Psalm 65: The God We Can't Live Without

[Music] [Music] last week I talked about how we were gonna start a new series I just didn't know what it was was it gonna be Galatians was it gonna be Ephesians was it gonna be a series on marriage was it gonna be a series on suffering I've got a lot of requests for a series on Daniel and revelation and we're gonna do some big things next year but but this year I just so enjoyed last week's sermon and I got so much positive feedback from Psalm 73 that I thought you know over the course of the next few weeks not making it some big series but let's just spend some time in the songs in one of my very favorite books and frankly I'm embarrassed to say a book that I almost never preached on and so over the course of the next few weeks we're just gonna be in the Psalms and today we're in Psalm 65 the God we can't live without I don't spend a lot of time listening to sam harris by erasing of hands here today who knows who sam harris is okay so just a few hands going up sam harris is a well-known atheist and not just a well-known atheist but an avowed atheist a passionate atheist very hostile toward religion of all kinds and all stripes he is sometimes regarded as one of the four most influential atheists in the modern world sometimes called The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Daniel Dennett Christopher Hitchens Richard Dawkins and sam Harris and so predictably unsurprisingly as a Christian pastor I don't spend a lot of time reading or listening to sam harris but this last week I made an exception and because I loved watching TED Talks I have a bit of an addiction to TED Talks on one of the TED talks that came up it was a TED talk by none other than arch atheist Sam Harris and it was a TED talk he was giving in Alberta Canada and the title of the talk caught my eye and it might be a little bit difficult to read there but in the upper left hand corner of the screen it says can we build AI artificial intelligence without losing control over it right and I don't know if you're aware but AI right now artificial intelligence is is very much a buzzword and has been for the last several years and in this 15 minute long talk Harris suggests that in fact we not that we are incapable because we possess an inability to see a danger that is right in front of us and we will continue to build smarter and smarter machines their computational powers are far in excess of our own computational powers and it's just a matter of time Harris thinks not very much time not the far-distant you know Buck Rogers in the 21st century science fiction future he thinks in the not-too-distant future we will have created machines and computers and programs that could actually be a danger to us and a threat to us and I found the talk absolutely riveting and fascinating there's no doubt he's a brilliant man neuroscientist hugely intelligent man but what I found most interesting was his closing line and this is literally the line that closes the entire TED talk and just after he says this line almost at once the auditorium there in Banff Alberta stands to their feet in uproarious thunderous standing ovations applause and this was the line that elicited that final moment of applause Hara says we have to admit that we are in the process with AI of building some sort of gods and now would be a good time to make sure it's a God we can live with we need to be clear that we are on the verge of building a grand super intelligence that Harris and others believe will absolutely not could be not might be not potentially will be a threat to human beings and to civilization as we know it well with that kind of in mind I'm gonna return to Harris at the end of the talk I want to talk about the god that we might be making as Harris suggests with artificial intelligence and the God that is described in Scripture the actual God not a lower G God but a capital G God and we're gonna be in Psalm 65 today so if you've got your Bible open to Psalm 65 we were in 73 last week this week Psalm 65 and in Psalm 65 made up of just thirteen verses we're going to find that there are three reasons that we are called upon that believers in God are called upon to give thanks right this is I love this season you know down in Australia you kind of lose wind of it as an American but it's great to have Sarah here and a few other Americans and this year we're gonna have Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to having Thanksgiving which is really a great excuse to get together and eat too much food and watch the Dallas Cowboys play football right so so Thanksgiving is coming up but but this is a little different Thanksgiving this is the Thanksgiving that those that are followers of God have and in the psalm the psalmist says in this case David last week was a Ceph there are three reasons that we should be super thankful to V God the capital G God the first reason is he is the Redeemer and we'll read that in the first four verses the second reason is he is the creator we'll read that in the second four verses and then finally this God is the provider I went back across the book that I started reading years ago by one of my favorite authors NT Wright he wrote a book a shortish book called the case for the Psalms why they are essential and I just went back and didn't read the whole book but I read the things that I had highlighted in the book and came across this and I thought I'd share it with you right says I'm not simply writing to say hey these are important songs these Psalms that we should try to understand that is true says right but it puts the emphasis the wrong way around as though the Psalms are the problem and we should try to fit them into our world actually again and again it is we muddled and puzzled in half believing who are the problem and then this line and the question is more how can how can we find our way into their world into the world of the Psalms a little bit later in the book right goes on to call this idea a Psalm shaped world a Psalm shaped world what does that mean a Psalm shaped world well for right and I'm suggesting here for the psalmist himself a song shaped world is a world in which and we're gonna unpack this in great detail today the decisions that we make and the attitude that we have and the praise that we render is all seen through a lens and that lens is the lens of praise the lens of joy and the lens of God's amazing goodness and power a psalm shaped world a song shaped world is not oriented toward oneself a psalm shaped world is not oriented introspectively a psalm shaped world is oriented toward God the theologians would say that a psalm shaped world would be theo centric this is one of the major facets of scripture itself that scripture is theö centric that that God is at the center of scripture and all you have to do is read one or two or