March 8, 2020 Covenant

Will the title of my message this morning is the steadfast love of the Lord and this morning. We're continuing our Series in the Book of Psalms says we talked about a little bit this the songs are the record of the Praises of Israel. Looks like we have a hymn book in front of us here today that we often draw from you often use screens now to show the songs they are and the song was the hymn book of Israel and they remember the things that God had done in their past and they gave thanks to God for those things. They also remembered what God had done in their present and we think of Psalm 46 and God's Deliverance of the Southern Kingdom Jerusalem Jerusalem from Sennacherib we studied that the great Deliverance of God not simply out of Egypt or in the days of Moses. But even in the present days of his real and as we saw the Psalms even proclaimed the goodness and faithfulness of God in the future last week. We studying Psalm 22 is such a clear statement about the crucifixion of the Messiah statement. So clear it seemed as if the psalmist was sitting there before Christ watching that sacrificial atonement for the sin of his people. Osam presents a great wealth of knowledge about who God is and about what he has done and what he will do for the sake of his people and songs 33 this morning. We'll highlight that Sovereign providential Love that God shows that those that he has called his own encourage you if you got your Bible to open it up and follow the long I'm going to be using an ESV translation of Psalm 33 your red pupil Bible has an NIV when I'm sure some of you guys have other translations as well. But let's take a look at it together as we look at the steadfast love of the Lord interesting ly enough as you'll see even from your Bible Psalm is one of the few songs that doesn't have a superscription or an inscription. It doesn't say a Psalm of David or doesn't indicate the the tune that is to be song along with it or or statement about the cons. Text in which it was written. It just comes to us is Psalm 33 the first song the second the tent and Psalm 33 are some of the few songs that don't have an description of any time, but it begins with the familiar word of encouragement to God's people. Shout for joy in the Lord O U righteous the psalmist declares praise be fits the upright give thanks to the Lord with the lyre with Melody to him with a harp of ten strings sing to him a new song and play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. We are created to give praise and glory to God. I remember when I sat down with the are our Sunday school boys and girls. I think it was Braden's class that the age group 8 to 11 or so years old. I was talking with them a little bit. And before we ventured into that season with the Sunday school, we had some concerns that the young boys they were no longer singing the worship songs during worship when they were very young they were singing it and they would be involved with it. But now they had grown a little bit older and they were pulling back because they were too cool for school or something like that. And so I sat down with them and we talked a little bit and we talked about the worship of the Lord. There's one thing that I've seen growing up in the wife of the church and sadly all too often. It's a lack of willingness to Worship the Lord. I'm quite often. I see it most predominantly in the lives of men. And I'm not talking about secular man who are outside the world of the church. I'm talking about men who actually love the Lord deeply but in worship, they won't open their mouth and lift their songs to the Lord. Sometimes folks will complain about the songs that are selected. Have you ever experienced that been maybe not been maybe you're a perfect hundred percent or something like that or the music that's played or whatever it may be but but our call is to praise the Lord with our whole hearts and our motivation is not based upon what a singer or songwriter of musicians are able to inspire us to but are our inspiration for worship is the goodness of God and the grace that he's shown us particularly in the life of Jesus Christ. Since we come to worship him we are reminded that we are his people and we are reminded what he has done for us. God intends for his goodness to in joining us shouts of Praise. Literally the Hebrew here shout for Joy means pissing loudly shout almost like a crowd with a shout-out overcome with joy for the goodness of God and for what he has done. Twitter I met with the boys over there and we talked a little bit I shared this with him I said I'm going to tell you something the Lord has called you to praise him for what he's done and to learn how to praise the Lord I said you guys were young guys and you do a great job, but this is a skill that you have to develop. And what's so interesting is there's a spiritual component to that hiding sometimes our unwillingness to praise. The Lord in song is reflective of our self-centeredness. It's so often we focusing on our own lives and even our own sinfulness can keep us from declaring the wonders of God. And so there's a spiritual discipline component to it that says God has called us to praise him. In fact, he's made us to praise him and even if we don't feel like it we need to enter into the praise of the Lord in the remarkable thing. Is that quite often in that praise the Holy Spirit can lift up our soul and encourage Us in ways to look Beyond ourselves and our circumstance to the Deliverance of God and his great love for us. We are not made as God's creature to focus solely on ourselves and yet how often do we do that? It's almost as if the world revolves around us like the Bandit or something like that and and yet the world does not revolve around us. It revolves around the Lord and his goodness and we like one of those constellations are called to revolve around him and to give him praise and glory for all he's done. And so I challenged those young boys and girls to to learn how to praise the Lord and I told them guys if you come over and worship with us and look around quite often, you'll see folks with their mouth shut who are not worshiping the Lord and