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Our Passage today is Psalm 121. In it the Psalmist writes…
Psalm 121 (ESV)-- 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Context— One of the things that I have learned during my years of training in Biblical studies is that before you can understand (at least fully) what a passage of scripture means, you have to understand the context. And context is absolutely critical to our passage today (Psalm 121); especially when it comes to this word “hills”, which we will talk about today. Now some of your Bibles (particularly those of you who are using the King James), may have as your verse 1: “I will lift up mine eyes unto there hills, from whence comes my help.” And that does seem like a beautiful picture. I've remarked numerous times how much I have enjoyed looking up at the hills and the mountains of this area and just being in awe over them. There is something in your heart that moves every time you see them. But that is not what this psalm is about. In fact, it is just the opposite of what the Psalmist is trying to say here. The correct phrasing is: 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? No Help On The Hills-- This verse is not a declaration of praise for how great the hills are or how help can be found on them, but is rather [a recognition that the hills do not really provide any help and a question as to where real help can be found.] That question is really the key to the entire psalm. From where does my help come? Our innate desire for a helper – Have any of you ever been in a position where are you have cried out to God for help? A couple weeks ago at my house, I suddenly heard my son cry out for me. And when I got to the bedroom, I found that he had gotten his leg stuck in between the wall and the bed and couldn’t get out. And so he asked if I could help get him out. And so I took hold of him and lifted him up. I think everyone of us has been (perhaps in a larger more significant way) stuck in problem. There are many difficulties that you and I face every day. And no matter what your belief system is, there is an innate desire in each and every one of us to try to reach beyond ourselves during times of trouble to seek the strength of one who might have some ability to change our circumstances. That is why there are so many various religions in the world, each of which represent man's desire to find an answer to that question “From where does my help come?” Now while the question is not unusual, the answer that the Psalmist gives us is highly unusual when you consider the world in which he lived and worshipped in: 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Beyond the hills-- He’s essentially saying, "My inspiration and hope does not come from the hills or the mountains, but from the one who created the hills and the mountains.” And the reason this passage is so remarkable is that against the backdrop of the ancient world this concept of an all-powerful God who created all the world and Who had absolute authority over it was altogether new. Nobody in the ancient world believed in a god who wasn’t a part of (and subject to) nature. That is why you cannot say that there are supernatural beings in any mythological religion; because that is a contradiction in terms. All of the pagan mythological gods were bound by nature. And they reflected whatever regional particularities of nature existed in the land in which they were imagined. And the ancients had gods for many forces of nature. [You have Uranus, the heavens. You have Kronos, time. You have Gaia, the earth, Arabis, evening, Humeri, day, Eros, passion. Then you have Zeus, who is the sky, the atmosphere, the wind, the cloud, the rain, the thunder, the lightning, the Greek Baal.] But none of them were supernatural because none of them were thought to be transcendent over nature. They merely were the sources of the various natural forces. And people would worship (on the hilltops) all these various supposed gods of these natural forces. The Hills-- Now when God was about to lead to His people into the promised land, He warned them not to worship like their neighbors did. They were to worship differently than their surrounding neighbors. However, we know that when king David was succeeded by his son Solomon, Solomon ended up bringing pagan hilltop worship of foreign gods into Israel. And that began with his breaking God's command not to intermarry with the women of the surrounding nations (1 Kings 11:1-8). And so Solomon led Israel astray in a huge way. And the kings who followed him also engaged in pagan worship, until eventually a man came to the throne by the name of king Ahab. He engaged in and led Israel in worship of Baal. But then you have this guy come along by the name of Elijah, who pretty much just shows up out of nowhere. We don't know much of his background or anything, save that he was from Tishbe and that he came with a word from Yahweh Himself. Because of a Ahab’s wickedness in leading Israel astray, Elijah pronounces that there will be a drought for a few years. And there was. And when Ahab eventually finds Elijah, Elijah tells him to summon people from all over Israel to gather on Mount caramel. And he tells him to bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah. And so Ahab does so; and they all gather at the top of Mount Carmel. And Elijah goes before the people and says, "How long will you waiver between two opinions? If the Lord [Yahweh] is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” (1 Kings 18:16-21). Now notice that Elijah, in the way he forms the question, forces them to make a choice. They can either continue to worship Baal or they can return in worship to Yahweh. However, they cannot do both. The prophets of Baal had no problem with the Israelites having a little bit of worship of Yahweh. What they did have a problem with was the idea that Yahweh and Yahweh alone is God. And the same is true in our day and age. People don't have a problem with Christianity being one of many viable options on the buffet table of world-views. But begin saying that Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone is the way of salvation, and people began to get upset. And they will hate you and may even try to kill you because of it. But Yahweh makes it clear that he wants to be worshiped exclusively. And that is clear in the way that Elijah frames the choice. Elijah’s Instructions-- Now Elijah gives some very specific instructions. He tells them to bring two bulls. He allows the prophets of Baal to choose the bull they want and tells them to cut it up into pieces and put it on their altar, but not to set fire to it. And he says he will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. And he tells them to call on the name of Baal and he will call on the name of Yahweh. And the God who answers with fire—he is God. Now everyone thought that this was a good idea because [Baal was supposed to be the god of the thunderstorm. So he was the lightning god, the one who controlled the lightning. So Elijah was saying, "Let's play it on your court. We will do it according to your god's strength. The one that answers by fire–let him be God.”] And so they set up the altars and (as you know) Elijah even has the one to Yahweh soaked with water (3 times). And the fire doesn’t fall on the altar to Baal, but comes down upon the altar of Yahweh and consumes the sacrifice and the altar itself. And when all the people see it, they fall on their faces and say, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” What our Psalmist had in mind-- One author I read this week suggested that the author of this psalm may have been a witness to what God did on Mount Carmel that day. But regardless of whether he was or not, he obviously had the story of Elijah in mind, as he makes a distinction between Yahweh and all of the other gods of the ancient world. The pagan gods were mirror projections of you and me. They sleep because we sleep. They are limited because we are limited. Without the revelation that God gives us of himself, there is nowhere to turn for a picture of the divine but to nature. We end up being compelled to make the divine world look like our world. And so all of paganism was the worship of the forces of nature. Apart from the revelation of God, it could be nothing else. But here the Psalmist is saying "My neighbor goes to the top of the hill for his answer, but I am going to go elsewhere. I am going to the very Maker of heaven and earth.” And because Yahweh is transcendent over creation because it is just that (HIS CREATION), we don’t have to worry. The Psalmist writes: Psalm 121:3-8 (ESV)-- 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber {(unlike Baal, who you will remember does sleep, as Elijah mockingly pointed out)}. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand {(the word here is actually shelter. You have at your side at all times the One who is your Shelter.)}. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. {(Why? Because Yahweh made them as he made you; and so you don’t have to be afraid of them)} 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Our only hope-- Regarding this passage, one author I read recently said this: [Modern people have tried every earthly source to solve their problems: government, education, economics, social sciences, psychology, and psychoanalysis. We have expected somewhere within us or within our world to find the key, the solution that we seek. Thousands of years ago there was a man, wiser than we, who saw the sterility of our vain efforts. He decided that help for humans comes only from Yahweh, who created and rules over all the factors and all the processes in which we place our hopes. Our only true hope and our only sure help is in the God who made heaven and earth.] Today I want to encourage you with the fact that (because Yahweh is the Maker of heaven and earth) there is nothing that you are going through right now that is outside of the realm of His control. You and I do not worship a God who is weak like we are, but a God who is the very source and the definition of all strength and who wants to give you His strength today in and through his abiding presence. And you can have that strength today, if you merely call out to Him as Elijah did. And the fire of His presence will come down and anoint your life. And it will be a source of nourishment and strength no matter where you go or what you do. Ask Him for that strength today. Amen.
