Please turn with me to Psalm 113, Psalm 113, hear now the word of our God. Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore, from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets. The name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is exalted over the nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the one who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with princes, with the princes of their people. He settles the barren woman in her home. As a happy mother of children, praise the Lord. O beloved in Christ the Lord, the spirit of thanksgiving is in the air. And you know what I'm talking about. The spirit of the thanksgiving holiday that we look forward to celebrating this coming week. We know it's in the air because many children are celebrating a few days off of school. Many adults are craving what they believe to be a much-needed day off of work. Family gatherings are anxiously looked forward to. Dinners are being planned with the turkeys or the ham and all the fixings. Much of that already having been purchased. And the question has been asked and answered over and over again, well, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? As if that's what it's all about. But for us as believers, beloved, may it be that the spirit of thanksgiving truly comes with a spirit of giving thanks. And you may say, well, of course I'm thankful. I'm thankful for a job in this economy. I'm thankful for good health. I'm thankful for food and clothing and the necessities of life. I'm thankful for even being able to enjoy a few luxuries of life. Maybe you're here this morning and you can even say that I'm thankful for the trials and the difficulties that God has sent upon me throughout the past year because you have seen how God has used those trials and difficulties to draw you closer to Himself. And you have seen how He has given you an opportunity and blessed you with an opportunity to witness to His goodness, to testify to His amazing grace through those trials and difficulties. And indeed, beloved, thanks is to be daily for you and me. We have so much for which to be thankful. It is to be a lifestyle for the people of God, because we know, don't we, by the grace of God, the one from whom all blessings flow. Yet it may also be true of us, at least a little bit, that in some way we expect, or we take for granted, Or we think it's no big deal the things that we have, the things that we enjoy. Because that's just what God does, right? We expect that of Him. But in this psalm, the psalmist places our God before us in such a way that we are to be amazed that He would even bother with us. And no doubt that was true for Israel. You see, this was the first of six psalms that were sung at the time of a number of feasts, especially the Passover. Psalm 113 and 114 were sung before the meal, and then the next four psalms were sung after the meal. And in particular, we know that the Passover reminded them of the salvation, that they had enjoyed the redemption that God had given to them out of the land of Egypt. And therefore, it's fitting that especially this psalm would be sung to begin it, because as the psalmist asks in verse 5 in that context, who is like the Lord our God? And that's a powerful question. That's the central verse of the psalm. Really, it's the theme of this psalm, in which the psalmist makes a contrast as he points to God's matchless, the fact that God is matchless in majesty on the one hand, but at the very same time, He is matchless in mercy on the other hand, and He is for us. And therefore, the psalmist gives the call to praise the matchless Lord and to do so, first of all, with comprehensive praise. Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be praised both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised. And that praise of our matchless God is to be comprehensive in participation. The psalmist says, praise, O servants of the Lord. It's limited to servants, but it's comprehensive in that it includes all servants of the Lord. Every single one. Who are these servants? Well, again, in the context of this psalm being sung, one of the six sung at a number of feasts, it may refer to the priests who were called to lead the faithful in worship. But ultimately, it's pointing to the worshiping community. He's talking about God's covenant people, true believers, are servants of the Lord. Well, why? Why are believers servants of the Lord? Because very simply, they are recipients of God's mercy and grace and love. They are those redeemed and brought to faith by the grace of God. And therefore, they are those who understand why God is worthy to be praised. And they bow before Him. They submit to His authority. They boast of Him. But at the very same time, they recognize their unworthiness to be known by and to be in the presence of one who is so great. And therefore, they cannot help but to serve this very one. And their praise is comprehensive then, as the psalmist makes clear, in space from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets. Now, this is not limiting us to what we call the daylight hours, that only the daylight hours is the time in which we are to praise the Lord. It's unlimited because the sun casts its light over the whole earth. In a sense, boys and girls, we can say that the sun is always rising somewhere and it