I.       Introduction:

When I ride the subway in Cambridge from time to time, I love to pay attention to the subway ads. Being in an area that is flooded with research universities and major hospitals, there are usually ads for clinical studies or experiments in need of human subjects. For example, here is an ad that I found online for a clinical study at Mass General. They’re testing the effects of LEDs on brain function. So, if you’re lucky enough to qualify, you can sit in this contraption, have lights shone on your head, maybe improve your brain function, and pick up a few hundred dollars. Now, I want to congratulate each of you, because tonight you have been chosen to be part of a very special experiment. Now, you won’t make any money, and, technically, you didn’t volunteer. But, you’re here already, so you might as well make the best of it.

The experiment is that, instead of looking at a specific Bible passage for our sermon, tonight’s sermon text is the entire book of Psalms. That’s right, all 150. I hope you packed a snack. Now, my intentions in subjecting you to this experiment are not nefarious. I’m not here to make you suffer. Instead, I hope to accomplish two things by looking at the entire book of Psalms together.

A. Enrich your interaction with the Bible.

I hope that by having a bird’s eye view of the book of Psalms and an understanding of the book’s central message, you will enjoy a richer feast when you read the Psalms on your own.

At Cornerstone, we affirm that the Bible is ultimately a divine book; it comes from God. There is an implication from this that drives my own research as a biblical scholar: God did not only inspire the content of the Bible; he also inspired its shape. He inspired the literary genre, the way that the book has been put together, and the book’s structure.

Usually people think of the book of Psalms as Ancient Israel’s hymnbook or David’s greatest hits album. However, tonight I’d like for us to conduct a thought experiment. What if, instead of reading individual psalms in isolation from one another, we read Psalms as a book? What if we tried to understand it as a literary work that has been intentionally put together with a unified message? What if, instead of listening to the psalms as an anthology of Ancient Israel’s greatest hits, we listened to it like a concept album, where the individual tracks come together to have a greater meaning collectively than they do on their own? We can think of the book of Psalms like a quilt. Each square in the quilt is good and beautiful in its own right. However, there is another level of artistry in the way that the squares have been arranged and stitched together to make a final product. Or, we could think about the book of Psalms like a photomosaic, where 150 individual portraits have been arranged and combined to yield a collective portrait.

B. Deepen your faith in Christ.

When I say that I hope looking at the book of Psalms as a whole will deepen your faith in Jesus, I have in mind Jesus’s words in Luke 24:44. Jesus speaks these words to his disciples after his resurrection from the dead:

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

So, according to Jesus, the book of Psalms is not just Ancient Israel’s songbook; it is a prophetic witness to his person and work. It’s interesting to note that Jesus and the apostles were not unique in their own time in interpreting the book of Psalms as a prophetic book; the people who wrote the DSS and the people who translated Psalms from Hebrew to Greek, all of whom lived in the last centuries before Jesus’s birth, also believed that the book had a future, prophetic outlook.

So, in approaching the book of Psalms, we are essentially interested in two questions:

How has the book of Psalms been put together?

How does the book of Psalms testify to Jesus and the gospel?

I contend tonight

32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The unit of thought starts at verse 22 and maybe as far back as the beginning of the chapter.

Subject: How can we not fear having what we need and/or giving things away?

Compliment: By trusting in our Shepherd, Father, and King, and by putting our worth in the eternal (the kingdom).

Homiletical Idea:

We need not hold tightly to possessions or fear giving because we can trust God desires to give us the Kingdom.