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In our FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE series, we have come to the book of Psalms, which connects for us in a remarkable way what we know about God with actually personally encountering Him in first-person worship. And last week we began taking a look at Psalm 146, which we will continue today. In it the Psalmist writes…
Psalm 146:3-6a (NIV)-- 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. 5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. 6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them-- Biblical Trust-- Now we see that the reason that we can give praise to God is because, unlike those the world puts their faith in (rulers and other fallible human beings), our God is not like them. They pass away and their plans (if they aren’t rooted in God and His plan) end in the grave. That is why they are not worthy of our praise. And if you base your life on them, you are going to be beyond disappointed. The psalmist points us to the reality that the true cause that we have for praise is the trustworthiness of God. In fact, aside from the personal name of God, the most important word next to this is probably the word "trust". In Hebrew there are five different words in the Old Testament that can be translated "trust." We will only talk about two of them. The first is frequently translated "believe". When it says in Genesis 15:6 that Abram "believed the Lord [Yahweh], and he credited it to him as righteousness" the verb is from the Hebrew word ’-m-n, which means "to be sure, to be certain." In fact, it is the source of the Hebrew word Amen, meaning "certainly, surely,”. And it means to accept the word of someone. Abraham was choosing to live in the certainty that what God was saying to him was true. And for this reason, that belief was credited to him as righteousness. And someone said in regards to this, "the only right thing a human can do is to put absolute confidence in the trustworthiness of God. Without that, everything else we do is filthy rags.” batah-- Now [there is a second word in Hebrew: batah, which means “to trust.” {And one scholar I read said that} Of the two words, this is the more common one in the Psalms. ’amen is found in the psalms, but not a great many times. It is a bit like an obligato line in music, while batah is the main motif that the psalmist never gets through playing. It just keeps coming back, and coming back, and coming back. Of the two, batah is more graphic. It is “to lean upon.”] The Mega-Swing-- Recently I saw video footage of a young woman sitting in a chair on the edge of a cliff that was attached to long ropes. And after much fear on her part, her friends pushed that chair off the edge and she fell straight down; and after free falling that line suddenly went taught and her chair immediately became a swing; and she is swung this huge distance between these two cliffs. Now I am telling you. There is nobody in this world who could convince me to take that leap of faith. I’m sorry. I don’t care how strong you tell me that rope is, I am never going to put my life on THAT LINE, if you know what I mean. But this word for trust carries with it this idea of putting your weight down; accepting and trusting in God so implicitly, that you are willing to put your life in His hands. [You are leaning against something or someone, and if he or it falls down, you’re in trouble. So the psalmist is saying, “In whom shall I trust?”] And you know that is one of the central questions that every human being must face at some point in their life. What am I going to trust in? What do I put my hope in? What is my anchor? Atheists & Trust-- Some time ago I got to have a number of dialogs with members of an atheistic group. But they were not very much interested in having friendly dialogue as much as they were interested in mocking Christianity (and Christians) for their faith. In this group I have tried to engage their questions with solid evidence for the truth of Christianity, but I got the impression that it didn’t really matter how much evidence I could give; they were not going to change because lack of evidence wasn’t their central problem; their central problem was that if a God really existed to whom they are morally accountable, they couldn’t be the masters of their own lives. They didn’t want to be accountable to anyone. Now past all their mockery and delusions of being “free from God” lies a horrible truth. If atheism is true, then there is no hope for any kind of future that matters. It has nothing to offer you for eternity. There's nothing that you can cast your roots into in this world that will give you a sure foundation. In a Biblical (theistic) worldview there is hope; but not in man. That is why the Psalmist tells us not to trust in the world’s heroes; not to trust in creation; and certainly not to trust in ourselves. Because the temporal will pass away. However, God will never pass away; and those who place their faith in Him in and through Jesus Christ will have eternal life. As he writes in… Psalm 146:6 (NIV)-- 6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—he remains faithful forever. A Future Different From The Past--Now this view of the world stands in contrast to every other religious view during that time. No other culture believed in one universal creator. The Hebrew religion stands alone in this. And it made the Hebrews’ view of the universe remarkably simple: if you see it, God made it. Period. And with that understanding (that God created the world and the world had a beginning) came also the idea that history might have an end. You see pagan religions during that time believed in a cyclical view of time. Everything just repeats itself over and over again and tomorrow cannot be any different than today anymore than today can be any different from yesterday. And the pagans were bound by this cyclical view of time. And yet what the Hebrew religion introduced was this idea that because God is the Creator and there was a beginning, then there also could be an end; a climax toward which everything else was building. It was a linear view of time. And what this meant was that for the first time, mankind was able to conceive of a future that was better than the present. And what this did was it laid the groundwork for invention and innovation because there was hope for a better future. This was a one of the most important discoveries of all time. And it is a truth that was made manifest not in some grand theological tome, but right here in this psalm; this hymnbook of Israel. Yahweh is the Lord of Creation; and He’s the Lord of time; and because of that we can have hope for a better future. I don’t know how many of you feel stuck in an endless cycle. Maybe you do. But I want to tell you that with God comes the hope that your future can be better than the present; and will be if you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Now from here the Psalmist moves on and begins talking about those that are uncared for and oppressed. He says… Psalm 146:7-10 (NIV)— 7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, 8 the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. 