Rejoicing in the victorious God of Psalm 97
Notes
Transcript
I think I know what some of you are thinking…
You’re thinking:
“I knew we should have to that other church’s Christmas Eve service…”
“Because this is definitely one of those ‘FIRE AND BRIMSTONE' ones…”
Well…
I just want to tell you…
“It’s too late now.”
But I’ll also say:
“Bear with me here a minute,
because if you do I think you’ll be glad you came.”
“OK, so why Psalm 97?”
Let’s deal with that question first.
Why a passage about:
God’s FIERY WRATH,
His Judgments!
His supreme dominance over all lesser Gods
and His terrifying judgment of the wicked?
Why would I pick a passage like this at a time like this?
Don’t I know that Christmas is supposed to be holly and jolly, with cups of good cheer
“can’t we just have our nice ole’ baby in the manger story and get on with the festivities?”
Yes, of course we can.
But the fact is, we can’t really appreciate the nativity story
without understanding the reason for it in the first place.
And the reason for it is not mere sentimentality...
Right...
It’s not just another nice story, that is full of nice platitudes, that would fit nicely into a Hallmark movie.
So if that’s what you’re here for, then you might be in for a surprise,
But hopefully it’s a good surprise!
Alright, so what it is the story behind the story?
Well, it’s this:
Christmas begins as a story of wrath and judgment,
just like what we read from from Psalm 97.
Because the reason Jesus was born, was so that we can approach God and live to tell about it!
It’s so we can avoid all of the terrifying things that we just read from Psalm 97.
So, Christmas is, you could say, about protecting us from God’s power and wrath against sin.
Ya know, when it comes to the sun, there is no questions about it,
it is a beautiful and marvelous thing,
And, as we know, without it, there would be no life on this planet.
But, even though the Sun is both marvelous and beautiful,
It’s also a very dangerous thing.
Which is why if we didn’t have things like an atmosphere and a magnetic field that cover our earth,
The Sun wouldn’t be life-giving to us,
It would be life-taking,
Which is why those filters are so vitally important.
In essence, this is what Christmas is about,
It’s about the filter we need
so that God can be a life-giving source to us,
instead of a life-taking source.
And as we know, Jesus Christ, the baby born in Bethlehem, IS THAT filter!
For without Him, we cannot approach God in any way shape or form, and not have it result in our eternal destruction.
And Psalm 97 gives us a picture of what that destruction will one day soon look like like
when God returns to rule and reign over this earth and judge the sins of men.
And Christmas is the only way possible to survive that day.
Which is why we need Christmas,
Because:
Without Christmas we cannot approach God in:
His holiness.
His supremacy
His judgment
His love
1 The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! 2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. 4 His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
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Psalm 97 belongs to a group of Psalms that celebrate God’s future rule over all the earth,
where He delivers His people and judges the nations.
And when you pay attention to verses 1-5,
you notice that the Psalmists description is very reminiscent of another event that happened in the Old Testament at Mount Sinai.
See, at Mount Sinai, God descended upon the mountain where He gave the people of Israel the 10 commandments.
There was fire,
Smoke,
Lightening
a massive earthquake,
and the sound of a loud trumpet blast that grew louder and louder.
It was an all around terrifying experience!
And yet, it was just a small dose of God’s unfiltered holiness, righteousness, and power.
And here in Psalm 97, it describes for us what is going to happen when God gives the world a full dose of that power,
Which will be both terrifying and deadly for sinners!
Because when it comes to sin,
God is a God of wrath Who is angry at sin and plans to completely eradicate it.
What is sin?
Well, I could list of the 10 commandments here for us,
But it’s so much more than just breaking a list of rules.
As we discussed this morning,
Sin is centering our identity upon something that’s not God.
It’s looking to and living for created things instead of the Creator,
Which is NOT what we were made for!
What were we made for?
In the Larger Westminster Catechism we have good answer, which says:
Question: What is the chief ends of man?
Answer: “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
And yet, as sinners, what do we all do?
We glorify, or live for, created things instead of the Creator,
Which the Bible calls idolatry.
And make no mistake, we are all guilty of this.
Whether that’s your career, money, that relationship, or w/e
We all are guilty of glorifying THINGS over God.
Which is what sin really is at it’s core.
And because God is Holy and Supreme over these lesser gods,
or you could say, these counterfeit gods,
He is going to do what a good King does when their are rebels at His gates.
He is going to utterly destroy these imposter kings
For He alone is the supreme King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Without Christmas we cannot approach God in:
His holiness.
His supremacy
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory. 7 All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods!
In verses 6 and 7, the Psalmist describes to us how the heavens proclaim God’s righteousness and glory,
Which the Bible explains renders us all guilty for not worshiping God as we ought.
Which means no one has any excuse on the day of judgment,
Because it’s not like we didn’t know any better…
We can’t claim total ignorance!
Because the truth is,
we have had all the evidence we could ever need right in front of us that there is a God and we aren’t it,
and He ALONE is worthy of our praise.
But, in our rebellion,
In our sin,
We do not worship God as we ought,
and instead we worship worthless idols.
Which as verse 7 says,
both idols and idol worshipers will be put to shame.
They will burn up before the Lord in fire as verse 3 mentions.
In 2 Peter 3:7 Peter describes the Day of the Lord, saying:
7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
The truth is, God is going to one day judge both the living and the dead.
And He’s going to do that whether or not you believe He is going to,
AND whether or not you think He even should!
You and I do not get a vote on this!
And so without Christmas, every single one of us will be eternally consumed on the day of judgment,
which to our eternity judgment in a place called Hell.
And so we all desperately need CHRISTMAS, since we cannot approach God in His holiness and His supremacy!
