SPEAKER_00: We'll be reading from the book of Psalms, sixty-eight, one through to thirty-five.
SPEAKER_00: God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered, and those who hate him shall flee before him.
SPEAKER_00: As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away.
SPEAKER_00: As wax melked before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God.
SPEAKER_00: But the righteous shall be glad.
SPEAKER_00: They shall exalt before God, they shall be jubilant with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Sing to the Lord, sing praises to his name.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up a son to him who rides through the desert.
SPEAKER_00: His name is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Exalt before him, Father of the fatherless and protector of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
SPEAKER_00: God settles the solitary in the home.
SPEAKER_00: He leads out the prisoners to prosperity.
SPEAKER_00: But the rebellious dwell in the purged land.
SPEAKER_00: O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earthquaked, the heaven poured down rain before God, the one of Sinai before God, the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Rain in abundance, O God, you shared abroad.
SPEAKER_00: You restored your inheritance as it languished.
SPEAKER_00: Your flock found a dwelling in it.
SPEAKER_00: In your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord gives the word.
SPEAKER_00: The women who announce the news are great hosts.
SPEAKER_00: The kings of the army, they flee, they flee.
SPEAKER_00: The women at home divide the spoil.
SPEAKER_00: Do you men lie among the sheepfolds?
SPEAKER_00: The wings of a dove cover the silver, its pioneers with shimmering gold.
SPEAKER_00: When the Almighty scatters kings there, let snow fall on Zalmon, O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan.
SPEAKER_00: O many pecked mountain, mountain of Bashan.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you look with hatred?
SPEAKER_00: O many pecked mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Are the mounts that God desired for his abode?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Where the Lord will dwell forever.
SPEAKER_00: The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is among them.
SPEAKER_00: Sinai is now in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: You are scended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the Lord who daily bears us up.
SPEAKER_00: God is our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Ah, God is a God of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And to God, the Lord belong deliverances from death.
SPEAKER_00: But God will strike the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said, I will bring them back from passion.
SPEAKER_00: I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, that you may strike your faith in their blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe.
SPEAKER_00: Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my king, into the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: The singers in front, the musicians last, between them, versions playing tambourines.
SPEAKER_00: Bless God in the great congregation.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord, O you who are of Israel fountain.
SPEAKER_00: There is Benjamin, the least of them.
SPEAKER_00: In the lead, the princes of Judah is their trunk.
SPEAKER_00: The princes of Zebulon, the prince of Neptali.
SPEAKER_00: Summon your power, O God, the power, O God, by which you have worked for us.
SPEAKER_00: Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings shall bear gifts to you.
SPEAKER_00: Rebook the beasts that dwell among the reeds, the heads of bulls, with the calves of the people, trample on their feet those who lost after tributes.
SPEAKER_00: Scatter the people who delight in war.
SPEAKER_00: Noble shall come from Egypt, who shall hasten to stretch out our hands to God, O kingdom of the earth, to sing to the Lord, sing to God, to sing praises to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: To him who writes in the heavens, the ancient heavens, behold, he sent out his voice, his mighty voice, as cry power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies.
SPEAKER_00: Awesome is God from his sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: The govern of Israel is the one who gives power and strength to his people.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We're starting back into it.
SPEAKER_01: There were 67 Psalms that we've done in other summers before.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to come back for Psalm 100, uh, which uh Jenny read um in her prayer earlier, you'll have to come back, I think, in like two or three years uh for Psalm 100.
SPEAKER_01: And as Mark always jokes, we don't know what we're gonna do when we get to Psalm 119.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's the longest Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: But we do have a fairly long uh Psalm today.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, G Day, for reading.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but next week is one verse longer.
SPEAKER_01: Um there's all the there's all the stats.
SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, this summer we'll be looking at uh we're starting today and we'll be looking at the next seven or eight uh Psalms um until the end of August.
SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, we're gonna look at Psalm 68 uh today.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that people worry about, uh you've probably seen with AI and ChatGPT, etc., is that we're gonna have um we're gonna have people trying to pass off work as it's like it's already come up, hasn't it?
SPEAKER_01: With not only with uh writing essays and stuff like that, um with art, with music, uh we're bringing back, and we bring like people have put together like new Beatles songs and new this, that, and the other songs using this AI.
SPEAKER_01: And people are worried about it, and they're worried a huge amount because uh of people passing off work um as if it's their own.
SPEAKER_01: Um I read uh recently about some researchers who published a paper about this and about the challenge.
SPEAKER_01: Like they they they wrote about um how it's gonna be a great opportunity for education and uh the possibilities for um for us.
