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Psalm 118 Sermon Notes

By November 20, 2022March 25th, 2023Sermon Notes

Psalm 118 was and is used to celebrate the Passover…Passover is THE OT salvation event, that points forward to its greater fulfillment in Jesus.

-400 years of slavery
-God sent a deliverer, Moses
-God spared their firstborn through the blood of a Lamb on the night of the Passover.
-God took them through the sea and saved them from the Army of Egypt

This is most quoted Psalm in the New Testament

Specifically, it is tied to Jesus, who is the fulfillment of the Exodus event.

He is the Passover Lamb

When Jesus enters Jerusalem the crowds are shouting verses 25, 26… “Lord save us” recognizing Jesus as the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Jesus quotes verses 22 and 23 referring to himself as that stone that was rejected by the builders but has now become the cornerstone.

He was rejected, mocked, killed…God raised him from the dead…he is the one that everything depends on…he is the cornerstone.

Let me read the next few verses…

In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They swarmed around me like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off. I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things! The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!”

The Psalmist has gone from calling everyone to thanksgiving for God’s Hesed, his timeless love…to personal thanksgiving for God’s timely help.

This was original a combat prayer…a person locked in a life and death struggle for survival.

But we can apply it to our lives…as they are, in a real but different sense a battle.

We must give thanks to God for his love that is beyond the scope of our lives, bigger than time and space itself.

We must tell our hearts, minds, mouths…to speak the truth of the great Timeless love of God so we can escape the trap of thinking that the passing events of our time are all that exists or matters.

Our days are short and passing and often difficult…God is eternal, his love is enduring.

We can become stuck, imprisoned by thoughts and emotions that tell us…evil wins, my suffering will never end, all is chaos, no one is charge here, the battle is meaningless and the outcome is hopeless.

*We are so changeable…so susceptible to seasons, and moods, and cultural movements.

*A cloudy, dark, cold morning…can make the world feel less like a safe place.

*A bright, sunny, warm afternoon…amazing how much better the world is.

*What has changed apart from weather? Well, our moods have.

We cannot become captive to our moods…they are not trustworthy guides for our lives.

No!…We must choose to give thanks to the Lord…his love endures forever…timeless, unchanging.

Okay, I acknowledge his timeless love…but I need some timely help…does his timeless love, have any real impact on my life here and now?

I am just a human; I live in time and space…I am grateful for his eternal promises…but I need some temporal help…on THIS cold and cloudy day.

Yes, the Psalmist wrote…I can tell you that he rescued me.

God’s timeless love became my timely help…in real battles.

He didn’t take the struggle…he gave me victory in battle…he didn’t take me out of the war…he helped me in the war.

We can read this declaration of timely help…and miss how that help actually comes about…moment by moment, day by day…struggle by struggle.

So, because of God’s timeless love…I need not fear what man can do to me today…Better to take refuge in God than to trust in man.

I will give thanks for God’s timeless love and I will receive God’s timely help in my life…as it he gives it, not as I demand it.

That is what Ahkihl has done as he has trusted Christ, though it has cost him opposition and family separation…the help has been the presence of God’s peace, not the absence of trouble.

BAPTISM

Norah a genetic disease broke her elbow, strep…had to bag her

Corrie: “I don’t know how we are going to make it through this day.”

Norah: (7) “I do mom”

Norah doesn’t always have a mature perspective…but that day, she spoke truth.

Timeless love is experienced in timely help…as we walk with God, day by day…sometimes minute by minute.

We often want God’s timeless love to show up in spectacular fashion…but it is revealed in time and space in our lives, as we walk with him, being thankful, through the days of our lives.

This is a great challenge for us…it’s so hard to remain thankful for his timeless love, in the daily battles of our lives.

Back to the Exodus event:
-Very shortly after their grand rescue…

-They were low on water and began to grumble against Moses

-Water was provided

-They began to complain about food, it was provided

-Then water again, followed by…we want to go back to Egypt!
-“You want to go back?”
-This was weeks later, not years later

-It is extraordinary, how quickly gratitude can evaporate from the human heart.

-Gratitude is essential for human thriving, essential for faith, essential for mental, physical, relational health…and so hard to maintain.

-They Arrive at Mt Sinai, just three months later

-God invites the people into a covenant relationship with him.

-Gives them the Ten Commandments…it describes and prescribes how this covenant will be lived out.

-If Israel obeys the terms of the covenant they will be shaped such that they become God’s representatives and show the world who God is…what an offer!

-Meanwhile, at the foot of the mountain…with God’s presence in plain sight up on the mountain…they break the covenant and make a calf god idol.

-Moses intercedes on behalf of the people.

-God describes himself again as hesed love, he forgives sin but makes it clear that he must deal with evil…and renews the covenant.

-Back Psalm 118

I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord
through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.

The Psalmist acknowledges that at least some of his troubles are the result of his own sin.

But though God chastened him, severely…he did not give him over to death.

God opened wide the doors into relationship with him.

How quickly our gratitude evaporates.

How hard it is to live faithfully in the minutes and days of our lives.

How often we turn away from God as our gratitude and commitment to faithfulness fade.

But…again and again…God forgives us and receives us back.

