All right, well, beautiful singing. So I’ve not met you. My name is Aaron and I’m preaching pastor here and glad you’re with us today. So if you have a Bible with you, if you open up the book of Psalms, they’re going to be looking@psalm146. If you don’t have a Bible, there are pew Bibles scattered throughout.
It’s on page 302 as you’re tuning in there. I mean we’ll prayed for our the Ukrainians today. As mentioned, today is their independence day. So it’s know very kind of emotional day, I’m sure for them. And so as you see our Ukrainians friends here at Red Village, members of our church family here, please make sure that you greet them and try and encourage them, especially today.
Okay, so Psalm 146. So I’m going to read the entire passage and then I’m going to pray and then we will get to work. So Psalm 146. So please to hear the word of the Lord. So the psalm says, praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. O my soul, I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes and the Son of man in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth.
And on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord, his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.
The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widow and the fatherless. But the way of the wicked, he brings a ruin. The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord. Okay, that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you pray with me?
Lord, we are here to praise you. Please help me as I open up and preach your word. That would be to your praise. Pray for the congregation as they listen and receive your word that they receive it as praise to you. Lord, please bless this time for our good.
For your glory. It’s in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Okay, so there we were and where we were was in high school and with football game. Now I didn’t play football, but I was all in in leading our Student section as we cheered on our team, where in my senior year, I became, like, the unofficial leader of the student section.
Now, one of those games, kind of in the middle of the season, a few friends and I decided a couple things we were going to do for that particular Friday night lights. First, we decided we’re going to tailgate before the game for a few of us, pull out the grill, creek up some music, and hang out in the parking lot before the game over like hamburgers and brats. Second thing, on that particular game, we decided we’re going to enter in the student section all decked out in hunter’s blaze orange, which meant for me a coat, bibs, hat, all in orange, ready for the second week of deer camp. Mind you, this long time ago, before organized student sections and themes was a real thing like it is today. This is kind of something we just kind of sporadically thought would be fun to do, you know, common blaze orange.
And it was. In fact, we had a lot of fun, both in the things we did before with the tailgate and in the blaze orange. So much fun that we decided we’re gonna do it again the next Friday night lights. So next Friday comes along, football game is getting ready. We get out the grill, crank up the music, eat the brats, burgers decked out in our blaze orange.
But this time, it wasn’t just a few buddies in me doing these things. Rather a good number of others from the student section joined in. And the tailgate party actually grew a decent amount. And blaze orange in the stands also grew a decent amount. And this growing group became a bit of a trend that continued over the next few weeks to the point that even some of the parents started to join in both the tailgate as well in the blaze orange.
However, a few weeks into this growing trend, things almost came to an end. And it almost came to an end because at an away game, a few of my friends and I, I guess you say, got a little carried away in our cheering. I guess you could say that some of the things that we were voicing to the other team that were playing were maybe not the most charitable. A little bit more forward, a little bit more offensive. In fact, we got so carried away that the athletic director from the team we were visiting was, like, so unimpressed by us.
Like, that Monday, a call went into our athletic director to voice his concerns about us, which led our athletics director, who happened to be like the basketball coach, which was a sport I did play, sport I love playing. Call me into his office for a Little talk. Not only did I learn that for the next few days, myself and my other friends, the original Blaze Orange Crew, will be enjoying the rest of the days in detention. They also let me know that we see even more concerns of this type of thing that not only would limit my opportunity to play basketball that winter, but also keep me and my friends from attending any more football games that year. Well, for me, lesson learned.
I didn’t want to blow that. I didn’t want to blow all the fun they were having in the football game, I didn’t want to blow playing basketball. These things are just too important for me to blow to keep like running my mouth by making like stupid decisions in the football stands for the rest of the year, myself, the rest of the original Blaze Orange Crew, right, we are on best behavior. We were not going to blow the good vibes that we were enjoying. It was just too important, too much fun to be lost out now.