SPEAKER_01: Um it's gonna it's gonna open up a huge amount of possibilities, but the challenges of people passing off work for themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the funny thing about the paper was that they got ChatGPT to write it, um and that was just proving uh their point.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but this isn't something new, passing off work as our own, uh plagiarizing, cheating, etc.
SPEAKER_01: People have been stealing uh ideas, they've been stealing inventions, they've been stealing um just straight up articles and paragraphs and whole books for years and years.
SPEAKER_01: And in this Psalm, David calls us and he encourages us to worship God for who he is and what he's done.
SPEAKER_01: Our worship should be oriented towards the one who is worthy of all praise.
SPEAKER_01: And David helps us to do this.
SPEAKER_01: And one but one of the amazing things that we'll see in this Psalm is that although God is victorious and he's the one who is worthy of all praise, he should get the credit.
SPEAKER_01: We don't plagiarize it.
SPEAKER_01: He shares it with us.
SPEAKER_01: We benefit as if we've achieved it.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_01: David gives us plenty of reasons uh to worship God, and we're gonna look through Psalm 68 to see them that our hearts might praise him more and more.
SPEAKER_01: So that's where we're headed with Psalm 68.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at some reasons that um that David calls us to worship God.
SPEAKER_01: We worship God because He leads his people.
SPEAKER_01: And he does this in a couple of ways.
SPEAKER_01: He does this with great power.
SPEAKER_01: You can see that through the Psalm, can't you?
SPEAKER_01: Just even the opening line, God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered.
SPEAKER_01: And then he does so as a tender and loving father.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see that down in verse 5, Father of the Fatherless.
SPEAKER_01: When I read this through this Psalm, um that's that that stuck out to me first.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope that stuck out for you, and it will stick out for you as you leave today.
SPEAKER_01: So we see uh those those ways that God leads his people uh in a couple of ways with great power and as a tender and loving father.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll look at uh him uh as his leading his people as a tender, loving father first.
SPEAKER_01: He's bringing he's leading his people through the wilderness to the promised land to dwell with them forever.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we see his love first of all, and that's in the first line.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, because that first line, God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we see his power in that, but it shows that he cares for them.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this comes from Numbers chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: Moses and the people uh were going through the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: God was bringing them to this wonderful promised land, and Moses, every day that God went out before them, he was present in the ark.
SPEAKER_01: Every day that he went out before them, Moses said, God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered.
SPEAKER_01: The first line here is a quote from Moses speaking of how God was going out before them every day, leading them to the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: He was present with them, and he would he went before them, he was leading and guiding them.
SPEAKER_01: And we see um we see how tender and loving uh he is.
SPEAKER_01: He cares for the weakest and the most vulnerable.
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, father of the fatherless, verse five, and protector of widows.
SPEAKER_01: And this isn't just something he does every now and again, it's not a minor part of who he is.
SPEAKER_01: David says that this is God's nature in his holy habitation.
SPEAKER_01: The end of verse five.
SPEAKER_01: That's who he is in the place where he dwells, in his holy habitation.
SPEAKER_01: Um most people would say that they're mostly themselves when they're at home, or when they come, when they realize, oh, I'm in this place, I'm I'm being myself, they they might call that home.
SPEAKER_01: I'm blessed that that's how I feel at City.
SPEAKER_01: Um I feel like I can be myself, and so I I feel like it's my home.
SPEAKER_01: And it is.
SPEAKER_01: Um God doesn't change, but verse five points us to the fact that God, in his very nature, is a loving father who protects the most vulnerable.
SPEAKER_01: And we get that homely image uh in verse six as well.
SPEAKER_01: God settles the solitary in a home.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just provide a roof over your head.
SPEAKER_01: He's not like um you wouldn't expect this from an estate agent or your landlord to come in and uh your first uh day or your first week there.
SPEAKER_01: I know a lot of you have moved to Dublin recently, whether that's in the last year or two, or lots of people have moved lots of times in their lives, but you don't expect the landlord to come in and like tuck you in the first night.
SPEAKER_01: Uh they don't try and settle you in.
SPEAKER_01: They say, here's the key for the apartment or the house that you're getting.
SPEAKER_01: They don't try and make it a home for you.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you're gonna have to do that yourself.
SPEAKER_01: But, and that would be weird, like I'm glad they don't do that, but um, this is what God does for us.
SPEAKER_01: He cares for us, he cares for the lonely, he cares for the orphan, the fatherless, he cares for the widow, and he rescues his people.