three of the Psalms and you will quickly become aware that at the heart of the Psalms these ancient songs these ancient Jewish songs God is at the center God is the point this is what we mean when we talk about a psalm shaped world a world where the great you that is God is the center of all of our life and our praise youtl and I as readers of the Psalms we can conceive and create this world in our own lives we can create Psalm shaped worlds in our families in our neighborhoods and in our spheres of influence today I want to talk to you based on Psalm 65 how to create a Psalm shaped world a song shaped world is going to be made possible only by what we might call a Psalm shaped worldview by a raising of hands how many here know what that word means you've heard that word before a worldview raise your hand okay not as many as I would have maybe thought but the word worldview is just exactly what it sounds like the way that you view the world is your worldview and there are lots of worldviews worldviews on offer today there's the atheistic worldview that Harris subscribes to a materialistic worldview that Harris subscribes to there's the fundamental Islamic world view there is the scientism worldview there is the Christian worldview there is the Hindu worldview there is the new-age worldview there is the social justice world it's just the way that you personally idiosyncratically view the world or your corporate group views the world I'm suggesting that many of us have what we might call a kind of church worldview or a kind of corporate Church perspective but I'm going to invite us and I think the song today is going to invite us to have a Psalm shaped worldview to view the world those around us our family members our friends our jobs our money our recreations our resources nature itself through the lens of the great center that is God and of the praise that flows out to him a worldview is not the thing you see like the glasses that I'm wearing here today it's what you see through so in order to arrive at a psalm shaped world I'm suggesting that we're going to need a psalm shaped worldview how many here have heard of the ban actually an Australian man called the sons of korah anybody here heard of the sons of korah anybody here a fan of the sons of korah I'm a big fan of the sons of korah glad to see me - I'm just like that guy both hands up I was exposed to the sons of Korah probably 15 years ago and if I'm not mistaken the lead songwriter a musician as a fella by the name of Matthew Jacobi and I've actually exchanged some emails with him over the years and been to see them in concerts a few times even tried to arrange a couple concerts for them in the United States and one of the things I love about the sons of korah it's not just their music which I do very much enjoy but the fact that all they sing are the Psalms right they don't have their own personal lyrics their first album had a few of their own songs but every subsequent album they just sing the Psalms and the songs are just titled Psalm 14 Psalm 36 Psalm 65 Psalm 73 and whenever a new sons of korah album comes out I get a little giddy and I'll tell you why because I love the way that Matthew Jacobi and the others and the sons of korah interpret the Psalms because what they're doing when we read the Psalms we're often reading something that's flat on a page and it feels like it just feels like prose almost it's a poem and it's not just a poem it's a song and and in the particular Psalms in which David is crying out in the so-called imprecatory psalms you might imagine the sons of korah give that a more aggressive and and rhythmic feel and in the Psalms that are more celebratory and and the Psalms that have relief the the psalm has a more melodic feel and I've really appreciated how the sons of Korah have been instrumental in my own walk with Jesus in giving me a psalm shaped view of the world if you are not familiar with the music and the Ministry of sons of korah a lovely Australian band I would invite you to be to become familiar with them download one of their albums a good album to start with is an album called shelter download the album purchase the album listen to that album and see if Psalm 51 doesn't come alive as perhaps it never had before because you're not reading the writings of an essay or the writings of an article you're you're reading songs these are songs that David composed and Asaph composed and the sons of korah that is the ancient sons of korah composed let's go now to Psalm 65 and just read it through as we did last week with Psalm 73 let's just read it through in its entirety and I want you to look for those three elements there God is Redeemer and God is creator and then finally closing with God is provider okay pay attention to that here we go Psalm 65 beginning in verse 1 once again this week I'm reading from the New International Version praise awaits you our God in Zion to you our vows will be fulfilled you who answer prayer to you we will come when we were overwhelmed by sins you forgave our transgressions blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts we are filled with the good things of your house of your holy temple you answer us with awesome and righteous deeds O God our Savior the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas who formed the mountains by your power having armed yourself with strength who stilled the roaring of the Seas the roaring of the waves and the turmoil of the nations the whole world is filled with awe at your wonders where morning Dawn's where evening fades you call forth songs of joy you care for the land and water it you enrich it abundantly the streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain for so you have ordained it for you drench its furrows and level its ridges you soften it with showers and bless its crops you crowned the year with your bounty and your carts overflow with abundance the grasslands of the wilderness overflow the hills are clothed with gladness the meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys our mantled with grain they shout for joy and sing that is an invitation to have a psalm shaped worldview to make your per little world the world that you live in your address whatever that address is your house to make your flat your house to make it a psalm shaped house to make your checkbook a psalm shaped checkbook to make your life a song shaped life to make your recreation a psalm shaped recreation to make your church attendance a psalm shaped church attendance this is an invitation to see God as Redeemer creator and provider let's walk through this because as we mentioned last week if you read through the Psalms in a cursory or a perfunctory way perfunctory way you're gonna miss it but if you'll just take a moment if you'll pause if if you'll go through a little more slowly and a little more