We Have Every Reason to Praise the  Lord

Psalm 147 - Riley Boggs

If you’ve been in church some time at all, what you’ll realize is that a lot of times you might come to church and not learn anything new. You don’t hear anything revolutionary; nothing really convicts you, nothing really grabs a hold of you. It seems like you have only come and heard a different version of something you have heard before. I think the sermon this morning, and many more in the future, might seem like this to you. And, I don’t want you to dismiss the importance of those Sunday mornings. They are more important for your growth and encouragement that you might realize.

What I am trying to get at this morning is the idea of preaching as reminding. We are forgetful people. We need to be reminded often of things that we are prone to forget. Things that we know, but have pushed deep enough back that we have essentially forgotten. The truths we are going to look at this morning are simple, but they are things we cannot forget. We are obeying God’s command to devote ourselves to His Word and we are asking that He store these truths deep within our hearts, so that we might never forget them.

As you noticed, we are taking a week away from 1 Corinthians, as we do ever so often just to break up the pattern. This morning we find ourselves in Psalm 147, a Psalm that is one of the final 5 Psalms called the Hallel, or Hallelujah, Psalms. Each of them calling us to praise our God. So that is what I want us to see this morning. 4 simple reasons why we should praise the Lord. 

First, we praise the Lord because…

1.) It is good

Pretty simple, right? We praise the Lord because it is good. The Psalmist starts by calling others to praise the Lord and says that it is good to sing praise to our God. It is pleasant and a song of praise is fitting. Worship is good. It’s good for us and it is good for God. He deserves all the praise we could ever give Him, and we have every reason to praise Him forever.

There is something about singing that is just good. If you have kids, you know what I mean. Dallas Ledbetter reminded me of this just a few days ago. When we are filled with great amounts of joy, it makes us just want to sing out. And as we get older and we care more about what people think, we like to hold it in, and be all stoic. But children will just sing out because they are joyful. They don’t care; it’s a fitting time to sing. We need to take our cues here from the children and not the adults. The Psalmist understands this and so a call to praise the Lord is put out. The call is to praise our God, lift your voice for Him and to Him. It is fitting to sing a song of praise.

We call all sorts of things good, and rightly so. We call pie good, and it is. When someone does their job well, we say they did a good job. When your dog is obedient, you call him a good boy. All of these things are good. And right alongside all of these things that we enjoy and call good, is the praise of our God. It is a good thing. Greater than all of the rest.

It is good for us, for our families, for our churches, for our communities, for our nation, for everything. We praise the Lord because it is good. This is a simple truth, but one that the Psalmist reminds us of and one we can’t forget.

Secondly, we praise the Lord because…

2.) He saved us and is saving others

We see this truth laid out in verses 2-6. Listen to these verses. “2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. 5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. 6 The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.”

This is what Spurgeon says commenting on verse 2. “These are the stones with which he builds – people who were like outcasts. What wonderful living stones these outcasts make! They love the Lord best who once were most his enemies. No one sings ‘free grace and dying love’ with sweeter accents than those who have had much forgiven. When great sinners are saved, the church is built up.”

Have you thought about how the Lord has gathered us up to build this very church? We all once stood as enemies to God. And yet, in His great love, He sought each and every one of us. He drew us in, convicted us of our sin, caused us to repent, and then poured out His forgiveness. And then He sovereignly orchestrated each and every part of our life so that we might find ourselve right here, right now, with these people. He saved us from something and to something. We have been saved from our sin and the condemnation we rightly deserved, and we have been saved to His Kingdom, to His church. This should cause us to praise the Lord! He saved us. Those who did not deserve saving.

And He continues to save. It is what He does. He is still calling the outcasts, the forgotten, the angry, the sad, the lonely, the prideful, and all the rest. He is saving His people regardless of who they were. There is no one who is without hope while they are alive, because God can restore them. He didn’t save some and stop. He saved many and continues to save many. Not out of compulsion, but out of His abundance of mercy and grace.

