Title: Our God Is Praiseworthy
Bible Book: Psalms 115 : 1-18
Author: Franklin L. Kirksey
Subject: Praise; God, Worthy of Praise
Objective:
Introduction
Our God is praiseworthy. He is the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Our God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, blessed Trinity. Aurelius Augustinus (354-430), known simply as Augustine, said, "Try to explain it [the Trinity], and you'll lose your mind; but try to deny it, and you'll lose your soul."[1]
Dr. Charles C. Ryrie explains, “The worship of the church, then consists of individual, corporate, public, and private service for the Lord which is generated by a reverence for and submission to Him who is totally worthy.”[2]
Erling Charles Olsen (1896-1966) states, “This psalm was sung at the Passover season.”[3] Dr. Herbert Lockyer, Sr. (1886-1984) agrees and adds, “It may bear some relationship to the Divine deliverance from Egypt.”[4] From Psalm 115:1-18 we read, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, / But to Your name give glory, / Because of Your mercy, / Because of Your truth. Why should the Gentiles say, / ‘So where is their God?’ But our God is in heaven; / He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, / The work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; / Eyes they have, but they do not see; / They have ears, but they do not hear; / Noses they have, but they do not smell; / They have hands, but they do not handle; / Feet they have, but they do not walk; / Nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; / So is everyone who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord; / He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord; / He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; / He is their help and their shield. The Lord has been mindful of us; / He will bless us; / He will bless the house of Israel; / He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, / Both small and great. May the Lord give you increase more and more, / You and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord, / Who made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; / But the earth He has given to the children of men. The dead do not praise the Lord, / Nor any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord / From this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!”
Allow me to share three reasons our God is praiseworthy.
I. Our God is praiseworthy in His perfection.
From Psalm 115:1-8 we read, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, / But to Your name give glory, / Because of Your mercy, / Because of Your truth. Why should the Gentiles say, / ‘So where is their God?’ But our God is in heaven; / He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, / The work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; / Eyes they have, but they do not see; / They have ears, but they do not hear; / Noses they have, but they do not smell; / They have hands, but they do not handle; / Feet they have, but they do not walk; / Nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; / So is everyone who trusts in them.”
We read in Psalm 96:5, “For all the gods of the peoples are idols, / But the Lord made the heavens.” Also in 1 Chronicles 16:26 we read, “For all the gods of the peoples are idols, / But the Lord made the heavens.” Dr. Arthur G. Clarke (1887- ) titles his study of Psalm 115, “Impeachment of Idolaters” and he makes a point about the “absurdity of idolatry.” He states, “Anything that displaces God in the human heart is a false god, cf. I Jno. V. 21. [“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”] Idol deities are idle deities.”[5]
From Psalm 135:15-18 we further read about idolatry, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, / The work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; / Eyes they have, but they do not see; / They have ears, but they do not hear; / Nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them are like them; / So is everyone who trusts in them.”
We read the foolishness of idolatry in Isaiah 44:9-20, “Those who make an image, all of them are useless, / And their precious things shall not profit; / They are their own witnesses; / They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed. Who would form a god or mold an image / That profits him nothing? Surely all his companions would be ashamed; / And the workmen, they are mere men. Let them all be gathered together, / Let them stand up; / Yet they shall fear, / They shall be ashamed together. The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals, / Fashions it with hammers, / And works it with the strength of his arms. Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails; / He drinks no water and is faint. The craftsman stretches out his rule, / He marks one out with chalk; / He fashions it with a plane, / He marks it out with the compass, / And makes it like the figure of a man, / According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. He cuts down cedars for himself, / And takes the cypress and the oak; / He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it. Then it shall be for a man to burn, / For he will take some of it and warm himself; / Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread; / Indeed he makes a god and worships it; / He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. He burns half of it in the fire; / With this half he eats meat; / He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, / ‘Ah! I am warm, / I have seen the fire.’ And the rest of it he makes into a god, / His carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, / Prays to it and says, / ‘Deliver me, for you are my god!’ They do not know nor understand; / For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, / And their hearts, so that they cannot understand. And no one considers in his heart, / Nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, / ‘I have burned half of it in the fire, / Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals; / I have roasted meat and eaten it; / And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’ He feeds on ashes; / A deceived heart has turned him aside; / And he cannot deliver his soul, / Nor say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’”
In Jeremiah 2:27-28 we read about those, “Saying to a tree, ‘You are my father,’
And to a stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’ For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble / They will say, ‘Arise and save us.’ But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, / If they can save you in the time of your trouble; / For according to the number of your cities
Are your gods, O Judah.”
Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) writes, “I confess I would almost rather be charged with a religion that extenuated murder than with one that justified idolatry. Murder, great as the offense is, is but the slaying of man; but idolatry is, in essence, the killing of God.”[6]
II. Our God is praiseworthy in His participation.
In Psalm 115:9-15 we read, “O Israel, trust in the Lord; / He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord; / He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; / He is their help and their shield. The Lord has been mindful of us; / He will bless us; / He will bless the house of Israel; / He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, / Both small and great. May the Lord give you increase more and more, / You and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord, / Who made heaven and earth.”
Our God is the help and shield of those who fear Him and trust in Him. He will bless those who fear Him. Our God is actively involved in His creation. When we contemplate the vastness of God’s creation we exclaim with David, “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:4) In Psalm 8:1-9 David writes about God’s saving activity in His creation, “O Lord, our Lord, / How excellent is Your name in all the earth, / Who have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants / You have ordained strength, / Because of Your enemies, / That You may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, / The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, / What is man that You are mindful of him, / And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, / And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; / You have put all things under his feet, / All sheep and oxen—Even the beasts of the field, / The birds of the air, / And the fish of the sea / That pass through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, / How excellent is Your name in all the earth!”
III. Our God is praiseworthy in His position.
We read in Psalm 115:16-18, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; / But the earth He has given to the children of men. The dead do not praise the Lord, / Nor any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord / From this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!”
In Isaiah 66:1-2a we read, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is My throne, / And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, / And all those things exist,’ / Says the Lord.”
We read in Acts 7:44-50, just before a deacon named, Stephen, became the first Christian martyr, he proclaimed, “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built Him a house. ‘However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, Or what is the place of My rest? Has My hand not made all these things?’”
Conclusion
We read the following about the activity in throne room of heaven from Revelation 4:1-11, “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.’ Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, / Lord God Almighty, / Who was and is and is to come!’ Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: ‘You are worthy, O Lord, / To receive glory and honor and power; / For You created all things, / And by Your will they exist and were created.’”
From 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 we read, “For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living the true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
Our God is praiseworthy in His perfection.
Our God is praiseworthy in His participation.
Our God is praiseworthy in His position.
Our God is praiseworthy.
[1]Millard J. Erickson, God in Three Persons: A Contemporary Interpretation of the Trinity, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995), 342
[2]Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Popular Systemic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth, (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1999), 496
[3]Erling C. Olsen, Meditations in the Book of Psalms, (Neptune: Loizeaux Brothers, 1939), 815
[4]Herbert Lockyer, Sr., A Devotional Commentary: Psalms, (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1993), 492
[5]A. G. Clarke, Analytical Studies in the Psalms ,(Kilmarnock: John Ritchie, Ltd., 1949), 284-285
[6]Inspiring Quotations, compiled by Albert M. Wells, Jr., (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1988), 94, # 1208
By Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, pastor First Baptist Church of Spanish Fort 30775 Jay Drive Spanish Fort, Alabama 36527
Author of Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice Available on Amazon.com and WORDsearchbible.com
http://www.wordsearchbible.com/products/Sound_Biblical_Preaching_1476.html
http://www.webspawner.com/users/franklinlkirksey / [email protected] / (251) 626-6210
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