WWUTT 1189 God Does All that He Pleases? (Psalms 113, 114, 115)

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It is such a blessed assurance to know that God is sovereign over all.

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Nothing is happening outside His will. And that He is working all things together for our good and His glory is worthy of praise when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

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Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the

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Psalms, we are up to the Egyptian Hallel, and that's Psalms 113 -118.

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If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there. Now had I thought this through a little bit better,

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I would have stuck with this study of the Psalms last week, still would have done it on Thursday.

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If you'll remember, I preempted our usual study schedule to do kind of a Holy Week series, but I still would have done the

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Psalms on Thursday, considering that it's these Psalms that would have fallen right in the middle of Holy Week.

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Why is that significant? Because Jesus had the Passover supper with His disciples in the upper room, and He gave to them,

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He instituted the Lord's Supper. And in Matthew 26, it says, after they were finished, they went from that place singing a song when they went out to the

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Garden of Gethsemane. It's likely from the Egyptian Hallel that they were singing, since these are the

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Psalms that are associated with Passover. In these songs, the children of Israel remembered that God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt.

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And today we remember that through our Lord Jesus Christ, we've been delivered from slavery to sin.

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So that's how we might recognize this as we study these Psalms today. But anyway, I'm kicking myself for not doing that last week.

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It would have been great. By the providence of God, He lined it all up for me, and yeah, then

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I skipped out on it. So we come back to our study of the Psalms in our regular schedule this week. We begin with Psalm 113.

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Let's go ahead and read all nine verses. Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the

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Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

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From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

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The Lord is high above the nations and all His glory above the heavens, who is like the

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Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth.

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He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people.

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He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the

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Lord. Now, there are portions of this Psalm that bear a resemblance to the song of Hannah that we have in 1

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Samuel 2. If you'll remember the story of Hannah, she prayed to the Lord for a child. And when she found out she was pregnant with a son, who of course was

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Samuel, she sang this song of praise. And it's from this song, portions of it have been taken and put into Psalm 113.

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They're not exactly the same, but there are some similarities. For example, 1 Samuel 2 verse 5, those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.

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The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life.

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He brings down to Sheol and He raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich.

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He brings low and He exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust.

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He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.

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For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and on them He has set the whole world.

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So there are, you probably identified how there are portions of Hannah's song that have been pulled over here to Psalm 113.

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And remember, this is all part of the Egyptian Hallel. So these are the songs that the children of Israel would sing as praise unto

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God for remembering His goodness to them when they were in slavery, freeing them out of captivity in Egypt.

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You also have a portion of the song of Hannah that she sang to God when He blessed her with a child.

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So one of the things that you see, especially in Hannah's song, is the acknowledgement of God's sovereignty, praising

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Him for the fact that He who sits on high, He who is the one who established the world and set it in its place,

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He is the one who brings down and the one who raises up. So any and all things that happen are by the hand of God.

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There is nothing that happens outside of His control. And my friends, it is so important for us to remember that because we should not think of any circumstance that we enter into as taking

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God by surprise. He is not only known about this circumstance,

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He decreed it from before the foundation of the world. Consider these words in Lamentations 3, verse 37,

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Who has spoken, and it came to pass, unless the LORD has commanded it?

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Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

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And maybe you even remember the words of Job in Job 1, where he says, The Lord gives, and the

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Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. When Job's wife told him to curse

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God and die, Job rebuked her and said, Shall we accept only good from God and not also the bad?

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Even the trials that come upon us are ultimately for God's glory, that these things would draw our attention to Him.

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We would rely on the one who raises the dead. The Apostle Paul said this very thing in 2

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Corinthians 1, verse 9. When talking about sharing the gospel and the persecutions that they suffered and many other disasters and calamities, which you can actually read about in 2

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Corinthians 11, he lays out all of the sufferings that he's gone through for the sake of the gospel. He says in chapter 1,

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We thought we had received the sentence of death, but this was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

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Even his own apostles, God put through trials so that for their sanctification, they would learn to rely all the more upon Christ Jesus.

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Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

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For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

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For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

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So we must remember, God is over any and all of this, and He is working all things together for good for those who love

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God and are called according to His purpose, Romans 8, 28. And He is doing all of this ultimately for His glory, to the praise of His glorious grace, as it says in Ephesians chapter 1.

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In fact, Philippians 2, 11 says that Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, ultimately for the glory of God the

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Father. So the primary motivation for Jesus in all that He did was to the glory of God.