quite often guys. It's it's it's grown men who aren't doing that but I want you to develop that skill set in that habit in that spiritual discipline to have a heart of praise for the Lord think of David as the scriptures talk about a man who had a heart for the Lord how he would praise Ford almost uncontrollably remember his wife that one time as he entered into the holy city with the Ark of the Covenant and praise the Lord so ecstatically that she felt like it was a shameful display for a king to have and get the scriptures do not record. It is a shameful display it recorded as a fool honest authentic expression of his love for what God had done and who would experience Deliverance like David had experience Deliverance. I told the song Miss charges us as we need to remind ourselves that we are called to shout for joy in the lord. It's not the worship leader that leads piston worship. It's not the music to inspire us but it's what God has done for rust in Christ. But is the call us to the praise him from the very heart of who we are. So I would encourage you whether you're a guy or a girl thing about worship as we engage and worship. Sometimes I even see people sneak out at the end of the service before the last song because we like the preaching but we don't let you know. They worship is the full expression of it and for us especially for worshippers quite often. It's in the expression of the songs and singing that we enter into the worship of the Lord as we look to the Future as we look to the Heavenly courts. When sin is stripped away from us, and we're no longer inhibited perhaps by our own anxieties or focused in on ourselves fully. We will praise the Lord. with the fullness of Who We Are Lord is not concerned with the quality of our voices. He's concerned with the the authenticity of our worship in our praise. If I would encourage you to the congregation to take these words to heart because praise befits the upright and so we give thanks to the Lord with all the the skill and and wonder that we can muster we sing to him a new song because he is the Lord The God Who has delivered us. It is if he had to remind us the song Miss now begins to recount the reasons for our praise to God in verse 4. For the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and Justice the Earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. First Ford's got an interesting statement there for the word of the Lord is upright. Literally the Greek word guests are there means straight? Did God's word is straight and I stopped in Wonder as I studied that word. It reminded me of one of our English words that we have the word crooked. If you ever heard of the word crooked or specifically I was thinking as I was reading about the fact that the Lord's word is straight. I was thinking of the word crook you heard that word before to describe a thief and so I looked at the etymology of that word and interesting Lee enough. That's exactly where it comes from that have crook is someone who is crooked. They're morally bent. They do things that are not right. And yet the Lord is straight and his word is true. It's never crooked head never seeks to deceive. It's never morally questionable or pervert or bit. But the word of the Lord is straight and true. The word of the Lord is upright. And because the word of the Lord is upright. We are called those two are upright that reminder inverse one prays beef. It's the upright in so many ways. I think it's obvious that we are not up right but as the Lord's people we descendants possess some of the qualities that he possesses in it up himself that we are called up, right because we are the Lord and He is straight and he is true. Not only is his word up. Right but all of his work is done in faithfulness. The God's word in his work or are faithful. It's undeniably show. He loves righteousness and Justice and the Earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. The steadfast love of the Lord is a statement that you hear often throughout the scriptures who got songs that we sang the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end. They are new Every Morning new every morning great is your faithfulness. Oh Lord, and that word describes God's covenant faithfulness. It's one of the most common descriptions of God's character that he is faithful to the people of his Covenant. His is Hesed is his Covenant faithfulness to his people and according to the psalmist the world declares the steadfast love of the Lord because it's full of it. Not only does God show common Grace to all the people that he is Made In His Image. This goes far beyond the Covenant Grace of the sun rising on the just and the unjust. This is the faithfulness of God to his people that marks them in particular as his beloved. Why is it that we see the steadfast love of the Lord and contrasting it when verse 6 the psalmist begins to to make a case and it's a familiar case in the Book of Psalms head is a powerful case if the case as we'll see in a few moments that our culture has come to question with the Psalms in the scriptures never questioned it. The steadfast love of the Lord fills the Earth and it always will fill the Earth and so weak praise the Lord for all that he has done because God is a mighty God. The psalmist records in verse 6 the strength of his might he writes. