Sunday Morning, September 13, 2020 AM

Good morning, everyone. Have a seat. We're glad that you're here to worship with us at Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning. A few announcements as we're getting started. Tonight, evening service, after we were off last week, evening service is back on at 530 p .m. tonight.

Wednesday, 630, TAG is starting back up. Again, there is a TAG meal beforehand, but that's only for families whose kids are participating in TAG. And that's at 545 before that, and then prayer meeting for the adults while TAG is going on.

Truth group is that next? Or September 27th? Fourth Sunday. So truth groups coming up September 27th for the young adult kids in church. Our fighter verse for this week is in Jeremiah chapter 32, verse 40.

It's good to be back in Jeremiah a little bit. I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me.

Reminder, Diane McGarry is a notary public, so if you have any needs regarding that or like a mail-in ballot for the upcoming elections in November, she can help you with that as well. Offering plate continues to be on the back table.

We're not passing that yet in church, so don't forget your tithes and offerings. And then nursery is available as well. Lastly, Jill Smoot, there she is, she has an announcement about Operation Christmas Child boxes.

Thank you. So take advantage of those shoe boxes that we've been given. Again, those are back in Jill's Sunday school classroom, so if you go straight out the doors, it's the first room past the bathroom on your right there.

Any other announcements that I'm missing this morning? All right. Well, we're going to prepare our hearts for worship, and then after that, Dad will lead us in prayer.

Gracious Father, we give you thanks for the blessing of this day. Every good and perfect gift comes to us from your hand, both in blessing and in sorrow. Lord, you are faithful, and you are good, and we give you glory and praise.

Father, as we come this morning, Lord, I pray that you would give us clean hands and a pure heart, that we might come into your presence. Oh God, we cannot cleanse ourselves, so we run to you. We run to Jesus, the only one who can take our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.

Lord, we confess our neediness this morning, and how grateful we are that you, as our Heavenly Father, do not ignore us or push us aside, but that you welcome us when we come, in Jesus' name, and when we say, Lord, we need your grace.

So Lord, help us today to worship you, to glorify your name together. Lord, work in us and through us, for yours, O Lord, is the kingdom and the glory forever.

Amen. Before we start, I wanted to share just a personal note. It's just good to see Sunnyside this morning. I know some are returning from out of town, passing of loved ones. Others have been out for health reasons and now back, so it's just it's good to see the Sunnyside family this morning.

Our family had a praise yesterday. I just wanted to quickly share. We were, the van keys were gone, and Lisa and I, I know, were separately, silently praying, and within minutes, God just provided, showed us, Lisa actually found them.

So, and but Chris and I were there working to look for them, and but we just cried out to God, and that's just a little small area of a miracle, but for us, that meant so much to our family. And it's just good to know that no matter what the situation is, we can cry out to God in our time of crisis or in time of joy, and right after that, I found myself singing all creatures of our God and King, and even though I didn't have all the words memorized, I was singing that, but let me read just a couple phrases here.

All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing, and then also praise God, and on him cast your care. O praise him, O praise him. Anyway, if you would stand for our call to worship this morning, our passage is found in Psalms chapter 47.

We'll be reading verses 5 through 7. Read with me together. God has gone up with the shout, the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our King. Sing praises.

For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. So our first song this morning is page 64, All Creatures of our God and King, and we'll sing verses 1, 2, 4, and 5. Little black humans.

Shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord's offerings by fire and his portion. They shall have no inheritance among their countrymen. The Lord is their inheritance as he promised them.

Now this shall be the priest's due from the people, from those who offer sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep, of which they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. You shall give him the firstfruits of your grain, your new wine and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep.

For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in the name of the Lord forever. Now if a Levite comes from any of your towns throughout Israel where he resides and comes whenever he desires to the place which the Lord chooses, then he shall serve in the name of the Lord his God like all his fellow Levites.

You stand there before the Lord. They shall eat equal portions except what they receive from the sale of their father's estates. When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire or who uses divination or one who practices witchcraft or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer or those who cast spells or a medium or a spiritualist or one who calls up the dead.

For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord. And because of these detestable things, the Lord your God will drive them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For those nations which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and diviners.

But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, and you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you have asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God.

Let me not see this great fire anymore or I will die. The Lord said to me, they have spoken well. I will raise a prophet from among their countrymen like you and I'll put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

It should come about that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name. I myself were required of him. But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

You may say in your heart, how will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord? If the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken.

The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you again for the time we have here among your people. Just thank you for this congregation, Lord, and the blessing they've been to my life.

