I ask that you open your Bibles tonight to the hundred and thirteenth psalm. Wherever the Lord sends you this week, you have a duty. You are to praise the Lord. Praise the Lord at all times and in all places. Praise the Lord. In whatever circumstances you find yourself in, you have a duty. You are to praise the Lord at all times and in all places; praise Him! Above all, today and every Lord’s Day, you have a duty. You have a duty to gather with God’s people and praise the Lord. And it’s my joy tonight to be with you to share in the praise that we give to Him. Before I read this great psalm, let’s unite our hearts and minds in prayer. Let us pray.
Almighty God, Your Word is truth, and we pray that You will impress it upon our minds tonight. Cause us to believe all that is contained in it, to love Your truth, and to practice it in our lives. And this we ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
Hear God’s Word:
“Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!
The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!”
And here ends the reading of God’s holy and inerrant Word.
During my years in ministry, I have been summoned many times to those who are near death. And the dying and their families have wanted me to read Scripture. And they have especially wanted me to read the Psalms for their comfort in suffering, to thinking about Jesus. What about Him? As He approached His own betrayal and death, what passage of Scripture were on His mind? Well, I think we can know. On the night in which He was betrayed, the Bible tells us that He gathered with His disciples at Passover and shared with them the first Lord’s Supper. And then, we’re told that when the meal was over, they sung a hymn and left the upper room for the Mount of Olives. That hymn prepared Jesus for the cross work that lay before Him. But which hymn did He sing that night? Of course Jesus’ hymnbook is the Psalter, and so we know He sang a psalm. But we can know with a high degree of likelihood the specific psalms that He sang. Psalms 113-118 were the psalms that were sung by Jews during the Passover. At the Passover, it was common among the Jews to sing these five psalms as they remembered God’s rescue of them from oppression in Egypt. And that’s why these five psalms, this collection, is known as “Egyptian Praise.” And Psalm 113 begins with a summons to praise the Lord.
So there you have it. It’s spelled out clearly. You have a duty. You are to praise the Lord. You are to praise the Lord at all times and in all places. And tonight I want to give you three reasons why you should praise the Lord. First, you have a command to obey. Look with me at verse 1. “Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord!” And look and see how the psalm ends – “Praise the Lord!” You have a command to obey. I’m starting with the obvious here. And you might ask “Why?” Why begin with something so obvious as our responsibility to praise the Lord? Well it’s because it’s the obvious that we so easily forget. Isn’t it? You know; it’s so obvious that you should spend less than you make. And some of us go right on spending recklessly. We overlook the obvious. It’s obvious that we need sufficient sleep, yet we deprive ourselves of it, night after night. We overlook the obvious. So tonight, let’s not overlook the obvious. You have a command to obey. Praise the Lord.
Let’s ask a few questions about verse 1. Who are you to praise? Verse 1 tells us. You are to praise the Lord. Now who is the Lord? You’ll notice that in your translation, “LORD” appears in all capital letters eight times in these nine verses. It’s our translation of God’s personal name – Yahweh. Or as some Bibles and hymns read, like the hymn we just sang – Jehovah. The name comes from the verb, “to be.” It is the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. What a momentous event that was. Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Yahweh. He is the great I AM. He is forever with His covenant people. He saves us from His own just wrath against sinners. He sanctifies us from our sin. He sustains us in our affliction. He declares, “I AM the LORD,” and you are commanded to praise Him.
We don’t think enough about who the Lord is. Shouldn’t we study frequently and deeply the attributes of God? I’m so glad that for the past several Wednesday nights Dr. Strain and Dr. Irving have been focusing on God’s attributes. And the Bible has much to teach about His character. The Lord is eternal. He is self-existent, without beginning and end. He is the great I AM. The Lord is inexhaustible. His glory, the radiance of it, never fades. He never runs out of resources. He lacks nothing. He needs nothing outside Himself. He is not dependent in the least on His creation. The Lord is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The hymnwriter confesses, “Change and decay all around I see, O thou who changest not abide with me.”
The Lord is omnipresent, or everywhere present. Wherever we turn, we are confronted by the one who has revealed Himself as I AM. And what a comfort that is, because wherever we are, He is our refuge and strength, an everpresent help in times of trouble. What a comfort! The Lord is omnipotent, or all powerful. The powers of Egypt could not prevail against the Lord, and the forces that we face today cannot prevail against God’s beloved Church. As the Israelites sang this song, they praised the Lord who rescued them from Egyptian slavery. And as we sing this psalm – and we should sing it – impressed upon our heart is that the great truth that God has rescued us from the bondage of sin through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Tonight we worship as His covenant people, and He will remain faithful to every covenant promise that He has made to us. Praise the Lord! You have a command to obey.