He doesn’t just “have” “Hesed” timeless love…he is Hesed…and he is faithful when we are faithless.

*Continually Repent of ingratitude.

*Repent of judging and not forgiving others…a interpersonal sign of ingratitude for God’s forgiveness of you…how can we remember God’s love and not forgive others.

*Receive again today, the forgiveness of God.

**SONG CELEBRATING GOD’S FORGIVENESS

Several weeks ago I spoke about the negativity bias, that is hardwired into the human mind

*We give disproportionate weight to the negative over the positive…this skews perspective, decision making, and harms relationships and takes our joy.

*You could say that Exodus is one long example of the negativity bias.

*You could also say that Psalms is the antidote…a constant call to “hunt the good stuff.”

To remember and give thanks for God’s Timeless love.

*To more consistently live with gratitude we have to turn the corner, like the Psalmist did here…

From a “Me” to a “We” approach to our lives.

After his initial, universal call to thanksgiving for God’s timeless love…he gave HIS story…how God rescued him, forgave him.

Now he shifts from “me” to “We”…let us remember and be grateful.

The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in OUR eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let US rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, save US; O Lord, grant US success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord WE bless you. The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon US. With boughs in hand, JOIN in the festal PROCESSION up to the horns of the altar.

You will not be able to sustain faith expressed in gratitude by yourself.

I don’t mean you apart from God, I mean you apart from others.

God has made you a social being…God himself is three persons in one being…this is embedded in realty itself.

You can no more do well all by yourself than you can breath water…to try to live a solo life is to try to live outside the bounds of reality.

This is the day the Lord has made, let US be glad and rejoice in it.

I have been in many settings…Locker rooms, oil fields, military environments, homes, coffee shops…where negativity is multiplied as one person feeds off of the other.

Complaining, gripping, judging, bitterness…it becomes infectious, and all consuming.

Complaint is a national pastime…ingratitude is now considered intelligent, and to be grateful is to be out of touch with the world around you.

People walk away from these shared sessions of ingratitude (in person or online)…with a skewed view of the world…unable to thrive, or sometimes even survive in it.

This approach is making people everywhere more miserable.

I’ve also seen, when one person injects gratitude and gospel perspective…everything can change…it also becomes infectious.

But everyone has their capacity…everyone gets down…we need each other, often we take turns ebbing and flowing…but together we can sustain gratitude long term…but only together is this possible.

*In 2005, I was the chaplain to about 600 airmen in a deployed setting..and I was expected to be “up”…at least in public.

-One day, I failed to be “up”..because I was down…and word came to me that people were worried…”Chappy can’t be down, we can be, he can’t.”

-I know that is unrealistic…but it is how it was.

-It wasn’t that I needed to fake it…but int that setting and in my role, I needed to live among others out of the Timeless Love of God…not out of my temporal moods.

-After about a month, God gave me good friend, a wise, older man…Willy.

-After I found him as my friend, we would go on walks and I could be sad around him and he was good with it…it didn’t bother him.

I took my turn encouraging him and he encouraged me.

*You cannot thrive alone…you can’t maintain perspective alone…and you must let others influence you with faith.

-If others try to bring you perspective…and you simply blow them off or shoot down their attempts it is on you if people stop trying…go back and tell you are sorry…and open up to them.

-If others don’t bring help and hope like you want them to…if they are imperfect, you don’t get to judge them for that…you must be thankful to them for trying.

-My friend didn’t come after me…to push encouragement at me…I went after him to get it.

-If we don’t pursue what we need…that is on us

We are made for relationships…study after study confirms the Bible…that having a good support network is the single most powerful protection against becoming traumatized…and living with resilience.

We cannot outsmart God…he knows how we are wired and so he has given us the church, and his Word regarding how to sustain healthy community.
Studies conducted during WWII showed that children who lived in London during the Blitz and were sent away to the countryside for protection against German bombing raids did far worse than children who remained with their parents and endured nights in bomb shelters and experienced destruction and deaths.

Separation from key relationships was more traumatic than the bombs…this is astounding…but it is how we are made.

We are going to take a few minutes to hunt the good stuff…you can pray with a friend or family sitting next to you…or just sit with others together and give thanks in your own heart.

If you are listening later, to the the recording of this…I’m glad…but don’t make it a habit…you are missing everything that’s happening right now in this place as we worship together.

-If you are trying to go at this largely alone…talk to God about that…commit to begin to make choices to change this…you have to shift from “me” to “We”

Hunt the Good Stuff: Time Reflect and give thanks

The Psalm finishes with a personal commitment to gratitude and a challenge to us to do the same.

You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Just days after the greatest event in their history, Israel’s gratitude had leaked from their hearts.

They instituted ways to try remember to be grateful…the church has Worship on the Lord’s Day, baptism, and communion.

Next we will remember to be grateful through the celebration of Communion…we hunt the good stuff…the best stuff.

What God has done for us in Christ.

You are my God…I will give you thanks…this is making a choice, not chasing a feeling…and its not being bossed around by our own changing moods…but remembering the timeless love, Hesed, of God.

We will use the ordinance of Communion to express our gratitude for his love.

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