The Circle of blessing
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Good morning, It is a joy to be with you today.Happy Palm Sunday. Just a reminder we have our family meeting at cove campus to talk about how we are pursuing hwa’ts next here at RT. Come it starts at 7pm and it’s going to be great
If you have your Bibles we are going to be reading from Psalms 134. It’s hard to believe today we are going to finish our study on the Psalms of Ascent. Next week we will have our special easter message and then the following week we will start our study in the book of Acts.
Let’s get into the text
Read Psalm 134
A Song of Ascents.
Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord!
May the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who made heaven and earth!
This is a short psalm. Only Psalm 117 is shoter. THis psalm has just 23 words in hebrew
They’ve been on this journey and the people of God have arrived.
and it’s helpful to realize that from the start becasue it’s something we all have in common with the people of the day we are also on a journey
many of us have a goal. We are people who want to go places and achive our goals
for some it was an academic degree
others career postion
some it you family, or the number of kids you want, maybe it’s visiting a country or even accomplishing something else on your “bucket list’
we are heading somewhere and there may come a day were we get what we want but then we find out what we’ve gotten wasn’t really want we wanted at all
maybe it’s at those times we look aroudn and we are less fulfilled then we thought we would be
and it’s here in Psalm 134 the psalmist says we have arrived and it’s better then we could have imagined. The Nasb is helpful here becasue it includes a word some translations leave out and it is the world “behold”
in other words the psalmist tells the people stop. Look around and behold were you are. TO take the moment to pause and realize just how good God is
they are a far way off from where they have started. T
Derek Kidner writes, “The Songs of Ascents, which began in the alien surroundings of Meshech and Kedar …, end fittingly on the note of serving God, ‘day and night within his temple.’ ”2 Eugene Peterson says, “The way of discipleship that begins in an act of repentanc.… concludes in a life of praise.”3
and iit’s here in the temple of God in the city of God that they are to look around and behold all God has done.
They’ve been on this road of discipleship that started with repentance. and they’ve been encouraged along the way of Gods steadfast love for them
On the journey they remembered they served a God who did not sleep.
who would keep them from all evil
Theuy’ve longed to stand firm within the gates of jerusalm
They’ve learend to wait and remembered if God hadn’t been on their side they would have been defeated by their enimies
that the floods and raging waters of life would have swept them away
THey would recall how joyous it was to be together and how much the Lord had done
they rehearedsdd the reality it’s God who is working on behalf of his people
that he was the one watching over his people. Helping them know they didn’t have to rise early and go to bed let eating bread of anxious toil
instead they coudl rest knowing they were deeply loved by God
allowing them to relax
They had revisted that the life with God is the connected by a conjucitong. that their is this life can be great and it can be bad at the same time
they reminded each other that thier were thoughts that were only for God
they rejoiced about the truth a future king would come and sit on davids throne forever
and they reflected on how sweet the unity they enjoyed as the people of God was. IT was like oil flowing from aarons beard
and this was all done on thier journey on thier long obidence in the same direction and now they pause. and they are still in wonder and awe of a God who is worth praising!
this was all done through song and just before the final song in the journey they paulse and they BEHOLD where they were, who they were and who God was.
I think it’s a good reminder for us espically in our fast paced culture that their are moments were we just need to pause. and BEHOLD. Behold all God has done. Behold who he is, and who he is making you.
it’s almost like the psalimst is saying. Did you see that? are you thinking what I am thinking?
because the result of this can only be blessing God.
and this idea of blessing God may seem odd at first. Maybe you’ve asked for Gods blessing before. Maybe after someoone sneezes you say bless you
or maybe when someone ask how your doing you say I’m blessed. Those all feel pretty natural
but BLessing God can seem odd. but really it’s the only right response in our worship of him.
but he is calling the pople to do what he longs for God to do
it’s different right when it comes to God.
It’s one thing when we ask for Gods blessing.
The word here means to “acknowledge gratefully what he is.”
and it’s this Godward praise the people are encouraged to particapte in
God is the object of our praise. He is the goal of our praise. he is the point of our praise.
