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Psalm 150 - The End of Psalms with Tabernacle Talk · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Well, welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
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  Today is the capstone of about two years or so worth of work.
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  We are in Psalm 150 and all of Psalms has now been completed
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  and I am so excited to be able to be in this final portion of
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  Scripture with you today. And if Psalms has been an
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  encouragement to you, I would love to hear in particular if
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  there were any Psalms or any topics or things that were
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  hopeful to you in your walk with the Lord.
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  I know Psalms, even though it's a book about the the praises of
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  God, it delves into all sorts of human emotions like anger and
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  grief, desire for vengeance, praise, worship, joy, family.
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  There's just so many things that Psalms talks about.
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  And so I would love to hear how God, you know, spoke to you even
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  through our time together in the Word.
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  I would also encourage you if you have any specific topics,
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  any aspects of the Christian life that you would like to hear
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  more about, maybe even from the podcast, would love to hear kind
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  of how God's moving and working in and through you and what he
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  might have for us together. But let's read through the six
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  verses and conclude Psalms together.
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  Hallelujah. Praise God in his sanctuary.
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  Praise Him in his mighty expanse.
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  Praise Him for His powerful acts.
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  Praise Him for His abundant greatness.
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  Praise Him with the blast of a ram's horn.
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  Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with tambourine and
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  dance. Praise Him with strings and
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  flute. Praise Him with resounding
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  symbols. Praise Him with clashing
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  cymbals. Let everything that breathes
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  praise Yahweh. Hallelujah.
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  There have been many great songs over the years that have been
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  written from this portion of Scripture.
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  Probably one of the most famous ones right now is the song
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  Praise by Elevation Worship. And they have kind of a call, a
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  chant bit at the very beginning and I think at the very end of
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  the song where they say, let everything that has breath
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  praise the Lord and they have it.
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  And you know, there's all the instruments and everything that
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  goes. And so it's just a really
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  joyful, joyful time. I've loved the times I've been
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  able to sing it, both with my church family and being out and
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  about at different ministry things and hearing it and
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  rejoicing in that thought that as long as I'm breathing, I have
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  a reason to praise the Lord. And on the day when I take my
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  final breath and I'm no longer breathing, I will be in the
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  presence of the Lord to be able to praise Him perfectly for all
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  eternity. Well, let's look beginning in
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  verses number one and two before we get to kind of the verses
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  section of three through 5 of or not verses section, the
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  instrumental section of verses 3 through 5 and what we're
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  supposed to praise God with or how we're supposed to praise God
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  in verses one and two, we get the location.
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  So if you will, verses 1 and 2, the locations where we praise
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  God as well as why we praise God, then with what do we praise
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  God? And then at the end, who praises
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  God? So you have kind of that four
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  fold structure there. So #1 where do we praise God?
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  Starts off? Praise God in his sanctuary.
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  This is the holy place. This is when we come into God's
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  presence. Now from the children of Israel.
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  This was a literal physical place that you could go, that
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  you could walk into, into the temple, and there you would
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  encounter God's presence in a way unlike anywhere else on
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  earth, that God's Spirit inhabited that place in God's
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  Shekinah glory in a way unlike any other place on earth.
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  And so here there's this call to come and worship, to praise God
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  within this totally unique place.
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  What we have today in churches is not the same thing as these
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  people experienced because we're told in the New Testament where
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  God's presence, his Holy Spirit dwells in a unique place, in a
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  unique time and place, physical location, unlike where He dwells
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  in any other place. And it is not any church
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  building. It is not any room in which
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  preaching or singing or giving takes place, if you will.
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  The there's a lot of words through the years that have been
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  used to describe what the place where the worship of God happens
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  corporately together as the church.
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  Some people have called that room the sanctuary.
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  Some people have called it something like a worship center
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  or an auditorium. It's a place where you hear
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  audio. It's auditory.
