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Psalm 111 - Praising Our Everlasting God · 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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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we're in Psalm 111, and
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  this is a great portion of Scripture, and a couple of these
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  verses are ones that you might have heard before.
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  There's one Bible podcast that I listen to regularly actually,
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  that all encourage you guys to listen to as well.
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  It's called the Bible Talk Podcast, Bible Talk Podcast, and
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  it has professors from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in
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  Louisville, KY, and they go through, it's Doctor Jim
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  Hamilton, Sam Ahmadi, and I can't remember who the third
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  individual is. I believe the third one is the
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  one that's kind of like the moderator and then Doctor Jim
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  Hamilton and Sam Ahmadi tend to actually be the ones talking
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  through Scripture. They've gone all the way from
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  Genesis through Second Kings, and then now they are in the
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  prophets and they're walking through Isaiah.
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  And so if you want to know the Bible, you want to know the
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  Bible deeply and well, I really, really, really encourage you to
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  listen to the Bible Talk podcast.
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  But this is Tabernacle Talk. And so I'm going to leave off
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  recommending other podcasts for just a moment, But they read
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  verse #2 of this Psalm every single time at the end of their
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  episodes, they say great of the works of the Lord studied by all
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  those who delight in them. And so I've I've heard that
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  verse a lot from this particular Psalm.
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  A random thing before we start the Psalm is that this Psalm is
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  made in an acrostic. So the first letter of each half
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  verse in Psalm 111 follows the order of the Hebrew alphabet
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  with verses 9 and 10 being 3 lines each.
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  So all the way through it goes through the Hebrew alphabet
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  which is 22 letters and every 1st letter of each half verse
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  follows through that. So you won't see that in
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  English, but it's kind of cool that here God, an inspired
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  scripture, has beautiful and intentional poetry that he has
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  created. All right, let's jump into Psalm
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  111 and see what it has for us today.
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  Hallelujah. That's praise the Lord.
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  I will praise Yahweh with all my heart in the assembly of the
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  upright and in the congregation. Yahweh's works are great,
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  studied by all who delight in them.
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  All that He does is splendid and majestic.
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  His righteousness endures forever.
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  He has caused His wondrous works to be remembered.
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  Yahweh is gracious and compassionate.
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  He has provided food for those who fear Him.
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  He remembers His covenant forever.
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  He has shown His people the power of His works by giving
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  them the inheritance of the nation's.
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  The works of His hands are truth and justice.
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  All His instructions are trustworthy.
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  They are established forever and ever enacted in truth and in
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  uprightness. He has sent redemption to His
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  people. He has ordained His covenant
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  forever. His name is holy and awe
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  inspiring. The fear of Yahweh is the
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  beginning of wisdom. All who follow his instructions
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  have good insight. His praise endures forever.
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  I love this, this Psalm. And I think there are a couple
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  really helpful things that as we go through, it might encourage
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  your heart even today. Many of you listen to this in
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  the morning. So it might encourage you this
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  morning for what you're going to go through today.
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  So we start off in verse #1 and we see the declaration here of
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  the psalmist. He says, praise the Lord.
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  Hallelujah, I will praise Yahweh with all my heart.
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  The call from God is don't just worship or praise me with your
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  Sunday morning. Don't just worship me in the
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  time of perhaps your morning devotions or when you listen to
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  a Bible podcast or something with all of your heart, every
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  aspect of you lift up the Lord that others would would know and
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  recognize and see that you're one of the Jesus people because
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  you praise him with every part of you.
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  If you're at a, you know, Ravens game, you are a Jesus person
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  who's at a Ravenscape. If you are at work, they know,
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  oh, that's, that's a Christian. That's one of those Jesus people
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  at your workplace within your family.
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  They would know, OK, Dad, or, or my brother or my nephew, they
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  love the Lord. May we be known as the people
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  that praise God not just with a portion of our heart, but with
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  all of our heart. He says I will praise Yahweh
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  with all my heart in the assembly of the upright and in
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  the congregation. God doesn't just want your
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  private praise, though He certainly wants that.
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  And that's the most important thing that we can do is to
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  praise the Lord in private. But may we also praise the Lord
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  as we interact with other believers here, the assembly of
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  the upright and in the congregation.
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  The way that you attend church says something about what you
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  think about the Lord. Is church something that you get
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  to when you have time for it, or is something, or is it something
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  that you intentionally set aside time each week for?