Thankfully, the trouble we got into wasn’t to the point that it stopped like the growing trend. In fact, things continued to build and build all the way through the rest of the season. The point that our team actually got to like the game before State and everyone, and I mean like everyone, all from our school, students, parents, faculty, staff, including maybe someone you wouldn’t expect, the athletic director, all came to the tailgate party. All were there, including unexpected athletic director, all wearing Blaze orange as we cheered on our team on that day. And for me, there’s a couple related lessons I learned from that experience.
So first, I learned a little something about momentum, that when things catch, they can kind of grow quickly and really kind of build off itself. Second, I also learned how fragile momentum can be. Now, I don’t really remember the shenanigans my friends and I did that led to the athletic church from another school calling to voice his concerns. But whatever it was, it almost quickly stopped. What was happening just because of these stupid choices almost sabotaged the very thing.
I was excited too, because I kind of got in my own way, which for me helped me to be a little bit more mindful of my actions. A little more click to try to slow myself down before things got away with me, to discipline myself, to do the right thing, to be on guard from doing the wrong thing. Now I’ll share this story with you this morning. There’s a psalm that we’re working through today in Psalm 146, I think is the start of like a real momentum that we’re going to be feeling or reading through the rest of the Psalter, which finishes up with Psalm 150. We’re in our psalm today.
Not only feel the momentum start to build in this particular Psalm, we also see the psalmist, like, give us help on things that we are to be mindful of that can, like, stop the momentum of our faith from growing and things to be mindful of in terms of, like, helping to build the momentum of our faith, which I do trust for all of us. This is something that’s important to us, something we don’t want to lose out, something we want to continue to grow. Now, just before I work for the Psalms, just a couple of things. So for a couple moments, I just want to circle back just a few things we already mentioned throughout this summer series as it relates to the Psalms, just some context. And this relates how the Psalter, the book of Psalms, is organized.
So a few times I mentioned the book of psalms made of 150 individual Psalms, where at some point a compiler organized the book of Psalms like we have it today. Many throughout church history suggest it was like the great priest Ezra, who was the compiler. But whoever it was, the organizers Psalms, we do know that the organizers did so with a lot of intentionality and a lot of thought, where not only the compiler put the books of Psalms into five individual books that seem to mirror the Torah or the first five books of the Bible, but within each of the five books there seems almost like a story being told where many scholars have wondered if it’s meant to actually mirror the history of the story of Israel and all the ups and downs Israel had gone through. Some pointed out the first book of Psalms seems to point to like Israel’s, like beginning in some ways as received the covenant of God in Exodus, where God promised to be their God and they promised to be their people. Then the second book of Psalms seems to be setting up God’s people for the Messiah who was to come, a Messiah who would lead them, a Messiah who is closely linked to David, who’s a great king who ruled during like the political peak of Israel.
Then the third book of Psalms seems to continue to point God’s people to the Messiah to look to Messiah even though they were in exile, which is a really a dark part of their history. And they’re in exile on the land because of their faithlessness to the covenant that they made with God. Then the fourth book is pointing God’s people to continue to praise God even during the low point of the exile. And then finally the fifth book of Psalms, which is where we have been this summer seems really to God’s people like coming out of the exile and back to the land. I think we see this most clearly in the Psalms of ascents there in the book 5, as God’s people were like ascending back into Jerusalem.
We also see it in what’s also referred to as the Hallelujah Psalms, which end the book as God’s people returned to the land from exile, singing out a chorus of hallelujahs which our text today, this is the first of the Hallelujah Psalms as God gave, or God’s people gave their hallelujahs for the work that God has just done to bring them back to the promised land, bring them back to the holy city of Jerusalem. So Psalm 146 through the end, through 150, these are hallelujah psalms. And as you read through, you can just feel the momentum growing for God’s people. I’ll tell you this today because I think it’s actually important for the context as we work through the passage. As mentioned, God’s people were brought back to the land where God redeemed them from exile.
I think this is going to be very important as we think through this passage, as we see in this text, how they are trusting in God, that this work was all because of the Lord, that He’s the one that they must hope and that they must trust in. Okay, so there’s a little bit of context. Second, I just want to mention this theme of momentum that I’ve already started to talk about. So as I work through this theme, I do want to be mindful what I’m meaning, what I’m saying with momentum. So sometimes momentum, almost like it’s a bit of a buzzword, like even in church life where in a sense we almost like are trying to like create momentum in like manipulative ways, like based on our own like creativity, our own ingenuity.
