Bless Our God - Part Seventeen
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Introduction
Introduction
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!
PRAY
Of David. 1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6 The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. 7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. 8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. 17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, 18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. 19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. 20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! 21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! 22 Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Honor and Respect
Honor and Respect
On those who fear him - As I mentioned last week, I believe that this phrase is primarily descriptive of the person who has experienced the everlasting love of Yahweh. However, there is a conditional component or one might say there is a sense of warning.
Listen to the following from the Word Biblical Commentary, “But be careful, warns the psalmist with a necessary realism. This love is not to be willfully abused. Its recipients must respond with respectful awe...”
Ones who have and are genuinely experiencing the covenant keeping faithful love of Yahweh always respond to Yahweh with fear.
What does fear mean in this context? It can mean to be afraid of something or to tremble. However, here it is more than being terrified or scared, though there should be some aspect of that present in the believer’s relationship to God. Here’s a good way to understand it. It means that the one that is knowing experientially the steadfast love of God possesses a reverence, respect and honor for God. In other words, the believer is one who takes God seriously.
How important is the response of fear for the believer? Verse 11, 13, 17. We should not look at the fear of God from a human perspective, but from how the heavenly Father views it.
7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre! 8 He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. 9 He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. 10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, 11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
Observe and Recall
Observe and Recall
At the end of verse 17, David states that the love that Yahweh has for his people extends to successive generations and there is a description of those to whom the love and righteousness of God extend. They are synonomous ideas. Those that know God respond in this manner. These conditions are met by those whom God loves. It is to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. Listen to similar verse.
10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
To those who keep - Not only do those who experience a relationship with Yahweh fear him, they keep his covenant and remember to obey him. One may say that fearing God is expressed by keeping his covenant and obeying his law.
What does David mean when he writes “keep his covenant”? The word keep is translated in other places as watch, preserve, guard, observe. I think a good way to translate this word is to observe. In other words, the one experiencing God’s love, who fears God is observing the covenant. One dictionary puts it this way, “for one to conform his or her practice to a particular idea”
In this case, what is being observed? The covenant or his covenant. God’s covenant with the nation of Israel. Well, which one? I think that at this time David is speaking mainly about the Mosaic covenant, although we should understand that other covenants are still in view. We will consider how this might apply to believer’s today in a moment. Listen to the idea of keeping covenant from Deuteronomy.
6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
Keeping covenant includes the following idea according to David. And remember - The idea is to “call to mind” or “to keep in mind for attention and consideration.” You can see the parallel. The one who is fearing the Lord is recalling to mind something important. What is it? It is “to do his commandments”.
To do his commandments - To do God’s commandments is to carry out or perform particular actions given authoritatively by God for his people to obey.
John Calvin writes, “for, although God is continually putting us in mind of them, yet we soon slide away to worldly cares—are confused by a multiplicity of avocations, and are lulled asleep by many allurements. Thus forgetfulness extinguishes the light of truth, unless the faithful stir up themselves from time to time. David tells us that this remembrance of God’s statutes has an invigorating effect when men employ themselves in doing them.”
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
The New Covenant and Its Commandments
The New Covenant and Its Commandments
As we consider how these concepts apply to us, we must think about what covenant are we to keep and what commandments are we to remember in order to obey. I think the very best place to learn how to apply this to us is in the Letter of Hebrews. There will be some important statements that will can glean from how Hebrews deals with issues of the covenant and law.
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Jesus is the mediator of new covenant.
Jesus’ covenant is based on better promises.
Jesus’ covenant is better than the old covenant.
Jesus’ covenant has made the old covenant obsolete.
Jesus’ covenant empowers all of it members to obey the law
Those in Jesus’ covenant all know God.
Those in Jesus’ covenant all obey from a new heart.
Those in Jesus’ covenant will all continue in the covenant.
Practical Application
Practical Application
Have you taken Jesus as God’s mediator seriously?
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Are you observing or keeping the covenant?
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 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.
Are you remember to do his commandments?
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.