considering the works of God? Few things can compare to looking at this universe and contemplating the fact that God is telling a story on a scale that is literally impossible to comprehend in its fullness.

Morning and evening, the stars and all the universe, sing of the mighty power of God.

The Earth

The psalmist has taken us to mountains, seas, and the stars, and now we’ll take the rest of the psalm as one unit looking at the earth.

“You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.”

I want to offer three words to focus on.

Presence

Abundance

Joy

Presence

First, regarding presence, I’m going to read the words of a great American theologian, Charles Hodge.

Systematic Theology (B. Infinitude of God in Relation to Space)

Everywhere in the Old and in the New Testament, God is represented as a spiritual Being, without form, invisible, whom no man hath seen or can see; dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, and full of glory; as not only the creator, and preserver, but as the governor of all things; as everywhere present, and everywhere imparting life, and securing order; present in every blade of grass, yet guiding Arcturus in his course, marshalling the stars as a host, calling them by their names; present also in every human soul, giving it understanding, endowing it with gifts, working in it both to will and to do. The human heart is in his hands; and He turneth it even as the rivers of water are turned. Wherever, throughout the universe, there is evidence of mind in material causes, there, according to the Scriptures, is God, controlling and guiding those causes to the accomplishment of his wise designs. He is in all, and over all things; yet essentially different from all, being over all, independent, and infinitely exalted… As the birds in the air and the fish in the sea, so also are we always surrounded and sustained by God.

All of God is in all places at all times, and he is bringing out his purposes through the great story of this created world.

Even in remote places.

To say that this should impact how we view things is an understatement.

Abundance

Next, abundance. God does not simply water the earth, he enriches it. His river is full of water. The furrows are abundantly watered, and the growths are blessed. God crowns the year with bounty, and the wagon tracks overflow with abundance. It’s such a lush image, isn’t it?

As we continue to receive rain, we should be thinking to ourselves, “every rain drop was sent by the hand of God, and will water a world governed by that same hand.” God will miss no detail, and will accomplish exactly what he wills.

When we sit down for Thanksgiving this week, whether that is a happy thing or a sad thing, the abundance of God will be open to us. If we are surrounded by a family and a feast, we have received only a blessing on top of blessings. It doesn’t matter what Thursday will look like for any of us: Psalm 65 is calling us to remember the abundant provision that God provides.

The reality is this: our earthly circumstances are nothing compared to what’s coming.

So the fact that God seems to take so much pleasure in blessing this world in the ways he does should stun us. It should communicate something to us about who God is. To think that God so loves to create, nurture, and redeem this broken world, and fill it with joy, should fill us with joy. Abundance is there, if we have eyes to see it. And seeing it will fill you with joy.

Joy

So this leads to the third word and final part of this morning: joy.

It can be an elusive thing, can’t it? James calls us to count our suffering as joy. We struggle with figuring this out, especially when we see how other people are doing. We look at our lives and, if the world has done a number on us, we might conclude that, “Abundance may be for some, but it’s not for me.”

Nothing will steal your joy like thinking this way.

This is how the world thinks. Our society looks at nature and concludes it’s a ticking time bomb, missing what’s staring them in the face—a God who is at work. A God who is present. A God of abundance. And so, their joy is stolen.

The hardest parts of your life are part of your abundance. God would not have given them to you if you didn’t need them. God would not have taken those things from you if it wasn’t for your good.

If God will water this world, spin the universe, and care for ants and birds—will he fail to take care of you?

Would he, “who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, not also, with him, freely give us all things?”

If morning and evening, meadows and mountains; the choir of creation shouts joyfully to the Lord, will you let your voice be silent? Remember when I asked you to keep that thought of a church service? Well, here it is: all creation is singing his praises. A cosmic church service.

The word to you this day is that not only has God atoned for your sin, brought you near to him, and provides for you every moment of your life, but he has done it in a world that sings.

He’s invites you to join that song, once again or for the first time.

Happy Thanksgiving, let’s pray.