To not praise God for this is to miss the whole point. How could we withhold praise from the God who saved us from eternal suffering? How arrogant would we have to be to think that He doesn’t deserve our songs and our prayers? He is worthy of it all and if anyone should know this, it should be those who stand here as the redeemed people of God. Those who were His enemies, but whose hearts have been transformed with nothing of our own doing. We praise God because He saved us and is saving others.

We moved quickly through those two points, because I want to spend more time on these next 2 points. The points that I think this Psalm really puts forth.

Thirdly, we praise the Lord because…

3.) He cares for us and delights in us

For you who knows Christ, God cares for you. Not a distant, cold, type care that you can’t feel. He cares for you like a Father. The Psalmist says he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. This is a tender, intimate work. 

One of my greatest frustrations is when preachers fail to emphasis this. They beat their pulpits and yell, “get right with God, or else!” And I get that. We need to flee from sin and flee to Christ. We cannot fast and loose with the things God condemns, and we can’t delay our repentance.

But at the same time, as people of the Word, we need to be quick to remind our brothers and sisters of this truth. He cares for you. He can heal your broken heart. He can bind up your wounds. The things that ale you, the things that send you into spiraling depression and anxiety, He can bring you out of. These things are not outside of His ability. And He has promised that one day, with absolute certainty, you will be redeemed from all of it. Shouldn’t we praise the Lord that He cares for us?

Notice how the Psalmist makes this statement about healing the brokenhearted and binding their wounds, and then says, “He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.” It’s like the Psalmist is anticipating someone responding and to say, “But God doesn’t care about insignificant me”, and then they hear, “He gives every star a name.” And then someone says, “But God can’t heal my heart. He can’t bind my wounds. They are too great, it’s too much for even Him.” And the Psalmist says, “He is abundant in power. He can heal you.” And then they say, “But God doesn’t understand. Even if He does see and does have the power, He’s God. He isn’t like me. He doesn’t understand.” And the Psalmist says, “His understanding is beyond measure. He understands better than you understand.” God cares for His people. He cares for this church.

The second part of this, I’m not sure I really understood for the majority of my life. I knew God loved me; I had sung the song plenty of times. “Jesus loves me, yes I know, for the Bible tells me so.” I got that. But, when I realized that God delighted in me, it felt like a whole new thing. The God of the universe not only loves me, but delights in me?

We don’t use the word “delight” very often, so we might not be altogether familiar with what we are supposed to take this to mean. The word delight means to please greatly. To bring someone gratification or pleasure. Let’s be honest about this. I do not often feel like I please the Lord greatly. It doesn’t seem like I bring Him gratification or pleasure. And yet, the Word tells us we do. We know our hearts, our thoughts, and our intentions. And we know that God knows them. And yet He still delights in us?

Look at how the text says this, verse 10, “His delight is no in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” In other words, God doesn’t delight in the same things that the world delights in. He isn’t pleased by the biggest, fastest, strongest, most expensive, most whatever. His delight is in the one who fears Him, that is, who sees Him rightly. And the one who hopes in His love. Anyone can do that. The weakest and the strongest.

See this is why God delights in us. It’s not because of what we bring to the table. It’s not because of all the good we have done. It’s not because He just overlooks our sin. He delights in us because we are His. We are His possession! He cleansed us and gave us the righteousness of Christ. And now, when He sees you, He doesn’t see sinful whoever who can’t get it together. He sees the people for whom He died, He sees His Sinless Son. 

This isn’t to say that He delights in our sin, of course. And He disciplines us away from disobedience. But if you are His, you are forgiven. So right alongside all of this is the fact that the God of the Universe delights in you, because you fear Him and hope in His love.

The enemy and your own sinful heart and brain will tell this isn’t true. We’ve likely all felt it. The enemy is called the accuser for a reason. He will accuse and accuse and you will condemned and condemned. But, on the authority of God’s Word I can tell you that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and that He delights in His people. We are here in this Psalm to be reminded of this truth so that we might approach Him with boldness.

The great hymn, “And Can It Be” says it like this, “No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach th'eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own.”

We can boldly, not timidly, boldly approach the throne of God and claim the crown. How? Because Christ is our own. Because He saved us, cares for us, and delights in us.