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It's not that He doesn't love you. God absolutely loves you. He gave His Son for you. We read in 2

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Corinthians 5, 21, For our sake He became sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

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But ultimately He did all of this for the glory of His name. As it says in 1

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John 2, 12, Your sins are forgiven for His name's sake.

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Now lest anybody should say, well, how arrogant is that? How prideful for God to be all about the glory of His name.

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And that's His primary motivation, is to the glory and praise of Himself. How is that not prideful?

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Well, it's easy to rebut that argument by simply asking this question. Who is

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God supposed to glorify? Is He supposed to exalt you above Himself?

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Then He would no longer be God. God has done all things for the glory and praise of His great name.

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And He has no reason to apologize for that. He's God. He alone is worthy of worship.

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He is good and we are not. So understand this, dear Christian. If Jesus' motivation ultimately was for the glory of God in all that He did, then it should be the same for you.

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You as one who is a follower of Jesus, who desires to imitate your Lord and Christ, you also should do all things to the glory and praise of our

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God. And that is the theme of this Psalm, Psalm 113. Praise the

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Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the

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Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Now why His name?

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Well, His name is not separated from Himself. His character, everything we know of God is bound up in His name.

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Just as when somebody mentions your name, what do they think about you? What kind of reputation is attached to your name?

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So it is the same with God. When we use the name of God, it needs to be used in reverence because He is most worthy of revering, of our worship, of our glory, of our praise.

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So we need to be reverent when we use the name of God. This is one of the reasons why blasphemy is such a serious sin.

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God is holy and He is perfect. And anytime you diminish that name, it diminishes the perfection of God.

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It is in your words and in your mind demonstrating that you don't really hold

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God in such high regard when you belittle His name like that, when you think it can be used as a curse word.

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Let us be honoring of the name of God and so love and cherish this name that it is just sweet on our lips every time that we use it.

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When the Lord introduced Himself to Moses and said, I am that I am,

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Yahweh, that was all bound up in that name Yahweh. Everything that God is, is spoken about in that very name.

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When we speak the name of God, we should be speaking of the character of God. That name is worthy of reverence.

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We are not even worthy to speak the name of God. That's how that is, how holy and how high above us

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He is, that just by speaking the name of God, we should be smited. We should be struck down immediately that someone with such unclean lips would speak the name of God.

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This was Isaiah's fear when he saw God in his holy temple.

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When we read about this in the book of Isaiah and he says, oh, I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips in the midst of a people with unclean lips.

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Even where we live makes us unworthy to speak the name of God, but it was

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God who purified Isaiah's lips so that he might speak to the

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Lord and not have his brain melt right out of his head because he was standing in the presence of God.

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It is God who makes us worthy. We talked about this yesterday in our study of Romans chapter three. Because of our sin, we have made ourselves worthless, but it is

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God in his love who has looked past our sins and given us his son for our sake so that by faith in Jesus Christ, we receive his righteousness and now we become worthy.

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When we speak the name of God, it is even pleasing to the Lord, the way that we lift up praises to him because he's the one who has made us righteous through his son,

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Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we'd never have the honor of speaking the name of God and having that be pleasing to God.

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He would in his holiness always abhor whenever his name is used by man because we're so unworthy of that name.

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We're not even worthy to know it. The Lord is gracious to us. He was gracious to Moses to speak his name to Moses and that Moses would go to the children of Israel and give that name to them, though you have an entire generation of people that wouldn't appreciate it.

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But the Lord is the one who is gracious and merciful. And again, he's the one who called this people out of slavery and out of misery there in Egypt and gave them a promised land.

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And so we know that through our Lord Jesus Christ, he's called us out of sin and misery as well and given us a promised land.

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And that is the kingdom of God forever and ever. He raises the poor from the dust.

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He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.

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He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. The people who come to Christ are like spiritual children to us.

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The apostle Paul referred to Timothy that way as his very child. He called the Corinthians his children because he shared the gospel with them and they came to faith through the missionary work that he did.

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So even though you may be without a spouse and without children of your own, you can be given children through the

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Lord Jesus Christ, through the gospel that you preach. And everyone who comes to faith because of your faithfulness to God will be like your spiritual children, making you the joyous parent of children.

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Praise the Lord. That's Psalm 113. So we spent all of our time there so far.

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Let's go to Psalm 114. This one's a little bit shorter. When Israel went out from Egypt.

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So there you recognize the Egyptian Hallel theme, which by the way, that word Hallel, that's right at the beginning of Hallelujah.

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So it's simply praise unto God and praise for the redemption that he had given to his people.

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So again, Psalm 114, verse one, when Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,

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Judah became his sanctuary, Israel, his dominion. The sea looked and fled,

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Jordan turned back. The mountains skip like rams, the hills like lambs.

