Psalm 97

Peter Thompson preaching from Psalm 97

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SPEAKER_01 0:20

Our reading this morning is from Psalm ninety-seven. The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice, let the many coastlands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness are all around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world. The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory. All worshippers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols. Worship him all you gods. Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O Lord. For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods. O you who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the lives of his saints. He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name. And so reads God's Word.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

My name is Peter, I'm the assistant pastor here. Special welcome to anybody who's visiting. It's wonderful. I think that's one of our joys uh being in a place like this. Um, in a city like Dublin, we get to see so many uh brothers and sisters from across the world. Just pop in for a week. Um, if you're thinking about whether to pop in for more than a week, if you're thinking of uh settling down here, um it'd be great to chat to you, get to know you, uh, for you to ask questions, etc. Um, so if you are visiting, checking checking city out, thinking, is this a place where I can be, where I can worship, um, where I can be known, uh, where I can um learn, where I can grow, and please do come and chat to us. Um, we'd love to get to know you. So please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 97. If you don't have a Bible, uh there should be some over there, maybe the one day I plan to do it. There's actually no Bibles there. Um there's one, okay. So there'll be one if you need a physical Bible. Uh of course your phones are great. There's the there's the um Bible app on there, you can get that. Um but don't be distracted by your phone during the sermon. Pop it on, pop it on Do Not Disturb. Uh be fully engaged with the service, uh, the whole service, not just the sermon. Um, the Lord speaks to us here. Um rest a while here in God's word. Rest a while here with his people. Rest a while here in his presence as the Lord Jesus ministers to us by his spirit, by his word, and through his people. Here's a little song I wrote. You might want to learn it note for note. Don't worry, be happy. It's a lovely song, isn't it? And there's well-meaning sentiment. And maybe some of us could learn from the wisdom that it preaches. But it doesn't really make a difference to us when life inevitably gets tough, when things take a turn for the worse, when the realities of life they rear their ugly head. The song does try to address this. In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry, you make it double. Don't worry, be happy. Don't worry, be happy now. Again, there's some truth to our worry making life more difficult for ourselves. But when we face the worst things in life, how can we be happy? We can't just whistle ourselves into happiness. This Psalm, though, gives us solid trouble. Can't take away reason not to be happy, but to rejoice. This kind of rejoicing is the rejoicing that we're all made for. It's rejoicing that cannot be taken away by circumstance, no matter how difficult. It's not a don't worry, be happy kind of rejoicing, but one that is weighty and deep and will last on into eternity. We rejoice because the Lord who is our Lord, we rejoice because he reigns. The call for today and your whole entire life is to rejoice in the Lord who reigns. And there's three things that we're going to see today in this Psalm about his reign that we rejoice in. Rejoice in the Lord who reigns in unchanging perfection. Rejoice in the Lord who reigns with perfect judgment. Rejoice in the Lord who reigns and makes us righteous. So have a look at Psalm 97, verse 1. The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. The proper response to the Lord reigning is to rejoice. The proper response of the whole earth to the Lord being king. It's not just you and me, the whole earth is to rejoice. If you say, and when you say the Lord reigns to anyone, they should rejoice. This is how things are meant to be, how they've created to be. When you announce that the Lord's Lord reigns, that He has rule and authority, all rule and authority, the mountains, the trees, the rivers and oceans, everything that lives in and on and in the air, they should rejoice. Everything is good and right and full of joy when the Lord Jesus reigns. Back in 1990, every Irish person was absolutely thrilled and delighted during the World Cup in Italy that year, back in 1990. Everyone remembers it. So much so that I remember it like I was there, even though I wasn't even born yet. It's in Irish people's DNA to remember that mild success from 36 years ago, like it was yesterday. The whole country was ecstatic and celebrating and rejoicing that the team was doing so well. Whenever there was a match on, everyone was glued to the television and was cheering. When you saw somebody wearing the Irish jersey, you'd just be filled with so much pride. Whenever kids would play football out in the