Introduction

When Jonathan asked me to preach and told me I could pick any passage from Luke that was not already being preached, I thought it was imperative to preach on the foundation verse for this portion of the series. I mean, if we thought it was important enough to memorize, it ought to be important enough to preach on, right? As I thought more about it, I remembered that last November I preached on 1 Timothy 6:17-19 and spent a lot of time talking about not putting our trust in money, but putting it in God. I even quoted the passage in Matthew which is similar to today’s passage in Luke about not storing up treasure on earth, which is uncertain, but storing up treasure in heaven, which is certain. The big idea from that sermon was that you can’t take hold of eternal life while holding onto money. I wondered if I was setting myself up for a repeat sermon, because at first blush, this passage seemed very similar. However, as I meditated on this passage, looked more closely at it, and sought out what other people have seen in it, God gave me a definitively new and different, although certainly not contradictory, message to share from this passage. The message from Timothy was about taking hold of eternal life and living for the age to come. I think this passage is much more about how God’s people should live here and why.

Context/Background: Luke 12:22 we see that Jesus is talking to his disciples; we see this message is for his followers. He is telling them not to spend time worrying about what they will eat or wear. Jesus notes that the pagans worry about these things. He assures them God knows they need them and he says if they seek the kingdom, all of those other things will also be provided.

We do not need to fear lacking daily necessities and care.

So, picking up in verse 32 it says, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” There are a lot of things we can learn from this short verse by looking at the language Jesus is using. First, we are like sheep… not to bright, a bit helpless, and lacking direction. Second, Jesus is our shepherd. Third, we have a Father in God and we are part of a family. Fourth, our Father is good and generous and it makes him happy to give us His kingdom, which leads us to the fifth item; God, our Father, if he has a kingdom to give, must be a King. There is a lot in that little verse, and it certainly helps us understand why we don’t have to fear.

Psalm 23 was our foundation verse in the previous sermon series. It says, The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Now contrast that with this thought: I don’t have a lot of time to watch TV, but there are a couple of shows I find

I want us to start by thinking of the last people we had over for dinner. Whether that was last week or a month ago, think of the last people you shared a meal with. And if you didn’t have them over for dinner, think of those you went out to dinner with. Do you have them in your mind?

What are they like? Are they similar to you or different than you? Do they share a similar education background? Do they have a Bachelors or Masters or even a Doctorate? Do they look like you? Are they white, Asian, red-headed? Do they make about what you make? When they go on vacation, do they go to the kind of places you go? Do they send their kids to the same schools as your kids? Are they like you? 

Now I want to ask another question. Are they the kind of people Jesus would eat with? When Jesus began his ministry, he told us who he came for. 

Luke 4:18-19

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

     because he has anointed me

     to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

     and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (NIV®)

From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he told us that he came for the unexpected, the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and oppressed. So it makes sense Jesus would spend time eating, drinking and talking with them.

Luke 5:29-32

29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

(Let’s all say our foundation verse together…)

31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (NIV®)

The Pharisees, a strict religious order, didn’t like that Jesus spent time with tax collectors and sinners, the kinds of people they didn’t want to associate with. Sinners and tax collectors are ritually unclean, unholy, un-purified, but Jesus still spent time with them.

Jesus eats with the unexpected. (Lk 12:1-14)

I want to briefly go over the first part of our passage today. In verse one Jesus goes “to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee” on the Sabbath and as he ate “he was being carefully watched.” Jesus didn’t eat with them because he preferred the rich and powerful, but because he had something to teach them.

In verses 2-6 he heals a sick man to show them it’s right to do good on the Sabbath; but then in verse 7 Jesus notices how the dinner guests are jockeying for places of honor around the table. I read the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary that said this:

Meals were important social rituals in the ancient world, and one would normally eat only with those of his or her own social class. One’s place at the table was determined by social status, and the places beside the host represented the highest status.

And so Jesus tells them that when they go to a wedding (a party of great importance), they should seek out the lowest seat with the least honor. Because if they go to the highest seat, and someone comes along who deserves it more than they, they’ll be asked to move and dishonored. But if they’re at the lowest seat and asked to move up, they’ll experience more honor. Then Jesus adds, “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (NIV®)

Have you ever been to a movie theater and you’re told to move because you sat down in the wrong seat? It doesn’t feel great. How about at a wedding? Hopefully you’ve never sat down at the wedding party’s table without an invitation. Jesus is laying a framework for us to think differently about hosting others. It’s a ministry. It’s not meant to be a time for us to climb up the social latter, but to climb down.