SPEAKER_01: We started where the Psalm starts, thinking about God leading his uh people through the wilderness, but David also points us back to how God led his people out of slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: He rescued them from being prisoners in the land.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 6, he leads out the prisoners to prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: He rescued them from being prisoners in a land that wasn't their own, where they were slaves, and he was bringing them out to prosperity, to a land that is described as flowing with milk and honey, where he would provide for them, where he was gonna dwell with them forever, satisfying their every need.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, God chose to dwell with his people, he didn't choose his dwelling based on worldly things.
SPEAKER_01: God isn't about location, location, location.
SPEAKER_01: We see that if you flick down to if you if you uh jump down to verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: So Bashan was an area to the north, O mountain of God is not uh O mountain where God dwells.
SPEAKER_01: It was O mountain that's majestic and uh is is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Oh many peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you look with hatred, O many peaked mountain, at the mountain that God desired for his bo abode?
SPEAKER_01: It seems like Bashan will be the best place for God to dwell.
SPEAKER_01: It was this majestic, uh had these majestic mountains, had this very productive land.
SPEAKER_01: Yet God chose uh Zion, he chose to make his dwelling among his people.
SPEAKER_01: Um He chose and he chooses.
SPEAKER_01: We've we've seen we're seeing through this Psalm that we're looking at God's nature, not just these individual things that he's doing and that he's done, but at his nature, he chooses the seemingly lesser place uh to be with his people.
SPEAKER_01: He often chooses the seemingly lesser things over what the world would say is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: So we've seen that God leads his people as a tender, loving father.
SPEAKER_01: But he leads them in power and he decisively beats his enemies too.
SPEAKER_01: He defeats those who rebel against him.
SPEAKER_01: The title in uh the ESV here, I'm not sure about other um other versions, but it says God shall scatter his enemies, and that obviously comes from uh verse one there, and ideas like um at the end of verse six, verse 12, verse 14, you'll see this God is powerful.
SPEAKER_01: And um sometimes that so that title there, God shall scatter his enemies, that's not part of the original text.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but to the just to note the to the choir master, a psalm of David, a song that would have been in the original text, but the title wasn't, and sometimes uh the title can be helpful, it points us in the right direction.
SPEAKER_01: But I think the title here only gets that small bit, God shall scatter his enemies.
SPEAKER_01: That leaves aside all that we've mentioned, all that we were just talking about there from um verses five and six, especially, Father of the Father is protected of the witness.
SPEAKER_01: But it is true that God shall scatter his enemies.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to just want to highlight that the uh I know when I looked at this Psalm first, I was like, oh, it's all about power, it's all about uh God defeating his enemies.
SPEAKER_01: That's a huge part of it, and but and and we'll talk about that now, but he's so loving and he's so tender.
SPEAKER_01: Um so he is a god of justice, and that's why we should worship him.
SPEAKER_01: He cannot tolerate evil and sin, and he will deal with sin.
SPEAKER_01: He will deal with evil, he will deal with the wicked.
SPEAKER_01: But this is actually good.
SPEAKER_01: We want this when we've been wronged, we want justice to be served, we want wrongs to be punished, and they should be.
SPEAKER_01: We know this is good, and this is part of how God protects the widows, is he protects them from wicked, evil people, not just providing for them, but protecting them.
SPEAKER_01: So we read how God has beaten his enemies and he went out before his people, leading them.
SPEAKER_01: And the ease at which he does this, and the images here in this psalm are just amazing, shows his supreme power.
SPEAKER_01: His enemies shall be scattered, and those who hate him shall flee before him.
SPEAKER_01: As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away.
SPEAKER_01: As wax melts before a fire, so the wicked shall perish before God.
SPEAKER_01: You can just imagine uh blowing out a candle and watching the smoke just disappear.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't last very long.
SPEAKER_01: You might there might be a scent in the room after birthday candles have been blown out, but even the scent doesn't last that long.
SPEAKER_01: It just fades away.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you can picture wax on that same candle melting away over the course of an evening.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not really the picture we have here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't know if you've ever lit a fire and accidentally left a candle close to it.
SPEAKER_01: When the fire gets going, um, if the if the candle's right in front of it, it just melts away.
SPEAKER_01: Just disappears.
SPEAKER_01: And it's because the nature of the fire, it's because uh the fire is hot.
SPEAKER_01: So it is with God.
SPEAKER_01: By his nature he is powerful, by his nature he is holy, and so he deals decisively with the wicked.
SPEAKER_01: Any evil or sin that comes near him, it melts away like wax melts before a fire.
SPEAKER_01: The Psalm speaks of more rebellion in verse 6, how they dwell in a parched land.
