Dennis Tuuri

# TRANSCRIPT – CLEANED

1 Chronicles chapter 16 as our sermon text. We will not read the whole chapter this time. We’ll begin at verse 7 and go to verse 36. 1 Chronicles 16, beginning at verse 7, concluding with verse 36. Please stand with the reading of God’s word. 1 Chronicles 16, beginning at verse 7.

On that day, David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaf and his brethren to thank the Lord. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the peoples. Sing to him. Sing psalms to him. Talk of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. Seek the Lord in his strength. Seek his face evermore. Remember his marvelous works which he has done. His wonders and the judgments of his mouth, oh seed of Israel, his servant. You children of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God.

His judgments are in all the earth. Remember his covenant forever, the word which he commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance. When you were few in number, indeed very few and strangers in it, when they went from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people, he permitted no man to do them wrong.

Yes, he rebuked kings for their sake, saying, “Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is also to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and gladness are in his place. Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory to his name. Bring an offering. Come before him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth. The world also is firmly established. It shall not be moved. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad.

And let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” Let the sea roar and all its fullness. Let the field rejoice in all that is in it. Then the trees of the woods shall rejoice before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. And say, “Save us, oh God of our salvation. Gather us together and deliver us from the Gentiles to give thanks to your holy name to triumph in your praise.”

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. And all the people said, “Amen.” Praise the Lord.

Let’s pray. Father, it is our desire to say amen to your word today that it is so. To praise you, Lord God, for your revelation of who you are and what you have accomplished in history. We pray, Father, you would strengthen us in our inner man to remember your great works to give you thanks for whatever we’re in the context of in our lives today and to look forward joyfully to the future.

To that end, Lord God, bless your word and spirit as he teaches us this word and writes it upon our very hearts. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen. Please be seated.

We are approaching our Fesus Day celebration which will be two weeks from this coming Friday. It seemed good in the mind of the elders to set apart three or four weeks worth of sermons on Zion worship in preparation for our celebration at Fesus Day Friday evening August 23rd two blocks down the hill here at the Barkley school and the playground there.

We are considering Zion worship because it is absolutely critical for a proper understanding of our worship. And so we’ve taken this time to investigate this biblically. Last week, we kind of laid a basic foundation of the need to understand Zion worship and what it was and what were the historical context of it. Today we’ll look specifically at this psalm that was delivered by David for the occasion of the initial worship by musical instruments and song in Zion.

Some people think this may be the psalm of the Lord that’s talked about in later portions of scripture. Some people think this was a psalm that was to be performed every time, every day at worship before Zion. I don’t know that. But I do know that God has given us this particular psalm penned by David for this particular initiation of music and praise at Mount Zion in the tabernacle of David. And so it must have significance for us for God to single it out in this way.

And we’ll look at it today. We’ll look first at the general description given of what these psalms are for. And then we’ll look at this specific psalm. Next Lord’s Day, we’ll talk about the musical instruments that were used that are enumerated for us in 1 Chronicles 16 and other places of scripture. We’ll look at those instruments. We’ll think a little bit about music and the relationship to the Holy Spirit.

Music in relationship to the king. We remember that the tabernacle of David worship initiates with the return of the ark, the bringing forward rather of the ark to Jerusalem, the presence of God, the great king. This happens upon David’s coronation or shortly thereafter. So there’s this relationship to the coming of the spirit, the ascension of the king, the advent of the king and Lord’s Day worship service and all this related to the advent of the psalter musical instruments and singing of worship as the king approaches—which we just remembered those of us who understand the placement of Psalm 98 in the fourth book of the psalms at the very center of it. This is the great picture of Zion worship, so it’s very important for us. And next week we’ll talk about music and then two weeks from today I plan to talk about Zion references in other portions of the Bible and conclude our series on tabernacle of David worship.

Now I’ve got for you a review of what we talked about from last week. Hebrews 12:22-24 tells us that when we go to worship that we go not to Mount Moriah, which is where the temple was, but we go to Mount Zion, which is where the tabernacle of David was put up to house the ark and the particular worship and praise that went on there. So it’s important for us to understand it. He said that Acts 15 at the council of Jerusalem—the prophecy that God would rebuild the tabernacle of David is being fulfilled in the context of the church as Jew and Gentile are brought together into one undivided worship environment before God.

Now there are sociological truths to that, other truths other than worship truths, but certainly Acts 15 describes the church as the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David. So when we read things like we just sang in the Psalms about considering Zion, we could apply that directly to the church of Jesus Christ—that we’re to consider the church and how God has built it and how he’s restored it after the great and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as king to his people 2,000 years ago to effect our salvation.

Quite important. Psalm 50:2 says that God shines forth from Mount Zion. We come up to the holy hill of God in worship whether we’re in a valley or in the grace of God on a hill as we are here in Oregon City. And God says we’re to shine forth from this place—that it’s from Zion. Understand that God shines forth and we want to understand what that means.

We said last week that tabernacle of David worship was a transition step between tabernacle and temple worship. It began with the advent of the ark to Mount Zion. Let’s look very quickly at a couple of passages. Turn to First Kings chapter 8 verse 1. I’m sorry, verse 8 perhaps. First Kings 8—no, verse 1. First Kings 8 verse 1 we read that Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes chief of the fathers of the children of Israel unto King Solomon in Jerusalem that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David which is Zion.

Okay. So here we are explicitly told that the tabernacle of David, or at least the ark that was contained in the tabernacle, is on Mount Zion and this is called the city of David in 1 Chronicles 11:5. Turn there please—1 Chronicles 11:4 and 5. David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus where the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land. The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, “Thou shalt not come hither.” Nevertheless, David took the castle of Jerusalem, the high place of Zion, rather.

I said Jerusalem—it’s Zion, which is the city of David. So the point is that Jerusalem was like Portland, a big city, had a couple of different mountains on it. And specifically, David takes this mount—a hill like Mount Tabor. We call it a mountain. It’s not a mountain, but it’s a mount. He takes Mount Zion here which is in Jerusalem. And Solomon explicitly has said to bring the ark up away from the city of David or Mount Zion to the temple mount which we saw last week very clearly is said to have been built on Mount Moriah.