In verse 12 Jesus tells the host himself to not invite his family and friends t

One of the most important questions any of us can ask is this. Will I be saved? Will I go to heaven? How can I know God will save me? Will I be saved when I die? Can you think of a more important question with such long-term implications? I mean, we’re talking eternity here. How do people answer?

I’ll go to heaven because all paths lead to heaven. It’s like we’re all hiking up the same mountain we’re just taking different paths. It doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, or an Atheist. We’ll all float on okay.

I’ll go to heaven because I have faith. What matters is not that you believe the right thing, but that you believe in something. As long as you believe in some sense of God and the spiritual you’re good.

I’ll go to heaven because I’m generally a good person. My good deeds outweigh my bad deeds so I don’t need to worry. I’ve never murdered anyone and I’m a happy person so I’ll be safe.

I’ll go to haven because my family is religious and I attend church. I’ve paid my dues. I’ve gone to church and given money. My parents take me to church so I’m a Christian. God will let me in.

How do you answer this question…

Will I be saved? (v22-23)

Maybe you even answer one or two of these ways. In the Bible, Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem when a seeker like us asked him a similar question. “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” 

This individual was confused by Jesus’ teaching. This person was a Jew and had been raised to believe that the nation of Israel was favored by God. That descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were special. But Jesus is saying that it’s not who you are, but how you respond to him that matters (Luke 12:8-9; 13:3). Jesus answers this man’s question by giving two analogies.

1. The narrow door – Not everyone will be saved. (v24)

Luke 13:24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to (NIV®)

The Greek word for “make every effort” sounds like our modern english word for “agonize.” Agonizomai means “to strive, fight, struggle.” It literally means “to be a combatant in the public games.” This is a word the ancients used for sports played in a stadium where the athletes strove against each other to win. It’s like today how the vast majority of Americans make time every weekend to watch Crossfit. We watch the athletes strive to be stronger and better than each other.

Jesus calls them to strive to enter through the narrow door because salvation is not guaranteed. It’s not a shoe-in. Now this doesn’t mean that we can earn our salvation. For this man it means that just because he’s Jewish doesn’t mean he’s saved. For us it means that just because we have belief, or are good people, or attend church, we’re not guaranteed a spot in heaven. Not everyone get’s in. The door is narrow.

There’s a place to go caving near my home town of Estes Park Colorado. There’s a mountain called Old Man Mountain and mid-way up the mountain you can squeeze into a crack that leads through a series of crevices and caves and comes out at the base of the mountain. That initial crack determines who get’s to go caving and who doesn’t. The crack is about 12 inches wide. But if you’re any larger than that you’re not getting in. Anytime I went there were always a few people who didn’t get in, a dad, a friend, a sister. That’s what Jesus is getting at. There are going to be good people, religious people, our people who don’t get in. Not everyone will be saved. Jesus uses a second analogy to say there’s a limited time for receiving salvation. 

2. The closed-door – The opportunity is limited. (v25a)

Luke 13:25a Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ (NIV®)

Here Jesus isn’t just speaking to this individual, but to all the people of Israel. When he says “you will stand outside knocking and pleading” he’s saying “you all will stand outside knocking and pleading

As I prepared this week I listened to a sermon on Psalm 136 where a pastor asked his congregation to write down “One thing God has changed, saved, or redeemed in my life.” We’re going to do the same thing. Would you write down “one thing God has changed, saved, or redeemed in my life”? We’re going to come back to these as part of the service, so write something you’re comfortable with others hearing. Would you do that? (pause for writing) Once you’ve written your one thing would you pass the piece of paper to our volunteers? Thank you. Let me pray.

Our Psalm today is all about the ways God has been faithful to the nation of Israel. We don’t know when it was written but this Psalm is a salvation-history Psalm. That means it recounts the ways God has saved his people, specifically the nation of Israel. It starts with creation, then how God brought his people out of slavery in Egypt, the Red Sea crossing, Israel’s wandering in the wilderness, when they encountered two kings, Sihon and Og, and ends with God giving them the promised land. 