Some wonder here is the psalmist talking to the preist who minister by night in the house of the Lord or is he just talking to the people who’ve been on this journey with him
If it’s the second group of people he is basically saying. There is nothing better, nothing that more joyus then to be in Gods presence in the place he promised us he would be
and while their is a moment to look around and behold all God has done that is not even what’s dominating his thoughts the most! The most present thought. The most wonderful truth. The most magnificent desire in his heart is THE LORD
When the psalimst talks about the ungoldy he says the Lord is not in his thoughts. Which makes sense. the person who is not walking with the Lord squeezes God out of their thoughts.
but what’s happened to the Psalmist is he realzies though I live in a difficult place where there is much oppostion to his faith. Where the srgulles of life and faith in God are troubling
but here at the end he ends the psalm with the glory and the majisty of God.
He knows where his help comes from. He says my help is in the one who Made heaven and earth!
he was worried about the 50 mile journey he was going to take at the beginning of these psalms. He was worried about robbers and bandits. HIs eyes were on the hills. ON his problems. He had anxiety in his heart
but know at the end of his journey the hills are small. The bandits are small
and God is big.
and everything about the way he lives, and thinks has changed.
He knows he belongs to God.
in other words as Sinclair fergouson says you don’t go to bed the way you got out of bed when you are with Gods people worshiping the Lord and blessing the Lord
this is why gathering with Gods people really matters. When our hearts our filled with doubt, fear and anxiety being with Gods people and blessing God changes things for us
becasue coming into this place today it’s easy to look at the hills. To think they are bigger then they are. and please here me there is room for struggle. There is room for pain, their is room for even doubt in this room buyt none of those things are bigger than God.
it’s when we bless God. It’s when we praise God and ascribe to God who he is. That our hills become small again.
he is the maker of Heaven and earth
he is the one with steadfast and unfalling love
he is the one who doesn’t sleep or slumber
he is the one who clothes us with salvaiton
he is the covenant keeper
He the reedmemer and it’s plentiful!
He is the one who gives forgivness and heres our cry for mercy
He is the giver of all God gifts
He is the one who watchers, and builds, and restores us
He is the one who leads
He is worthy of all our praise
It is praise designed to enhance or enrich God’s reputation in the minds of the people.
that’s why we worship
and it’s when we decalring just how grand, how great, and how marvoulsous God is we don’t go to bed the same way we wake up
coming into church we can be off centered. In other words we can have our eyes on the wrong thing
but when Gods people gather togetehr to bless God we go to bed different. That’s what brings us back to the right perspective
and this is what the psalmist is thinking about. He knows This God of covenanthas been present. It’s new lenses in the way the psalmist even views his life
and it’s the same when you get new glasses or contacts. You just see in a different way. My eye sight has got worse over the years but when my eye doctor gave me lens to help me really see I was amazed by all the beauty and majesty around me.
Remember Psalm 120 focused on where he was and how hard it was to be their and by the time we get to Psalm 134 it’s almost like that place didn’t exist
but it’s becasue it seemed so big in his vision and God seemed small
even absent
but once again it’s God who is big and the situation is small
he’s got the right perspective at the end of his pilgramage. He’s been in the presence of the maker of heaven and earth.
it’s the perspective we need. We need heavens perspective. We don’t always know what’s going on or how things are really going. Beacuase their are moments when or problems seem bigger then God but when we get in the presence of God and quite our soul something remarakalbe happens.
we are stilled by worship and the word.
too often think all of the Christian life comes down to our efforts, and our achievement but if we live that way or we read a book about how to be a better christian we might ascribe glory and greatness ot ourselves
how much better is it when we slowy and surley obey the guy and live a life of repentance were we are constly turing away form ourselves and towards God
it’s when we don’t feel like worshiping we come to church to put ourselves in teh place and way of worship.
IT’s the simple obedience of putting yourself in places to recieve Gods blessings
WE can trust Gods word will do his work in our life and it’s his word that allows us to live for him
and we have an advantage this morning as we look at this psalm. Because our perspective is even bettter then the psalmist. He is blessing the Lord
and what we get in the new testamanet is the Lord the maker of heaven and earth who comes down and dwells with his people. WE get our Lord Jesus christ and our perspecive is even better
Jesus had his own journey. Where he would journey from heaven to earth.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Eugene peterson parapharis this and says that God moved into the nieghboorhood
and it’s here on earth the maker” get’s down on his knees, He gets on our level and shares himself with us”
EGP
He’s not far off. He is closer then we think. He isn’t just sending us some rules and ways to live life. He comes to serve us.
and it’s why we know God as good news. The blessing we get is this. God shares himself with us. All of himself. He shares his life with us because he is geneours and he is gracious.