Praise the Lord, at all times and all places. Praise the Lord! Why? Well, you have a command to obey, and next, you have an assembly to join. Who makes up the assembly that sings this psalm? Why it’s you and me! It’s all of God’s servants, wherever they’re found. Look at verse 1 again. “Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord.” A servant’s first concern, what’s foremost in his mind, is doing his master’s will. And your first concern, day in and day out, should be to praise the Lord. Praise Him, O you servants. And especially praise Him when you are gathered together with His people on the Lord’s Day.
Now as you praise Him, I want you to think generations. Look at verse 2. “Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!” Multitudes have praised Him in the past. Multitudes are praising Him right now. Multitudes are going to praise Him in the future as generation after generation joins this assembly. I so much enjoy standing outside the church to welcome you as you arrive on Sundays and Wednesdays. Here’s what I see. I see children, parents, grandparents, even the occasional great-grandparent coming into the church. Our assembly is so special. It is a living testimony of generation after generation coming together and praising the Lord. Can’t you see what a special place this is?
What a powerful witness it was this morning when you could look at the congregation, all these generations reciting together the great truths of the Christian faith in The Apostles’ Creed, and think how many have been doing that for century after century, generation after generation. “Blessed be the name of the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.” You have an assembly to join. For the past two years, I’ve taught our sixty first graders at Bible School, and what a treat it’s been for me. I am an eyewitness to the unfolding plan that God has to gather a multitude of worshipers for Himself, generation after generation. “Blessed be the name of the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.” You have an assembly to join.
As you praise Him, I want you to think generations. And as you praise Him, I want you to think geography. People from across the world become His worshipers. That’s what verse 3 means. Look. “From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!” From the east to the west and everywhere in between, the Lord will be praised. Men and women, boys and girls, from every nation, tribe, people and language will praise Him.
I remember in the 1990s, traveling in a rural area of northeast China. China, the largest nation in the world. Officially atheist. They kicked the missionaries out in 1949 trying to stamp out every vestige of religion. The area in which I traveled had a large Korean speaking population. My traveling partner was an American minister who happened to be fluent in Korean. And to put it mildly, me and my friend were not the Louis and Clark of the reformed world! We managed to get ourselves lost in the countryside of northeast China! But my friend saw a farmer standing out by the roadside and he pulled over, got out, and started talking with the farmer. And it was a rather long conversation. And then, my friend motioned for me to get out of the car and we followed the farmer into his house – hut could have been a better word to describe where he lived. And there he gathered his large family together and sat them on the floor. We sat with them, and then he brought out a Korean Bible for my friend to read to them and then to talk about the things of Christ with them and then to pray for them. There, I saw first hand that from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. Try to stamp it out if you will, but God will not leave this world without a witness to His glorious name. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. What an assembly praises our great God! It’s an assembly that spans generations, and it’s an assembly that spans the globe. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! You have an assembly to join.
Tonight, that’s our theme – Praise the Lord. At all times and in all places, praise the Lord. Why? Well, you have a command to obey. You have an assembly to join. And third and finally, you have a grace to celebrate. And it’s the greatness of God that sets the stage for the marvelous demonstrations of His grace. The psalmist continues to praise the Lord for His greatness. Look at verse 4. “The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!” He is above the nations, above their conflicts, above their wars. He’s unthreatened by them. His throne is secure. No power can overturn His will. He alone is sovereign.
Look at verse 5. “Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?” How we need this view of God – a big and glorious God. Far above the stars and galaxies. Far above the universe the Lord is seated, and He looks down on all He has made. That’s His vantage point. By His power He sustains His creation. With unerring wisdom, He governs the affairs of nations. Nothing is a mystery for Him. Nothing is hidden from Him. He knows everything. He perfectly comprehends everything. And as Jesus sang this at Passover, He entrusted Himself to His all sovereign and all loving heavenly Father. And as we read this psalm and as we sing this psalm, we are called upon to trust our all sovereign King and loving heavenly Father. What a great and glorious God we worship. We sing His almighty power. The greatness of God. And that sets the stage for His grace. His throne is far above the heavens, yet He stoops down to us in His grace. And what an amazing grace it is.
The Lord can change the circumstances of the poor. He takes notice of them and has pity upon them. Look at verses 7 and 8. “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.” Throughout the church’s history, it has lifted the impoverished and the outcast and brought them into the church, and so many of them have become leaders in God’s church. Well you may be saying, “I’ve never experienced a day of poverty in my life.” Oh yes, you have. You may never have experienced financial poverty, but He has raised each of us from the dust of spiritual death. He has done that for you. He has done that for me. Each of us has been lifted up from the ash heap of sin. By faith we are united to our Savior who is at the right hand of God. We are made adopted sons and daughters of the Lord. We are heirs of His glorious kingdom. O, what marvelous grace the Lord has shown to us. Praise the Lord we have a grace to celebrate. The Lord can change the circumstances of the poor.