I have a little map of Jerusalem in our high school Sunday school room. We talked about the Psalms six months ago and we talked about this tabernacle of David worship. And if you were to see a map of Jerusalem at this time, it’s being described here. Jerusalem is a big city and here is Mount Moriah and here is Mount Zion. And on the particular map I have, it says “city of David” right here. So Jerusalem is the city.

Two mountains, two districts. The district, the mount, it’s called Zion is where this ark is placed. So when we talk about Zion worship—when we go to Mount Zion—that’s what it’s talking about. Tabernacle of David worship on Mount Zion. And this is where it was. And when we said that Gibeah is outside of Jerusalem, different city, maybe four or five miles to the northwest. We can’t be sure. The tabernacle is set up out there.

The ark is put where David pitches the tent for it. Then later at Mount Moriah, Solomon builds the temple. When the temple is built, we read in First Kings 8 that Solomon and his men bring the ark away from the city of David or Mount Zion to Mount Moriah to where the temple will contain it. And so it’s very important to understand these historical references. David’s reign was about 40 years to the ascension of Solomon.

So Zion worship goes on for approximately 40 years in the context of this tabernacle that he built. So it’s a transition from tabernacle to temple worship—began with the advent, the coming of the ark to Mount Zion in Jerusalem. It was distinct from tabernacle sacrifices at Gibeah. We talked about this last week. Later temple worship at Mount Moriah, also in Jerusalem. It was integrated into later temple worship in a very significant way.

And you know, when Solomon brings the ark from Mount Zion to the temple at Mount Moriah, it’s not just the transport of a piece of furniture. He brings really all that David had established there. He brings the musical instruments. He brings the singing. He brings the psalms that were written for this kind of worship into the temple. You see?

And so later when we read about Hezekiah or Josiah or all these other kings doing things according to the command of David and having musical instruments, this is why it’s integrated into temple worship. And we’ll see next week that Hezekiah has some specific instructions given for us as to when the music plays in the context of the offerings or sacrifices, the animal sacrifices now at the temple.

So there’s this relationship. The temple brings back the stuff—not the actual furniture of the tabernacle of Gibeah, but the sacrifices that went on at Gibeah—that’s brought into temple worship. The music and praise is brought in from Zion worship. And there’s this correlation of music and praise to the order of the sacrifices as they occur in temple worship. So we’re not moving away from the flow of our worship being dictated by the sacrificial system and being informed by it. No, we’re layering on an understanding of music and psalms in relationship to that progression of sacrifices in the temple. And now they’re all become the spiritual sacrifices of praise with our lips.

But it still will follow that same order. You see? So there’s this connection to what happens in the temple as not just the ark but all the worship and praise that David had established at tabernacle of David worship becomes integrated into the temple as well after its initiation.

Zion worship was bloodless—animals killed to establish it but no more after that until Solomon then gets power to rule and reign and comes back and offers sacrifices at the tabernacle of David. And that’s moving now toward the conclusion of it and it’ll be moved into the temple instead. This bloody worship is replaced with music and song. This worship occurred in the direct presence before the ark. 1st Chronicles 16 tells us no veil of separation, an undivided worship environment—no temporary separate courts for the Levites and the priests, the ordinary Jews and then the Gentiles. No separation. Jews and Gentiles and God-fearers are brought together. And in fact, it seems as though there’s at least one Gentile God-fearer engrafted into the order or house of one of the men to offer up music and praise worship in relationship to the Levitical worship team.

So part of the worship team—we could call it—was this Edom the Gittite, the man from Gath, the Gentile. Our proper response to these truths is a renewed appreciation, commitment to, and delight in the Psalms and musical instruments. If we assign the Psalms and musical instruments to just the temple and fail to see its significance for the tabernacle of David, which was a picture of the coming together of Jew and Gentile in the praise of God, you see, we don’t really appreciate it enough.

It still forms a pattern. We don’t need this—but now that we know that these psalms are written really for the prefigurement of New Testament worship, and New Testament worship is specifically the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David—we must bring musical instruments. We must bring the psalms in a heavy proportion into our worship services. That’ll be the blessing of God upon us as we move that way. This is a delightful thing to us.

Worship at the tabernacle of David is a joyous event as we read about in the Psalms and sang about today. We’ll have a great commitment to learn the psalms and play musical instruments in relationship to them to delight ourselves in them and we’ll bring this into our worship and a desire also to better understand Zion worship as we model it in our worship services. If it’s so important and before—if it’s as important as understanding the flow of the sacrifices in the temple for our worship service—let’s think it through. Let’s spend a couple of weeks saying what happened there, at least what is recorded for us in 1 Chronicles 16. This is true not just for our worship but for the rest of our lives.

I spoke last week, you know, of imitation. I went through many scriptures where we’re to be mimics one of another—mimics of what is good, externally mimicking each other in our actions. Now that’s what we do whether we like it or not. And we’re warned against mimicking improperly others.

We’ve got hard work to do today in the context of our worship service. They have hard work. The declaration of excommunication. And at the heart of this particular individual’s problem is this hanging out with the wrong people, you know? And maybe it begins—I don’t know—but frequently it’ll begin with nominal Christians, maybe Baptist, you know, our Baptist brethren, but a view of piety that somehow is not really formed by the scriptures.

And then maybe nominal Christians who really don’t care much for the Lord at all. They’re kind of in the context of the church somewhere, go to, you know, rock and roll services in the church, whatever it is. I don’t know, but kind of not a real sense of commitment to biblical piety. And then pretty soon you’re hanging out with kids who don’t know Christ at all. And you’re formed in all those things. You begin to mimic those people.

God says we’re to provide proper modeling to one another here. Oh, may God build the tabernacle of David here. May he build Zion in the context of Reformation Covenant Church. The series of relationships as we grow—down from ages to ages, older ones down to the middle-aged ones, middle-aged ones to the young married ones, young married ones to the teens, teens to the junior high kids coming up—down the line of proper biblical piety, proper joy in the Lord Jesus Christ, a proper use of alcoholic beverages as an example, right?

