Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On May 19, 2019: Psalm 104 Prompt Yourself To Praise The Lord
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. Well, as we spend our time together in Psalm 104 this morning, I would begin by asking you to consider this question. What inspires you to worship God? I would ask you to think about and reflect, maybe think about the last time you were just kind of overwhelmed with something that really inspired you, that captivated your heart, that got your attention, and that caused you to worship, that caused you to perhaps exclaim, wow, God is good. Perhaps it caused you to say hallelujah. Perhaps it moved you to worship the Lord in some form or fashion. You know, we are all different, and we have different aspects to our personalities and different things that we find fascinating. Different things move us in different ways, and similarly, I would suggest that there are things that maybe cause us to worship God differently than something that, you know, something else causes someone next to us to worship the Lord. You could think about perhaps the example of creation. And that's what this psalmist is going to be considering this morning. The very reality of creation and the way that things have been set in place. And perhaps when you just kind of get a fresh sense of that. Or maybe you see an amazing sunset and it just sparks in your heart something that says... Wow, God's amazing, and God is good, and it provokes you to worship the Lord. Or maybe, as we had a few months back, there's this impressive thunder and lightning storm, right? And it's just the raw power that is demonstrated and shown, and it perhaps stirs up within you something that desires to worship and praise God as a result of seeing that amazing display. Or maybe it's not so much the creation or physical realm that really moves your heart and causes you to worship that way. Maybe hearing a testimony of something that God has done really just strikes you in a way that you are moved to worship the Lord. Maybe considering the mercies of the Lord. That's really what Psalm 103 is about, is the psalmist considers the mercies of God and the benefits that God provides for us. And it moves the psalmist in Psalm 103 to worship the Lord and to praise the Lord. And so maybe those kinds of things really touch your heart in that way. Maybe it's your own testimony, thinking back in your own life about some of the things that God has done for you that cause you to worship him. Maybe it's kind of stretching your mind, trying to wrap your mind around the concept of eternity and God having always existed and that God will always exist and trying to understand and figure out and think about those aspects of God. Perhaps, you know, as you do that, it causes you, it stirs up within you an awe. awe-inspiring look at God that just encourages you and helps you to worship the Lord. What is it for you? What inspires you to worship God? I've titled the message this morning, Prompt Yourself to Praise the Lord. As you think about what inspires you, what helps you, what encourages you to worship the Lord, I want to then also exhort you to then include those things in your life regularly so that you are in a place of worshiping the Lord consistently and regularly. Here in verse 1, we see the psalmist kind of doing this for himself. He starts out the psalm in verse 1 saying, oh my soul. The psalmist here is stirring himself up. He's looking to himself, talking to himself, something that is seen throughout many of the Psalms and many of the scriptures that it sets for us a good example. We need that encouragement. Sometimes we need to talk to ourselves and remind ourselves to bless the Lord. You might remember in Psalm chapter 42, the psalmist talking to himself says, "'Why are you cast down, O my soul? "'For I will yet praise the Lord.'" And so he's feeling down. He's feeling discouraged. He's, you know, got all of these things. But in talking to himself, he says, I know I feel this way, but hey, self, you know, you also don't have to feel that way because there is the Lord and I will praise the Lord. And that kind of exchange within ourselves is important and necessary for us. We need to stir ourselves up, to prompt ourselves to look to the Lord and praise God. Again, in Psalm 103, the psalmist does the same thing. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Encouraging himself, thinking about the mercies of God, the benefits of God. In Psalm 146, the psalmist says, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. It's this repeated exhortation to myself, encouraging myself, helping me to look to the Lord and worship Him. This is something that we are all in need of. We need to persuade ourselves to do what is right and good for us. And when it comes to the subject of worship and praise, we need to persuade ourselves to do what is right and what God is deserving of. I like the way that Charles Spurgeon says it. He says, we should call upon our inmost hearts to awake and bestir themselves for we are apt to be sluggish. When we magnify the Lord, let us do it heartily. Our best is far beneath his worthiness. Let us not dishonor him by rendering to him half-hearted worship. He calls out here, there is this need for us to awaken ourselves, to stir up ourselves because there is that tendency to be sluggish, to be neglectful of our worship of God and our praise of God. And as we talk about worship and praise, we're talking about our time together of singing, but we're also talking about our attitude and our perspective about God in our own hearts. We're also talking about the way that we live our lives, that we