Dennis Tuuri

# Psalm 138: The Lord Will Perfect That Which Concerns Me

That we just read responsively and sang a version of it and we sing that song frequently. I think it’s an offering song typically for us and maybe after today’s sermon and reading responsively Psalm 138 that will inform your singing of it in the future as well and bring you comfort and joy from the Holy Spirit. So please stand for the reading of Psalm 138. And our topic is the Lord will perfect that which concerns me.

Psalm 138, a Psalm of David. I will praise you with my whole heart. Before the gods, I will sing praises to you. I will worship toward your holy temple and praise your name for your loving kindness and your truth. For you have magnified your word above all your name. In the day when I cried out, you answered me and made me bold with strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth.

Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord. For great is the glory of the Lord. Though the Lord is on high, yet he regards the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the works of your hands.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your scriptures, for the revelation that they are to us of you and who we are in relationship to you. Bless us, Lord God. May your Holy Spirit do his work amongst us today individually and corporately as well. And Father, we pray that work would be one of transformation, that we would delight in this text, find it of great comfort, confidence, hope, and also spur us on to action as we look forward to the new year that you give us. In Jesus name, we give you thanks for that year. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, we today are at the cusp of one year moving into another year. The liminal space—that means a doorway. January is from the word Janus, the Janus god who was the liminal doorway god of the Greeks. And the idea was he had two faces. One looking in, one looking out. A perversion of the biblical truth. But it is a perversion of a true truth.

And that is that at this particular time of year we look back on what has been accomplished in the past year. We look back at what God has done in our life and we look forward to the coming year as well. So, you know, our times and seasons—we sort of take them for granted, but they’re there because of the established purposes of God on the fourth day. And we move in a daily cycle, of course, we move in a weekly cycle, we move in a monthly cycle, more or less tied to the moon, and we move in an annual cycle tied to the sun.

The Old Testament calendar was predominantly one that was governed primarily by the moon. And in the New Testament, the lunar festivals are gone. And now we’re in a time when we’re governed by the sun, s-o-n, and the sun in our sky is a reflection of his rule and his rule over us and his giving us times and seasons. So, it’s appropriate to mark these annual observances as we do weekly and daily and monthly observances as well.

And this is a psalm. This will be my fourth time I’ve preached on this in the 30 years here at RCC. And the reason I do it is that years ago—and many of you have heard this—but R.J. Rushdoony, whose writings you know I would highly commend to you in this coming year, a man who is exceedingly important for Reformation Covenant Church and for the broader reformation that’s going on in our country, said that this was the psalm he would read at the end of every year and the beginning of the next year.

So at that cusp, liminal transition stage, he would read this psalm because it has tremendous comfort in it. It has tremendous confidence for the future and it’s a psalm that is quite appropriate to this time of year as are other psalms of course but this one particularly. I think as we look back—you know, we talked about this rumble of panic that can kind of undergird our lives and the quote we read then was that if we don’t talk about that, if we don’t deal with that aspect of our lives, we’re really not being serious about life and Christianity addresses that rumble of panic.

Another phrase that’s used is the quiet despair, right? Of life—that there is a despairing aspect to certain moments in our lives. And we have these things that are going on. We look back at a year and yes, there were highs. Yes, there were accomplishments and successes, but there were also failures. There was also very difficult times for some of us more than others. But all of us have difficult struggles and trials as part of our lives. We suffer and that’s part of what God has ordained for us.

And this particular text should be one that helps us to interpret that suffering, those trials and tribulations in a way that gives us comfort and also gives us confidence as we look forward to the coming year. You know, there are people in the context of our church who—one family who lost a son and another family who is looking at the loss of a daughter. One of the most difficult things is to see that kind of trouble in terms of our children.

Others have seen their children go through great struggles with sin or difficulties. Others with struggles with unemployment or vocation. Others with struggles trying to find mates unsuccessfully. These are very real difficulties that people go through in the context of a particular year. Some of us have struggled with health. Some have struggled economically. Doug has struggled, you know, all year with unemployment for most of the year. These are real difficulties, trials and troubles, that can produce at times a rumble of panic and at other times quiet despair over what’s happening.

