Blessed Is He Who Comes

I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 118.

Today, we are continuing our sermon series called Jesus in the Psalms.

Today is what we traditionally call Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter when Jesus rode on a donkey into the city of Jerusalem to large shouts of praise from the crowd.

And we read in the gospels that the crowds shout a phrase from Psalm 118, telling us this Psalm was on their minds.

My girls and I have started a little tradition during the school year called Dunkin Fridays.

And it’s where on Friday morning on the way to school, we stop by Dunkin Donuts and get a drink, and bring mom back a coffee.

And it’s crazy because Dunkin Donuts is literally less than a minute from our house, and we will pull up the app on the phone at home, place the order, and then walk in and find our order ready when we get there.

It’s amazing to think how fast we expect things in our modern digital age.

Think about how frustrating it is when you are shopping on Amazon, and the item you want isn’t approved for Prime delivery, so it is going to take 5-7 business days for that order to get to you.

Imagine, even when I was born in 1986.

If you wanted to know who the ninth president of the United States was and you did not own a book in your home that told you, and you didn’t know someone that knew, or they didn’t happen to mention it on a TV station you were watching, you would have to wait to find out until the next time you went to the library. What?

All that to say, there is no doubt that we have become so accustomed to the technologies at our finger tips that many of us are used to getting what we want and getting it now.

We see and hear that same kind of spirit in the crowd that surrounded Jesus when he rode into the city of Jerusalem while they waved palm branches and laid them on the ground while crying out, “Hosanna!”

Which means, “Save us now!”

After all that Jesus had done in his ministry, the people were convinced that he was the King of the Jews, but they misunderstood his mission.

They thought his mission was to save the Jewish people from Roman oppression.

That is why they called out, “Hosanna! Save us now!”

But many would end up being disappointed with Jesus’ mission even to the point of calling for his crucifixion less than a week later.

And in the midst of our pilgrimage of following Jesus, we can also sometimes misunderstand his mission and be tempted to give up on faith, especially when salvation, and positive change, and transformation, and healing is not coming now.

It is tough to stay faithful in following Jesus when your desperate situation is not changing as quickly as you believe it should.

What is it in your life that you are tempted to believe must change and it must change now?

It is an important question because we so often expect quick fixes when the way of repentance and following Jesus is what Eugene Peterson calls a long obedience in the same direction.

Spiritual growth and transformation is often slow, yet by God’s grace for the believer, it is guaranteed.

With that in mind, please follow along as I read God’s word over us this morning:

Psalm 118 ESV

1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” 3 Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” 4 Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” 5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. 6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? 7 The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. 9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. 10 All nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! 11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! 12 They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! 13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. 14 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. 15 Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, 16 the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!” 17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. 18 The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. 20 This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. 27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! 28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. 29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

1. Give Thanks To The Lord For His Steadfast Love

Verse 1: Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

A little Old Testament history lesson spanning around 800 to 900 years will add weight to the meaning of this first verse for us.

God saves his people out of Egyptian slavery and leads them to the promised land.

He sets up their law and their worship and finally gives them a king when they cry out for one.

Due to the sin and rebellion of their kings, the land of Israel is finally split between the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah.

The nation of Israel only ever has wicked kings and is conquered by the Assyrians and taken away in exile to Assyria.

The nation of Judah survives longer due to some good kings but is finally conquered by Babylon and taken away in exile to Babylon about 130 years after Israel was exiled.

That captivity in Babylon lasted for 70 years before God used Cyrus, the king of Persia, to overthrow Babylon and allow God’s people to go back to their land.

Now, throughout the Old Testament we read of the steadfast love of the Lord,

But it is only in writings that describe situations after the exile that we read: the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

Scholars tell us that the Psalms are broken up into five books, and books four and five describe life after the Babylonian captivity.

That is why you do not read the phrase: the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever until books four and five.

Why does all that matter?

It matters because living in their own land that God provided was a sign of God’s great love for them,

So being exiled from their land would have been devastating and led them to cry out, “Save us now!”

But that salvation did not come for 70 years, but it was only after those seventy years that the people could now understand not only that the Lord has steadfast love,

But that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

Maybe at one time, you believed strongly in the steadfast love of God toward you, but due to devastating circumstances in your life that you are not experiencing quick delivery from, you are tempted to question God’s great love for you.

Listen, it is in the waiting and the long sufferings that God transforms our trust from one of: the Lord has steadfast love to the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

So, what do you do in the mean time, in the waiting, and in the midst of the suffering?

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

Can I tell you a characteristic that always comes alongside endurance in the Christian life? Thanksgiving.

God uses thankfulness and giving active thanksgivings to empower your heart to endure in the midst of the sufferings and trials of life.

At times, you will be tempted to ask, “Well, what do I have to be thankful for?”

