Well, good evening. It is good to be here with you. And this evening, we are going to be in Psalm chapter 147, verses 1 through 6. Psalm chapter 147, verses 1 through 6.
And the psalmist says, praise the Lord. For it is good to sing praises to our God. For it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted, and He binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the… He gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, in abundance, in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the ground. Amen. This psalm asks us about our routine. Our routine. Not of necessarily taking care of our bodies, or what we do physically day to day. We have those, and we should certainly take care of our bodies. You probably daily brush your teeth. Maybe once, maybe twice. It’s up to you. Exercise is a good thing. Some of you maybe take vitamins on the daily. You may have hobbies. You have these things you do. They’re just part of your thing. Your daily routine. Some things, though, are more involuntary. Like breathing. Like breathing. But it’s a very rare thing that any of us consciously think. Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out. It’s just, it’s your routine. Involuntarily, to be a human, to be alive, you have to breathe. But this is talking about a routine, involuntary habit of the heart. This is talking about a natural reflex. When we’ve encountered God. And it’s something that we do without thinking about it. At least it should be. It should be something that we can’t help drawing ourselves to do. And so the question is, is praise your habit? That’s the question. Is praise the routine of your heart? To praise the Lord. The word praise here is, it sounds like, it sounds like hallelujah. And we looked at that word in Revelation, if you remember. And it’s the only time in the New Testament hallelujah is used. And that’s transliterated from what it sounds like in Hebrew. And that word is in the Psalms over 160 times in 136 verses. 166 times. It’s a lot of times to be told you ought to do a thing. It’s a lot of times to observe someone doing something. And I think that indicates to us that the major theme of not just the Psalms, but really the nature of God’s people should be a reflex of praise. David and the various Psalm writers, they run the gamut of emotions, don’t they? They experience, they experience real life. They experience trials and difficulties and enemies and sins. And so I think if we had, you know, you read the Psalms and there was a gap between just actual on the ground life as a person for us and for them, it’s two different things. There, there’s some higher elite version of a saint and their life can’t, really speaking to ours, because it’s just too different. It was too long ago. This book would be entirely impractical. But the wonderful thing about the Psalms are it’s written by just regular broken people who are suffering, crawling through life, seeking the face of God. And I think that’s encouraging. That’s encouraging. That this is a word for you and me at all times.
And so I think we have to be honest that in our difficulty and suffering and with all the things that we have to put up with in a broken world, the response for a Christian has to be, must be, praising the Lord. Praising the Lord. There’s a song, a song of praise woven throughout this book. It’s woven throughout the Psalms attitude. It has a reflex to go back to praise. As much as David or any of the Psalm writers seem to say, God’s abandoned me. This is bad. I’m in the place of Sheol. This is death. It’s over. I’m not praising God right now. You don’t read that. You read a praise. A song comes from their lips. So he says here in the first verse, praise the Lord for it is a good thing. It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing. And what does the scripture say? That he who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. This is the good thing humans redeemed people redeemed creations we are called privileged to do in all of life is to praise God. So a silent song is to our shame. It’s the right kind of good. Everybody’s got their own version of what’s good. But this is God’s good for his people to praise him. He says it’s pleasant. It’s pleasant. It’s pleasant. So praising God should be for you not force like we all get together and everyone else’s mouth’s moving here. So I guess I should move my mouth too. I don’t want to seem like I’m not doing the thing everyone else is doing. That’s not it. It should be a pleasurable experience for you.