So not like real God given momentum, but just own self created, self reliant, manipulative momentum. And that’s not what I’m advocating for here in this sermon and this theme. So as I use this word momentum, I want to do so in ways we’re seeing like God given growth within us with the hopes that there’s a lifetime of this growth, a lifetime of momentum and growing in ways that we’re trusting in him in more and more that more and more that the song of our life is Hallelujah. Okay, so that is a little bit longer introduction. If I look back with me starting in verse one of the text and if you’re visiting with us today.
So what we’re going to do is I’m just going to walk us right back through. So if you have a Bible open, please do keep it open. So verse one. So read this. It says, praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. O my soul. Now, just a few things already. First, this praise the Lord. This is the word hallelujah.
So the word hello and Hebrew means praise, praise with real tone of joy tied to it. Yah, which is short for the Hebrew word yahweh, which is a divine name that God gave to his people, starting with Moses at the burning bush. So praise the Lord. This is hallelujah. Second, with this repeated phrase of praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, or hallelujah, Hallelujah, which starts out this psalm, this is where we see momentum already starting to build.
Right? Right from beginning, we’re in this momentum. You can just feel there’s like, emotion, this God given emotion, God given excitement from the writer of the psalms at the start here, right? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
And no doubt this real emotion of praising the Lord that the author had, this is actually something he was trying to elicit in his readers as he’s trying to encourage his readers to fill momentum of praise in their own hearts with real emotion, real momentum. This week I was thinking about this psalm here, this repeated phrase, this emotion that the writer is trying to elicit. My mind first went back to, like the Old Testament in the temple where this song would have been sung by God’s people. In my mind’s eye, I can just like hear the crowd of people, like, singing this out, like, hallelujah, Hallelujah. And this had to be an awesome experience for all who are part of this crowd.
Just the emotion, the momentum of praise had to be building in that scene. It had to be awesome. Also this week, Adam and I got together for coffee and one of the things that we were talking about was actually kind of on this end, that music is actually meant to elicit emotion within us. This is what the psalmist is doing for us here in verse one. Now, clearly, music can elicit emotion that’s like unhealthy or manipulative, which is something we do need to be on guard of.
But we can’t be so on guard that we miss out on one of the right and healthy purposes of motion or of music, which is to create emotion in us, to draw out emotion in ways that, like, softens and grows our hearts towards God. Music singing, when done right, as it clearly was here in this Psalm with this Hallelujah. These are drawing out good things, important things, momentous things to help grow us in our faith. Right? Good, right.
Emotion helps us to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Third, as a psalmist sings repeated hallelujah. Notice that in such a way that while he’s singing to God, he’s also in a sense like speaking to self. Look back at verse one, right? Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, O my soul. Right? The psalms of many ways, like he’s speaking to himself here in verse one. Like to encourage himself, perhaps even like discipline himself to. To praise his God.
And the speaking towards self, this encouragement to bring praises towards God. This is actually something we see kind of throughout the Psalms in their call to worship. We had Psalm 42, Psalm 42 and Psalm 43. As a Psalmist, like, speaking to himself, asking himself, like, why is he cast down, O my soul? Why is there turmoil within me?
But then speaking himself to like, hope in God, to continue to praise his God. I think it’s actually a really good, important lesson for us to hear this here in our faith for help us to grow in our faith. Friends, unfortunately, there’s not always going to be times where we’re like, our heart’s like bubbling over with like hallelujahs, where our hearts are full of faith and joy in the Lord instead. Probably more common is our hearts are maybe not bubbling over, but maybe they’re a little bit more dry. Where if honest, maybe our hearts are a little bit more close to like empty and maybe apathetic rather than full and joyful.
Where maybe we start to let our hearts and our minds start to run in ways that we’re entertaining things in our own minds and hearts that are just not true concerning our God. When those happen, what we need to do is we have to address our souls, do so in ways that we’re like disciplining ourselves, where we like actively speak truth in our hearts. We’re actively encouraging our hearts to bring our hallelujahs to the Lord. Let me read just a little bit longer quote to you from the great Dr. Church preacher named Martin Lloyd Jones, wrote a very helpful book, just called Spiritual Depression. So Lloyd wrote this concerning all this.