How do we understand this stuff? You know, God is not like us. I mean, we’re made in his image, but you know, it’s—I was at a New Year’s Eve service at Rolling Hills—Christmas Eve, I’m sorry, Christmas Eve service at Rolling Hills last Wednesday. Went to two: one there and one at the Schnitzer from Solid Rock, which was a real blessing, by the way. In the sermon, he quoted N.T. Wright and talked about the reflection of Christ as a reflection of who God is, including his going to the cross for us.

So it was a great sermon. But the one at Rolling Hills, you know, he was talking about how God had come to solve our brokenness, to fix our brokenness. And it was an evangelistic sermon. And if I was sitting there listening to it, it was fine sermon, but probably if I was listening I probably would have thought, “Well, what took him so long? I mean the fall happened 6,000 years ago. God waited 4,000 years, you know, to bring Jesus to the world to fix our brokenness, right?

And then we’ve gone through 2,000 years post-cross. Lots of blessings and all that stuff, but also great struggles. So, you know, how do we understand these things? How do we cope with our own individual problems and difficulties or the cosmic difficulties that we see as well? How do we understand them? And one thing we can say is well part of our understanding is that God doesn’t work like us. He doesn’t work in our time schedule.

He doesn’t do things the way we do them. He’s unexpected. He surprises us all the time. And if we try to pretend something other, I think we’re just trying to control things in our head, trying to make God into something that will, you know, be more like us that we can understand a little better. God isn’t like us. Now God reflects to us and communicates to us who he is. And this psalm is an important truth in which God brings to us a knowledge of who he is.

It brings us—and I’ll be talking of this psalm in five points, five simple points. First, it brings us comfort, but it’s a comfort that acts. Okay, that does something. It’s comfort, tremendous comfort in the first couple of verses. Secondly, it brings prayer, but a prayer that transforms—first us and then the world round about us. A comfort that acts, a prayer that transforms.

And third, a hope that teaches. We’ll have tremendous hope at the center of this psalm. A great truth is revealed about what God is doing over 6,000 years and what he’s accomplishing. It brings us great hope for the future. As much as comfort for the past, we have great hope for the future. And it’s hope that ends up in us responding to it by teaching. It’s a hope that teaches.

Fourth, there’s a humility stressed here as we read through this psalm. You probably noticed it about the proud and the humble. There’s a humility that empowers us. So, in our weakness, in our humility, we have great power and strength from being humble before God and not prideful.

And finally, there’s a great confidence at the end that God will perfect that which concerns us, which then results in prayer, right? It’s a confidence that doesn’t just say, “Well, he’s going to do these things, so I don’t have to worry about it.” No, it’s a prayer. It’s a confidence that immediately leads to the last line of the text, which is a prayer that God not forsake the works of his hands.

So, there’s comfort, a prayer, hope, humility, and then confidence as we go through the text. All right, let’s begin to talk about it. And we’re going to spend more time on point number one. Don’t worry about it. We’ll go through the fairly quickly. But point number one needs some work. It needs some explanation of what this comfort is about. And part of the explanation, part of understanding this comfort is knowing the context of this particular psalm.

So, you know, it’s like if you read a couple of verses in the middle of Romans, you really can’t understand them as well as you should if you don’t look at the context, read the verses right around it. But then the whole message of the book of Romans, too, helps us to understand a particular text. The Psalms are the same way. We tend to treat the Psalms and Proverbs in these individual little nuggets that we memorize. But there’s a flow to these things.

We know because the book is organized into five mini books, right? There’s 41 Psalms in book one, 31 in book two, 17 in book three, 17 in book four, and 44 in the fifth book of the Psalms. So, it’s the largest one with beginning and end of 41 and 44 Psalms. Now, we know this because there’s definite demarcators. This is not something weird and deep. Commentaries that do any serious work in looking at the Psalms understand this—that there’s five books and in fact probably some of your Bibles have them marked out: book one, book two, book three, book four, book five. Okay, so this is in book five, right? This psalm.

