Who Shall Compare
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Great Is the Lord
A Song of Praise. Of David.
1 I will extol you, my God and King, (a)
and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you (b)
and praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, (g)
and his greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall commend your works to another, (d)
and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, (h)
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, (v)
and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your saints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations. (Cf. 4)
[The Lord is faithful in all his words
and kind in all his works.]
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season. (Synthetic)
16 You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing. (Synthetic)
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them. (Synthetic)
20 The Lord preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy. (Only line of retribution; antithetical)
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
(All remaining synonymous)
ME
This is my last message on the Psalm so it seems appropriate to end on a positive note. It is Christmas almost, which means a break for everyone, family dinners, exchange of gifts, and pretty soon we will all be with our loved ones counting down the end of 2018. It is a time of joy, hope, anticipation. Even today on the advent calendar the focus is on the preparer, John the Baptist, the forerunner to the main event. And in just a week’s time, we are also going to witness seven brothers and sisters being baptized right behind me in the baptistery, declaring their trust and allegiance to the central figure of the main event, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. So what’s there not to love about Christmas?
WE
But just go to the local mall which I tried to avoid like a plague , older you get
John the B
Jesus has come, and He is coming, again
Who will we be expecting?
Page 524
GOD
This Psalm has been called the A to Z of Praise, a poetic masterpiece and other acclamations by scholars. The Psalm uses an acrostic which as I shared back on October 21 on , goes through the Hebrew alphabet, with the nun or roughly ’n’ missing in this one. It is attributed to David and here, unlike some of the other Davidic Psalms does not indicate the occasion or intention of writing. But it doesn’t matter. Every verse except to a small part of verse 20 shouts out what this Psalm is. It is a Praise Psalm! It is a Creation Psalm! It is a Kingdom Psalm, and it is a Salvation Psalm! Also, because it’s not a Psalm to be read from the centre as we also analyzed in the past messages, so we can read normally down the Psalm and find out its truth. If we were to break it down, it can be understood as follows:
Verses 1-3
Verses 4-10
Verses 11-13a
Verse 13b-20
Verses 21
1 I will extol you, my God and King, (a)
and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you (b)
and praise your name forever and ever.
declares David’s two focus of God, God as God and God as King. God as God is further expanded in verse 4-7, and God as King is expanded in verse 11-13a. To extol means to lift up the name of God, and as you may remember name represents in Hebrew character, attribute, purpose, etc. Just an aside, my name is Freddy, which is a derivative of Frederick, which apparently in German means a peaceful ruler. Most Chinese names have a story behind them as well. The last name is just brought down from ancestry but the two characters, sometimes one, sometimes three, usually is the aspiration of who your parents or grandparents want you to be or achieve. Mine is Yiu, Fai, both have the left character light on the left, and the closest translation is glorious splendour. However, since I have become a Christian, I am afraid I need to disappoint my ancestors and say not for my glorious splendour, because I have none, but for his alone. So God’s name is lifted high, blessed and praised, and it is also a sustaining name. Forever and ever is an attribute to God who in his being is eternal, and therefore we can eternally bless and praise His name.
3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, (g)
and his greatness is unsearchable.
It reminds me of those schoolyard fights we have as kids when we would extol our dad with other children. Sometimes to the point of making up stuff because we want to let others know just how proud of our dad we are. “Your dad is has one degree, my dad has two degrees.” “Oh yea, well my dad can speak French.” “Oh yea, my dad can speak Russian and German and Spanish.” “Well my dad drives a BMW.” “Oh yea, well my dad builds BMW.” So and so forth. What I love about how David describes the Lord is he is at a lost for words. It’s as if he can go into any playground and say, “well, my heavenly dad is so great I can’t put words to how great he is!” Mic drop. All other kids go “whoa…. that’s really great!” He’s the infinity+1. No, he’s infinity + infinity! How can you put that into words?
But God’s name is his purpose, and in 4-7 we find a God who creates and who sustain, who saves. His work is a reflection of his greatness!