You know, I was at a Bill Gothard thing this Friday and Saturday and he didn’t say it there but he said it before that “the dads drink in moderation the kids will drink to excess.” Now we don’t believe that but we do believe that if dads drink in moderation without relationship to the joy of the Lord and the filling of the Holy Spirit then it may well be that children drink to excess—to drunkenness. See? Our piety is to be formed in terms of what we do in the Lord’s day.

This is it. We have a high holy use of alcoholic beverages. We have a high holy use of food, our daily bread. And God wants us to see these things and to image proper relationship to the world round about us to those growing up in our context. He wants us to look at those who have gone before and model them.

You know, one of the reasons I go to things and one of the reasons why I think it’s good for you to go to hear other speakers—men like Gothard, or even though with all his difficulties, I know him better than you do probably. Maybe not some of you, but I know him. But you know, he’s a man that loves the Lord Jesus Christ. He has much good to say. And he’s a man that I don’t mind if the next generation thinks, “Gee, I’m starting to talk a little bit like this fellow.” And I do that whether Jim B. Jordan, I’m hanging around with him here at our church or getting to see Doug Wilson. When you see people and listen to them, you tend to be really influenced by them.

And men who are really committed to the Lord Jesus Christ have a highly salutary effect, a very good effect upon you as you expose yourself to other men who are really committed and God has given some degree of influence in the context of the broader church. It’s good to know these men. It’s good to be in their presence. It’s good to hang out with them. It’s good to want to be around them and it’s good to choose men in the context of our church.

You want to be around older men that will mentor you, if nothing else, by just observing them. We want this to happen, but this is what happens in our worship, right? What we’re trying to do with Fesus Day is to take this model here that we work very hard on to get worship right. Now we’re still going to make a lot of mistakes.

It was interesting at the Gothard seminar to hear him talk about worship. This video seminar I saw was a fairly recent one and he talked about elements of worship and how we always stress the sermon, but we need to understand it’s a house of prayer—importance of prayer, importance of communion and the unity of the body at the Lord’s supper. So what’s happening with those who are around Gothard? Well, they’re coming to an appreciation for some of the same elements of worship that we’ve seen in the context of the sacrificial system. They see it just from reading their Bibles and somehow getting to it. Confession—he talked about the importance of that. So you see, this is the way things work. We try to think of our worship service and model according to biblical patterns and that there are other paths to that other evangelical Christians are taking.

They all end at the same place and we want to do that. We work hard at it here. We work hard at changing the way we sing the content of our songs—psalms or psalm-like hymns—to change not just today but to take this hierarchal image of worship that God has us going to life with. Then we want to go to Fesus Day and have a sacred evening, you know, set apart songs. You know, fun songs are great. Non-Christian songs are great. That’s further downstream as we move away from worship. It’s further application into other areas. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But we want Fesus Day to be set apart, in an informal way where the members of the congregation can participate more of them and yet set apart in a sense to have sacred music. So we don’t want just, you know, classical pieces that don’t have some sacred connotation—that we can be told at the beginning of the piece and think about some aspect of God as we listen to either the music or songs or the biblical sharing, the speaking with our tongues praise to God that happened that evening. So we want to take this model and move it into more of an informal joyous environment at Fesus Day as a way then to have that kind of inform what we do the rest of our lives.

It’s good. We feel real familiar with one another and we can have small talk but we need to have that our talking with each other kind of be somewhat different on the Lord’s day. That’s his day.

What is directed mingling? Well, it means that when you talk amongst yourselves in the context of that evening, we’re going to want you to talk about particular things and find out things that other people want to thank God for or praise him for that you don’t know about. So we want your conversation to be informal and, you know, one-on-one, but we want it to be directed to seek out things of the Lord.

You see? Not because we want to change all of your speech into God’s speech. That’s not what we’re doing. But we want this pattern to flow out. You see? We want it to flow out. And even when we’re not using God words like we probably will use at Fesus Day, still our ordinary speech then becomes changed somewhat as this modeling happens from the worship service out. That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to move this into the rest of our lives.

Okay. So that’s what we’re doing. And today we want to look specifically at this psalm that was written by David and the delivering of it.

Before we do that, I wanted to make a couple of other brief points. I mentioned last week that Psalm 78 at the conclusion of it talks of the transfer of authority or ruling. In Psalm 78, it says that God did not regard—he rejected the tent of Joseph, did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.

So there’s this transfer from—I said—from Moses to David. Joshua was an Ephraimite. Joshua was Moses’ successor, and he was an Ephraimite. And Joseph became number one in the ordering of the tribes. So it wasn’t his physical age, but he became prominent, number one, sort of son. And he gets two sons under him, Ephraim and Manasseh. Of those, Ephraim gets the primary blessing. So Ephraim in Psalm 78 is related to Joshua, Moses’ successor.

And it’s also related to later the tribe of Ephraim. Really Judah and Ephraim become northern—the northern kingdom as Ephraim is referred to as Ephraim. The southern kingdom is Judah—referred to as Judah. And there’s this transition that happens. And so there’s this movement of the tabernacle which was given to Moses and his successor Joshua to set up in the context of the land. Joshua, an Ephraimite, and then this movement of transition to Judah and David as the kings now take their place in what happens. And this is accomplished here in some part and later definitively—this movement from Ephraim to Judah. But I wanted to explain that a little bit more as a couple people asked after the service. And that’s the transition that’s talked about at the end of Psalm 78. It’s a big picture of this transition from one covenantal period to another. And the tabernacle of David is a picture of this transition stage.

I also—I think—mentioned last week I got the 1st Samuel 6 and 2 Samuel 6 in incorrectly in order. 1st Samuel 6 is where the ark is with the Philistines for seven months and they send it out. And then in 1st Samuel 7, the ark goes into Abinadab’s house—you know, they make war on the Philistines in 1st Samuel 6. So the movement of the ark away from the Philistines is in 1st Samuel 6 and it’s the 2 Samuel 6 that the ark is then going to be brought up from Abinadab’s house then ends up at Obed-Edom’s house for 3 months and then they bring it up finally to Jerusalem.

