(About His Incarnation)
Psalm 113
Good day, everybody!
Introduction: A younger grownup requested me the opposite day if Jesus is de facto on each web page of the Outdated Testomony. After considering a second, I say, “Sure, He’s on every web page implicitly, and on very lots of them explicitly. In different phrases, the whole Outdated Testomony is pervaded with the anticipation of a coming Messiah. And lots of of these pages describe Him overtly and overtly, utilizing both prophetic phrases or predictive varieties or prototypes.
There’s a particular assortment of six Psalms that comprise each implicit and express portraits of Jesus, and these are those He sang with His disciples within the Higher Room on the ultimate night time of His earthly life. They’re referred to as the Egyptian Hallel Psalms. The phrase Hallel is expounded to the phrase Hallelujah. It’s a shout of reward. And these Psalms are referred to as the Egyptian Hallel as a result of there are references in them concerning the exodus from Egypt. I launched this collection final week, so when you missed it, circle again and test it out.
The Egyptian Hallel Psalms are Psalm 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, and 118. They had been sung publicly on the main temple celebrations in Jerusalem. However they had been sung privately in properties by households every year throughout the Passover meal. Simply as we sing Christmas carols across the piano, Jewish households sang the Egyptian Hallel at their Passover meal. Most students say Psalm 113 and 114 had been sung earlier than the meal; Psalms 115 by means of 118 afterward. This practice of singing the Egyptian Hallel had its roots within the days between the Outdated and New Testaments, and students really feel assured it was in impact earlier than the times of Jesus.
So there’s little doubt that when, within the Gospel information, we learn that Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn within the Higher Room, it’s referring to this assortment of Psalms.
Our research right now would be the first of these, Psalm 113, so let me learn it to you. For this collection I’m utilizing the New American Commonplace Bible.
Scripture: Psalm 113
Reward the Lord!
Reward, O servants of the Lord,
Reward the title of the Lord.
Blessed be the title of the Lord
From this time forth and ceaselessly.
From the rising of the solar to its setting
The title of the Lord is to be praised.
The Lord is excessive above all nations;
His glory is above the heavens.
Who’s like our God,
Who’s enthroned on excessive,
Who humbles Himself to behold
The issues which might be in heaven and on earth?
He raises the poor from the mud
And lifts the needy from the ash heap,
To make them sit with princes,
With the princes of His folks.
He make the barren ladies abide in the home
As a joyful mom of youngsters.
Reward the Lord!
1. Reward the Lord (Verses 1-3)
1 Reward the Lord.
What does it imply to reward the Lord? How can we go about it?
- We reward God once we take into consideration Him and take into account His particular person and attributes. The Bible says, “Nice is the Lord, and extremely to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3).
- We reward God when others akin to choirs and ensembles minister to us in worship music and songs. The Bible says David “appointed among the Levites as ministers earlier than the ark of the Lord, even to have fun and to thank and reward the Lord God of Israel…. (I)n unison… the trumpeters and the singers had been to make themselves heard with one voice to reward and to glorify the Lord, and…they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and devices of music, and… they praised the Lord saying, ‘He certainly is nice for His lovingkindness is eternal….” (1 Chronicles 16:4 & 2 Chronicles 5:13).
- We reward God once we sing to Him in non-public and public. The Bible says, “Sing to Him, singing praises to Him; converse of all His wonders” (1 Chronicles 16:9).
- We reward God when He helps and delivers us. One of many first references to reward within the Bible is when the Israelites had been delivered by means of the Pink Sea. They arrived safely on the jap shore and burst into track, saying, “That is my God, and I’ll reward Him” (Exodus 15:2).
- We reward God once we’re going through hazard and scary circumstances. When the armies of King Jehoshaphat had been going through a military far greater than they had been, Jehoshaphat despatched the choir in entrance of the military, they usually went out praising the Lord; that’s what defeated the enemy and received the victory.
- We reward God once we see what He’s doing within the lives of others. Luke 18:43 says when Jesus healed the blind man, the person “started following Him, glorifying God, and when all of the folks noticed it, they gave reward to God.”
- We reward God once we worship collectively in company settings. The Psalmist stated, “Within the midst of the meeting I’ll reward you” (Psalm 22:22).
- We reward God privately and continuously once we say, “Reward the Lord!” in all of the circumstances of life. Psalm 34 says, “I’ll bless the Lord always; His reward shall regularly be in my mouth.”