That’s what it means. It means it’s not a pleasureable experience. It’s delightful. It’s a pleasurable habit for a Christian. So if we aren’t enjoying the praise of it all, enjoying praising God, or forgetful of that, it’s our hearts that are out of alignment with the posture of a true Christian. It has to be the case. Because he says here, a song of praise is fitting. A song of praise is fitting. It’s what’s appropriate, it means. It’s what’s suitable. It’s like the popular adage, if the shoe fits, wear it. Right? So it’s the shoe you should be wearing as someone redeemed by the blood of Christ. It agrees with a righteous life. What then makes it so good and pleasant? What makes it so good and pleasant to sing praise? Not, I would say, the activity itself. Rather, the object of our praise. That’s what makes praise so fitting and so appropriate and so routine in the heart of the believer. So take inventory here with me. Do I find it to be in myself not two times a week, not one time a week, not when I thought, the water heater busted, but it just needed a small fix, and it didn’t cost me a lot of money, and I said, praise the Lord, you know, when the guy called me back. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about this kind of elation, this pleasure, because you have so much about God you adore, that it’s your spiritual habit in all seasons of life. This is serious, God-saturated, just endless, love, full-on-worshipping kind of praise. Here’s the first reason I want to give from this text why we should be praising the Lord like that. We should praise the Lord like that because He’s a God that gathers. He’s a God that gathers. He’s a God that gathers. Verse 2 says, the Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted, and He binds up their wounds. If you remember at the end of Psalm 51, which we finished two weeks ago, I believe, remember David was asking that God would have mercy on him personally, but as much as he was praying it for Jerusalem, he was asking God to build up the walls of Jerusalem. The walls of Jerusalem represent God’s protection. It represents the anointing and the flourishing of God’s city. So David didn’t want his sins to, you know, just ruin him. He didn’t want his sins to ruin the city that he loved because it was a city that he loved. It was God’s city. Even Psalm 137 shows us how much the Israelites were to love Jerusalem. The psalmist says there, how shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you. If I do not set Jerusalem above my highest, let it be a place of peace. That’s God’s city. To love God is to love God’s city. It’s his reign. It’s where everyone knows him, is completely surrendered to him, perfectly satisfied in him. God’s hand on it. And as you know, the sins of the people often threaten that. It’s what you call sin. called the principle of retributions where god says you do well i bless you you don’t do well you bear a curse deuteronomy chapter 30 kind of gives a forewarning of all this 30 verses 1 through 4 the lord said to the people when all these things come upon you the blessing and the curse which i have set before you and you call them to mind among all the nations where the lord your god has driven you and return to the lord your god you and your children and obey his voice and all that i command you today with all your heart and with all your soul then the lord your god will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the lord your god has scattered you if you’re outcasts and the utter most parts of heaven from there the lord your god will gather you and from there he will take you
the jews were scattered for their sins but oh how they longed to return they longed to return and this verse gives them an immediate encouragement it gives them an immediate encouragement that that god will do what god said he would do god would would bring them back but friends there’s a there’s a greater encouragement here for us just as well to take and it’s that god gathers all who long and desire to be where he is god longs to gather the psalm is so capable of drawing a song of praise from us whatever we’ve done wherever we’ve been anything this psalm is telling us that if we would but turn towards Jerusalem if we would long for the city of Jerusalem in our hearts if we would long for the place where God is there’s a promise that he will gather you in to that everlasting home because what does the New Testament teach us but that so many types find their fullest fulfillment in Christ and in a life to come so the Hebrew writer can talk about what we’re truly seeking and what we’re truly seeking is the heavenly Jerusalem the Hebrew writer says that’s the city of the living God so you and I all the things we’ve done and we’ve done some bad stuff I’ve done some bad stuff I’ve wandered to some far out places
