Psalm 118 — Ezra 3

0:00 Good morning, everyone. Good morning. I enjoyed singing those songs with you and they're excellent songs. Was particularly struck with that hymn that said, when the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. I can say that with certainty.

0:24 That my name, Bruce Harold Henning, is in the book of life. And that's a wonderful thing to know for sure that when all of life is over, that you will be with the Lord Jesus forever. It's something that you can't assume because a lot of people will not be with the Lord Jesus forever. So I can say that I personally am in the book of life that when the role is called up yonder, I will be there. Well, of verses like this verse right here.

0:54 That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that whoever believes in him, I almost forgot John three sixteen. So that whoever believes in him, and that's me, Bruce Harold Henning, I've done that. I've placed my trust in Jesus Christ as my savior, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. So, I just hope that as we go on and I pray that you have that same assurance. It's like I said, it's a pleasure to be here.

1:22 It took us a while to get here. We left with enough time. It's not that we've given up on the first meeting, but we left with enough time to get here on time. Lord had other plans. We got here at 10:30.

1:35 But it took us such a long time that I feel like this message has to be extra good. The whole way here, thought, oh, I can't botch up this message or else I'll really kick myself. Well, fortunately, we have an excellent passage of scripture that we're gonna discuss this morning. Turn with me in your bibles to Psalm one eighteen. Psalm one eighteen is really a fantastic Psalm.

2:07 It is... Or it was Martin Luther's favorite song. He said, it has been a great help to me when neither kings nor friends would help. Well, let's... Whose kid is that?

2:26 I'm gonna say that because it's mine. Okay, alright, Psalm 118, we'll start reading in verse one. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let Israel now say, his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Aaron now say, his mercy endures forever.

2:47 Let those who fear the Lord now say, his mercy endures forever. I called on the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. The Lord is on my side, I will not fear. What can man do to me?

3:05 The Lord is for me among those who help me. Therefore, I shall see my desire on those who hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them.

3:27 They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. They surrounded me like bees, they were quenched like a fire of thorns, for in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. You push me violently that I might fall but the Lord help me. The Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.

3:54 The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely but he has not given me over to death.

4:10 Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go through them and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise you for you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

4:29 This was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I pray, oh Lord.

4:41 Oh Lord, I pray send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. God is the Lord and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.

4:58 You are my God and I will praise you. You are my God, I will exalt you. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. This is a fantastic Psalm as I've said before. And as I read it again, I'm I'm aware of the fact that we have another thirty five minutes and there's no way we'll be able to talk about everything in this Psalm.

5:55 And then over the second half of the Psalm, we could have the Lord my song. First half is about how the Lord will rescue us. And the second half of the Psalm focuses on our responsibility to praise the Lord. The first half stresses that the Lord's loving kindness endures forever. And the second half, we learned that well, because his loving kindness lasts forever, our praise of him should last forever as well.

6:29 As we went through this Psalm, you probably noticed that it repeats itself a lot. We'll give thanks unto the Lord for his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Israel say... Now say, his mercy endures forever. It repeats itself a lot.

6:44 It's been suggested that this was written to be sung responsively or antiphonally, which means that you'd have a chorus leader saying one part, and then the rest of the congregation or the rest of the nation would then repeat the next part. In Ezra chapter three verse 10, we have the story. I don't know if you remember the story of Ezra, but the nation has been gone in exile and they return and start to build the temple. The first thing that they build when they return, you know what it is? It's the altar.

7:19 The first thing they build. So that way they can praise the Lord. And then they get started on the foundation. And when they lay the foundation, this is what we read in Ezra chapter three verse 10. When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priest stood in their apparel with trumpets.

7:34 And the Levites, the sons of Asaph with symbols to praise the Lord according to the ordinance of David, King of Israel. And they sang responsibly, praising and giving thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever toward Israel. Then all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. So it's been suggested and I I think it's right that this Psalm was written to celebrate the laying of the foundation of the temple after the people returned from exile. And there's a lot of stuff in the Psalm itself that would suggest that.

8:16 For example, there's the whole stuff about the chief cornerstone. There's also the talk about enemies pushing them that they might fall, but yet the Lord rescued them. However, we know from the New Testament is also and Jewish commentary also agrees with this from the time that this song was written in expectation of the Messiah. I don't know when we read it together, were there a lot of verses that stuck out in your mind? Oh, remember that verse from the New Testament.