methodically and I've been doing that this week with this song because I decided early this week I was gonna do Psalm 65 I didn't want to wait as I did last week until the last minute I've been thinking about Psalm 65 all week and trying to invite Psalm 65 to shape my view of the world to shape my view have some really bad news that I got this week and to shape my view of some really good news that I got this week and to shape my view of the future and of the past and of my present how can we do that how can we do that well the first thing you have to notice is that it's not just God as Redeemer or as creator or as provider but in every case in the psalm the underlying subtext of the psalm is that God is powerful that God is not little G God he's big G God he's the one true Creator God and so this is a psalm of God's redemptive power his creative power and of his power to provide he is not a mere regional deity one among many no this is the one true creator God the God that struck up a covenant promise with Abraham God invites us into a psalm shaped world where he is at the center and we sing praise and joy to him let's go through it now verse by verse Psalm 65 verse 1 says praise awaits you our God in Zion to you our vows will be fulfilled some of you are gonna get sick and tired of me saying this but I'm gonna say it again one of my critiques both of modern pray songs and of some of the old hymns is that they are always not always very often in the personal singular me and my and mine and I cannot for the life of me understand why we would come together in a corporate setting with several hundred of us here and sing psalms about me and my and mine the Psalms are often written for a corporate worship setting and the best worship songs in my opinion are songs about we and us and our if we come across one of those modern-day songs that that has a singular me my mind I personally always just substitute we us and our because I'm here with my brothers and sisters can you say him in you're here with a church you're here with your family you're here with your people and I love that praise awaits you not my God our God in Zion to you our collective corporate plural vows will be fulfilled God is primarily a giver but he can also receive a year and a half ago I read this very scholarly book an outstanding book by John Peckham titled the love of God a canonical model it's a book that is not easy to read not easy to understand but for those that are willing to put in the time energy and effort the theological content and the the thought content of this book is literally beyond mind-blowing absolutely amazing in fact he's just released a brand-new book that I'm super excited about I've already read it but I'm super excited about having the actual I read the pre-publication version now I can't wait to have the copy in my hand I'm really into books as you might have guessed one of the things that dr. Peckham describes in the love of God is what he calls the bilateral view of the love of God bilateral as opposed to unilateral he in other places calls it the reciprocal nature of the love of God now let me translate all of that feel a theological speak to you what he says is we often conceive in certain stripes of Christianity conceive of God's love being on the unidirectional only unilateral love Fross flows from God love flows out from him but God cannot receive love because in order to receive something it would suggest that he was somehow imperfect that he somehow needed something Oh doctor Pekka makes a profound case that God while he is primarily a giver he is also capable even in his godness even hid in his divinity of receiving and the psalmist begins by saying God praise is waiting for you when you show up there's going to be praised there's going to be songs there's gonna be Thanksgiving praise is waiting for you and you get the sense that on the other end of that Psalm ik equation God is pleased with the praise that awaits him he can't wait to hear that praise we're gonna get to the nature of that praise here in just a moment I like this from the poet laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967 John Masefield says God warms his heart God warms his hands at man's heart when he prays that is that's bilateral there that's that love goes and is given and is received it's not just that it flows from him which of course it does but God can also warm his hands at the heart of man when man prays what a beautiful poetic description of how praise awaits God in Zion among his people God is waiting on your praise God is waiting on your praise God is waiting on your Thanksgiving God is waiting on your song God is waiting on you to rejoice and he's waiting there just get that that poetic picture in your mind he's waiting there with slightly chilled hands because when you sing when you praise when you pray it's a warmth that is made available to God that I cannot satisfy if the warmth made available that caralyn cannot satisfy or Lance cannot satisfy for somebody else when when I pray it's something that is marked by my uniqueness my individuality the person that I am as is Carolyn's as is Lance's as is anybody's but if you're not praying and you're not praising if your world is not a Psalm shaped world God comes as it were to the fire of your heart looking to have his own hands warmed and there was nothing there but but wood and perhaps kindling maybe even a little smoke but no warmth no warmth Ellen White ministry of healing taps into this very idea every individual has a life distinct from all others and an experience differing essentially from theirs God desires that our praises shall ascend to him notice what I've underlined here marked with our own what's that word individuality now I want you to notice that the word their God desires God wants to warm his hands at your price and if I'm praising God and if if Judith is praising God and if Ruth is praising God but forgive me Elizabeth if Elizabeth it's not praising God right just forgive me here Elizabeth for a moment if the three of us are praising God God receives that praise from David God receives that praise from Judith he receives that praise from Ruth but when he comes when he comes to Elizabeth in this case of course it's fictitious because she loves to praise God when he comes to Elizabeth all of my singing all of my praise all of my Thanksgiving in Judas and roost cannot be the same sound the same melody the same warmth in the ears of God and at the hands of God that Elizabeth's praise alone could bring you sometimes might be tempted to think well there's plenty of people singing there's plenty of people in this room that are praying I don't have to sing I oh no God wants to warm his hands at your heart God wants to put his hands down to not only give but to receive praise awaits you O God and Zion the psalmist