can do all of those things in manners of worship, with a heart of worship, but we can also be sluggish in all of those things, and we can sing our songs to God in a sluggish, half-hearted way. And Spurgeon is pointing out here, look, when we give our best, when we give our all, it doesn't come close to measuring up to what God deserves. And so let's not dishonor God by half-heartedly singing to God. Let's not dishonor God by half-heartedly living for God. Let's not dishonor God by half-heartedly, you know, just kind of being so casual and relaxed and indifferent in our hearts about a relationship with God and a walk with God. No, we need to talk to our soul and say, bless the Lord, oh my soul. We need those promptings to remind us, to keep us in that place of passion for the Lord. And so this morning, I encourage you to prompt yourself to praise the Lord. What is it that inspires you to worship God, that stirs up your heart to be passionate for the Lord? Include those things in your life. Set yourself up to be reminded of those things regularly so that you would be praising the Lord in a way that is honorable to him and worthy of his name. Well, as we walk our way through this psalm, we're going to begin in verses 1 through 9 for point number 1, and that is consider God's creation. The psalmist, in stirring himself up to bless the Lord, to praise the Lord, is He goes back to the beginning and it recounts for us kind of in parallel to the record that we have in Genesis chapter one of the creation. And he thinks about that in kind of more poetic terms, but thinks about the creation of the world. In verse one, again, it says, bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty who cover yourself with light and And encouraging himself to worship, the psalmist begins by thinking about the greatness of God. He says, you are very great. And how great is God? Well, one of the ways that he thinks about the greatness of God is in the fact of creation. The things that God has made demonstrate the greatness of God. And so he thinks about God clothing himself with light. As he said, let there be light. And it was brought into existence. The thing that kind of stands out to me that I kind of marvel at is in verse 2. He says, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. God stretches out the heavens. He laid out. You look into the night sky. You see the vast universe that is there. The galaxies, the stars. And it's incredible. But here the psalmist says, refers to God setting these things in place like stretching out a curtain. There was a miracle that took place this morning. I'm not sure if you're aware, but this morning when I woke up, I took a little sniff and I wasn't smelling too good. I needed a shower, but there's this huge obstacle in the way. Probably weighs like 16 ounces, maybe 32. I'm not sure, but it's a lot. It's pretty heavy. This curtain that separates the shower from the smelly body is I didn't know how I was going to get through it, but I prayed. And miraculously, God gave me the strength to open the curtain. I'm being silly, right? Because opening a curtain is not something that we wrestle with. You probably did it today. You probably didn't even give it a second thought. It's not something that you wrestled with, that you calculated, that you strategized and came up with a plan. You had a whiteboard with some formulas to try to figure out how to get this done. No, stretching out a curtain is not something that we wrestle with. In a similar way, as you consider the creation of God and the vast universe that he has established, it's important to consider that How easy this was for God. This didn't take all of God's effort. And he was just like exhausted at the end. And like it took, you know, it was just the fullness of all he could muster up. No, it's just like stretching out a curtain. He just laid out the heavens like a curtain. Thinking about the heavens, thinking about what God has created and the manner in which he created can be something that causes you to be stirred up and frustrated. In awe and in adoration of the Lord. You ever stop and think about how big our world is? Or maybe the other way around that is how small our world is? here's a quick look at our solar system. Now, this is to scale in size, but not in distance. Okay, so here you have a good kind of perspective as far as the size of the elements of our solar system. So there you have the sun, of course, that's the biggest thing, right? It stands out, it's huge, and there is the sun, but where are we on this scale? And I don't even know if you can see it from where you're at, but it's there. There's all the planets of our solar system laid out there. And so there's Earth, third planet in. It's a tiny little speck. Compared to the sun at this scale, this proportion, the Earth is barely able to be represented. Now, you and I look around, we drive around, you know, it takes us an hour to get to work or whatever, and it's like, it doesn't feel like we're that small, right? But in the perspective of... Well, where we live in our solar system, we're pretty small. We are impressed with ourselves because we have made it to the moon. We've gotten over to Mars, which is another tiny, small planet. It's just like another speck on the screen, right? It would be impossible to show these things in the proportion of distance. We can show them and kind of get you a little sense of the sizes, but distance, it wouldn't even fit on here. It would be so small, it wouldn't even be worth putting on the screen. I thought about just putting up a black screen just to kind of give you a sense, but no, it doesn't really help, right? Because the distance between these things, we're about 93 million miles away from the sun here on the earth. It takes light about eight minutes to travel from the sun to the earth, and we're just a small group. fraction. This solar system is huge from our perspective, and yet as you kind of go beyond that to our galaxy, okay, here we are in the Milky Way galaxy. We, well, we understand the galaxy to be a hundred thousand light years across, and we know that because we got a really long tape measure, and what Sent one person to the very end? No. That's scientists' best estimation. You know, doing lots of math and lots of calculations. That is a distance that is hard for my mind to grasp. I don't know about your mind, but it's difficult. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. So going that speed for a year, that's a light year. Now you do that 100,000 more times and that's 100,000 light years. So even if it were possible for you to travel at the speed of light, starting from one end to go across, it would take you 100,000 years to make your way across the Milky Way galaxy. And the Lord just spread it out like a curtain. Now then you can extend that to consider, well, we're not the only galaxy. We're one of a multitude of galaxies, right? And the universe is, it goes to a scale that I stop trying to figure out the numbers because it is more than I can understand. It's more than I can really appreciate in any way except to say, wow, God stretched out the heavens like a curtain. I don't know if that inspires you to worship God, but it does stir something up within me. It stirs something up within the psalmist and reminds us of The greatness of what God has done. And then the amazing part about this is not so much the size, but then still after all of that, that God pays attention to us. The psalmist in Psalm chapter 8 says, when I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? When you think about how little we are on the scale and we're just the speck, you know, on the chart that's a speck on a chart that's a speck on a chart that's a speck on a chart. We're so minuscule in comparison to all that God has created and yet God is mindful of us. Does it inspire you? Does it stir you up to worship him? Going on in this passage, verses 1 through 9, we jump to verse 5, where the psalmist begins to describe a day three of creation, where the waters are established in their place upon the earth. In verse 5, it says, You who laid the foundations of the earth so that it should not be moved forever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke, they fled away. At the voice of your thunder, they hastened away. They went up over the mountains. They went down into the valleys to the place where you founded for them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth. To be in awe of God's creation, you can look at the heavens, you can look at the galaxies, but you can also step back into our world and think about, he gives us the example of water, the oceans, the seas, the And here he gives a poetic description of the bodies of water being set in place on day three of God's creation. And the way that it's described there, the way that it's pictured is that the earth was created, but it was covered completely with water. So the sphere of our earth, right? I mean, there was land underneath the water, but water was on top of the entire surface of the earth. Now there's scientists who've done some great math who figured out, okay, yes, if the earth was flat, Not in the flat earth theory nonsense kind of perspective, but just a perfect sphere. If it was just a perfect, you know, round of dirt, a perfect, you know, mud clot or whatever, that the water that exists on the earth would be about two and a half kilometers above the ground, above the earth at that point because of the amount of water. It's a huge amount of water that exists on this planet. And it's kind of miraculous, right? to consider and to understand that it hasn't wiped us out completely. Of course, we have the flood. That was a supernatural work of God and then put back in place. And it's a miracle of God that, well, the waters do not cover the earth completely today. In Genesis 1, verse 9, it says, And so here's this picture of the earth completely consumed in water. And then God speaks, And then there's this massive change worldwide. Mountains are rising and the seas are plummeting in their depths and there's this rushing water, you know, as the water flows down the mountains and through the valleys and into their place. The oceans, the lakes, the seas that we are familiar with today, these are the things that God did by speaking the words, let the waters be gathered together. That there would be this gathering of the seas and the waters and that dry land would be set apart and the boundaries are set so that the waters do not cover the earth again. There's much there that could be considered, much more detail that I'm getting into at this moment, but Again, here the psalmist is recounting all of these things as an exhortation to himself. Stop and think about the creation of God so that I may bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And to encourage himself, to inspire himself to bless the Lord and sing out in praise, he considers the heavens, he considers the waters. What inspires you to worship God? And maybe it is creation. Maybe it is these kinds of things. And if so, I would encourage you then, well, fill your life with more of these kinds of things that inspire you, that provoke you, that prompt you to worship God. Maybe it is amazing sunsets. Well, set yourself up to worship God and see plenty of sunsets and put yourself