So those chapter citations were a little incorrect. So that brings us back to what we talked about in the past.

And now today what I want to do—before we get to this psalm—I want us to look at verse 4. Look at verse 4 of 1st Chronicles 16. Okay. And this is where we’re going to get at the specific delineation of what the psalm is, but we have first a general description given to us.

Says that he—that is David—appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord. Not in a veiled off presence of the ark. So he’s going to tell us here about Zion worship, tabernacle worship. What is their purpose? Well, he put them there to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel.

Commemorate or to remember, to thank, and then to praise the Lord God of Israel. So the content of Zion worship—what happens in the context of Zion—the content is here summarized as a commemoration or remembering, as a thanking and then finally as a praising.

And what I’m going to suggest is one way at least to look at this and we’ll see this reflected the same pattern in the psalm itself that we’ll get to in just a couple of minutes beginning in verse 8. But what I’m going to suggest here is we can think of this three-fold action as a movement through time. To commemorate is to remember, but more than remember—to recite, to articulate the wondrous deeds of God in the past.

So what has God done? We remember it. We commemorate it. We remind each other of it. And you know the Hebrew—John taught us a couple weeks ago from Psalm 42—that when we remember God hears it. It doesn’t mean he hears it intellectually. It means he hears and acts. To remember here, to commemorate means to have our lives transformed by the remembering of it. It’s not an intellectual event only. In the Hebrew there aren’t these abstract intellectual concepts that are kind of Greek things together. So to remember God’s wondrous works changes our view of the present. It’s a reflection on the past of what God has accomplished that changes us in the present and it enables us in the present, in the midst of whatever difficulty we’re in, to give thanks to God.

The second action of this progression: so we’re remembering what God has accomplished. Well, you know, we commemorate what? The great act of God in history is what? It’s the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, his ascension. It’s the great Exodus. Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration—I have an Exodus. He said it’s the great Exodus. Now what we’ll see in this psalm that David writes for the occasion is a remembering of the first Exodus. And throughout the psalter you’ll see some references to Exodus from Egypt—the great things God has done before that. It’ll tell about the great things that he did in giving Abraham the land. And after the Exodus we’ll see it says he kept them safe in the wilderness and against other nations and he brought him in and gave him Canaan. So there’s a remembering of who we are, who God is, what he has accomplished in the past. That’s important for us to be thankful in the context of the present.

And if we do that—if we remember our history, you know—that we now don’t think of our history as going back just to our physical descendants or ancestors rather, we are linked into the whole history of the scriptures. This is what God has done for us, for you. He brought you out of Egypt. He gave you Canaan when you were few in number and drove out them before you. So that then today in our context when we need a new Exodus based upon the definitive Exodus of the Lord Jesus Christ and we find ourselves in the context of American culture under judgment because it’s turned its back upon God—when we find ourselves as few in number again as they were few in number—well, we can understand that now and we can look forward.

We can thank God in the present but we can look forward with joy to what the future will bring because it’s not rocket science. He writes the last chapters. He writes the endings. And he’s already written the ending several times to tell us what our ending will look like. We know what’s going to happen in Oregon City. We know what he did in the past. God’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. Yesterday we remember his actions. Today we give him thanks. And in the future we praise him.

Now this is some very practical implications for us. I said we have hard work to do today. We excommunicate one of our dearly beloved children of our church. This one is born in Zion—it says in Psalm 87. And this one was raised there. And you children—that’s who you are. You’re born in the context of God’s church. You’re brought into this church.

And we have a little one born in Zion who’s growing up and straying from the path. And we have to pronounce her outside of the society of Christ. But we don’t do that without remembering. We don’t do that without remembering that God is a God who brings judgments. We thank him for his judgments. But those judgments are to the end of him saving his people, to establishing them.

We remember the actions of this young lady even as she struggled with the decision this last week of whether she should repent or not. Great struggles and difficulties. She acted foolishly at the end of all those struggles and difficulties. We don’t forget the evidence of God’s spirit in her life over the last 18 years or whatever it’s been. No, we remember those things and it gives us—thank God for his judgments upon her—and look forward with joy that the prodigal will return. See? So it’s very important to understand this process here.

David sets up worship and the worship he sets up has this pattern to it. It involves a commemoration, a speaking forth, a remembering of what God has done, a remembering of what God has accomplished. And as we remember him it means we do something different in our lives. We covet it because of the fourth commandment. We’re to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Some of you struggle with that. We’re supposed to remember it.

You know, it’s interesting to me—what was the issue I was thinking of? Oh yeah—there’s this discussion of, you know, what are the manifestations of the Holy Spirit? And we can have good discussions about that. That’s important. Kind of difficult to really know exactly what the scriptures say about some of these things. It’s not difficult to know what the Lord says about the Sabbath day. This is little baby stuff.

Our children are taught from the earliest ages that there are ten commandments, not nine. They’re taught that the Sabbath is a whole day. It certainly is a transition to the Christian Lord’s Day, but it’s the whole day long. It’s not hard to know what we’re supposed to do on the Sabbath. It may be hard for you to obey it. I don’t know. But it’s not hard to know what we’re supposed to do.

But this idea of remembering it means remembering it and changing our actions in the present. If we truly remember the Sabbath day then we’ll keep it holy. Don’t go getting coffee in the morning or in the afternoon or something at some Starbucks or something. Won’t do that kind of thing. Don’t do that. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. We’re to remember things and that if proper remembering—instead of some Greek idea—”oh yeah, I remember that stuff”—no, no. We’re Hebraic. We’re molded into Hebrew culture and our remembering has an effect in the context of our specific actions.

And so the psalm that’s going to be recited here, the first half is a remembering. I think it’s hard for us to remember sometimes. Second Peter 1 he that lacks these things is blind and cannot see afar off has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.

We can forget. We act as if we were not purged from our sins and returned to them. It’s a forgetting. God says we can forget in the context of our sin. You know, we have to remember what God has done in the context of our church. We remember that he delivered us with homeschool laws in 1985. We remember he established this church. 20 years next year—20 year remembrance or commemoration and a recalling of the original commitment we have so that we might be further committed to what God wants us to do. It’s easy to forget these things or remember them.