says men we can't wait to render individual and corporate praise to our amazing God and when that praise the sense it will be marked it will be stamped it will be patented with my unique personality and individuality don't rob god of the warmth that you alone can give don't sit there surly faced and quiet now sing to God sing and make a joyful noise verse two you who answer prayer to you all people will come well one thing we can be absolutely certain of is that Jesus lived in a solemn shaped world Jesus lived in a psalm shaped world Paul lived in a psalm shaped world in fact you can make a case that the most popular book for every New Testament writer to quote including Jesus himself was the book of psalms they lived in a song shaped world and and this is strongly suggested here when the psalmist says to you everybody will come well that sounds just like Jesus in John chapter 12 verse 32 and I if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw what I will draw all peoples to myself Jesus lived in a psalm shaped world where God was not just the God of the Jews not just the God of the people that looked like us think like us talk like us act like us eat like us God is the God of the whole world this is one of the reasons that people like Harris and others that have inclined themselves away from God and toward atheism because so many versions of God sounds so parochial they sound so insular they sound so in-house but the god of Scripture is the God of the whole world he's a God of Jew and Gentile both all peoples will be drawn to him when John the Revelator saw what the redeemed would look like in the courts of heaven it wasn't just a bunch of same looking same talking same thinking people these were this was a diverse multitude and he communicates that diversity here in revelation 7 verses 9 and 10 after these things I look to behold a great multitude which no one could number of all of all of all and of all standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes with palm branches in their hands crying out with a loud voice saying salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb what John saw in heaven was a diverse praising multitude lots of different people from lots of different cultures yes praise awaits you in Zion praise awaits you in the church but God has his people everywhere can somebody say Amen and they don't all look like you talk like you act like you think like you and speak like you I love this from Hans kala rondelle's book deliverance in the psalms mankind's need for worship is in principle fulfilled when he begins to thank God hang on to this we're gonna talk now about thankfulness it is not enough to consent that there must be something in the universe some ground of being some force of good out there now he says only when God becomes our personal God do we relate to him in a proper way gratitude should not just be one motive among others in our it ought to be the controlling motivation I want to say that again Lauren Dell is saying gratitude should be the controlling motivation in your life gratitude thankfulness appreciation Thanksgiving should be the controlling narrative of your life to be thankful a psalm shaped world is a world in which thankfulness is the primary modus operandi of your heart and of your life an attitude of gratitude as has been said a psalm shaped worldview is one in which you see all around you in the songs of the birds and in your own as Mel was alluding to your own fan fantastically complicated physiological processes that sustain you for a moment a moment everything around you is an opportunity to be thankful the person that's sitting next to you the the food that we're going to eat soon after this the beautiful music that we just sung the opportunity to write a check for the conflict beautiful series that we just talked about all of these are opportunities to be thankful praise awaits you O God in Zion which I suppose brings us to a question that at some level we all have to answer and ask and that is what drives you yeah for many of us were driven by a sense of accomplishment we're driven to get out of bed because we need to earn more money and we need to have a sense of you know financial accomplishment or professional accomplishment or academic accomplishment or in some cases people are driven by social media and they want more followers and and they want to have more people that you know listen to them in their various platforms I don't know I don't know what it is that drives you but I can tell you this the thing that draws us more than drives us is God and His goodness God can drive there are times and instances and situations in which God appropriately motivates us with fear but God's primary motivation is not to drive with fear but to draw with His goodness to draw with his love to draw with his forgiveness and grace what is it that drives us what is it that draws us do we have an attitude of gratitude do we have a Psalm shaped world last week we talked about Asaph who entered the sanctuary plagued by doubts and came out singing for joy let's just remind ourselves of that what was it that happened what happened Asaph when he went into the sanctuary we read that verse last week let's read it again Psalm 73 verses 25 and 28 whom have I in heaven but you and earth has nothing I desire besides you it's a very Theo centric world that's a very solemn shaped world Asaph but as for me he says it is good to be near God I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge and we talked about this last week that personal connection that personal relationship it wasn't so much a what that happened to a SEF in the sanctuary it was a who that he encountered he encountered God in the sanctuary and when he encountered God he's like man I get it you're God you're amazing and I just want my life to be an out flowing of praise as the the birds and their melodious songs and and the ocean in its changing tides and glorious waves I just want my life to be an out flowing of uninterrupted praise to you I'm gonna get to a point a little bit later that is fascinating on that Psalm 65 verse 4 just like Asaph he longs to be near God David does look at this blessed are those who you choose and bring near there's that same language bring near to live in your courts we are filled with the good things of your house of your holy temple why was a staff so excited about the temple why is David here so excited about the temple well the obvious reason is they that the temple is where God was and if he wanted to be proximate to God if you wanted to be close to God when God in the Old Testament was federalized when he was localized you went to the place where God was but but since Jesus has come and since he has sent the Holy Spirit that what we might call the D federalization of the presence of God has taken place the D