10 The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord. No Legal Rights-- Now the reason the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow are all linked together is because none of them have any legal rights. None of them had anybody to stand up for them in court. There was no father; no husband; and if you are a foreigner, you had absolutely no rights. But what is amazing is that God steps in and chooses to be that father; to be that husband; to be that one who puts His arm around the foreigner; and gives them rights and defends their cause. And when you and I come to faith in that same God, we also will have concern for those people as well. Because one of the things that God does in the human heart when we place our faith in Jesus Christ is He turns us out of ourselves. Suddenly life is not just about me, it is about a world that is broken and my coming alongside God to help bring about healing to those who are in need of His saving touch. And all social concern has to begin here; with our allowing God to so fill us with His presence and with His love, that His very nature reflected through us will be the Light that extinguishes the darkness in our world. William Wilberforce’s Conversion-- Some time ago I became acquainted with the story of [William Wilberforce. When he was twenty-one he was elected to Parliament. He came from a well-to-do family in England and so, at twenty-one he had a seat in Parliament. He was sort of an odd young man, and so his family felt that Parliament would be a place where he could make his mark and become something. He was a member of the Anglican Church but was far from a Christian—he did not even believe in God. He was not even sure if he believed in much of anything When he was twenty-five years old his mother said, “I want to take a vacation. I want to go to the Riviera.” In Those days there were no airplanes, so she had to go by coach. How would you like to ride in a stagecoach from here to New Orleans…with your mother. And you are a member of the House of Commons. But he was a dutiful son so he said, “let’s take two carriages”—and he looked for a friend to go with him. Finding such a friend, he said, “We ought to take something to read; it’s going to be a long ride.” So they checked the best-seller list At that time, a book by Philip Doddridge, titled The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, was popular. Now, being a good politician, he was interested in what folks were reading, so when that was suggested he agreed. So, to the Mediterranean and back, they read Philip Doddridge’s The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. By the time they got back to England, Wilberforce believed there must be a God. The next year his mother wanted to go back. So, William Wilberforce went to find his friend. This time they decided to read the Greek New Testament. There are very few seminary graduates today who can read a Greek New Testament. But one hundred fifty years ago a twenty-six-year-old member of Parliament in Britain could. So, they read the Greek New Testament all the way to the mediterranean and back. When William Wilberforce got back to London, he believed in Christ. In the next session of Parliament he introduced the bill to free the slaves in the British Empire. For thirty-seven years he reintroduced the bill every year. And thirty-seven years later, on a Friday, they passed the bill to free the slaves. On the following Monday night, about 2 o’clock in the morning, William Wilberforce died….You see, William Wilberforce met the same person the psalmist met.] And his heart was turned out onto the world. A Praise Eruption— The fact is, that when you and I approach the living God personally and truly encounter Him, our lives will erupt with praise, with joy, with a renewed sense of purpose, an entire change in our worldview, and a burning compassion for those who are in desperate need of the healing touch of Jesus Christ. And we will be willing to go anywhere and die anywhere if it means that we can bring at least part of the world a little closer to Him. Make it your goal to (every day) encounter God in a real and personal way. In that encounter will be life not just for you; but for the whole world. Seek that encounter this week. Amen. In our FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE series, we come to the book of Psalms. And the reason that we begin here is because (Although there are different ways to approach any given study about God) there is a tendency to separate that study of God from worship. And that is OK, if we are content merely to know ABOUT God. But if we want to know God Himself, we need to connect our study of God with worship. Our study of God must be punctuated with adoration and praise and prayer. An author I have been reading on this subject said something about this that has stuck with me. He said: [I suspect I can find out more of what you really believe if I can listen to you pray awhile than in any other way. When I hear you witness, I hear you saying something you think the people around you expect you to say, but when you are alone with God and express yourself freely, then you begin to reveal what you really believe and who you really are....The Psalms portray Israel at prayer. And it is when we pray that we find out what we really believe, what our theology actually is. Furthermore, true theology ought to end in prayer. If theology is the study of God, the knowledge of God, and if God is God, then the end of the study ought to be worship. If it is not, if it has been only a study about a subject and our thoughts on that subject, that is idolatry; I have made God a thing. It does not matter how accurate my thought is; if it does not bring me to Him as a living Person, I have only found a substitute for Him, a knowledge of something other than God. When one comes to know the true God, the only response is, in the language of the Old Testament, fearful worship.”]