And, not only that, but we can not possibly hope to meet the demands of His moral judgments.
Which leads us to our third point.
Without Christmas we cannot approach God in:
His holiness.
His supremacy
His judgment
8 Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O Lord. 9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
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And at this point, there may some of you are thinking:
“But that doesn’t seem right!”
“How can a God who does that claim to be good?!”
“Obviously He’s not good if He does that to so many innocent people!”
And my response to that is, “Says Who?” …
See, first off,
on what basis have you determined they are innocent people?
By Who’s standard?
And secondly, to that same point:
How have you come to determine that God’s actions are wrong?
Because if you’re going to judge the God of the Bible and say: “That’s not right! God should’t that!”
Then you have to have some kind of moral standard by which to evaluate Him by.
And so if your moral standard ISN’T the God of the Bible’s moral standard,
then what is?
Your thoughts and feelings?
Our culture’s thoughts and feelings?
Well, if that’s the case, then you have a real problem here,
because if you think that, then you are what is called a cultural imperialist.
Which is someone who thinks your culture is innately superior to other cultures,
Which smell awfully bigoted and xenophobic
See - The truth is, there are many cultures that have no problem whatsoever with a God of judgement and wrath.
But they absolutely do have a problem with a God of love who is forgiving!
So on what is your non-bigoted basis to you say Eastern cultures are wrong and Western cultures are right?
Hmmmnnn?
Another problem with not wanting a God of judgment and wrath is that deep down, we all do want a God of judgment and wrath.
We need a God of judgment and wrath.
Because we live in a world of cruelty and injustice,
and at some level, we desperately WANT someone to handle it all!
But if there’s no God of justice and wrath, do know what that means?
It means Hitler got away with everything He did.
It means serial killers, rapist, and child molesters will never truly be held accountable for the injustices that they perpetrated upon their victims.
And so deep down we know that if there is a God,
He HAS to be a God of judgment if He’s a good and loving God.
Because if He’s not, then He is absolutely NOT a God of love.
Because no loving God would sit idly by and do nothing.
And so the fact is, God is a God of judgment precisely because He’s a God of love,
Which leads us to our final point.
Without Christmas we cannot approach God in:
His holiness.
His supremacy
His judgment
His love
10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. 11 Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. 12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!
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As a pastor, I’ve heard many people say:
“How can God be both loving and wrathful?”
“Isn’t that a contradiction?”
And my answer to that is: “No” - “Next question?”
In all seriousness, here’s what I try to point out to them.
If you see someone you love being destroyed by drugs, alcohol, or another person,
If you love them, what does that bring out in you?
Anger...
And why?
It’s because you’re angry NOT in opposition to your love,
BUT precisely BECAUSE of your love.
What is happening is you’re angry at the THING or THINGS that are destroying the person you care for!
And so anger is a defensive response that comes out of your love.
Now, we can love wrong things in wrong ways,
which is why NOT all anger is good.
But with God, His anger is always good,
Because God is perfectly good, righteous, and Holy!
And so because God loves righteousness and holiness,
He must judge sin,
Because sin is an attack, or an offense to His holiness and righteousness.
And not only that,
but Sin is destroying His Creation, which is another thing that He loves.
Why is there death and suffering on this planet in such tremendous amounts?
It’s because of sin.
See, Sin is a cancer that is wreaking havoc on God’s good creation,
And because God is a God of love, He is also a God of wrath towards sin,
Which is why He has promised to eradicate it.
But there’s just one problem…
He can’t do that without irradiating us,
Because within each and every one of us is sin.
and our sin prevents us from being approach God in:
His holiness.
His supremacy
His judgment
His love
… If, not for Christmas...
See, Christmas is the answer to the problem of how sinners can approach a holy God.
And it’s only through the God-man, Jesus Christ.
Who was born so that He might die for the sins of man.
He wasn’t born to teach us more good truths about God,
He wasn’t born to show us a life of love and good works, that we should strive to emulate,
No, the reason Christ was born was offer His life as an atonement for our sin.
It was to pay sins cost, so that God could irradiate sin without irradiating us!
And this happened, through Christ’s death on the cross, where the sinless Son of God took our place.
This is the meaning of the Christmas,
It’s God answer to how sinners can not only approach Him,
But also be loved and embraced by this God of love.
In verse 10, the Psalmist says:
10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. 11 Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
When it says that “light is sown for the righteous.”
That’s not the best translation…
It’s not terrible,
But what it’s really saying is: “Light dawns on the righteous.”
And who are the righteous?
Those who do enough good, righteous works?
No - that’s not possible.
As verse 10 says, it’s those who love the Lord and hate evil,
who then look to Him as their deliverer from sin and judgment.
And for all those who do, they will be preserved on the Day of judgment.
Which the Bible describes as a TERRIBLE DAY
An Qwesome day!
Where God judges the sin of the is world,
And then rules and reigns as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords with all of his righteous saints.
And when the dawning light of that day comes,
All of God’s people will shine in the radiance of God’s glory just like the sun!
3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
This is what Christmas is all about.
Which is why I think Psalm 97 is a perfect Christmas Psalm!
Because Christmas makes Psalm 97 a source of joy and hope!
Not one of fear and terror!
Which is why the Psalmist ends verse 12 saying:
12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!
And so that’s my hope for you.
That the true meaning of Christmas would make Psalm 97 a source of Joy and Hope for you.
And that this Christmas season would be a special time of rejoicing for us, the redeemed people of God,
Who have been made righteous through faith by the shed blood of Christ.
Who was born to die so that we might live in the Kingdom of God’s Son.
“Come quickly Lord Jesus.”
Let us Pray