8:49 There's a whole bunch of them. This Psalm is quoted frequently in reference to the Lord Jesus. So when we go through and we talk about it, we want to keep our eye out as to what does this say about the Lord Jesus. Also, I'll point out as long as we're talking about the setting, this is what's called the Halal Psalm. It was written for the feast day.

9:14 So when the people of Israel would go up, the whole country would come together to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. There were special songs that were written to be sung on those occasions. Just like we have special songs that you sing at Christmas time. That's really the only songs we... I don't sing songs around the July 4, I suppose you could.

9:33 Special songs around Psalm 103. Christmas time. The Lord has led the assembly to Songs written for the Passover, for the festival of booths and things like that. This was one of those songs and that'll become important later on. Well, said before that we could write over the first half of the Psalm, the Lord my strength.

10:20 The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? The basic idea of this section of the Psalm is that if God is for you, who can be against you? There's a, it's an absolutely wonderful song.

10:45 It's called Praise to the Lord. Do you're, are you familiar with that song? Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation. Okay. There's this wonderful line, And whenever I sing it, it just sends shivers up my spine.

10:58 And it it says, ponder anew what the almighty can do. When we stop and we say, the almighty God is on my side. That's a powerful thing. Nothing can stop him. It's a very simplistic reasoning, but we need to be simple believers.

11:26 In the words of Gamaliel in the New Testament, if it is of men, it will come to nothing. But if it is of God, you can't overthrow it. That's important to remember. It's very easy to get discouraged. Especially because we have an enemy, especially when it comes to doing things that we might classify as the Lord's work.

11:50 We're trying to work for the Lord, do what he wants. And it's easy to get distracted and discouraged and think, well, this just isn't gonna happen. There are too many problems, too many obstacles. But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it. I work with the youth group at our chapel.

12:11 And a little while ago, we had somebody else was teaching, we were going through the resurrection. And we were talking about the different proofs, the historical proofs for the resurrection. Talking about how unlikely it would be, this theory that Jesus was crucified but didn't really die, but stayed somehow miraculously alive in the tomb and then pushed away the tomb and then defeated all the guards. Somehow rolled away once again this this several ton stone. So we're talking with the teenagers about how that couldn't possibly be the case.

12:47 And the leader was saying, talking about how, what poor shape Christ would have been in after the cross. And then he said, so do you think it's possible that Jesus after going through all that, could have just rolled away the stone and defeated all those guards? And I knew where he was going. And so I was over there shaking my head. And every single one of the people in the youth group nodded their head and said, of course it's possible.

13:15 Well, he's Jesus. He could do anything. And somebody else from the youth group said, well, he didn't even need to roll away the stone. He could have just walked right through it. When we're talking about what the Lord can do, there really are no limits.

13:31 And so it's important for us to have the attitude of simplistic believers that if this is what God wants, it will happen. We have to have the attitude of faith like Abraham. When he said, well hey, if God wants me to kill my son, he's just gonna have to bring him back to life. I mean, he's God, he called me to do it, he'll do it. So if God is for us, really who can be against us?

13:58 This same mentality is shared in Romans chapter eight, where Paul is talking about the position of a person who has believed in the Lord Jesus. Who has trusted Christ for eternal life. And he says, what shall we say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?

14:26 Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, a rather that is risen again, who also makes intercession for us. And in the verse before, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. The idea is this, that if God is for you in your salvation, whose vote would possibly matter besides his?

14:52 If you've trusted Christ and he said that upon doing that, he declares you righteous right then and there. Well, it doesn't matter if everybody else in the church thinks that you're a scumbag or that you're no good or that you're not righteous. If God says that you're righteous, it doesn't matter what everybody else thinks. If God is for us, who can be against us? So that's the the wonderful logic of this Psalm.

15:15 And it's wonderful to just go over this Psalm in times of difficulty and think, you know, if God is on my side, really what do I have to be afraid of? So, I wanna... We got a bit of... A little bit lost here. I wanted to...

15:37 As long as we're thinking about that, I wanted to point out a big if. I've been trying my best to say, if God is on our side. The Psalmist can say with certainty that the Lord is on his side, but that's a thing that we should not presume. But make sure that the Lord is on our side. Alexander McLaren wrote this, brethren, if our trust is in God, it is unworthy of it and of us to fear.

16:06 For all things are his and there is no evil in men or in evil as men call it, so long as it does not draw away our hearts from our father and our hope. Therefore, he that fears, let him trust. And he that trusts, let him not be afraid. He that sets his heart and anchors his hopes and safety on any except God, let him be afraid. For he is in a very stern world.