But book five has a particular structure to it as well. Okay, it begins with Psalms of Exodus and deliverance. Okay, so in Psalms 107 through 118, it has this idea of Exodus in those particular 12 psalms that begin it. And so the movement here in those psalms is Exodus, conquest, trouble, Yahweh becomes enthroned, and then it concludes with what’s called the Egyptian Hallel or praise God. So that section of those 12 Psalms begins with the great praise to God for the Exodus and the movement.

So as the fifth book of the Psalms moves along, it wants us to think in terms of God’s movement in history through the Exodus, deliverance, trouble, he’s enthroned, and then we burst into praise. Okay, so that’s kind of how it works. Then in 119, that’s the great psalm about the law, of course. And then there’s 17 psalms of ascent in the very middle of these 44 psalms. That’s 120 through 136.

So there’s psalms of ascent that demonstrate either literally being used in the pilgrimages to the temple or figuratively at least—these psalms of ascent are at the middle of this fifth book and they break into then this great concluding psalm of ascent, 136, that is a psalm of praise, of course. So you know if you think about the movement so far of this book—of this fifth book of the psalms—it’s exodus and deliverance and enthronement and praise and then the law of God is what we receive at the holy hill of God and we regularly go there through the Psalms of Ascent and we praise his holy name.

And so it’s all good times. It’s all good times in this. And we know that the end of the book, this fifth book, is Psalm 115. And if we know anything about that, we know that’s the conclusion of the great Hallel—the so-called or at least some people refer to it as that—a number of psalms of praise. But then you’ve got this psalm in 137 that is like a splash of water in the face, but not water, probably something awful you don’t want in your face. There’s a psalm of crisis in 137.

So, you’ve got this great movement forward from at the beginning of this book up to 136 and then you’ve got this 137 right by the streams of Babylon we wept. It’s a psalm about being taken into captivity. And the psalmist asks, “How, you know, can we—demanded a song of us, our captives—how can we sing our psalm of praise in a foreign land?”

And 137 doesn’t answer it. It says, “We’ve got trouble. Trouble right here now. Horrible trouble. We’re taken away from Jerusalem, away from Israel, away from the temple. We’re thrown into Babylon or whatever other exile you might be in. And how do we sing our song there? How do we praise God in the midst of troubles and trials and you know, our children dying and tremendous health problems and difficulty with work, difficulty in relationships, isolation, loneliness.

How do we sing our song in the midst of the trials, the rumble of panic, the despair, the quiet despair that at times marks our lives? Now, that’s the context for 138. And the answer is there’s two answers. 138 is one and 139 is the second. And then we go right back into Praise.

138 says, “You have magnified your word above your name.” Now, what does that mean? Well, it’s a tough verse. It’s a tough verse for translators. They don’t like the verse. What do you mean? Think about it. Why would they have a problem with that verse? “You have magnified your word above your name.” Well, the name of God represents everything God is—his attributes, his collection of who he is. His word is his word to us, his revealed word. And it is, of course, a covenant word, and it refers to his faithfulness.

Now, why would anything be magnified more than the very character of God? How could God magnify something above his very person? And so, translators have taken this text, and you know, the Hebrew is pretty clear. It’s right there. If you read Young’s Literal Translation, it sounds much like the translation we just read. “You’ve magnified your word or your promise, your covenant loyalty above your name.” And so the question is, well, there must be some problem. We have to amend the text.

And so many translations, the ESV and others, what they do is they say, well, it’s not there, but really we can think of his word and his name together as an and. So “you’ve magnified your word and your name above everything else” is how they’ll translate it. But they know that’s not really, you know, if we’re just going to take the Hebrew the way it is, the translation is “you magnified your word above your name.”

Why does it say that? Well, I think that the reason is this answer. You know, when you’re away from the presence of God—God chose to dwell, his name was placed—and well, you could go to the temple verses Solomon’s dedication of the temple. That’s where your name dwells. In a special sense, God made his presence known at the temple. This was his throne room, the ark of the covenant particularly. That’s his temple.

Okay? And his temple is where his name dwells. And so this idea of God’s name is associated with the temple. And now we’re talking about a response when we’re taken away from the temple. And one of the answers to that, one of the comforting—the tremendous comforting truths—is while we can be away from the immediate blessings and face of God and blessing, away from the temple, away from good times, away from his closeness, we still have his word with us.