Now the reason that I want to highlight this for you is because (as the title of our message today indicates) we want to encounter God. And that happens through worship. It is within the context of worship that we come to a true "knowing" relationship with the Lord of heaven and earth. Go ahead and look with me at the Psalm 146. Psalm 146 (NIV) 1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. 2 I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. 5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. 6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them-- he remains faithful forever. 7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, 8 the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. 10 The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord. No Praise Allowed!-- [A woman who “enjoyed her religion” visited a very staid and formal church. “Amen” she said, as the preacher brought out a point with which she agreed. “Madam,” said the usher standing nearby, “Please try and restrain yourself. We don’t allow that in this church.” In a few moments she was so carried away by the sermon that she shouted, “Amen, praise the Lord, hallelujah!” The usher rushed to her side: “Madam! You must quiet down immediately or leave!” “I didn’t mean to disturb ... but I am just so happy since I found the Lord,” she explained. “You may have found the Lord,” retorted the usher severely, “but I am quite sure you didn’t find him here!”] Having Praise In Your Heart— I read a story the other day of a man who [attended the services of one of the great churches of the past and had never witnessed a place that was so dead. Do you know what the problem was? People were not coming to church with praise in their hearts. They did not come to the service with thankfulness in their hearts to God. They did not enter His gates with thanksgiving.] When we find the Lord, it’s hard to keep quiet. Anybody who has truly been touched by God; who has truly encountered Him, their life will ALWAYS erupt in praise. Well, this is what happened to the Psalmist in our passage today, which is why he writes in… Psalm 146:1-2 (NIV)— 1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. 2 I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. “The Great Hallel”-- Now (just to give you a little context for our passage this morning) this psalm is [the first of the last five in the book of Psalms. In Jewish tradition these five psalms are grouped together. They are called “The Great Hallel.”] And what does that word “hallel” mean? (WAIT) Yes, [the Hebrew word hallel means praise.] And [So we find it in English in “hallelujah,” meaning “Praise the Lord.” These five psalms all begin with that injunction, “Praise the Lord.” Furthermore, all five end with it as well. The hallelu is a plural imperative, commanding a group of people, “Give praise!” … {And so} This group of psalms is called a “hallel” because they begin and end with that call to praise.] Leaving God With Gratitude— Now one scholar points our that [“…the reason we have the Great Hallel at the end of the Psalms is because it was a Hebrew conviction that when you come to God, no matter why you come, you ought to leave Him with gratitude, with thanksgiving, with praise, with adoration in your heart. No matter what it is you bring when you come, when you are in His presence, His greatness ought to be such that when you finish your time with Him your problems have been reduced in size in relation to Him and you can walk out, no matter what you face, with praise.”] And so, as one commentator observes: [It is not that the psalmist said to himself, “I ought to sit down and write a prayer,” but that he met God and could not do anything else. So the poetic expression that you find here is not something that was written in praise of God in order to get to God. Rather, it is something that was written because the writer had met God. And when we really meet Him, unless it is an encounter of complete judgment, if we meet Him in grace, always the end of that meeting with the gracious God will be an experience of joy and of praise.] WHEN HELLEN KELLER DISCOVERED WORDS— Some of you know (at least a little bit) about the story of Helen Keller. It is a truly remarkable story of transformation and grace, simply because a woman named Anne Sullivan poured into Helen Keller’s life and helped her (though blind and deaf) to learn to communicate and read; and thereby lifting her out of her silent darkness. [The 21-year-old Anne Sullivan came to Tuscumbia, Alabama on March 3, 1887. From the moment she arrived she began to sign words into Helen's hand, trying to help her understand the idea that everything has a name.] And this was extraordinary difficult at first. But Anne writes of a breakthrough moment she had with Helen. She writes: [We went out to the pump-house, and I made Helen hold her mug under the spout while I pumped. As the cold water gushed forth, filling the mug, I spelled "w-a-t-e-r" in Helen's free hand. The word coming so close upon the sensation of cold water rushing over her hand seemed to startle her. She dropped the mug and stood as one transfixed. A new light came into her face. She spelled "water" several times. Then she dropped on the ground and asked for its name and pointed to the pump and the trellis, and suddenly turning round she asked for my name. I spelled "Teacher." Just then the nurse brought Helen's little sister into the pump-house, and Helen spelled "baby" and pointed to the nurse. All the way back to the house she was highly excited, and learned the name of every object she touched, so that in a few hours she had added thirty new words to her vocabulary. Here are some of them: Door, open, shut, give, go, come, and a great many more. P.S.