as a guest preaching and ask being asked to preside it's an unnerving thing because sometimes you don't know exactly how each congregation does everything i thank you for your kindness and patience because i know i made some mistakes along the way but this part i know well as we turn to the word i'm much more confident about this part and on i'm going to ask you to turn to Psalm 136, verses 1 through 3 and 26. Psalm 136, verses 1 through 3, verse 6. I heard that Dr. Troxell's coming by tonight, one of our practical theology professors. He's, I think, new to this congregation. He promised that when he's here, he's going to clean up any mess that i make and so he's going to be preaching from revelation covering the old and the new beginning and the end in some ways hear now the word of the lord give thanks to the lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever give thanks to the god of gods for his steadfast love endures forever give thanks to the lord of lords for his steadfast love endures forever 26 give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. So far the reading of his word, let's turn to the Lord in prayer, shall we? Father, we ask for your presence this morning to teach us directly by your Spirit. Illuminate our minds, O Lord, so that we may understand the teachings you provide for us in Psalm 136. May these things not just be intellectual exercises is for us. But may the truths found therein be applied to our lives and applied to our daily lives each and every single time. For we pray these things in the matchless name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. This was a momentous year for us and our family, the Kim family, which, by the way, makes up about 21% of the Korean names that are out there in terms of last name my dad turned 80 this year which was a very big milestone for us and as a family we're able to celebrate earlier in the year i know i don't look it but i turned 50 this year and here as my wife laments the fact that she's married to an old man here all of us were able to reflect back upon our lives and give thanks to the lord for his kindness to us we also celebrated the 40th year of our immigration to America. I'm sure there are some immigrants here as well. We came on June 8th, 1982. So this was our 40th year where we remember the Lord's kindness when my father, who was not yet 40, immigrated to the States as a minister, joined the Christian Reformed Churches and carried along with him five children, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, all intended obviously, but my older sister being 11 my youngest sibling being two that's when we came to the states in fact my wife and i are flying out to korea tonight at midnight as we are joining a conference out there it's a intimate part of our family's history as well as our theological family as we think about the lord's work in various parts of the world he was ordained a presbyterian minister in korea join the dutch reform churches in america and here i am in the pca yet rejoicing in the fact that all of us are family as we come before the lord in christ jesus our lord as we age and as we even think and reflect upon our own personal lives aging provides us with perspective and lovers of history value lessons learned and wisdom gained over time but if much wisdom can be gained by thinking about years and decades just imagine what the psalmist does with centuries and millennia and what i hope this morning we will agree on as we read this passage and hover over the passage for somewhat is the conclusion is simply this the good god is faithful and worthy of our thanks our good god is faithful and worthy of our thanks the psalmist sets out his main point in verse one when he begins by saying give thanks to the lord for he is good give thanks to the lord for he is good perhaps you remember the story of the rich young man from mark 10 when he approached jesus he asked a question when he said good teacher what must i do to inherit eternal life you might have noticed that when jesus is usually asked the question he never answers it often when he he's asked a question, he answers with a question, usually redirecting the questioner to the question that the person ought to be asking. Jesus answered, technically his non-answer was this, when he said surprisingly, why do you call me good? He said, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Well, the psalmist is telling us this morning that God is good, and in fact, he wants to teach us what good is by reminding us of human history history not just about your history or this church's history or the American history but the history of the beginnings of time when he turns us back and reminds us of how he has been over multiple centuries and multiple millennia he talks about creation he says god made the heavens verse 5 the earth verse 6 the great lights in verse 7 the sun verse 8 and the moon and the stars verse 9 he recounts the lord's salvation his redemption for his people in exodus when god struck down the firstborn of egypt in verse 10 brought israel out in verse 11 divided the red sea in two in verse 12 made the israel passed through the midst of it verse 13 and overthrew pharaoh and his host in verse 14 he remembers the great kings in verse 17 the mighty kings the verse 18 the king of the amorites the verse 19 and the king of bashan in 20 who were no match for the god of gods as we're told in verse 2 and the lord of lords from verse 3 he took their lands and then he gave them to his people the Israelites and when the psalmist recounts this history we didn't read all the verses but we recognize what he's teaching here that what we see and understand from this brief history is simply this God is good to his people for he created all things for his people he redeemed them from their predicament and he steadfastly stood with them where we are unable to declare anything else but his steadfast love for his people endures forever that's what god does this is not because life has been easy by any stretch of the imagination it's worth noting that the psalmist mentions the pharaoh and their time in egypt and also great kings and kingdoms that stood against the lord and his people last two or three years were very challenging i recognize that the synod had to also delay their meeting because of the pandemic, as well as many challenges in our local churches. I was told many years ago that leadership is defined as the art of disappointing people at a rate that they can tolerate. And let me tell you, I've done this very well in terms of disappointing people the last few years. And my guess is that many of you here who serve in different capacities recognize what that looks like but perhaps more striking for us than anything else is that psalm 136 and for my young brothers and sisters here this is how amazingly good at math that i am 136 is followed by 137 there are different ways that you can read the psalms you can read them individually that is to say you can read a chapter here and chapter there and gain much out of it but we are of the ilk that believes that there is reason and rhyme to the organization of the whole psalm. That is, 137 follows 136 for a reason. And in 137, you find one of the most sad and difficult psalms. There is some scholarly debate regarding the ordering and editing of the psalms, but I think here it's intentional, where Psalm 137 recounts the people of God as prisoners of war, being driven away from their home by their captors and tormentors. And