According to tradition, Psalm 136 is known as “The Great Hallel.” Hallel is the Hebrew verb for “praise.” It’s where we get the word hallelujah, which means “praise Yahweh.” Although that Hebrew word isn’t in our Psalm. There was a number of other “Hallel” Psalms but only this one is known as the Great Hallel and would have been recited more often. Tradition says the Israelites sang this song during Passover and other festivals and celebrations like Pentecost. 

The Priests or Levites could have sang the first half of the verse, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” Then the people would have responded with the second half of the verse, “His love endures forever.” (1 Chr 16:41; 2 Chr 5:13, 7:3, 6; Ezra 3:11) It’s a call and response Psalm. So today I’m going to read through the text and I’d like you to call the refrain back to me, “His love endures forever.” Do you think you can do that? Does anyone need a Bible? Let’s give it a try with the first three verses. 

Psalm 136

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

His love endures forever.

2 Give thanks to the God of gods.

His love endures forever.

3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords.

His love endures forever. (NIV)

The beauty of this Psalm is it gives the congregation a chance to praise God together. In other words, it gives us a chance to praise God in unison. Together, we can recount God’s faithfulness and praise him for it. This Psalm truly is a corporate prayer. It’s an opportunity for us in one voice to pray and praise. As we pray and praise through this song, I want you to have my big idea, since it can be easy to miss in our text… 

His love endures forever. (v1-3)

I’m not kidding. This refrain is so common it’s easy to let your eyes gloss right over it and miss it. But let’s pause and think about it. We’ve just heard about the character of God in verses 1-3. We’ve heard about the Lord, who is good, who is the God of gods (that means the only one true God), and who is the Lord of Lords (which means he is in control over everything). And this God. This good, true, all-powerful God loves us! His love for us with an everlasting love.

This word for love is a word I’ve talked about so many times it’s easy to let it grow dull and boring. It’s the “hesed.” But don’t let it grow dull and boring because this is a special covenant love. That means this good, true, all-powerful God doesn’t just give his people his love and then revoke it. No. It means God loves his people no matter what, even when we don’t deserve it. He promises his love to us. 

I’m married. My wife made vows to love me even when she doesn’t feel like it. I made vows to love her even when I don’t feel like it. We promised to give our love to each other and then signed our names on a marriage certificate, a binding promise with legal ramifications. We live in a culture that says, “If you really love each other, you don’t need to get married.” That’s a love you can walk away from

Honesty is refreshing. In our current culture people aren’t honest. I don’t think it’s because we’re intentionally dishonest. We just want to put forward our best selves forward and we do that by posting happy photos of ourselves on Facebook and Instagram. Have you ever posted a photo of how you’re actually feeling? How did people respond? Did people want to see it?

When I climbed Long’s Peak back in 2010 I posted this picture of my face from the top of the mountain. The beauty of this photo is that my face displays exactly how I felt after reaching the peak at 14,259 feet. I felt terrible. My friend Nick climbed the mountain with me and he said this when I posted it.

Nicholas: Mom says, “I can’t believe he put this picture of himself on here.” (to which I replied…)

Jonathan: I’m all about transparency Nick. I think this will also attract women.

Full transparency. I was single at the time and this photo did not attract any women. Although Monica says it’s cute. I’m going to put up a blank slide so my mountain face isn’t staring at you. We know it’s good to be honest but that hard part about being honest is that honesty often doesn’t make us look good. 

Today’s Psalm is an example of honesty. It’s an example of a man named Asaph who lived 3,000 years ago taking a picture of his own heart and writing about it for others to see. It’s not always pretty, but it is authentic. This Psalm is written down for us to meditate and pray on, and can become for us a template of what it means for us to be honest in our prayers before God. 