SPEAKER_01: This is in contrast to God's people who are brought through the wilderness to a prosperous land where they're restored as God's shower, God showers his blessings on them.
SPEAKER_01: We see how God uh restores, uh He restored your inheritance in verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Rain in abundance, you shed abroad, you restored your inheritance as it languished.
SPEAKER_01: This is in contrast to the wicked who perish.
SPEAKER_01: And we see um how God, and I just want to point us back to remember, this is how David is saying why we should worship God.
SPEAKER_01: So I I I pray that your hearts are being stirred uh to worship God for who he is, that he leads his people and that he does so with such power, he's uh wins this decisive victory.
SPEAKER_01: We see that he not only has victory over his enemies while leading his people to the promised land, uh keep keeping them safe on the way, but he also protects them while they're there.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Having found a dwelling in it, a dwelling place in it, God keeps his people, he keeps his flock safe.
SPEAKER_01: And again, he's the one who has the victory.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the people who win the war or are given the credit for it, it's completely God, and it's an utter victory.
SPEAKER_01: The kings of the armies they flee, they flee.
SPEAKER_01: The repetit repetition here emphasizes God's total triumph.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 14, kings are scattered like snow on Zaman.
SPEAKER_01: But if you jump back, uh so we're in verses 11 to 14 there, the in the middle, um we see how what I'm what I'm saying in that God doesn't um the people don't deserve it, but uh they didn't win their own wars, but but God still uh gives them the spoil.
SPEAKER_01: You see that there, sorry, in verse uh 12.
SPEAKER_01: The women at home divide the spoil.
SPEAKER_01: The women are at home the men lie among the sheepfolds, they're still working at home, they've not gone out to war.
SPEAKER_01: God has won the victory.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing as you read through this.
SPEAKER_01: Um there's actually some quotes in this as well from Judges 5, from Deborah, and uh and there's other other places that you'll read of God, uh God wins the victory.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites, uh God's people maybe go and like chase down the army as they're fleeing, but it's God who wins the victory, and uh the Israelites just mop up afterwards and get the spoil.
SPEAKER_01: And that's God's nature, he's an abundantly generous God.
SPEAKER_01: He's decisively victorious, but he's abundantly generous towards his people.
SPEAKER_01: So David calls us to worship God because he leads his people to the promised land, he leads them with tenderness as a father, as a loving father, and in such power.
SPEAKER_01: And then our second point is looking at the culmination, actually, the culmination of this Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: So God's victorious march uh through the wilderness culminates and it climaxes in verse 18 with his ascension.
SPEAKER_01: So our next point is that God ascended on high, and that's what we why we should worship him.
SPEAKER_01: That's where he is.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18, you ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18, it's the crescendo of this psalm.
SPEAKER_01: If it was being played by an orchestra, you'd have extra trumpets, extra French horns, extra trombones coming in here.
SPEAKER_01: You'd have a whole extra choir, just like walk onto the stage and everyone singing because this is the crescendo.
SPEAKER_01: This is where it's all been leading to.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18, you ascended on high.
SPEAKER_01: This is the center of the Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: This is the event uh when when the Ark, remember we were talking about the Ark coming through the promised land, uh, coming coming to the promised land through the wilderness, when the Ark then came to Jerusalem and David brought it up to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: He apparently it it says that he danced with all his might.
SPEAKER_01: It's what all that leading through the wilderness has been moving towards.
SPEAKER_01: It's what all the enemy scattering has been leading to.
SPEAKER_01: It's what the rescuing from Egypt has been all about.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, the Lord has reached the place where He chose to dwell with His people.
SPEAKER_01: The sound began, God shall arise, and now He has ascended on high.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not a high place because Zion is a high place that we saw there when we were talking about Bashan.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a high place because God, who is holy, has chosen to make it his dwelling.
SPEAKER_01: And in ascending, he leads all those he has defeated, all his captives that he powerfully overcame.
SPEAKER_01: Men, even those who are rebellious, bring him gifts in worship because he is worthy, he is powerful, he is God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where God will dwell among them.
SPEAKER_01: So I would uh if you have a Bible there, do uh keep your finger in Psalm 68, maybe put a marker in it, because we're gonna come back to Psalm 68, but we're gonna spend a little bit of time uh in Ephesians.
SPEAKER_01: In Ephesians 4 uh verse 8, um Paul quotes this.
SPEAKER_01: And so you'll see that in verse uh Ephesians 4, 8.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Paul says, Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_01: Already there's a bit of a change there uh that Paul has, and we'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but that's where we're we're gonna look in Ephesians there because Paul he was an he was uh he was trained in the Old Testament, he was steeped in uh the law, he knew all about it.
