Everlasting Praise

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

Revelation 4 verse 8.

This is what is heard in the heavenly court all the time.

They never stop saying it.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

Day and night.

Does anyone remember Keith Green?

Did you ever see the tract before there were podcasts?

Will you be bored in heaven?

I have a stack of tracts from last day's ministries.

And it was a tract that Keith Green, who was a guy that died very young in his 20s and was a very passionate man.

He posed the question, will I be bored if all you're doing in heaven is praising, is singing and worshipping God?

Well, Revelation also says that in heaven and then the new earth, in Revelation 5, with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth.

Where we're heading is not disembodied spirits in heaven.

We're going to be resurrected, those of us who have faith in Christ, and we will live in the new earth, which is heaven joined to the resurrected earth.

And so it's been said that in answer to the question, why doesn't God zap us back to glory as soon as we become Christians?

Have you ever been asked that question a lot?

Why don't we just get zapped home to glory?

Part of the answer of that is this life is training for reigning.

We're training to reign, as the text says, with Christ in the new creation.

And a huge part of reigning with Christ is knowing how to be part of the ever lasting anthem of praise that comes from creation.

Amen?

There is praise that is going on all the time from the universe God created, the heavens declare His glory.

It's certainly happening in the heavenly court.

And we are invited as Christians to be part of this heavenly symphony, this anthem of creation to the Creator.

Unceasing praise.

So we are trying to learn how to do that.

And so we are now in Psalm 145.

We are in a series in the Psalms.

Did you know that the Psalms were written over more than 800 years?

Think back 800 years and the type of English you would read from literature.

Isn't that an astounding truth?

The Psalms were written by various composers and authors of the poetry and the songs in the Hebrew canon of worship.

But over 800 years, you know these Psalms in our Bible have been used to bless and encourage human beings for more than 3,000 years.

You reckon they know something about your life?

You reckon they can speak to us today?

Absolutely.

It's something like two-thirds of these Psalms are actually laments.

Isn't that interesting?

Laments, where the psalmist says, God, why on earth is everything so hard?

Why is...

what are you going to do?

What about the evil people?

What about the injustice I see in the world?

Lament is so much part of this Hebrew collection of worship and poetry and song.

Why?

Because life is so much about dealing with suffering.

And so in the laments, there's only one lament, Psalm 88, that stays in the pit.

Every other psalm has a turning point.

And we often don't know where the turning point came from, but if you study the Psalter, the idea is someone came and spoke a word of encouragement along the lines of, lift your eyes up to the heavens.

And the psalm twists, pivots, and there is praise given to God.

Now, is that a simple thing to move from lament to praise?

Often it's not.

It's quite complex, moving from pain and suffering and confusion and disappointment, but it's possible.

The Psalms tell us it's possible.

Psalm 145 is not a lament, but it's a song of kingship, a song by David, and he calls people, and now we know, over sort of 3,000 years, cause human beings to engage in personal praise.

And then he says, but it's got to be communal as well.

And in fact, I want to remind you, it's universal.

It's the whole of creation that need to join in the praise of our magnificent cosmic king, Yahweh.

So David begins with calling himself to praise the Lord.

Personal, everlasting praise is our first idea.

He says, I will exalt you, my God the King.

I will praise your name forever and ever.

Every day I will praise you and extol your name forever.

It's fascinating that this time where David is writing the Psalm, they didn't have any great understanding of the resurrection like we do.

They understood Sheol as an intermediate state, the place of the dead.

But isn't it fascinating that he prays with confidence that he will be able to worship God in an everlasting fashion, even though theologically they don't have a clear understanding, as we do in the New Testament, of what happens after death.

David is calling himself to praise God forever and ever and ever.

And that's going to involve day after day after day, isn't it?

Forever and ever, it rolls off the tongue.

But what is forever and ever?

Day after day after day.

So, daily habits of consecutive, slow, daily praise is what David will require to fulfil his vow, his song.

And we will need to as well, amen?

If we're going to praise God, understand how to do everlasting praise, sort of has to happen today, and then tomorrow, and then the day after.

And there's something pushing back against us, doing that each day, isn't there?

The Bible, New Testament, sort of collates that and says, it's the world, the flesh and the devil, is pushing back against our desire to praise the living God, day after day after day.

So the world is this, I guess you might call, algorithm that we are marinated in, the movement of tide of society.

And it's typically pushing us back from praising the living God.

And the flesh is our own sinful habits and appetites, and that won't help us praising God.

And then you've got the devil, who's a real spiritual power, who wants to steal the praise that God deserves.

To counter this, the psalmist says, great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.

His greatness, no one can fathom.

It is incomprehensible.

His greatness.

Are you there at that place today as you come and sing the songs we've been singing?

Are you in a place of revelation, where you're like, yeah, oh God, you are incomprehensible.

It's beyond, I can't fathom your greatness.

What a privilege for me to come in to this space and praise the living God.

Maybe it was this morning when you saw the sunrise.

Is that where you're at?

When you saw the sunrise and you thought, praise be to God.