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made. and by the breath of his mouth all their host He gathers the Waters of the sea as a heap. He put the deeps or he puts the Deep Waters in storehouses. That statement in verse 6. It's a remarkable one by the word of the Lord the heavens were made and you can't help but think of the beginning of the scriptures. What book is that? It speaks of how God created the world by the power of His word. Certainly, it was Genesis and and the psalmist is pointing us back to a time that we would never know empirically we could not study this with the telescope, but we're told by God inspired word that this is exactly what took place in the beginning. God created the heavens and the Earth that Earth was formless and empty Genesis one tells this Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said let there be light. And there was a light a few versus later. And God said let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water and that Vault came into being a few verses after that. But the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear. And in that very moment the Lord by the power of His word gathered the Waters of the sea, is it he when he put the Deep Waters in his store houses. The Lord has a power like we've never seen before not simply with the the work of his miter as muscle or us his hand but simply with his word alone his Works come to pass. It so we can trust that. He is The God Who Sovereign power will see to it that his purposes or realized? Sky City how the psalmist and really all of scripture continually return to this idea of the power of God to create all that we have seen and yet it's in our own generation within the past hundred years or so that we have come to question that and not simply the question it but out right to deny it. And the effects of that denial have been significant in the state of our culture in the foundation of of of our into lactin and reasoning. It's interesting that the men on Tuesday night or studying the book of Romans. And Paul in the Book of Romans makes a powerful statement about a God's ability to create in to demonstrate who he is to humankind. Here's what Paul writes in Romans chapter 1 verse 18 for the wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who buy their unrighteousness suppress the truth means they take what's true and they deny it and they suppress it. And here's what Paul says inspired by the Lord For What can be known about God is plain to them. Because God has shown it to them. What is invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made it the very thing that the psalmist is speaking of here that by the word of his power. God has made all that. We see we talked about it earlier today install my teen the heavens declare the glory of God and Paul goes on and verse 24 what can be known about God is plain to them because God his show it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so that men are without excuse. For all that they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish Hearts were darkened. The scriptures tell us uniformly that God is the one who has created the heavens and the Earth. It's an undeniable reality. It's a true that we can suppress but at our own peril. I remember is a freshman in college. I had a chance to go to a Christian liberal arts school in my freshman year. I got to pick a science course. My Majors were biblical studies in philosophy and I looked at the different opportunities the different offerings and and one of the courses in the science department was a course called Origins and I thought well that looks very interesting. I read the description of the course and it talked about a scientific course it was going to look at the different statements and theories and claims about Origins that were being made in that time. It was 1992 was my freshman year in college. So it was a little while back and that's why I took that class. It was a fascinating study and during that class. I had a chance to hear from the scientific community and their claims about where the world had come from. In the darwinian evolution was that the claim that was being asserted at that time and be gunning the shape of some of the cultural conversation that was dropped at the statements that many of the leading scientists made as I studied over the course of that semester their claims about the nature of the world. Did you guys remember a Darwin in the 1800's wrote that famous book origin of a species in which she kind of catalog the development of finches off the Galapagos Islands any looked at minor changes in a bird population on this secluded Island and determined that these changes came to pass as a result of the environment in which they were in each of these phenotype changes. These out were changes of of these birds let him to believe that perhaps this is where all the changes in and buy a logical life took place and it was not simply a scientific claim that he was making on that time, but it had to be a logical meaning behind it because no longer do we have to look at the created order and describe the praise to a guy who directed the course of creation, but we can come to the conclusion that that the world that we see around us was simply the result of a purposeless series of events over time. Driven by random mutation chance and what he posited as natural selection was not simply a scientific claim, but it was a very bold and and in defining physiological claim as well. Hey Darwin, made a statement like this from his discoveries. He said there seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beans are in the action of natural selection been in the course in which the wind blows. And you understand the implication of a statement like that. He's looking at the development of a species of small one didn't been posited on the grander scale. And what does he claim that there is no does dying to be found there. But if there is no designed to be found there then there is no designer to be found behind behind that claim. It's a very powerful statement. It certainly is not in the statement that the storm is this making evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala explaining what Darwin asserted in his theory said this Darwin accounted for design without a designer and show that the directive organization of living beings can be explained as the result of a natural process natural selection without any need to resort to a Creator or other external agent. The list of scientist goes on from there, but the claims are very interesting dracone who was a biologist at the University of Chicago wrote these words in 1859 when Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species demolishing in 545 pages of clothes. Reason Pros the comforting notion that we are unique among all species the Supreme object of God's creation and the only creature whose early travails could be cashed in for a comfortable afterlife like all species. We are the result of a purely natural and material