Psalm 113 - No One Like Our God

Introduction

Adoniram Judson was a hero of the Christian faith. He served as a missionary in the early part of the 19th century, to a place in Burma. Listen to how one author describes all that Judson went through during his time serving in Burma.

With only his wife, Judson went as a pioneer into a land of millions where there was not one known Christian at that time. They labored six long, soul-crushing, heartbreaking years before their first convert came to Christ. Judson had to master the complex Burmese language without the aid of any textbooks. On the mission field, he suffered the untimely deaths of two wives, three children, and a number of coworkers. Judson was incarcerated for nearly two years in a squalid prison—emaciated, filthy, shackled, and hanging upside down much of the time. His few Burmese followers faced the constant threat of persecution. Still, Judson persevered in his work of preaching and translation. How did he do it? When he returned to Boston for his only furlough, Judson was asked by a prominent printer, “Do you think the prospects are bright for the speedy conversion of the heathen?” Judson promptly replied, “As bright as the promises of God.”

Amazingly, after his death a Burmese government survey recorded 210,000 Christians. Today there are nearly four million Burmese believers.”

And something that is perhaps even more amazing is that the the Korin people who have settled here in Willmar - those who are Christians trace their spiritual heritage all the way back to Adoniram Judson. Judson baptized many of their ancestors way back in the 1800s.

But what Judson knew was that the future was as bright as the promises of God. And that remains the case even for us today. I firmly believe that the future of Refuge Church is extremely bright - but here’s why: not because exciting things are happening and we have a great and growing staff, not because we’re seeing many new families join us, not because we’ve got great programs - ALL of which are true....but the future is bright at Refuge Church, because we are clinging to the promises of God. That His Word will go forth and will not return void. And that His Spirit is at work even now drawing people to His kingdom.

So this summer in the Psalms series we’re starting today, we’re viewing it as a bit of a primer on how to pray for the bright future, clinging to the promises of God, for that bright future to come to fruition even now in Willmar and the surrounding areas.

Today, we’re going to start with Psalm 113, so if you’re able to, please stand with me as we read from God’s Word to us this morning:

Psalm 113 (ESV)

Who Is like the Lord Our God?

113 Praise the Lord!

Praise, O servants of the Lord,

praise the name of the Lord!

2 Blessed be the name of the Lord

from this time forth and forevermore!

3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,

the name of the Lord is to be praised!

4 The Lord is high above all nations,

and his glory above the heavens!

5 Who is like the Lord our God,

who is seated on high,

6 who looks far down

on the heavens and the earth?

7 He raises the poor from the dust

and lifts the needy from the ash heap,

8 to make them sit with princes,

with the princes of his people.

9 He gives the barren woman a home,

making her the joyous mother of children.

Praise the Lord!

PRAY and SEAT

Some of you who have been around Refuge Church for a while may remember that I went through a pretty radical shift in my career path as I neared the end of my college education. I’d studied Political Philosophy and sat around tables with professors in tweed jackets with mustaches stained by cigarette smoke and discussed things like the state of nature and John Stewart Mill and various forms of government and international political economy.

So you can imagine what a gear-grinding mental shift it was for me when my first job immediately following graduation was to fill in as a long term substitute teacher for a pre-school program that our local school district ran in midst of our town’s government-assisted housing projects.

I went from reading Voltaire to reading Veggie Tales.

I went from thinking about Soren Kierkegaard to learning how to detect if someone had had an accident during their nap time.

I went from waxing eloquent about proletarians and bourgeoisies to repeating over and over again, 1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish.

In one particularly hilarious instance, I recall walking back from the playground with our 25 or so 3 year olds in line. We all held hands while we walked back and the leader of the line got to hold my hand. This time, I happened to feel an odd sensation on my hand and I looked down to see that the youngster who was holding my hand was using MY hand to wipe HER nose!

I say all of this to say that I had to learn REALLY quickly that the audience to whom I was speaking mattered GREATLY in the kind of language that I used. The kinds of subjects and vocabulary that I’d used when I was in the midst of my academic studies, might as well have been a foreign language to those 3 year old kids.

In fact, for them, my words mattered FAR less than my presence. Most of those kids didn’t have much in terms of good, male authority figures in their lives, so they liked to treat me as their personal jungle gym and most of them stayed stuck to me in some form or fashion throughout the entire school day.

Here I was, this giant (in their eyes), who was crawling around on the floor with them to play in the sandbox and help them tie their shoes.

And I think that this image is super helpful for me when I think about what Psalm 113 has to teach us about prayer. We’re starting our series in the Psalms with this passage because this psalm helps us understand who GOD is and who WE ARE in relation to him. And if prayer is a conversation, which it is, it’s critical to start from a place of understanding who is involved in the conversation.

