Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 113:1-9

A Godly View of Motherhood

 

Praise the LORD.

Praise, O servants of the LORD,

praise the name of the LORD.

Let the name of the LORD be praised,

both now and forevermore.

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,

the name of the LORD is to be praised.

The LORD is exalted over all the nations,

his glory above the heavens.

Who is like the LORD our God,

the One who sits enthroned on high,

who stoops down to look

on the heavens and the earth?

He raises the poor from the dust

and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

he seats them with princes,

with the princes of their people.

He settles the barren woman in her home

as a happy mother of children.

Praise the LORD.

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erhaps you heard in the news this week past that a prestigious school in Manhattan banned making Mother’s Day gifts in order to protect the feelings of children of same-sex couples.[1]

I suspect that many mothers would miss pencil cans created from cast-off soup cans and Styrofoam pictures.

I never had difficulty in the concept of Mothers Day, but I do confess that Mothers Day presents pastoral difficulties for me.

Throughout my childhood years, I heard the tributes to mothers, both from pulpit and from pew.

However, my own mother deserted her children when I was but five years of age.

I shouldn’t imagine that you would have difficulty understanding my reason for ignoring observance of Mothers Day for years.

I could not stand the deep pain upon hearing the accolades to mothers when I had no such memories of my own.

Long after I had entered the ministry, I found it difficult to prepare a message for the second Sunday in May.

On some years, I would simply continue with the particular series of messages I was delivering, ignoring the celebration.

In other years I would struggle to find an appropriate message, which too often turned into a polemic of God’s ideal for motherhood—an ideal which was distorted because it reflected too often my own ideas instead of those of the Word, I regret to admit.

Eventually, the painful challenge attending the call to honour mothers was ameliorated through God’s gift of a gracious wife.

Lynda gently revealed to me the beauty of motherhood, and I grew to appreciate this day vicariously through watching the mother of our children—the children God had entrusted to our home.

Consequently, Mothers Day grew to be an opportunity for me to honour my wife as a happy mother of children.

I have no doubt that mothers are a divine gift.

If you have a godly mother, she is a reminder of the goodness of God.

I suspect that in years to come, mothers may become more precious still if we fail to prepare our youth for the parental role.

I believe it is right for churches to set aside a day in which mothers are honoured.

In part, such honour is required because families are under assault.

A recent Environics Poll of Canadians indicates that fifty-five percent of Canadians strongly (29%) or somewhat (26%) support marriage between same-sex couples.

Support for sodomite couples has doubled in less than five years.[2]

The evil euphemistically known as alternative life-styles is rapidly becoming acceptable within contemporary society.

Therefore, if for no other reason than that our children should be encouraged to honour the family as God created it, we should observe Mothers Day.

You must acknowledge this vital truth that we cannot expect the public education system to provide moral instruction for our children.

I am grateful for godly teachers who serve as salt and light within the public school system.

Nevertheless, it is unrealistic to expect the educational system to provide moral guidance for our children.

That guidance can come only through godly families and through the instruction in the Faith provided through the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our children need opportunity to acknowledge God’s righteous plan in their own lives.

As families are increasingly assaulted from multiple directions, we need to exalt God’s ideal for the home.

Join me in an all together too brief exploration of the estimate placed on mothers in the Word of God.

Among the texts exalting motherhood within Scripture is the *113th Psalm*, which I invite you to examine together with me at this time.

God’s Power is Revealed through His Compassion — This Psalm is thought to have originally been a victory Psalm, sung at the time of victory during war.

The style of the Psalm harkens back to the earliest days of Israel’s history as a nation.

The Psalm begins with praise to God and concludes with praise to Him.  Hy: Wll]h'!

Perhaps more importantly in light of our recent commemoration of the Resurrection and our even more recent observance of the Lord’s Table, this Psalm begins “the Hallel” which was sung at the three Great Feasts, at the Feast of Dedication (Hannaukah), and at the New Moons.

At the Feast of the Passover it was divided into two parts, the first of which, consisting of *Psalms 113* and *114*, was sung before the meal, that is before the second cup was passed round.

The second consists of *Psalms 115* through *118*, and was sung after the meal, when the fourth cup had been filled.

As a point of interest, it would have been this *118th Psalm* which the Lord and His disciples sang after His last Passover,[3] as related by Matthew (When they had sung a humn, they went out to the Mount of Olives [*Matthew 26:30*]).

This is a decidedly Jewish touch, fitting in this particular Gospel.

God is God of Creation.

There is no place where the Name of the Lord God is not praised.

All the nations are dependent upon Him for their continued existence.

He rules over the nations and He overrules the nations.

How awesome is the might and power of our God.

Little wonder that the people of Israel, here identified as servants of the Lord, are called upon to Praise Him.

Few of us have actually witnessed the glory of the Lord in His sanctuary.

The reason I would make such a confrontational statement is that we are able to enter into worship with a casual attitude.

The sanctuary of the Lord is the Church.

Where the Body of Christ is gathered, there is the innermost sanctuary.

Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Chaldeans.

The second Temple, Zerubbabel’s Temple, was built beginning with the service of Nehemiah.

Zerubbabel’s Temple was more of a fortress than a temple, and so it was rebult by Herod.

Herod’s Temple was ultimately destroyed by Titus’ marauding troops in seventy a.d., only six years after it was at last completed.

The church gathered for worship, is now seen as the Temple of the Living God [cf.

*2 Corinthians 6:16*].

In a greater sense the whole of God’s people is a holy Temple [*Ephesians 2:21*], but the local congregation is especially designated as the Temple of God [*Ephesians 2:22*].

When you see any congregation gathered where Christ is exalted as Lord and where the people unite to worship Him, you have entered into the Temple of the Living God.

This truth forms the foundation for the stern apostolic admonition against harming the local congregation.

You will no doubt recall that warning issued in the first Corinthians letter.

/Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple/ [*1 Corinthians 3:16*].

This knowledge lends meaning to the exclamation of praise in *Ephesians 3:20, 21*.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!

Amen.

If we could see as God sees, what would we see in our worship this morning?

Would we actually see the Risen Son of God walking among us?

Would we witness His august glory in our midst?

Would we see Him who walks among the seven golden lampstands?

Would we be awed and falling down before Him, worship?

I suggest to you that the Son of God is even now walking among us and His might is being displayed in ways that few of us acknowledge.

Could we see the glory of God revealed in His people as we shall one day see, would we not find ourselves awe struck?

We who have believed in Him reveal His glory as we worship and as we pray and as we see His might uniting us and adding to the congregation.

This is the glory of God and we are sharing in that glory even now.

Christ the Lord is coming again.

He comes to call rebel sinners to account—and we must warn all such rebels lest they perish.

However, we are remiss if we fail to remind the people of God that He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marvelled at among all those who have believed.

This includes you, because you believed [*2 Thessalonians 1:10*].

You see, then, why I say that it is likely that few of us have witnessed the glory of the Lord in His Temple.