federalization of the presence of God has taken place he said what does that mean that sounds fancy talk the D federalization of the presence of God is this idea that God is not just located in a temple he's not just located in one location you are the temple Jesus was mobile he could go from Jericho to Jerusalem from here to there Jesus could wine his way in and around because the the the sanctuary became mobile right the the the the ancient sanctuary was located place and in a spot where you had to go to and now you don't go to the center of the sanctuary you are the sanctuary God in in his wonderful illimitable way comes to us and inside of every one of us your holy temple verses three and five I just put these together I purposely just sort of flipped out verse four so you could feel the strength of this just in its natural flow when we were overwhelmed by sins you forgave our transgressions you answer us with awesome and righteous deeds God our Savior the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas I want you to look at what I've underlined for you there when we were overwhelmed by sins you forgave our transgressions is there anyone in this room who has ever been overwhelmed by sins okay that's the honest people and the rest of you that are being Australian right being lazily being lazy being non-participating every one of you in this room have in some sense been overwhelmed by sins you did something you shouldn't have done you said something you shouldn't have said you you got caught in a lie you got caught looking at a website you should have been looking at you got caught spending your money on something you shouldn't you were overwhelmed you got caught and you were overwhelmed you you had the shame of guilt rush upon you the the flush of guilt and of shame went up your neck and and you were paralyzed by sin not just the sin itself but by the knowledge that people knew you were a sinner is that crazy all of us are sinners and yet we get paralyzed when people find out that we're sinners and the psalmist cries out and says when we were overwhelmed by sins not just that when we were aware of sins not that when we admitted academically that we have occasionally sinned last Thursday one time barely know when we were overwhelmed by sins you forgave our transgressions can somebody say Amen last week we said that God can handle your questions your confusion and your frustration but I want to tell you this week God can also handle your sin and your guilt God is big enough to handle your sin and your guilt listen to the words of dr. Loren Dell and deliverance in the Psalms the most fundamental need of man is a religious one the first of the soul for God we cannot truly enjoy the things of this world as long as our hearts are filled with anxieties and we are burdened with the weight of guilt all of this great praise and all of this great joy we see in the psalm it will just it will be as brass to you it will be as nothing to you if you're if you're feel that you are Unforgiven and your soul is filled with guilt and shame he continues before we can be free to rejoice in the bounties of earth our sins sick souls need to be healed with the balm of heaven thank you Jesus the deepest motive for our praise of God is there for God's atoning grace received in our hearts the deepest motive before we can appreciate the God of creation we have to begin with the God of redemption we have to know how our shame is taken away our sin is taken away our guilt is taken away that God can deal with our transgressions and our sins and we are overwhelmed God does not help us merely when we help ourselves God helps us most of all when we are drowning in sin when guilt overwhelms us because we have lost in the battle of life and I know we spend most of our time pretending like we're not losing in the battle of life and we've got our act perfectly together and you know we put our best face on and we put our best pictures up and all of that for social media and every other kind of presentation even in the pre social media world we always put on our best face put your best face forward try we all kind of act you know corporately like we've kind of got it all basically together and yet God looks down and he says I know that many of you are drowning in sorrow you're drowning in sin you're drowning in guilt you're drowning in shame and God is that's when he's most available that's when you need a God when guilt overwhelms us because we have lost in the Battle of life the instagram's doesn't tell the whole story neither does Facebook we need to remember that God has now atoned for our transgression and the gift of his son our sins are too much for us to cope with can somebody say Amen but God can handle our sins they do not overwhelm him and they are not too strong for him God can handle your questions and your concerns and your confusions and God can handle your sin and your guilt and your shame give it to him praise awaits you O God in Zion you'll notice how here in Psalm in Psalm 63 verse 5 we're turning the corner from salvation to creation you answer us with awesome and righteous deeds God our Savior 1st John chapter 2 verses 1 & 2 very new Testament very Psalm shaped world here my dear children I write this to you so that you will not sin but if anybody does sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous one he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world can somebody say Amen man Jesus is big enough his shoulders are broad enough to bear even your sin even your shame even your guilt even your sense of drowning in inadequacy and in transgression Jesus is big enough to save you so Psalm 63 verse 5 we see the transition here now to God as creator the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seeds Galatians chapter 3 verses 26 to 29 the Apostle Paul says for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus there's neither Jew nor Greek there's neither slave nor free there is neither male nor female you are all one in Christ Jesus why are we one in Christ Jesus because this is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise if you are Christ then you are Abraham's seed descendants and heirs according to the promise so when the psalmist says there in verse five that the ends of the earth and the farthest Isles will come to you for forgiveness and for healing this is a part of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise that God never had a parochial insular us-versus-them mentality God's view was always universal God's view is always to save everybody not just to give his tooth truth to but to give his truth through Abraham and his descendants and so the god of redemptive power then verses 5 to 8 we come to the god of creative power which those of us that are Sabbath keepers those those of us that are passionate about creation we we