this word promises you it promises me God scatters the wicked but he gathers the righteous he scatters the prideful but he draws in the humble this is a good word for you this is a good word for anybody in verse 3 it says he heals the broken hearted and he binds up their wounds that reminds us of the Beatitudes when Jesus says blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted because what’s Jesus talking about in the Beatitudes he’s talking about people who see in themselves an utter brokenness an utter wickedness a spiritual debt they cannot pay a full lack of holiness to be 10,000 miles within God’s reach and it’s the same thing here God is saying he’s the kind of God that if you’re broken for your sin and more so broken that you have a sin nature God I am this way and I am way out here in Babylon and I am just here in some foreign land far away from you yet this says that God cannot pass by the one who in all humility just admits that and they can just look up just look over to Jerusalem look over and see God see Christ and he’ll pull us in to his bosom he’ll pull us in to Jerusalem
so friends you don’t need you don’t need to be a Christian you don’t need to be forced to praise the Lord you don’t need someone to coax you into doing it when you see this God as a God who gathers sinners to his perfect holy city that is more than enough all on its own to bring a song of praise out of you and if it doesn’t I don’t think you realize how sinful you are or you don’t realize what bad shape you’re in
we need to behold the city of God anew in our hearts and that humble contrition for sin praise him because there’s a promise there’s a promise he will gather you in he will gather you in to that heavenly Jerusalem believe that can you believe that not doubt that that’s the problem is believing that and believing it for yourself you say I’m not 10,000 miles from the Lord I’m 20,000 miles from the Lord I’m 25,000 miles from the Lord and boy have I lived like a pagan so long and I even knew the truth and I still did wrong for so long I am I’m an outcast man I’m an outcast but Jesus says come to me and I’ll never cast you out I think I think the simplest illustration of this is the thief on the cross really because you’ve got this man who obviously has not let let you know an upstanding life and somehow he knows enough about what the prophets say or he read some newspaper along the way and whatever he was doing about who this Jesus was and hanging on that cross I mean to the very end the very end I mean he’s moments from dying and he just looks over at Jesus and he just says Jesus can you take me with you he just says can I just go where you’re going the man in that moment sees his own spiritual bankruptcy and he says Jesus will you remember me what does Jesus say back too late too late
he says today you will be with me in paradise
friends I just want to say it and say it 55 different ways the Lord has built a city for repentant sinners like us and he deserves all praise all praise and we should long give it to him and you should think long and hard on that don’t hear my sermon and then go eat dinner and think about this week don’t start thinking about what you need to do or buy or anything this is your life this is life right here this is this is the best part of life Christ would draw you in as a friend as a friend as a friend as a bride as a citizen of his kingdom because he is who he is and that’s how God works he draws in repentant sinners
here’s the second reason why we should praise the Lord and praise the Lord often the psalmist tells us that he is a creator that he is a he’s a creator the psalmist goes on to say he determines the number of the stars he gives to all of them their names great is our Lord and abundant in power his understanding is beyond measure so I had to look this up because I’m not usually a strong man and in fact this was a science website for kids so whatever I could understand it okay so there are 6,000 observable stars on a clear night from planet earth 6,000 observable stars there are approximately 2 trillion galaxies in the universe it is thought there are 100 billion stars in the milky way so there’s 2 trillion galaxies and there’s 100 billion in hours that means that you know we’ll let them approximate it I’m not going to force them to be sure on that exactly but I’m pretty sure there’s about 200 billion trillion stars in the universe or 200 sextillion which is 10 times the number of cups of water in all the oceans of the earth and David says he knows them by name when I hang a Christmas tree and I turn around and someone says where’d you hang that ninja turtle Christmas tree you got when you were 5 and your mama gave that to you I don’t know but it’s up there somewhere you just did it where did you hang it it’s on the tree okay what about the one with you know a reindeer on it where’s that where did you put that one on the tree I don’t know where I put it on there I’m sure it’s on there somewhere how small is our grasp of even the things we do and yet God has hung every star like it’s a Christmas tree and he could tell you exactly where it is and he knows it as if it has it’s own name it’s intimate knowledge it’s an intimate knowledge who can who can claim to be like that God who can claim to be like that God the psalmist says great is our Lord and abundant in power his understanding is beyond measure none of us are really creators that’s a popular word people like to use today called the God of God content creator you know in the arts you know create create create but nobody’s a creator we’re a bunch of tinkerers we’re second hand tinkerers we’re using God’s stuff to put something else together for anything no one’s entirely unique or original except God and by his will all things exist and because of Jesus the universe is held together we’re told and it’s by his will that we know how to put batteries in cars