And so the exiles—ultimately, much later than David, of course—that would be taken away into Babylon in 137, part of their comfort was they had the word of God still. They could still pray toward the temple, which is what David says in the Psalm. By the way, did you notice that we sang it differently? We sang “we’ll pray in your temple,” but it doesn’t actually say that in verse two. He says, “I will worship toward your temple.” Toward your holy temple.

Now, that’s the same language that Daniel and Jonah both use. Why do they say toward your temple? Because they’re away from the temple. So, they worship toward where God’s name is placed. No, they weren’t stupid. It wasn’t as if God was out there and he wasn’t any place else, but his particular presence was there. And we can kind of think of that in terms of his particular presence and blessing with us.

And when we’re sent into exile through the death of loved ones—death of loved ones who are friends, family—and some of the deaths that have been experienced in the extended reach of RCC this last year have been very tragic, mournful events—or when we go through health difficulties, or economic problems or friendship problems—then what God is telling us is I think that’s when we should remember that part of our comfort is in knowing his word. He’s magnified his word above his name. Okay.

So we pray toward the temple of God, which is what David says here. Now of course David wasn’t part of the Babylonian captivity. In fact, when you read about the temple in the psalms in Davidic psalms, well, there was no temple, right? David didn’t get to build the temple. His son was going to build a temple. David built the tabernacle of David, the place of worship, you know, on Zion. And later Solomon would build the temple on Mount Moriah and bring David’s psalms and things into temple worship.

But David uses the word temple here. Well, that just, you know, we—when it talks about Eli and his sons back in 1 Samuel, the same word is used: temple. Let me see. Let me read that verse real quick. It’s 1 Samuel 1:9 and 3:3. Let me just read it. You don’t have to turn there. So in 1:9, “So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple.”

See, New King James says tabernacle. It’s not the word for tabernacle. It’s the word for temple. And it’s only used in the tabernacle a couple of times, and this is one of them. But it’s called the temple here. Okay. Eli’s sitting by the post of the temple. Now, a couple of chapters later, we get a little more explanation. 1 Samuel 3:3, “Before the lamp of God went out”—this is before the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was. And while Samuel was lying down—

So the temple was the resident place of the ark of God. So it was a tabernacle, right? It would become a temple later. Different structure, different names for tabernacle and temple. But here the word temple is used to refer to the tabernacle because the ark of God is there, the name of God, the presence of God amongst his people. Okay? So David can use this word temple in the same way that the writer does in the times of Eli long before the temple was built—of a tabernacle. But the point is this: This is a verse of tremendous comfort that God has exalted his word above his name.

Now you know it’s a verse that is incomprehensible if you understand what I’m saying here. There’s a sense in which we just can’t understand this because as I said earlier, how does he do this? We can’t restrict this, I don’t think, to the idea of his written word and the temple itself. That is a source of comfort for us. But I think the other source of comfort is that we’re creatures who are made in covenant relationship with God.

And God has made certain promises to us in his word. Okay? And those promises to us—God says he exalts above his very person. I mean, understand this: and that’s what’s being said here. There’s a sense in which this verse, while perhaps exaggeration for a fact I don’t know, but there’s a sense in which this verse could be thought of as that the ultimate attribute of God relative to us in our sufferings that he wants us to remember is his faithfulness, his holiness, his majesty, his righteousness.

All those things are subsumed in his name, his various attributes. But above those attributes, all those attributes serve, as it were, his faithful covenant word to you and to I. Now, that’s an astonishing thought, right? This is astonishing. We can’t understand it. We can’t comprehend it. It’s beyond us. But we can trust it and we can find tremendous comfort in the context of knowing that.

Now, there’s also some implications for this, right? I mean, the Bible tells us who God is. And what he tells us here is, “Man, above everything else, in times of trouble, God wants to know he is faithful to us.” Okay? He’s faithful and he’s with us.