- We reward God once we open a hymnbook at residence and sing to Him. Psalm 68:4 says, “Sing to God, sing praises to His title; Elevate up a track to Him who rides by means of the deserts, whose title is the Lord” (Psalm 68:4).
- We reward God once we inform others how nice He’s. The Bible says, “Bless our God, O peoples, and sound His reward overseas” (Psalm 66:8).
- We reward God once we thank Him for numerous issues He does for us. Psalm 100 says, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with reward.”
- We reward the Lord as a part of our prayers to Him. Jeremiah stated, “Heal me, O Lord, and I might be healed; save me and I might be saved. For You might be my reward” (Jeremiah 17:14).
- We reward the Lord once we take His message to the nations. Jeremiah 33:9 says, “It will likely be to Me a reputation of pleasure, reward, and glory earlier than all of the nations of the earth which is able to hear of all the nice that I do for them.”
- We reward God once we’re in a cheerful temper. James 5:13 says, “Is anybody cheerful? He’s to sing praises.”
- We additionally reward God once we’ve been stripped and whipped and imprisoned in shares. That’s the place Paul and Silas had been when, “about midnight” they had been “praying and singing hymns of reward to God” (Acts 16:25).
Our reward comes from our hearts and minds, however it’s usually expressed with our songs and spoken phrases. How usually we needs to be whispering to ourselves and saying to others, “Reward the Lord! Hallelujah!”
It’s solely believers in Jesus Christ who can do that. Psalm 113 goes on to say: Reward the Lord! Reward, O servants of the Lord.
G. Ok. Chesterton wrote in his e book Orthodoxy that individuals who reject God and the supernatural and the surprise of the thriller of the divine are madmen. Within the form of sentence solely Chesterton may write, he stated, “The madman isn’t the person who has misplaced his skill to assume. The madman is the person who has misplaced every part besides his skill to assume.”
In different phrases, the one who reduces all of life down to what’s bodily and measurable, who makes every part a matter of chilly logic, has misplaced the flexibility to worship and reward one thing larger than himself.
Then Chesterton stated this: “An individual can perceive every part solely with the assistance of what they don’t perceive.”
We are able to perceive life solely with the assistance of one thing that’s so huge and true and infinite and praiseworthy that we can not absolutely perceive it—or Him, being God.
Chesterton stated it was just like the solar blazing within the sky. He stated, “The one factor in God’s creation that we will’t take a look at is the one which lights up every part we see.”
You can not look immediately into the solar with out blinding your eyes, however the solar lights up every part that we see. The everlasting God who’s clothed in blazing mild is the one factor we will by no means absolutely perceive, but by realizing God we will perceive every part else.
After which Chesterton turned the analogy round. He stated that whereas these of us who know God are bathed within the mild of the solar, which we can not absolutely see, those that reject God are bathed within the mild of the moon, which they’ll see and perceive and measure and analyze. They dwell on the planet of the lunar orbit, which is what makes folks lunatics.
In different phrases, our sanity and wholeness comes from the chance of expressing our surprise, awe, and reward towards One who’s such an infinite Creator and redeeming Savior that we will by no means absolutely perceive the depths of who He’s.
We merely reward Him and worship Him.
Verse 2 tells us there are two instances once we reward the Lord—now at this current time, and ceaselessly. Now means right now, and ceaselessly means 100 years from now, a thousand years from now, a billion years from now—we’ll nonetheless be praising the Lord.
Verses 2 and three say: Blessed be the title of the Lord from this time forth and ceaselessly. From the rising of the solar to its setting the title of the Lord is to be praised.
In different phrases, reward to God is to come up from each latitude and longitude on earth. Each tribe and tongue, each land and language.
Now the Psalm goes on to inform us precisely why we must always reward the Lord. There are two causes.
2. Reward the Lord for His Greatness (Verses 4-5)
First, we reward God due to His greatness. Verses 4 and 5 say: The Lord is excessive above all nations; His glory is above the heavens. Who’s just like the Lord our God, who’s enthroned on excessive…?
God is larger than any nation on earth or all of the nations mixed. He’s exalted over all of the nations. However He’s additionally larger than the heavens. He’s enthroned on excessive.
A number of years in the past I spoke at a retreat and my topic was the throne of God. I’ve all the time wished to return and analysis this theme extra absolutely. I consider Moses and the 70 elders of Israel acquired only a glimpse of the throne of God and the huge platform in Exodus 24. Isaiah noticed and described it in Isaiah 6. Ezekiel acquired a glimpse of it, and so did Stephen. The final reference of the throne of God is in Revelation 22, which says, “Then he confirmed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
Psalm 11:4 says, “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven.”