Hosea 13:6 according to their pasture so were they filled. They were filled and their heart was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten me. We can forget God because of the temptations of sin. Forgetting. We’re purged. On the other hand, because the blessings are so great, God has given us this nice structure and we can just delight in what God has given us today and forget God thinking we’re self-sufficient. God says don’t do that. Remember me when I bring the blessings upon you and remember me when things are difficult, right?

Hebrews 12:5 you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. And we are in bad, difficult straits. We feel that God is far from us. We’re being chastised by him. He says that we tend to forget that this is the love of God toward us.

You children, you forget that your parents love you and they spank you. But that is a very picture of them loving you. And God wants you to remember his actions that chastises us because he loves us and correctly interpret your life on the basis of that.

One of the things I thought was really excellent about the Gothard presentation—he talked about difficulties and how, you know, bad, horrible things happen and we’re to give thanks and we’re to be thankful in the context of these things. He said he used to think that just meant well, you know, God has his reasons and we can’t understand them so we just put on a good effort, good attitude. But he thinks we should look for how God is using things in our lives. And I think that there’s some truth to that. Not always. We don’t always know everything that’s going to happen, but we know the general principle and the way God works in the word enough to look at a tragedy that happens or a judgment that happens and say how could this glorify God and get creative and think about it a little bit.

We can put on certain reasons for why difficult things happen. We can know sometimes—for instance through a meditation in God’s word—that a trial or tribulation happens because he’s chastening us. See? We tend to forget that God says an important part of Zion worship—preparing us for Zion life—is a proper remembering of what God has done. Because then we can thank him in the present.

Hebrews 12:5 it says that not five sparrows are sold for two farthings. Not one of them is forgotten before God. Even the sparrows are not forgotten by God. You’re not forgotten by God. He remembers us. I’ll talk about that a little bit more when we come to the Lord’s table. So we remember God. We recite his acts in covenant history. When we sing the Psalms, many of them are just that. They’re recalling to remembrance God’s actions in the past so that in the present we might understand he’s sovereign. He’s done all these things. His hand is certainly in control. He’s the sovereign determiner of whatsoever comes to pass. And we can thank him in all things.

You know, young people want to know what the will of God is for their lives. And the scriptures are quite clear that the will of God is thanksgiving. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit.”

So how do we quench the spirit? We quench the spirit by not being thankful, which is the will of God—is the central will of God. David when he gets to introduce the psalm itself proper in verse 7 says that he gave this psalm for thanks—to thanksgiving. So this commemoration, thanksgiving and praise then gets boiled down to thanksgiving as the psalm is actually introduced to us in 1st Chronicles 16.

So thanks to God is at the beginning of our actions together. We grab a hold of the elements and we give God thanks. Whatever God has given you today, no matter how difficult it is for you, no matter what situation you find yourself in, in everything give thanks to God. This is the will of God. This is the way. You do not quench the Holy Spirit. And in point of fact in Ephesians 6:16 it says, “Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye’ll be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked.”

When God has difficult things happen—the fiery darts of the wicked—these were apparently darts that had pitch put on them, lit, shot at somebody—they’d enter your body and burn, start to burn you inside of your body. So fiery darts. But the way to quench these things is to take up the shield of faith and not quench the spirit. The spirit puts out the devil’s fires or attacks on us, the pain of them. And it begins with thanksgiving in the context of our lives for these things.

You know this, but in Romans 1 we need to hear it again and again. Why do the judgments of God manifest to people in Romans 1? Verse 19: “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse.

Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful.” The things of God are clearly manifest and we’re to give God thanks in the context of all things. So people who become a church—we’re treated as these pagans and unbelievers, tax collectors, or those who have joined the ranks of those who do not give thanks—for the very restrictions that are placed upon their lives which are for their good.

When they don’t give God thanks it says they became vain in their imaginations. Their foolish hearts are darkened. Professing to be wise they became fools. And there’s rarely an excommunicate in any church that I’ve ever known of who doesn’t act like a fool. See? The core problem is a rejection, a failure to give thanks for the gracious government of Jesus Christ in the church or in the home, in the state, in the workplace. They reject his authority. They rebel against his will in some way. They fail to give thanks to God and they become fools. They just act foolishly.

Those of you who’ve had some interaction with this young woman you know that this has not been the best week or two for her in terms of whether or not she’s acting wise or foolishly. Foolishly. So we give God thanks in the present, remembering what he’s done in the past so that we can praise him with joy as we move into the future.

And that’s what this third word means in 1 Chronicles 16:4. It’s to praise God. It’s normally used in the plural, which is interesting. It’s to praise him as we come together. It doesn’t primarily refer to our individual praises of God. It refers to the corporate praises of God. It refers to not just a thanking God with an act of our will and determination knowing that he’s sovereign without understanding anything—but it means that a meditation on God’s word and work in the past, a meditation on the things we’re giving him thanks for today, we can then have a joyous attitude, thankfulness now, joyfulness, praising God in the context of whatever is happening in the context of our lives.

And when we come together into worship this is what we do. You know, we process these things. We process the difficulties in our lives. Why am I going through this trial so long? How long will it last? Why is it so hard on me? Why is my loved one not responding correctly? Why are all these things happening? When we put it in the context of God’s continual actions in history we give him thanks for it in a self-conscious way in the context of the worship service. And then we come to a place of rejoicing even in the midst of great difficulties and infirmities.

Nehemiah 8:10 says, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweets, send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. This day is holy unto the Lord. Neither be you sorrowful. The temple doesn’t look as good as it was going to look. The beginnings are small. Whatever the problem might be, maybe you came prepared for this great day of remembering the establishment of the temple again and the walls of Jerusalem and maybe it just somehow didn’t touch you. Maybe you had a week where you really struggled with your wife and somehow all this doesn’t mean anything to you. Well, he says, ‘Don’t be sorrowful on this day.’

The movement of this day, the Lord’s day, the Christian Sabbath, the movement on this day is one that is holy to the Lord. Neither be you sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. You want strength to endure through the difficulties, the trials and tribulations, whatever fiery darts may be given to you? How do you get that strength? You process it this way. You commemorate and remember. You give God thanks in the present for this thing. And you move forward then and praise him in the context of the host. And that prepares you with joy and it gives you your strength.

