Contagious Praise in Christ Alone
Quote from C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
Pastor Brent Aucoin’s Summary: Humanity naturally praises and invites others to praise that which they value, delight, enjoy.
The Messianic Psalms are OT songs written about the experiences of God’s anointed Davidic king (primarily King David) that God uses to point prophetically toward the Ultimate King—Jesus Christ. The experiences of the Davidic king in the OT are “heightened” or “escalated” or “contrasted” in the greater person and work of the final Davidic King—Christ. These Davidic experiences form theological patterns of which Christ brought to completion. – Pastor Brent Aucoin
Psalm 40:1-17 - For the choir director. A Psalm of David. - King David’s Experience in Trusting in the Lord Alone 1 I waited patiently (or relied completely on) for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.
King David’s Conclusion about Trusting in the Lord Alone
4 How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. 5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; there is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count.
King David’s Response in Offering to God not Sacrifice but His Self
6 Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; my ears You have opened; burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. 7 Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. 8 I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”
King David’s Praise Shared
9 I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, You know. 10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.
King David’s Continued Need for Deliverance From Sin and Sin-Caused Calamities with an Expectation of Another Great Deliverance for Trusting in the Lord Alone
11 You, O Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me. 12 For evils beyond number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; they are more numerous than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me. 13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; make haste, O Lord, to help me. 14Let those be ashamed and humiliated together who seek my life to destroy it; let those be turned back and dishonored who delight in my hurt. 15 Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, aha!” 16 Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let those who love Your salvation say continually, “The Lord be magnified!” 17 Since I am afflicted and needy, let the Lord be mindful of me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.
Psalm 40 leads us to understand four truths that instill in His people the greatest delight in God and therefore the greatest Praise in God.
1. God’s Beautiful Plan for the His Earthly King and His People—Deliverance Creates Praise
A. In distress trust in God Alone--I waited patiently on the Lord (cf. v. 4—“How blessed is the man who has made the LORD His trust and has not turned to the proud nor to those who lapse into falsehood;” Isaiah 40:31)
B. Trusting in God alone results in God hearing the cry of faith and deliverance from the near death experience
C. God’s deliverance shows that God is the ultimate delight (v. 5)
D. Our response to God’s deliverance is—my life offered to Him for delivering me—I exist to do God’s will not mine (cf. of the king Deut 17:15–20)
Sacrifices, in general, were substitutionary symbolic offerings, indicating that the life of the animal was given to God as a symbol of the worshipper giving His life to God.
E. With our life breath given to God, we use it to consummate our joy by praising God and sharing it others in place of my cry of distress (vv. 3, 9-10)
The man who life was delivered by the greatest delight—God—gives his own life as a praise offering public witness to God.
2. The Ugly Problem in His Earthly King and His People—Sin Creates the Need for the Greatest Deliverance
3. The Hopeful Cry for a Greater Deliverance for God’s earthly King and His People.
4. God’s Provision for a Greater King and His Greatest Deliverance—Creating the Greatest Praise!!!
Jesus Christ gave his body—not because He had been delivered—but in order to deliver as a sacrifice according to God’s will!
Romans 12:1 - Therefore I urge you, brethren in view of God’s mercies, present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Last year my family took a few more vacations than normal because we wanted to make some good family memories since our two children were nearing the end of their high school journey.
Most of my vacations revolve around tacking on some extra time to a ministry engagement.
So last year I had ministry opportunities in Phoenix and Montana.
In Phoenix we were three hours from the Grand Canyon so we made a trip there.
[Pic of Grand Canyon]
In Montana [Montana pic] we went to both Yellowstone [Pic of Yellowstone] and Glacier National Park [pic of Glacier National Park]
At all three of those locations we found ourselves staring at the amazing beauty of the landscape and it wasn’t enough to just take it in. When you see something amazing what is your natural inclination to do with it?
Share it!!
Notice that Janet has not been sharing with you the joys of hiking through glaciers…that was not something amazing to her.
Last week, my wife and I saw the 50’s MGM musical, “Singing in the Rain” for the first time.