16:34 And if he is not fearful, he is a fool. We can take this very simple logic and flip it around the other way. That if you have all the other resources in the world, but God is not on your side, you have every reason to fear. So that's a big if. Well, moving on here to more parts of this Psalm.

17:24 I'm sure you have problems, times that you get discouraged. Again, it is good to put your confidence, your trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Maybe a bill comes in the mail and you think I don't have enough money to pay this bill. This is what I think, because that situation happens. I don't have, oh Lord, what am I ever gonna do?

17:44 And then I think to myself, well, you know what, the Lord is on my side. But as I read this Psalm, and it's good for us to apply in that way. I cannot say in verse 10, all nations have surrounded me. I got my own little problems, but it's nothing like I've got the United Nations knocking on my door, wanting my life. I mean, I got some people that I, that maybe have sent me an unkind letter, or somebody else who whispered about me behind my back.

18:13 But I can honestly say, to the best of my knowledge, nobody wants to kill me. I think that's probably the case of everybody else here. But when the Psalmist writes this, he says, people want to kill me. And more than that, he says, all nations surround me. If you look back at the history, there aren't too many people that you could say, all the nations of the world wanted to kill this person.

18:39 Certainly some nation had to be on somebody's side. Well, I mentioned earlier that this song is ultimately in reference to the Lord Jesus. And he could say, all nations have surrounded me. In fact, the Apostle Peter quotes Psalm two in reference to the Lord Jesus. And he says, it says, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?

19:06 The kings of the earth set themselves. The rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. There in a very real sense, all the world, Jew and Gentile came against the Lord. And yet he had this confidence that it would be better to trust in the Lord than to be than to put confidence in man. And that though they gathered around him to destroy him, ultimately he would be victorious.

19:36 Well, let's move on now and start talking about not only the Lord my strength, but also the Lord my song. I've divided this section up into three sections. The first one is singing in the tents. And then in... And that's in verses 15 to 16.

19:58 17 to 18 is singing in the testimony. And then 19 through 28 is singing in the temple. Three different places that we should sing. First is singing in the tents. The English standard version puts the verse this way, glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.

20:22 The tent speaks of a place where it it it's where you live. Your personal life is carried out. It's different than your corporate life when you come together here, for example, at Westlake Bible Fellowship or when you go to work. It's your own personal private house. That's a good question.

20:44 What can be heard in your own personal tent? Is it glad songs of salvation? That's really where all of this starts. That's the most important thing. Psalm thirty four one says, I will bless the Lord at all times.

21:02 His praise shall be continually in my mouth. Now, to be honest, if you were to take a video camera and and see what the daily life of Bruce Henning is like, what our house is like, we try to have our testimony be glad songs of salvation. But that's not always the case. We had a Bible study just last Wednesday on Philippians, let's see what is it, two fourteen, do all things without murmuring and disputing. And we talked about how important that is, and I said, that's right.

21:38 No more complaining from starting now. No more complaining. And I came home and I had made the announcement to Anna that guess what? There's gonna be no more complaining in our house. Well, it didn't last long and it was not our 2.5 year old son that was the culprit.

21:59 I was the one who broke the rule. It's hard. In fact, but it can have, it can have terrible consequences. You remember the horrible deal at Kadesh Barnea when when when the Israelites are wandering through the wilderness. Moses describes in detail what happens and what the Israelites problem was.

22:22 And you can read about it in in Deuteronomy one. But he says there, how how the Israelites failed to go into the land and capture the promised land. Moses says, nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and murmured or complained in your tents. And that's where it started. As the people came back to their own personal tents, they're there with their wife and their children.

22:51 They said, I don't think we're actually gonna be able to do this. And there's a bad attitude at home. And so then the bad attitude at home led to bad bad attitudes elsewhere. Instead, we need to be people who are truly thankful. Once again, it can have terrible consequences.

23:11 Very quickly for people who, wasn't that long ago that we went through the book of Romans, was it? Was that a long time ago? Doesn't feel like that long ago, but well, maybe it was forty years ago or something. But Romans chapter one, where Paul talks about how is the world so messed up? How did we get to the terrible place where good is bad, up is down, and people do the most deplorable acts of depravity?

23:41 Well, starts, he says this was the first step in the descending staircase of sin. He says, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful. That was the first step down, is thanklessness. So when I say those things and I preach those things with my hands in the air, I realize that I am to blame as well. So much of our problems can be stemmed back to the fact that we are not thankful people and that the glad songs of salvation are not heard in our tents.