street or in their backyards, they would imagine themselves playing for the national team in Italy in the World Cup final. Let that be how it is for us when we remember that the Lord reigns. Rejoice for the Lord reigns. When you notice anything and everything rejoicing in the Lord, then you too should rejoice in him, delight in him, sing to him with joy, praise him, give thanks to him, be glad in him. The Lord reigns, brothers and sisters. Join with the whole earth and rejoice. And when that good news that the Lord Jesus reigns, when it reaches new shores, it causes unceasing joy and gladness where there was none before. Every place that hasn't heard the gospel is just waiting to be glad. Think of nations before the gospel came to them. Think of the state of people before they came to know that the Lord Jesus is the great king, that he died for them, that he rose again, and that they may have life. Think about yourself before Jesus became your Lord. The sorry state of all who have not heard or responded to the good news of Christ's reign, who have not submitted to him as Lord, is that they will be outside his kingdom forever, outside life, outside joy, outside gladness. But the moment someone hears and understands what it means that the Lord reigns, they are delighted. They're filled with rejoicing that won't stop, that will keep going on into eternity. Think of what it was like to hear that World War II had ended in victory for the Allies. Think of what it would have been like to be in Ireland or over in Britain or across the Atlantic. Think about it in the rest of the world. Can you imagine six years of fighting, six years of killing, six years of loss, six years of rationing, six years of uncertainty? So for that news to come across those shores by telephone or telegraph or whatever, to appear on the front page of the papers, it must have been immense. But greater joy and greater gladness and greater rejoicing came when the good news of the gospel came here. Greater joy and gladness and rejoicing came to your country when the gospel first made its way there. Rejoicing that the good news that the Lord Jesus is Lord reigning in heaven has hit these shores and coastlines wherever you came from. Rejoice in that. But at the same time, think about those places, those people who have not heard. Think about those coastlines where the gospel hasn't landed, maybe ever, or perhaps just for a very long time. And think not only literally of shorelines, but of the many towns, villages, streets, and apartment blocks where people do not know the good reign of the Lord Jesus. There's islands around where I live where the gospel, the good news, has not come. And people are not rejoicing in the Lord. There's islands around where you are. There's places around where you are, where the gospel has not come. Pray for them. That they might rejoice in the Lord because they hear the gospel. Even go to those people with the gospel. Pray for and support efforts to plant churches in communities that don't have a gospel witness. Pray with others in your community group for opportunity to bring the gospel to those places, to those people that have not heard. Pray that there would be much rejoicing, that there'd be much gladness as people make Jesus Christ their Lord. This Psalm gives us plenty of solid reason to rejoice in the Lord, from verses 2 to 7, especially. One of those is to rejoice in the perfect Lord, rejoice that He is perfect. He's perfectly righteous, He's perfectly just, perfectly holy. Everything He does is perfect. He's so utterly perfect that it's like He's a brilliantly hot, burning ball of iron that is so hot that anything nearby that's combustible just bursts into flames. His very nature causes fire to go before him. It's not like he goes around striking matches or using a lighter to burn things. He in himself is so perfect that anything impure just ignites and is consumed. Wherever he is, anything unrighteous, impure, unjust, or unholy just burns up before him. And that includes the evil and the sin in us. We confess this like we did earlier to him, and we're assured that it's taken away in Christ. And from the darkness described in verse 2, his righteousness, justice, his holiness and perfection are displayed for all to see in brilliant momentary flashes of light. Down in verse 4. Everyone sees it and they quake. Anything and everything that is not based on and standing on his perfect righteousness and justice, on God Himself, will just crumble as the earth trembles before him. His perfection is so glorious and majestic that even the mountains melt like wax. Imagine the Wicklow Mountains melting. You just see them melting away to nothing before your very eyes. The mountains that you can see just out there, if you go to the river, you'll see mountains to the south. They're the mountains that the Celts saw, the Vikings saw, the Normans saw when they would have first come to Dublin. The mountains that you see every time you fly into Dublin Airport. Imagine those mountains just melting like a candle before a roaring fire. Imagine these mountains which have stood there basically unmoving. Talk to Lizzie, our geologist, and she'll tell you exactly what they're doing. But they look from this distance, they have looked like they're