Psalm 135: Lord, I Praise You

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English Standard Version Psalm 135

Your Name, O LORD, Endures Forever

135 Praise the LORD!

Praise the name of the LORD,

give praise, O servants of the LORD,

2  who stand in the house of the LORD,

in the courts of the house of our God!

3  Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;

sing to his name, for it is pleasant!

4  For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself,

Israel as his own possession.

5  For I know that the LORD is great,

and that our Lord is above all gods.

6  Whatever the LORD pleases, he does,

in heaven and on earth,

in the seas and all deeps.

7  He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,

who makes lightnings for the rain

and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

8  He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,

both of man and of beast;

9  who in your midst, O Egypt,

sent signs and wonders

against Pharaoh and all his servants;

10  who struck down many nations

and killed mighty kings,

11  Sihon, king of the Amorites,

and Og, king of Bashan,

and all the kingdoms of Canaan,

12  and gave their land as a heritage,

a heritage to his people Israel.

13  Your name, O LORD, endures forever,

your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.

14  For the LORD will vindicate his people

and have compassion on his servants.

15  The idols of the nations are silver and gold,

the work of human hands.

16  They have mouths, but do not speak;

they have eyes, but do not see;

17  they have ears, but do not hear,

nor is there any breath in their mouths.

18  Those who make them become like them,

so do all who trust in them.

19  O house of Israel, bless the LORD!

O house of Aaron, bless the LORD!

20  O house of Levi, bless the LORD!

You who fear the LORD, bless the LORD!

21  Blessed be the LORD from Zion,

he who dwells in Jerusalem!

Praise the LORD!

An unusual song

Almost the entire Psalm shows up in other books of the Bible:

Deuteronomy, Jeremiah,

The past Psalms that we have looked at are very emotional. We’ve talked about the emotions of anger and sadness

And we have talked about how to express ourselves to God and how to respond when we are in the middle of these emotions.

And there are times when our praise explodes out of our emotions

Especially when we are feeling the emotion of joy

But there are other times when our praise is a more “measured” response

And we are required to sit down and “remember” the works of the LORD

PRAISE THE LORD

Ask congregation to say it with me

Praise the Lord

Praise the name of the LORD

What does it mean to praise the name of the LORD?

The Name of the LORD is more than just His title: God

His name includes all that He is. His whole character

Goodness

Love

Justice

Righteousness

We praise Him because He lacks nothing

when we say, “Praise His name”, we are saying, “Thank you for being who You are!”

Who should praise the LORD?

The servants of the LORD

Those who stand in the house of God

Those are the priests and Levites

Only they were allowed to be inside the temple

Those who stand in the courts of the house of our God!

That’s everyone else

It was THEIR job to lead the people in the praise of God

Bringing this into the church today, it’s easy for us to look at Kendal, our worship leader (who does a fine job, BTW), and say, “hey, man, it’s your job to lead us into worship”

And to an extent, it is his job and he takes it very seriously

But it’s not just his job

It’s ALL of our jobs to lead each other into worship

We should praise the LORD

in the OT, it was God’s desire and plan to make the Israelites a nations of kings and priests

And today, that has fallen on us, His Church

We are Kings and priests serving before Him

He has made us a kingdom and priests

We serve in His temple

The temple is no longer a building built of stone.

It’s now us. His dwelling is in the hearts of His people

His temple is now us

We lead each other into worship by talking about what God has done and is doing in our lives

reasons to Praise the LORD

The LORD is good vs. 3

Do you believe without a shadow of a doubt that the LORD is good?

Often we praise the LORD in times when we think that God has “proved” Himself to be good

He has done something wonderful and significant in our lives that we recognize as being good

But this Psalm makes a declaration that has no conditions attached with it

THE LORD IS GOOD

That’s why we praise Him

Now, this Psalmist does give us things that God has done which demonstrate His goodness

But do we believe that He is good even though right now in our lives, things don’t seem good

If I told you, “praise the LORD because He is good”, and then just walked away, would that be enough?

Is that enough reason to praise the LORD?

Would you say, even at your lowest moments, “Yes, I know that He is good! I have tasted of His goodness. Even right now in this trial, this time of testing, when life doesn’t seem good, I know that God is good and I will praise Him”

That is one reason that we should praise Him.

