A Life Under Oath

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Presiding elder (Mike Stewart)

Call to Worship: Psalm 48:1-3

Presiding elder

Psalm 48:1–3 NKJV

1 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised In the city of our God, In His holy mountain. 2 Beautiful in elevation, The joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, The city of the great King. 3 God is in her palaces; He is known as her refuge.

*Psalm 48A “The LORD Is Great”

Presiding elder

*Prayer of Invocation

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Scripture Reading: Isaiah 45:18-25

Presiding elder

Isaiah 45:18–25 NKJV

18 For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. 19 I have not spoken in secret, In a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. 20 “Assemble yourselves and come; Draw near together, You who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, Who carry the wood of their carved image, And pray to a god that cannot save. 21 Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me. 22 “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 23 I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath. 24 He shall say, ‘Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, And all shall be ashamed Who are incensed against Him. 25 In the Lord all the descendants of Israel Shall be justified, and shall glory.’ ”

(Cf. also Isa. 19:18)

*Psalm 89A “The Lovingkindness of the LORD”

Presiding elder

Sermon Text: Matthew 5:33-37

Please open in your copies of God’s word to Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 5, where we’ll begin our reading in verse 33 as we continue our study through the Sermon on the Mount.

I think the best way to think about the Sermon on the Mount is that in the Old Testament, Moses gave the Law on Mount Sinai, and in the New Testament, Jesus, the greater Moses, expounds and expands the Law on the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus said at the beginning,

Matthew 5:17–20 NKJV

17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

We have been somewhat preconditioned to think that there is a dichotomy between law and grace, and so we might be tempted to be a little uneasy about thinking of the Sermon on the Mount as an exposition of the law. But actually, the Biblical dichotomy is not between law and grace, but between being under the law, and being under grace.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:8,

1 Timothy 1:8 NKJV

But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,

The scribes and Pharisees were the lifelong students of the law—many of them had memorized the entire Torah!—and yet, they used the law unlawfully, by making it all about externals, and seeking to be justified by keeping the law.

The proper use of the law is to show us our sin, to drive us to Christ, and then to teach us how to live, that we may love and glorify God.

And so here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is the Great One in the Kingdom of heaven, who does and teaches the law in all of its fullness, so that as God renews our hearts and gives us spiritual life, our righteousness truly does exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, even though we are justified by faith, and not by works of the law.

This is a shorter reading once again, and so just like last week, I’m going to read to you first from the Old Testament. The only problem with that is that Jesus is not quoting any particular verse, but rather a kind of summary of several verses, so I’ll read 4, and then we’ll read our passage in Matthew 5. But before we come under the reading and preaching of God’s word, let’s once again ask for His help and blessing.

Prayer of Illumination

First, from the 3rd commandment, in Exodus 20:7:

Exodus 20:7 NKJV

7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Second, from Leviticus 19:12:

Leviticus 19:12 NKJV

12 And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

Third, from Numbers 30:2:

Numbers 30:2 NKJV

If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

Fourth, from Deuteronomy 23:21. So, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and now Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 23:21 NKJV

21 “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.

And finally, our sermon text, from Matthew 5:33-37:

Matthew 5:33–37 NKJV

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

Preaching God’s Word

Introduction

As we think of the 10 commandments, and especially the 1st table of the Law (those commandments which relate to our duty towards God), I think it’s fair to say that the 3rd commandment is the least understood. I think most people think that not taking the Lord’s name in vain is referring primarily to using God’s name and attributes as a curse word. And while what we commonly call “swearing” is certainly included in the 3rd commandment, the primary meaning of the 3rd commandment is about taking God’s name “in vain” in oaths and vows, which, somewhat confusingly, is also called “swearing”.

I had jury duty last year for an attempted murder trial, (and I knew at the time it would be useful for sermon illustrations!), and there was the stenographer who’s duty it was to swear in witnesses. Every time a witness would come up to take the stand, she would make them raise their right hand, and she would ask them, "Do you solemnly swear [or affirm] that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

That’s primarily the kind of swearing that Jesus has in mind—invoking God as a witness to our own truthfulness.

And even though this isn’t something that we think about often, it is important enough that it is the 3rd commandment! It’s important when someone is accused of a crime that we can trust that a witness is telling the truth. Truthfulness is at the foundation of a functioning society. And it’s important to God.