Listen to how Hebrews 4:14-16 puts this. “14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Because of our great high priest, Jesus Christ, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence in times of need. God cares for you and He delights in you. And this should cause us to praise Him more and more. The very fact that we can say this with confidence ought to make us want to sing!

Lastly, we praise the Lord because…

4.) He protects us and provides for us

Look with me starting in verse 8. The Psalmist says, “He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. 9 He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.” Notice how God is the one who brings it all about. God creates the clouds, so that He might bring about rain, so that the grass might grow, so that the beasts might have their food. So that the young ravens that cry for food might have food.

You might be thinking, why does the Psalmist put this in here? What does this have to do about people? Listen to how Spurgeon explains this. He says, “Any of us who are in distress may pray to God, ‘Lord, feed me, for you give food to the beast.’ Do any of need spiritual food? We may cry to him to feed us. Are we not much better than animals?”

This is the reason. We are supposed to see the intimate care and provision that God has for the animals, and think about how much more He will provide for us. He does all of this. The clouds, the rain, the grass, and the food for the ravens. How much more will He do to care for you? And just because we do not see it, does not mean that it is not happening. Our God is a place of safety for us. And He is where we should seek refuge and where we should week provision.

And the Lord never leaves us. He is with us. Listen to what God Himself says in Isaiah 41. Starting in verse 8, the Lord says, “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; 9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; 10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” We have been chosen by God. He is with us and He will not cast us off, so why should we fear? He strengthens us, He helps us, and He upholds us. He is our protector and our provider.

It’s easy when you’re younger to think that you are your own protector and your own provider. But ask someone who’s older who the true protector and provider is. They have stories that prove this to be true. Where they can’t point to any of their own doing, only to the God who protected and provided.

One of the primary ways that the Lord protects and provides for us is through His Word. We may not often think of it like that, but it is true. Look with me starting in verse 12. “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! 13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you. 14 He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat. 15 He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. 16 He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. 17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? 18 He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. 19 He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel. 20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his rules.  Praise the Lord!”

In this section, the Psalmist contrasts God’s power and what He does for His people, versus those who do not know God. Notice that God strengthens our gates, blesses us with children, makes peace, fills us with the finest of wheat. That is to be understood as fertility and provision. 

But then, God’s Word is mentioned multiple times. Verse 15, “his command and his word”. And then in verse 18 we see, “his word” again. Then in verse 19, “his word, his statues, and his rules.” And then in verse 20, the Psalmist says that the other nations do not know, “his rules”. We are supposed to see from this that we have something that those who do not know God do not have. We have His Word. And in His Word, we have protection and provision. 

His Word protects from believing the lies of the world, by showing us the truth. It protects us from sin and harm, by showing us what God desires for us. It provides for us instruction, comfort, and rebuke. And in this Word, we have the Gospel message. The story of how sinful men and women might be saved. We see that sin entered the world through one man’s sin, the sin of Adam. And because of this sin, everyone who has ever and will ever be born, is born inherently sinful. They are not born in a neutral standing before God, rather they are guilty. But also through one man, the Son of God who took on flesh, Jesus Christ, we can be made right. He came and lived a sinless life, was crucified, and took on the wrath of God for those who might place their faith in Him. And then He demonstrated His power over sin and death itself and resurrected. And now, after He ascended, He reigns at the right hand of the Father awaiting His final return. Is that not reason to praise the Lord? Is that not reason to sing? Is that not reason to orient your entire life towards the one who saved you who could not save yourself?

Some of you may have noticed this as we worked through the Psalm, but if not, I want to show you one more thing. Look at all the verbs attributed to God. He builds, gathers, heals, determines, gives, lifts, casts, covers, prepares, makes, gives, delights, takes, strengthens, blesses, makes, fills, sends, gives, scatters, hurls, sends, makes, and declares. 

The Psalmist wants you to see that everything is by His sovereign hand. Everything. God is above all, we cannot comprehend His holiness or His glory. And yet, He saved you, He intimately cares for you, He delights in you, He is your protector, and He is your provider. Let us then do what is good and praise Him.