I just mentioned says the main trouble in this whole matter, spiritual depression, in a sense, is this as we allow ourselves to talk to us instead of talking to ourselves. Am I trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it, Lloyd Wright. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in Life is due to the fact that you’re listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself.
Take those thoughts that come into you in the moment that you wake up in the morning. Have you not orientated them? But they start talking to you. They bring back the problem of yesterday. Someone’s talking.
Who is talking to you? Yourself is talking to you. Lord wrote this. Now this is man’s treatment in Psalm 42 is this. Instead of allowing self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? He asks. His soul has been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, self, listen for a moment. I will speak to you.
Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience. The main art of the matter, spiritual living, is how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in the hand. You have to address yourself, preach yourself, question yourself.
You must say to yourself, why art thou cast down? What business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, unbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself and say to yourself, hope thou in God, instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, who God is, what God is, what God has done for you, what is God has pledged to do for himself. And then having done that, end of this great note.
Defy yourself, defy other people, defy the devil in the whole world. And say this, I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance, which is also the health of my countenance and my God. Fourth, let me just mention that some scholars point out the bigger progression of the hallelujahs, starting here, which takes us to the end of Psalms. So in verse one, hallelujah. This is an individual one.
Praise the Lord, O my soul. But then the Hallelujah chorus provides momentum as you keep reading. As we come to the final psalm, the final hallelujah is this says, let everything, everything that has breath, praise the Lord. This is actually part of the momentum I think we’re supposed to pick up on as we read through Psalms 146 through 150. This is a real momentum.
I hope that we’re desiring, as a church, that our individual praises multiply and they grow so that more and more join us, that every breath joins our breath, our hallelujah. Which takes us to verse two of the text. I want to take you guys there. Feeding off this momentum that was started in verse one, we see the emotion of the psalm build, or the psalmist starts to sing out, says, I will praise the Lord, I will do so as long as I live where as long as I live I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Now, I think it’s also something important for us is to notice and to learn here now.
Sure, at times, perhaps we have to speak ourselves in ways that we’re imploring our hearts to bring our hallelujahs to the lord, right? Verse 1. But then what tends to happen is actually when we do that, when by faith, we start to bring our hallelujahs to the Lord, even when our hearts maybe are not bubbling over, is that the Lord uses that act of faith to create needed growth and momentum in our hearts. This starts to build in ways our hearts become full, which we see here in verse two. Maybe just to illustrate this, how many times have you entered into a church service, maybe not in the best place, maybe a little more tired, a little bit more wore thin by a hard week, maybe feeling a little apathetic, perhaps even cold towards the things of God, where in your heart is even like a battle to get to church on that particular Sunday.
Yet by faith, you discipline yourself, you defy yourself, you make the drive in. And as you walk into the church building, you start to see some of your friends at the start of service, and you feel your heart start to soften a bit, which only continue to soften through the call to worship. By the time you start singing the first few songs, you feel the momentum start to continue to build. By the time you get to the passage of the sermon, your heart is now warm. By the time the service ends, you don’t want to go home busy, feeling so full with praises towards God.
Now, this doesn’t happen every time we come to church when our heart’s feeling a little bit more cold. But I do think we probably all experienced this type of momentum. For sure, we don’t feel it at first, but by faith, we just do what we know what God would have us to do. And the Lord uses that to build momentum. And by the way, kind of on this note, every Sunday really is important for us to be here to make that our discipline.
Primarily because the Lord is worthy of our gatherings every Sunday, but also because it’s good for our own hearts. And I think the Sundays where maybe you feel the most cold or apathetic, or maybe you’re making the most excuses to not come, those are probably the most important Sundays for you to be here to faith come, where by faith, you’re hoping and Trusting that the Lord will warm your heart. Keep going in the passage, verse three. That’s why I wanted to particularly take time to consider the content of book five, which seems to mirror God’s people returning from exile back into their land. So in verse three, we read this.