By the way, the other answer to Psalm 137 is Psalm 139. That’s a psalm that’s frequently read during a human life Sunday or anti-abortion day of the Lord. You know, “God knows I’m in the womb. Where can I go to get away from you? No place.” Can you see the comfort that brings to those in exile? Oh yeah, I’ve thrown you, you know, into another nation, but you know, don’t think I’m not there. I’m omnipresent. And which doesn’t mean in some sort of abstract sense God is everywhere. It means he’s where you are. You can’t get away from him.

But as a result of that tremendous comfort, you’re in exile with his word and you’re in exile with his presence in the context of your life. Okay? And that word is one of faith to us that he’s going to accomplish what he intends to accomplish.

So, so this is a message of tremendous comfort to us that God has magnified his faithfulness, his scriptures. I think we have to look at the word that of course we have to see the incarnate word, Jesus Christ, that we’ve been celebrating this season. Of course, all those things we bring into this understanding of the magnification of the word of God above his attributes.

You know, Psalm 15, who gets to come into the holy temple of God? The one who swears to his own hurt. Men and women, boys and girls—we’re to be people of our word. As image bearers of God, we could say that from the perspective of this psalm, that’s the most important thing you’ve got. Used to be, you know, the common expression: you know, if you don’t have your name or your word, people’s reliance on your word, you got nothing.

That’s not the way it is anymore. Our words are flipped or your words are thrown off the cuff. Our words are not our bond anymore. And the world suffers because of it. God is a God who exalts his word above everything else. At least in the context of giving us this verse of comfort. And yes, it’s comforting to us. But it’s a comfort that acts. And as a result of knowing that as his image bearers, what should we do?

We should be faithful to our word. We should swear to our hurt. If God swore to his hurt, if he swore to bring us salvation and to accomplish that, died on the cross for us, who are we supposed to be? We’re supposed to be like that. And even if fulfilling our word, you know, hurts us in serious significant ways, we’re to be faithful people.

The comfort that God gives us, you know, makes us act in particular ways. Now the other thing that acts—the other action here that’s discussed in these first couple of verses, of course, is praise. Verses—you know, he says I’m doing this because you’ve magnified your word. Well what’s he doing? “I’ll praise your name with my whole heart. Before the gods I will sing praises to you.”

See again there a shadow of exile. The gods are the rulers. That’s what the word means here. I’m before the rulers—Daniel before Nebuchadnezzar, right? Cyrus, whoever it is, wherever we’re taken into captivity, before those very rulers they demand of us a song. We’ll give it to them. Our captives demand a song; we’ll sing to them. We’ll sing praises to you in the presence of ungodly authorities and rulers in the world. We’ll sing praises to you because we know that in spite of what our eyes tell us, in spite of what our emotions are telling us, in spite of how we feel, either despair or panic, we know that God has magnified his faithful word above his very name.

And because of that knowledge, we’re to act with confidence. We’re to be faithful people, but we’re to be people that praise him in the midst of enemies, trials, and difficulties. It’s a hope—it’s a comfort rather here, a tremendous comfort that moves us to action as the image bearer of God.

One final point of application before we move on to the other four points in the sermon. If God has exalted his word, I wish I had a Bible here. I don’t use a Bible anymore. I print out things because it’s such large text. But you know, you’ve got that Bible sitting with you probably or on your app. That’s fine, too. You’ve got it right now. God says he’s magnified that above his very name.

Do you see the value that God places on his word to you? What value do you place on it? Are you reading your Bible? Are you studying your Bible? Are you memorizing your Bible? You know, we continue to struggle with the Sunday school numbers. And who knows why that is. I always figure, well, if kids are getting great Bible instruction at home, I’m not so concerned about the Sunday school numbers. But that’s a big if. And my experience for 30 years is the kids aren’t necessarily getting consistent excellent instruction in the scriptures. They’re not knowing their Bibles in a time when they’re able to learn. Their minds are open. They’re dedicated for 15 years of their life to learn. Are they learning the Bible? The most important thing that God exalts above his very person.