It is pleasant—”sing praise to His name, for it is pleasant”

this is kind of a surprising reason to praise the LORD

Praise Him because it is pleasant to do so

Praise Him because it is (or should be) something enjoyable for you

There is a benefit to you. This is not he ultimate reason that we praise, but it is A reason

What do you do that is pleasant, or pleasurable?

For some of you, it might be being out in the tractor in the field on a beautiful day, planting or harvesting

It might be driving a truck with 500HP under the hood

It might be fishing on a quiet lake

Or taking a vacation in the mountains

It might be the joy of discipling others in their walk with Jesus. That might be something that brings you joy

And these are things that you choose to do because they bring you joy

But praising God is also something that the Psalmist says should be pleasant for us. Something that brings us joy

And we do it for that reason.

pastor and author, John Piper, talks about being a Christian hedonist

Hedonist: one who lives for and seeks pleasure

Christian hedonism: Seeking pleasure in God.

We know that there is pleasure in walking closely with God

I trust that we have all experienced the pleasure of praising God

Singing worship songs either in church or singing along to something you are listening to

Praise Him because you have been chosen

The LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself; His own possession

Israel for His own possession

You know the Bible is clear that God chose the nation of Israel to be a special and holy nation

We could go to many different passages that talk about this

Deuteronomy 7:6 “6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

The book of Isaiah is full of statements like this

Isaiah 41:8–9 “8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; 9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”;”

What an amazing thing it is to be chosen!

Some of us remember what it was like on the playground, picking sides for games, and to be always the last one chosen...kind of like you didn’t really matter

The devastation of NOT being chosen

Those who are married, sometimes it just kind of hits you..I can’t believe she chose me! Out of all the other eligible bachlors out there, she chose me!

To be chosen is an amazing thing

But today, there is something even more incredible

Today, we here at Fairview are not Israelites. But God still has chosen you. He has chosen US.

He has called us, and IS calling us out of darkness into light

The God who created the entire universe has chosen you

If you can hear my voice, you are being called. He has identified you by name

Praise Him because He is God over the weather

Verses 5-7

He is great, above all gods

He does whatever He pleases

He makes clouds rise

He makes lightening and rain

He brings out the wind

Praise Him because He is God over the kings of this earth

verses 8-14

Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, King of Bashan were said to men of enormous height, giants

Deut. 3

The kind of men that the spies were afraid of

But God led the people to defeat these kings

And all the other kings of Canaan

This Psalm echoes Psalm 2 where it says that the kings of the earth rise up and take council together against the LORD and against His anointed One

But God, the One who sits in Heaven laughs them to scorn

Because God’s plan will succeed, not the futile plans of puny earthly kings

vs. 13: your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown (fame), endures throughout all ages

Such a good reminder and comfort for us

earthly leaders come and go. Some we remember. Some we don’t

It doesn’t matter who is in power. Republican, Democrat, Independent

God is in control and Jesus is King.

No matter who is in political power, I live in the Kingdom of Jesus and He will not be deterred by any decisions or policies that our political leaders make

The greatness of our God highlights the futility of idolatry: Verses 15-18

Idols are the things that we create or set up, the things that take our focus off God

They are the things that begin to receive our attention and worship instead of God

Money, sex, power, work, recognition, religion

And why do we do this? Why do we set up idols, especially when we have just seen the majesty of God talked about here, and when we read these verses about the futility of idolatry

Look at what is says about idols

They have mouths, but do not speak:

they have eyes, but do not see;

They have ears, but do not hear,

nor is there any breath in their mouths

The Psalmist is setting up a comparison to the One True God whom we have been praising

God speaks to us, He sees us, He hears us, He gives us breath. BUT

Unlike God, idols don’t speak, see, or hear or breathe

We know this, right?

But here is the thing that really kind of hits you upside the head and is very sobering (or should be)

Look at what it says in verse 18

Those who make them (Idols) become like them

You become like what you worship

The things that you fixate on, the things that you give your attention, are the things that shape you and mold you

If you worship money, you become a greedy person

you become a very calculating person

If you worship sex, you become a lustful person

If you worship power, you become, self-centered authoritarian and cruel person

In today’s world, if social media gets a lot of your time and attention, you become an anxious person, someone with a short attention span

You become like those things that you worship

This is the danger of idolatry.

It’s not just because it takes worship away from God who deserves all of our worship

Yes, that is a very serious thing

But it’s also “what does idol worship do to you, or to me?”

And that’s also a VERY serious question

Because the Bible says that we are God’s workmanship. We have been created by Him for good works!