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  It's a place to listen. And so people have called it a
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  variety of names. I am going to put forward right
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  now my firm belief that the that room in a church building is not
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  the sanctuary. I use that phrase sometimes in
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  our church to hopefully be accommodating to some
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  individuals that grew up calling it that.
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  That is not the sanctuary. The sanctuary is you and me.
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  It is those of us indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
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  God lives in us in a way that He does not live in any room in any
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  building on earth. If you have like respect for the
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  meeting place of the church, if you think that that place should
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  be considered holy and sacred and there's things that you
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  should or shouldn't do within that room, I want to encourage
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  you even more so, way more so than any room in any building,
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  you need to be set apart for the Lord.
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  There are words that you as the sanctuary of God.
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  There are words that you should not say that would not be good.
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  There are places that you should not go because God lives inside
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  of you. There are attitudes and
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  behaviors that you should not adopt, that you should not give
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  a home in your life as a result of the fact that God himself
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  lives in you. So here, praise God in his
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  sanctuary. That's not just talking about,
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  you know, some, some room here at a church.
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  It's talking about you within your life, within your spirit.
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  You need to praise God. Now, let me also state this.
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  When God's people gather together in a particular room or
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  at a particular time, we are together, a body, a temple.
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  Like we're told in first Peter 2 that we are being built together
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  to be a temple of God for his purpose.
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  So value that gathering together don't say, well, God lives in me
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  and so I don't need anyone else. No, God saved you to be part of
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  a body, if you will. You're the pinky and the rest of
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  the body is going to be harmed if you aren't there.
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  I promise you, if I was missing my pinky, I would be searching
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  high and low to chase that thing down and to get my pinky back.
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  And so it is with the body of Christ that we are meant to be
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  together. And when we worship God
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  together, how much greater is the praise that the praise of
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  God coming from? You know, at our church this
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  past Sunday, we had 79 people that were here.
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  We're not a big church. We're not the smallest church.
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  We're just kind of a, if you will, a medium sized church or
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  medium small sized church. But God's praise coming out of
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  79 mouths, or since we've got some babies, God's praise coming
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  out of 70 mouths is greater. There's a greater sound, there
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  is more glory given to God than if just one person all alone
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  were to praise God. Let us praise God together,
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  value what we can do as the sanctuary of God that is being
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  built up together, if you will. The church is a people.
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  It's not a place, but it's not. The church isn't a person.
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  The church is a people. There is a corporate, there is a
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  multiple, multiple people aspect of it.
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  So verse #1 praise God in the sanctuary, praise him in his
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  mighty expanse. That is wherever in all of
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  creation you find yourself, praise God there.
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  If you're at your workplace, praise God there.
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  If you're in your car, praise God there.
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  If you're in the mountains or out fishing, praise God there.
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  When you're enjoying, you know, some food in the city, praise
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  God. While you're there.
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  Wherever you are, you can praise God.
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  Praise God privately, praise Him in spiritual moments.
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  Praise Him when you are sacrificing, when you're
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  worshipping Him. That's a good thing to do.
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  And praise Him everywhere else you are.
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  You can praise Him in His sanctuary and in His mighty
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  expanse. Verse #2 Why do we praise Him?
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  We praise Him for His powerful acts because He has done awesome
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  stuff. He has made the heavens and the
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  earth and everything in them. He has made us His people.
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  He has given us His Word. He has given us Jesus Christ and
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  salvation through Him alone. He has given us a home in heaven
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  and then in His presence forever.
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  He has given us a certain hope and a future.
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  He has given us His Bride, the Church, and He has given us
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  purpose for the here and now and for the forever to glorify God
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  and to lead other people into greater discipleship and
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  relationship with Him. So we praise God for His
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  powerful acts and we praise Him for His abundant greatness, that
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  it's not just what God has done that is great, but who He is
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  like His temperament, His character, His attributes, His
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  love, His kindness, His justice, His grace, His Holiness, even
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  his anger. We can thank him for how great
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  he is in every conceivable way. Yeah, honestly, just read
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  through a bunch of the other Psalms if you want to know.