God puts that value on it. And he wants us as we look back to take comfort from that. But he wants us to be challenged that we might place his Bible as that kind of priority, authority in the context of our lives. Lots of, you know, lots of people in the world today that want to split Jesus and the Bible apart. Can’t be done. Jesus is the word. The Bible is the word. And the Bible reveals to us who Jesus is. Okay? So God places that kind of significance on his word. And may the Lord God grant us a likemindedness as image bearers of him. May we also place that kind of significance that leads us to be faithful men, people that exalt God’s word in our own estimation of it, and people that sing praises to God in the midst of enemies and are willing, able, desirous of witnessing as we move into this new year.

Okay, that’s the first couple of verses.

Next thing that happens is a statement about prayer. Prayer. And we have here a prayer and it’s a prayer that transforms. Now, I’m mostly just going through verse after verse here, but I’m going to bring in another verse in addition to the one that comes next in the order of the text.

We read in verse three, “In the day when I cried, thou answerest me and strengthenest me with strength in my soul.” Okay, so we have this tremendous comfort that moves us to action in the first couple of verses. Now we have a prayer that transforms us, right? That’s what it is. The prayer that he issues here doesn’t result in a changed external condition to him. Still in captivity, we could say, still running away from Saul, we could say. Okay. Still, you know, having to leave Jerusalem because of Absalom. We could say, fill in you know your own trials and difficulties when we have problems around us.

What kind of prayer do we make to God? We want prayers that bring transformation and we want transformation that happens internally and then we’ll see externally as well. But internally is what I want to focus on here. What does he say? “In the day when I cry You answered me—because he’s faithful. And what was the answer? You strengthened me with strength in my soul.” His primary concern is not changed conditions as a result of his prayer. His primary concern is a changed heart, an empowered and encouraged soul. That’s the purpose of prayer, at least as it’s listed for us in verse three of Psalm 138.

We pray that we might change. Our prayers are always very typically about wanting things to change around us or in our circumstances, our conditions. But if God is being faithful to his word in the rumble of panic and the quiet despair of this last year, then maybe in some of those moments, our prayer shouldn’t be, “Take away the circumstances that you’ve brought into my life,” but rather “May those circumstances do their work in providing maturation of my soul, strength against opposition, whatever it is.” David, the second point of this psalm, is he prays and it’s a prayer that transforms and it’s a prayer that transforms him first.

Now it goes on to transform other things. Verse seven, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies. Thy right hand shall save me.” He expects for conditions to change and improve. But he begins with a transformation of himself which leads then to a transformation of what’s round about us.

I think I’m going to preach on James during Lent this season. I haven’t quite decided but I think I will. You know the significance of sufferings and trials in our lives to produce the sort of character as men and women of God. That’s what he’s into. His ways are not our ways. We just want a better life. He wants a better us. And then he’ll fix the life too. Things will change around us. But there’s a prayer here and it’s a prayer that transforms and its transformation occurs first inwardly.

I’ve made this point, you know, several times this last year because I’ve thought about it a lot and I’ve thought a lot about, you know, asking people to pray for my leg or pray for my diabetes or pray for whatever it is. Okay, fine. But, you know, first pray that I accept these disciplines of God and become more disciplined in my soul, that I take courage in the midst of trouble, that I could comfort other people in trouble, that I find myself more disciplined to watch what I eat, to take control of my medications, to do things correctly, to do the exercise, whatever it is. You see that’s the first thing I want you to pray for me and that I should be praying for myself? That’s what David prays for here—his own strengthening in his soul, courage.

And when we recognize that God has exalted his word—the Lord Jesus and his people, his faithful covenant word, his Bible—this is what all history is moving in terms of. God answers our prayers and he strengthens us internally and we become better people and then he also changes the circumstances dealing with our enemies. Even in verse 7, it sort of starts first with David, right? Before moving to verse 7, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me.” So the first thing the prayer accomplishes is reviving us, right?

Then “thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of my enemies.” Okay, so a prayer that transforms.

Third, there is in this psalm a hope that teaches. Next couple of verses, “All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, oh Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Okay. All the kings will praise you when they hear the words of your mouth. Yay. They shall sing in the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord.”

Ah well that’s the third point here. The middle point is a tremendous confidence relative to what God is doing in the context of the created order. He gives us bright hope for the coming year knowing that history moves in terms of all the kings of the earth. How many is all? It’s all of them. All the nations will be governed by rulers and civil authorities that will praise the name of God. That’s the assurance that this word that he’s magnified above his person and that he wants us to pray in reference to. That’s the assurance that word gives us in the context of our troubles and difficulties.

