Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / Psalm 145 - Adopting the Character of Our Indescribably Great God
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
- 0:03podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
- 0:07I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
- 0:10you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
- 0:14others. Let's dive right in.
- 0:15Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in Psalm 145, Psalm
- 0:20145, and this is a dearly loved Psalm for many people.
- 0:26I've been going through all the way through Psalms as you guys
- 0:30will recall whenever there's a Psalm that someone has written a
- 0:37tune to, I've tried to link those in the show notes every
- 0:41single time and Psalm 145 is one that just right off hand.
- 0:45I knew of three different songs that people have written.
- 0:49Number one is the song How great by Sovereign Grace Music is
- 0:53wonderful. There's also a song that's just
- 0:57called Psalm 145 by Shane and Shane, and then there's another
- 1:02one called Yahweh the Lord by the Worship Initiative, and all
- 1:06of those are directly from Psalm 145.
- 1:09So if you want to spend some time memorizing the Word of God
- 1:14and being able to kind of meditate on it in a really
- 1:18beautiful way, I encourage you to listen to those songs.
- 1:22And I've linked all of those in the show notes.
- 1:26Let's read through Psalm 145 together.
- 1:29The inscription reads a hymn of David.
- 1:32He says, I exalt you, my God the King, and bless your name
- 1:37forever and ever. I will bless you every day.
- 1:41I will praise your name forever and ever.
- 1:45Yahweh is great and is highly praised.
- 1:48His greatness is unsearchable. One generation will declare your
- 1:52works to the next and will proclaim Your mighty acts.
- 1:56I will speak of your splendor and glorious majesty and your
- 2:01wondrous works. They will proclaim the power of
- 2:04Your awe inspiring acts and I will declare your greatness.
- 2:08They will give a testimony of Your great goodness and will
- 2:12joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
- 2:16Yahweh is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger,
- 2:20and great and faithful love. Yahweh is good to everyone.
- 2:25His compassion rests on all He has made.
- 2:28All You have made will thank you.
- 2:30Yahweh, the faithful will bless you.
- 2:33They will speak of the glory of Your Kingdom and will declare
- 2:37Your might, informing all people of Your mighty acts and the
- 2:41glorious splendor of Your Kingdom.
- 2:44Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.
- 2:46Your rule is for all generations.
- 2:49Yahweh is faithful in all His words and gracious in all His
- 2:54actions. Yahweh helps all who fall.
- 2:58He raises up all who are oppressed.
- 3:01All eyes look to You and You give them their food.
- 3:04At the proper time, You open Your hand and satisfy the desire
- 3:09of every living thing. Yahweh is righteous in all His
- 3:13ways and faithful in all His acts.
- 3:17Yahweh is near all who call out to Him, all who call out to Him
- 3:21with integrity. He fulfills the desires of those
- 3:24who fear Him. He hears their cry for help and
- 3:27saves them. Yahweh guards all those who love
- 3:30Him, but He destroys all the wicked.
- 3:33My mouth will declare Yahweh's praise.
- 3:36Let every living thing bless His holy name forever and ever.
- 3:42Man, what a great portion of Scripture.
- 3:45Let's begin looking now at verses 1 and 2.
- 3:49David says I exalt you, my God, the king here, David, He is the
- 3:54king over Israel, but he knows who really is in charge of this
- 4:00world, who really is in charge of Israel.
- 4:03And his name was not David, it was Yahweh, his God.
- 4:08This is something that we are always to remember, that every
- 4:13person, every government, every king, every ruler that is on
- 4:17planet earth ought to be subservient to the King of Kings
- 4:22and the Lord of Lords. And in the times when kings and
- 4:26rulers and countries and Congress people and judges, when
- 4:31everyone wants to do what is right in their own eyes and
- 4:34their own estimation, we ought to always to hold them
- 4:37accountable to what the Word of God says about righteousness,
- 4:41about justice, about what is good and what is wrong.
- 4:45That is our metric stick. And so here David says, I exalt
- 4:50you, my God the king says, I bless your name forever and
- 4:54ever. They'll never be a day when
- 4:56praising the Lord goes out of style.
- 4:59It might go out of style with our sing cursed world, but it
- 5:02will always be, if you will, in vogue with the Lord, it'll
- 5:06always be in vogue with the people of God.
- 5:08So praise God's name always forever.