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  As God calls us to not forsake, not abandoned the gathering of
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  ourselves together to worship as the habit of some people is, he
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  says, but let's meet together. And all the more as we see the
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  day of Jesus's return approaching.
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  So we praise the Lord in the assembly of the upright and in
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  the congregation. So the way we attend church
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  declares how we praise the Lord, as well as the way that we sing.
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  Maybe you don't have a great voice, maybe you're not always
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  on tune, but if you have a smile on your face, if you're at least
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  mouthing the words, then it can communicate to those around you,
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  those beside you, those even on, you know, the the church
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  platform that are looking out at the congregation.
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  You can encourage the hearts of others through wholeheartedly
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  praising the Lord in song. You can praise the Lord in how
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  you pay attention to a sermon, or you can praise the Lord in
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  how you genuinely like, love and interact with someone else.
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  If your church has like a greeting time or before or after
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  service. Every aspect of when we gather
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  together as a church is a way that you can express worship to
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  God. So let's praise God with all of
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  our heart, even in the assembly of the upright and in the
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  congregation. Verse #2 Yahweh's works are
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  great, studied by all who delight in them.
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  Do you delight in the works of our God?
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  Are you excited about what God is doing in our world?
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  Are you excited about what He did through Jesus?
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  Are you excited about what He did in Scripture?
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  And here when he's talking about the Lord's works are great,
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  studied by all who delight in them.
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  He's talking primarily at this point of the stories of the Old
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  Testament, of the Torah, of God's creation, of the world, of
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  the Garden of Eden, of his justice against sin, of his
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  grace towards Noah and his family, his setting apart of
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  Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and his care for Joseph.
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  And the way that he led Israel out in the Exodus with Moses and
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  the way that he sustained them through those years.
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  And what he did with Joshua and with Caleb, and what he did
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  through the judges. And then I don't recall offhand.
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  Psalm 111 doesn't say who wrote it.
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  There's a decent chance it's David.
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  It could be within David's own life that he thinks these are
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  the works of the Lord. And so I'm going to study the
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  works of the Lord. That's why I have Tabernacle
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  talk. It's not because I don't have
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  anything else to do with my time.
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  It's because as we delight in our God, as we delight in His
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  works, we are called to study them.
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  We study Scripture. We want to know what God has
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  said, how He said it, why He said it, what we can learn from
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  the accounts in Scripture, what we can learn about our God
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  through how he interacted with all of these generations.
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  As we've been walking through the life of Jacob, even in our
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  Sunday morning sermon series, this has been something that's
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  been noticeable to me time and time and time again is God's
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  patience and His care and His love towards people that are, by
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  any human metric, unlovable. Jacob was a terrible person, and
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  yet God loved him and forgave him and used him and protected
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  him. And so I think so many times in
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  our life, we need to know what God has done so that we can know
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  what He will do. We need to know his character so
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  that as we interact with hard times, we can know.
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  I'm resting on the God of Jacob the Forgiver.
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  I'm resting on the God of Mary, the God who does the impossible.
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  I'm resting on the God of David who can equip the shepherd boy
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  to defeat Goliath. I am resting on that God.
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  And as we realize and as we study the works of the Lord, it
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  brings delight to our heart. If studying Scripture is
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  something that's dead or annoying to you, I want to
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  encourage you to delight in what God has done.
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  This is also something whether in, you know, a Bible podcast or
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  in sermons, listen to people that make the heroes that make
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  the hero of the stories in Scripture.
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  The Lord that Jesus is the hero. Jesus is the one that we are
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  looking to. Jesus is, if you will, he's.
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  He's not just the moral example for what we should do, but it's
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  all humans. We all, like sheep, have gone
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  astray. We have turned everyone to our
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  own way, but the Lord is laid on Jesus, the iniquity of us all
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  that Jesus is the point of everything.
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  If we look to scripture and we go, wow, Jacob was great, David
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  was great, Nehemiah was great. We are not seeing what God
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  desires for us to see as we see all of these things and as we
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  see God work through these people.
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  The point is always we have a good and worthy God who works
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  through imperfect vessels. And God, I want to be a vessel
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  that you use. I am imperfect.
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  But the point is not may I become better, it's God.
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  I want Jesus to live through man.
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  I want your Holy Spirit to control me.
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  I want you to be glorified. So the Lords works are great
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  study by all those who delight in them.