Psalm 45:6 says, “Your throne, O God, is ceaselessly and ever.”
This means that God is the last word energy within the universe, far above human despots and angelic powers. That’s why we sing:
Crown Him with many drowns
The Lamb upon His throne
Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
All music however its personal.
If you wish to know what the throne of God seems to be like, go exterior and take a look at to take a look at the solar within the meridian sky. That’s the closest seen reference level we now have to the throne of God. I consider that in Heaven we’ll have enhanced eyesight so we will see it with out being blinded, however His throne is a throne clad in brilliance.
3. Reward the Lord For His Grace (Verses 6-9)
However now, we come to a verse that explains to us why this Psalm was sung at Passover. Verse 6 is a vital verse that incorporates New Testomony fact as an acorn incorporates a complete forest. Verse 6 says: …who humbles Himself.
Varied translations render this verb in a number of methods.
- The King James Model and the New King James Model say: Humbles
- The New American Commonplace Bible says: Humbles
- The New Worldwide Model says: Stoops down
- The Lexham Model says: Condescends
I can’t learn this with out considering of what Paul wrote in Philippians 2. It’s prefer it’s a parallel textual content. It’s as if the apostle Paul is expounding on Psalm 113: “Christ Jesus… though He existed within the type of God, didn’t regard equality with God a factor to be grasped, however emptied Himself, taking the type of a bondservant, and being made within the likeness of males. Being present in look as a person, He humbled Himself by changing into obedient to the purpose of dying, even dying on a cross. Because of this additionally, God extremely exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the title which is above each title…” (Verses 5-9).
Discover the parallels. Psalm 113 is a Messianic psalm describing a God who’s above all nations and above all that’s in Heaven and Earth, and but He humbles Himself to return all the way down to earth to look after His human creation. This can be a Psalm Jesus knew by coronary heart, had sung all His life, and which He sang within the Higher Room with His disciples earlier than the Passover Meal. Our Lord was singing a track about Himself, about His incarnation.
I’ve by no means jumped out of an airplane and I don’t intend to take action, however typically I think about the joys of skydiving. Essentially the most harmful of all of the totally different kinds of skydiving is Banzai skydiving, during which the skydiver throws his parachute out of the airplane door after which jumps after it. He’s sporting no parachute. His objective is to retrieve his parachute within the air, put it on, and glide to the touchdown zone. There are solely rumors about whether or not this has ever occurred. You will discover some movies about it, however there isn’t a stable proof a Banzai bounce has ever actually occurred.
However the Lord Jesus dove, because it had been, from the heights of heaven with out a parachute. He landed in an animal feed bin someplace simply south of Jerusalem within the neighborhood of the city of Bethlehem. The good God of the very best majesty turned a person of the humblest thriller—the one particular person in all historical past to have a twin nature and be each divine and human, each God and man.
I don’t need to overstate or overinterpret Psalm 113. The incarnation of Christ just isn’t right here explicitly; however it’s right here implicitly. I didn’t even see this till I used to be researching this passage in a commentary by Dr. Allen Ross. Generally a single sentence from a commentary will hit me throughout the top like a baseball bat. Dr. Ross stated, “Psalm 113 is a psalm of reward for the Lord’s greatness and charm. Anybody who is aware of of the incarnation couldn’t miss the apparent parallels between the psalm and that Christian doctrine.”
Nicely, I knew in regards to the incarnation, and but I had learn Psalm 113 and missed that apparent parallel. So whereas I don’t need to over-interpret this psalm, I additionally don’t need to under-interpret it.
Quoting once more Dr. Ross: Psalm 113 is a psalm of reward for the Lord’s greatness and charm. Anybody who is aware of of the incarnation couldn’t miss the apparent parallels between the psalm and that Christian doctrine.
Now, the remainder of the Psalm tells us what this humble God will do, why He got here.
Take a look at verses 6-9: …Who humbles Himself to behold the issues which might be in heaven and on earth? He raises the poor from the mud and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His folks. He makes the barren ladies abide in the home as a joyful mom of youngsters. Reward the Lord!
A. He Beholds the Issues in Heaven and Earth
I’m utilizing the New American Commonplace Bible for this collection, and it makes use of among the previous King James-type language like “behold.” However it merely signifies that God got here down right here to look, to see. One translation says that God humbled Himself and stooped all the way down to see what was happening down right here, far beneath His ft.