- 5:12Verse 2, He says I will bless you every day and I will praise
- 5:16your name forever and ever. Verses 3 through 7, then he
- 5:23David talks about God's greatness, about how they, the
- 5:28the people will respond to the greatness of God and how David
- 5:31himself would respond. He says Yahweh is great and is
- 5:35highly praised. His greatness is unsearchable.
- 5:40You can look at our world. You can look at it intricate
- 5:44designs, You can look at the human body and how God has put
- 5:51us together about all of the inter necessary systems that you
- 5:58would have to have. You can think of the old joke,
- 6:01you know, which came first, the chicken or the egg and and you
- 6:05might wonder, how did life get its start?
- 6:08Well, it finds its source, it finds its designer in Yahweh.
- 6:12And he is the one that has made us and he made us very well.
- 6:18You can look at the cosmos and you can look at the beauty of
- 6:22the stars and the comets and meteors and planets all across
- 6:26everything that humanity can see, and our incredible God
- 6:31created those. You can look at the beauty of
- 6:35our earth and you can look, you know, at microscopic levels.
- 6:39You can look at atoms and how detailed they are.
- 6:44You can look at all of the scientific processes that exist,
- 6:50and all of it has been put together by our God.
- 6:53He is great, He is majestic, He is amazing.
- 6:56He is intelligent. There is no searching out how
- 7:00great God is. Everywhere you look you can see
- 7:04the greatness of God in His creation.
- 7:07You can look at the greatness of God in His actions, in the way
- 7:11that He has expressed himself or revealed himself in Scripture.
- 7:17And it ought to make us go wow, this God is great and one that
- 7:22is to be highly praised. Verse #4 One generation will
- 7:27declare your works to the next and will proclaim your mighty
- 7:31acts. I'll tell you guys, this is
- 7:33something that even here at our church at Tabernacle is one of
- 7:38our big desires that we don't want Tabernacle to end when
- 7:44perhaps the, you know, baby boomer generation, when they
- 7:48pass off the scene. We don't want that to be the end
- 7:51of our church. We want one generation to
- 7:53declare the work of God to the next that if you will, the
- 7:56boomers tell Gen. X, Gen.
- 8:00X tells the millennials, Millennials tell Gen.
- 8:02Z, Gen. Z tells Gen.
- 8:04Alpha, and so on and so forth throughout the years.
- 8:07We want to be a people of God that are continually passing on
- 8:12what the Lord has done. Can I ask you right now, who are
- 8:15you in the next generation telling about the Lord and about
- 8:19what He has done for you? There might be someone that
- 8:22doesn't know the Lord at all that you're passing on the
- 8:25faith, but it might be someone that the Lord has that you would
- 8:28be disciple and never assume someone else can do the
- 8:32disciple. Jesus did not tell the disciples
- 8:36to go. Therefore in all the world and
- 8:39half of you or 1/4 of you make disciples of all nations,
- 8:43baptizing them. No, no, it is the call that has
- 8:47been given to every follower of Jesus that we are disciples who
- 8:51make disciples. Now we might not make brand new
- 8:55disciples, but we can be discipling someone else.
- 8:58Parents, you have a duty and a responsibility to disciple the
- 9:02next generation, that their relationship with God will be be
- 9:06informed by your own relationship with God.
- 9:10What are you leading them to do? What do they see you doing?
- 9:14Do your kids or your grandkids? Do they regularly see you
- 9:17praying, reading your Bible, going to church, loving others,
- 9:22walking in the Spirit? Do they see you doing that?
- 9:26Are you helping them along in that process?
- 9:30Are you praying with your kids or your grandkids?
- 9:33Are you reading the Bible with your kids or grandkids?
- 9:35Are you going to church with them?
- 9:38Are you talking through how a situation that you're walking
- 9:45through, how your faith in Jesus affects the way that you
- 9:48interact with that? How can you expect the next
- 9:51generation to have faith in Jesus when you are not taking
- 9:55the time to show them how to have that relationship with
- 9:59Jesus? Now that is a personal choice
- 10:01that they need to make, but may we not be unfaithful to declare
- 10:06the works of God to successive generations.
- 10:09Verse #5 I will speak of your splendor and glorious majesty
- 10:13and your wondrous works. They will proclaim the power of
- 10:17your awe inspiring acts and I will declare your greatness.
- 10:21They will give a testimony of your great goodness and will
- 10:24joyfully sing of your righteousness.
- 10:26There's so much that we can praise God for.