might think we'd be tuned in to this and I suppose to some degree we are let's read through them you the last part they're the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sees who formed the mountains by your power there's power having armed yourself with strength who stilled the roaring of the seas the roaring of their waves and the turmoil of the nations the whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders where morning Dawn's were evening fades you call forth songs of joy and I appreciated the morning has broken as well as one of our songs today I want to give a big shout out to Tim Higgins one of our church members here today who reminded me last week that today would be the Sabbath just before Remembrance Day right 1111 100 years ago on 1111 at 11 o'clock millions laid down their guns and World War one ended that's something you can say Amen about friends but I want to say this and I'm going to set this up in a context of thankfulness to God as creator I mentioned earlier we'd come back to this point and this is the point NT Wright says it this way in his book the case for the Psalms why they are essential only humans it seems have the capacity to live as something other than what they are just let that settle in human beings can take up guns and shoot other human beings kill other human beings whether it's in the name of nationalism or the name of expansion of territory in the name of freedom but but people can pick up guns and shoot other people put bring an end to other people God didn't create us to kill God created us to make life if you go back and look in Genesis 1 and 2 what does it say there be fruitful and multiply that sin that was committed there in Genesis 4 with the taking of life by Cain of Abel that that was a violation of God's creation 'el intent and God's creational purpose a hundred years ago today tomorrow a bunch of people perhaps not for theological reasons but but nonetheless they actually came into closer proximity to God's creational intent for them where they stopped saying you know I'm here to take life and I'm not getting into the politics of World War 1 World War 2 or any subsequent war we're going to have wars on a planet where people are broken and and systems are faulty from the time of Jesus until the present that's that's there's no question about that but the point is this birds are birds and trees are trees he goes on to say trees behave as trees and rocks may have as rocks and the sea is and does what the sea is and does and the psalmist look out on all of it and see it as a great shower of praise to the God who has made it to be so and to flourish but human beings he says human beings are seemingly singularly peculiar Lily if that's the right word capable of actually not fulfilling our creational intent we're the only ones who can say I'm an image-bearer I'm made in the image of God and I'm not going to fulfill God's creational intent in my life we can elect do that and war is only one way that we elect to do that now we have so much to be thankful for that we are living here in the wake of the armed assist in the wake of Remembrance Day it is a beautiful thing to celebrate to be mindful of but what we're celebrating is the end of a war a war that was going to start up a couple decades later anyway in a war that we are even now teetering on the verge of it appears that the only thing that keeps us from teetering off into a third conflagration is everybody's you know corporate and collective terror about what would happen if we use nuclear war weapons or if we used weapons of mass destruction so the thing now that is keeping us basically civil is not that we figured out that civility is the way forward and we should fulfill our god-given destiny to be image bearers it's because we're all terrified of what will happen if we have another kind of war because the weaponry now has become so sophisticated and so powerful the thing that is keeping us from going to war is that we know it would be the end of life as we presently know it that is a grim grim grim grim state of affairs for those that were made in the image of God to procreate to grow to praise and to fill the earth birds are unaware of world war one world war two and the impending potential of World War three as are the fish in the oceans and in the the animals that that roam the wilds of the African savannah but we are aware we are uniquely capable says right of actually jettisoning our creational intent and saying you know what I'm not going to live for the great you for the great G capital G god I'm gonna live for the little G God me to put myself and my Dyer's and my ambitions at the heart of this thing called life and I love this right says all of this when the psalmist looks out at the world he sees all of creation echoing a great shout of praise to the God who made it to flourish what looks to the flattened out imagination of late Western modernity like lifeless matter is in fact a world I love this throbbing with god-given life that life is constantly praising its maker by being particularly and peculiar lately that's hard to say peculiarly what it is this is what I was referencing when I said Judith being Judith and Ruth being Ruth and David being David and Elizabeth being Elizabeth God has called you to fulfill your creational and and praise intense praise giving intent no more than he has the beautiful birds no less in fact greater than he has because you are an image-bearer a Psalm shaped world I'll just I'm sorry to just put such a fine point on it but a psalm shaped world is not going to be terribly fascinated by political parties and talk radio this stuff is poisonous it every now and then I'll find myself in a store somewhere or or it'll come up on you know some friend I'll have it on it'll come up on you know a YouTube channel or something and I'll hear the the vicious and volatile and serrated language particularly in the increasingly polarized world of American politics and Australia is not far behind and I don't want to tell you how to live your life and I just want to say if you love that stuff and you like to dig into the nitty-gritty of he-said she-said in the liberal and the labor and the Republican and the Democrat and the pro Trump in the anti-trump I just want to tell you that's not a psalm shaped world that is the most insular frankly discouraging disgusting grotesque world that you could be paying attention to it's people going mad for power and then saying that nobody saying that we're the good guys and they're all the bad guys I Got News for you they're all guys because they're all sinners in need of a savior and if you were given charge of the country you would do no better in the psalm shaped world it's a world where the things of nature and the things of praise and the things of scripture and the things of God have more