An Example of Honest Prayer

Before we begin to go through this Psalm, you need to know who Asaph is. He’s a musician who was employed by King David and was tasked with ministering before the ark of the covenant in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 16:37). So when David writes at the beginning of many of his Psalms “For the director of music. With stringed instruments.” he was likely writing notes for Asaph and those who followed him. Asaph himself is credited with having written 12 Psalms; including Psalm 73 through 83. 

By today’s standards he was a successful worship leader. We often assume those who lead us in worship, the singers, the worship leaders, the band, they must really love and enjoy God all the time. But that’s not fair because they’re human and they struggle too, which leads me to the first way Asaph sets an example. 

1. Admit your struggle. (v1-12)

Asaph admits his struggle. As we read Psalm 73:1-3 watch for Asaph’s struggle.

1 Surely God is good to Israel,

       to those who are pure in heart.

2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;

       I had nearly lost my foothold.

3 For I envied the arrogant

       when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. (NIV®)

By our standard, Asaph has everything, a successful career, he’s a gifted and talented musician, but he’s still not happy. In fact, he’s envious (aka. jealous). Envy is wanting what others have. It’s coveting what doesn’t belong to you (Exod 20:17).  Timothy Keller gives a fuller definition, “To envy is to want someone else’s life. It’s to feel not just that they don’t deserve their good life but that you do and God hasn’t been fair.” Envy, is ugly. Asaph’s envy is extra-tricky because he’s envying the wicked.

The wicked are people who live their lives in disobedience to God. They ignore God’s rules and God’s laws and live life however they want. And as Asaph looks at them, it seems like they’re not just getting away with it. They’re actually getting ahead because of it.

(v4) They’re successful and healthy.

(v5) Their lives are easier than most.

(v6-8) They’re prideful, arrogant, and greedy and aren’t afraid to use others to get ahead.

(v9-10) They have it all.

(v11) They deny God and don’t believe in him.

Verse 12 is a summary, “This is what the wicked are like—always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.” (NIV®) Do you struggle with whether God can be good and true when you look into this world and see evil people going unpunished? M

Today I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to pray the 23rd Psalm. Most of us are familiar with this Psalm. We’ve heard it read at funerals, we’ve seen it written on Hallmark cards, we’ve recited it in church, and maybe we’ve even heard a sermon or two on it. Maybe this is your favorite Psalm. You know it by heart. For others of us. We know about it, but it hasn’t sunk into our hearts. Praying this Psalm will help it sink into our hearts in a way that talking about it won’t.

Our sermon series is supposed to teach us how to pray the Psalms, but I would fall short as your pastor if I didn’t take the time to model what this can look like. So for the next 30-35 minutes, I’m going to read this Psalm line by line and pray through it. My prayer will have elements of teaching because I’ve studied this Psalm a lot this week, but my desire is that we will each walk away having a better sense of how to pray the Psalms. I hope that when you go home, you’ll open up Psalm 23 and try praying it through on your own. 

Now, you do not have to close your eyes and clasp your hands the entire time I pray. You can, but you can also open your eyes and look to heaven or outside. You can look at the cross. You can look at the text in your Bible. Some of you may fall asleep. That’s alright. The Lord is just making you lie down in green pastures. But I pray most of all that you would attune your heart to mine. That means to listen, think about, and hopefully agree with what I’m praying—to amen it. When you whisper or think “amen” you’re saying, “Let it be so, Lord. Let it be true.” Let’s pray…

A Psalm of David. (ESV)

Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for King David who wrote this poem. He lived 3,000 years ago but was a man just like us (James 5:17). He was sinful and broken. He committed adultery. He murdered. He was jealous and sinful. And yet, you say he was “a man after [your] own heart” (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22). Father, if David can be a man after your own heart, we can be men and women after your own heart. Please help us become men and women after your own heart. I think he was a man after your own heart because he continually opened his heart to you both when he was doing well and in his sin. He wasn’t afraid to ask for forgiveness and to praise your goodness. Help us do the same.