He is worthy.

To counter the threefold powers, we need to help each other out, the psalmist says, and teach from generation to generation.

This is just a lovely verse.

One generation commends your works to another.

Doesn't that just make sense?

If worship, praise is going to be everlasting, we don't get to keep living forever.

You've got to pass it on.

Here is where Stephen would jump from the side and do a plug for kids' ministry.

And he probably will next week or the week after.

One generation commends your works to another.

We must minister to our children, amen.

We must tell them about what God has done.

Or we will fail our calling.

Because over thousands of years, generations commend the goodness of God and his acts to the next generation.

How else would they find out?

We need to tell them.

And there's actually something serious about this, isn't there?

Because there are everlasting consequences for how they respond to God and his requirements of their life.

It's very important to commend to the next generation.

So to stir our hearts to praise, to stir David's heart, the individual's heart, he says this, tell, speak, meditate, proclaim, celebrate, joyfully sing.

They tell of your mighty acts as they commend.

They speak of the glorious splendour of your majesty.

I will meditate on your wonderful works.

I need to chew it over so I don't forget.

They tell of the power of your awesome works.

I will proclaim your great deeds.

They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

Are you busy right now in this season of life?

Is life just full?

Well, the psalmist says to fortify your heart against, and my heart against, the three foes, the world, the flesh and the devil, we need a personal worship posture daily.

We need to meditate.

That's not something you do in a rush.

We need to chew over the truth of God's word.

Now, what else does he say?

Talk about it with others.

Talk about it.

What God has done.

Proclaim it in word and deed.

Express your joy.

The psalmist starts out in this call to worship with very much an individual piety, but if you look at the text, there's this three letter word that pops up frequently.

All.

It's calling for others to join in this worship.

And then David carefully slides in this truth from one of the most important passages in scripture.

It's from Exodus 34.

The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.

This is what Moses was taught by Yahweh about what Yahweh is like.

It's a very significant passage, Exodus 34.

And here David is picking up on that truth.

He says in verse eight, The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

The Lord is good to all.

He has compassion on all he has made.

Isn't it beautiful?

Is anyone a good gardener here?

Anyone a good gardener?

Who's the best gardener you know?

You know someone who's, oh, they are a green thumb.

They're just so good.

What does a good gardener do with a sort of a quite expansive garden?

They don't just look after one plant, do they?

They understand that some plants will struggle at different times of the year.

Others are more hardy.

They have an intimate relationship with the parts of their garden.

God is a gardener, right?

And He knows what we need.

He is good to who?

All.

He is good to all.

All who call on Him.

He is compassionate and merciful and loving to all.

Isn't that wonderful?

Some of us have been taught that God is not compassionate and merciful to all.

Some of us have an idea about a God who is a really nasty policeman.

And he's always that father or mother that's like, where's the extra 2%?

You got 98, where's the extra 2?

I wonder if that's your perspective of the God who created you.

The Bible says he's compassionate and merciful and loving and good to all.

The psalmist calls for communal praise of Yahweh.

All your works, verse 10, praise you.

All your works praise you, Lord.

Your faithful people extol you.

It has to start in my heart, but it also needs to be done collectively.

The praise of the living God.

Your faithful people extol you.

He's talking about the symphony of praise, isn't he?

There's something bigger than just us to praise God individually.

They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendour of your kingdom.

Harmony is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

I hope that it will work if you play it and make sure the volume is up, okay?

But if you just play this bit of music.

Harmony is pretty cool, isn't it?

And I think that's a really nice picture of life.

You can worship the Lord, praise Him just by yourself without the church.

Yeah, you can make it to heaven.

You can receive His grace.

And He will appreciate your solo voice in worship.

But there's something that we are missing if you're not part of a collective.

And it doesn't have to look like this.

It could look like all sorts of different permutations of the local church.

But it's important that we meet together and we learn from each other and we're blessed by each other with our gifts that we're given, spiritual giftings.

David then takes us on this side note.

He said, you know, that it's important to be doing this together.

And he takes us on this little excursion in the text into what is so amazing about the King of the Kingdom.

Verse 13, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

How would you describe the kingdom of God?

It's often called the reign of God, the realm of his eternal reign.

Sometimes it's described as the extent of God's effective will, where God is allowed to reign and his will comes and his kingdom comes, where humans who want to control their own kingdoms allow his kingdom to come and there is human flourishing.

God the King, he sort of extrapolates and he unpacks a little bit about this kingdom, this wonderful kingdom of the reign of Yahweh.

He says in Psalm, in verse 14, the Lord upholds all who fall and lifts all who are bowed down.

This God is merciful.

He's merciful.

It's not just that he forgives, he is compassionate and loving to the broken.

That's why it's easy to praise collectively.

He's a provider.

The eyes of all, David says, look to you and you give them food at the proper time.

You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

Spiritually, emotionally, materially, he's a provider.

I think this is one of the key hacks if we're really thinking about, how do you engage in unceasing praise?

Has anyone discovered that gratitude daily gets you halfway there?

