Hope in the Harvest
Notes
Transcript
Find Psalm 65
Psalms are not only to teach but to teach us why and how we worship
titled hope in the harvest; scripture tells us that God is the one who gives harvest; not only in agriculture but in soul winning
you are a believer only because God chose you and put people and churches in your way to cause you to believe
tie into a home for hope for all and how we should be in the business of seeing God harvest souls through our labor; we must believe that God is going to bring us harvest as a congregation
David writing this psalm as well; David understood the hope that is only found in Jesus and how he is the one who brings the harvest
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.
1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.
2 O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.
3 When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions.
4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!
5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas;
6 the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might;
7 who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples,
8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.
I chose to preach through the psalms not to just fill time for the Summer, but for us to grow in our worship to God. Much of the Psalms point us to our need for worship and why we worship God. And worship is the reason we exist, it is the reason that God saves us, it is why we gather, it is why we do outreach and missions, it is why we are holding a Vacation Bible School next weekend. All because God is worthy of our worship.
I pray that we are growing in our concept of worship through our preaching through Psalms.
I pray that Psalms bring us to a greater understanding of our hope that is only found in God.
Big Idea: Because our hope is in God, we trust him for the Harvest
Big Idea: Because our hope is in God, we trust him for the Harvest
David will bring in the idea of a harvest at the end; our focus should not solely be on our individual worship, but other people worshiping as well; that is where the great harvest is; in seeing others come to a saving faith and worshiping the God of David
see 3 things about God I want to point out in our text
God Deserves Praise
God Deserves Praise
From the context, we can assume that there is an event going on that would constitute what David says. Probably some sort of feast. Did you know David was baptist? He liked to get together, worship, and have a feast.
1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.
Zion is what becomes Jerusalem; David knows that God is the God of his people and he is with his people; Zion also points to the eternal place of worship that all believers will perpetually dwell in with praise
praise is due to God; I believe that praise is often neglected in our lives; we pray for God to do things, but how much of our time is spent in recognition of what God has done and to thank him and give him glory for his working in your life
it is to God that vows are performed(be obedient to him); For us to truly praise God with our whole heart, there must be obedience
And it is God who works in us and for us
2 O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.
God hears our prayers; give example of you talking to someone and being ignored or having to ignore someone else
God doesn’t ignore us, he hears us; all of our prayers make it all the way to God; and who can come to him?; everyone
this deserves praise
3 When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions.
when I encounter problems, maybe by other people towards me or just situations or it is self induced; we all have iniquities against us; and sometimes they get the best of us
when this happens, we still have confidence in the atoning work of Jesus
explain Jesus atoning for our sins
but it isn’t just our sins, but Jesus can atone for the sins of those who are coming against us; never be a home for hope for all if we turn away those who have done us wrong
forgiveness of sins deserves praise
4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!
God chooses us; God draws us near to him; and he has given us a purpose, to dwell in his courts
talking about the house of God, the temple, what we would call a church building
talk about people saying they don’t need the church; do not understand what the church is for; gathering together, unified, around the worship and mission of God
Hebrews 10:25 “25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
we meet together at the church building; the NT church did this; they believed in membership; they believed in accountability within the church; there is such great importance of this; we should be cancelling other plans because we have church and not the other way around
What David is saying in the beginning of this Psalm is that God, because he has chosen us, because he has forgiven us, because he hears us, deserves for us to come together to give him praise.
God Shows His Power
God Shows His Power
when thinking of praise, you cannot overlook God’s power; if he was powerless, then why praise him; he is also personal, not distant; that is how we are able to see his power
5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas;
awesome deeds; love that word; being full of awe; he answers us, with his righteousness, and it should cause awe in us
talk about answering some questions but not knowing some answers; and we all know the person that will confidently give an answer and it not even be close to the right answer; but God isn’t like that, he answers us with righteousness
what a display of power to be able to answer, not only 1 person but all people with righteousness
6 the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might;
7 who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples,
mighty creator and peaceful calmer; talk about them; go back to Genesis 1 for creator and Mark 4 for calmer
Mark 4:35–41 “35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?””
talk about everyone going through a storm; raise hands if you have ever went through a storm or are going through one now
Jesus can calm any storm; David is pointing us to trusting in God’s power and praising him for his provision of it
8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
everyone, from one corner of the earth to the other will be in awe of God’s signs
the morning and the evening; think about where the sun rises and sets; all the way from the east to the west, this is how much we should shout for the joy of the lord
all because of his display of power; the fact that you are here right now in this place is because of his power
God is all powerful and because of that, he deserves our praise
God Gives us Provision
God Gives us Provision
God does so much for us; talk about the drought this year and how it has really affected a lot of things; but yet God still sits on the throne and he still gives us what we need when we need it
9 You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
God has everything we need; he is not lacking; he enriches, he is full of what, he provides
I fail in a lot of ways. It seems to be more often than not that I am seeing how I could have done things differently than I do. As a pastor, a father, a husband. All areas of my life, I fall short. But God fills in and continues to provide. When I fail, he does not. He has abundance that he provides while I fall short. And that is the testimony for all of us.
uses agriculture imagery because we all understand it
10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
even when things seem rough, it really isn’t; talk about deserving hell because of our sin but yet God still gives us common grace of provision of basic needs
take it back to prayer; have you been praying for God to give us bounty this year, both personally and as a church; and bounty may not be what you think you want but something that is eternally better
I want us to begin praying every single day for God to give us bounty as a church specifically with reaching people with the gospel of Jesus
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.
I desire to see us overflow, I get joy of seeing good things happen with God’s people; we must never mistake a blessing from God for an achievement from ourselves
It is all God’s; we must praise him for his provision; but also remember that even his own creation is giving him praise; are you?
conclusion
David starts this Psalm in Zion with people gathered together in worship and ends by looking over God’s provision
think about the areas that David looks over and sees God working; God is at work everywhere around us
God has put us where we are and when we are for a reason; we cannot save people ourselves, but we can be obedient to God and we can recognize that he is at work and give him praise for that
end with a call to invite 2 families with children to our VBS and pray that God uses this to give us a harvest as a church