unmoving for who knows how long. And imagine them in just a moment, just melting before the complete and utter, pure, holy perfection and glory that is our God. All people see this glory. And the heavens scream at us to see him in all his perfection. The skies declare how glorious he is. The rising sun proclaims his goodness day after day. The moon passing in front of the sun for a moment to cause an eclipse shouts glory. The stars preach his perfection every night. Rejoice in the Lord's reign. It is so brilliantly perfect that it will burn up all evil around you and even in you. Yet as I read this Psalm, I asked myself, how can I rejoice when evil exists in my world? When I have a pit in my stomach, thinking about the awful things I and people I love are facing. When the innocent and the vulnerable are subjected to harm. This is precisely when I need it to, and when we need to hear these words. Fire goes up before him and burns up his enemies. Because the perfect Lord reigns, I rejoice. Because his very presence expels evil and sin and all that is wrong, I rejoice. Even through tears. But what if his perfection changes? What if he is only and has been perfect only up until now? The reign of many a good king or president or government, it benefits the people for a certain amount of time and it keeps them safe, but then it inevitably comes to an end. It's because they get old and they die. Or it's because they're defeated, or they become corrupt. This is not the Lord of Psalm 97. This is not our Lord. His perfect nature is impenetrable. There's clouds and thick darkness around him, as the Psalm says. The very basis and foundation of everything he does is righteousness and justice. There's no possibility that the good and perfect things he has done and is doing, there's no possibility that they will change because they come from his very nature. They're the foundation of his rule and authority, his throne. Can water cease to be wet? Even more, our God cannot cease to be holy and pure and perfect and just. Rejoice in the Lord's reign. Tomorrow his perfection remains. Tomorrow fire still goes before him. Tomorrow his judgments are still good and right. So rejoice in the Lord's unchanging and perfect reign today, tomorrow, and always. And because the Lord reigns, anything else that we put in his place, anything else that we make king, anything else that takes the primary place in how we live our lives, the very way we conduct ourselves, the direction we're going, anything that we brag about giving us our primary purpose and dignity and value, it's actually worthless. For all those who are out there, but also for us in here. We long for security. We long to have stability. We long for joy, for happiness and even fun. Don't worry, be happy after all. We long for relationship. We long to know someone else in intimacy. And for them to know us. We long to be rid of that shame that keeps us from wanting to let them in. We long to be seen. We long for intimate friendship. These are all good and godly desires. And the Lord meets these desires with countless gifts. He gives us friends and community. Some of us he gives a spouse and children. He gives us jobs and careers and places to live. He gives us humor and jokes and stories and art and color and hiking or swimming or running or paddle or caving and he gives us music and song and food and travel and eclipses and all of creation for us to enjoy and have fun in. These are all good things that God gives us. He gives us good desires and good gifts. However, when we start relying on these things to give us our security, to give us our joy, to give us intimacy beyond what God intended and his good design, we're skating on very thin ice. These things, they're not meant to hold the weight of our lives. They're not meant to hold the weight of our souls, of our very being. Like last week in Psalm 96, they are fluff. If you tie a rope around some fluff and put your weight on it, you will fall. And in a sense, you'll be put to shame. The same is true for finding our worth and our value in these things. They won't hold our weight. And we will be put to shame, like verse 7 says in Psalm 97. What we do instead is not necessarily to get rid of them all, not just to cut them off, though that can be needed. What we do instead is we call, we actually call all these things to worship Him and to bring glory to Him. Enjoy your friends, enjoy community as the gifts that they are from God. You're even allowed to tell those people that you enjoy that you do, in fact, enjoy them. You can tell them that you're grateful to God for them. You can even tell them what might be true, that you don't know how you would have survived this or that season or that circumstance without them. That God used them to do good in your life. You're not putting your hope entirely or primarily in them. You're trusting God who has given them to you as a gift. You should thank God for friends who bring you to Jesus in prayer, like the four friends who brought the paralytic to him in Luke chapter 5. I'm pretty sure that man thanked his friends for doing it. And that wasn't taking away of his worship of Jesus. And let good friends be a picture of the friendship you have in Jesus. In fact, he's a friend who's closer than any brother. And