Like just wake up and say, I've got legs, hands are working, great.

Yes, hello, Lord, my vocal cords are working.

Wow, this is looking good.

The day has started well.

Or do you take all that stuff for granted?

Or when you go to that job that you've had for years, do you think, gee, I've been very successful, and you know, I have done very well for myself?

Or do you wake up and go, thank you, Lord, for your grace.

Oh, I'm a doofus half the time.

That's a theological word you'll find somewhere.

I'm a bit of a goose at times, Lord, but thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your provision.

It gets us halfway there for this Everlasting Praise that is required daily to push back the forces of the world, the flesh and the devil, who want us to give our worship to a disordered love, to something that's not worthy of our praise.

Our God, the King, is just.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.

The psalmist David is saying, justice is the cornerstone of God's character.

People sometimes say, why is God so unfair?

Why is he so unfair?

I think that really lacks perspective.

It's honest, it's like lament, but it lacks perspective, because if you do get perspective, you see, no, God is completely fair because it's his character.

He's just.

Our God is a rescuer, verse 18.

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desires of those who fear him.

He hears their cry and saves them.

Some of us live with fear that we will have a fall sometime and no one will hear us.

Anyone have a sneaky fear of getting caught in a lift?

What a nice feeling, isn't it?

The thought of getting stuck.

But the fear is so real because it's like, I would be somewhere where I couldn't be heard, where I would call and no one would hear me.

The psalmist is saying, you will never get to a point in your life where God the Father cannot hear you.

Hallelujah.

He hears those who call on him.

And maybe that's you today.

Like, I know God's so far away from me because I'm so bad.

No, he's near and he will hear you call.

He rescues the downtrodden and those who need saving.

And he's our protector.

The Lord watches over all who love him.

He's certainly our protector over the power of death.

If you put your faith in Christ, you are protected from death and ultimately the second death, eternal death.

We are protected.

I think the idea of protection is a moot point in a way because we're certainly not protected from suffering.

We're told that.

And there are times when in the suffering things happen to us that we think, oh gee, could you have protected them or me?

And I think that's one of the challenges of life.

But we're also invited to ask God to send angels to protect.

He is a God who watches over all who love him.

And he's a judge.

David says, all the wicked he will destroy.

It doesn't say that he will torture.

He says, forever destroy.

There will be an eternal death for those who are not found in Christ.

So David has called himself to Everlasting Praise.

He calls the community around him to Everlasting Praise.

And then he calls the universe to Everlasting Praise.

My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.

Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever.

That's an all encompassing line, isn't it?

Think about it.

The whale, the cockroach.

In Genesis, it says, they're all nephesh.

They're not getting saved, but they're nephesh, which is soul.

They're a living thing.

And they're only living because the living one caused them to live.

And don't forget, we were made from dust.

We were made from mud.

So there is something at the beginning that connects us with this creation and every living thing.

And it's just an amazing, wonderful truth that all of creation, the stars, the planets, the universe, will praise the living God.

The creature must praise the one who created.

And Revelation tells us this in chapter 5, Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever.

And if you remember when we studied the book of Revelation, when you see numbers, they mean something in apocalyptic literature.

And the number four, four words, heaven, earth, under the earth, on the sea.

Does anyone remember what that's saying?

Four means the whole world, everything.

Everything is being collected into this praise, to praise the one true living God.

What's stopping you from praising him in a fashion that he is due and is worthy of his name?

Have you noticed that human beings in the past, we would give standing ovations to people who sang something or gave a speech?

It's common to get a standing ovation at a concert.

I think the most...

Where would you say is the most common place you get a standing ovation now?

The sporting event.

Everyone stands.

And sometimes, what do we do at the sporting event?

We can do these ones.

Warny, warny.

I'm not trying to be hypercritical, but it's just like...

It just says something, doesn't it, about the human heart?

That we would do this to another human being?

And of course, it's out of jest.

But I think it speaks subliminally to something deeper.

We're designed to give our best to praise the living God.

So how do we do it?

We start with daily preaching of the Gospel to ourselves.

I'm reminded, I'm a sinner.

I need rescue.

Jesus, you have rescued me.

Thank you so much.

I'm grateful.

We move to this thankfulness, gratitude, humility.

We acknowledge the mighty acts of God.

We tell, speak, meditate, proclaim, celebrate, joyfully sing.

I'd put it to you.

Put that one down in your notes in your phone and just try it out.

Tell, speak, meditate, proclaim, celebrate, joyfully sing by ourselves and with others.

And just keep remembering, we have been by the grace of God, those of us who have put faith in Christ, we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness, you know, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the sun, who God loves.

And nothing can touch us.

It's all good.

Lord God, thank you that you have made a way for us to know the truth from your Word, that you are a good God.

And you've demonstrated this ultimately and perfectly in the Lord Jesus, who lived and died and rose again for us.

Thank you that you are compassionate and merciful.

You provide all we need.

And you are worthy.

You are good to all.

You are good to all.

Be glorified in this room and in our lives.

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