Thank you for your word. Thank you most especially for your son and the gift that we were given through him. I just pray, Lord, that you would help us to take full advantage of this time as we sit to learn about you.

Just pray that you'll be with Michael as he comes to speak to us. Please quicken his memory to the things that you've spoken to him throughout the week. I pray that you would make our hearts receptive to hear the words he has to say.

In your name, amen. You may be seated.

We're going to continue our song service with page 211. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus.

I thank you for the day that you have made. I pray that you would help us to rejoice and be glad in this day. So we have gathered in honor of our risen and reigning Jesus Christ. We confess that he is our hope.

I thank you for those that you have brought here today. Thank you for those who are able to be with us and still listening in or praying for us. Lord, we ask special grace for them. And we ask for mercies and grace for us that we would hear your word.

What it is that you have to say to us about your son and through your Holy Spirit. We ask that you would give us a clear view of your son, Jesus Christ. We would give him praise and honor and glory. We would rejoice in him that our worship would be as you would have it.

Thank you for being God. Thank you for being a creator and savior. Thank you for grace to leave us not in the dark to reveal yourself to us through your son. Bring us into worshipful, loving, everlasting relationship with you.

Pray these things looking only to Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 111. Psalm 111. And my intention as I've been stating the last two weeks is to preach through Psalms 111 through 118.

The goal is to see what these Psalms have to teach us about praise. About how to praise the Lord. What we're to praise him about. Why we should praise him and so on. These are Psalms that lead us in this way.

Psalms 111 and 112 are organized originally in the Hebrew as alphabetical acrostics. We would say ABC. They would say Aleph, Beth, Gimel. And they are used to teach children. How to praise the Lord. They are excellent for us to learn how to praise the Lord.

Psalm 111 particularly strives to excite the worshipers praise by presenting the quality of God's works. If we want to excite God's worship, then we need to examine God's works. This is what Psalm 111 is all about.

I invite you to stand with me as I read the text. As we hear what Christ says through his spirit in the words of the psalmist. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart in the company of the upright and in the assembly.

Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is his work and his righteousness endures forever. He has made his wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate.

He has given food to those who fear him. He will remember his covenant forever. He has made known to his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations. The works of his hands are truth and justice.

All his precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments. His praise endures forever. These are the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

The Works of the Lord in Creation and Salvation

I wonder if you have ever seen a dancing, kissing hug. Have you ever seen that? I saw some old news footage the other day. It followed the emergency landing of an airplane where the pilot had made a courageous and daring maneuver to land the plane safely on the ground and save the lives of all of his passengers.

And there was some video footage later on of when the passengers were able to meet the pilot who had actually saved their lives. And it focused in on one gentleman. He was older. He was larger, far larger than the pilot.

And he had his arms around the pilot. And he was dancing back and forth, lifting the pilot off the ground and kissing him on the cheek and exclaiming his joy in this man. Because the man had, by his God-given skill and in the moment, by all the providence of God, yes, but this man had saved his life.

And he could not express himself coherently enough. It was a dancing, kissing hug. How much greater? How much greater is the salvation which Christ accomplishes for us? What Christ does by his works, his works of righteousness, his works of suffering in our place and for our sake.

Raising from the dead the third day to give us new life. How he saves us in his perfect wisdom from sin, from Satan, from death. That he grants us his own righteous standing before God. That he makes us new creatures for the new creation.

That he will raise us from the dead. That he will shepherd us through an eternity of life. How much greater is the salvation that Christ renders to us? You know, you may be a few decades out from the moment of salvation.

When you came to know Jesus Christ, when by the power of the Holy Spirit, your heart of stone was removed and you were given a heart of flesh. And you repented of your sins and you believed upon Jesus Christ.

And you knew that he, that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. And that he was your Savior. He deserved all your worship. You may be a few decades out from that great awakening of your soul.

When faith and repentance first flowed in your heart and your mind perceived the glories of Christ. It's been 35 years for me, no 33, 33 years for me. You may have learned a lot more about what it meant that Christ died upon the cross.

What does it mean that he rose from the dead? Maybe relatively new in your faith and your understanding of Christ. But what is it that we all need? What do we need renewed for us regularly? We need rejoicing.

We need thanksgiving. We need worship given to Christ in view of his works. In view of his saving works. In view of what he has done before God and for us. And you know there's no standard form that you have to follow in rejoicing in the Lord.