process. You understand that those statements are very different than the statements of the psalmist. The statement of the psalmist is that there is a God by the power of His word created all that. We see who oversees that creation and acts of Providence that will Define the course of history. And so here the the Psalms in the scriptures come in the great contrast with the claims of our own generation as we look at the scientific processes and try to determine how God created the world. Those questions are certainly on the table, but it's quite a conflict between the scriptures that any naturalistic explanation of the universe naturalistic meaning an explanation of the universe that has no Supernatural involvement and it sets the book of scripture over and against the claims of culture in a very powerful way. Just this past week. I was sitting at Starbucks and it kind of studying getting ready for this message. And there's a couple that comes in on a regular basis. There's a retired group that kind of talk as they meet and I get to hear their conversation and I know this this set of folks and this particular couple is probably in their seventies and I know that they're both atheist that's their perspective and so as they come in they share things and they talked with some of the older guys that sit next to me and they reason and and and and and they came in today and they said a few things and and I couldn't bite my tongue any longer. I think I'm going to have to say something about this and I decided to get involved in a conversation with them about some key elements of the observations that they made and then Malinda came in a little bit later on in this and that conversation to get a coffee before she went to work and here I am with these five people. I'm trying to explain, you know, basically Christianity to them. It was white. And did you see that's what I was doing there. Yeah, so Challenge them with some key questions, you know, I bet they were making statements that they believe that morality and goodness were simply from from the human Community to Fine By Us and I try to tell them you don't really believe that and I know it's kind of fun to say that in your thinking but if you believe that morality comes from the human Community, then there is no standard that holds us accountable Beyond simply the fleeting opinions of opinion polls from one generation to the next and when you going to talk a little bit about the fact that the moral truth is defined not by the human Community but by The God Who stands above it we talked about that for a little bit and I think I made a pretty convincing case and it was interesting as they quite often and I'm not sure that people always have great conversations about these things, but I challenge them on some key pieces and it I think it made some sense and then and then I asked I said, you know when you look around at the universe that surrounds us, do you see any design? Do you see any intelligence be behind it when you look at the trees that are there in the human body of the eye. Is there any design evident to you at all? And it was interesting because the mass and yes, I see design. I said what there's if you seen is on there must be a designer material object matter which possess no intent or conscience or ability direct anyting Rock Branson cannot Place design in the creation. The only way in which design are the laws of physics coming to creation is if there's a lawgiver or a designer who puts those things into the fabric of the world that surrounds us. We talked a little bit more interesting conversation. We better head out and then that broke up and then I turned to my friend, who is there who I know and I and we talked to him and you know that that man used to be a professor of physics over at FSU. Of course, I had no idea that he was a professor of physics to me that though. He's had these conversations. It appears for many many years. He's ever been pressed upon these basic fundamental realities. The bare reality that this phone is brings out by the word of the Lord the world has come to exist and the god that we worship has designed the World by the power of His might by his word the heavens were made for 6th and by the breadth of his mouth all their host. He gathers the water of the sea is he keep and he puts the deep in storehouses. It's his first eight say let all the Earth fear the lord that all the inhabitants of the world stand in all of him for he spoke and it came to be he commanded and it stood firm. From here the song it's recognizing the power of God in creation recognizes the implication of that fact and it's the implication that our culture and our generation denies. If there is a God who has made all things and have the power to create the world that surrounds us then there is a God who has the power to direct the course of human history. Certainly our world denies that fact we are simply the result of random chance in a meaningless mutation over the course of Aeons a speck of dust in the cosmic Galaxy Carl Sagan in the the series Cosmos. What did he say? The cosmos was and is and is all there will be And yet the scripture say no spit over and above the cosmos is the god who made all things and he is directing the course of human Affairs. It's such a contrast the claim of the scripture from the claim of Our Generation. I saw the psalmist drawers that connection the one who created All Things by the power of His might he spoke and it came to be he commanded and it stood firm and then verse 10 the Lord brings the Council of the nation's to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people's the counsel of the Lord stands forever the plans of his heart to all generations. What is the psalmist saying? They're the god did not simply create the world and step away sample. We've used before like a watchmaker who watches makes a watch and then removes his hand from it. But God is intimately involved in the history of the earth and the plans of men and there are no plans that men create that are trumped by the plans of the Lord the Lord brings the Council of the nation's to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people.