is always setting somewhere constantly, every moment of every day, 24 hours a day. And that's where God is to be praised. There's not a place on earth where the name of the Lord is not to be praised. Wherever believers are found, there is to be worship and praise to God that is also then comprehensive in time. From this time forth and forevermore, the psalmist says, that includes our lifetimes and throughout our lifetimes, never are we to cease praising the Lord as every day the reminders of His majesty and mercy surround us. They're all around for us to see if we would but open our eyes. From this time forth, also from generation to generation, never are our voices or the voices of our children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren, never are our voices to be silenced. And that's why we also take seriously the call to raise up our children, to train them up in the way that they should go. And it's to be forevermore. You see, beloved, this will be our joyful task. Eternally. To praise the Lord. Now we know, of course, that there are many things that Satan uses in his life to try to distract us. He uses our busyness. He uses the stresses of life. He uses financial difficulties. He uses sickness. He even uses our prosperity to try to distract us. To take our thoughts off of the one who has promised to see us through this life. To take our thoughts and our hearts and our minds off of the giver of every good and perfect gift. But the psalmist is saying, keep your eyes on the faithful covenant-keeping God who says, you are mine because I have redeemed you. Praise to Him is to be comprehensive at all times, in all places. And that ought to be easy, shouldn't it? It ought to be easy when we know who He is, as the psalmist teaches that praise is to be to Him in the second place for His incomparable majesty. Again, who is like the Lord our God? That's a question that we ought to ask every day, isn't it? Who is like the Lord our God? That question expects the answer. No one, nothing is like Him. No one and nothing can compare to Him or with Him. Now the psalmist is not pointing here to some deficiency in God. Sometimes we say, I've never seen anything like it. We say it with a scowl because we're talking about how disgusting or unbelievably bad something is. That's not what the psalmist is doing here. When he asks this question, he is not pointing to some deficiency in God, but the very opposite. Remember the context. He is pointing to the greatness of God. And he points to His incomparable majesty, which is revealed in His name. You noticed, I trust, in those first three verses, three times he says praise or bless the name of the Lord. Because there is significance in the name of the Lord. Not like our names, we must confess that for the most part, our names don't really have much significance, maybe for some, but for most of us probably not, other than the fact that maybe you were named after a parent or a grandparent or we give our children names that sound nice. Names for which they won't get picked on when they get a little bit older. Or names that go well, a first name that goes well with a last name. Names in the Bible, many of them had significance. Often they were given in response to an act of God. As we know, Isaac means laughter and Samuel means asked of the Lord. Or they also had significance in a negative sense as sometimes the names pointed to the curses of God. We think of Hosea and Gomer's children. One of them whose name meant no mercy. And the other one, not my people. But there is significance with the name of God. God's name reveals who He is. God's names that He gives us in Scripture point to His character, to His attributes. For example, Elohim means God Almighty. Yahweh Sabaoth means the Lord of hosts, El Shaddai, Almighty Creator. But specifically, the psalmist is pointing to the covenantal name of God, Lord. Jehovah, which comes from Yahweh. The name that he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai when he said, I am. That's my name. I am. And that simple name, I am, reveals his majesty. It reveals that God is a person. He is not abstract. He is not unknowable. He is a divine person who has created and who communicates with the persons that he has made in his image. And I am also points to the truth that God is self-existent. I am. He has no origin. He's uncreated. He answers to no one. And we can only know Him as He reveals Himself. And that's because I am also points to the truth that God is self-sufficient. He doesn't need anything outside of Himself. He doesn't need us. That's hard for us to hear. In our sinful arrogance, We think that God needs it. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need us to help Him. He doesn't need us to defend Him. He doesn't even need us to worship Him. He calls us to do those things. But He doesn't need us to do those things. Nor did He need to create us. He didn't have to do that. And there's nothing that we can do for Him that He needs. And I am also points to the truth that God is eternal. He has no beginning. He has no end. He is everlasting. He is ongoing. He is, He always has been, He always will be, always the same. And that's because as the I am, He is also unchangeable. He never differs. He never differs what He is today. He will be tomorrow. And that means that He can be trusted. He can be trusted that He will never lower His standards. He will never change His mind. He can be trusted to remain as He reveals Himself to be. Which is sovereign, holy, wise, all-knowing, all-powerful. In all the ways that God reveals Himself to be, He remains the same. He can be trusted for that. And the fact that He is unchangeable also means that He is inescapable. You can't get away from Him. But at the same time, He will never go away. Beloved, the majesty of His name is devastating for the wicked, but it is comforting for believers, as His incomparable majesty also is acknowledged in His sovereignty. His covenant name reveals the majesty of God's character, of His being, but the psalmist also acknowledges His majesty compared to His creation, because He who dwells on high, as verse 4 says, is exalted over all the nations, His glory above the heavens. He is sovereign over the nations, over all people. His is power over all things. And as we know, nothing happens by chance. God makes no mistakes. There are no surprises for Him. He's over all nations. If you think about all the great nations and all the great kingdoms that have existed, throughout history and as you think about the superpowers that exist today as Isaiah says in chapter 40 they are all like a drop in a bucket they are regarded as dust on the scales he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust before him all the nations are as nothing they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing mankind which is so arrogant and thinks it is so great is nothing before our God. The psalmist in Psalm 2 says that God laughs at the rulers of the earth, at those who take their stand against Him. And in fact, Proverbs 21 says the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He turns it wherever He pleases. Yet He is not just sovereign over the earth, that planet that we call earth, but also over the heavens. Now, we live in an age, beloved, where because of space technology, the universe seems to be expanding to us. It seems to be getting larger because of the more that we learn about it. But at the same time, the heavens seem to be getting closer for our investigation. Yet the larger that the universe gets to our understanding, the greater God is getting or ought to be getting to us as believers. Maybe you've seen that perspective where there's a focus on an ant, let's say, and then the camera pulls back and then you see the sidewalk and you can no longer see the ant and then you see a person and then you see their yard and then you see the city and then you see the state and the camera keeps going back and you see the United States and then you see the earth. And it doesn't just stop there. The camera keeps getting pulled back and you see the moon and you see the other planets and then you see the stars and then the Milky Way and then you see other galaxies and where is the earth? You can't find it. It's worse than a needle in a haystack. But the psalmist is telling us, reminding us, that God is beyond it all. God has created it all. He knows it all perfectly. He is so majestic and great that He has to stoop down, the psalmist says, to look on the heavens and the earth. He humbles Himself, as another translation says. See, not only is humanity infinitely beneath His infinite majesty, but even the heavens, that wonderful, glorious part of His creation that we are in awe of. The cadets last week when we were on the camp out, the stars were magnificent. If you took the time to look at them. More than you could count. We are in awe as we look up at a clear night sky and we see all that God has made and we're so tiny. But even the heavens that are glorious to us are so far beneath Him. They cannot contain Him, the Bible says. And when our eyes, beloved, can only see what is visible to us, especially the things that disturb us, then His incomparable majesty must resonate with us as we think about how great and big and awesome God is and how minuscule we are. And along with that, as we think about His holiness, His purity, and that He will not tolerate our unholiness and our sin, as we think about His greatness and all of that together, then we cannot help but to burst forth into praise as in the third place He is to be praised because of His condescending love. He stoops down. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with the princes of their people. He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord. Do you see the amazing contrast here? Who is like the Lord our God? That question separates the psalmist's words of God's matchless majesty and his words of God's matchless mercy. As one commentator has said, he has done two things, each of which seems to make the other impossible. He has taken his seat so high that no one can match him, yet he has regard for the lowliest of the low, And that he looks down so far. And that points to his condescending love that what's included there is an amazing identity. He doesn't identify with the proud and the powerful and the popular. He identifies with those that we consider to be the lowliest on earth. He identifies with those who are supposed to be the objects of our neighbor love in action. He identifies with those who are often forgotten and despised and ignored by the rest of men. His love is for the unlovable. In Proverbs 14, verse 31, we