In different phrases, the Lord sees what’s happening in your life. He observes the pressures you’re underneath, the temptations you combat, the bitterness you harbor, the constraints you face, the alternatives you’ve got. And He needs that can assist you at each level.
B. He Raises and Lifts the Needy
Second, he raises and lifts us. He turned a person so He may die and rise from the grave in order to raise us out of darkness and dying and into mild and life.
C. Makes Them Sit With Princes
Third, he makes us sit with princes. In different phrases, we grow to be the kids of the King. Let me put it to you want this. I’ve thought of this for some time, and I’m undecided it checks off each theological field. However it helps me make sense of it. Once we are born once more, we’re born into God’s Kingdom. After which He adopts us into His household. The Bible makes use of each these phrases to explain our salvation expertise. Jesus stated that we should be born once more (John 3:3). The apostle Peter stated we’re “born once more to a residing hope by means of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the lifeless” (1 Peter 1:3).
However the Bible additionally says we’re adopted. The apostle Paul stated, “You have got obtained a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15).
I could make sense of this in British phrases. Suppose I had been born in London. I’d be a citizen of the UK. However suppose the King of England wished me in his household and he adopted me in order that I used to be not solely a citizen of the UK, however I used to be additionally a member of the royal household? The Lord wished us, not simply as residents of His Kingdom, however as members of His household. He raises us out of stark non secular poverty and makes us sit with princes.
D. He Makes the Barren Joyful as a Comfortable Mom of Youngsters
We grow to be fruitful and helpful and joyful in our lives. A part of that includes bringing others to be born once more and adopted together with us. Just lately I spoke at a Ministry Summit on the Broadmoor Lodge in Colorado Springs. One of many different audio system was named Victor Marx, and he gave his testimony.
He stated he discovered Christ as Savior whereas within the Marine Corps. He was as tough and imply as they got here, from a extremely abusive background. Victor instructed us he was tortured as a baby by his stepfathers. One punished him by holding his head underneath the water within the bathtub till he was unconscious, then reviving him. I’ve by no means heard something so terrible in my life. One other stepfather was a convicted assassin who was out of jail however was evil and abusive. Victor grew up with a lot hatred that he was thrown out of highschool and instructed by no means to return again. He joined the Marine Corps and that’s the place he discovered Christ as his Savior.
Victor knew his life had simply been modified ceaselessly by Jesus and he wished to inform any person about it, however he didn’t know tips on how to witness. He discovered a tract—a little bit brochure—in regards to the final days and the judgment and the second coming of Christ. He went to the barracks and noticed a buddy sitting on his bunk. Victor sat down beside him, gave the tract to his buddy, and stated, “Learn this.” The buddy sat there and browse it and stated, “Nicely, that’s fascinating.”
Victor wasn’t happy with that so he stated, “Learn it once more.” The Marine learn it once more and Victor stated, “Don’t you need to be prepared when Jesus comes once more?” The opposite marine stated, “Sure, I assume so. What do I do?”
Victor stated, “Take a look at the tip of the monitor; there’s a little bit prayer. Why don’t you learn that out loud?” Neither man closed their eyes nor bowed their head, however the different Marine learn the little prayer on the finish of the tract. After he stated Amen he regarded up and stated, “I simply felt one thing. Did you’re feeling that?”
That’s all there was to it. However Victor instructed us, “Are you able to consider that man remains to be strolling with the Lord faithfully in spite of everything these years?”
It’s superb how the Lord can use our feeblest efforts to deliver forth a non secular harvest! So…
Reward the Lord!
Reward, O servants of the Lord,
Reward the title of the Lord.
Blessed be the title of the Lord
From this time forth and ceaselessly.
From the rising of the solar to its setting
The title of the Lord is to be praised.
The Lord is excessive above all nations;
His glory is above the heavens.
Who’s like our God,
Who’s enthroned on excessive,
Who humbles Himself to behold
The issues which might be in heaven and on earth?
He raises the poor from the mud
And lifts the needy from the ash heap,
To make them sit with princes,
With the princes of His folks.
He makes the barren ladies abide in the home
As a joyful mom of youngsters.
Reward the Lord!
Thanks for digging into the riches of Psalm 113 with me. Subsequent week we’ll proceed our research of the Egyptian Hallel with Psalm 114, so that you would possibly need to learn forward.
Thanks for tuning in, and will God be with you till we meet once more.