--I didn't finish my letter in time to get it posted last night; so I shall add a line. Helen got up this morning like a radiant fairy. She has flitted from object to object, asking the name of everything and kissing me for very gladness. Last night when I got in bed, she stole into my arms of her own accord and kissed me for the first time, and I thought my heart would burst, so full was it of joy.] Now […after Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, had given her the names of physical objects in sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God and tapped out the symbols for the name “God.” Much to Miss Sullivan’s surprise, Helen spelled back, “Thank you for telling me God’s name, Teacher, for He has touched me many times before.” {She said that she knew of him already, groping in the dark after him.} Helen Keller knew something of God’s signature from nature, but it was wordless.] YHWH: A Hallelujah Psalm Built on God’s Name-- A name can change a lot in a relationship. And the psalms are important in that they highlight for us the personal nature of our encounter with God. And that is why the most important word in this Psalm (though it is covered up in our English translations by the word LORD in all caps) is “YHWH”. This psalm is built around that personal name for God. Hallelujah (what this Psalm opens and closes with) doesn’t exactly mean “praise the Lord”. Because [yah is the short form for the name “Yahweh” in the Old Testament. This is the name that God gave to Moses at the burning bush when Moses wanted to know with whom he was talking. God gave Moses His personal name, and that name was probably pronounced, as best we know, Yahweh.] This is a personal name, not a title. And so when we realize this, this word “hallelujah” becomes a very close and personal form of praise. Now we usually use the word “God” in our prayers (which is a general title; what He is rather than who He is to you and to me. But did you know that God’s name [“Yahweh occurs in the Old Testament about 6,800 times, while Elohim, “God” only appears about 2,600 times. So, the preponderance of references to the Deity in the Old Testament use the personal name.] And what this should tell you and me is that yes, God knows you by name. But apparently God wants you to know Him by His name too. Because our relationship with God (unlike any other religion) is characterized by a personal encounter. That is why by next week, I would like each of you to purchase a Hebrew Bible and learn Hebrew. Or, if that’s too hard (as I suspect it is) begin marking in your Bible all these places where the name of God is mentioned. Maybe just put a little “N” next to His name and remember (every time you see it) how close of a relationship God wants to have with you. This is why [The Hebrews were the the people of the name. And the Bible, the Old Testament, is the book about the One whose name we know.] They knew God in a way that no other nation did because He was a God who abided with them in intimate relationship. And the same is true for us. In Jesus Christ, you and I know God; His Holy Spirit abides in us. And we can relate with God (in a way) face to face (presence to presence) without a priest; without an additional sacrifice. His presence is open to us. That enough is reason for us to erupt in praise. So today, take advantage of the face that God’s presence is open to you. And give Him thanks for that incredible gift He has given to you and to me. Amen. Today, as we continue our series FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE”, I’d like to continue our discussion on what it means to know God; particularly His name. What does it mean for us to know the God of the universe; our Creator and our Redeemer not just by majestic titles, but by His very name? And I’d like to start by reading of the first time God’s name is given, which we find in Exodus chapter 3. Moses has been settling down in his old age when God appears to Him in a burning bush and tells him that he is going to be the instrument through which He (God) will deliver His people. And one comic I read recently showed Moses (exasperated) saying, “So much for the golden years.” God still had great things He wanted to do through Moses. And that just goes to show that you are never too old for God to do something fresh in and through you; and use you to do great things. Now Moses doesn’t like the idea. He starts to beat around the burning bush, so to speak. It says in…
