Psalm 138 — High and Low

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  (2 Thessalonians 1:2, ESV)

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LNI “Flourish” — Karen Hoffer March 14th

Prayer this Tuesday @ 7p

†CALL TO WORSHIP Based on Psalm 138

Pastor Austin Prince

Minister: All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth,

Congregation: they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly.

Minister: You have exalted above all things your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.

Congregation: We bow down and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

†PRAYER OF ADORATION AND INVOCATION

O Lord our God, who art worthy to be praised and to be had in reverence of all those who are before you; Grant unto us, as we come to you in worship, the gift of thy Holy Spirit, that being cleansed and sanctified we may serve you with gladness, and find our joy in worshipping thy glory.

†OPENING HYMN OF PRAISE #374

“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!”

†CONFESSION OF SIN & ASSURANCE OF PARDON (humility)

based on Psalm 138

Minister: Though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.

Congregation: O Lord, we ask you to forgive all of the ways we are haughty. We consider ourselves better than others. We put our needs first. We insist upon our own way. We are slow to forgive when we have been wronged, and we are quick to demand forgiveness when we are in the wrong.

Heal our selfish hearts. Fill us with your love, that we may love. From the joy of forgiveness, rekindle in us the joy of obedience. Amen.

Minister: The Lord will fulfill his purposes for you. His steadfast love endures forever. He will not forsake the work of his hands. In Christ, we are forgiven.

Congregation: Thanks be to God! Amen.

CONTINUAL READING OF SCRIPTURE 1 Thess. 5:1-11

Steven Hoffer, Elder

THE OFFERING OF TITHES AND OUR GIFTS

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYERS

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

†PSALM OF PREPARATION #42B

“As Pants the Deer for Flowing Streams”

SERMON Psalm 138 // High and Low

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Lord, thou hast given us thy Word for a light to shine upon our path; grant us so to meditate on that word, and to follow its teaching. That we may find in it the light that shines more and more until the perfect day through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

TEXT Psalm 138

Psalm 138 ESV

Of David. 1 I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; 2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. 3 On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased. 4 All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth, 5 and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. 6 For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. 7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me. 8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

AFTER SCRIPTURE

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

Intro: For though the Lord is high, He regards the lowly

Part of the Lord’s glory is that he is present in stupefying extremes. He is above the cosmos and outside of time: eternal, and yet he is in time stooping to hear our prayers. He is holy, holy, holy, and he is the friend of sinners, touching the diseases and the sins of man. He is the head of all things and upholds the universe, and he stood on actual patches of dirt and grass in Jerusalem; He ate bread and drank wine. He is the Lord who dwells in the highest place and in the lowest place. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, and, as the creed reminds us, he descended into hell, the lowest place.

And we need to remember this balance. If we get this wrong and lopsided, it will obscure what we are to see and notice and love about God, that he is both high and low — holy and immanent.

If our view of Him skews to only height, you will see Him as distant and austere. Like deism, you will think that he created the world but governs it from afar. He isn’t interested in you because he has better things to do. His greatness would mean remoteness. You pray, but you’re never really sure if it reaches His ears. You pray, but you’re not sure if he even cares. You may begin to pray with tears and beg occasionally, because you think that maybe that is what will twist his arm or get his notice. Our labor and good works of our faith are like sending a mortgage payment, an impersonal obligation and exchange that allows us to keep busy and comfortable with other things. He is high, but he is far away.

But if you swing the pendulum the other way, it also skews our view from that the scriptures would have us see about God’s holiness. If you see Him as only near and lowly, stripped from all of his loftiness and height, you will have something like pantheism, that God is in all things. He is close, but he is not really dominant and supreme and unlimited. It’s a neutered nearness that doesn’t stand outside of the world and control it. It’s the worst form of empathy, that God would be with us but impotent to help us. He is near us but doesn’t stand outside of us.

But God as described by the scriptures, the God of Psalm 138:6, is a reminder that He is both high and sovereign, high and holy, and he regards the lowly. He is both capable to help and willing to help. As high as we aim or aspire; he is there. And no matter how far we sink, He has been lower.