SPEAKER_01: He when he was writing, when he was thinking, he was working through the lens of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: He was uh he was a Jew.
SPEAKER_01: That was his training.
SPEAKER_01: And um you'll see that he quotes Psalm 68 and then he expands upon it.
SPEAKER_01: And what what Paul helps us to see actually, which is amazing, is he helps us to see where Christ is in this psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've seen that already, maybe you've heard me say things about uh you've heard me say things, and you're like, that sounds like Jesus, that sounds like what he did in the gospel, that sounds like um what this verse says about him.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul makes that clear for us.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll need to look back at the first half of Psalm 68, and we'll we'll see where Christ is in it.
SPEAKER_01: We see that he's the one who leads his people in power, he defeats all his enemies, he deals gently and lovingly with his people, blessing them abundantly.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one, and this is the again the climax, he's the one who ascended on high, leading a host of captives in his train.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who's worthy of all our praise, and he's chosen to dwell with his people forever.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul helps us to see that.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, Paul says that the gifts he gave to men, uh sorry, Paul says that in in in Ephesians here he says that he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Uh, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_01: That's in contrast to in Psalm 68, where it says, You ascended on high leading a host of captives in your train, and receiving gifts among men.
SPEAKER_01: So that contrast there's actually it's it's flipped.
SPEAKER_01: We are given gifts, and that fits with uh what we've seen in the rest of the Psalm 2.
SPEAKER_01: So why does Paul quote this here?
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, it's he's steeped in the Psalms, he's steeped in the Old Testament as he's thinking, as he's writing about Christ to the churches, and like all biblical writers, he's inspired by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: But why this psalm?
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's because in Ephesians, Paul is talking a lot about worship, and as we've seen, this psalm is about worship.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Paul spends a good bit of uh this letter explaining to us what it looks like to worship God, which the Psalm calls us to.
SPEAKER_01: But before that, and we're gonna we're gonna do like a quick uh a quick hop-on-hop-off tour of Ephesians, um Paul reminds the Ephesians and he tells us of our identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In the first half of the letter, uh in chapters 1 to 3, Paul talks about what our identity in Christ is, how it came about, and the purpose of it, why we've been united to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you flick back to Ephesians 1, there's gonna be just a lot of flick, there's only like six pages of Ephesians in my Bible, so you can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Um so flick back to Ephesians 1 if you wouldn't mind.
SPEAKER_01: And in verses 3 to 5 of uh of chapter 1, we see that we've been immensely blessed in Christ, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
SPEAKER_01: In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's verse 5 of Psalm 68, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Father the fatherless, he's adopted us.
SPEAKER_01: And did you see uh Psalm 68 verse 3 there?
SPEAKER_01: In what Paul is writing, Paul says that we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
SPEAKER_01: That's someone who's righteous.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, in Psalm 68, verse 3, we didn't uh really talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need you to flick.
SPEAKER_01: I I've decided I decided when I was flicking here, I wouldn't get you to flick back to Psalm 68 if you don't want.
SPEAKER_01: Stick in Ephesians uh for now.
SPEAKER_01: But the righteous shall be glad.
SPEAKER_01: We've been made righteous in Christ, and this the psalmist says that we should that the righteous shall be glad, they shall exalt before God, they shall be jubilant with joy.
SPEAKER_01: If you if you were wondering um up to this point how this psalmist for us, us, since, as far as I know, we're not of Jewish descent, then this is how God in Christ has made us righteous, he has made us to be his people.
SPEAKER_01: And we were those wicked people.
SPEAKER_01: That's how the Psalm was for us, if it weren't for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We were the wicked people, we were the enemies of God, we were to be scattered, driven away as smoke is driven away, perishing before a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, how wonderful are the ways of God.
SPEAKER_01: And what's all this for?
SPEAKER_01: Why is God saved a people for himself?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's because of its his nature again, it's because of who he is.
SPEAKER_01: He's merciful and loving and kind and good, and he's a father.
SPEAKER_01: How richly we benefit because God because of God's nature and because of what he's done.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul litters the purpose throughout the letter, starting off in chapter 1, verse 3, saying, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's the purpose that God will be blessed and praised.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 6, he says, This is still in chapter 1, in verse 6, he says, to the praise of his glorious grace.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 12, to the praise of his glory, verse 14, to the praise of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: All this is for God to be praised and glorified because he is worthy, he is to be worshipped.
SPEAKER_01: And isn't that what David is saying in Psalm 68 too?
SPEAKER_01: He's praising and worshipping God for who he is and what he's done.