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  All right, what what's kind of the temperament of God?
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  We've read and sung much about the faithful love of God the has
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  said, and I'm grateful that God is consistent in season after
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  season. What a good thing that that is.
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  So we have that we praise God in his sanctuary.
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  We praise him in his mighty expanse, and then we praise him
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  for his powerful acts with what with what instruments with the
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  blast of a ram's horn. That is, there's a breath that
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  is blown through the instrument that we're able to praise him.
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  We praise him with the harp and with lyre.
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  These are stringed instruments that we pluck with the fingers.
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  We praise him with tambourine and dance.
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  We praise him with rhythm and the moving of our bodies.
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  We praise him with strings and flute.
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  Here another kind of thing, like the ram's horn.
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  At the beginning is a breath instrument, and then at the end
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  the flute is a breath instrument and the harp and the lyre are
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  string instruments. And then then you have praise
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  him with the strings there. And then in verse #5 we praise
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  him with resounding symbols. We praise him with clashing
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  cymbals that these sounds sorry, all of these various things.
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  It's with your breath, with your hands, with your body.
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  Everything about you is called to praise the Lord.
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  And here there's even an indication that God loves
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  instrumental music. And by that I don't mean like
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  just instruments playing all by themselves, though certainly I
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  am absolutely convinced that God loves that as well.
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  He is a creative God. He created everything that
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  exists and in that same same vain, I believe that He loves
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  when we are creative as well. So what do we make of all of
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  these instruments? There is no instrument that, if
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  you will, is shunned from being for the praise of God.
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  Every single instrument ought to be used for the praise of God.
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  Historically, throughout the church you have people that in
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  attempting to be faithful to the Lord, they denounced certain
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  instruments. You even have whole
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  denominations like the Church of Christ that to this day still
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  deny that Christian churches should use any instruments in
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  worship because they would say, well, I don't see any
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  instruments mentioned in the New Testament, and so the church
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  shouldn't use that. Well, friend, God has given us a
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  whole Bible and so he has not, if you will.
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  He didn't RIP out all of the Old Testament and say everything
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  that I said to those people is now no longer applicable for
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  your worship. Instead, at no point did God
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  ever disavow the use of musical instruments in worship.
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  And so may we use instruments for the praise of God.
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  Then if you go back, you know, few 100 years, you had things
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  like the piano or the guitar that because they were more folk
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  instruments as opposed to high like church liturgical
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  instruments, people went, well, you know, pianos are in bars.
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  And so we shouldn't use piano for the praise of God.
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  No, anything that exists, it finds its purpose and its
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  mission for existence within the praise and glory of God.
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  There's nothing that we should be like, hey, you know, at our
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  church we've got a guy that plays the bass.
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  We've got a guy that plays the piano.
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  We've got a guy that plays the drums.
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  I play the guitar. At my church back in Washington,
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  we had a gal that played the flute.
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  We had guy that was able to play the Cajon, which is kind of like
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  a a little one piece box drum thing.
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  They've got, I think even now, maybe a violinist or something.
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  Every instrument, if it can make sound, it should be making sound
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  for God. You can apply this to
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  instruments of communication. So you have social media, you
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  have, you know, radio, you have television, you have whatever
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  else. Anything that exists ought to be
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  used for the praise and worship of God.
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  I know a lot of people right now are really concerned about
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  various AI uses. I would be right there with you.
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  There are a lot of ways that that kind of stuff can go awry,
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  but one of my favorite ways that people have been using AI is to
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  put God's word to music or that they, you know, use it to
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  illustrate Bible scenes. And that is when AI finds its
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  best use is in the praise and exaltation of God.
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  Now, a lot more could be said. Unlike the ethics of using AI
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  for a multiplicity of things, we can certainly have those
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  conversations. Just so you guys know, I will
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  never use AI to like create something.