- 10:29May our mouths never be silent or hesitant to to declare the
- 10:36greatness, the goodness, the faithfulness, the awesomeness,
- 10:39the power of our God. Then in verses 813, David here
- 10:46quotes from God's self description of himself that He
- 10:51gave to Moses. At this point it would have
- 10:54been, you know, maybe like 3 to somewhere in the neighborhood of
- 10:593 to 500 years prior. God had told Moses, this is who
- 11:04I am. He says Yahweh is gracious and
- 11:07compassionate, slow to anger and great and faithful love.
- 11:12First there God is gracious. He is kind in the way that he
- 11:16deals with people. Though He is the all powerful
- 11:19God, He deals with us gracefully, kindly.
- 11:24Is that the way that you interact with other people?
- 11:27Or are you the kind of bull in a China shop that someone better
- 11:31not hope that they ever get your order wrong at a restaurant or
- 11:36someone better hope that they never get you on the phone for
- 11:39customer service because you're a jerk?
- 11:42Don't be like that. Be like God because this awe
- 11:45inspiring wonder working God is described first and foremost by
- 11:51himself and then all throughout the rest of the Old Testament as
- 11:55gracious. He is kind and that ought to be
- 11:58the way that we deal with others.
- 12:00The next he says you always gracious and compassionate.
- 12:04God cares about the state of others.
- 12:08Do you care about the state of others or are you just self
- 12:11focused? Very unfortunately, there's a
- 12:14kind of big push and some different circles right now to
- 12:17label things like empathy and sympathy and care for others as
- 12:22quote UN quote sinful. Frankly, I think that's
- 12:26something that is anti God in its in its character.
- 12:32I understand some of the aims that those people are trying to
- 12:37accomplish. I just do not believe that they
- 12:40are in line with scripture at all in the way that they are
- 12:43doing that. Instead, may we not run from
- 12:46sympathy and empathy. May we be compassionate like our
- 12:50God is compassionate, that he cares enough about our state
- 12:54that he, he became human, he took on flesh, He became one of
- 12:58us, went through all of the difficulties that we go through.
- 13:01And what we're told in the book of Hebrews is that because he
- 13:05has suffered, because he was tempted in every way just like
- 13:09we are, but without sin, he is able to come alongside us
- 13:13because he knows what it's like. And so we can walk with us
- 13:17through sin and difficulty and temptation that we are able to
- 13:22overcome because we have a faithful high priest who is not
- 13:26disinterested in our state, but who came alongside us, who lived
- 13:31the life we should have lived. And so now we are able to find
- 13:37strength and help and comfort. And the older English word is
- 13:42sucker SUCCOUR. We are able to be helped through
- 13:48Him. So let's have that same mindset.
- 13:49We want to do that for others because Jesus has done it for
- 13:52us. So Yahweh is gracious and
- 13:54compassionate. He is slow to anger.
- 13:59This is not the kind of person that you will become just by
- 14:04naturally living in this world. Being someone that is slow to
- 14:08anger is totally unlike what our world is right now.
- 14:12Every time that you get on social media, every single time
- 14:16that you open a news app, every time that you turn on the TV to
- 14:20Fox or CNN or OANN or PBS or whatever you have, it is all
- 14:27designed to make you angry at someone else.
- 14:31So that you will spend more and more time finding your identity
- 14:38and what you need to talk about on that social media app or on
- 14:43that website or on that particular news channel.
- 14:48Our world is designed to make you perpetually angry at
- 14:52everything. But what we're told is God is
- 14:55slow to anger. So can I encourage you spend
- 14:58your time in the Word? I promise you, you will be much
- 15:02better as a person. You will actually have better
- 15:05insight into what is going on in our world the more time you
- 15:09spend with God, because God is the one that put this thing
- 15:14together and so He is the one who knows how it ought to work,
- 15:17and He will give us what we truly ought to think.
- 15:21It doesn't. It doesn't really matter what
- 15:24some anchor or commentator or pundit thinks.
- 15:29What matters most of all is what God's Word says.
- 15:33And God's Word tells us the way in which we should live.
- 15:36And God's Word tells us the emotions that are good for us to
- 15:40exercise and to stoke at given points in time.
- 15:44And so here Yahweh is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger.
- 15:47He is great and faithful. Love that he says.
- 15:51I have a relationship with you. And so this is going to spur me
- 15:55on to action. You have a responsibility to
- 15:59love. You have a responsibility to
- 16:00love God first and foremost. And that is exemplified by how
- 16:03you live your life. You are called to have a love
- 16:07for your fellow believers of all stripes and sizes and, and
- 16:14everything. You are called to love those
- 16:16that are your brothers and sisters in Christ.