Psalm 28 says that Jehovah is my strength and my shield. My heart is trusted in him and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. He’s my strength, my shield. I trust in him and his actions in the past. I trust in him in the present and therefore my heart greatly rejoices and with my song will I praise him. Jehovah is their strength. He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed. Save thy people. Bless thine inheritance. Be their shepherd also and bear them up forever.

So Proverbs 17:22 says that a cheerful heart is good medicine. A broken spirit dries up the bones. What do you need? You need the great physician to minister to you in the context of Lord’s Day worship. And he—what he tells you is—you’re to have a cheerful heart. You’re to put on words of praise and rejoicing to him today in spite of the hard work we have to do in terms of the church discipline act, in spite of whatever else might be going on in your life you praise God today. Not a day of sorrowing. This is a day of rejoicing.

Psalm 149 says this is related to the future. Not just in getting a good attitude but in equipping ourselves for the warfare he gives us to do. Psalm 149, you probably know the first part: “Praise the Lord. Sing the Lord a new song. Praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.

Let their praises let them praise him in the dance. Let them sing praises unto him with the timber and harp. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let all the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. And then verse six, let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance upon the heathen, punishments upon the people, to bind their kings with irons and their nobles with fetters of iron.

To execute upon them the judgment written—this honor have all his saints. It is the strength of the Lord, the praising and joy of the Lord that equips our hand for utilizing the two-edged sword which is God’s word as we move into this week, speaking and proclaiming forth who he is and seeing the world converted, seeing his temporal judgments fill the world to the end that the elect might be brought to repentance and engrafted into Zion.

This is the movement past, present, preparation for the future. This is what Zion worship is all about. It is a great delight to enter into the worship of God and do this very thing.

Now let’s turn to the second half of this—or the second half of the sermon outline—where we talk about the initial psalm of Zion, a pattern. We won’t spend a great deal of time on this, but I want to at least think through what this pattern is and how it relates to what we’ve just said.

So turn, if you would, to Psalm 105. Keep a finger there and a finger in at 1st Chronicles 16. This psalm is a combination of two other psalms from the psalter—portions of them—and we’ll look at them. You know, I was thinking of this three-fold act in terms of what God requires of man in Micah. What does God require of man? To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. To love mercy is to think about the merciful actions of God in the past—could be seen that way—and to be like him in the context of our world today. To walk humbly before God is to thank him, the sovereign Lord, for whatever situation is happening in your life and to do justice—to use that two-edged sword of God’s judgments. You see? As we go into the world as the advent of his people we’re to be joyous. That’s what Psalm 149 tells us. There is this relationship to all of that.

Now let’s talk about this psalm. And as I said earlier in verse 7, “thank the Lord.” So verse 7 is a reminder to us in 1 Chronicles 16 that really one way to summarize all this is thankfulness in the present. And then in verse 8 we have the first half of this particular psalm.

We read that this is the first time that David delivered this on this day. As things are starting up the Zion worship is initiated and David first hands this psalm over. It seems like it was used maybe every day, very repetitiously, but it kind of is important for us to see as a model. And I want us to talk a little bit about this.

The first half of this is really a citation from Psalm 105. It’s worship based on the past beginning at verse 8. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the people. Sing to him. Sing praises to him. Speak of all his wonders. Glory in his holy name. Let all the heart rather of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the glory, Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.

Now this first section of this psalm is a whole series of commands. And it is commands that are almost all of them related to what we do with our lips, with our tongue, with our mouths. It is speaking as much about the heart attitude. It gets to that in terms of the heart, but it begins by giving us a series of actions. Give thanks. In other words, speak forth thanks. Call upon his name with your voice. Make known his deeds among the people. Speak forth into the peoples. Sing to him. Sing praises. Speak of all his wonders.

God works from the outside in. You see? God gives us a whole series of things to do with our tongues to form our attitudes up correctly as we worship him and as we go into the rest of our lives. We always want to think that God starts on the inside, that the work is really internal to us. But the sacraments come from outside of us. The voice of God almost always comes from outside of us. It’s not some kind of internal subjective thing going on. It’s not just “me, Jesus, I walk in the garden alone.” No, it’s somebody else speaking the word of God to us.

And it’s somebody else—the minister—giving you waters of baptism when you’re small, when you come to faith as an adult and weren’t baptized as a child, externally changing you from outside. And he says the same thing is true here. If you want a happier heart, sing psalms. And the whole praise and worship of Zion begins with an exhortation to use your tongues to do particular things. To sing, to give thanks, to give glory to him, to recite his actions.

All of these things are things we do with our mouth. To remember not just by thinking about but by reciting. To give him thanks not just thinking about how thankful I am but to say “I thank you Lord God in the midst of this difficulty or trial.” And to be joyous by singing songs of joy and praise to him. See? God forms us differently from exterior sources to us through our actions of our tongues. It changes our heart.

Well, I don’t want to sing because I don’t feel like it. That’s why you should sing. You see? Because when you sing and when you enter into the command worship of God today in this church, if you’re going to obey the elders and not be contumacious or contemptuous of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s for your good. Smile today. Rejoice before him. Give thanks to him. This is the heart of Zion worship.

And you will find that as you do that—you think God’s being mean to you or something by forming up your exterior in a way that doesn’t comport with your heart attitude—you’ll find your heart attitude will change typically, or you’ll have new strength to carry the difficulty or trial or burden. But if you do that, remembering what he’s done and speaking it forth, giving him thanks, you’ll come to a position of praise and glorifying him.

So God starts by talking on our external actions. And then in verses 12 to 14 he says, “Remember these things.” Verse 12: “Remember his wonderful deeds which he has done, his marvels and his judgments from his mouth. So we remember what he’s done. We remember his judgments and his judgments upon people as well and upon us. A seed of Israel, his servant, sons of Jacob, his children—his chosen ones rather.