even where you don't find that you're fulfilled in friendships, let that desire and that longing point beyond to Jesus, the perfect friend. The same is true of a spouse. Enjoy your spouse as a gift from the Lord, but don't tie the rope of your life to them, or to the idea of a perfect life. Family. These good gifts are to be received with gratitude and to point us to the giver. And the longing, just the longing for the good gifts of marriage and children, points us to the ultimate fulfillment of these desires. The Lord Jesus who delights in you and loves you and longs to see your face more than any adoring husband has or ever will delight in love and long to look at his wife. Jesus longs to know and love you and look at your face more than any husband longs for his wife. Don't let the desire for a spouse or a family become a worthless idol. See Jesus, the Lord who reigns as the one to be worshipped and adored. For all those good things, jobs, houses, entertainment, travel, relationships, what we do in our spare time, don't let those good things become idols. Because if you do, you will be put to shame. Because they won't hold the weight of your life. Rather, let these things point you to the gracious Lord who gives generously. And he gives generously, he doesn't just give gifts generously. He gives himself. Rejoice in the good Lord's perfect and unchanging reign. And call everything to worship him. The Lord's whole reign is perfect and unchanging, but we're going to home in now on how we can rejoice because his judgments are perfect. And despite the fact that that word judgment sounds scary, that those perfect judgments of this perfect, unchanging King, that they're actually good for us. Rejoice in the Lord who reigns with perfect judgment. We rejoice because the Lord reigns and the judgments he pronounces are good for us. They benefit us. God's people are glad and delight when they hear God's judgments because their enemies are destroyed. The evil that's against them will come to an end. That's what God says. Whatever anything evil could do will not overcome God's people, because He is, as the Psalm says, in verse 9, He is most high over all the earth. He's exalted above all gods. That first half of the Psalm, especially 1 to 7, it could feel distant and far off. But now this points directly at God's people. There's still the majesty, he's still far above all others. But there's also his people coming to the fore. Zion is that city where God reigns, where he dwells with his people, but where he announces and pronounces these good judgments. And Judah includes the surrounding towns and villages and countryside and the rest of the kingdom. All who are in the kingdom under the good reign of the Lord rejoice and are glad because of all that we saw earlier in the Psalm, because that's all true, but it also affects them for the good. Imagine living under the reign of a king a few hundred years ago. Imagine you live on the edge of the kingdom and people from another place come and pillage your town. They rob your food, they do all kinds of evil against you. You would rejoice when your king sends word that he's posting guards in your area and that he'll pursue the perpetrators to restore what was taken from you. That would be good judgment from your point of view. And for those who submit to Jesus Christ as their good Lord, they can rejoice and be glad because his verdict over evil and sin and death is final. His judgment over all wrong in your life is a good thing. Rejoice and delight in the judgments of the perfect judge. Find rest and security in being in his kingdom. This psalm gives us reason and confidence to rejoice even when we face evil. We rejoice because he is in his nature so pure and holy and righteous and just that evil is expelled from his presence. And so we rejoice even when evil comes near us, because it will be dealt with by the reigning Lord of creation. And we hate this evil. See that in verse 10. We don't appease it. We don't say, Oh, I'm not strong enough to be against this evil or to resist it. I mean, that is true, you aren't strong enough. But those of us who love the Lord are in him, and by virtue of loving him and being in him, we can and do hate evil, even being able to rejoice. This psalm is not a call to just forget the realities of evil. Just because there's some promise that's far off. Although there's some wonderful hope in that. This psalm is a call to hate evil now because the Lord reigns now. The risen Lord Jesus who defeated sin and death and evil. He reigns now in heaven. And so we rejoice in him and hate and oppose evil. It's kind of like, you know, in the Lion King in the movie, Simba ends up in the valley and the hyenas are coming at him. And he they're taunting him. And he gives this tame roar at first, because he's only a little cub. And the hyenas, they just laugh at it. And that's how we can imagine evil just laughing at us when we try to oppose it. But then they hear a mighty roar the second time. You see Simba's mouth opening, but what you hear is Mufasa, the king, his father's roar. And that causes the highness to scatter. We oppose evil and hate because the one who we love is the great king over all the earth, who is perfect and has perfect judgments. We can face evil