We don't have to all have the same form. It's not necessary you see for all of us to break out in dancing kissing hugs. Not everybody who met the pilot that day had the same reaction you see. But we do need to examine the works of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We need to examine the works of God in our salvation. If we want to excite God's worship. If we want to truly praise him and know the joy of worshiping God. We need to examine his works. We've thought about the works of creation already.

We've considered the grandeur, the majesty, the splendor of God's works in creation. That the more we examine those by faith and with thanksgiving. The more our worship of God will increase. The more we will praise him.

This is also true of God's works in his covenant. How he saves for himself a people and brings them into his place under his rule. Psalm 51, 12 through 15 I think captures exactly the kind of approach that we need.

Psalm 51 verses 12 through 15. David says this, Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Is that your prayer? Restore to me the joy of your salvation. And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways.

And sinners will be converted to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. Then my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips that my mouth may declare your praise.

Restore unto me the joy of your salvation, O God. That my lips will be opened in praise to you. To excite God's worship, we must examine God's works. We thought of the works of the Lord in worshipful company.

That we are to worship and to praise the Lord with all of our being. Not just our outer exterior hands and the shell that we might put on. But with a whole heart, with an unqualified heart. That we would worship and praise the Lord.

And we would do so not only on our own, but with the few or with the many. We've talked about the works of the Lord and the wonders of creation. And everything really that we said about the works of God and creation.

We may also say about the works of God and salvation. That they surpass our appreciation. The goodness of the works of God, either in creation or in salvation, wherever we find them, truly surpass our capacity to fully appreciate.

Meaning, they're not as good as we think they are. They are far better than we think they are. They're not limited by our capacities to understand or to be thankful. In fact, they delight the student.

The more we know about God's creation and the more we know about how God has saved us, the more delight we have in God. Indeed, they enthrall the believer. We are enthralled with God as we consider His works.

And the works of God remain and redound, whether in creation or in salvation. The work that God does in salvation does not pass away, but in fact is established by His own perfect, eternal righteousness.

And what He has done in salvation is done in such a way that it should be remembered. Yes, this is true of the works of God in creation, but it's also true in His works of salvation. That He has done things in a way that we ought to remember them.

And come back to them again and again, examining the works of the Lord so that we may praise Him and worship Him. So look with me, the works of the Lord and the ways of His covenant. We'll begin reading the second half of verse 4.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear Him. He will remember His covenant forever. He has made known to His people the power of His works and giving them the heritage of the nations.

The works of His hands are truth and justice. All His precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to His people. He has ordained His covenant forever.

Holy and awesome is His name. You can tell this is the greater portion of Psalm 111, and it focuses on the works of the Lord in the ways of His covenant. In the ABCs of praise, in the Aleph, Beth, Gimels of praise, we first praise the Lord for His wonders in creation, and then we praise the Lord for His grace and mercy so evident in the ways of His faithful love, in the ways of His covenant.

By the glories of God revealed in creation, we know that God is splendid, that He is majestic. And by the works of God revealed in His covenant, we know that God is gracious and God is merciful. Notice what is said at the very beginning.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate. That's the end of verse 4. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. The psalmist, in considering how this grace and this mercy is made known, thinks in terms of the three ingredients of covenant, which we find again and again throughout the scripture.

God's people, God's place, and God's rule. We see this time and again, whether we're looking at the Garden of Eden, or we're talking about Noah, or the children of Israel, or King David, or the New Covenant.

What we're thinking of, time and again, is about how God brings His people into His place, and blesses them under His rule. And these are the three ingredients of covenant. Sometimes it's hard to extract one from the other, they're so connected.

And yet, these three are in view here in Psalm 111. And the psalmist also thinks about these ingredients of the covenant in terms of the historical works of God. The things that He has done in such a way that they ought to be remembered.

He has done things in such a way that they ought to be remembered. And so He has shown His covenant love to His people, bringing them into His place, blessing them under His rule. And He has done these things in such a way that they are to be remembered, generation upon generation upon generation.

And so there are concrete deeds, and there are stone-carved words, which are in the mind of the psalmist at this very moment. And they prove the excellencies of God. Consider the praise offered here, the Lord is gracious and compassionate.

This is a direct quote from Exodus chapter 34, verse 6. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. What is going on in Exodus chapter 34? God has instructed Moses to cut two new fresh stone tablets. Remember the two stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written.

God tells Moses to cut two new stone tablets. Why? What happened to the original Ten Commandments? Moses, coming back down the mountain, discovers the people of Israel in immoral and idolatrous chaos.