interest and more of our attention than all of this gobbledygook and poppycock that the world throws at us clamoring for your attention clamoring for your loyalty and it's filth you'll you'll be changed into the thing that you behold and I tell you it has been a fascinating thing to see how American politics in American culture has been shaped in the post Trump world because the people are still the same people but but now they just these lines are so strong and the tones are so strident and the talk shows are so perverse and yet I see sometimes my own church members not so much in this church I want to travel overseas though there are a few here that love to get involved in it as well they that hey did you hear hey did you know I didn't know I didn't and I don't care I I have zero Taji I have a king I have a king I have a president I have a parliament okay today I don't have a second of my life to spend on people fighting over a little speck of dust that's going to be reconfigured into God's great image in a few short years anyway then I got a song shaped world I want a song shaped world view and that's not informed by BBC or CNN I'm not suggesting that you can't learn some things from this but especially these these strident tongues I just urge you just don't be of the world you can be in it but not of it God wants our praise to ascend as we've said marked with our own individuality and when we become distracted by other things we miss out unlike the simple birds and the simple animals of the forest we who give praise to God and they're unaware that Donald Trump is president we miss the mark we should have the highest ability and the greatest capacity to praise God and we miss it the only species that is apparently capable of not fulfilling our creational destiny ah what a sad story that is so my advice to you is to go outside turn off the television turn off the radio go outside move walk see smell camp climb cycle bird fish serve swim run and praise your life will be better in fact study after study after study after study consistently confirms you will be psychologically more healthy if you get exercise in the out-of-doors no sleep on the dirts go camping go go drink some water out of a stream a safe stream you might have to filter it get up early in the morning and watch the Sun Rise go watch the whales migrate off the coast spend some time as the Sun rises with Scripture open tune out the world the clamoring ever clamoring world of politics and sports and and ubiquitous entertainment there is a place for it a very small place for it and turn up the world of creation turn up the world that's in obedience to God not this world that's in disobedience and finally the God with power to provide I don't know if you noticed this or not but if you go back through the psalm the whole psalm again is sothey eccentric it's all about God God is the great son the one around which we orbit in praise and if you if you count carefully the verbs that are associated with God God is said to do ten things in this Psalm the psalmist he's falling over himself with increasingly beautiful and poetic language to say God you did and you do and you did and you do and you did and you do you forgive you choose you answer you call forth songs of joy you care you enrich you are Dane you drench you soften you crown that's a psalm shaped world a psalm shaped world is oriented to God as the flower Orient's to the Rising Sun a Psalm shaped world is oriented to God's goodness and I tell you I tell you I tell you we live in a time when for various reasons people find it easy to focus on the negative and I sometimes in pastoral capacity they'll thank you Jesus not as much as you might imagine I sometimes have to deal with people that see or perceive negative things happening in the church I'm not suggesting that this doesn't occasionally happen but I tell you it takes a certain kind of skill it takes a certain kind of artistic creativity to note the negatives in light of all the amazing positives that are happening if you have that skill I want to invite you to unlearn it see if you can become less good less creative at noticing what he said or she said it what they didn't do or how things could be better or things could be different I'm sure that your mother taught you as my mother taught me that if you can't say something don't say something in the little book steps to Christ one of the founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church Ellen White tells the story she says in in this story she was in a dream and in this dream she was walking through a garden and she said there were all of these beautiful flowers in a perfectly manicured garden this was a dream she had and and she saw roses and she saw lilies and she saw pinks and she saw pansies and - all of these beautiful flowers but a friend of hers was just a few steps behind and was complaining oh look at the thistles look at the thorns look at all and and of course the thistles were there and the thorns were there there were things to notice but why notice them when the pazi's are there and the roses are there and the flowers are there and the smells are their friends some of us have found to a fine skill the ability to find the negative even though we are surrounded by positives make it an effort make it a goal make it a drive to try and see the good wherever there is good to be seen we're just talking this week with a good friend of mine a good friend of many of yours - Josh Cunningham and he said he's been meditating on on Philippians 4 verse 8 whatsoever things are good whatsoever things are true whatsoever things all of that beautiful think on these things and and Josh said something to me that was really mind-blowing he said you know David I used to read that verse and I used to think that this wasn't actually saying what it was saying it was actually implicitly telling us all the stuff we shouldn't be thinking about don't think about evil stuff don't think of some of the stuff I was just saying a moment ago you know all these political debates and you know raided our movies and all that he said I actually think it's a little different now he said I'm not suggesting that there's not a sort of secondary application where the the verse is saying not to concentrate on those things but he said I think what the verse is saying is find good wherever you can find good wherever you can now some of you can do that with some skill but this is the harder thing find good in whoever you can find good in whoever you can some people are toxic some people should not be trusted they can be loved they can be forgiven they should not be trusted don't be one of those people don't be a toxic person don't be a person without a solemn shaped worldview don't don't be a person who has honed the fine craft of seeing the negative in everyone look to