The tap dancing by Gene Kelly and the rest of that crew was simply amazing….what was the first thing that Janet and I did with our experience…share it with the kids.
Now I really want to learn tap dancing…
We praise what we value do we not??
And that joy of delighting in the Grand Canyon or the dancing abilities of Gene Kelly is not complete until it is shared….
Sharing it is a natural expression of what you delight in….
Now, some of you have entertained this question about God before…”Is not God egotistical or a pompous arrogant entity” when he asks us to praise Him?
In fact atheist and skeptics have gone down the path of saying, “I can not worship a God who demands my praise!”
C.S. Lewis had this question and struggle….
Listen to what he says about praise…
Lewis, C. S. Reflections on the Psalms
When I first began to draw near to belief in God and even for some time after it had been given to me, I found a stumbling block in the demand so clamorously made by all religious people that we should ‘praise’ God; still more in the suggestion that God Himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence, or delightfulness; we despise still more the crowd of people round every dictator, every millionaire, every celebrity, who gratify that demand. Thus a picture, at once ludicrous and horrible, both of God and of His worshippers, threatened to appear in my mind. The Psalms were especially troublesome in this way—‘ Praise the Lord,’ ‘O praise the Lord with me,’ ‘Praise Him.’ (And why, incidentally, did praising God so often consist in telling other people to praise Him? Even in telling whales, snowstorms, etc., to go on doing what they would certainly do whether we told them or not?)
C.S. Lewis in his brilliant observations about humanity came to certain conclusions about us….
I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise … The world rings with praise— lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game— praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least. ….. I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: ‘Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?’
The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with (the perfect hearer died a year ago).
P. Aucoin’s Summary: Humanity naturally praises and invites others to praise that which they value, delight, enjoy.
With that in mind turn in the Scriptures to Psalm 40.
That is on page 409 in the front section of the Bible in the chair in front of you.
This year our church theme is In Christ Alone
Today we are continuing our series on Seeing Christ in the Psalms
The NT writers often quote the Psalms when speaking of Christ fulfilling the Scriptures.
The NT book of Hebrews in Hebrews 10:5-10 quotes Psalm 40:6-8 in reference to Christ.
The Psalms that are referred to in the NT are often termed Messianic Psalms.
Let me say an explanatory word about my understanding of the messianic Psalms.
The Messianic Psalms are OT songs written about the experiences of God’s anointed Davidic king (primarily King David) that God uses to point prophetically toward the Ultimate King—Jesus Christ. The experiences of the Davidic king in the OT are “heightened” or “escalated” or “contrasted” in the greater person and work of the final Davidic King—Christ. These Davidic experiences form theological patterns of which Christ brought to completion. –P. Aucoin
Specifically today we are talking about
Contagious Praise in Christ Alone
Let’s read.
PSALM 40
For the choir director. A Psalm of David.
King David’s Experience in Trusting in the Lord Alone
1 I waited patiently (or relied completely on) for the Lord;
And He inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
Many will see and fear
And will trust in the Lord.
King David’s Conclusion about Trusting in the Lord Alone
4 How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust,
And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of them,
They would be too numerous to count.
King David’s Response in Offering to God not Sacrifice but His Self
6 Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.”
King David’s Praise Shared
9 I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;
Behold, I will not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You know.
10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.
King David’s Continued Need for Deliverance From Sin and Sin-Caused Calamities with an Expectation of Another Great Deliverance for Trusting in the Lord Alone
11 You, O Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me;
Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.
12 For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my heart has failed me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
Make haste, O Lord, to help me.
14 Let those be ashamed and humiliated together
Who seek my life to destroy it;
Let those be turned back and dishonored
Who delight in my hurt.
15 Let those be appalled because of their shame
Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
16 Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”
17 Since I am afflicted and needy,
Let the Lord be mindful of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.
Psalm 40 leads us to understand four truths that instill in His people the greatest delight in God and therefore the greatest Praise in God.
1. God’s Beautiful Plan for the His Earthly King and His People—Deliverance Creates Praise
Now we do not know exactly to what occasion King David referred in his earthly struggles in the first part of the Psalm.