He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. So we’re to remember his wondrous work and we’re to remember particularly his judgments upon sin. We’re to remember those things and we remember them primarily at the table here. We remember specific things. And then in verses 15 and following: “Remember his covenant forever. The word which he commanded to a thousand generations. The covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac. He also confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant.”

So we’re to remember the covenant of God. His word is his covenant. The covenant description of God’s covenant with us is a whole of his scriptures. And we’re to remember his covenant with us. Everything that we have is by way of relationship to him through covenant. And then we remember the covenant promises as well as the judgments that the covenant brings.

Verse 18: “Saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance when they were only a few in number, very few strangers in it. And they wandered about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. He permitted no man to oppress them. He reproved kings for their sake, saying, ‘Do not touch my anointed ones. Do my prophets no harm.’”

That ends the first half of this section. The first half is all about remembering God. You see? Just what we said: David said “remember, give thanks, and praise.” David here in the first half of this psalm that he writes or composes for this occasion—it’s all about remembering. And if you look at Psalm 105 you’ll see that this is nearly identical to what we have in the particular psalm here. Line for line. It’s identical. Couple of changes.

Verse 15 of 1st Chronicles 16 says “Remember his covenant.” And when we look at Psalm 105:8, does it say “remember his covenant”? No. What does it say? It says “He has remembered his covenant.” You see? So if we compare these things together—for whatever reason—the later version of it says “he has remembered” and the remembrance that goes on here, we’ll talk more about this when we get to the Lord’s table, is our remembrance of him—remembering that he’s remembering us.

We remember his covenant that he is always mindful of his covenant and remembers his covenant to save us from present difficulties. And we have this confidence of this based upon the past here in 1st Chronicles 16:8-22.

And so God calls us to covenantal remembrance. He gives us the content of what it is we are to remember. How do we understand what’s happening to us? We think of it in terms of God’s judgments. We remember his judgments. We remember his covenant, his word to us. We remember his promises.

We can say that no matter what difficulty the Lord God has brought into our life, whatever trial or tribulation has come upon us, we can remember the covenant promises and we can give God thanks because this is part of the means whereby God is going to give to us the covenant promises. What it says here—one of the things we’re to remember as we give God thanks in the present and move with joy in the future—is that he has promised certain things for us.

I don’t know if it’s just Reformation Covenant Church, but he has promised that on this location, that in this city this city will as a group give up praise and worship to God in a fullhearted fashion. We’re few in number now. They were few in number then. God brought them out of the difficulties and trials and he gave them a land and he conquered the land supernaturally before them and they grew and developed in the context of it.

He gives us this land. He gives the churches of Jesus Christ. He gives the elect of Jesus Christ Oregon City and he causes us to remember his past works so that now when we’re a few in number here we look forward to the future with joy—which is our strength. Why can we look forward to evangelizing all of Oregon City and seeing covenant renewal worship cover this whole mountaintop here of Oregon City? Why? Because God has done this in the past. He’s going to do it in the future. It’s what he said he’s going to do. Remember his covenant promise to us. And it gives us joy and strength for the work that God has called us to do.

Now the second half of this particular psalm that’s used in Mount Zion worship is given to us in verses 23 and following. And this is the advent of Yahweh wedding together Jew and Gentile. And here we want to look at Psalm 96. So put your finger in at Psalm 96.

This text and we’ll look at this psalm as it relates to Psalm 96. Psalm 105, by the way, that we just said was the Exodus portion—related to here—goes on to speak more explicitly in the verses that follow that were not quoted in the Zion psalm about the Exodus. It is definitely an Exodus psalm. It’s a remembrance of God’s great Exodus in the past.

We can look back and remember the Exodus of the Lord Jesus Christ bringing humanity out of sin and bondage into the liberty of the sons of God. And so that’s what we remember. That’s what the covenant is. That’s what the promises are. And here we move on now to a different subject beginning at verse 23. And this is nearly a direct citation—not quite as direct as the Psalm 105 to the first half of this Zion of worship, a Zion worship psalm—but this is from Psalm 96.

Now notice verse 23: “Sing to the Lord all the earth and then proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day.”

Let’s look at Psalm 96: “Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day.” And then it picks up verse for verse. So it’s a little bit different.

Now if you look at Psalm 96 the structure of Psalm 96 becomes clear to us. Look at verses 1 and 2: Sing, sing, sing, right? And then look down to verse 7: Ascribe, ascribe, ascribe. Three-fold repetition. Sing, sing, sing, ascribe, ascribe, ascribe—and then verse 11: “Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar in all it contains. Let the fields exalt in all that’s in them. Let”—

Okay, Psalm 96 has a definite structure of three stanzas. And these three stanzas are delineated by this three-fold repetition of “sing,” “ascribe,” and “let.”

Okay. And if we look back now to 1st Chronicles 16 we see that the three singings are boiled down to one singing in verse 23. In verse 28: “Ascribe to the Lord, O peoples of the earth. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name. Ascribe, ascribe, ascribe”—three of them there. Verse 31: “Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let them say among the nations, the Lord reigns.” And then “let the sea roar and all that it contains, let the field exalt.”

So there is a little bit of a difference of structure here but it’s very similar. Now verse 31, after it says “Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice,” see that in verse 31, then it says “Let them say among the nations, the Lord God reigns.” Look back at Psalm 96 and look at verse 10. Verse 10 says “Say among the nations, the Lord reigns.” So a little bit of rearrangement in Psalm 96.

A little bit of the singular singing at the first of 1st Chronicles 16 expands into a three-fold singing. The latter has an exhortation to proclaim to the heathen this stuff that was in Psalm 96 but rearranged just a bit. But the basic pattern is the same.

What is that pattern? What is it that we’re to be joyous about? Because this is now the joyous part of this, right? We’ve done the remembering thing and now we’re giving joy to God.

Sing to the Lord all the earth. Why? Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all the gods. All the gods of the people are idols. But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and joy are in his place.

So why do we rejoice in the first stanza? Because God made the heavens. He’s creator God. He makes the heavens and he’s to be greatly praised because of that.

Verse 28 starts the second stanza: “Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name. Bring an offering, come before him, worship the Lord in holy array, tremble before him, all the earth. Indeed the world is firmly established. It will not be moved.”

