Psalm 118

Psalm 118

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

His faithful love endures forever.

2 Let all Israel repeat:

“His faithful love endures forever.”

3 Let Aaron’s descendants, the priests, repeat:

“His faithful love endures forever.”

4 Let all who fear the Lord repeat:

“His faithful love endures forever.”

5 In my distress I prayed to the Lord,

and the Lord answered me and set me free.

6 The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear.

What can mere people do to me?

7 Yes, the Lord is for me; he will help me.

I will look in triumph at those who hate me.

8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord

than to trust in people.

9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord

than to trust in princes.

10 Though hostile nations surrounded me,

I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord.

11 Yes, they surrounded and attacked me,

but I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord.

12 They swarmed around me like bees;

they blazed against me like a crackling fire.

But I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord.

13 My enemies did their best to kill me,

but the Lord rescued me.

14 The Lord is my strength and my song;

he has given me victory.

15 Songs of joy and victory are sung in the camp of the godly.

The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things!

16 The strong right arm of the Lord is raised in triumph.

The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things!

17 I will not die; instead, I will live

to tell what the Lord has done.

18 The Lord has punished me severely,

but he did not let me die.

19 Open for me the gates where the righteous enter,

and I will go in and thank the Lord.

20 These gates lead to the presence of the Lord,

and the godly enter there.

21 I thank you for answering my prayer

and giving me victory!

22 The stone that the builders rejected

has now become the cornerstone.

23 This is the Lord’s doing,

and it is wonderful to see.

24 This is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

25 Please, Lord, please save us.

Please, Lord, please give us success.

26 Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

We bless you from the house of the Lord.

27 The Lord is God, shining upon us.

Take the sacrifice and bind it with cords on the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will praise you!

You are my God, and I will exalt you!

29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

L: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

A: “His faithful love endures forever.”

L: Open for me the gates where the righteous enter, and I will go in and thank the Lord.

A: These gates lead to the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there.

L: I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory!

A: The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.

L: This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.

A: This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

L: Please, Lord, please save us.

A: Please, Lord, please give us success.

L: Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

A: We bless you from the house of the Lord.

L: The Lord is God, shining upon us.

A: Take the sacrifice and bind it with cords on the altar.

L: You are my God, and I will praise you!

A: You are my God, and I will exalt you!

L: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

A: His faithful love endures forever.

I Wish I had 3-kids.

Unless you become like a little child.

Kids Dance…

Divide our time into two categories.

Living. Waiting to Live.

Joy is at the heart of the Life God desires for us.

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

How to step into a joy filled life a life of celebration.

1. IT STARTS RIGHT NOW.

This is the day.

Not yesterday. Not one day. TODAY.

2. TRAIN FOR JOY.

- Chose Joy,

- Pick a day.

The discipline of celebration.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.  It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete until it is expressed. […] If it were possible for a created soul fully (I mean, up to the full measure conceivable in a finite being) to ‘appreciate’, that is to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme beatitude.  It is along these lines that I find it easiest to understand the Christian doctrine that ‘Heaven’ is a state in which angels now, and men hereafter, are perpetually employed in praising God. […] To see what the doctrine really means, we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God-drunk with, drowned in, dissolved by, that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable, hence hardly tolerable, bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression, our joy no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds.  The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”  But we shall then know that these are the same thing.  Fully to enjoy is to glorify.  In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.

C.S. LEWIS

Psalm 50:12

12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for all the world is mine and everything in it.

Psalm 34:8

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!

3. LAUGH.

The average 4-year-old laughs 300x

Avg 40-year-old laughs 4x

Isaiah 55

12 You will live in joy and peace.

The mountains and hills will burst into song,

and the trees of the field will clap their hands!

Revelation 21

3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.* 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

COMMUNION. ALTER.