BELIEVERS PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD
PSALM 145:15-21 - July 10, 2005 – Pentecost 8 / Harvest Festival
Dear Fellow-Redeemed & Saints in the Lord:
Whew! Another year has come and gone and the harvest is gathered in, and it is gathered in safely. It has been blessed abundantly. Between the planting and the har-vesting, we have had many thoughts and concerns. We are always worried about the lack of water. We are concerned about the late frost and early heat, and we wondered if there would be any crop at all. Yet, beyond our expectations, the Lord has blessed us once again. He reminds us that all of our worry and concern doesn’t change the out-come of how He is going to bless us. We can be thankful about that. We can praise the name of the Lord that He still is going to bless us even though we might wonder at times. We heard the parable of the sower and how sometimes that crop is thirty times, sixty times or hundred times--all according to what the Lord determines.
We turn to Corinthians and find that Paul realized what he did and what the other apostles and prophets did was of no account. It was God who deserved all the credit, because He gives the increase. He is talking there again about the Word of God, but also applies to our physical blessings too. He says, "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor" (1 Corinthians 3:7,8). The Lord promises to bless.
Today, the Psalm writer reminds us to praise the name of the Lord. We gather together each Sunday to praise the name of the Lord, but today we truly concentrate on how our God has graciously shown His divine love for us. We are reminded that our lives are lives of praise.
BELIEVERS PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD; because:
I. Our Lord satisfies completely.
II. Our Lord is always righteous.
I. OUR LORD SATISFIES COMPLETELY
Today’s Psalm is another Psalm of David. We think of David who started out as a shepherd boy, and God called him and raised him up to be king of the children of Is-rael. As king, David became one of the greatest kings. Solomon, his son, was greater. At times the people of Israel looked at David as God Himself. It could have been very easy for David to think, "Look at all of the things I have done. Look at all the enemies I have defeated." Yet, time and again as you read his Psalms you realize that he realized that it was only the Lord God who deserved all praise and honor and glory.
Right in the middle of this Psalm in verse 15 he writes: The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. David realized that he had looked to the Lord to be provided with the very basics, the very food that he would eat. Not only himself but also everyone else and everything else looked to the Lord to provide. The Lord provides for human beings, and He provides for His creatures too. David states that in verse 16: You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. Sometimes people don’t think of the birds of the air, but they too are provided for. Later on Solomon wrote: The beauty of God’s creation. Who can compare with that? Yet the Lord takes care of that and supplies their every desire. Who can compare with the lilies of the field? God takes care of that. The Lord God who created the heavens and the earth takes care of His creation to the infinite and smallest detail. As the Lord God is concerned with the smallest details in nature our Lord God also takes care of us and satisfies us.
But there is a difference. The animals don’t come and give praise to God. The unbelievers don’t come and give praise to God. They are so self-concerned so as to think only of themselves. An unbelieving society only thinks that mankind and the world bails them out of trouble. But -- to thank God, that is something only believers do.
In verse 19: He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. The believers cry out to the Lord. They cry out in times of trouble. Believ-ers also cry out in times of thanksgiving to praise Him for all the things He has done. Think of David. Time and again he had been delivered from his enemies. The Lord had saved him and the nation. David praised the name of the Lord. We think of David who turned away from God for a time. There was a time when David committed adultery and murdered the commander of his army. David cried out to God, and God saved him. The Lord satisfied David completely with the forgiveness of sins.
Satisfaction. That is a word that we don’t hear very often, just like the word sin. People don’t like to talk about it. How can people ever be satisfied in this? They always need something that is better, something that is newer, something that is bigger or something that may even cost more. We can’t be satisfied, because we are always striving for something more. That is the attitude of the world. Sometimes that infiltrates our own lives. We might be tempted to think we deserve better, bigger, and newer. Satisfaction--it can easily escape us. Our Lord describes satisfaction for us: "But godli-ness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (1 Timothy 6:6-9). Can you imagine people being just content with food and clothing?
But the Lord says that is satisfaction and contentment when we are satisfied be-cause the Lord does provide us with food and clothing. We ought to be content. Our gracious God goes beyond food and clothing and provides us with blessing upon bless-ing--homes to live in, vehicles to drive, and families to love us, the church and God’s Word. We have a life that goes way beyond simple satisfaction and contentment. Sat-isfaction ought not to elude us but ought to be our day-to-day activity. "Yes Lord, we are satisfied and content with the blessings you have given us, and we praise the name of the Lord." It is a gift of God. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes: "I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God" (Ecclesias-tes 3:12,13).