In holy rage, He picks up the Ten Commandments, the two tablets, and He throws them down and shatters them. And now God has dealt with the matter. And now He instructs Moses again to cut two new stone tablets and to bring them up the mountain of Sinai.

And once again, all the safeguards are put in place. Once again, God has come down upon the mountain. And it is burning and smoking under His holy weight. And Moses is about to go up because God tells him, God says He will personally write the Ten Commandments on these two stone tablets, which will then be placed in the Ark of the Covenant.

It's at this point when God has come down in the cloud and He's speaking to Moses. He says this, verse 6. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth.

Verse 7. Who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.

Meaning that God is stating the terms of His covenant. He's telling Moses, I am a forgiving and a merciful God. And yet, if there is the breaking of the covenant, the consequences are going to be for many generations.

Now, verse 8. Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. And he said, now Moses says, If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your own possession.

Then God said, Behold, I am going to make a covenant before all your people. I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations. And all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord.

For it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day. Behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

Now, I read verses 6 through 11 because the elements composed here are all lying beneath the surface of Psalm 111. As a psalmist speaks about how the Lord provides for his people, how he gives them the inheritance of the nations, how God gives them his law to follow.

We're learning about how God says, I will gather together for myself a people. Not that they deserve it, they're obstinate. I will gather together for myself a people, and I will bring them into a place that I will provide for them, and they're going to live under my rule.

They must do everything that I instruct them to do. We hear all the three ingredients of covenant here in Exodus 34, and we are reminded of these matters here in Psalm 111. These are the same terms. These are the same themes that lay behind the psalmist's hallelujah here in Psalm 111, as he praises the Lord for his works, for his ways in the covenant.

Now, God works for his people. We see that in verses 5 and 9 in Psalm 111. God works for his people. These are not a strong people. They were not more numerous than the other nations. God tells them that he brings them straight out of slavery, out of bondage.

These are not a mighty people. They are not a numerous people. They really don't have a lot to offer to him. Much of what happens in the wilderness for 40 years is something of a violent extraction of Egyptian pagan culture from their midst.

So they're not even a holy people, but he will make them so. How does God work for his people? This is what the psalmist is praising the Lord for. I praise the Lord because he works for his people. Two particular works are examined.

First of all, that he gives food to those who fear him, verse 5. And then verse 9, it says he sent redemption to his people. So he has given food to those who fear him. And it says he has sent redemption to his people.

And then notice the next set of parallel thought. He will remember his covenant forever. He has ordained his covenant forever. Do you hear the parallel? So he gives food to those who fear him. He has sent redemption to his people.

He has ordained his covenant forever. He will remember his covenant forever. These are in parallel. So two particular works of God are examined as praiseworthy in regards to God's covenant. The first is bread from heaven.

It's bread from heaven. He has given food to those who fear him. He will remember his covenant forever. You see, when God rescued his people, when God redeemed his people out of Egypt, he brought them into the wilderness for there at Sinai, he was going to make a covenant with them.

But as they left Egypt, although they plundered Egypt, the food soon ran out. The only thing left is to start killing livestock, but then you don't have any flocks and herds left. So they were running out of food, and they begin to grumble and complain against the Lord and say, you have brought us out into the wilderness to starve.

We always had enough to eat back in Egypt, but here you have brought us out here to starve. Remember that God has rescued his people time and again, and he has delivered them. He has used wonder after wonder to deliver them, but here they are in the wilderness.

They have no food, and they're complaining against him. But God says that he brought them into the wilderness, and it says he humbled them by letting them go hungry. He brought them into the wilderness, and he let them be hungry to humble them, to teach them.

It says very clearly in Deuteronomy 8, very clearly he says, I did this so that you would fear me, so that you would be humbled, so that you would learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

So the psalmist is thinking of this. He has given food to those who fear him. He humbled them to teach them to fear God, so that he would give them manna from heaven. He would give them food. He will remember his covenant forever.

You see, we don't live because we have bread. We live because God sustains us, because God has promised that he would. We live by every word of the mouth of God, and he has made covenant promises, and he's going to remember them.

So he was teaching the Israelites to fear him, to trust him, to depend upon his words. Manna from heaven was a sign that God would remember his covenant forever. Manna from heaven was totally out of their realm of experience.

Who would have ever thought that food, some sort of bread-like substance, would fall out of the sky, end up on the ground, only in the mornings, would melt away into nothing when the sun came up too high, would only last for the day, except on Fridays, it would last for two days, and fall in double portion.