- 16:19And you are called to love your neighbor, and Jesus defined your
- 16:23neighbor as the person that you hope he's not talking about.
- 16:26That one from the rival nation that you hate, the one that you
- 16:31call a dog, the one that hundreds of years ago was waging
- 16:35warfare against your nation. That kind of person, the person
- 16:39that you won't even walk through their area of town because you
- 16:43hate them so much, that person is your neighbor.
- 16:46That's who we're called to love, called to love God and love
- 16:49people. And whoever you hope that God
- 16:51doesn't mean by love people, that's exactly who God wants you
- 16:55to love. Verse 9, Yahweh is good to
- 16:58everyone. His compassion rests on all he
- 17:01has made that the Lord every single day gives us breath.
- 17:05He gives us health to make it through the day.
- 17:07He gives us life, everything that we receive in his
- 17:11sustaining. We read about that a lot in
- 17:15verses 14 through 16. Every breath that we breathe is
- 17:20a gift from God. Every article of clothing that
- 17:23we have is a gift from God. Every dollar that we receive is
- 17:27a gift from God. And so God is good to everyone.
- 17:31He makes it rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous.
- 17:34He, if you will, gives that provision to both those that we
- 17:38would think deserve it, quote UN quote, and those that we don't
- 17:42think deserve it. And God gives to everyone and it
- 17:45says his compassion rests on all he has made.
- 17:49God cares about the state of everyone and everything that He
- 17:53has created. Do you care about everyone that
- 17:57God has created? There should be no one to whom
- 18:00we as the people of God are uncompassionate.
- 18:04Verse #10 All you have made will thank you.
- 18:06Yahweh. The faithful will bless you.
- 18:09They will speak of the glory of your Kingdom and will declare
- 18:12Your might, informing all people of Your mighty acts and the
- 18:15glorious splendor of Your Kingdom.
- 18:18Are we fulfilling this? We are supposed to be the people
- 18:21of God. Are we telling others about what
- 18:23God has done? Are we telling other people
- 18:27about the glory of being a part of Jesus's Kingdom?
- 18:31Verse 13 Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.
- 18:34Your rule is for all generations.
- 18:36Yahweh is faithful in all His words and gracious in all His
- 18:41actions. Are you true?
- 18:43Are you faithful or are you consistent in the words that you
- 18:46speak? And are you gracious in your
- 18:48actions towards others? All I'm calling us to do is to
- 18:52mimic our God. Let's mimic Jesus and the way
- 18:55that Jesus lives His life already mentioned verses 14
- 18:59through 16. Everything that we have comes
- 19:02from God. Verse 17 Yahweh is righteous in
- 19:05all his ways and faithful in all his acts.
- 19:08Yahweh is near all who call out to Him, all who call out to Him
- 19:12with integrity. Those that genuinely call on the
- 19:15name of the Lord will find salvation.
- 19:19Verse 19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him.
- 19:23That if you love God as your desires match with the desires
- 19:28of God, you will find that He fulfills the those desires over
- 19:32and over and over again. You can think back to the Sermon
- 19:34on the Mount. Blessed are those who hunger and
- 19:36thirst after righteousness because they will be filled.
- 19:42God says He hears their cry for help and saves them.
- 19:46Verse 20 Yahweh guards all those who love him, but he destroys
- 19:51all the wicked. You can choose whether God is
- 19:53your guardian or he is your judge.
- 19:56You get to make that choice. Can I encourage you?
- 19:59Make the choice? God is going to be my guardian.
- 20:02I'm on team God and I love this, that God is our guardian.
- 20:06Like as we pledge allegiance to the king, it's not simply that
- 20:10we defend God. No, God defends us.
- 20:15And what a joy that that is. It says, but he destroys all the
- 20:20wicked, those that have set themselves against the source of
- 20:24life and goodness and joy and human fulfillment.
- 20:31When you go up against life itself, you will find that there
- 20:34is only death. Verse 21 as we end my mouth will
- 20:38declare you always praise. Let every living thing bless his
- 20:41holy name forever and ever. The call for us today is to
- 20:46praise the Lord, lift him up, exalt him.
- 20:49He is worthy of worship, worthy of adoration.
- 20:52And so may we spend our time doing what is most important,
- 20:55most essential, lifting up the name of Jesus.
- 20:59How great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
- 21:03Thanks for tuning in. See you next episode.