Sermon Tone Analysis

Service Notes

Psalm 111:1 Praise ye the Lord.

I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.

Hallelujah, I will praise the Lord.

- Before Psalmist called others to praise God he did first.

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Stars are made to worship, so am I.

His greatness, referring to his scope, extent, grandeur.

His beauty, referring to the perfections of all his attributes and the infinite harmony of their interrelationships.

His worth, referring to the fact that he is a Treasure more precious, more valuable, more to be desired than anything or anyone else in the universe — or all the universe itself.

Psalm 111

Introduction

So much is learned by being a student of the Word.

It helps you learn a wide variety of important subjects.

Example: Poetry

Psalm 111 & 112 parallel each other.

Both consist of 20 lines and are arranged in 10 verses

Psalm 111 is about greatness of God

Psalm 112 is about the greatness and blessedness of the man who has the right attitude toward God.

This psalm has twenty-two different statements that it makes about God

Hebrew poetry, unlike our poetry, is not based on rhyming, but you will find various devices in Hebrew poetry that indicate that it has an elevated sort of aesthetic style.

Why an acrostic?

artistic, beauty

help with memorization

demonstrates a comprehensiveness (a-z)

How to know where to find them?

Look for 22 verses Psalms 25; 34; 145

Memorize the fact Psalm 37; 111; 112, Lamentations 1-4, Proverbs 31:10-31

Looking for paragraph headings Psalm 119

Refer to hand out

Example in Hebrew

Exhibiting the structure of these psalms to an English reader by Albert Barnes

Stop hotdogging.

Story of first game at a new school.

You aren’t going anywhere.

Declaration & Description

Psalm 111:1 (KJV 1900)

1 Praise ye the Lord.

I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.

Declaration

Praise ye the Lord - Hallelujah

This is how the service started.

“Before I describe how I will praise God, I will do it”

Description

Whole heart

I will praise the Lord with my whole heart / Nothing is held back

Not a divided heart.

It is no easy matter for us to avoid cold affections in worship.

- William Plumber

What is whole hearted worship?

If it means running a lap to express, then we should run.

If it means standing completely still as a demonstration of reverence then let’s not move a muscle.

Actions and affections should be given to the Lord.

“Don’t go through the motions” is unhelpful.

How about “pray to God as your go through the motions with no affection Psalm 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with thy free spirit.

Never be content with less.

God deserves our all.

Sunday morning is a Saturday night decision.

Public

Psalmist delighted in hearing others praise the Lord

Assembly (smaller) and congregation (larger) signify different size groups.

We should never make statements about our inability to worship God because a church was too big or too small.

That is not what determines our ability to worship.

Are we being shown the works of God.

Toward God

Praise ye the Lord.

I will praise the Lord

Worship is a transitive verb; It requires a direct object.

We do not meet to worship, that is to experience worship; we meet to worship God.

Do not confuse what is central with the byproducts.

If you seek peace, you will not find it.

If you seek Christ, you will find peace.

If you seek joy, you will not find it.

If you seek Christ, you will find joy.

If you seek holiness, you will not find it.

If you seek Christ, you will find holiness.

If you seek experiences of worship, you will not find them.

If you worship the living God, you will experience something of what is reflected here in the psalms.

William Still wrote to his congregation on the occasion of the opening of one of the terms at the University of Aberdeen.

And in that letter he says to his congregation that every year when the new students are coming to the University of Aberdeen he gets panicked phone calls and letters from parents whose children are going off to school, begging for him to track them down and to make sure that they don't get into trouble and to try to minister to their souls.

And Mr. Still writes to his congregation and he said, “You know what?

I've found over the years that all that tracking down doesn't do a whole lot of good because what's most important in rearing children in the knowledge of the Lord is what is done before they go off to college for their first semester.”

And he then proceeds to say — and it's interesting because Mr. Still was an old bachelor.

He says, “Here's how you rear children” — and he used this outline —“Prayer, example, and precept.

That is how you rear children — prayer, example, and precept.”

Works of the Lord are great & worthy of study

Psalm 111:2 “The works of the Lord are great, Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

Works of the Lord

The works of the Lord are great,

Yes His deed, but also all that he has made

All the things of God are great.

Even the little things of God are great!

- Spurgeon

Worthy of study

Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

Invitation to study

“There is a science laboratory in Cambridge, England, called the Cavendish Laboratory, named after the eighteenth-century English chemist and physicist Sir Henry Cavendish (1731-1810).

It is distinguished by having the words of Psalm 111:2 inscribed over the entrance to its building as a charter for every believing scientist: Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.”

(Boice)

His work is honorable