The Westminster Confession of faith has a whole chapter on “Lawful oaths and vows”, and it says,

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition Chapter XXII. Of Lawful Oaths and Vows

A LAWFUL oath is a part of religious worship, wherein, upon just occasion, the person swearing solemnly calleth God to witness what he asserteth or promiseth; and to judge him according to the truth or falsehood of what he sweareth.b

And,

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition Chapter XXII. Of Lawful Oaths and Vows

V. A vow is of the like nature with a promissory oath, and ought to be made with the like religious care, and to be performed with the like faithfulness.

So an oath, you’re swearing to the truthfulness of a fact. A vow, you’re swearing to the truthfulness of a promise.

I want us to look, this morning, at what Jesus has to say about oaths and vows. Jesus follows the same pattern that we have become familiar with. He says what was said of old, and then he says, “but I say to you”. And because of that “but”, we often call these the “6 antitheses”, even though Jesus is not putting Himself anti- or against the Law, but restoring the full meaning of the law.

But, if you thought you were coming for one antithesis today, you’re in for a surprise, because there are two antitheses for the price of one. There are actually 2 correctives to the Pharisaical way of thinking about oaths and vows, and I want to consider both of them this morning.

Antithesis #1: God’s holiness extends to all (Matt. 5:34-36)

The first “antithesis” is in verses 34-36. But let me read again from verse 33. Jesus says,

Matthew 5:33–36 NKJV

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.

At the outset, I want to acknowledge that there are some people who take Jesus to mean that all swearing of oaths is prohibited in the New Covenant. For example, the great Charles Spurgeon, commenting on this passage, said,

The Gospel of the Kingdom: A Commentary on the Book of Matthew Chapter 5:21–48: The King Corrects Traditional Law

Yet, in this Christian country we have swearing everywhere, and especially among law-makers. Our legislators begin their official existence by swearing. By those who obey the law of the Saviour’s kingdom, all swearing is set aside, that the simple word of affirmation or denial, calmly repeated, may remain as a sufficient bond of truth. A bad man cannot be believed on his oath, and a good man speaks the truth without an oath: to what purpose is the superfluous custom of legal swearing preserved?

Aside: The lawfulness of oaths and vows

But in order for us to understand what Jesus is saying, we need to understand exactly what kind of antithesis Jesus is making. And we have to start with the assumption that Jesus did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets (Matt. 5:17). And so, whatever Jesus is saying, must not be in contradiction to what God has already said in the Old Testament.

And we find, in the Old Testament, that oaths were a part of religious worship. Deuteronomy 6:13 says,

Deuteronomy 6:13 NKJV

13 You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name.

It was understood that there would be occasions where men would have to take oaths. In the New Testament, Hebrews 6:16 says,

Hebrews 6:16 NKJV

16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.

There are times when the very facts of the matter are in dispute, and you have to rely on someone’s word, and the solemnity of the occasion demands some additional confirmation, and the only way this could be done was by appealing to something greater, by appealing to God.

So, A. W. Pink defines an oath this way:

An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount Chapter 15: The Law and Oaths—Concluded

An oath is a religious and necessary confirmation of things doubtful by calling God to be a Witness of truth and a Revenger of falsehood.

He says,

An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount Chapter 15: The Law and Oaths—Concluded

When a man is admitted under oath he is, as it were, discharged from an earthly tribunal, having betaken himself to the Lord as the only judge in the case.

So in the Bible the question is not whether they would swear an oaths, but by which God would they swear. Would they swear by Baal, or would they swear by the LORD of hosts? That’s why Jeremiah 12:16 says,

Jeremiah 12:16 NKJV

16 And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ as they [formerly] taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people.

In fact, one of the wonderful prophesies about the Gospel age is that there would be a time where the nations themselves would swear by the LORD God of Israel. In Isaiah 45:23 (which we read earlier, and it’s quoted in Romans 14:11), God Himself swears that there will be a time when the nations will swear to Him. God says,

Isaiah 45:23 NKJV

23 I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath.

It’s the same word for “swear”, and “take an oath”.

(N.B. I notice the similar theme of nations/oaths/“glory” in Isaiah 45:23-25 and Jeremiah 4:2).