However, the phrases he used “Pit of destruction” and “miry clay” all seem to indicate a near death experience.
It was as if he was going down for the third time.
David in his life face death many times….this appears to be a reference to one of them.
- In distress trust in God Alone--I waited patiently on the Lord (cf. v. 4—How blessed is the man who has made the LORD His trust and has not turned to the proud nor to those who lapse into falsehood;” Isaiah 40:31)
The emphasis here is on the object of trust—God
The word “wait” is the same word used in Isaiah 40:31 with a very similar idea—that I am waiting on a certain ONE not just passively thinking something might come my way and help me but WAIT ON GOD ALONE.
Isaiah 40:31 (NASB95)
31 Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.
In his military struggles David did not turn to alliances with the proud and deceptive Egypt or Syria or Moab….He did not trust in what seemed to be strong on earth.
He waited on Yahweh.
In his faith alone in God alone what happened?
(Repeat): In his faith alone in God alone what happened?
- Trusting in God alone results in God hearing the cry of faith and deliverance from the near death experience
David turned his attention to God ALONE and nothing else!!!
Folks what is your attention and object of hope in or on in your distress?
- Your spouse?
- Your job?
- A particular friend?
- Your intellect?
- Your athletic ability?
- Your beauty?
- Your strength?
God heard when the trust was in Him alone…Blessed is that man!
- God’s deliverance shows that God is the ultimate delight (v. 5)
5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of them,
They would be too numerous to count.
Do you see it…there is David’s delight…There is nothing that compares with you God!!!
Have you ever got to a place in a moment of your existence or where you have said, “I know nothing on earth compares to you God” and “nothing I desire compares to you.”
How do you get there?
This psalm answers it….I recognize I am in dire situation….I turn not to my normal gods of entertainment, pleasure, power, praise of man, I turn to God alone and trust in Him by Faith alone and He delivers!!!!! And I see that nothing compares to HIM!!!!
Now since there is none like Him, He saves my life, what do I do in return?
- Our response to God’s deliverance is—my life offered to Him for delivering me—I exist to do God’s will not mine (cf. of the king Deut 17:15–20)
Look at vv. 6–8 for a moment
6 Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.”
Let me say a word about sacrifices in the OT.
I am going to generalize a bit here. But sacrifices were associated with substitution for the worshipper…
When the offered was to give of his best to God what was that communicating…God this is the best I have…it represents me….I give it to you….As a symbol of my life is yours…
Sacrifices, in general, were substitutionary symbolic offerings, indicating that the life of the animal was given to God as a symbol of the worshipper giving His life to God.
So God said sacrifice animals!!!…but what was that pointing to…I want your life.
Notice that David gets it…
Animal sacrifices is not really what you want God…you want me and all of me…thus God my ears are open I am here to do your will.
I am the whole burnt offering for you.
Make a note that when David says, “Behold I come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me,” He is most likely referring to this passage in Deuteronomy written of kings….
Deuteronomy 17:15–20 (NASB95)
15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.
16 “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’
17 “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
18 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.
19 “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,
20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
David was saying, “my life is yours and I am here to do your will as king and I am not to turn aside”
Now, you get it don’t you what David said…its not sacrifices that God desires…..sacrifices were the outward symbol of what he desires….YOU
In the OT when God says, “I’m weary of your sacrifices” it was because His people had ritually sacrificed but entirely missed the point…the sacrifice represents that God owns your hands, your mouth, your brain, your eyes, your breath…They were not using their souls for God
Therefore the sacrifices were an abomination to God.
Today…you’re here and your worshipping God with your mouth but you used your mouth for lies and anger all week…That is an abomination to God….
David get’s it though…His live…his lips are Gods….and if my lips are God’s and my greatest delight is God then naturally…
- With our life breath given to God, we use it to consummate our joy by praising God and sharing it others in place of my cry of distress (vv. 3, 9-10)
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
Many will see and fear
And will trust in the Lord.
9 I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;
Behold, I will not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You know.
10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.
The man who life was delivered by the greatest delight—God—gives his own life as a praise offering public witness to God.