Outline: The Heart of Psalm 138 The central theme of this psalm ripples out from verse 6: “For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.” Picture a stone dropped into still water—the impact sends waves outward, touching every edge. Verse 6 is that impact, the chorus that ties the psalm together, though it arrives in the middle. Let’s hear that chorus first and see how it shapes the whole song as we walk through Psalm 138 today.

“For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.” (Psalm 138:6, ESV)

The Lord’s example — He is humble:

It is the very fact of his height that he is with the lowly, that’s what makes Him higher than others. His humility is a factor in His height, what gives Him the name above any other name.

Although the Lord has a rightful claim to boast and to pride without it being sin, the splendor of seeing Him is that He doesn’t stay distant from us in that loftiness. Philippians 2 says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:5–11, ESV)

This mind should be ours in Christ Jesus. God is humble and His actions towards us have been gloriously humble and so humility should not be too low for us. God stoops in infinite amounts, but we often won’t bow an inch. He condescends to serve the lowly; we choke up when asked to serve our neighbors—we choke up serving the people we like—our families and loved ones.

And the Lord Regards the lowly (those who need Him and join Him in his work), but the haughty he knows from afar.

Lowly here isn’t just describing someone who is in distress and who is weak. Although the Lord is near to the brokenhearted, the comparison is between the lowly and the haughty. Between the humble and the prideful. The Lord has his regards with the humble and lowly. He will work with the humble—He builds with the material of humility. Those who are attached to the vine in dependence and need bear fruit. But the hard and rocky soil of pride and independence remain fallow. The independent vine is a fruitless vine. James reminds us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The Haughty He Knows From Afar

So, God is near to the lowly, but he wouldn’t touch the prideful (as the song says) with a 39 1/2 foot pole. He knows what they are doing—He sees them and knows them, but only from a distance.

The prideful don’t see their need for help. They are needy, but they don’t need God or His help. They take for granted that all of their life is grace and a gift. They can live in the most lush of pastures but can only see cow patties. In an ultimate expression of pride, the prideful reject God and salvation all together and are condemned. And anyone who walks in attitudes of pride distance themselves from the Lord—it separates us from Him. He knows us, but from afar.

The prideful are slow to pray or don’t pray at all. The prideful don’t forgive and they grow bitter, believing that they are in the right. The prideful consider themselves over others. They think they know better than God and don’t read and seek out his word, or seek his counsel, they go their own path. Pride leads us to gossip and slander others, taking joy in thinking themselves the better of others. The prideful take a sense of rest in their own accomplishments, hot stuff among the specs of cosmic dust, chief worm over the other worms in the mud pit. Pride talks down to others. Pride sees faults in others. Pride is independent. Pride doesn’t love the church or fellowship among the saints. Pride hates others who compete for recognition. Pride hates competition. Pride is insecure, always looking for validation and knocking others out of the way. Pride is selfish, bothered by the obstacle of others. On and on the list could go, as pride is at the root of all sin.

And the result is that the Lord is far from the prideful. The Lord still sees us, but He only knows us from afar. The Lord is really distant from the prideful who run away from him. There is a judgement where he gives them over to their independence. They want to save themselves. They are a petulant teenager who wants to slam their door and be left alone.

There are also those who are prideful in their faith. They show up to service, pray, maybe even read their bibles, but they do it for leverage with God. They believe that they have earned his grace and are frustrated that he seems so far away. Pride can make you into an atheist or a Pharisee. But He is the God of infinite height and depth, and to follow Him at all means that we must be able to stoop.

But to the lowly (the humble) he is near.

Those who live with the acknowledgement that they need help, that they are not in fact independent, but very dependent, the Lord is there to help. He is near to the brokenhearted. It is the meek that inherit the earth. He gives grace to the humble. They know that all of life is a gift, every heart beat and breath. They call out in prayer, and the Lord answers. They see their sin and they hate their sin—this, too, is a grace gift of God. They do not walk among others as if they are the most important, but they consider others more significant than themselves. The humble are able to extend forgiveness. They are free to encourage others, give compliments, and are quick to listen. The lowly worship with gratitude, study the word with eagerness for help, and enjoy the fellowship of the church. The humble seek out ways to serve others, and not just for personal advantage.