1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Thank you God that you have revealed yourself to us. Thank you that we don’t have to pray to a god of our imagination that hides behind the clouds but you have revealed yourself to us as not just as god, but Lord, which is the original covenant name of God, “Yahweh.” 

You’re the God who created the universe but you invite us to call you our shepherd. You are our shepherd and we are your sheep. Shepherds lived lives of sacrifice and hardship to guard and watch their sheep. They had to be with the sheep 24/7. Shepherds could never leave the sheep to themselves. We give you thanks that Jesus is our good shepherd. John 10:11 says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Thank you Jesus for being our good shepherd, and yet you know what it’s like to be a lamb. You are the lamb slain for us (Rev 5:6). Thank you for laying your life down for us on the cross so that you will never leave or forsake us (Heb 13:5-6). Thank you for giving the ultimate sacrifice, paying the penalty for our sin so that you can be our good shepherd for all eternity. 

Good shepherd, thank you for the under-shepherds you place in my life and have given to our church. Thank you for Andy, for John, and Terry. Thank you for our Elders. Would we together be examples to the flock. Would we shepherd your flock as 1 Peter 5:2 says, “exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as [you] would have [us]” (ESV). Would you guard and protect your under-shepherds. Help them lead us well. Help us lead from a place of humility and love.

Father, this Psalm says “I shall not want” but I confess my he

Do you ever have a really bad dream? I mean just a terrible dream. I have a recurring dream of being chased by a bear. Maybe you’re lost and alone in the woods or maybe a close family member or friend dies? Isn’t it great when you wake up in the morning and realize you’re not lost or alone and your loved one is still there? In those moments do you ever just take a deep breath and say, “Thank you God!” That’s what Psalm 18 is like. It’s one big thank you for God delivering King David from desperate and dark times. 

David is waking from a really bad period in his life and so he thanks God. He wrote it “when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” So David is thanking God for delivering him from trouble. The Psalms are like his prayer journal. He sang and prayed this Psalm as a reminder of the ways the Lord had delivered him, and so can we. As we look at how David prayed in this Psalm, we see he prays three ways. He prays in desperation, in darkness, and in deliverance (three Ds).

The purpose of this sermon series is to learn how the Psalms can guide our prayers. In other words, I can read a Psalm and pray what the Lord is saying to me through it. I hope that by the end of this series we’ll each feel comfortable reading the Psalm and praying back to God what we hear. So what do we see in this Psalm? We find three ways to pray, in desperation, darkness, and deliverance… 

Pray in desperation (Psalm 18:1-5)

But what type of desperation? This isn’t necessarily a negative desperation. First, pray in… 

a. Desperate love (v1)

1 I love you, Lord, my strength.

This word for love, rāḥam, is less common (47x) than other Hebrew words for love, ʾahab (217x) and ḥesed (249). Rāḥam usually describes the Lord’s compassionate and merciful love for people, but here we find a person using it to describe his love for God. This word for love, rāḥam, shares the same root of the Hebrew word for the womb, reḥem. David is saying that he loves God with his deepest depths like a mother loves her child from the womb. It’s a really sweet picture of how we can approach God in prayer. 

Do you pray because you love God or because you want something from him? I was listening to a sermon where the pastor pointed out the first and greatest commandment is to love God. 

Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (NIV®)

When an expert in the law asked Jesus, “which is the greatest commandment…?” he said the same thing. 

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (NIV®)

The pastor pointed out that despite this being the greatest commandment there are very few examples of people actually saying they love God in the Old Testament. This is a rare occurrence. Do you pray because you love God or because you want something from him? 

A couple years ago I had a friend from high-school message me saying how fun it would be to try and reconnect and stay in touch. She asked for my number and she called me, but instead of getting caught up she asked if I wanted to earn a little extra money and offered me a business opportunity. Have you ever had that happen? When we call God, do we spend time loving him and receiving his love, or do we try and convince him of a great business opportunity? I want to stop and take a moment to pray for God to fill us with love for him (stop and pray). Just because we need to approach God because of our love for him doesn’t mean it’s wrong to approach him with our needs. Second, let’s pray in… 

b. Desperate need (v2-5)

King David remembers how God was there for him when he needed him most. 