SPEAKER_01: It's clear that David in Psalm 68 says that we who have been made righteous should worship God by singing to him, remembering what he's done in saving us and how immeasurably he has blessed us.
SPEAKER_01: We'll jump to Ephesians chapter 3, and halfway down, um, oh actually at the end of it there, sorry, in verses uh 14 to 20, there's a wonderful benediction uh which we often say at the end of the service where Paul prays uh in verse uh 14 um that word is yeah um Paul prays that we would know more and more of our identity in Christ and to grow in it.
SPEAKER_01: And then in 21, if you look down, so in verses 14 to 20, he prays that we would know more and more of our identity in Christ and to grow in it.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 21, again the purpose he says, This is for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Then if we keep going through in chapter four, you'll see he says, Therefore, so he's bringing that idea through.
SPEAKER_01: He did say Amen at the end of uh chapter three, but therefore he's still following through with this idea.
SPEAKER_01: Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called.
SPEAKER_01: So, therefore, because of your identity in Christ, and because you're to uh that's for the glory of God, it's to the praise of his glory, that's worship.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called.
SPEAKER_01: Paul urges us to live a certain way, to live out of our identity in Christ, that is growing in Christ-likeness, so that God will be glorified.
SPEAKER_01: Paul spells out in some detail in the rest of the sentence in verses 2 to 3, and pretty much to the end of the letter, to the end of chapter 6, what that looks like.
SPEAKER_01: He spells out what it means to worship God.
SPEAKER_01: And we know lots of this, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: All lots of these things, um, I don't know if you're yeah, lots of things that you might be familiar with from the second half of Ephesians and tons of the Bible, of how we ought to live.
SPEAKER_01: But it's so important that we don't put the cart before the horse.
SPEAKER_01: Growing in Christ-likeness only comes from knowing more and more of Christ in our hearts, growing more and more of our identity in Him, seeing more and more what He's done for us, growing more and more in gratitude and a desire to live for His praise and glory, to live lives of worship to Him.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Paul spends the first half talking about our identity and saying that this is for the praise and glory of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is why in Psalm 68, David points back to what God has done.
SPEAKER_01: He's pointed back not only to what he's done, but how that points to who he is.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're called to worship him.
SPEAKER_01: So we work out of that, living lives worthy of the calling to which we've been called.
SPEAKER_01: Please don't hear me, don't hear Paul saying, in order to please God, you must do this and do that.
SPEAKER_01: No, we live like this because God has saved us, He's transformed our hearts, and He's continuing to transform our hearts, blessing us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul goes on from the start of chapter four to the end of the book to tell us what it looks like to live lives of worship to God, out of our union with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Again, it's a lot of the stuff we know, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: To walk with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_01: That's uh chapter four, verse two and three.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter five, verse two, Paul tells us to walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_01: There, Paul's telling us that imitating Christ in his love, imitating his love for us, that's worship to God.
SPEAKER_01: As we love each other, as we love outside of ourselves, that's worship to God.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on to say as well, uh, some of the ways we shouldn't walk, from chapter 5, verse 3, he outlines the ways in which we used to walk.
SPEAKER_01: Again, as the wicked did in Psalm 68.
SPEAKER_01: Worshiping God looks like living a certain way, yes, but not living another way.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot stress this enough that this is us living out of our identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's not our own strength.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul outlines that we shouldn't live in sexual immorality, we shouldn't covet.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking.
SPEAKER_01: Then in verse 18, he says, Not to be drunk with wine.
SPEAKER_01: And this comes to the kind of end of where he's saying things that we shouldn't do.
SPEAKER_01: And that springboards him on to these wonderful uh verses where he says in in verse 18, not to be drunk with wine, for that's debauchery.
SPEAKER_01: And he springboards on, but be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We should be filled with the Spirit, especially in our interactions with each other.
SPEAKER_01: Addressing, as he says there, one another in Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, sing, making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always.
SPEAKER_01: This is corporate worship, this is what we do together on a Sunday morning, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We encourage each other in song, and we do so to the praise and glory of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But I I absolutely I love these verses, and there's uh similar verses in in Colossians where Paul speaks about how we should uh what Sunday mornings look like a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a huge amount of prescription, but he he gives some principles here, and again it's it's worship out of uh hearts that have been changed and transformed by Christ to his praise.
SPEAKER_01: But this is just nestled among a huge amount of what Paul's explaining about what worship is.
SPEAKER_01: We spent the last little while looking at it, and then what Paul goes on to describe uh and outline to the end of the book, to the end of the letter, how worship is living out of our union with Christ and with each other growing in godliness.
SPEAKER_01: So look at verse 21 there, the next that's that's the next verse, but it's the end of the sentence.