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  Verse #3 All that he does is splendid and majestic.
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  His righteousness endures forever.
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  God will always do what is ultimately right.
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  That doesn't always happen on our timetable.
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  It doesn't always line up with what we think he should do, but
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  the everlasting, the enduring forever righteousness of God is
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  something that we can rely on that we know.
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  God, you will never do what is wrong because you have never
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  done what is wrong. And you're not about to start
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  now. So when I think that I know what
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  should happen, God, I can pray to you.
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  I can call to you for justice. I can ask for you to intervene.
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  But I can know that whatever you are doing and whatever choice
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  you choose to make, whether you listen and and if you will, if
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  you listen to my prayer and you do what I'm asking you to do or
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  not, I know that you are still righteous and good.
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  And I will accept that. Verse #4 He has caused his
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  wondrous works to be remembered. Yahweh is gracious and
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  compassionate. God wants you to think about
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  Him. He wants you to know what He has
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  done and it is not because he is just egotistical.
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  It's not just because he wants something from you.
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  Instead, it's because he is gracious and compassionate.
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  I'm going to take a look at these word gracious.
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  This is merciful. He is kind towards us and He is
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  compassionate. He has sympathy for us that the
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  Lord in his goodness, his kindness, his sympathy, He knows
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  that we need to remember his goodness and remember the mirror
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  miracles. And so I want to encourage you
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  when you are discouraged in your life, when you're disheartened,
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  remember that you're kind and sympathetic.
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  God has given you Scripture so that you would experience joy
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  and you would take heart and courage for what you will face,
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  because God has worked in the past and he's the same enduring
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  forever God. And so He will work even in your
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  future. Verse #5 He has provided food
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  for those who fear him. He remembers His covenant
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  forever. I think here I mentioned it
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  often, but it just becomes so meaningful to me.
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  The prayer in the Lord's Prayer give us this day, Our Daily
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  Bread. And for those that believe that
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  their daily sustaining comes from God, He provides food for
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  them. And I'm so thankful that God has
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  continued to provide for needs even in my life.
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  I had this morning a text that I had received a few weeks ago.
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  My daughter had to go into the emergency room for a whole
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  thing. And it was just an incredibly
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  scary time for me as her dad. And I got a text today that was
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  I go, hey, here's the bill for this.
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  And in my heart, I was like, OK, God, you know, I am not like I'm
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  not rolling in the dough right now.
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  Tabernacle talk isn't, you know, the, the new money making
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  scheme. And so God, how am I going to
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  take care of this? And through various
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  circumstances, God was like, I've got you.
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  I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to protect you, if you
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  will. I am caring for you more even
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  than you care for yourself or more than you even care for
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  Evelyn. I am caring for you.
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  And I'm so thankful that we have that God who remembers when God
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  remembers. It's not like, oh, it was out of
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  mind. And then now, oops, yes, I, I
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  totally remember that now. No, when God remember something,
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  it is He is choosing to act on it as a result of his
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  remembrance. And so God is choosing to act on
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  his covenant to provide and to care and to love for his people.
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  And even when we think about the new covenant, the New Testament
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  of the Holy Spirit living inside of us, of the fact that we are
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  the children of God in this covenant, then that should bring
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  us such comfort that our God will take care of us.
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  I love the old hymn. God will take care of you
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  through every day or all the way.
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  God will take care of you. God will take care of you.
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  Verse number six, he has shown his people the power of his
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  works by giving them the inheritance of the nation's.
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  Here God says Canaan was a land that had not once belonged to
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  the children of Israel, but because of God's justice against
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  the people that had been living in the land through their child
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  sacrifice, through the abominations that they were
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  acting on, even with animals and in in murdering people.
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  Horrible oppression in so many ways.
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  God gave that land to the children of Israel.
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  He gave them an inheritance that they had not previously had.
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  And what a good God that that is.
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  And I think for us that we will one day inherit the earth.
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  And you can read through the beginning Beatitudes.
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  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
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  Or you can read in Revelation one and two that he, and I think
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  even four and five, that God has made us a Kingdom of priests to
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  our God. That one day we will be given
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  the whole earth, That we will rule and reign with Christ.
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  We will serve him, we will worship him, we will accomplish
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  the works that he has set out for us.
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  And God is giving us this inheritance in Christ Jesus.