24:22 Well, we have glad news. We should be singing in our tents. And then we should also... Next in verses seventeen and eighteen, we have singing in our testimony. We should be glad, but we don't always have to break out into a musical, when somebody asks us, how did you become a Christian?

24:45 For people who have done, for example, like open air work or something like that, often you can have a Christian listen to a presentation. And if you ask them, so tell me your story. How did you become a Christian? A lot of people get affronted with that question. That should never be a burden for anybody to tell someone else how they became a Christian.

25:06 Or it should not be a burden for any Christian to answer the question, what is God doing right now in your life? If there was ever a good conversation starter, it should be that. What is God teaching you right now? We should be the kind of person who loves to sing, who loves to talk about what God is doing in our own personal lives. And even if things are bad, even if things are bad and things are...

25:39 The Lord is taking you through some trials, if you're talking to the person, they can say, the Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not yet given me over to death. So cheer up is not as bad as it could be. It's not as bad as it should be. That's what we deserve. Okay.

25:58 So that's glad songs in the tent and in the testimony. And now I want us to spend a while thinking about glad songs or our testimony in... I'm sorry, songs in the temple. He starts in verse 19. It's really...

26:57 Open the doors to me and I will enter through them. As if he has the authority and is claiming the authority to enter the holy place. When we remember that this is a messianic psalm, we can easily see how this applies to the Lord Jesus. For example, if you want to turn there, Psalm 24 asks the question, who may ascend the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in his holy presence?

27:32 He that have clean hands and a pure heart who has not lifted up his soul to another nor sworn deceitfully. And then towards the end of the Psalm, it says, lift up your heads, ye gates. Be lifted up, ye everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts.

27:57 He is the king of glory. So the idea again is is that they are anticipating a time in which the Lord God himself will enter the temple and reign as the glorious king. We can make a parallel here to what happened with, salvation. When the Lord Jesus died for us, He went right on His own authority. He went right into the temple, right into the very holy of holies on His own authority.

28:28 And He could command that the way is open. And now those who are righteous by faith in Him can follow in his footsteps into the very presence of God. Now the way is open, heaven's doors are swung wide open and whosoever will may come because Jesus Christ has commanded for them to be open. Okay. So moving down through the Psalm, we come to verse 22.

28:57 The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. I mentioned earlier that this song was written probably to be sung, when it was first written, to celebrate the building of the new temple. They could have easily remembered or easily seen as they looked around all the piles of rubble. When when king Nebuchadnezzar came in and just raised the place to the ground and destroyed it all, all these stones turned over. The people would have laughed at them.

29:34 We have the record in in Ezra and Nehemiah, people mocking them saying, you're never gonna be able to finish this. You're never gonna be able to build this. Look at this place. It's a mess. You don't have the resources to finish this project.

29:50 The thing that people laughed at, that they thought was impossible, God would use to build something wonderful for himself. So the idea of this song, even from its original writing was this principle that Paul says in first Corinthians one twenty eight. That the base things of this world and the things which are despised, God has chosen. And the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Now I mentioned before at the very beginning that the Israelites would sing this song regularly whenever they came to the temple to worship.

30:34 And it was perhaps a commemoration of what had happened. How all the people laughed at them, all the other nations tried to stop them, but no one could stop them from rebuilding the temple of God. The things which were despised by man, God has chosen and used for his glory. We did it. And God used us.

30:55 They really were the story of the underdog. But as they kept singing this song, year by year, year after year, that idea was lost. And they begin to think of themselves as people who are pretty important, people who are impressive. They start to take a lot of stock in the temple itself. They lose the the...

31:30 If I could put it this way, they lose the feeling that they are underdogs, that they don't have the resources and then they just need to trust God to get the work done. And they start to think that they really are something. So after his triumphant entry, and the Lord Jesus' encounter with the chief priests and Pharisees, the Lord tells the parable of the tenants or the vine dressers. Do you remember that? Well, you can read about it later.

31:56 We don't have time to go in there. But he he concludes the whole thing with... Remember that's the one where the where the... He keeps sending more and more workers to the vinedressers, the people who are keeping God's work. And they they hurt one, they abuse the other, they kill one.

32:11 And then finally, says, I will send my son. Truly, they will respect my son. And then they say, come, this is the year. Let us kill him. And what he says, what do you think they'll do?