SPEAKER_01: He says that we as we do these things together, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's the end of the sentence that we started back in, verse 18 about what corporate worship uh should look like.
SPEAKER_01: And we we do all of this, we are filled with the Spirit, encouraging each other, and in all this, we're to submit to one another out of reverence to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on uh in in verse 22 to the end of chapter five, and then through chapter six, uh taking this submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, and he applies it through the week.
SPEAKER_01: Sunday morning corporate worship is so important, and it's such a gift.
SPEAKER_01: But we worship God through the week in our interactions with each other, submitting to one another.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of chapter 5 and 6, as I said, they describe how we worship in our homes, as wives, as husbands, as parents and children, how we worship God, even as employees and employers.
SPEAKER_01: Worship does not end when our formal time ends here or even when we leave this place.
SPEAKER_01: We continue work, we continue worshiping God this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: We worship Him in work tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_01: We're to work as if we're working for the Lord, not to please our boss's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: We worship him when we meet during the week because worship is how we live at it, and it increases as we grow more and more to be like Christ, who we're united to remember by his grace.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what we've done.
SPEAKER_01: We do need to return to Psalm 68, though.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we'll do that in a sec.
SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll go back to Ephesians 4 8, where we began and following.
SPEAKER_01: Paul saw Christ in Psalm 68, ascending far above the heavens, having descended to earth and even dying for us.
SPEAKER_01: And in his ascension, we've noted already, Paul says that he gave gifts to men rather than what Psalmist says, which is that he received gifts among men.
SPEAKER_01: Christ deserves every gift, every praise, all glory and honor, yet by his grace he gives gifts to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: So just before we get back to uh Psalm 68, what are these gifts and what are they for?
SPEAKER_01: They're outlined um after after Paul quotes Psalm 68 in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: He gave the apostles, the prophets, that's those who wrote uh the scriptures, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of Christ, sorry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, in deceitful schemes.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, speaking the truth in love, we grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: These are gifts given to us for the building up of the church, gifts that serve to equip us for the work of ministry and to love one another.
SPEAKER_01: That's to live lives worthy of the calling, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: And that's as one body.
SPEAKER_01: That's what worship is.
SPEAKER_01: So Christ enables us by giving these gifts, he gives us these gifts to enable us to live lives of worship, to worship him.
SPEAKER_01: So we will jump back to Psalm 68.
SPEAKER_01: And uh you can jump back there.
SPEAKER_01: And we've said how with Paul seeing Christ in this Psalm, we've seen that the first half of the Psalm uh we also see Christ here.
SPEAKER_01: He's powerful, he saves his people, he's loving and tender with them, and he dwells among them.
SPEAKER_01: So the second half of the Psalm is obviously in light of verse 18, God's ascension to Zion.
SPEAKER_01: So we see uh so we're gonna see a lot of the same things actually in the first half of the Psalm because God is unchanging, his nature is the same, he continues to bless his people, and so we worship him.
SPEAKER_01: God continues to bless his people and he does so daily.
SPEAKER_01: David encourages us to encourages us to worship God and bless the Lord because he continues to care for us and provide for us, bearing us up daily in verse 19, saving us from our enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Like before, God is still the one to whom the victory belongs.
SPEAKER_01: He's still the one who wins the battle, but we're the ones who benefit.
SPEAKER_01: It's by grace.
SPEAKER_01: As he provided for and protected his people, even the most vulnerable, remember, on the journey to the promised land, so he continues to do so as his blessings flow out from his dwelling place, providing for them.
SPEAKER_01: And we see we saw um we saw how Paul says that God provides for his people, he provides for the building up of his church.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation belongs to God, he's the one who delivers us from death.
SPEAKER_01: You see that in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, we see this supremely in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's not only because of Christ that we're saved and uh delivered from death.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, it's it's Christ's work on the cross and God's power in the resurrection that means we're saved.
SPEAKER_01: It's nothing that we do.
SPEAKER_01: We see uh a prom uh sorry a trust in God's promise.
SPEAKER_01: We see David trust in God's promise in verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: But God will strike the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways.
SPEAKER_01: Throw your mind back to maybe you'll remember in Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: God says to the serpent that one will come to crush his head.
SPEAKER_01: We know that Jesus fulfilled then that.
SPEAKER_01: Christ fulfilled that in his death and resurrection, defeating sin and death once for all.
SPEAKER_01: And so we worship him.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 22 and 23 then are a little bit hard.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but what's going on here is that same justice as before.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same justice as the smoke being driven away.