somebody and say yes I don't like I don't there are a few thorns there are a few sisal 'z but look at the hoses and look at the pinks and look at the roses try to find the good and when you learn when you begin to hone that skill and maybe you weren't trained this way maybe your own parents conditioned you that to not see this but when you begin to hone the skill of seeing the good and others and in seeing the fact that that all creation has the capacity to bear the image of God you'll become a better version of yourself you'll become a better version of yourself there are particular church members in here right now that I'd love to just give a big shout out to just just a big shout out to church members who just do such a good job of inclusivity and of building up and of crossing social and generational lines and and there are many here's that's why I don't want to do it because I would be saying some and leaving out others and and I just I just love that God has raised up what we might call catalysts to make the church this beautiful focused on God a Psalm shaped world this this corporate entity and I just want to plead with you to be that person Church is what we make it and churches the way we treat one another and churches the way that we love one another we look to God who enriches who ordains who drenches who softens who crowns I love this in Romans 1:21 speaking of the heart of pagan philosophy it says that the pagans did not glorify God and they were not thankful what a fascinating thing to say about paganism gone wild they weren't thankful oh they were idolatrous all they were sexually perverse oh all of that is true but Paul's chief critique of paganism is that they weren't thankful that they didn't have gratitude and Thanksgiving is the natural outflowing of their lives your greatest duty friend and your greatest joy are the same thing to glorify God and you glorify God by just looking around you and saying man I've got calcium ions racing through my body right now that are enabling me to live and speak and think and eat I have so much to be thankful for the things that we know number in the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands the things that we don't know that we have to be thankful for a number in the many millions neither were thankful and unthankful heart is a darkened and a sinful heart and an unthankful heart it's not a Psalm shaped heart and it will not produce - Psalm shaped world John Chrysostom in his early church father very early church father 4th century said he who enjoys something without Thanksgiving is like robbing God you enjoy that mangle you enjoy that song you enjoy that sexual intercourse with your spouse you enjoy that movie you enjoy that thing that you enjoy and he says if you enjoy that thing and your heart doesn't erupt in Thanksgiving erupt in praise to God he says you've robbed God because God is the source of that joy God is the source of that pleasure God is the source of that happiness don't rob God of the praise that is his when God comes to warm his hands at your heart may he not find negative and criticism negativity and criticism there and may his hands be warmed as you fulfill increasingly and better and better every day your creational purpose Luke 17 17 Jesus has just healed 10 lepers one comes back and jesus answered and tell me if you can't read between the lines there tell me if you can't see a little pain there in the Heart of Jesus were there not ten cleansed where are the nine tell me that you can't see that Jesus wanted to warm his hands not only at the one but at the 2 and the 3 and the 4 and the 5 and the 6 7 8 and the 9 that God's heart was pained that so many had a reason to be thankful but only one gave the praise only one offered Thanksgiving only one came back to thank all creation is praising and glorifying and thanking God so why wouldn't you can somebody say Amen oh why wouldn't you are you the one or are you the nine we wrap this up Sam Harris at the close of his TED talk he said man we got to be careful with his artificial intelligence fifty years isn't fifty years any more what used to be fifty years in terms of technological advancement is now 50 months and what used to be 50 months is now five months and what used to be five months is now five days we are on the cusp says Harris of creating machines that are so technologically advanced in computer programs that are so technologically advanced that they can become a threat to the very way that we do life and he closed that TED talk again was saying this is the time to admit that we're in the process of building some sort of God and we'd better figure out is this God that we're in the process of building a god that we can live with with all due respect to mr. Harris Harris who is an eminently intelligent man I say never mind the imagined and false gods that we think we could live with what you should be paying attention to and orienting yourself to is the one true God the Redeemer the creator and the provider who is a God that you literally cannot live without this is a God you can no longer afford to live without and so I appeal to you as your pastor I appeal to you as a fellow traveler I appeal to you as your friend insists insist on having a god-shaped scuse me ace shaped world a world where the way that you view the world is through the lens of the Psalms orbiting around the great big you and you in a flow of creational praise you it's not just for somebody else and not just for the person on your right on your left but you are praising God you are thanking God whether it's with singing or whether it's with praying or whether it's with service or whether it's with ministry whatever it is don't miss out on the opportunity to fulfilled God's creational intent in your life and say God teach me how to have and how to live a psalm shaped reality can't somebody say Amen come on father in heaven teach us teach us how to be thankful teach us how to praise teach us how to rejoice teach us how to overflow with love for you and for those around us father forgive us where we have some of us many of us become practiced in the art to the dark art of criticism and negativity father forgive us where we have become practiced and very skilled in the ability to see others faults and frailties and fragilities father help us to see that we are all sinners in need of grace that you are the god of the ends of the earth and the far distant islands and when we are overwhelmed by sin you comfort you save and you forgive father you are Redeemer you are creator and you are provider we turn as the flower turns to you we orient to you and we pray that you would teach us how to have a life that orbits around you the life of david a psalm shaped life is our prayer in Jesus name let everyone say Amen [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 15 2018