And the Lord can also change the circumstances of the childless. Look with me at verse 9. “He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.” In ancient Israel, it was counted a tragedy if a married woman had no children. A barren woman feared ending her life without family, alone, no one to care for her. In His grace, the Lord can make the barren woman a mother. In His grace, He can give her a home. Some, both men and women, some of you were once without a spiritual home. You were alone in the world. You were without God. You were a stranger to His covenant. And God gathered you, in His grace, into His eternal family, His beloved Church. He gave you the spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers that you needed to teach you the basics of the Christian faith, about how to walk with your Savior, how to depend upon the Holy Spirit’s power. How good our heavenly Father has been to you.
And perhaps He’s made you – well, not perhaps; I know He has made some of you spiritual fathers and mothers to others. I’ve witnessed that with my own eyes. I’ve seen it in my own experience. I only remember two of my Sunday school teachers from childhood; only two of them do I remember their names. And they were both single ladies, spiritual mothers in the church. Ms. Faith, my fifth grade teacher, she was the very first person ever to come up to me and ask questions to make sure that I had a right relationship with God. Of course my parents did that, but the first person who was not a parent of mine to come up to me and talk to me about spiritual things was my fifth grade teacher. And as long as I was in her class, regular phone calls from her, seeking to make sure that I was growing in faith, that I was devoted to the spiritual disciplines.
As I think about her now, I see the incredible value of those of you who are investing in your life to be spiritual fathers and mothers of those in our congregation or those in your neighborhoods. But it also really saddens me, because in that church where I worshiped for five years, never did an elder or a deacon come to talk to me about my soul. It was this one lady. And I’m so glad to be in a church where our officers are instructed to care for men and women spiritually.
Ms. Barbara, when I was an older teenager and nobody else my age, she prepared magnificent Bible lessons for me. She brought commentaries; she brought atlases. She gave me a great instruction in the Word of God, and I was her only student. What a blessing we have when people invest their lives in caring, spiritually caring, for the men and women that God has entrusted to our churches. O, praise the Lord! Praise the Lord who can change the circumstances of the childless. Praise the Lord! We have grace to celebrate.
Well, it’s time for me to end, and let’s end tonight where the song ends. We’re exhorted in verse 9, “Praise the Lord!” The psalm begins with an exhortation to praise the Lord, and it ends with an exhortation to praise the Lord. Now that’s your task this week. That’s your task to live a life of praise to the Lord. Not a one of us knows with certainty where the Lord will send us this week. For most of us, He will send us to work, to school, to church – all the places we ordinarily go, to places that are pleasantly uneventful. But we must never forget our duty, that wherever the Lord sends us, at all times and in all places, we are to praise Him. With grateful hearts, He sends us forth into the world to serve Him.
For others of us, and I know there are many here, we will be sent to places we do not expect and do not want – to the hospital as a patient, to the place of mourning. Others of us will be sent to places we dread – to a home shattered by sin, to a workplace filled with strife. God’s universe hasn’t spun out of control. He sits on His throne, and just as He directs the affairs of the nations, so He directs your and my personal affairs. He sends us to places that we often do not want to go, and it’s in those places that we experience His sustaining power and we praise Him for that. It’s in these places that He takes, sends His servants, turns them into arenas on which He will display His magnificent grace to all who watch. Doctors are going to see how you handle your illness. Mourners are going to see how you handle the grief that has overwhelmed you. Those that know your family situation and those broken homes, they’re going to see how you handle that with dignity and grace as you rely upon the Lord who you found time and time again to be your refuge and strength, an everpresent help in times of trouble. It’s in these places that we praise the Lord and glory comes to His name.
Now what lies before us this week, it’s uncertain, but what is certain is that we have a duty. We can be certain that God is with us as we discharge this duty. Wherever we are, we are to praise the Lord. A final time tonight, I exhort you, praise the Lord. At all times and in all places, praise the Lord!
Let’s bow for prayer.
Almighty God our heavenly Father, I pray for this church family that’s in front of me. I pray that You’ll fill our hearts with gratitude and from our mouths will come words that praise Your holy name. From generation to generation You’ve been faithful to this congregation. May we praise Your holy name. From generation to generation, You’ve sent forth people from this congregation to bear witness to Christ in various places in this community, in this state, and around the world. As they go, may they praise the Lord, and may we praise You for the opportunities that You place before them. But now as we leave this place of worship and go into the world for another week, may the high praises of You, our God and King, be on our lips and may glory and honor come to Your holy name. And this we ask in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.