Portraits of our Redeemer (Psalms 115–118)

Taunts sting. “Where is your God?” isn’t just an ancient insult; it’s a modern ache heard at work, online, and in our own doubts. We walk through Psalms 115–118 to find a better reply than defensiveness: worship that puts glory where it belongs and trust that rests in a living God who sees, speaks, and saves.

We start with Psalm 115’s bracing honesty—idols glitter but cannot act, while the unseen Lord is our help and shield. That truth steadies courage under pressure and calls us to praise God publicly, not after the trial ends, but within it. Then Psalm 116 turns corporate praise into a personal testimony. A voice in deep distress prays simply, “O Lord, deliver my soul,” and finds the kind of mercy that answers in God’s timing. The result is a vow to “walk before the Lord in the land of the living,” a model for honest prayer and bold witness when life hurts.

Psalm 117 compresses mission into two verses and a global horizon: all nations, all peoples, one invitation to praise. Evangelism becomes joy, not mere duty—an overflow of God’s steadfast love and enduring faithfulness. Finally, Psalm 118 anchors the journey in redemption history. Sung at Passover and likely on Jesus’ lips before Gethsemane, it announces the stone rejected becoming the cornerstone. Rejection was real, but so was the plan of God. That Cornerstone now carries our hope through criticism, crisis, and change, turning taunts into testimony and fear into faithful praise.

If this journey strengthened your trust, share it with a friend who needs courage today. Subscribe for more studies, leave a review to help others find the show, and tell us: which verse from Psalms 115–118 is holding you steady right now?

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Learn More: https://www.wisdomonline.org/mp/the-christians-compass

Chapters

• 0:00 Giving Glory To God Alone
• 3:09 Answering The Taunt: Where Is God
• 5:25 Trusting The Living God Over Idols
• 7:11 A Personal Testimony In Crisis
• 9:06 The Shortest Psalm, The Biggest Invitation
• 11:50 The Cornerstone And The Passover Song
• 13:27 Closing Benediction And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:37

In every situation, you're supposed to give glory to God alone. How well do you do that? Do you ever try to reserve a little glory for yourself? Well, you can give glory to God successfully only when you trust him through the trials you face. You must continue to praise him and invite others to join you. And you need to look to his word for hope and encouragement. This is the wisdom journey, and Stephen called this lesson Portraits of Our Redeemer.