We don’t like what’s happening to our nation. It’s part of God’s great long plan to bring all the kings of the earth to praise the name of Yahweh. Now, when does it happen? Well, it tells us “all the kings of the earth shall praise you, Lord”—when there’s a condition. “They hear the words of your mouth.” Oh, well, okay.

So, it’s a great hope, right? But it’s a hope that moves us to action. They’re not going to do it if they don’t hear the words of his mouth. And in the immediate context, what that means is the praise that David will offer before the gods or the rulers will be salvific toward them. It’ll bring them eventually toward repentance and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and to praising his name with us. But we’ve got to sing our praises before the rulers.

And those praises should be informed by his word. They have to know the words of God’s mouth. That’s what’ll bring all the nations to Christ. We’re to disciple the nations by speaking and singing of the great truths of the scriptures. So, we have this tremendous hope as we look forward to the coming year in spite of whatever civil turmoil there may be here or whatever is going to happen with Obamacare or anything else.

We got a fixed hope for the future knowing that the history is the process whereby God is bringing all the kings of the earth to praise him. But our response to that a knowledge of that is to empower us to teach him—to teach the kings and the rulers and the civil authorities at various levels the words of God’s mouth. And if we don’t do it, then there’s no wonder why it doesn’t happen.

The same truth is what happens in Paul’s pastoral epistle to Timothy. Of first importance, pray for all kinds of men, particularly rulers, that they might become believers, right? God wants all kinds of men to be saved. Very first thing we’re supposed to do as a church is be praying for the conversion of our civil magistrates. That’s I think that’s what 1 Timothy 2 says. And it’s a pastoral epistle to a young pastor to teach him how he’s supposed to behave in the household of God, the church.

And what he places his first priority on is essentially this text. Bring the kings to praise the Lord—praise the Lord Jesus Christ—to praise the triune God. Which means we’re to teach them the words of God’s mouth through our praises and through our instruction. A number of us, several of us, this is one thing we literally did years ago in the Oregon legislature. This church actually gave copies of Rushdoony’s Institutes of Biblical Law signed and dedicated to these legislators in Salem.

We did that. There was a group that John S. was involved with. I was involved with—Bruce Stair at the time—that produced a Bible study for legislators. I think it still might be used occasionally. You know, we took seriously this mission to the civil magistrate. I’m not saying we don’t take it seriously now, but that’s what this third point is. There’s a tremendous hope as we look forward to the coming year in the succession of years. It’s a hope that ends up teaching the civil magistrate.

Fourth, there is in the next verse humility that empowers. “So though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth a far off.” Very significant verse. It’s sort of at the center way some structures of this psalm can look. This is really kind of a core thing at the middle and it tells us about one thing. You know, so we got the seven deadly sins, you got the seven lively virtues, right? But the seven deadly sins, the church always taught them as manifestations of the first deadly sin, which is pride. And the seven lively virtues, which is the opposite of the seven deadly sins.

Here, I think the core value is given to us of humility. So, it’s like you get this one right, things will go well for you. I mean, there’s more work to be done. But this is not, you know, pride versus humility is not just one part of a whole bunch of character traits you should think about in your life or the life of your children. No, this is the one that’s singled out here. And in verse six, we read, “Then though the Lord be high, yet hath he regard for the lowly, those that are bowed down, but the proud, that is those who are lifted up, he knows a far off.”

Very interesting again, right? God’s ways are not our ways. We would think by being lifted up, being prideful, we’d be getting closer to God. But when we go up in pride as opposed to prostrating ourselves before God, we go further away from him. So here we have the core virtue taught, right? The core virtue, the core character trait that’s being focused on here and it’s so important in our lives is a proper humility before God. All right?

Humility. And so as we process the last year, and as we think that for some way God has brought this to pass because he’s magnifying his word above his name and he’s perfecting that which concerns us, humility accepts that. And in addition to giving God thanks for the year that lies before us, we give God thanks for the year just passed. Every bit of it. That’s humility before God. And humility is what brings God close to us.