Exodus 3:13-20 (ESV)-- 13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[a] And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord,[b] the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. The Scientific Name-- [A patient told his doctor, “If there’s anything wrong with me, Doctor, just tell me in plain English.” “Well,” replied the doctor hesitatingly, “to be perfectly frank, you’re just plain lazy.” “Thanks, Doctor,” muttered the patient, “Now I would appreciate it if you would give me the scientific name so I can tell my family.”] A First-Name Basis-- It’s funny what truth can be hidden behind a name. And this is never more true when we talk about the name of God. Have you ever thought about how significant it is that God revealed to Moses (and us) His personal name? Why does that matter? Well, to know someone’s name makes the relationship with that person more intimate and personal; there is a closeness that is brought into the relationship. Furthermore, when you give your name to someone, you are actually giving to that other person a certain degree of control over you in that now they have the power to get your attention. Well, God apparently saw fit to give us His name for that very reason; so that we might have that closeness with Him and so that we might (at any time we choose) call on His name and receive His full attention. This was something revolutionary in the world of ancient religions. God wanted to be on a first-name basis with mankind. And God wants to be on a first-name basis with you as well. The Bible says He knows you by name. And He wants you to know Him by name as well. The Loss of The Name-- But in our English Bibles, we don’t find the name of God. Instead we come across the word “Lord”. And sometimes just the first letter is capitalized and other times all the letters are capitalized. Why the variation? Well (as Dr. Dennis Kinlaw explains best) it is because [the first one is an honorific title whereas the second one is standing for God’s personal name. As you read through the Psalms, notice how many times that capitalized Lord appears. Every time it is standing for the personal name of God. Why does the Hebrew bible do this? Why not just spell out his personal name? {Well,} The answer to these questions is found in a Jewish idea called “fencing the Law.” That is, after the Babylonian exile the returned Judeans were very concerned that they never break God’s law again and suffer such a terrible fate. In order not to break the laws they put more laws around them. It is a though, if the speed limit were sixty-five miles per hour, you would put a governor on your car so you could not go over forty-five miles per hour {I remember when we were moving here, driving in that moving truck all the way from Ohio, there was such a governor on that truck. Not a fan of that governor, as it made for very slow going. But…}. That would guarantee you would not break the speed law. So, how can you be sure that you never break the Old Testament law that forbids boiling a kid in its mother’s milk? Well, if you never eat a hamburger and drink milk at the same time, you will not break that law. So to this day an orthodox Jew will not eat meat and milk together. Now, the Jews spread that concept rather extensively so that when they came to the commandment, “Though shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” they said, “You know, if we never pronounce His name, we won’t break that commandment.” Whenever they came to the name of God, they said the word that means “lord” instead. They did this so thoroughly that eventually they, the people of God, lost the pronunciation of the name that was given to Moses at the burning bush. They lost their greatest treasure. {Then Kinlaw says this:} Sometimes I think the the real effect of the work of those of us who are professional religious people has been to put distance between people and God. So the book of Psalms and indeed, the entire Old Testament in our English translations, can only speak of God in one of his roles, “the Lord,” and never in the richness of His person, as conveyed in His name. My wife’s name is Elsie Blake Kinlaw. I knew a preacher once who always referred to his wife in public as, “the wife.” I hear him do it in the pulpit. If I had ever done that to my wife, when I got home my bags would be packed sitting on the front porch. Elsie is not a role, she is a person. When I was president of Asbury College many people would call me “Mr. President.” It was not about me but about my business role. What you do with names determines relationship, doesn’t it? I want you to notice how prominent the personal name of God is in Psalms. In fact, the book of Psalms is about Yahweh*, yet He never appears by name in our translation. {*We know that the consonants of God’s personal name were y-h-w-h, but we do not know what the vowels were. This is so because when the Jewish scholars were adding vowel markings to the text, which had originally contained only consonants, the vowels they inserted in the divine name were the vowels of the word for “lord” -a-o-a. Using evidence from personal names that include parts of the divine name (like “Abijah,” “my father is Yah”) scholars have conjectured that the name was pronounced “Yahweh,” which would mean “He Causes to Be.” Because this is not certain, most English translations continue to use “Lord.”