Today the world around us would say, "Why do all that work for so little in re-turn?" The Lord says that He has given us the gift of God--satisfaction and contentment in knowing that the Lord has called us to carry out His will on earth. It is satisfaction and contentment that He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We live al-most in the very center of the United States. We are rather protected from the storms and hurricanes on the East coast and earthquakes on the West coast. Yet for those people who do not have God in their lives, how scared they are and how saddened they are at the loss of things. The news will carry some of those stories. Such sadness over the loss of earthly things. They are missing out on the satisfaction and the contentment that God gives to us through His Word and the forgiveness of sins. We praise the name of the Lord that He has by His grace completely provided for us and satisfied us, even the needs of our soul. Moses in Deuteronomy when they were ready to go into the Promised Land and writes and says to them: "When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you" (Deuteronomy 8:10). We celebrate that fact today. We praise the name of the Lord for the good land, for the good blessings, for the safe harvest that He has provided.
We praise the name of the Lord because He has satisfied us completely. We praise the name of the Lord because He is always righteous.
II. OUR LORD IS ALWAYS RIGHTEOUS
When David was king and sat on the throne, he was king and also sometimes had to act as judge. He had to judge what he thought was fair and right. Yet, some-times he made mistakes and his judgments weren’t always righteous and that is why he continues to say: The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. Yes, the world faces calamities, disasters, heartache and sorrow. Does that mean the Lord has forgotten? No, the Lord remembers because the earth and every-thing in it is part of His creation. He is always righteous and loving toward His crea-tures.
David goes on to say: The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. Now David again makes that subtle distinction. For believers they realize that all things happen according to God’s gracious plan: not to harm mankind but for the benefit of those who love Him. He says to those who call upon him in truth they see the hand of God. Believers realize the hand of God in their lives is meant to strengthen them and uplift them, to encourage them and bless them. David knew that when at that time when he was living in sin, not repenting of murder, not repenting of adultery, God had forgotten him. David had forgotten about God, didn’t he? Then when he came back, the prophet said to David, "You are the man." David said, "I have sinned."
David realized how much the Lord loved him even though he had to suffer the consequence of his sin. David’s son died, the son he had as a result of adultery he had with Bathsheba. This was the Lord’s judgment on David. Did David curse the Lord? No. He realized there are sins and there are consequences. David reaffirms that the Lord is always righteous and hears the cry of His people.
David says that because the Lord is righteous, there is going to be justice. Verse 20: The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. This verse can sound harsh. It is. The Lord’s judgment is part of his righteousness. Those who deny Him and reject Him, those who do not confess Jesus as their Savior, are not going to spend eternity in heaven. They are going to be destroyed in the eternal fires of hell. That is God’s righteousness. They may enjoy life here on earth and have more blessing than you and I because they don’t care about eternity. They think this life is all there is. The Lord says He makes His rain fall on the just and unjust. But in the end the wicked are destroyed eternally.
David said, "Why me? Why am I saved? Why have I experienced God’s grace?" We say that too. The result again is a life of praise. This Psalm concludes: My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever. David writes, "Praise the name of the Lord, because He is always righteous.”
The righteousness of God is something that you and I have received as God’s gift, a gift because of the sacrifice of Christ. 1 Peter tells us: "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18). Now this is God who is right-eous. We who are unrighteous are now made right by the blood of Christ: by His inno-cent sufferings and death.
When we stop to consider it, we can be like David, and we wonder why "Why us? Why me? Why do I experience God’s grace? I don’t deserve it. None of us do. I haven’t earned us. None of us have. We can’t pay for it. None of us can." That is what it means when it tells us that the Lord God is always righteous. In fact we would say more than righteous. We don’t deserve all of these blessings, but are blessed and given eternity. Paul wrote to Titus: "The love of God our Savior...saved us, not be-cause of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).
Our reaction is to praise the name of the Lord. Our reaction is to live lives of praises because of all the things God has done for us. Sometimes in the struggles of this life and in the worries and concerns, we might forget about all the things that God has done. So God reminds us what He has done. He gives us His Word to remind us. He gives us an opportunity to worship Him each week to remind us by hearing His Word and singing hymns of praise. Every day and any time of the day or night we can pray to Him and He hears us. Our God is the one who is always righteous. Romans 1 says: "For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ’The righteous will live by faith’" (Romans 1:17). The righteous will live by faith. Christian faith is also one of God’s gifts: Faith to believe in the sacrifice of His Son for our sins is a divine gift. Faith to believe that each year that we put in our crops we also have faith to believe that the Lord will bless us. Faith to be-lieve that the Lord takes care of us, faith to put our trust and confidence in Him and not ourselves, faith that God is righteous, faith that God saves completely, faith to praise the name of the Lord. All of this is God’s divine gift of grace.
The writer to the Hebrews writes these words: "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name" (He-brews 13:15). David says and we are reminded in the Psalm: Praise the name of the Lord: the Lord our God who saves completely, the Lord our God who is always right-eous. Praise the name of the Lord. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
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READINGS/ILCW A = ISAIAH 55:10-11; ROMANS 8:18-25; MATTHEW 13:1-9; 18-23