in a position that you are on a regular basis reminded to and stirred up and reinvigorated in your worship of God and your passion for God. In all of creation, there is so much that you could dig into, so much that every system that you could imagine, every, you know, you want to go to space, you want to go to a particular galaxy, you want to go to a particular element or aspect, you want to dig down on earth and a particular thing on earth that you can go infinitely to understand the amazing things that God has created. But maybe for you, it's not so much creation. You don't get that excited about the physical things, but maybe it is those testimonies or reflecting on the mercies of God, the benefits of God, the blessings of God, the provisions of God. And If that's the case, well, fill your life with more of those things. So whatever it is that prompts you and provokes you. You know, we get excited about a subject and then we fill our lives with it, right? And so you like sports and so you get caught up in sports. I like Star Wars. I fill my life with Star Wars, right? So like in those kinds of ways, similarly, we need to put the Lord in that same regard and fill our lives with many opportunities to appreciate God God's creation, what he has done, and those things that inspire us, that get us excited about walking with God and loving God. We need to persuade ourselves to do what is right and to do what is good for us. Well, he continues to consider different aspects of creation. Now, as we move to verses 10 through 23, here's point number two, consider God's provision. In the creation of God, not only did he like set up these magnificent things and huge universe and establish the earth, but God also set up these systems, this ecosystem that continues to provide for his creatures. Let's begin looking at verses 10 through 13. It says, he sends the springs into the valleys. They flow among the hills. The earth is satisfied, he says. with the fruit of God's works. And what are God's works? Well, not only did he gather all the waters together with this huge move, just speaking forth his words, but then he established this system. And specifically, he's referring to the flow of water here in these few verses and all of the amazing benefits that it has. Now, we're not going to get into, you know, third grade science or anything, but just to kind of like refresh your memory about the water cycle, you know, that God has established this system, which is an ongoing thing, which continually provides really miraculously water. For God's creatures and all that God has made, he has set up this incredible system. And so the springs flow into the valleys and among the hills. And so you have these fresh water places that the fresh water comes out and it comes down. And he describes this process of feeding, meeting the needs of every beast of the field. And so there's all these creatures in the forest and in the mountains and in the hills that are refreshed, that are renewed as the water springs forth and provides for them. He says, by them, the birds of the heavens have their home. The water doesn't just quench the thirst of the animals, but it brings produce to life. It brings vegetation to life and trees grow forth and shrubs. And so birds have homes as a result of this flow of water that God has established. And so the birds sing among the branches. But then it says in verse 13, he waters the hills from his upper chambers. So the water's flowing down the mountains, down the hills, but who waters the top of the hills? How do they get water? The water that they need. Well, God takes care of that himself from his upper chambers. And he established here this system as the water evaporates and it goes into, you know, I'm not up on all the technical terms. So you can talk to somebody else who knows all these things later. But you get the point, right? It evaporates and then we have the clouds and then it comes and it rains down and it pours down and it brings the water that is necessary to all of the different aspects of life here on this world. Providing water to the animals. But he doesn't just consider this water system, this water cycle that God has set up, which is fascinating. And you could spend the rest of your life investigating this and being in awe of the Lord. Going on in verses 14 through 16, he considers how God provides food for his creatures. In verse 14, it says, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart. The trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which he planted. So not only is this water quenching thirst, but it's causing vegetation to grow so that cattle can be fed, so that man can be fed, that there is this process that God has set up. And it's an ongoing cycle so that, well, it's repeated over and over again. It's this ever-renewing cycle of provision of water, provision of food for all of God's creation. Not only that, but he provides homes for his creatures. Verse 17, where the birds make their nests, the stork has her home in the fir trees. The high hills are for the wild goats. The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers. So the psalmist here is just throwing out a couple examples, but he's saying, look, God has set this up and it's providing homes for for the creatures of God. The birds are able to nest in those trees. The stork has her home in the fir trees. There's different kinds of trees, different kinds of birds, different kinds of creatures that it makes their home. And it points out, it highlights that the way that God has designed this is incredible so that, well, each creature has its place. And each environment is uniquely designed for, uniquely