As we dive into this text for today, a little context is helpful. This particular Psalm is the first in a set of psalms that would have traditionally been used at the yearly passover celebrations. If you’re not familiar with the historical events behind the Passover narrative, it’s a key event in the story of what’s commonly referred to as “the Exodus” - God rescuing His people from out of slavery in Egypt, through many signs and wonders, taking them across the Red Sea and the Jordan River into the land that He promised to give them.

And God gave His people the command that they should celebrate a passover feast each year to remind themselves of all that God had done. And our psalm for today, and the next several that follow it, would have been sung by those celebrating Passover.

And many scholars believe that this was probably the last set of hymns that Jesus himself would have sung prior to his crucifixion. In fact, in Matthew 26:30 (30 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives) - it’s recorded that after the last supper (a PASSOVER celebration) Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn. It very well could have been Psalm 113.

And why would this hymn have factored so critically in the passover celebration? Remember, Passover was and IS a reminder of WHO GOD IS (the rescuer) and WHO WE ARE (the slaves being set free, like the Israelites) and this psalm helps us understand those realities as we learn more and more about prayer.

I want to kind of take these in reverse order and start by looking at what Psalm 113 has to say about who WE are. Let’s zoom in here on psalm 113:7 -

7 He raises the poor from the dust

and lifts the needy from the ash heap,

In this one little verse we see quite clearly, who WE are apart from the Lord’s intervention in our lives: lowly, poor, in need of rescue. In fact, the phrase that is translated here as “ash heap” means “garbage pile” in the original language.

In fact, the language of this verse is VERY reminiscent of a prayer of thanks that was prayed by a woman named Hannah in another part of the Old Testament. Hannah was barren and her husband and her had tried everything possible to conceive a child. In fact, she was so overwhelmed with sadness and anxiety at the pressure and grief of not being able to have children that she was accused of being drunk or on some drugs.

No, she was just groaning in prayer over the reality that she couldn’t bear children. But eventually the Lord gave her a child, named Samuel and she dedicated Him to the Lord. And she sang and prayed a song of thanksgiving to the Lord and this exact phrase was in the midst of her song:

English Standard Version Chapter 2

8  He raises up the poor from the dust;

he lifts the needy from the ash heap

to make them sit with princes

and inherit a seat of honor.

You see, in the ancient near east, children were seen as a symbol of hope for the future, a sign of prosperity and purpose for the parents who bore them. And so those who were unable to bear children were, in many ways, thrown out with the garbage as something that had no value at all.

In the same way, the psalmist is reminding us that, apart from the Lord at work in our lives, we’re needy and in the dust - no ultimate purpose or true prosperity.

But God LIFTS US UP from the midst of that reality and calls us to HIS ROYAL table, to sit as princes and heirs to the most majestic Kingdom that He is unfolding.

And I also don’t want to just run past a dynamic here that is not often talked about in our current cultural moment. And that is the heartbreaking, soul-crushing pain that can come as a result of infertility. For those of you in this room for whom this is currently, or has been in the past, a struggle all I’ll say is this: the LORD SAW HANNAH in the midst of her barrenness. And He SEES YOU TOO. And He longs to hold you close and to demonstrate His love for you REGARDLESS of whether or not your circumstances change. His heart breaks with yours.

Which leads us to what the Psalmist says about who GOD IS. If we’re distressed, desperate, and in need of a rescuer to pull us out of the land of darkness in which we are dwelling, we can take heart in what the Psalmist has to say about who GOD IS.

And it’s one simple yet powerful determining characteristic of God that the Psalmist chooses to impress upon the people: GOD IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER. He is so far beyond our understanding that we have trouble comprehending Him because we don’t have categories or words that can accurately convey the complete OTHER-ness and TRANSCENDENCE of God.

We don’t really have words that convey the fullness of What verses 5 and 6 ask us to consider: WHO IS LIKE THE LORD OUR GOD?

But scripture does. Look how Isaiah describes who this God is:

Isaiah 40:9–18 (ESV)

9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” 10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? 13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? 14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. 16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. 18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?

AND CONTINUING ON LATER IN CHAPTER 40 VERSE 21

Isaiah 40:21–31 (ESV)

21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; 23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

You see - Isaiah here, at the end of this AMAZING passage conveys the heart of what the Psalmist is also getting across. And it’s a critical and encouraging lesson for us in what we need to understand about who WE ARE and who GOD IS, as we go to him in prayer.

Who are we? Needy, desperate, wandering in the desert, barren? And Who is God, the wholly (W-H-O-L-L-Y) and HOLY different one who came down from Heaven to LIFT US to LIFE in Him. The creator and sustainer of life. The one who always HAS BEEN and Always WILL BE. The only one who was never created - he has no beginning or end.

And yet, Paul tells us even in spite of all of that…he took on the form of a servant to die in our place and through that, He welcomes us as heirs, or as the psalmist puts it here - princes and princesses to the Most High King.

So as we learn more this summer through the Psalms about how to pray, may we remember who WE ARE and WHO GOD IS.