confident that the Lord reigns, and so we hate it. And we can even rejoice as we face evil because he preserves the lives of his saints. In verse 10. All the things that come to us to harm us, he destroys, and so we can hate evil. He keeps us again, verse 10. He keeps us from the hand of the wicked, he delivers us. We can face evil confident that the Lord reigns. Hate the evil in you and around you by seeing it in the light of who God is. Vengeance belongs to him, but we should stand against it, confident that he is against it and will fully defeat it. Rejoice in the Lord who reigns in perfect judgment. Finally, rejoice in the Lord who reigns and makes us righteous. This whole Psalm begs the question, doesn't it? But what about me? What about the evil in me? As that evil and sin is burned up, as that fire goes before the Lord. What does that do in me? And with me? What about the unholiness, the impurity, the injustice in me? As we've been thinking about evil and pointing the finger at all the evil we see around us, there's three more fingers that are pointing back at me. And there's nothing that I can do to resist that fire that goes before him, burning up all those who oppose him, all those who make themselves or other things Lord instead of him. It's only in the Lord Jesus and his death on the cross that we can be saved from the impending consequences of our evil. Through faith in him, we are made those saints spoken of in verse 10. Through faith in him, we are made righteous. Through faith in him, we are made holy. That we won't be consumed by the fires of judgment, and we can instead rejoice at the judgment and what that means. So rejoice in being a saint. Enjoy life to the full in Jesus. Live confidently, knowing that evil cannot overcome you. And as you rejoice that you are a saint made righteous by Christ, by his death on the cross for you, rejoice also that there is future. There's a future with your reigning Lord that far outweighs the present. He reigns now, but verse 11 gives us this beautiful picture of the future. There is light, there's beauty, there's hope and joy now. Both in the good gifts he gives, like the good gifts of just each other. I enjoy spending time with you, I enjoy where I live, I enjoy St. Anne's Park, where we're going for our picnic on Saturday, that you should join us for. But there's light and beauty and deep joy in our relationship with him now. But all of these anticipate an even greater future. The light we experience now is like seeing through a darkened window dimly, but we will see him face to face and will bask in his perfection. The greatest joy that we experience now is like a little chuckle compared to the belly laugh enjoyed with those you love after the best Christmas dinner, full of perfect nostalgic moments, as well as the best day at the fun fair and your wedding day and all your birthdays rolled into one. If the greatest joy that you experience now on this earth is a seed that is sown, imagine what the tree will be like when it grows. Imagine what the flowers are like when they blossom and bloom. Imagine what the fruit is like when it ripens. Rejoice in the light and joy of the Lord's reign now and anticipate light and joy beyond comprehension to come. As we draw to a close, think about Jesus singing this psalm. He's the main singer. Imagine him singing it during his earthly ministry, calling all the earth to rejoice and the coastlands to be glad. Imagine him anticipating the cross on the night he was betrayed, knowing the evil he would face, but the words of verses 11 and 12 are on his lips. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name. He endured the cross because of the joy that was sown for him, the truly righteous one. That joy, just imagine Jesus on the night he was betrayed. That joy that he had was the anticipation of being with his people. That joy was and is you. That joy for him is the joy of being one with you. And picture the risen and lord and reigning Lord Jesus now on his throne of righteousness and justice, who will get rid of all evil, calling us to rejoice in him, in the Lord, as those who've been made righteous by him, and who will give thanks to his holy name forever. Don't worry, be happy, or shallow lyrics that they barely help you get past lunchtime. But because the Lord Jesus is the King who reigns in all his perfection, and because he has made us righteous, we rejoice forever, knowing that there is endless light and endless joy in him. Let me pray. Lord Jesus, you are the sovereign of the entire universe. You reign over everything. We do pray that the good news of your reign would reach more and more coastlands, that the places that we inhabit during the week, that they would hear the gospel, and that many would turn to you to be made saints and to rejoice in you. Thank you that your perfect reign gives us confidence that you will deal with every kind of evil, the evil that comes at us from without and that which springs up in us. Take that evil away, sanctify us by your spirit. Lord Jesus, we long for the day when we will see you face to face. Let us be those who rejoice wholeheartedly each day from now to eternity. We love you. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

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