2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

       my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

       my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

3 I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,

       and I have been saved from my enemies.

4 The cords of dea

When I sat down to write this sermon, I looked out the window and the urge to write the sermon left me because it was so beautiful outside. The birds were chirping, the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and it felt like spring had finally arrived. I got a powerful urge to go outside and spend a few moments enjoying the sun, and the sky, and the birds before writing my sermon, and so I did, and it was great.

Are you ever at the office or school or home and you look out your window and all you want to do is go outside? You see how beautiful it is and something inside you says, “I just have to go outside and take it all in.” There’s a biological reason for this. Our bodies need vitamin D to feel good, which we get through being in the sun. But I think there’s a spiritual reason for this too. 

Psalm 19 tells us that we actually encounter God through creation—that nature and this earth speak of God. So when our hearts yearn to spend time outdoors, our hearts are yearning for something more than the birds and the trees and the sky. Our hearts are yearning for the one who made all those things and reveals a little bit of himself through them. 

Our current series is Praying with God. The Psalms are poetry inspired by God that we can use to shape the way we pray. In Psalm 19 the Psalmist David invites us to pray with our eyes open—open to three things: creation, scripture, and ourselves. As we look at each of these, let’s open our eyes to how God reveals himself to us. The first place we find God is outside through… 

Creation (Psalm 19:1-6)

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

       the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

       night after night they reveal knowledge.

3 They have no speech, they use no words;

       no sound is heard from them.

4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

       their words to the ends of the world.

   In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

5     It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

       like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

6 It rises at one end of the heavens

       and makes its circuit to the other;

       nothing is deprived of its warmth. (NIV®)

David focuses on two elements that declare God’s glory, the heavens and the sun. Did you know that on Wednesday the European Space Agency released a brand new map of the Milky Way Galaxy. This map shows 1.7 billion stars that took the Gaia satellite spacecraft one million miles away from earth 22 months to capture. It shows how far away the stars are, their brightness, and their colors. From this we’re going to learn things about our universe and sky we never knew before. Scientists and Physicists got up early Wednesday morning just so they could be there for the release of this data. One scientist used the data to find a hyper-velocity star that travels a “few million miles per hour.” Only about 20 had ever been discovered. David also talks about the sun. This picture shows the size difference between the sun and the earth. The sun is 864,400 miles wide, or 109 times that of earth’s diameter, which is only 7,917.5 miles. And you know what, David didn’t have a telescope when he wrote this, but he still sensed the stars and the sun tell us something about the greatness and glory of God.

Psalm 19 invites us to pray with our eyes open to creation because creation speaks to our hearts. But God only reveals himself partially through creation. Theologians call this… 

General Revelation: God reveals a general sense of himself through nature.

If you look carefully at verse 1 of your english translation of the Bible you can see something taking place in the Hebrew. Notice how verse one calls god “God.” The Hebrew word for god here is “el,” which is the most generic name for god, and can sometimes be used for false gods. But when you skip down to verse 7, what do you notice? God is called by a more specific name, Lord in all capital letters, which is our signal that it’s the specia

Listen to Bernie’s Psalm 80 sermon on how the church is a place where the people of God cry out to God together. You can download Bernie’s sermon manuscript by clicking “Save” and “PDF.” Thanks!

Our God and our savior, tonight we cry out to you.  We pray that you would forgive us of our past sins and teach us to be your people, your church.  We thank you for your Son Jesus who died for us that we might become your children.  Come and save us Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit and make your face shine upon us. Help us to love as you love; to see as you see.  Give us a love for each member of your family here at this church, as well as a love for our families and our communities.  Give us a pure love that is not self-seeking; let your rest fall upon us.  And God, help us to desire you above all else; may we rejoice in you and you alone.  Save us oh God.  Amen

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