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

Be thankful for God’s goodness, because even though you may feel struck down, pressed hard, and tempted to despair, you still live under the authority of the one true God who never changes and who is so good that He promises that he will finally and ultimately work all things out for the good for the ones who love him and have been called by him.

Give thanks that His steadfast love endures forever.

Set your mind on the things in your life that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

And those things are very present in your life.

Your lungs are filling with air, your heart is beating, your God is loving you with a steadfast love that endures forever, you have food and water and shelter when it storms.

There is a storm of the wrath of God coming against sin that Jesus Christ has already defeated for you, so you will be mercifully spared from the wrath to come.

My problem is that I am tempted to ruminate over the negative and the hard, when God calls us to endure through those things by setting our minds on the goodness of God and be thankful.

It is not your negative ruminations that are going to help solve the difficulties of life, it is your mind set on God and thankfulness that will help change your perspective and empower you to endure.

In verses 2-4, we see three groups of people called to give thanks for God’s steadfast love that endures forever.

First is the nation of Israel, the people of God’s chosen nation.

Not only them, but second, their leaders, the house of Aaron.

This is helpful because sometimes it is we in leadership that are tempted toward negativity and despair the most since we see all the needs and feel a weight of responsibility.

God reminds the leaders to remain thankful under the steadfast love of the Lord that remains forever and allow that to give you joy and endurance in your leadership.

Finally, let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever!”

A reminder that the Lord never rejects anyone in all the earth who humbles themselves and fears the Lord.

So, give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love that endures forever.

2. Take Refuge In The Lord Who Saves Out Of Deep Distress

Verses 5-18 echo many words used in the exodus of Egypt, in the saving of King David and His people from many enemies, and in the return from exile in Babylon.

In other words, these words speak to times when God’s people were overwhelmed, outnumbered, and pressed to the breaking point, yet God brought victory.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed, outnumbered, and pressed to the breaking point?

What do we as the church do when we feel that way?

Verse 5: Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.

The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?

The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.

These words are echoed in

Romans 8:31 ESV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Proverbs tells us that the fear of man is a snare and a trap.

Consider the people of the Exodus trapped by the Red Sea on one side and the Egyptian army on the other.

Consider the people of Israel in great fear of the mighty giant Goliath.

Consider after the exile, when the people were called of God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and half built while the others stood watch to keep enemies from attacking them.

Consider your greatest fears in the midst of your circumstances - whether it be another person or a group of people, whether it be a diagnosis or some other kind of threat, whether it be the burden of your own weaknesses and temptations to sin - whatever it is that makes you feel pressed and is the source of the most pressure.

Call on the Lord out of your distress for He is for you not against you.

The Lord is on your side as a helper; you will ultimately look in triumph over all that comes against you!

Throughout the prophets, the people of God lose their way when they choose to trust in men instead of God.

Verse 8: It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

How often when I am struggling I am tempted to first call a friend to talk, or go to the pantry to eat, or go to the bed to sleep, when none of those things can provide true shelter and refuge from my storm.

Proverbs says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe.”

How do you take refuge in the Lord when I am pressed in on all sides?

By running to Him in prayer before running to others, by filling your mind with truth and thanksgivings to drown out the lies and discouragement, by continuing to walk in obedience to His commands instead of taking things into your own hands.

You may be here and thinking: “I’ve done all these things, of course not perfectly, but genuinely, but I’m still in the midst of the mess. I’m still in the pressure cooker.”

I don’t see the Lord setting me free.

Remember, our sermon series is called Jesus in the Psalms?

Verse 10: All nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

They surrounded me me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

I was pushed hard, so that I was failing, but the Lord helped me.

These words were true on one level for the original author, but they are true in a greater way of our Lord Jesus Christ, and they are true of Christ’s church who find themselves in Christ.

When the son of God humbled himself in becoming a man, he experienced a greater pressure and burden than any other man in history.

Jesus was hated and despised by men.

By the end of passion week, Jesus would be surrounded by adversaries from different nations on every side.

Even worse than that was the impending pressure of facing the cross, taking on the righteous wrath of God due the sins of humanity, swarmed like bees, his heart burning like fire in thorns which he would not escape.

You see, the greatest distress and pressure we will ever experience is not the current circumstance you find yourself in, it is not from another person, or a bad diagnosis.

The greatest distress and pressure we as mankind all face is the fact that we have sinned and rebelled against our Creator God and so, apart from Jesus, we stand under his righteous wrath in the present and we also stand under the threat of his full wrath being poured out on us in the end.

Yet, while we were still sinners overwhelmed on all sides by the righteous wrath of God, Jesus came and submitted himself to death on a cross where he was surrounded on every side and pressed all the way to death by the fulness of the wrath of God due your sin and my sin.