created for specific purposes, specific creatures. It would be hard for us to, you know, live in the high hills like the wild goats. But you know who it's perfect for? The wild goats. They're perfectly suited for each other. They're suited to handle those kinds of environments. And the high hills are designed in that way. And there's a lot of places that would be harsh and difficult for us to live in. But then there's other creatures. that are perfectly designed. They fit perfectly in that environment that God has created. So the high hills are for the wild goats. The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers. I don't know if you want to live on a cliff, but for rock badgers, they're like, hey, it doesn't get any better than this. This is amazing. This is perfect for who I am and how God has created me. In a similar way, God is providing for his creatures, his creation, Going on in verses 19 through 23, he also says that God provides seasons for his creation. Verse 19 says, He appointed the moon for seasons. Here the psalmist reflects a little bit on the seasons. And talking about 24-hour seasons, that is the season of the moon and the sun, the night and day, but then you expand that to the seasons that we experience throughout the year, the seasons that we experience throughout our life. In Genesis 1, God declares that he established the moon, the stars, the sun in our heavens specifically for that purpose of seasons. It's part of God's genius design. It's not just the same, you know, light all the time, but that night comes and day comes and they're creatures. There's specifics that, well, it's beneficial for them in one condition or the other. So he talks about the creatures that come out at night. And there's a whole set of God's creation that, well, they're designed to be able to see at night. They work best at night. They find their food at night. Then there's us who are scared of the dark and so we come out in the day, right? And God has designed it that way. Man goes out to his work and labors until evening. We have our place in that daily season that takes place, the rising of the sun, the rising of the moon. And then the creatures have their place and God is... placed these seasons, whether you think about the days or the weeks or the months or the quarters or the years or the decades, you know, he's placed these seasons, these systems of time that we live in for our benefit and are a genius part of his design in the creation of this world. Charles Spurgeon sums it up like this, thus all the earth is full of happy life. Every place has its appropriate inhabitant. Nothing is empty and void and waste. In this way, God has designed the earth and put it together in a way that, well, there's perfect environments for each one. Every place, every portion, every edge, every corner has its appropriate inhabitant and purpose. There's nothing empty and void and waste. And there's lots of times where we as human beings, we see an area of God's creation. We think it's void and waste and has no purpose. And then once we advance a little bit in our understanding, then we recognize, oh, wait, there's actually living things there after all that we thought they could never exist in that environment. And yet they do. There's... Things that God has created for those specific environments. Everything has its purpose. Everything has its place. And God is providing for them all. It's huge variety. It's crazy to contemplate. It's a massive work that God has done in providing for his creatures. And so perhaps... This inspires you to worship God as you consider his provision, as you consider his incredible design, how it's all perfectly balanced to renew and recycle and to refresh and to provide for each one exactly what is needed. What inspires you to worship God? As you think about these systems, the ecosystem and those kinds of things, There's many smaller ecosystems that exist all throughout the world. There's many incredible examples of systems that God has designed and placed in our bodies. And so you can, if this intrigues you, if this inspires you to worship, boy, you can just take a portion of the body, a system of the body, take your eye and just dig deep and learn about what God has created and how God has designed us. And it will be, well, a lifelong pursuit, right? of discovering just how intelligent, just how amazing God is, as you consider his provision for us in all the ways that he gives us what we need and has designed us together for his purposes. What inspires you to worship? Whatever it is. If it's reflecting on the creation of God, that initial work of God and understanding that whether it's considering God's provision and how God has designed and put these things together to work together in an incredible way. Maybe it's considering provision that you've experienced yourself personally. That you have that opportunity to think back at how God has provided and the ways that God has worked. Jim and I recently celebrated our 15th anniversary of marriage, and we had a good time. We went down to San Diego and spent some time together, and as we were driving, we just took some time to stop and reflect. This is especially important for me because time, especially history, you know, gets all mushy in my head, and I forget about whole seasons and huge portions of life, and so we just kind of went back. Okay, 2004, we got married. What was life like? What events did we experience and what took place? And we kind of just walked through as best we could year by year, you know, working our way through the 15 years that the Lord has blessed us and we've been together in marriage. And in that, as