This statement invites numerous pastoral questions that God would have us all consider…but let me quickly hit a few other aspects of this Psalm before I apply at the end of our time today.
Secondly this Psalm shows us…
2. The Ugly Problem in His Earthly King and His People—Sin Creates the Need for the Greatest Deliverance
King David in His zeal says,
8 I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.”
But then says….
12 For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my heart has failed me.
The book of the Law that the king was supposed to keep….Deut 17:19
19 “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,
20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
He can’t keep this…
His earthly reign to be a praise offering witness to God is and a light to others is marred by sin.
And possibly his sin is creating problems in his kingdom and with others and others…others look at him and say, “Aha…”Aha” (v. 15) ---Look at that hypocritical king….
But consequences are not simply with those who would long for David’s demise
His sin creates another pit of destruction…
He can not stand before God in his sin…
He can not fulfill Deut 17:20 where he never turns from the right or the left…
But where does he turn…..
3. The Hopeful Cry for a Greater Deliverance for God’s earthly King and His People.
To Whom does David appeal for salvation from his pit of sin?
From God alone.
11 You, O Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me;
Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.
12 For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my heart has failed me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
Make haste, O Lord, to help me.
….
17 Since I am afflicted and needy,
Let the Lord be mindful of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.
The term mindful that I highlighted in v. 17 is the same term that is used in David’s previous proclamation of deliverance in verse 5 that he is now praying
5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You.
David understood that God’s thoughts and ways of deliverance are higher than his thoughts. He was amazed when God delivered him from his pit of death.
Now based upon that he is praying again….turn those amazing divine thoughts back to me again in this case that includes deliverance from my sin….
And He still turns to God for salvation from his pit of sin!!!
He did not turn to his good deeds….He did not say, “accept me because I am a good person…” He says “deliver me because I am needy and afflicted….”
And we don’t have that prayer answered in Psalm 40….
When is it answered?
4. God’s Provision for a Greater King and His Greatest Deliverance—Creating the Greatest Praise!!!
David only attempted to give his body to God after a deliverance
And even then he could not consistently maintain that his body is for the Lord….okay lord you have my lips for a while for praise but I need them back to put that person in their place. …
Do you realize there was ONE who came only to give His body as living and dying sacrifice to God the Father…not in response to a great deliverance he desperately needed, but because He only delighted in God the Father.
He came and said, always, “Thy will be done”
He came and fulfilled all the law of Deuteronomy 17 as a king would. He never turned to the right or the left!!!
Jesus Christ gave his body—not because He had been delivered—but in order to deliver as a sacrifice according to God’s will!
Hebrews 10:4–11 (NASB95)
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,
“Sacrifice and offering You have not desired,
But a body You have prepared for Me;
6 In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.
7 “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come
(In the scroll of the book it is written of Me)
To do Your will, O God.’ ”
8 After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law),
9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second.
10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
Do you see Christ in the Psalms now??
But that is not all…
When Christ became the sin offering and sacrificed His body on the Cross, He cried out to His God in faithfulness…My God…My God….Not any other God!!!
And God delivered Him from death by raising him from the dead!!
The greatest deliverance in History.
And Christ becomes the greatest praise offering witness in History.
He is seated at the Right Hand of God, praising the marvelous work of God
And those who understand the significance of all of this have been delivered from the greatest pit—eternal separation from God…and themselves have offered their own selves as living sacrifices become praise offering witnesses….
Read Mark 5:15-20
Questions:
Why today are you not filled with Praise?
If we praise what we value what is this saying about what we
value?
What do we need to see in order to praise?
- The depth of our sin and pit we are in!
- The greatness of our Savior!!
- That because he rescued our life, our life belongs to him.
Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren in view of God’s mercies, present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
I am struck by C.S. Lewis’ statement again…
I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least. …..C.S. Lewis
Here is the bottom line:
There is no praise to share with others because your greatest delight is not God. You don’t know the depths of your pit nor the grandeur of his salvation, and you haven’t given you life to Him.
When all of that happens…there will be praise
If your lips do not speak of God with joy to kids and friends and family…do you recognize that you are still using your lips to live for self…because you delight in something other than God.