32:49 It would have been in your minds. And he says, have you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. The same passage is Psalm one eighteen, that same verse is either quoted or alluded to several times in the New Testament. And the idea why I think this verse is so fascinating is that at once it was sung correctly by Israel.

33:28 They viewed themselves as nothing in desperately need desperate need of God's help. But if God was for us, no one can stop us to do what God had called us to do. But as time went on, they forgot about that. Even though they were singing the same words, they were empty. To where the Lord Jesus uses it against them.

33:51 As they were now the enemies of God, the one who were opposing his work. The same song, the the the same story has been played out all throughout history. Where there arises fresh movement in God's people. And there's a group of believers that come together and they say, you know what? You know what?

34:17 We've got nothing. We've got no resources. Nobody thinks we can do it. But the Lord is on our side. We can trust him.

34:24 We can do this. And so they go all out in the full confidence that God is with them, relying on God and his resources. But as time goes on and the movement has success and God grants them their desires, then they start to lose that complete dependency upon God. And they start to think that they themselves are pretty impressive. And then as time goes on, they lose all dependency upon God, where they start abusing God's work where it's going on somewhere else.

34:54 And instead of relying upon God, they rely on themselves and they've become the enemies of the song that they were singing originally. So this, as I've... As we've learned from the New Testament, as I've been trying to bring out that the... This song is ultimately about the Lord Jesus and it was sung it was sung at the feast days, for example, like Passover. You know, the Lord Jesus observed Passover.

35:36 And at... Well, actually, let's back up just a little bit. Before He enters before he goes to the cross. Remember he enters Jerusalem, the triumphant entry on Palm Sunday as we call it. And you remember what the people say as he walks in on the donkey and they throw down the palm branches.

36:03 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In fact, they also say Hosanna, which means save now. So it's right here. That's what they're quoting. They're quoting this very thing.

36:13 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They were singing this song again, recognizing that the Lord Jesus is this great Messiah who would though be rejected by some that God would choose him and restore the nation to their rightful place. The Lord Jesus accepted these praises. But you know, when the Lord Jesus kept the feast of Passover at the last supper, in the Gospels it says that they sang a song and then they went out. Now most Bible commentaries will say that it is Psalm 118 that they sang.

37:26 And is ultimately going to be fulfilled in what he's just about to do. Can you imagine him as he goes through and sings things like the Lord is on my side, I will not fear. What can man do to me? Earlier he had said, you will all leave me alone. You will all desert me, yet I am not alone for the father is with me.

37:51 Imagine him singing things like, all nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. Imagine him singing, thinking of his entry into Jerusalem. Open to me the gates of righteousness and I will go through them and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous shall enter. He had clearly referenced verse 22 about himself.

38:20 The stone which the builders rejected becoming the chief cornerstone. Can you imagine him singing these last few verses? Let's read them again in verse 25. Save now, I pray, oh Lord. Oh Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.

38:41 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. God is the Lord and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God and I will praise you.

39:01 You are my God and I will exalt you. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. This Psalm is about the confidence a person can claim if God is on their side. And about willingly giving a sacrifice to God. And if this fits anybody, it fits the Lord Jesus Christ.

39:31 Whose confidence was in God. When he was rebuked, when he was reviled, he reviled not again, but entrusted himself to him who judges righteously. Though everyone was against him, his confidence was in God. The one who willingly entered the very court of God, the very temple and gave himself as a sacrifice on God's altar, as an act of praise to God. We have every reason to sing with this Psalmist here in verse 29.

40:41 People were against him, people rejected him, people laughed at him. As he hung there on the cross, they mocked and taunted him saying, he trusted in God, let him deliver him if he will have him. For he said, I am the son of God. They thought it was an absolute defeat, and yet the things that are rejected by man are chosen by you. We come to him as, our cornerstone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen of God and precious.

41:20 We love him and we're so thankful for the work that he did. We're thankful that his confidence was in you. We're thankful that although, people thought it could never happen, he saw the work accomplished. He is our great example. We pray, Lord, that we would go on with singing, with strength, we'd go on, with praise and also with confidence, knowing that whatever work that you have given us to do, regardless of of whatever anybody else might think, We can say with that confidence, the Lord is on my side.

41:56 I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Help us, oh God, to be busy about your business, to to do what you want us to do in your strength, realizing that, we are nothing. Our sufficiency is of God who has made us able ministers. We're thankful, Lord, for, the work that you do in our lives and through our lives.

42:21 We pray that you would continue to work for your glory. We commit ourselves to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.