4 One generation shall commend your works to another, (d)
and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, (h)
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, (v)
and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
Think about these verses for a moment. David is but a recipient of a long and standing list in the ancestry of Israel who holds onto the tradition of the story of how God created and formed the heavens and the earth . Every tree, every creature, the skies and the seas, the air we breathe, the stars and the moon, and finally the creation of humankind (Genesis). How out of the many nations He chose one to dwell with and be their God and King, to give them land, seed and blessing. He was the one who permitted his children through the hardship of slavery only then to rescue them mightily with might and outstretch arms through his servant Moses (Exodus). He defeated Pharaoh and the Egyptian army. He dwelled with His people and establish the laws through the ten commandments and the tabernacles, of how God and man can live together by atonement and offerings. He led Moses to conquer the outskirts of the promise land and his successor Joshua to conquer the promise land and stabilize the governance of Israel as a nation (Deuteronomy to Joshua). All these stories have been passed on from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Judah to Boaz to David (I skipped a few generations). Each successive generation adds to the story of God’s greatness, his creativity, his just rule of his people. David foreshadowed it, eventually it would be pass to the generation of Joseph then to Jesus and to his disciples, each adding to the name and fame of God’s marvellous works, culminating to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his salvation of all humankind and renewal of all creation! Brothers and sisters and friends, this is our HIStory, and we are part of this legacy which cannot cease to stop praising and declaring and speaking of his name and fame. We can’t stop thinking about over and over again (which is at the heart of meditation) who are we that He should give us all of creation to marvel and live in and cultivate! This is what worship is truly about!
8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your saints shall bless you!
Here, David begins with recapturing God’s revelation of himself to Moses when Moses ask for God’s glory, so apt and fitting since we just recited from 4-7 his greatness, his deeds, and glorious splendours. If the LORD is gracious and merciful, then we will never need to fear to fall into the hands of the almighty, because it’s the safest place to be. If he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, it means He will not carry punishment without us exhausting his utmost patience and even then, he will faithfully keep his end of loving us (even when we don’t love him, acknowledge him, even hate or are indifferent to him) which means restoration is always available! Then we come to verse 9 and 10a which speaks of God’s providence, whereas 10b speaks of God’s covenant love specific to those who are His. God’s providence is his general care for all things He created and established, and He rules with goodness and mercy. So even those who are in the state of rebellion against God, God is still good to them. It is here where the only response to God’s goodness despite our wretchedness is thankfulness, even in its various stages of decay because you O’ Lord gave them life and purpose! Then David turns specifically to the saints who have acknowledge and trust and pledge their allegiance to God, our job is to bless God! The dichotomy of providential care and meticulous nurturing of his people will now be expanded.
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations. (Cf. 4)
Verses 11-13a echoes the earlier verses about the legacy of HIStory we are to declare, and now David adds to it the second theme of who God is earlier and expand on it, that of God as King. Yes, we shall speak of HIStory but not in the context of a God who merely fights for his people, makes His great name known, and chose a people for Himself to represent him here on earth, of which David himself is the royal line chosen. Even Kind David himself knows the limits of his kingship, and he is but part of a greater Kingdom of which no human can rule. This is the plea for our generation, one Jesus Christ taught us in the LORD’s Prayer, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is heaven.” Jesus especially in Matthew spoke of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. David here has dropped hints of this kingdom. It is an everlasting kingdom. It can never be toppled. It may at times seems like it is absent, or invisible, but this kingdom will outlast all governments, all rulers and principalities, all earthly and spiritual power. The one who declares this Kingdom most evidently also happens to be the King himself. Even as John the Baptist declares, prepare the way of the LORD, the unassuming King born in a manger to the Virgin Mary, through the affirmation of angels and shepherd, and later on magi, has made His kingdom in our midst by becoming a humble king. He came to serve, not to be served. To heal, not to be pampered. To save, not to destroy. To teach, not to coerce. His acts of mercy and restoration points to the ways of the kingdom. Look at the remaining verses from 14-20 and see if there is to a parallel to the teachings and acts of Jesus:
[The Lord is faithful in all his words
and kind in all his works.]
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season. (Synthetic)
16 You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing. (Synthetic)
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them. (Synthetic)
20 The Lord preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy. (Only line of retribution; antithetical)
Verses 14-16 again speaks of God’s providence because he acts in this way to ALL. He upholds ALL who are falling, and raises up ALL who are bowed down. Is this not the MO of Jesus. Isn’t this like the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the least, the downtrodden, the broken, the meek, does not our LORD life them up and advocate on their behalf against those who would continually exploit them, be it powerful teachers of the Law, Pharisees, Sadducces? Does He not gave second chances to tax collectors, adulteress, and life up the leper, the blind, the lame, the outcast? Did he not point out in the same sermon to keep our eyes on the sparrow, because if they the creatures are fed in due season, how much more precious are humankind, and how gracious is he would who multiply the bread and fish to feed the multitudes when he lifted up the bread, broke it and gift thanks!