SPEAKER_01: That's how the wicked will be driven away before God, as wax melts before a fire.
SPEAKER_01: Whether the wickedness and evil is hiding in majestic mountains in Bashan or in the depths of the sea, there's nowhere for It to hide.
SPEAKER_01: There's nowhere for wickedness to hide because of God's un unchanging holiness.
SPEAKER_01: And the images in verse 23 are complete removal of evil, similar to the to those images in verses one and two, the God scattering his enemies, the smoke being driven away, and the wax melting.
SPEAKER_01: The first half of verse 23, it doesn't mean that we carry out the justice, and but it doesn't shy away from the consequences of dealing with evil.
SPEAKER_01: And the same is true of the second half of verse of verse 23, which is probably a reference to evil Queen Queen Jezebel to her death, which is in 2 Kings 19, if you want to look at it.
SPEAKER_01: But David then teaches us some of the things that we should pray in verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: And this is still part of our worship.
SPEAKER_01: He calls on God to do as he has been doing, to act out of his nature.
SPEAKER_01: He's praying in line with God's will.
SPEAKER_01: And in doing so, he's worshiping God.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that God is powerful and he trusts him to continue working as he has done, carrying out justice and blessing his people.
SPEAKER_01: In trusting God, David is worshiping him.
SPEAKER_01: He's acknowledging his power, he's acknowledging his sovereignty, he's acknowledging his care, and he's acknowledging that he's unchanging.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's worshiping him.
SPEAKER_01: So we too should pray like that.
SPEAKER_01: We should pray for God to work, trusting his power in our lives and in the world around us.
SPEAKER_01: That trust is an act of worship.
SPEAKER_01: When we submit ourselves to God's will, not doing things in our own strength, we're worshiping him.
SPEAKER_01: When we trust him to provide, we're worshiping him.
SPEAKER_01: That's why giving is part of our corporate worship.
SPEAKER_01: When we give, when we give money, we're worshiping God because it's an act of trust.
SPEAKER_01: All these things, I hope you could see how all of life is to be worshiped to God because we trust him, because he is powerful and he's worthy of all our praise.
SPEAKER_01: That's when you decide to put God first in your life, you are worshiping Him.
SPEAKER_01: And not only does God continue to bless His people, we've been looking from verse 18 through the rest of the Psalm, not only does He continue to bless His people from Zion, from uh from His ascension, He blesses even those who were rebellious.
SPEAKER_01: There's been hints throughout the Psalm so far, and we saw it in Ephesians as well.
SPEAKER_01: But God's plan has always been to bring others in, to bring the Gentiles in, those who are not his people, to become his people, to save people who were once rebellious.
SPEAKER_01: And again, that's us, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: But for God, but for God saving us, we'd be like that wax that melts before the fire.
SPEAKER_01: Towards the end of the Psalm, David alludes to this.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 29, if you will, there.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings shall bear gifts to you.
SPEAKER_01: David is anticipating when kings will come to worship God.
SPEAKER_01: He continues in verse 30 to call on God to be unchanging in bringing about justice.
SPEAKER_01: But when you read verse 31, we can see that this is so that the people from other lands will come to worship God too.
SPEAKER_01: You see the beasts there in verse 30, the beasts that dwell among the reeds probably refers to Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 31, David says that nobles shall come from Egypt to worship God.
SPEAKER_01: Cush in verse 31 is similar, it was similar to Egypt, it was often paired with Egypt in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Cush it oppressed God's people at times, and here instead Cush is stretching out her hands to God in worship instead of against him in rebellion.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God that those who were opposed to him, like us, can and will worship him.
SPEAKER_01: This is only because of the grace of God to us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So we listen to David's encouragement to worship God.
SPEAKER_01: In verses 24 to 27, David shows us more of the pomp of God ascending, this time calling him my God, my king, so personal.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone sees God's majesty as he enters the sanctuary, and everyone is called to worship him.
SPEAKER_01: There's singers, there's musicians, there's virgins playing tambourines, there are people who perform specific tasks, but then the whole congregation is called to bless God and worship him in verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 27, it's from Benjamin, the smallest in size, the smallest tribe, to Judah, Zebulun and Naphtali, those coming from the north and the south.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone will come and worship God.
SPEAKER_01: And again, think about the orchestra.
SPEAKER_01: It plays its loudest, its most majestic music for the last section here from verses 32 to 35.
SPEAKER_01: As David calls on the whole earth to sing praises to the Lord, to sing praises to our mighty God who has saved us by his power.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome is God from His sanctuary.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who gives power and strength to his people.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be God.
SPEAKER_02: If you found this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, please visit our website found in the link below.