Whose God is the Lord the people whom he has chosen as his inheritance Heritage it. So it's a fascinating contrast. The Risen. God was made all things. It is undeniable according to Paul and anyone who denies it is simply suppressing the truth because God has made it plain to them who he is and what his qualities in his power are is very nature that God created all things overseas the course of human life and history he frustrates the plans of the nation because it's his plans that will come to pass a Putin. Call a world leader like sennacherib is we saw no matter what their plans are the Lord will flush State those plans and all that. He will call leaders to do things that accomplish his purposes as an email with your reins over the Earth and oversees. The history of humankind has he frustrates the purposes of the Nations He blesses the nation, who is his Nation? A statement about Israel's National wife, but it's also true of us as Believers. I know the plans I have for you. Lord says plans to prosper you to give you hope and a future. It's a remarkable thing as Believers to look at the scriptures and say we serve The God Who created the heavens and the Earth who oversees all things. I gotta Nunnally oversees all things but who hate whose hand is providentially on the out workings of our life. not for our ill but for our good the Lord looks down from heaven verse 13. He sees all the children of man. Somewhere. He sit-in Throne. He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who Fashions the hearts of them all and observed all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great Army a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false. Hope for salvation and by its great might it cannot rescue. What is the psalmist asserting here at the Lord is the one who is Sovereign over the events of history or the power of a Nation but it's the Providence of God that directs the courses of History. What's the nectar of gathered around Jerusalem? We studied it when we looked at it that week. What did the Lord say by way of the prophet Isaiah? You think by your own power you're standing here? I wrote this so long ago. I called you like a servant like a bee that I whistled for as you came and destroyed the Nations that you have destroyed that you are not starving in your own life okaying, but I am The Sovereign one over all the Earth. It was king is not delivered by his great Army a Warrior by his strength a warhorse is a false. Hope for salvation and by its great might it cannot rescue the Lord alone brings Deliverance the Lord alone brings rescue and Redemption for his people. Remarkable claim that the psalmist makes and it's encouraging for us because we to face great challenges in life. Sometimes challenges that we are overwhelmed by think of the story of the garments. Is there wrestling day in and day out with how Roberts doing. Is he battles this leukemia the word I got Bob was preaching at Allegro this morning that I got from from Bob was that he stabilized much more than he was a few days ago. As much of the Tome open the the waves of that experience go up and down and ebb and flow. The Lord is Sovereign even over those events.

And it is in his good store Bob and Demaree. Is those who love him? And we can trust what the scripture say that we are not just a float on a ball of fire that's spinning through the heavens, but we are the children of God created His image for his purposes in for his glory. He will oversee our lives and every possible way.

Our soul waits for the Lord verse 24 he is our hope and our Shield Verse 18 behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him on those who hope in his steadfast love that he made deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield for our heart is glad in him because we trust in His holy name. But your steadfast love of the Lord be upon us even as we hope in you.

We are those who trust in the steadfast love of the Lord. regardless of the circumstances that calm because we are not alone in this life and we are not victims of random events, but we are Sons and Daughters of the one who created the world and oversees the courses of history and we know from what the scripture say. If God is for us who can possibly be against us because God will bring about his purposes in our lives. Hobart old here in Psalm 33 is not simply that God is Sovereign with all power over all things that none of us probably whatever him questioned but he is Providence show it as much as he acts with that power to bring about his purposes in this life. And one of his greatest purposes as we've come to realize is that he loves us in Jesus Christ and we'll for all eternity and he will ensure that nothing will harm us because we are his sons and his daughters. the word of God stands against the words of men do not be fooled even by the greatest Minds in our generation 2 because they've suppress the truth of God had become fools in their thinking and their foolish Hearts have been darkened because we have a true testimony to who our Lord and savior is and what his purposes are and to his great love for us the undeniable and unquenchable and certainly will fulfill his purpose. Let's close in a word of prayer before we Shout with joy to Lorde, okay. Gracious and holy God we take the words.