we reflected on those things, it was just an amazing recounting, not so much of, you know, the ways that were amazing, but really it was an accounting of the ways that God has worked in our lives. And it's just amazing as we stop to think about God's provision, as we stop to think about the ways that God has moved and worked. And it was good to be reminded of those things. Fill your life with more and more of the things that inspire you to worship God. We need to persuade ourselves to do what's right and good for us and to say, bless the Lord, oh my soul. And so what is that for you? Prompt yourself to praise the Lord. Moving on to verses 24 through 30, we get point number three, and that is consider our dependence on God. We can consider the vast, huge creation that God has made and the way that he's designed it to work together, but maybe we also need to stop and consider our own smallness and how much we need God to work in our lives. Verse 24 says, "'O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions.'" Verse 1. You send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. Here, the psalmist reflects on how much we depend upon God. He begins in verse 24 saying, how manifold are your works, O Lord. That word manifold, it speaks of many different folds. You could think about like a huge book, right? And there's many different pages, many different folds of that book. In a similar way, God's works are manifold. There's so many different aspects to them. So many different elements to them. And the more you dig deep, you know, you turn to that page and you study that page and then you find that page is a manifold of a bunch of other pages. And then you get down deeper and more and more and more you see, wow, the wisdom of God. He says, in wisdom you have made them all. Everything God does is with great wisdom. Far greater than we think. often recognize and really cannot comprehend. It's incredible the way that God has designed, the wisdom that he has in putting all of this together. He says, the earth is full of your possessions. We are all God's possession. We are God's creation. He made us. We belong to him. We are his possessions. There is nothing that does not belong to the Lord. It's all God's. And he's put us all together in this way with great wisdom. For example, he goes on in verse 25 to say, the great and wide sea in which are innumerable teeming things. So just an example as he's working his way through this, thinking about the manifold wisdom of God's works. He begins to think about the sea and how it's filled with innumerable things. And the sea truly is filled with innumerable things. Even, you know, many thousand years ago from after this was written, you know, today here in 2019, there's still innumerable teeming things in the seas that we've yet to discover and understand. I mentioned earlier the earth being covered with water and then God saying, let the waters be gathered together and how, you know, the waters rushed to their place. It's a little bit difficult for us to understand, but the vast amount of water upon the earth is, it's far superior to the amount of land that's upon the earth. It's huge. We don't think of it that way because we don't probably spend a lot of time in the water, but maybe you do. Maybe you have a perspective on this, but the oceans cover the majority of the face of the earth and the content of the oceans make up the majority of what exists on the earth. The average depth of our oceans is about 12,000 feet. I don't know how good you are at kind of putting that into perspective and imagining that, but for me, I was thinking about it. When I drive up to visit my family, we have to drive up the 395 and we go through the Sierras, right? We reach the peak up there, it's about 10,000 feet. Takes us a few hours. We're driving up the mountain. It's windy, you know, kind of going up, going up, going up. Okay, we're at the top, 10,000 feet. And then we work our way down to the valley to go be with the family. But we have to go over this 10,000 foot mountain to get to the other side. Well, the average depth of the ocean is about 12,000 feet. So if you take those Sierras, flip them over upside down, the average depth of the ocean would be 2,000 feet deeper than Than the highest peak of the Sierras. It's really incredible. That's the average. There's other places that are much deeper. Here's a quick look. I'm not going to go into great detail on this. But the Titanic rests at about 12,000 feet. Because that's where the bottom is. Where it went down. It's not extraordinarily deep. Even though it's hard for us to explore. It's just average. It's pretty normal. There's another place. called the Mariana Trench, which goes down deeper than Mount Everest is tall. The depths go down to about 36,000 feet. Now, think about airplanes, right? You ever get on a plane and you fly across the country? They cruise at about 35,000 feet altitude, right, usually? That's how deep this place in the ocean is. And It's not really possible for us to explore that yet. We're getting there. We're trying. You know, there's been a manned sub that went down almost to the bottom of that trench, but didn't quite make it. A couple thousand feet short of making it to the bottom. There's unmanned vehicles now they're trying to explore, but... There's this vast area beneath the surface that we know very little about. There's life there that we know nothing about. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whatever that is, but there's an administration. So they estimate that 95% of the world's oceans are unexplored. Think about that. All that we know about the world's oceans, we only know 5% of it. There is so much more. And so again, the psalmist says the great and wide sea, it's innumerable, in which are innumerable teeming things. Up on the surface, verse 26, the ships sail about, but then there's also Leviathan, which we know nothing about except for what God, he describes it. If you want to read God's description of Leviathan, it's in Job chapter 41. It's this huge, massive, impressive sea creature that God has created and It may be extinct today. It may not be. It might just be in the depths and we haven't found it yet. We haven't experienced it yet. But here is this creature that God has created there. The ships are on the surface. Leviathan is down in the deeps. There's this vast group of creatures that we know nothing about. But verse 27, he says, these all wait for you that you may give them their food in due season. So there's this huge world underneath us, underneath, in the water, right? There's this huge world full of creatures that God has created. And the psalmist's point is, no matter where you go, no matter which way you think about it, each and every one of these creatures wait for God. And he's highlighting here the dependence that each one has upon God. We are dependent upon God for food in due season. There is none of us that are self-sustainable, that we can just provide for ourselves, that we can just take care of ourselves. Every one of us is dependent upon God in that way. In verse 28, he says, what you give them, they gather in. You open your hand and they are filled with good. And so you might think, well, yeah, no, I have my part in provision. I provide for myself. Yes, Your part is to gather in what God has provided, right? That even when we think we're working hard and providing for ourselves, that is never apart from God. We are always dependent upon God. And when he provides, then we are filled with good. And in contrast to that, in verse 29, you hide your face and they are troubled. Every creature on the face of the earth, God provides food and they are filled. And when he withholds, then there's trouble. There is no creature that is able to just exist and sustain themselves. In fact, he says, when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. We're not self-sustaining. We can't live without God. God holds the breath of every creature in his hands. And when he takes it away, that life is over. That breath is gone. But then in verse 30, you send forth your spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the earth. And so there is the old life that is passed away and then new life God brings forth. And he continues to provide for his creatures in this way. Commentator William McDonald says, though they may not be conscious of it, all living organisms depend on God for their food. As he supplies it, they gather it in, he opens his hand, and they are abundantly filled. Consider our dependence on God. We are desperate for God. We need God more than we often recognize and realize. And it's another reason why it's good for us to work our way through this psalm and to Consider our dependence upon God. Again, like the psalmist said in Psalm chapter 8, as you think about the creations, you think about the vast universe, and then how tiny and small we are. Lord, what is, man, that you are mindful of him? Why does God pay attention to us? We need to be reminded and refreshed in our dependence upon God. And perhaps that inspires you to worship God. How God has given us this place where everything that we have and all that we are, every talent that we have, every meal that we have, everything that we have in this life, it comes from God. The very breath that we breathe, it comes from God. It reminds us of how important God is. And perhaps it inspires you to worship God. Fill your life with more of the things that inspire you to worship god and if thinking about and remembering how much you need god helps you do that then give yourself some reminders give yourself some opportunities to reflect to stop and consider we need to persuade ourselves to do what is right and good for us and to give god glory that is due his name to worship him in spirit and truth to praise the lord It's what we need the most, and it's what God deserves. Well, we're going to finish up in verses 31 through 35 with point number four, and that is commit to praise the Lord all your life. Verse 31, may the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works. He looks on the earth and it trembles. He touches the hills and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to him. I will be glad in the Lord. May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord. As the psalmist is walking himself through all of these things, in an effort to encourage himself to bless the Lord, oh my soul, let me remind you, soul, about the reasons why we bless God and praise God. As he considers our dependence upon God, he says, may the glory of the Lord endure forever. May God rejoice in his works. And in that context, think about it like this. We want God to continue rejoicing in his works because if God stops rejoicing in his works forever, If God, you know, just like, yeah, I'm just not that excited about my creation. You could just let it go. And we don't exist. If God doesn't rejoice in his works, we don't exist. So the psalmist says, may the glory of the Lord endure forever. Yeah, Lord, keep on lasting. You're eternal. Keep on lasting because, well, that's the only way that we have life. That's the only way that we're provided for. That's the only way that we have sustenance. That's the only way that we exist. Lord, keep rejoicing in your works that you would continue. to meet the needs