this word understanding here in verse 5 it’s speaking of his intelligence and his wisdom and it’s saying God’s intelligence and wisdom is limitless it’s limitless so how prideful and arrogant really are we today just because in the last century we’ve been able to send a tin can to the moon and all of a sudden there’s no such thing as a God there’s no such thing we can fly in the air we can communicate instantaneously with anyone on the planet and somehow we’re masters of the universe you know I saw one prominent atheist in a debate recently you know say you know scientists have observed someone dying and we can’t with any technology see any sentience lift off them we can’t see any life soul come off them so there there’s no such thing he was quite sure because he couldn’t see it so isn’t it isn’t it so like us as sinful creatures the very things God has put in place to give him glory our flesh interprets it as a means to give us glory
we’re talking about terrible we should wonder at the universe the beauty of it the mathematics of it the sheer power of God’s creative will
yet we we don’t see it like that we see it as something to conquer something some way to bring ourselves praise not to discover God’s handiwork in its plain you know the beauty of a night sky you know usually you go you’re at the lake or you’re somewhere far from the city and you know the sky is particularly boy it’s just like the bluish black and stars are just like in your face God’s made it so plain how limitless his power is how wonderful his mind really is some of us would do better but to get a shotgun put a big old hole right in the middle of our TVs go outside and lay on the grass and wonder at the magnificence of God the magnitude of God the beauty and the power of God and how very small we are very small we are such an exercise would leave you and I so humble to know that such a great God left left his eternal home and came to our earthly realm marred by sin overrun with self-idolaters and he died for you and me that’s what we would that’s what we would marvel at is the creator of all this died for me
that’s a reason to praise God that’s a reason to praise God
that we would be called his people his friends how about that think about it the maker the maker of 200 billion trillion stars of every galaxy he would be your friend
this calls for praise
this calls for praise and the psalmist has again pinpointed exactly why it should flow from our hearts all the time are you too busy are you too important too stressed out too preoccupied too occupied too sinful too careless to see the God who is there who’s given you a capacity to wonder at his glory and creation and more a capacity to wonder at his love for you in Christ Jesus and yet we don’t so often do we we don’t we don’t we don’t we don’t Jesus was literally called in a mocking way friend of sinners friend of sinners God would be our friend wherever we are wherever we’ve gone God would gather us in if he would ask for it we would long for it a God who made the stars and made the heavens to be a friend and to have a place He has stooped down to be crucified and murdered for you, for your life, for your eternal joy in Him.
So I want to encourage us this evening with just that simple truth. Praise the Lord. For He is worthy of it. Praise the Lord always. Let it be your habit. Praise Him when life is up. Praise Him when life is down.
Adore Him in the morning when you wake up. Adore Him when you go to bed at night. Adore Him. Praise Him when you’re riding down the road or sitting wherever you’re sitting. Prioritize it. Let God have the first fruits of your lips. Let God’s greatness and power increase so that like John the Baptist, we can decrease. Right? John the Baptist says, He must increase, I must decrease. Jesus, I want You and I want a vision of You and the Father to go way up in my heart. Way up in my mind. Way up in my priorities. Way up in what matters to me so that I can go lower and lower to the ground in humility and worship You and praise You and long for You all the more and trust in You all the more when we decrease, Christ increase.
And don’t think wherever you’ve gone, whatever you’ve done, that it’s be, it’s beyond you. It’s too far away now. You’ve, you’ve wandered. Friends, God is a gathering God. And if you say to Him, Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. He will most certainly say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. So friends, we have, we have ample reason to praise the Lord. We’re both now and forevermore.
Father, we know that so often and so easily we get distracted.
We, we worry about anything and everything. We obsess over anything and everything. We trample the beauty and the goodness of the world we live in. We use up this world. We eat and we drink. And we don’t stop to think who made it all. Who did this all? How good it is, how beautiful it is. How wise it all is. How glorious it all is.
Lord, turn our hearts from worldly things.
Turn our hearts from the vain pursuits of this life. And help us to live lives of praise. Father, we pray our habit. Our habit. Our spiritual, routine would be to praise the glory in your son Jesus.
Amen.