So when we see witnesses being sworn in in the courtroom, and raising their right hand, and saying, “so help me God”, it’s actually a wonderful fulfillment of prophecy that the nations who at one time did not know the LORD would now be swearing by the God of the Bible!

(N.B., this includes those who only believe in God through general revelation. There was a recent controversy in the PCA where some people wanted to make the oath optional for unbelievers, but this disregards the fact that everyone has a knowledge of God as the judge of truth, even if they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Spurgeon’s comments are not true—an oath does promote truthfulness, even in unbelievers, though not absolutely).

In the Bible, Abraham swore to Abimelech (Gen 21:23-24), and made his servant swear when he sent him to find a wife for his son Isaac (Gen. 24:8-9). Jacob swore to Laban (Gen 31:53). Joseph swore to his father that he would bury him in Canaan (Gen. 47:31), and we read last evening how Joseph made the children of Israel swear that they would bring his bones out of Egypt (Gen. 50:25).

But it is not just people who swear oaths in the Bible. God Himself swears an oath. We saw that earlier in Isaiah 45, but even more famously in Genesis 22:16 (quoted in Hebrews 6) when He says to Abraham,

Genesis 22:16–18 NKJV

16 … “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Swearing must not be inherently sinful.

Not only that, but Jesus Himself allows Himself to be put under oath at His trial in Matthew 26:63, when they ask Him if He is the Christ. So being under oath cannot be sinful in the context of a trial. In fact, it is often required! (N.B. Jesus also avoids an unlawful oath in Mark 5:7 when the demon try to put Jesus under oath not to torment him!).

But not only did Jesus testify under oath in the context of a trial, but Paul also used oaths in His epistles when he was not in a formal trial.

2 Corinthians 1:23:

2 Corinthians 1:23 NKJV

23 Moreover I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth.

Galatians 1:20:

Galatians 1:20 NKJV

20 (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)

Philippians 1:8:

Philippians 1:8 NKJV

8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

(Cf. also Rom. 9:1, though I’m not sure that is a formal oath, it certainly more than “yes” or “no”).

And, in Revelation 10, we read that an angel

Revelation 10:5–6 NKJV

5 … raised up his hand to heaven 6 and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer,

Surely Jesus isn’t saying that it’s sinful to do what God has already said is not sinful to do, nor is Paul sinning in his letters when he uses an oath. So, what is Jesus saying?

Understanding what Jesus says based on Matthew 23

To understand what Jesus is saying, we need to go to Matthew 23, where Jesus pronounces His woes against the Pharisees. Remember that I said in a previous sermon that it seems like Jesus patterns His woes against the Pharisees in Matthew 23 as a kind of mirror image of the Sermon on the Mount. And there in Matthew 23:16-22, Jesus says,

Matthew 23:16–22 NKJV

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ 17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ 19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20 Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

You can tell from what Jesus is saying that he’s not talking about oaths in a court of law, but frivolous oaths that people would make to one another in everyday conversation. Trust had so broken down that people were forced to use oaths in order to try to give their words weight, just like people nowadays will say things like, “Honest to God”, or “I swear”, or “The Lord knows”.

And yet, the Jews knew enough about the commandments not to take the Lord’s name in vain, and they knew how careless they were with these oaths, and so, they thought they had found a foolproof way of keeping the 3rd commandment. They thought that they could protect the sanctity of God’s name by swearing on other, lesser things. (Kind of like when people replace God with “Gosh”, or “Golly”, or “goodness”, and Jesus with “Geez”, and they think they’re not taking the Lord’s name in vain!)

And so, once again, the Pharisees managed to do what they did what they did with the appearance of religiosity and piety, as if they were the ones who venerated the name of God the most, by refusing to take oaths in His name, not realizing that they were still guilty of profaning it.

Calvin says, in summary,

The man who perjures himself is not the only person who takes the name of God in vain, (Ex. 20:7.) He does so, who idly and contemptuously pronounces the name of God on trivial occasions, or in ordinary conversation. John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 293.

The issue was not swearing oaths in itself, but swearing vainly when it was not necessary, and swearing on other things besides God. And far from restraining their sin, this actually only inflamed their sin. If they swore by the temple and it turned out they lied, they could say, “well, the temple is just stones. It’s the gold that covered the stones that mattered!” Even though Jesus would say the gold is just gold. It’s the temple that sanctifies the gold!