To them, even though the Lord is high and lifted up, he is near. He draws to them and has fellowship with them.

How this principle expands— how this impact ripples out

****What does it look like to walk as one who is lowly?****

What is the disposition? We think that the prideful are the ones who are filled with boasting. But the humble still boast, but in the right direction — in a correct way.

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.” (Psalm 138:7, ESV)

So, we want to walk in lowliness and in humbleness, but does that mean that we must walk around as if we are weak and depressed, “woe is me”, helpless attitude? Does being lowly mean that God will be near to us if we grovel and beg, bending down to kiss his ring and avoid eye contact? No, our testimony is not that we are in great need and it never comes. We need help and the Lord is high—capable. And He is also with the low, an ever present help in time of trouble. The Lord has condescended to hear and to be present.

So, the humble turn to boasting. We think of humility as uncertainty, but that’s not the biblical picture. It’s certainty and boasting, just in the right way. Humility is uncertain of the self, but certain of God. It’s not boasting in the flesh, but boasting in the Lord. Although the posture of humility is to bow before the Lord, He stands us up to walk upright with our shoulders back.

Notice how David frames His relationship to the Lord in this verse with the “I’s” and the “you’s”.

“I am in trouble”, “you preserve my life”, “you stretch out your hand against my enemies”, “your right hand delivers me”

He is boasting!

“as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” (1 Corinthians 1:31, ESV)

“Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”” (Jeremiah 9:23–24, ESV)

Application:

This is one reason that singing Psalms and hymns are so good for us. David is putting this into song Himself here in this Psalm. When we boast in the Lord and His work, when we recall His character and His works, when we lay ourselves low and look up to Him, He draws near to us. It’s not just singing, it’s worship. Worship is a humble endeavor. Pride and worship don’t go together.

The humble boast and are also bold…(vv.1-3)

Praising God with boldness - before the Gods from a humble heart personally

“I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.” (Psalm 138:1–3, ESV)

The humble worship, giving thanks with their whole heart, but the prideful are thankless and half-hearted. Pride reserves back for itself some credit and strength and therefore must also reserve some gratitude and thanks. The grace that surrounds the prideful goes unrecognized and unappreciated. Beauty, health, children, marriage, friendship, laughter, grace, God’s word, and a billion other treasures are unrecognized because the mirror which reflects the self has more interest and importance. But the humble are flabbergasted when they look around. God has richly supplied them with life, steadfast love and faithfulness, and has given His word which shows us the face of God.

They are grateful and the humble become bold. “Before the gods I sing your praise” (v.1)

Being humble does not mean being sheepish. “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”  (Proverbs 28:1, ESV)

Like David before Goliath, His boast was not in himself or in his strength; it was in the deliverance and faithfulness of God.

Application:

It is the humble who stand boldly before trials and persecutions. In the face of sickness, death and difficulty, the prideful have only themselves for comfort, but the humble have the Lord.

The humble are not easily steered and manipulated by earthly powers. They are humble, but that doesn’t mean that they are afraid. They are not playing the angles that pride is playing: manipulating the system to stay afloat, to get ahead, to gain earthly rest and wealth. The prideful don’t see their need for help and are ravenously wonton. The humble see their need and have all of the help they need. It is the humble who stand and endure.

This dynamic expands outwards into a national and covenantal scale

The kings of the earth will praise (the humble vs. the prideful among the nations)

“All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.” (Psalm 138:4–5, ESV)

This same dynamic at play with the individual is also at play covenantally and nationally. The Lord knows prideful nations from afar but will regard the lowly nations.

Even the kings of earth who humble themselves, who sing of the ways of the Lord, will be drawn near. This is an echo of Psalm 2, which sets the foundation of so many of the themes in the Psalms.

“Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Psalm 2:10–12, ESV)

The kings of the earth are to humble themselves, to be lowly and the Lord will draw them in.