Put not your trust in princes. And here I think the term princes is actually more of like a generic term scholars I read this week talk about. They taste like any type of leaders. Don’t put your trust in princes, in a son of man in the text, because in them there’s. There’s no salvation.
And only that in verse four, when his breath departs like he’s going to return to the earth, and on that very day his plans also will perish. I know how this relates, I think, to the context for God’s people who are led into exile, into captivity, right? They learned in very real, very difficult ways that princes, political, military leaders, even like, religious leaders, like, they fail. I mean, really, the exile was brought on because of the sin, the failure of, like, their leaders who led God’s people astray. Where they live in exile, and as they live in exile, then the leaders couldn’t even, like, deliver them, couldn’t give them salvation from exile, right?
They’re princes, they’re political leaders, they’re military leaders, or even religious leaders. Like, they failed. And not only that, eventually they died. And all the promises that they made to God’s people died with them where they couldn’t deliver on their promises. Thus, for the psalmist, God’s people who were exiled, they learned a hard lesson, important one.
We can’t put our ultimate trust, our ultimate hope in a man. Rather, we can only put our trust in the Lord. Now, to be clear, doesn’t mean that leaders are important. Back throughout Scripture, we see how God uses leaders, all kinds of leaders, to, like, care for his people. So it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t, like, have thoughts and concerns about leaders and political leaders and military leaders, religious leaders.
But I think we know how easy it is to fall into a trap where we put such hope, such trust in leaders that we admire them maybe in such a way that we’re, like, hoping in them in ways that’s becoming like a form of idolatry to us. And friends, when that happens, it can quickly distract us and quickly quench any type of momentum that we’re having in our hearts. Friends, the Lord Jesus Christ, he’s the true prince, the true prince of peace, the one who will never let us down. He’s the one we Hope in. Because he’s the one who brings salvation to all who by faith come to him.
And he brings salvation because though he died to take on the punishment of sin, that death was actually according to his perfect eternal plan, where his promises were fulfilled. And unlike the other princes who died and were buried and stayed there, the Lord Jesus Christ, he died, was buried, but rose again from the dead to prove that he is the one who can, who is mighty to save his people. Right? That’s why there’s no other name given among men by which we must be saved. It is only Jesus.
That’s what we trust in him. Verse 4. Keep going. For those who trust in Him. See, Blessed or happy is he whose help is the help of the found in the God of Jacob.
Blessed or happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God, the Lord, the Lord alone. Who we trust in, we hope in. That’s where blessedness is found. That is where happiness is found. That is where growth, momentum in our faith is found.
Giving our praises to Him. 1 verse 6 who made the heavens and the earth the the sea, that all that is in them. And not only that, the Lord, the one who we’re to trust in is the one who will keep faith. Meaning he’ll be the one who will be faithful to his people and he will be faithful to us forever, right? So much different than princess to leaders who fail, who perish, who make grand plans that fail.
The Lord, the one who we praise will never let his people down. In this psalm he will be faithful to us. Verse 7 if you want to take you guys there. One of the many reasons why the Lord is faithful, where he proves that he’ll be faithful to see. He is the one who faithfully executes justice for the oppressed.
The Lord is the one who faithfully gives food to the hungry. The Lord, the one that we praise. He’s the one who faithfully sets the prisoners free. Once again, the context. God’s people set free from exile to return to the land.
But ultimately the Lord frees His people from sin and death through the work of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, verse 8 the Lord, the One that we praise is the one who is faithful to open up the eyes of the blind. The Lord, the one who we praise is the one who is faithful to lift up all those who are bowed down. Which is something that our psalm last week also declared. That the Lord is so good, that he is so kind, that in his grace he comes and he lifts us up when we’re down and discouraged and defeated.
In life, including all here today in the text. The Lord, the one who we praise, we see faithfully loves the righteous, which he does with all of his perfect and full love. And how the word righteous is used here another place in scripture, I think this is referring to God’s people who by faith come to him. How his righteousness, the righteousness of Christ is counted as our righteousness. So righteous before God, friends, the Lord faithfully loves his people, which once again includes all here today.