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  Whenever I've used AI in my life, it has been that I have
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  already created or written something.
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  And so then I'll try to use AI to whittle down what I've
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  written or created or doing something so that it's doing, if
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  you will, fluff work. It's not being used for
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  creation. Instead, I'm just using it like
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  one would use, you know, an editor or something like that to
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  be able to trim down. So everything that exists,
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  including AI, if it's going to have any use at all, it finds
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  its purpose in the praise and exaltation of God.
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  And let's use instruments. Let's learn instruments as long
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  as we are able so that we can praise the Lord in that way.
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  Verse number six, Then the conclusion of all of this.
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  So we saw in verse #1 where do we praise God?
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  Everywhere? Verse #2 why do we praise God?
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  Because of what He has done and because of who He is?
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  Verses 3 through 5, with what do we praise God?
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  With everything that we have, with breath instruments, with
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  stringed instruments that we play with our hands, with our
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  whole bodies, in dance and with tambourine in rhythm, and verse
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  6 concludes, Who should praise the Lord?
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  Let everything that breathes praise Yahweh.
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  Hallelujah for every breath that you breathe.
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  You've got a reason to thank the Lord that He has given you
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  another moment, another day to be able to live.
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  And so you have a duty and a responsibility to praise Him.
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  One great way that you can praise Him is I've put some
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  Psalm 150 songs in the show notes and you can listen to
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  those, you can learn those. You will be learning the Word of
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  God, you will be praising Him, you will be obeying the word of
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  God, and you will be fulfilling your reason for existence, which
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  is to bring glory and praise to God.
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  Well, thank you for tuning into this episode.
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  Book 5 of Psalms is complete. Over the next two days, we're
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  going to do something a little bit interesting, little bit
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  out-of-the-box. There are some portions of
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  ancient Hebrew literature that were written in the time between
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  when the Old Testament was completed and before the time of
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  the New Testament. So in about that 2 to 400 year
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  period where believers reflecting on the word of God
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  that they had received in the Old Testament, where they wrote
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  poems based on what they had read in the Old Testament about
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  God, if you will. These are the, you know, the,
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  the Chris Tomlin's or the Brandon Lakes or in a different
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  vein, the Ron Hamilton's or someone of the, or the, you
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  know, Keith and Kristen Getty of the intertestamental period.
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  And so just the next two days I'm going to take two of those
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  poems and go over those together.
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  So the one is labeled Psalm 151. And actually our Greek speaking
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  brothers and sisters in the Lord over the last about 19/18/19
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  hundred years, their collection of Psalms has included Psalm,
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  what's labeled Psalm 151 over that time period.
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  And so they have always had from what was called the Greek
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  Septuagint or the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old
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  Testament, they have had this poem that has been within their
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  Bibles that whole time. And so I want to walk through it
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  with us and if you will, this is something that we can think
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  about. What were people reflecting on
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  the Psalms? What kind of new songs were they
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  writing as a result of what they read in the Word of God?
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  And maybe you might be able to be one that writes poetry or
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  that writes songs. That's been something I've loved
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  doing even within my own life. There's lots of the poems that I
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  don't think anyone will ever like, listen to, hear, see the
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  light of day. But it's always a wonderful
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  thing to be praising the Lord. And so we'll see how that
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  happens. So one of those is something
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  labeled Psalm 151. And then there is one other one
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  and I'd have to look back and see again.
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  It might be the prayer of Manasa is is what it's called, and it
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  is a wonderful thought about how God deals with those that are
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  broken, those that have sinned, and his goodness and kindness
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  towards people who have just hit rock bottom.
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  And so I'm looking forward to diving into those two poems
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  before we make our way next Monday into the New Testament.
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  Thank you for tuning in today. I hope that you have enjoyed
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  Psalms as much as I have. See you next episode.