We are not meant to be molded by idols

Those who make idols become like them, so do all who trust in them

And just like an idol is unable to speak, see, hear, or breathe

Idolatry can do the same thing to us when it comes to our response to God

We have been created by God to respond to God with our bodies, the physical attributes that He has given us.

But when we start becoming like the idols that we set up

Unable to speak, or communicate with God

We are unable to speak about what God is doing in our lives

Because we don’t know if He actually is doing anything

“what’s God doing in your life?”

I don’t know. I’m just living my life and trying to get by

We are unable to share the Gospel because we aren’t actually living in the freedom that the Gospel brings

We find it difficult to spend time talking to God, and it becomes very difficult to hear God speaking to us!

Because our idols don’t speak, and we become unused to the idea that we should be speaking to God or to others about what God has done, and is doing

We become blind. We can’t see God working in our lives or in the world around us

because we are so fixated on our idols. Such a narrow focus on our own little world of our own making

That we don’t actually see what God is doing around us

We become deaf. We can’t hear God speaking to us

through Scripture

Through prayer

Through the gentle rebuke or encouragement of a friend

Through a sermon

Because often there is so much going on in our minds, that we can’t hear

Or, we can’t hear because it doesn’t make sense with the world that we have created for ourselves

Our hearts become hard with walls surrounding us and nothing can get through

And just like our idols, we can’t breathe. There is no breath or life in us that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit.

we feel powerless when it comes to living for Jesus

It’s just routine. It’s just head knowledge

There is very little going on in our hearts. Our hearts feel dull and dead toward Jesus

There’s very little of that dynamis, that power of God in our lives that is spoken of over and over again in the NT

if you or I are at a place where we feel powerless, we should check what we are worshiping!

They are becoming like those things that have their attention

This is why it is so important to consider Who or what has our attention

Does our idol have our attention, and are we becoming like it?

Or does Jesus have our attention, and are we becoming like Him?

2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul writes to his readers about this very concept

2 Corinthians 3:18 “18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

In the previous verses, Paul talks about Moses

as you might remember, Moses spent time on Mt. Sinai, beholding the glory of the LORD

He was in the very presence of almighty God

And when He came down from the mountain, his face shone with the glory of God.

It was so powerful, that the people couldn’t look at him and Moses had to put a veil over his face

But the hearts of the people were hardened, and in a sense, that veil was never lifted, and they never did truly behold the glory of the LORD

But NOW! says Paul, NOW, when someone turns to the LORD, that veil is lifted!

And now, we ALL with unveiled faces stand beholding, taking in, gazing upon the glory of the LORD

And as we stand beholding the glory of the LORD, we are being transformed “into the same image” (that is, being made into the image of GOD) from one degree of glory to another

little by little, as we stand beholding the glory of the LORD, we are transformed into the ONE that we are focusing on!

And this, folks, highlights, what I desire for my ministry, or my role here at Fairview

I listen to different preachers on the internet, and I hear people promoting their churches talking about “practical sermons”

You get a lot of “How to” sermons

how to have a better marriage

how to succeed in business

how to conquer sin

how to kick addictions

How to, how to, how to

And these sermons aren’t all bad. The Bible does contain instruction on practical Christian living

But none of this is any good if we are not being transformed by the Spirit of God in our hearts!

And how are we transformed? By standing and beholding the glory of the LORD!

And that is my overall desire in my ministry, is to point present Jesus. Consider Jesus. Think about Him! Look to Jesus! Behold His glory!

Consider Who you are worshiping, and allow yourself to become like Him!

Right now, it is a gradual tranformation. “from glory to glory”

But in the end, the Bible says, one day, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is!

English Standard Version Chapter 3

2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we

Won’t that be incredible!

What a day to look forward to! What a hope that we have!

To see Jesus with our own eyes! To be like Him

But right here, right now

My challenge, my plea for all of us is to gaze upon the glory of Jesus

And as we live in His presence to allow Him to continue to change us from glory to glory!

English Standard Version Psalm 135

19  O house of Israel, bless the LORD!

O house of Aaron, bless the LORD!

20  O house of Levi, bless the LORD!

You who fear the LORD, bless the LORD!

O People of Fairview, bless the LORD!

English Standard Version Psalm 135

21  Blessed be the LORD from Zion,

he who dwells in Jerusalem!

Praise the LORD!