God is the one who enters our needs. He is the one who understands us better then we do.
and it’s with Jesus the we expierenced the blessings of God.
It’s only through Jesus this can be fully realized
To bless God is easy. We are ascribing to him what’s already true about him
but for God to please us is an exchange. He is making us what we are not
He is making us into his temple where his presence lives
where we expirence the greatest blessing of all to know God, and to be known by him. TO know the maker of heaven and earth has made a place in heaven for us to live with him forever
and here on earth we can expierence this abudent life Jesus promises in John 10:10
Jesus journey of coming with us would cost him everything. He would have his own journey into Jerusalme. His own journey to Zion
The prohpets would speak of this moment when they wrote
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
and sure enough Jesus did this. Today we celbrate psalms sunday and we are reminded of how Jesus came. And sure enough the crowd praised him
we are told in Matthew 21:7-11
They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
it was a fever pitch of praise.
and by the end of the week Jesus would die on a criminals cross and what he would accompish thorugh his death is the blessing we know expierence
Hebrews 12 tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our at the beginning of the chpater but at the end it tells us how we should worship him.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Jesus went to mount zion and he died so the blessing you and I could expirenc e was the city of the lving God the heavenly Jerusalm that’s where we are going
that’s where this long obediecne in the same direction leads. and it’s by his blood that we enter the kingdom
and our response is simple. It’s worship
THE WORK OF THE PRIEST IS NEVER DONE BUT JESUS WORK WAS
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,
and our worship of God informs us of who God is but also who we are.
The psalimist says bless the Lord all you servants of the Lord
reminding us that we belong to God. We are not our own.
and there is a posture of worship the psalmist says. He says lift up your hands to the Lord. He is saying our worship requires all of us. that to worship the Lord with all of who we are.
We don’t want to over spirtualize this but their is a demand we worship with all that we are at the least
and Sinclair ferguson reminds us that this might be a little more naunced then that
the psalmist is tlaking about getting to the goal of their journey. He wanted to get to the place the high priest was and to recive aarons blessing from Numbers
that God would bless and keep you. his face would shine upon you
and it’s here that the psalimsit says long for the same thing
and in the NT we our told in Romans 12 that we are to offer our bodies as living sacfirices. It’s everything we are . Its the renweing of our mind trhough the word of God that transforms us
and the Psalmist on this journey has expiernced this. Everything about transformed him
and that’s what our Journey does also. TO know God through Christ changes everything about us. and what happenss through christ is we truly are blessed and we can’t to worship God and enjoy him forever.
it’s that great excange. That Jesus died our death so we could live his life.
so I wonder as we close the service today if we could just behold and remember all God has done for us. To marvel at the place we are today. That we are with Gods people worshiping God because of Jesus
and as we behold this we behold something even better. WE behold Jesus. and we ascribe to him all he is.
that we truly bless Him!
and it’s form hear as we bless the maker of heaven and earth we ask him to bless us
we ask God to make us what we are not and give us what we don’t have. and all of that is found in CHrist
it’s why Paul writes
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
and that’s how he has blessed us.He has made as new. As you move towards good friday and easter this week spend time blessing God for that and thanking God for how he has blessed us.
and even when you translate that verse a little better while less readible it says this
anyone in Christ new creation
that’s our guarntee. that’s the promise and that’s what all who are in Christ expirecne.
GOSPEL INVITE
and I know there could be someone here today who is hearing these words and you’ve never been made new
maybe you have made life all about you
maybe you’ve been trying everything on your own
maybe you feel far from God
and today I want to invite you to repent from your sin and turn to Jesus
and it’s in Christ you will be blessed.
As we take this journey of life we don’t have to wait until we get to heaven our final home to enjoy all of what is their. Because of Jesus.
so behold, bless God all you people and allow God the maker of heaven and earth to bless you
let’s pray
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
WHAT DO WE MEEAN THERE?
BEAITUDES
JESUS
THE WORK OF THE PRIEST IS NEVER DONE