—JNO} {But in Psalms like Psalm 121 and 146}…Notice how many times God’s personal name occurs, how common it is. I think that is one of the reasons for the Incarnation. God was wanting to overcome the distance that had crept in between Him and His people in the loss of His name. There is something about the name “Jesus” that has a closeness that the term “God” does not have.] Look at what Jesus says in… John 17:6 (ESV)-- 6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. I want to ask you today: When you think about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (and pray to them), what title(s) do you most often gravitate towards? And how does that title shape the way that you think about God? Or even more importantly, does that title diminish the level of intimacy that scripture reveals is God’s central desire for each of us. And in light of our discussion today, what ought the name of Jesus to mean to you and to me as the One in whom God restores to us His personal name? You know, it can be funny how we often times approach scripture. It is something we can read to feel spiritual; to increase our Biblical learning; or even to prepare sermons or nice Facebook posts, Tweets and Instagram posts (which are all great things). But when we separate the Word of God from God Himself; from using scripture as an actual means of coming into the presence of God, we miss the central reason for scripture, which is to encounter God. But if we do keep encountering God through His Word our central aim, there is no telling what God can do in and through your life. And His Word will become not just a textbook, but one of the chief means God uses to speak to you. And when He truly speaks to you through His Word and reveals Himself to you in greater and greater measure, God will use His Word to transform not just your life, but the lives of those around you. Otto Piper and The Reformation— Once, in an Old Testament class taught by the highly esteemed Dr. Otto Piper, [a student asked him a question: “Dr. Piper, many of us are going to be graduating in a few weeks. We will be going out into the ministry. Is there a list of ‘must’ books for every pastor? Is there a list of books that every pastor should have read?”…And he…said, “I know of only one ‘must’ book.” And then he waited a moment and said, “You know, we make a mistake. Somehow in our Reformed tradition we think that Luther and Calvin produced the Reformation. It wasn’t Luther or Calvin who produced the Reformation. What produced the Reformation was that Luther studied the Word of God. And as he studied, it began to explode inside him. And when it began to explode inside him, he didn’t know any better than to turn it loose on Germany. And it was the Word of God that transformed Germany. Now,” he said, “the same thing was true of Calvin. You knew what Calvin was going to preach on next Sunday. He would start with the verse after the one where he had stopped on the last Sunday, and he preached his way right through the Bible. Now, the tragedy of the Reformation was that when Luther and Calvin died, Melancthon and Beza edited their work. And so all the Lutherans began to read the Bible to find Luther and all the Calvinists began to read the Bible to find Calvin. And,” he said, “the great corruption was on its way.” He said, “Do you know there is enough undiscovered truth in the Scripture to produce a Reformation and an evangelical awakening in every generation if we would simply expose ourselves to it until it explodes within us and then we turn it loose?”] This morning, settle for nothing less than knowing God in a personal relationship. If you’re like me, you can easily fall into the trap of learning about God and not ever truly knowing God. But if you and I will have a relational communion with God AS we study His Word, He can cause that Word to explode inside of US and transform OUR lives and the lives of those around us. But we have to lay hold of Him. And so right here right now, do it. Pray to Him and say, “Lord, I don’t want to just know about You. Lord, I want to know You.” If you open yourself to Him like that, I promise you He will respond. James says in… James 4:8a (NKJV)-- 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Draw near to Him today. Amen. |
Rev. Cameron Ury graduated from Asbury University in 2007 with a B.A. in Bible and Theology. From there he continued his studies at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, MS. It was there that he met his wife Tanya, who graduated from WBS with her M.A. and M.Div. degrees. Cameron and Tanya got married in 2009. Cameron then graduated with his M.Div. degree with a pastoral concentration in 2011.
After shepherding churches in both Mississippi and Ohio, they joined the ministry team at Renton Park Chapel in January of 2018, where Cameron serves as Senior Pastor and Teacher. Cameron is also the founder and host of Lechem Panim, a weekly radio show that airs on KGNW 820AM "The Word Seattle". The ministry of Lechem Panim is centered around leading people into the life-giving presence of God in and through Bible study, prayer, and active discipleship with the aim of ministering to a world that is in desperate need of the healing touch of Jesus Christ. Archives
January 2021
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