But what they were doing was they were giving themselves a “get out of jail free card”, so that, to others, it seemed like they were swearing by solemn things, but if you read the fine print, their fingers were crossed, and they could lie without any fear of God’s judgment.

(N.B., People today also swear by other things, like same thing when they swear on their mother’s life. It occurs to me that Job does something similar in Job 31, so the problem was not swearing by created things, but swearing vainly. Moreover, in Job 31, Job was still swearing “by God” since He was calling God to be the judge. Other examples of people who think they can break oaths would be the Jesuits, who believed oaths made to protestants were nonbinding, or Muslims, who believe it is permissible to lie to infidels).

And so we come to the first antithesis that Jesus is saying. They thought they could avoid taking the Lord’s name in vain if they never used His name, but Jesus says that God’s holiness extends to all of His creation, and so, to swear lightly at all, by any created thing, is to take God’s name in vain. Jesus says,

Matthew 5:34–36 NKJV

34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King [the city where God had caused His name to dwell]. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black [God is the one who numbers all the hairs of your head, Matt. 10:30].

(N.B. I don’t fully understand the last “because”. Isn’t the whole point of swearing that God has the power to change our hair white or black?)

You can’t get away from invoking God in your oaths. As A.W. Pink says,

An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount Chapter 14: The Law and Oaths

Every oath, because it is an oath, is an ultimate reference to Deity.

If you say, “I swear on my mother’s life”, you’re saying, “may something happen to my mother if I am not telling the truth”. You’re still appealing to God.

Antithesis #2: All of life is under oath (Matt. 5:37)

But next, I want you to notice that Jesus doesn’t say that if you don’t swear at all, you can say anything you want, and lie with impunity. He says, in the second antithesis in verse 37,

Matthew 5:37 NKJV

37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

In other words, not only are we not to multiply oaths and vows for trivial things such that they lose their significance, but even if we don’t use an oath or a vow, we have the same obligation to tell the truth. So, Jesus ties together the 3rd and 9th commandments!

In other words, not only does God’s holiness extend to all creation, but all of life is under oath.

Whether you invoke God as a witness or not, He is a witness. He knows every word you say. He knows even the words on your tongue before you say them! And you are to live in constant awareness of this fact.

This is especially true of Christians. When we profess faith in Christ, we acknowledge God as our witness in everything that we do. We acknowledge that we owe obedience to God’s law. We promise, in a sense, “to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God”. By our conversion, we live in the fear of God, and in an awareness of the judgment of God. We don’t need an oath to remind us of that! A Christian is obligated to tell the truth whether or not he is under oath, because all of life is lived “under oath”.

And our truthfulness ought to reflect the truthfulness of the God we serve. If we lie to someone, we are damaging our credibility as a witness to our Savior. That’s one reason why lying is such a serious sin.

You could actually say that sin entered into the world when Satan lied under oath in Genesis 3:4-5:

Genesis 3:4–5 NKJV

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan appealed to God to sell Eve his lie. And in doing so, Satan became the father of lies (John 8:44). And just like Genesis 3, how often are lies cloaked in oaths to try to make them appear more credible?

I was listening to a sermon on the 9th commandment a few weeks ago and he said something that stuck with me. He gave an example of a wife asking her husband if he liked her dress, and how we ought to tell the truth in a loving way. And then he said,

This imaginary scenario may seem trite and inconsequential, even silly. However, the more we become accustomed to lying in the small things, the more we will default to deceit in the large things. What might begin as, “hey, we're late because we had car trouble” to hide an argument between a husband and wife, might easily become, “honey, I have to work late” to conceal adultery.

Sin is deceptive. Lies become tangled. And the temptation is always for more lies to cover other lies.

If we have truly been born again, we ought to be like our heavenly Father, who cannot lie. Our conscience is to be immovable. Psalm 15 describes the man who may dwell with God, and one of the things it says is:

Psalm 15:4 NKJV

4 … He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;

We ought to be those who tell the truth, even when it hurts. We ought to be those who live our whole lives under oath.