A nation that is proud will be far from the Lord. If we want revival, and if we want the best for our own nation, then we will not boast in our strength, our culture, our customs, our ethnicity, etc. Our boast will be in the Lord. Even if many of the things in our culture are good and worth boasting about, Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 4, when he asks, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?  (1 Corinthians 4:7, ESV). Every good and perfect gift is from above, and a nation that is to be blessed must recognize that.

The kingdoms of the earth must boast in the Lord root and branch. It is all of grace and will only be blessed through the pathway of humility.

The humble have confidence — a justified confidence.

“The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.” (Psalm 138:8, ESV)

We think that the prideful are the confident ones, but the self-assured will be ashamed and humiliated while the God-assured will be vindicated, supported, and sustained.

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18, ESV)

The humble are confident because the Lord will not forsake the work of His hands— He will fulfill His purposes for us.

The work that he has begun in you, He will see it through to the end. And He is not just working in you to produce different fruit; he is working on you. You are the work of his hands. You are the one who he is stripping of pride. The Lord is not just shaping different outcomes for you; he is shaping you. He will not forsake the work of his hands — you are that work. Removing the pride in us is part of that work.

God will build a cathedral out of the humble, but the iron must bend in the furnace and the brick must conform to the mold. The pride remain stiff and unusable.

Conclusion So, draw near to the Lord, and He will draw near to you. Approach with boldness, boasting in His works. Come with gratitude, seeing your needs met. He is near to all who call on Him in truth. Behold Him high and lifted up, yet stooping low—follow His example.

†HYMN OF RESPONSE #514

“O Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go”

†THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Minister: Lift up your hearts!

Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.

Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise!

GOD’S PROMISES AND WORDS OF INSTITUTION

(Maybe) Our humility, our boast, our covenantal humility, not humiliation.

†CONFESSION OF FAITH

Minister: Therefore, we proclaim our faith as signed and sealed in this sacrament. This is what we believe about the work of God:

Congregation: We believe that God - who is merciful, yet perfectly just - sent his Son to assume the nature of man, in order to bear the punishment for the sins of his own, by his most bitter passion and death.

Minister: This is what we believe about the work of Jesus Christ:

Congregation: We believe that Jesus Christ presented himself in our name before his Father, to appease his wrath with full satisfaction, by offering himself on the cross and pouring out his precious blood for the cleansing of our sins, as the prophets had predicted.

PRAYER FOR THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT

— Work in us…

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS

You may be seated as the Elders come.

INVITATION AND RESPONSE

Minister: Hear the words of our savior: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Come then, for all is ready.

Congregation: We come not because we ought, but because we may, not because we are righteous, but because we are penitent, not because we are strong, but because we are weak, not because we are whole, but because we are broken.

THE SHARING OF THE SUPPER

†OUR RESPONSE #248

Let all things their Creator bless,

and worship him in humbleness,

O praise him, alleluia!

Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,

and praise the Spirit, three in one,

O praise him, O praise him,

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

†BENEDICTION: GOD’S BLESSING FOR HIS PEOPLE

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. 2 Thess. 2:16-17

Grace Notes

Psalm 138 is a reminder of how God has designed the world. Like gravity, which works upon us so consistently that we categorize it as a law, so too is the law that only the humble are near the Lord. Pride, with its independence, self-assurance, that it sees others for gain and advantage, or as obstacles. Pride with its inability to forgive and to serve or to pray and to learn, is hostile to grace; it wants to earn, not receive. But David rejoices that the Lord draws near to the lowly—the humble. But the humble are not the humiliated. They, too, boast, but their boast is in the Lord. They gladly recall His faithfulness, provision, and steadfast love—they are the one that look like boasters. They are confident in trial, not by the strength of their hands which have proven weak, but in the strength of God’s hands.

In what ways can we draw near to the Lord in humility this week? What are your boasts? When and where do you share them?

Are there any areas of pride in your life that you need to repent of? Is the Lord perhaps distant from you because of refusal to be His disciple and follower? The Lord of glory has laid his life down to love the sinner, but do we see forgiveness as too hard for us? Why? Does kindness and charity get choked up in our lips because we think it undeserved in others? Does his grace go unrecognized and unappreciated? The Lord knows those from afar who cling to their self-importance.