So stanza one: God made the heavens. Stanza two: God made the earth. Creator God of heaven, creator God of earth—stanza one to stanza two. Now remember that heaven and earth in the Old Testament are a picture of the priestly nation and then the Gentile nations around them. And what’s happening in Psalm 96 is—one of those advent psalms as the king comes—he comes to establish the heavens and to also make the earth firm and they get wedded together into heaven and earth. That’s what Jesus came to do. That’s what the New Testament is about—is there’s one church now of heaven and earth come together in him.

And stanza one talks about how God created the heavens. Stanza two: the earth will be established. It will not be outside of the order of God and his blessing and presence. And then verse 31: the third stanza. “Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Do you see?”

Third stanza begins by saying they’re brought together now. The heavens of his creation, the rest of the lands of his creation—Jews and Gentiles brought together in Zion worship before him, finally and definitively brought together through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are now the heavenly people dwelling in the context of the earth. And that is a glorious truth. That’s a glorious truth.

So these psalms move in terms of remembrance and then they move in terms of the praise of Yahweh, the great creator God—to be proclaimed to the Gentiles. Yahweh shall establish the entire world—not just the land of God’s people—through proclamation and worship. And Yahweh’s actions unite heaven and earth into one.

And in each of these stanzas three components are found. There’s a call to praise Yahweh. We saw that very obviously at the beginning of each one. Sing, sing, sing, ascribe, ascribe, ascribe. Let everything be glad before him. There’s a cause to praise Yahweh. Secondly, there’s a call to proclaim Yahweh to the nations.

Verse 24 is in the first end: “Tell of his glory among the nations.” Verse 30: “Therefore before him tremble all the earth. All the earth will tremble.” In verse 31b: “Let them say among the nations” this is what he says. Say to the nations these things in the third section.

So in each one of these stanzas there is the praise of God followed by the declaration of who God is into all the earth. The light of God shines forth from Zion proclaiming God’s works to the nations. And then there’s a promise of the conversion of the entire world at the end of each of these sections.

Verse 25: “The earth is the Lord, a great Lord, great to be praised. He also be spirited above the gods. He’s the creator God who created everything and he will be praised greater than just the Jewish nation coming together to praise him.” There’s this promise given to us. Verse 30b: “The world shall be firmly established as this progression happens.” In verse 33: “Then the trees of forest will sing for joy before the Lord. He is coming to judge the earth. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His loving kindness is everlasting. Everything will yield its praise to God.”

God says that we are called to use our voices today to change our attitudes in the present, become joyous about the future. And he gives us great hope for that future in the last half of this psalm of Zion—the maybe the exemplary psalm of the Lord—a remembering of the past, thanking God in the establishment of present situations and his judgments in the earth to the end that all the world will be converted as we have joy about the future and strength for the tasks by that joy that God has called us to do.

And then there’s the wonderful conclusion of this psalm: “Then blessed be the Lord God of Israel and all the people say amen and amen.” Wonderful conclusion. The word “blessed” doesn’t happen till the very end of the psalm as we see all the plans of God—what he has done in the past, what he’s doing in the present and what he’s establishing in the future for his people.

And as we conform our hearts to all of that through changing the way we speak about our present situation, to obeying the command to sing him psalms today, to give him thanks, to declare his works and to joy before him in song and with music—as we do those things—then we get to the final declaration: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, the God of our past, the God of our present, and the God who brings us into great joy in the future.”

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you that your judgments fill your world. We thank you for the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for Zion worship. We thank you for this psalm of great delight to us. We thank you that we’re told at the very beginning of it what it’s supposed to do—to bring us to remember you, Lord God, to declare your works one to another. I pray that Fesus Day be a time of men declaring your works to each other.

I pray that some may today take the time to tell one another of the great works you have done in the past and maybe in our own lives as well. We pray, Lord God, that we would give you thanks not just in our hearts silently but bursting forth into the song of Zion worship that we would also give you thanks today in our lips with our tongues before you for the difficult things of accepting from your hand. And finally we pray that you would fill us with joy for the future—knowing what you’ve done in the past, that your actions are upon us in the present—may we be joyful for the future.

We pray Lord God as people come forward to give their tithes and offerings to you that we would commit ourselves afresh to giving you verbal thanksgiving in the midst of difficult situations, for reminding ourselves of your great events in the past and the glorious and bright future you have for us. In Jesus name we ask this. Amen.

Thank God. Jehovah speaks and calls the earth from sea to sea. From beauty Zion God shines forth. He comes and will not silence. Devouring flame before him goes and dark the tent around him grows. He calls aloud to him and earth that he may justly judge his own. My chosen saints together bring whose sacrifice to him alone. For him his righteousness declares for God himself as judge is there.

Hear all my people I will speak against thee. I will testify. Give ear to me, oh Israel, for God thy covenant God am I. I do not spurn thy sacrifice. Thy offerings are before my eyes. I will receive from thy fold no offering for my holy shrine. The cattle on a thousand hills and all the forest beasts are mine. Each mountain bird to me is known. Whatever roams the field I own.

Behold, if I should hungry grow I would not tell my need to thee. For all the world itself is mine and all its wealth belongs to me. Why should I ought receive my thirst or hunger to relieve? Bring thou to God the gift of thanks and pay thy vows to God most high. Call you upon my holy name. In days when sore distresses nigh, deliverance I will send to thee, and praises thou shalt give to me.

Context for our prayer this morning will be Psalm 48. Let us pray together.

Gracious heavenly father, almighty Lord of hosts, ruler over the rulers of men, you are great and greatly to be praised in your city, in your holy mountain, the church whom you have blessed with your presence by the Holy Spirit. We praise you and we magnify your name that you are making your people, your bride whom you have betrothed to yourself, into a glorious city, Mount Zion, the city of the great King Jesus. Oh, cause us to be that spotless city, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth.

And may the world know that you are in our palaces and that you are our only refuge. Grant your people of Mount Zion favor with the kings of the earth, both here in this country and throughout the whole world. We pray that you would bless President Bush and those under him. And may you grant him your wisdom, your