Conclusion

So Jesus takes the 3rd commandment, and He ties it to the 9th commandment, and He expands its meaning to what it always meant. And I hope you can see that, even if (by God’s grace) you are generally an honest person, none of us has kept this commandment as God requires. We have all twisted the truth at one time or another. We have all broken, or even forgotten, a promise. We have all lied about something to try to make ourselves look better than we were.

If all of life is under oath, and everything we say should be truthful, then we are all convicted by the law as liars and oath-breakers.

We need a Savior, to save us from our sin.

And praise God that He

John 3:16 NKJV

… so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

We need to turn to the one who never lied, who swore to his own hurt, even unto death! We need to turn to

John 7:18 NKJV

18 … [Him] who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him [and therefore] is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.

We need to turn to the One who said that He was truth Himself.

Think of this: Jesus was literally put to death because of false witnesses who swore an oath and testified against Jesus things that He never said. But Jesus was also put to death because of false witnesses like you, and me. Jesus was put to death for our sins; for every one of the commandments that we have broken. If you believe in Christ, your sins are laid on Christ and paid for at the cross.

And on the third day He was raised, that we might have new life in Him. An abundant life, a life of freedom from that tangled web of lies that Satan would love to trap us in.

Jesus is risen! And because He is risen, if you believe in Christ, you are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). You are enabled by the Spirit to put away lying, to put away falsehood, to put away deceit, and

Matthew 5:37 NKJV

37 … let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’…

May we repent of the ways that we have taken the Lord’s name in vain. May we turn to Christ for forgiveness. And may we walk more and more in newness of life.

(N.B., I like Augustine’s quote:

Saint Augustine: Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount with Seventeen Related Sermons Chapter 17 (Matt. 5:33–37)

The Lord’s prohibition of swearing is to be understood, therefore, as meaning that no one is to desire an oath as if it were something good, lest—through a habit engendered by the constant repetition of swearing—he gradually descend to false swearing. Accordingly, let a man restrain himself as much as he can, since he understands that swearing is not to be counted among the things that are good, but as one of the things that are necessary.

(Ecc. 5:4-5, Isa. 66:1, Matt. 12:37, Acts 7:49, Rom 1:29, Rom. 3:4, James 5:12).

Prayer of Application

*Psalm 15A “Within Your Tent Who Will Reside?”

Our Psalm of response is Psalm 15 the A selection—that psalm I mentioned in the sermon, describing the man who will dwell with God.

Presenting our Offerings to God

Presiding elder

Pastoral Prayer

Presiding elder

*Psalm of the Month 145D “I Will Extol You, My God and Sov'reign”

Please open in your psalters to our Psalm of the Month, Psalm 145D.

This is the prelude to the Hallelujah chorus. It’s ushering us into the praise of God. And when we think of reasons to praise God, we can think of two things.

First, we can praise God for the things He has done, and we see that in stanza 2:

One generation speaks to another

Praising the mighty things You have done.

I too will ponder Your glorious splendor,

Your majesty and wonderful deeds.

Men will declare the pow’r of Your marvels,

And of Your greatness I too will speak.

Second, we can praise God for who He is, and we see that in stanza 3, and notice how the psalmist uses the language of Exodus 34. In Exodus 34, Moses asks the LORD to show him His glory, and God shows Moses a little glimpse of His glory—He allows Moses to see just His back, not His face. And it says,

Exodus 34:5–7 NKJV

Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

And you can hear echoes of Exodus 34 in our psalm as a reason to praise the LORD, in stanza 3:

They’ll celebrate Your goodness abounding;

Your righteousness they’ll sing of with joy.

Gracious the LORD is, full of compassion,

Slow to be angered, boundless in love.

Good is the LORD to all of His creatures,

His mercy covers all He has made.

So, in Exodus 34, God revealed His glory to Moses in words, and proclaimed His character, and God’s people have praised God for who He is, as He is revealed to us in these words. But in the New Testament, something extraordinary happened. Moses had asked to see God’s glory, but in John 1, it says,

John 1:14 NKJV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John says,

John 1:18 NKJV

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Jesus is the walking, talking revelation of God’s character. He is Exodus 34 incarnate.

And so when we sing this Psalm, I want us to think of Jesus Christ, and worship Him, who is the very radiance of the glory of God (Heb. 1:3).

*Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 NKJV

24 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; 26 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’

*Psalm 106H “Book Four Doxology”