Hallelujah

Sermon.972

“Hallelujah”

From the pulpit of Bayview Baptist Church, April 29, 2001

Psalm 30

I’m reminded of a wonderful story of a Southern Baptist church who tried and tried to get a man to attend their church, but he just would not attend.

A deacon of the church went to visit this man and said, “Why don’t you come and attend our church?”

The man finally admitted he didn’t have a nice suit to wear.

So the deacon took the man to the shopping mall and he bought him a nice suit, a new shirt, tie, and an expensive pair of shoes.

The next Sunday, the man still didn’t attend the Baptist church; so this time the pastor decided to pay him a visit.

The pastor entered into a conversation with the man and finally he got around to asking him why he didn’t attend their church.

The man said, “When I got dressed up in my new suit, that pretty tie, and those comfortable new shoes, I looked in the mirror, and I looked so good that I decided to attend the Episcopal church.”

Psalm 30 is a psalm in the form of a song that was used at a dedication service of the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BC.

It’s a song of praise and worship!

The psalms in general are very much a beloved part of Scripture.

For the most part, these short writings do not deal with intense theological matters, but instead, they deal with matters of day-to-day life.

The psalms deal with the practical side of life that confront us both in times of deepest sorrow and times of great joy.

We don’t know for sure when, or why, this particular psalm was written, but we do know who wrote it.

King David wrote the 30th psalm.

Perhaps he had been sick and God raised him up and healed him.

Perhaps he had been in deep despair, and God lifted him up out of the pit of life.

Perhaps this psalm was written by King David after he had been consumed by some personal sin.

One thing is sure! God healed David’s affliction, whatever that affliction was.

I like this psalm because I believe everyone here can identify with it; for God has done the same for you and I many times.

Often, when we consider God acting in our lives, we think of God in terms of working in extraordinary ways like working some miraculous healing in our lives.

Perhaps you have suffered from cancer, and God in His great mercy and kindness healed you.

Perhaps you have been in the deep pit of despair financially, and God lifted you up from the stress and worry your financial troubles brought to your life.

Perhaps you’ve had some trouble with a neighbor or a personal friend, and God helped you to mend the relationship.

Perhaps God has forgiven you of your sin, and now you can move forward in your life, knowing in your heart that you’ve been forgiven and cleansed.

God does work in all of these events in our lives, but God also works in the not-so-spectacular ways.

He might deal with us through ordinary events like reading the Bible, prayer, worship, or through our daily conversation with friends.

I don’t know about you, but I could sing this psalm because it has a great meaning to me.

God hasn’t lifted me out of the many pits I have been in during my life because I’m some special little pet of His.

He hasn’t healed my circumstances because I’m a pastor and a Bible teacher.

Instead, He has always lifted me up because He’s a holy God.

He recognizes my sins, He knows my sorrows, and together we celebrate the joys.

He has saved my by His great mercy and grace, so I can truthfully say that God hasn’t lowered His standards one bit in my life.

I deserve God’s justice, but instead He gives me mercy!

That’s why I can praise Him, because God loves me just because I am me!

You know, we live in a wonderful time today; quiet different than the day when Psalm 30 was written.

It’s during the wonderful times that we live though, that we tend to congratulate ourselves for our own power, our own skills and our own energies.

It seems that we like to make our own religion as we go these days; what I call a Burger King Theology, for when we go to Burger King, we make the hamburger like we want it.

We use God like we would use a spare tire in the trunk of our cars.

We don’t even regularly check the air pressure in the spare tire, and we just assume that our spare tire will be properly inflated the moment we get in a jam and need to use it.