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  And so that powerful God who will one day give you
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  everything, endless glory from Himself and love and affection
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  as He's promised us even in Ephesians 2, that kindness that
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  he will show us through all of eternity that God will take care
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  of you today. And so you can rely on Him and
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  believe in Him and worship him and trust in Him as a result.
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  Verse #7 The works of his hands are truth and justice.
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  How God works is both in truth. God will never lie to you.
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  God will never tell you a half truth.
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  Everything God does is truth. And so that's why we can say,
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  but with Jesus in John 17, sanctify us through your truth.
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  God, your word is truth. And so that's why we spend time
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  studying Scripture is because God's work is truth and it is
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  also justice. He says all his instructions are
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  trustworthy. Everything that God has told you
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  to do, the way that he has told you to live your life, I
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  promise, even if you don't think you will end up on top, if you
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  follow the word of God, you will get exactly what God has
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  designed for you. And his designs are good and
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  trustworthy. And at the end of our lives,
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  sometimes even within the course of our lives, we see the justice
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  of God at work. And ultimately, as Jesus
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  returns, justice will be done on every person and in every
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  situation. And so we can rely on this
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  trustworthy and just God. There are evil moments in this
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  world. Even this next Sunday I'm
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  preaching and the passage involves rape and murder and
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  lies and I'm thankful that our just God will deal with all sin
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  forever. And so we do not have to worry
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  about anyone, if you will, quote UN quote, getting away with it
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  as Jesus himself suffered for sin.
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  And then for those that reject the payment of Jesus, they will
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  pay for their sins, but they will only do so in rejection of
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  the payment of Jesus. Those that have said no, I will
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  not have when Jesus is offering, I'm going to do it myself.
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  God will say, OK, if that's what you want, I will give you that
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  verse #8 they, the instructions of God are established forever
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  and ever enacted in truth and in uprightness.
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  There's no portion of God's word that we just throw away and we
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  say, ah, well, that's that's not true or this isn't something
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  that is important for me to know.
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  All of Scripture, as Paul told Timothy, is given by inspiration
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  of God. It's breathed out by God and it
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  is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for
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  instruction and righteousness. So that that the man or woman of
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  God may be complete, thoroughly equipped, furnished for every
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  good work. And so God's truth is
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  established forever and ever. So rely on that verse #9 He has
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  sent redemption to His people, that He has bought us back from
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  sin and death and hell and Satan.
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  We are now His possession and no one can take us out of the hand
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  of our Father. He has ordained His covenant
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  forever. There's never going to be a time
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  when Jesus's work on our behalf is over and done with.
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  There's never going to be a day where we don't experience the
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  forgiveness and goodness of God. And then the end of verse 9.
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  His name is holy. It's set apart, it's different,
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  it's perfect in every way, and it is awe inspiring.
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  That awe is something that we are called to view God with.
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  And then the Solomons with this, the fear of Yahweh is the
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  beginning of wisdom. If you want to be intelligent in
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  God's way. It starts with recognizing how
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  amazing, how terrifying, how wonderful, how Worshipful our
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  God is. And so start with the fear of
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  the Lord to say, I recognize what it is, as we learned in the
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  book of Hebrews, that it's a terrifying thing to fall into
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  the hands of a living God. But I also recognize that God is
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  the Father who is waiting for me to return.
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  And as I am still a far way off, He runs to me and embraces me
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  and even honors me and and throws A feast for me.
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  All of this is what our God is. And so may we worship Him in in
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  terror and in fear and in deep respect and in worship, because
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  He is worthy of all of it. Then I love all who follow His
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  instructions. Have good insight.
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  Listen to people that follow the instructions of the Word of God.
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  Don't listen to a person that is always angry.
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  Don't listen to a person that uses perverse language.
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  Don't listen to a person that is always trying to like, sneak and
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  connive and get the best deal out of someone in a nefarious or
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  devious or sneaky way. Instead, follow the people that
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  follow the instructions of God. They are the ones that have good
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  insight. And then verse 10 and the Psalm
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  ends. His praise endures forever.
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  So that praise that we bring to God because He's worthy of it,
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  even within the congregation, that praise should endure
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  forever because His righteousness endures forever,
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  because His covenant lasts forever, because His
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  instructions are established forever and ever.
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  All of this should spark in us the desire to follow, know, and
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  love our God. Thanks for tuning in today.
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  Looking forward to next week as we look at Psalm 112.