read, He who opposes the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. And we know, beloved, that He has demonstrated His condescending love throughout His history of revelation as He has made provision even in His law for the downcast, for the lowly, for the ignored. He demonstrated in coming to Israel's aid over and over again when they were downcast. Jesus demonstrated His love as He walked this earth by healing the sick and feeding the multitudes by hanging out with sinners. But in addition to this, God demonstrates His condescending love not only to the needy in general, but He also gets very specific. We notice here too His individual concern. That verse 9, He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord. He has concern for one lowly individual. Not just the group, but one individual. Now, verses 7 and 8 are almost an exact quotation from the song of Hannah. In 1 Samuel 2, verse 8. And verse 9, no doubt, is really thinking back to Hannah, as well as Sarah and Rachel, those of whom we know were barren. Those who were blessed by God with children. Now sadly, we know that God doesn't answer that prayer for all of His people. But I believe what this is pointing to is that just as a child is one of the greatest earthly fulfillments for a mother. That what the psalmist is pointing to is the unimaginable fulfillment that God alone brings. As with His condescending love, we notice also a saving identity. Ultimately, this condescending love is seen in Jesus Christ. There is nothing more marvelous, nothing more incomprehensible than the humiliation of the Son of God for our salvation. He who came from the greatest of heights, He who Himself was the very Word of creation, who came down to the depths of humanity and ultimately to the depths of hell. No one else has ever or will ever span a distance so great. He came to minister to the poor and the needy, to the miserable, to the unloving, to the sinner. He lifted up His people who are poor and needy and lost and who are miserably dead in sin. He did so by dying for them. Paul says in Romans 5, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners. While we were miserable. While we were the scum of the earth, Christ died for us. And what is to be our response to that? It can only be that with Micah, who somewhat echoes the psalmist in Micah 7. Who is a God like you? Micah recognizes greatness. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance. You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. Oh, who is a God like you, so magnificent, so matchless in your character? Yet the one who should look on us, who didn't even want you. And he saves one by one. Even though Christ's saving work was accomplished on the cross in time for all who would believe on Him, that work is applied by the Holy Spirit one by one as He brings His people to faith and lifts them to His throne to sit with Him forever. God cares for each of us as individuals. He knows each one of us perfectly. And He fills the empty and the barren and the hopeless hearts with His love and with the confidence that He is our portion forever. The truth is, man likes to hobnob with the popular, with the rich and famous, with those who are in positions of importance, maybe to benefit from them. At the same time, mankind turns his back on the lowly, those who only seem to want to take from me. Yet our matchless Lord gave His life to save those who could not save themselves. He gave His life for those who would only take from Him, who couldn't do it themselves. Beloved, we are to be in awe. How can we not be in awe when we understand how great and majestic and holy God is that He should stoop to help one like me who in sin thought that I was better than Him? That He should stoop to ask of me the love of my poor heart. How can we not be in awe? The psalmist calls us to praise our matchless Lord with a comprehensive praise that is at all times and in all places for His incomparable majesty and because of His condescending love. And as we praise Him, beloved, we are also to be those who look for those who were like us when our God found us, those who were poor and needy and helpless and hopeless and lonely because nothing is too great for Him and no one is too small for Him. As the psalmist says in Psalm 103, He remembers that we are dust, yet, the psalmist goes on, the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. Our great God has compassion on each and every one who turns to Him in faith. Oh, indeed, we are to be thankful for the daily details of life, those details which have meaning only because of the saving love of God. He has come down to satisfy His people with His goodness eternally. Thanks be to God. Amen. Let's pray together. Oh, Father, we pray that by Your Spirit You would keep Your majesty and greatness in the front of our hearts, in the forefront of our minds as we go through this life. Indeed, Lord, we should never have to look for reasons to praise You because Your matchless greatness is all around us. And the things that you have made. And you have revealed it to us through your word. And by your spirit. And therefore, Father, may we ever be a praising people. For we thank you and praise you. For all that you have done for us. And indeed, you have done it all for us. We thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Thank you.