SPEAKER_01: 2:14

Our wisdom journey today will cover the final four songs in what's called the Egyptian Halel grouping. The Hebrew word halel means praise. So whenever you say halelujah, you're actually combining halel with Yah. Yah is a shortened form of Yahweh. So halelujah means praise Yahweh or praise the Lord. Now we we have just as much reason, by the way, to sing hallelujah today as the Israelites did back here. As the psalmist opens here, Psalm 115, the opening verse sort of sets the tone for this entire psalm. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name, give glory. Well, this is another way of saying, hallelujah, the people here are giving God the glory. Now you might be wondering, why are they giving him glory? Well, verse two gives us a clue. Why should the nation say, Where is their God? Now this question is recorded throughout Israel's history, and this was sort of a Gentile taunt. Frankly, it was about the most unkind thing you could say to somebody that you didn't like. By the way, I've noticed the same thing today. Lately, professional athletes are being penalized for taunting their opponents. Well, the opponents of Israel are taunting them with this question, where is your God? In essence, they're saying, you know, your God doesn't seem to be taking very good care of you. And they're sort of pointing their finger and they're hovering over them. And you can imagine how the Israelites hated this kind of taunting because it reminded them that the discipline they were experiencing, well, it was their fault. It wasn't God's. But to these opposing nations, it looked like Israel's God had abandoned them, and they taunted Israel because of it. Have you ever found yourself on the wrong end of a taunt that God has failed you? Maybe Satan's whispered that accusation in your ear. Maybe some unbeliever at work taunts you because of some difficulty you're experiencing, or maybe something that's happening in the culture today. Well, let me tell you, don't ever agree with your accusers that God has abandoned you. Don't believe their taunt. In fact, take the opportunity when you're taunted to defend God's reputation, as the psalmist does here when he writes in verse 3. Our God is in the heavens. So the psalmist is effectively challenging those who are taunting him with the truth that they're the ones following false gods. In fact, he reminds them here in verses four through eight that their idols can't speak, they can't see, they can't hear, smell, feel, they can't even walk. He's saying, basically, don't make fun of my God. My God's a living God. Your gold and silver gods, well, they might look good, you might be able to see them, but they can't do a thing for you. Their idols were visible, but had no power. Yahweh was invisible, but he had all power. That's why here now in verse 11, the children of Israel are told to trust the Lord to be their help and their shield. That means that God is alive, he's trustworthy, he's able to defend his people. Beloved, no matter no matter what prompts the world today to taunt you for your faith in God, just remember, God isn't intimidated, and you shouldn't be either. You can say with a psalmist here in verse 18, bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Now this next psalm, Psalm 116, this is going to move us from a congregational hymn to a very personal hymn. We might call this a solo. The first person pronoun is going to be used 37 different times here in 19 verses. Now not in a prideful way, but in a very personal testimonial way. It sounds like this anonymous uh psalmist receives some answer to prayer. He's walking right over to the temple now to give his testimony of praise to the Lord. There are scholars who believe that this psalm was written by the terminally ill King Hezekiah, who cried out to the Lord. And in fact, verse 3, it sort of fits that context really well. As the author writes this the snares of death encompassed me, I suffered distress and anguish. Now, if Hezekiah wrote this, this distressing event back in 2 Kings 20 was when he prayed for healing, and the Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to give him some good news that God was in fact going to heal him. Now we don't know for sure if Hezekiah wrote this psalm, but we do know that whatever crisis we're facing today, might be physical, might be financial, emotional, spiritual. Verse 4 models for us the very best response. Then I called on the name of the Lord, O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. Let me encourage you, beloved, to read this psalm whenever you're facing your own Hezekiah crisis, so to speak. It can be a crisis of any kind. But I want to recommend that you boldly pray this, uh maybe even sing it. Make up your own tune, but trust the timing of the Lord as you wait for his answer. Sometimes he chooses to develop you. Sometimes he chooses to deepen you as you wait for the answer. Sometimes he will deliver you, and maybe at times without any delay. That's wonderful when that happens. But no matter what happens, do what the composer of this psalm here does. He publicly testifies to the faithfulness of God. In fact, he writes here in verse 9, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. In other words, I'm not going to allow crisis to silence my testimony of faith in the Lord. Out there in the land of the living, in other words, I'm going to tell others about the fact that I walk with a faithful living God. Now, speaking of telling others, Psalm 117 speaks to the world of God's grace and his goodness. Now this Psalm happens to be the shortest psalm of all. It's only two verses long. Praise the Lord all nations, extol him all peoples. For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. That just about says it all, doesn't it? I want to make two observations about this rather powerful little psalm. First, this happens to be an evangelistic invitation here. God's people are calling out here for others to join with them in praising God. It's as if they're saying, look, you need to follow our faithful, our real, our true, our loving God. Join us, won't you, in praising Him? By the way, why do you do evangelism? Because you should? Is it to grow your church attendance? Well, those might be popular reasons, but they miss the best reason of all. Someone wrote that missions and evangelism exist because worship does not. You see, your ultimate objective in mind is finding people who will join you. Right now they're worshiping all the wrong things, all the wrong gods. You're inviting them to worship the true and living God. And by the way, when you're sharing the gospel, you're actually joining the Father. We're told he is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. John chapter 4, verse 23. So this little psalm here is an evangelistic invitation, but secondly, it's it's an extensive invitation, and I say that because nobody's left out. This invitation here is for all the nations, all the peoples of the world, those who are not yet saved from the penalty of their sins, they're invited to praise God. If you haven't accepted the sacrificial payment for your sin through the death of God's son on the cross, well, this invitation is for you. I want to invite you to do that today. In fact, right now, believe in the Lord. Place your faith in Jesus Christ alone today. And if you do, you can join me. You can start singing this little psalm of God's steadfast love and of his faithfulness, because you'll believe it. And for you it will endure forever. Well, now we come to Psalm 118. It's the last of these Egyptian Hallel psalms. Now we're not sure who composed this final psalm, but we do know that for hundreds of years now the Jewish people have been singing it as they celebrate the Passover. And let me tell you, these Psalms all paint a wonderful portrait of our Redeemer. Now, this psalm here is certainly among the last songs, if not the last song or hymn that Jesus sang with his disciples before they left that upper room for the Garden of Gethsemane where he was betrayed. And I want to point out that this psalm includes a prophetic statement about the Messiah here in verse 22. It says this the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Well, let me tell you, this verse here is quoted at least 14 times in the New Testament in relation to Jesus Christ. The stone the nation of Israel rejected was their true Messiah, Jesus Christ. Can you imagine Jesus singing this psalm on the night he was betrayed? Frankly, I can't imagine Jesus singing anything at all. I can't imagine if I knew the suffering that I was just a few hours away from, if I would have any tune in my heart, but Jesus did. And that's because, beloved, his death was not an accident. It was all planned by the Lord for your redemption and mine. Well, with that, we're out of time for today. Until our next wisdom journey, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 13:27

Thanks for listening to The Wisdom Journey with Stephen Davey. To learn more about us and access all of our Bible teaching resources, visit wisdomonline.org. Our phone number is 866-482-4253. And you can email us at info at wisdomonline.org. Stephen developed this daily program to help you know what the Bible says, understand what it means, and apply it to your life. So please join us next time to continue the wisdom journey.