So. And then finally there is a prayer at the end of this but the prayer is found in the context rather of confidence. There’s a confidence that results in prayer in verse 7. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.”

There it is. The great sort of climax of this is the kind of confidence we’re to have from this psalm—that God will perfect that which concerns you. Now, this truth is taught in other places, of course, in Philippians. “He that began a good work in you will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus.” But this here, “the Lord will perfect that which concerns you”—each of us individually.

What’s been going on for the last year and what will happen in the coming year is God is moving very directly, very personally in your life to perfect that, to complete the purpose for which he’s brought you into creation and the purpose for which he’s brought you into relationship with Jesus Christ. So under everything that goes on, we have this great confidence that God is perfecting that which concerns us.

What a wonderful verse to memorize, to tell to ourselves regularly in times of trouble, in times of so-called, you know, kind of analogous exile, in times of great difficulty. That not only is God faithful, exalting his faithful word above his very name, but that faithfulness is toward the end. That he’s perfecting you. That he’s making you into exactly what he wants to make you into for all eternity. You’ll be the man and woman that has been made perfect through the work of God.

That’s a tremendous truth. Tremendous confidence that should give us as we enter into this year. No matter what struggles and trials you may see in front of you, yet you can know at the core of your being that the Lord is using everything in your life to minister his faithfulness to you and he is perfecting that which concerns you. A wonderful verse for this transition time from one year to the next.

Our times are marked by an observation of God perfecting that which concerns us. Now the struggles are real. The trials are real. You should shed tears and cry when certain events come upon you. You should cry out to God for deliverance. None of that changes. But underneath it all, what I hope will change as we memorize this verse, think about it, and meditate on it is a quiet confidence in the middle of what could otherwise be the rumble of panic or the quiet despair that we live our lives sometimes in the midst of a quiet confidence that somehow God, whose ways are not our ways, who waited 4,000 years to bring the deliverer.

And apparently, it’s going to be another 4,000 years before things are going to get dramatically better in the world. Well, they have been dramatically improved. But, you know, we still have difficulties. God’s ways are not our ways. But his way that he reveals to us is a way of faithfulness in perfecting that which concerns you. This is the revealed truth of God to you for this new year. Know of a certainty that God is perfecting that which concerns you.

Now the conclusion is the last little verse right after this—after this great crescendo of blessing and confidence—yet we then read that David writes a final prayer: “Forsake not the work of thine own hands.” Again this is—just when we talk about excellence and beauty that results in joy—this is a wonderful prayer, is it not? “Forsake not the work of your hands.” God’s hand. We are his handiwork. He’s made us for a particular purpose.

And when we call on him to be faithful to us, we’re doing it. Calling on him to magnify his word above his name. Calling on him to perfect that which concerns us. We’re knowing those things. We call on him to do that because we’re the work of his hands. We’re his handiwork, right? Created in Christ Jesus for good works. But we’re his work. We’re not here because we chose ultimately, but because God chose us. He made us. We are his handiwork.

And as his handiwork, we can pray confidently then in the midst of trouble, trials, tribulation, and difficulty. “Forsake not the works of your own hands.” Augustine said this about this verse. He said, “Behold in me thy work, Lord God, not mine. For mine if thou seeest, thou condemnest. Thine if thou seest thou crownest. For whatever good works there be of mine, from thee are they to me, and so they are more thine than mine.

For I hear from thine apostle, ‘By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.’ We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.”

Amen. Amen. His work. We are his work and we can pray confidently as we look forward to this year giving him thanks for whatever happens, that in the midst of it he would indeed not forsake but rather empower, develop, and perfect us who are the handiwork of him both in our creation and redemption.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for this year gone by. We thank you for the great truths of Psalm 138. Pray that we might meditate upon it this week, think about it, think about these great lessons, Lord God, that we have throughout it and bless us with confidence as we look forward to the coming year. May we be faithful men and women exalting your word with a quiet confidence that you are—in spite of whatever sin we may engage in still—you’re perfecting that which concerns us because we are the work of your hands, not of our own. Bless us, Lord God, as we march into this year confident of this very truth. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.