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What ails you, O sea, that you flee, O Jordan, that you turn back,

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O mountains that you skip like rams, O hills like lambs. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the

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Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

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And you see various inferences to things that God did for the children of Israel in the wilderness.

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In the words that we've read here in this particular Psalm, the sea looked and fled the Red Sea, parting for the children of Israel to walk through and flee from the

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Egyptians. Jordan turned back. Remember as they were entering into the promised land, the

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Jordan River parted for them, just as the Red Sea had done for the generation before. The mountains skip like rams and the hills like lambs.

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There may be a couple of possible interpretations of this. It could be the land that they went into, if we're following this in a chronological order.

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So they're going into the promised land and all of the nations that were there fled before them.

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God put the fear of God into the hearts of those nations. There's really no logical reason why

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Israel should have been successful in taking the promised land. They didn't have a land of their own. They had no resources.

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They're walking on the opposing team's home turf. So the opposing team has all of the advantage.

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And yet Israel defeated them. Even though the other nations were larger, Israel still conquered because the fear of God was in the hearts of these pagan peoples, that the judgment of God had come upon them.

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And so that could be a possible interpretation of the mountains skip like rams, the hills like lambs.

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They were like sheep, like fleeing cowardly animals in the presence of the

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Israelites who came into this land. Another possibility is that you're referring to literal mountains and literal hills that God descended upon.

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You had the temple that was built on Mount Moriah and God came down on Mount Sinai and spoke to the children of Israel from the mountain and gave them the

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Ten Commandments, which we read in Exodus 20. So when God's presence is upon a mountain, the mountains tremble.

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That could be the other interpretation. What ails you? Oh, see that you flee. Oh, Jordan, that you turn back.

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We know once again, it is because God is sovereign and he sits over all things. He is even more powerful than the most powerful thing that you can observe in nature.

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Tremble, O Earth, at the presence of the Lord. That could be the literal land or it could be the nations of the land at the presence of the

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God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water. If you remember water from the rock for the children of Israel, the flint into a spring of water.

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We've got a little bit of time left. Let's go ahead and do Psalm 115. This is 18 verses here.

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And then next week, we've got 16, 17, and 18. And then we've got to get to that big chapter of the

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Psalms, Psalm 119. That was just been looming over our entire study of the

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Psalms. When are we going to get to Psalm 119? It's coming up in a couple of weeks. Here's Psalm 115.

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Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name, give glory.

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For the sake of your steadfast love and faithfulness.

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Have we not already been talking about that? Verse two. Why should the nation say, where is their

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God? Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.

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Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak, eyes, but do not see.

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They have ears, but do not hear, noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel, feet, but do not walk.

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And they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them.

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So do all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in the

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Lord. He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the

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Lord. He is their help and their shield. You who fear the

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Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.

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The Lord has remembered us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.

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He will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great. May the

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Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed by the

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Lord who made the heaven and the earth. The heavens are the

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Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man. The dead do not praise the

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Lord, nor do any who go down into silence, but we will bless the

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Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the

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Lord. Take special note of those who worship idols, who do not worship

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God, they worship idols. Everybody worships something. If you're not worshiping the

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Lord, then you're worshiping a God of your own making. And notice how those idols are described.

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They have mouths, but do not speak. Eyes, but do not see. Ears, but do not hear.

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Noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel. Feet, but do not walk. And they do not make a sound in their throat.

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And those who make them become like them. They've made gods in their own image.

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But how are we to be? Not trusting in a God of our own making, but we are to trust in the

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Lord. If those who trust in idols become like their idols, they have eyes, but they don't see.

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Like they can look into the scriptures too, but they don't see God. They can look at all of creation, but they don't see a creator.

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They have ears to hear the gospel, but they don't turn from sin and believe. They're just like their idols.

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But how are we who fear God? We are to trust in God. If they who worship idols become like the gods that they have made, how are we to be who trust the

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Lord? We are to become like him who made us. If you are a follower of Jesus, you will become an imitator of Jesus.

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Live in Christ likeness today. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness to us daily.

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And I pray that we would remember these things always. The circumstances, the trials that we go through right now, these are not outside of your handiwork.

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You are over all things. You are the one who subjected the earth to futility because of the sinfulness of man.

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So nothing is happening outside your will. And even the disasters and the calamities that come upon us teach us to praise your name in the midst of all of these things.

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For you are working this out for our good and ultimately for your glory.

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Your name and your name alone is to be praised above all. Do we trust in God more than we desire our own comfort?

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Let us be tested in these moments that we may love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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.com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our