I mean, what kind of thing is this? This is the same kind of provision that Abraham knew God would give him on the mount, the mount where the Lord provides. Because he had Isaac on the altar, his only heir.

Isaac was on the altar. Abraham's knife was in his hand. His hand was raised over Isaac, and he was ready to kill Isaac upon the instructions of God Almighty. And Hebrews tells us the faith of Abraham.

Abraham knew, I know he's the only heir. I know he's the promised one through whom the descendants will come. But Abraham knew, if God tells me to kill him, that just means that God will raise him up from the dead again.

So God gives manna from heaven to teach his people to fear him, to trust him, because he was teaching them long before they ever made it to the promised land, when they went into a land flowing with milk and honey, where the grapes were the size of a man's fist.

Long before they got into that wonderful blessed land full of abundance, before they got there, they were taught that all of the abundance, all of the sustenance came from God. Whether it was manna from heaven, or the crops from the ground.

And God was teaching them that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, their lives depended upon the life-giving God. And so the psalmist says, hallelujah.

The psalmist says, praise the Lord. The Lord sends bread from heaven. The Lord is the one who gives us life. By his word, he gives us life. He promised to preserve us and preserve us, he did. The gift of life to his people is this provision of grace.

It is a provision of mercy. It is provision of truly everlasting life. John chapter 6, verses 32 through 35. Jesus then said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

For the bread of God that which comes down out of heaven, and for the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good, Jesus. Where is it? Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He's the manna from heaven. He's the bread of life. He says, he who comes to me will not hunger.

And he who believes in me will never thirst. So here we have much to praise. God has given us bread from heaven. See, he will remember his covenant forever. He gives us food. Jesus is our sustenance. He forever satisfies.

He forever quenches. Let us praise the Lord. And in praising the Lord, we build ourselves up on our most holy faith. You see, he gives food to those who fear him. What happened when the children of Israel stopped fearing the Lord and started playing with the idols?

What happened when they began to be confident in their own strength? Living in houses they did not build and reaping crops they did not sow. What happened? Exactly what God said would happen in the covenant.

Famine. Famine. What happened when they trusted in their own strength and they stopped letting the fields rest every seventh year? When they wouldn't let their slaves go every seventh year? When they wouldn't give the properties back to the original owners on the year of jubilee?

When they made it all about what they could do? When they stopped following through on the covenant? What happened? Famine. Death, disease, destruction. He's given food to those who fear him. And God has sent us the bread of heaven.

And who is the bread of heaven for? Who has eaten the manna? Have you eaten the manna from heaven? Are you satisfied in the gift of life from heaven? Jesus Christ. Those who fear God. Those who do not fear man.

Those who do not fear death. Those who have laid aside the idols of our age. Those who come to Christ and say, I don't know about any of this other thing, I'm giving up on whatever I had before. You're it.

You're it. You're the only reason why God would ever love me, accept me, forgive me, and smile upon me. You're it. You're the only reason why I'd ever have eternal life in heaven with God and fellowship with God's people.

You're it. Manna that satisfies. You never have to go find something to add to it. Jesus even says he's the kind of bread that quenches thirst. That's amazing. And when we praise the Lord, we're building ourselves up on our most holy faith and everything else is put into proper perspective.

Romans 8 is full of gospel meditations on how to live as those in Christ, even as we suffer. And here's Romans 8 .32. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all. God who gave us bread from heaven, his own son, Jesus Christ, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

You see, if you have the manna, you know that God will always remember his covenant. If you have the manna, you know that God will always provide for you all that which you need. Every situation that you're in, trust the Lord.

Not only does he give bread from heaven, but he also saved his people from bondage. And we see this in verse 9 of Psalm 111. He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever.

Holy and awesome is his name. So the psalmist says, hallelujah. The Lord gave us bread from heaven. He is our sustenance. Praise the Lord. He has sent redemption to his people. Now, what historical event is in view here?

Well, God sent Moses and Aaron down to Egypt to confront Pharaoh who had enslaved the people of God. And what was the word of the Lord? Let my people, yeah. Let my people go. And God said from the very beginning in Exodus 4, for long before everything got started, he said long before it all got going, he said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart.

Go tell him to let my people go, and I'll make sure he won't until I have thoroughly destroyed him and his. Why would God do it that way? Because he was going to magnify his powerful name through many judgment wonders.

For this purpose, he raised Pharaoh up. By bringing Pharaoh down, the world would know who is God. Not Pharaoh. Not the gods of Egypt. And particularly, God redeems his people through Passover. And I think that's what's in mind here.