And because Jesus has defeated our greatest and ultimate problem, we can be thankful, and we can trust that He is on our side, and we can sing songs of praise and victory even in the midst of the circumstances we find ourselves in because we know our ultimate battle is already won.

If you are here today and have never been convicted of your sin against God and have never turned to God and believed on the Lord Jesus for salvation, then the wrath of God toward your sin is still hanging over you in the present and the threat of overwhelming and eternally devastating wrath is what is in your future.

But Christ has done everything to save you from God’s wrath through His cross if you would humble yourself from the heart, admit you have sinned against him, and cry out to him believing He will save you!

Verse 14: The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”

This is the song of Christ and His people.

It is now the song of the church!

Because we know he has won our ultimate victory, we claim victory even in the midst of the battles we are currently in.

Did you notice the righteous are singing of God’s salvation in their tents?

Why are they in tents? Because their current war is not over although the ultimate battle has already been won.

Verse 17-18: I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.

Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, but His Father God did not finally give him over to death, but three days later, God the Father rose His son Jesus from the grave defeating sin and death on our behalf.

The great hope that you have is even in your physical death, which seems the ultimate in distress, you will not die but live if you are in the Lord.

For you will live eternally and recount the deeds of the Lord.

In this life, we are disciplined individually, and we are disciplined as the church of Christ.

We experience pain, difficulties, and hardships, but only to grow our understanding of the steadfast love of the Lord that endures forever for we will not be finally given over to death.

Take refuge in the Lord who saves out of deep distress.

3. Bless The Lord Who Will Usher Us Into His Presence Forever

Last week, we looked at Psalm 24 and considered after Jesus’ ascension back to Heaven, the resurrected God man approached the gates of the eternal city, and they opened for him based on the fact that He is the king of glory.

This week, in Psalm 118, we see a similar scene.

Verse 19: Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.

I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

We see here the picture like last week of gates of righteousness being opened to the righteous one and those he calls righteous coming through the gates with him.

We know this is possible only in Christ becoming our salvation and gifting us his righteousness.

Christ is the cornerstone who through His death and resurrection saves us and makes us into a spiritual temple the church, and Christ is the cornerstone of the church though he was rejected by the majority world.

This the Lord’s doing speaks to our salvation through Jesus death and resurrection.

It is marvelous in our eyes. For those in the church, saved by Christ, we marvel at the gospel.

We marvel at Jesus in his cross and resurrection.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Many times people use that verse to set our hearts right for the present day we are in, and I think that is appropriate to do,

But we must understand that this day is only worth rejoicing and being glad in as we remember back to that day when Jesus won our salvation through the cross and resurrection.

Now, we know this is a Psalm that was on the minds of the people as they traveled into Jerusalem for Passover week, as many would do every year.

So, now we have Jesus riding into Jerusalem at the beginning of passover week.

And he had taught, and he had healed, and he had drawn crowds, and now he has risen Lazarus from the dead, and in the peoples’ mind, the only thing left for Jesus to do was to ride into the city of Jerusalem and declare himself the King of the Jews!

And make no mistake, the Jewish people were in a time of distress under the pressure of the Roman Empire.

So, is it any wonder that they would be watching Jesus ride into the city and to the temple and cry out from this Psalm?

Verse 25: Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of God.

You see, those who had lived under the distress of the Roman Empire imagined that Jesus was riding in to declare himself King of the Jews and overthrow the Romans.

It made since for them to cry out, “Save us and give us success!”

Yet, by the end of the week, many of the same crowd were disappointed and disillusioned by Jesus who cast woes on the Jewish religious leaders while honoring the Roman Caesar by declaring that the Jews should pay their taxes to him.

They missed what we too often miss, and that is that God first saves us through our pressures, trials, and sufferings, not out of them.

Like the old hymn Amazing Grace proclaims: Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come: tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

Jesus came the first time to break the power of our sin through sacrifice and resurrection, but make no mistake, He will come again to save us from the very presence of sin.

For now, we gather each week to remind us that he saves and will save.

We gather to bless the one who came in the name of the Lord and who is coming back again.

We rejoice and are glad in the day in the past when he died, rose, and ascended, and we rejoice and are glad in the future day of His coming again.

This all gives us endurance to continue on in the struggle of life in our fallen bodies in this fallen world until He returns.

Verse 27: The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!

Jesus Christ, the light of the world, leads his people out of slavery to sin and into the promised land.

The binding sacrifice and the horns of the altar speak to how the people were to respond in worship in their day.

For us, as the new covenant people of God, we are not to respond in worship by binding a sacrifice and bring it to an altar.

Instead, we are in light of the great mercies of God to present ourselves as living sacrifices to God, holy and acceptable, and to worship him with our whole heart and lives.

So, no matter what circumstances you are facing that bring pressure and suffering, may your response be:

Verse 28: You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

Let’s pray.

(Communion)

(Elder at couch)