of your creatures, that you would continue to be mindful of us. And it highlights for us the need for us to really live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God. There's not much that we can do in regards to other people and other situations. There's a lot that we can do as far as our self and our position. This isn't just, you know, hey, generally speaking, you know, you're going to be happier in life if you stir up yourself and prompt yourself to praise the Lord. But no, this is much deeper than that, much bigger than that. This is the reality, the understanding that we exist for God. We are His possession, His creation. We exist for Him and for His pleasure. And the best thing for us is That the place where we find the most fulfillment, the place where we are, where we need to be and what God has for us is a place where we are pleasing to God. May the Lord rejoice in his works. And so the psalmist says in verse 33, I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I don't have much say about what you do. But for me, here's my commitment. I'm going to praise the Lord for my whole life. I'm going to sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being as long as I can with as much as I can. I'm going to praise God. I'm going to bless the Lord. I'm going to honor him with my voice, with my song. Not only that, in verse 34, he says, may my meditation be sweet to him. Oh God, may you rejoice in your works, including what I'm thinking about. I'm going to Commit to. I'm going to make an effort to keep my meditation on things that are sweet to you, to keep my thoughts and my mind and my heart on things that are pleasing to you. I'm going to be devoted on being glad in the Lord. I'm going to focus my heart, focus my life on rejoicing in the Lord as he rejoices in his works. He goes on in verse 35, may sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. I'm going to focus my meditation on things that are pleasing to God and I'm going to be separated from. I'm going to align myself with God and say, may wickedness stop. May wickedness cease. Not, you know, well, maybe I could dabble in it and then there's grace and then I'll just be forgiven. No, no, no. Not having that heart of compromise, but no, no, no. My heart is going to be aligned with God. May sinners be consumed. May the wicked be no more. My meditation is going to be sweet to God. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. And he finishes the psalm in the way that he started. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord. Bringing himself back to this place of this is where I need to be. This is what's most important for me. I need to bless the Lord. I need to praise the Lord, to glorify him, to lift him up on high and to be focused on him more than I am on myself. What inspires you to worship God in this way? Is it creation? Then fill your life with more of those things. Give yourself many opportunities. Set aside time to be with God in creation or to study his creation. What prompts you? What motivates you? What provokes you to worship God? Fill your life with more of that. Is it God's provision? Considering the different systems and cycles or your own testimony of how God has worked in your life or Considering the mercies of God in other people's lives? Is it, you know, considering the ways that God has brought about salvation to various people or to your own heart, to your own life? What provokes you? What prompts you to worship the Lord? Is it our dependence upon God? It takes some time to reflect and consider how little we are, how desperate we are for the hand of God, for the work of God, for every breath that we take. Fill your life with opportunities to reflect on our dependence of God. And again, as I started, we're all a little bit different and things move us in different ways. And so this is what the psalmist is walking himself through because it's what he needs the most to be stirred up and reminded to bless the Lord. But maybe for you, it's a little bit different and that's okay. Whatever it is, commit to praise the Lord all your life and give yourself some opportunities to do that. Set yourself up some prompts. Maybe you need a teleprompter in this corner of your house and a teleprompter in that corner of your work. Maybe you need some prompts, some elements of your life, some things in your schedule, some things that remind you, that turn your eyes back to God's creation, God's provision, our dependence upon God, or something else which moves your heart and inspires you to stand in awe of who God is and what he has done for us. Prompt yourself to praise the Lord. Kim's going to come back up now and close us in a time of praise and worship. And I want to encourage you to do so. Provoke yourself. Maybe you're tired. Maybe you don't feel like praising. Maybe you don't feel like worshiping. Maybe you don't feel like singing. Maybe you don't sing good or sing on key or whatever. But who cares? Let's spend some time praising God. And let me finish off with this quote that I began with from Charles Spurgeon. We should call upon our inmost hearts. As we enter into this time of worship, let's give it our best. Our worship and praise of God is not just about our moments of singing. It's about our moments of worship. It's about the rest of our life and our meditations and living our lives to please God. But let's start now with the time of singing and commit to praise the Lord with our whole life, with our whole being, with all that we are. Starting now as we worship the Lord, as we go forth from here, let's prompt ourselves to praise the Lord. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.