If you have faith in Jesus Christ, where His righteousness is counted as your righteousness, friend, I gotta tell you, you are loved by God with his faithful and full and perfect love, such love that he actually that love allows you to like compels you to love him back. A love that builds momentum in our hearts to bring our hallelujahs to him. Keep going. Verse 9 Not only does the Lord love his people, read that the Lord, the one who we praise is faithful as he like watches over the sojourners like he’s faithful as he upholds the widow and the fatherless, which one more time think about the Context of Book 5. God’s people were sojourners, pilgrims, exiles from the land that they were.
They once lived as they were led off into captivity into Babylon, ways that caused God’s people to perish where many were left as widows, fatherless. So here as God’s people sang out this psalm as they return from exile, they’re singing out like with personal experience in these verses how they experience how the Lord is there to care for them when they were sojourners, how the Lord is there to care for the widow and the fatherless. Among them is all the destruction that took place.
Then verse 8 which also think is the psalmist writing from personal experience. The Lord, the one we praise, is faithful to even bring ruin to the wicked, which is something that we see the Lord do all throughout Scripture. And this here is a psalmist wrote on this personal experience I also do wonder is more than just personal experience he had in mind. But I also wonder if he was thinking about Psalm 1 as he wrote these verses. So Psalm 1, Psalm 2.
These are like the introduction to the entire Psalter. So let me just read Psalm 1 as I read through this just like hear the echo of our text today. So Psalm 1 says blessed or happy is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law he meditates day and night. He’s like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.
In all he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Now, there’s a story by the great preacher of the late 1800s, a man named D.L.
moody, story that he would tell of a woman who was in his congregation who wrote in the margins of her Bible, TP This T and P were kind of scattered throughout, which caused Moody to ask her, what does TP mean for the woman? Respond, tried and proved. And for me, that’s kind of what the psalmist in our text is doing, I think, with Psalm 1 and the verses I read for you in verses 8 to 9 of our text today. He tried, improved. Yes, the Lord does love the righteous.
He tried to prove. Yes, coming back from exile, the Lord does lift up those who are bowed down. Yes, tried and proved. The Lord does care for the sojourner, the widow, the fatherless. Yes, tried and proved.
The Lord does punish the wicked. And all these things that the psalmist tried and proved, that I think reflects Psalm 1. He has further testified that indeed the Lord is faithful, faithful to his word, faithful to his promises, faithful to his plan, faithful to his people. And finally, our psalm ends today, verse 10 for anti guys there says this, the Lord will reign forever your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord.
Not just a few things here on this end. So first, the name Zion. This is used in scripture sometimes a little more narrowly to refer to Jerusalem, the holy city, but sometimes a little more broadly describe all of God’s people, which I think is the case here. Second, this Lord reigning. This is the psalmist once again reminding his leaders why they can’t put their trust in princes, in man who perish.
Only the Lord. He is the one who’s eternal. His plans will not perish. He will not perish. He is the one who will reign from generation to generation.
Third, as you mentioned, how the psalmist ends with how it starts, see how it ends. It starts with praise the Lord or Hallelujah. So I think this is a psalmist, to me, using a literary device. It’s called an inclusio, or a sandwich, which, by the way, all the Hallelujah Psalms, all 146, 150, all follow this pattern. Same start, Hallelujah.
Same end, Hallelujah. So in this inclusio or this sandwich, this praise the Lord, the beginning, the end. I think this is the vice here used by psalms to kind of keep like all things together in between, almost like, like pieces of bread do with a sandwich for us, I do hope that this literary vice, this hallelujah at the beginning, Hallelujah and actually does represent what we desire for our own lives, that from the moment we give our first hallelujah for the first time, we trust in Jesus Christ, that we continue to give it until the last Hallelujah. And all things in between, all of our life growing, building momento is live. Our momentum is level as one large hallelujah.
So the praise of our Lord would be the inclusio of our life to keep everything together, friends, it’s too important, right? We don’t want to lose out on that. Now, as a close, real quickly, I just want to give just a few quick summary thoughts on all that we just covered. Just kind of making some statements for you. I’m going to give these summary thoughts to relate to just momentum, to the growing of our faith and I’m going to give one warning and then just a few encouragements.