Verse 17-19 shifts to the meticulous nurturing of his people. Does not verse 18 remind you of the Good Shepherd of who knows His sheep because they know his voice, and hears their call, and gathers them. Not one of them will be snatched away and if one runs away he would go after it until it’s found. There is a special relation unlike his providential care for all He provides for his people, his children, his church. What does it mean to call on him but to seek him in prayer and listen to His voice? And what does it mean to call on him in truth but to seek the one who says He is the way (verse 17), the truth (verse 18) and the life! He listens to those who call, he fulfilled the desire of those who fear him, that is as we said before, not terrified but in a sense of awe and adoration. We must be careful here not to think he will fulfill our selfish desire, because that would come from a place of not fearing or respecting him, but for our own benefits. Our ultimate desire is Jesus himself, and he promises to be near those who call and fear him. The tangible promise of the Lord is he is not only near, he also hears and he SAVES us. Salvation of course is found in the one act of mercy on the cross through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sin. Yet in a sense our lives need everyday saving, because we are in constant need of correction and shaping to become more and more like Jesus! Here is where the promise of verse 20 acts powerfully, as we live each day more and more for him by loving Him through loving others, He is sure to shape and conform us to His mind (think ), and His heart until completion. That is the Lord’s preservation of His saints to fulfill the work of salvation. Now we come to half a verse which seem somewhat out of sync with the whole theme, the only line of retribution in 20b. Yet in the grand scheme of this praise we should not be dismayed, after all, the kingdom of God has no place for the wicked. The only antithesis is a promise to justice will one day be serve because God is righteous in his ways (verse 17). How fitting for the God and King of the universe to assure us of the absolute goodness of His kingdom!
YOU
So with all that’s said, how are we to respond to this Psalm? What truths might we be able to apply?
First, we need to search daily if our heart is in a mood of praise. Honestly, this has been the hard this week. First of all, not to complain (though I am), but let’s get some sun out, right? Everyday with anticipation you look out the window and its grey skies, or rainy (at least snow is pretty), and you feel heavy (not due to the Christmas food you consume, we are not quite there yet), but heavy of heart, and you just want to crawl into your blankets. Add to that Christmas season is often so busy, so much rushing and waiting. I go on to Sport Chek to look for a down insulated jacket for Shannon, and all it took was from the beginning to end of the EDM meeting and it was sold out! Wedding planning is not without its challenges as to who to invite, and inviting a bunch of people from parents who I don’t even know, and resorting the list. Moving out (almost) for the first time and tension of where home is and being independent but not really yet. Then, just a few days ago I had so many things in my hands and my phone slipped out and shattered onto the garage hard floor, and had to get it replaced. Arguments. Unexpected spendings. There are moments where I came back to this message and say, “you have got to be kidding me. Praise, why didn’t I chose a message of lament or those angry ones?” Yet, God has his reason for me to focus on praise. Our vision is too narrow. We are caught up with ourselves, our mistakes, our failures, our stupidity, that we forget despite what we see with our eyes, and in spite of what we see with our eyes, there are many things to praise, for He is worthy of praise regardless of our circumstances and situations. So praise Him, even when you don’t feel you want to. Start reading slowly the first verse over and over again, slowly. Meditate on creation and His works of rescue, read from Exodus his conquest of Pharaoh and be enamoured once again at his glorious victory over oppressive states! See the baby in a manger and worship with the angels and shepherds and praise this Humble King!
Second, live in the reality of His kingdom. What would be different if we live in the knowledge Jesus already is ruling all areas of our lives with grace and truth. How is Jesus reign affecting our every day decision? This is the challenge to us not only to submit to His Lordship, but to live beyond being saved. Knowing that we are saved through the cross of Jesus Christ IS important, so that we would daily be aware of our sin and the cost to our salvation.
Corteo
Humility and preparedness
Third, be involved in God’s providential care and receiving His meticulous nurturing.
We are the extension, his hands and feet
Christmas Eve celebration
WE
Those keen to hearing the message may have notice, Pastor Freddy, you left out verse 21. Indeed I have, but not accidentally but deliberately because it along with verse 1 creates the bookends for this alphabet of praise. It begins with:
1 I will extol you, my God and King, (a)
and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you (b)
and praise your name forever and ever.
At the end of the day, this Psalm can only be first experienced individually and out of that worshipful heart of awe to His greatness and mighty acts, His glorious splendour, His
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.