So first let me start with a warning, which is the warning that we covered in verses 3 and 4 verses. Do not quench momentum by putting your trust in princes. I use that term, princes, I think like the way the psalmist does generically for anyone who is like in any type of leadership position. And if we’re honest, like, we know how easy it is to put our hope, our trust, maybe even our happiness in like other people in this life instead of the Lord, which, by the way, we need to be careful to not take in like too much like political news, careful how many podcasts we consume. We need to be mindful of the health of the relationships that we have because there’s a real pull in our hearts to put our trust in people rather than Lord.
And this pull that we have can just distract us in ways that the momentum of growth and our hearts can quickly come to an end on the positive. A few things to seek to do in terms of growing momentum in your life. So first, seek to build momentum by speaking truth into your life, truth into your heart. Which is the end of verse one, right? The psalmist spoke to his soul as he brought his hallelujah to the Lord.
I said this earlier, Let me say it again. Unfortunately, this life will not always have like hearts, but bubbling over full in worship of God. And in those moments, rather than just letting your heart stay cold, rather than let your heart just grow more and more apathetic, rather than listening to like different lies that might come into your heart concerning the Lord, we must actively speak truth into ourselves and only that. Actively seek to act on that truth, even, even if we don’t feel like it.
Third, seek to build momentum by professing right theology, which is certainly part of speaking the truth to ourselves. So in the text, the psalmist is. He’s theologically correct, right? The Lord, he’s the one help his people. The Lord, he’s the hope.
The Lord, he’s the one. Right? It’s true. He’s the one who made heavens and earth, the sea and all is in them. The Lord, he’s the one who’s faithful forever.
The Lord, he’s the one who executes justice. Lord, he’s the one who sets prisoners free. Right? That’s true. The Lord, he’s the one who cares for those who are overlooked by society, who are oppressed, who cares for the poor and the hungry, the blind.
The Lord, it’s true. He’s the one who comes to care for those who are bowed down. He’s the one. The Lord is. It’s true.
He’s the one who’s there to care for the sojourner, the widow, the fatherless. It’s true. The Lord loves his righteous with all the love that he has for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord, it’s true. He’s the one who’s going to reign forever and ever.
Let me back it up. It’s true. The Lord, he’s the one. He’s only the one who gives salvation, which he does through Jesus Christ. Friends, these are all right true theology that we must profess and continue to profess.
Last one, seek to build momentum by testifying to the evidence of God’s grace in your life. I really do think that’s what the psalmist is doing here in Psalm 146, where a lot of what he wrote here, this is like tried, improved experience on all the ways that God was caring for him and God’s people. So these things written down, I don’t think they’re written down like just in theory, but I do think there actually was personal experience tried and proof, friends, maybe we do the same as we go about our own lives. Scripture tells us we actually are exiles and pilgrims, sojourners, as we wait for the heavenly Jerusalem that is to come. So As a pilgrim, as a sojourner, as we wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to return, live our lives in ways that we’re seeking to testify to, the evidence of God’s grace that we see around us that builds momentum in our hearts.
You know, it’s far too often we just let like negativity or complaint or things that frustrated just kind of rule the day that build momentum in ways that are just not honoring to the Lord or our joy in the Lord. So instead, rather than letting our minds and hearts just wander and build that type of momentum full of glory of God and enjoyment of him, live out your life in ways that you are testifying over and over again. All the many evidence of grace that you experience retried and proved that the Lord is faithful.
Church May the chorus of our individual hallelujahs, may it build, and may it build in ways that it feeds into others. And may that corporate hallelujah that is Red Village Church, may they continue to build, and may it build like a godly trend from generation to generation that all, even those who we might not expect, might join us in our praise. Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for Psalm 146. And Lord, I do pray for your glory and our good, that you indeed would build momentum in our hearts, momentum of praise that our lives would be lived out as one big chorus of hallelujah to you.
And Lord, please keep us from distractions, keep us from things that take away from you, from us.
And Lord, I do pray that even this morning that you just fill our hearts full of praise and praise on Jesus name. Amen.