as these Babylonians are leading the people of God, they sit them down next to a river and mockingly they taunt the people of God by saying, sing a song here. Sing a song of Zion, they say. There are many songs to be sung, most happy, because that's where their home is, where their Lord dwells. But the Israelites and the people of God could not sing a song of happiness. When they are dispossessed of their land, difficulties abounded, they were marched as captors, no home to call their own. And this is where the psalmist records for us the question they asked, poignant and difficult and sharp when they say, how shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? Verse 4 says, how do we sing the Lord's song on this side of glory? How do we sing the Lord's song, a happy song, in the midst of difficulties as well as burdens that we cannot bear on our own? And perhaps some of us here this morning can identify with that question. How do we sing the Lord's song when life looks like this yet what surrounds the sorrow and seeming hopelessness are the words of 136 and not surprisingly 138 did you know that 136 is covered by 136 and 8 here in 138 we hear the lord declaring in verse 8 the lord will fulfill his purpose for me your steadfast love o lord endures forever is what what it says just as 136 as well as 138 and as we declare at the beginning of worship in psalm 100 here the repetition is the same your steadfast love oh lord endures forever that is to say visually our sorrows are enveloped and covered by the steadfast love of the lord whatever we may be feeling in the midst of our lives travails and trials here the reminder is our God is good to you and to me and his steadfast love endures forever and God is good friends because his steadfast love for you has no quit and it has no end now in reminding us of this even if we forget everything else the psalmist makes sure that we remember this that his steadfast love endures forever his steadfast love endures forever is repeated for us 26 times for those of you with children for those of you who are children may recognize why this repetition is there it's because we often ignore we often forget we often choose not to listen to the repetition of our fathers and mothers have you seen that in your lives certainly it's true in my life as we have two teenagers sitting sitting at home they can hear amazingly well when they want to they're amazingly deaf when they don't want to and here we are just the same except our father is in heaven we often choose to forget those things he reminds us and just so that you and i don't forget here he says it over and over again his steadfast love endures forever children his steadfast love endures forever. My people, my steadfast love for you, our God says, endures forever. Just in case you forget, my steadfast love for you endures forever. There is no end in this. 26 times it's repeated. Unusual structure by any imagination in the book of Psalms. His steadfast love endures forever. You may have heard of the word that's behind this word in the original, where the word is chesed, right? Many people have repeated it. It's words like shalom, kononia, oikos. One of those original words we have in scriptures that all believers know. It's one of those words. And we assume that we understand something about that word because we hear it over and over again. But you recognize the difficulty of translation and the difficulty of work done by guys like Van E. and Dr. Bittner's here because of the translational work that they have to do. And you can see the remarkable variety in English translations when you hear words like, for instance, the ESV you read said his steadfast love, but the NIV says his love. The NAS says his loving kindness. His New Living Translation has his faithful love. King James Version has his mercy, and then the NET has, one of my favorites, his loyal love. His loyal love. Translating is remarkably difficult. I know there are a lot of bilingual and perhaps even trilingual people here. Translation involves transferring the meaning of the word, implication of the phrase and sentence, and the impact of the sentence to an audience who are unfamiliar with the history, the context, and the culture of the original speaker and author. May I give you an example from my own life? I'm bilingual in the sense of my languages are Korean and English. You study other languages for academic work, but those are my two primary speaking languages. Netflix has now popularized a lot of Korean culture, including dramas, they call them. They're like soap operas, but also food culture, which is a major priority for the Korean culture, even in Korea and here as well. And there is a particular drama, or I'm sorry, documentary on Netflix. I'm not asking you to go home and watch this. But simply, there is this particular documentary called The Cold Noodle Rhapsody. You may be wondering, what is this cold noodle? Well, it's a particular dish in Korea that comes from the present-day North Korea. My parents were both born in the 1940s in the present North Korea, which was not a North Korea then, and they came south after the Korean War. And so for them, this Korean noodle is a major part of their eating habit and as well as a priority for them as we often partake in this dish. But it also carries with them a meaning of their past because it's their home country's food. Now as the story is being told, it tells a story of a son of someone who was also born in North Korea who started this particular store that sells this cold noodles. And as he's explaining what's all going on in the founding of that particular restaurant, he shows us this wall, which I thought was a decoration, but turns out it was a huge enlarged picture, a hand-drawn picture of directions. It's actually someone drawing directions to someone's home. We used to do that without Google at some point. It was his father who came down from north. Before he died, he drew him a map of his hometown, telling his son, I may not be able to return, which he never was able to, but once the country is united, if you go here, take a left here, and take a right here, and take a left again, that's where I grew up he said and then next to it was a letter that was also enlarged written by his dad who is now deceased and here the father says to his father whom he never saw so this owner's grandfather saying i was such a bad son i left you during the korean war and i never did return home again to say goodbye but i must now depart and one day i would love to see you again is the letter he left behind and as the son is reading this he's choked up he's crying about this uh the tragedy that the family had gone through and the word he used at that point in time was to say this embodies his his han in korean han is an interesting word because it's untranslatable and when i saw the subtitle it simply said deep-seated anger deep-seated anger but unfortunately it doesn't do it justice. It's not just anger. It's about heart burnings of wanting to be home. It's about an ill feeling like it's not right. Anguish, regret, unsatisfied longing leading to a state of sadness and melancholy. You can hardly actually translate that into one word, can you? It's like schadenfreude. There's a reason why we keep it that way. Instead of translating it, We don't actually go around saying malicious pleasure at the ill happenings of others. Simply we use the word because there is no equivalent. This is what's happening here. Words like hesed or shalom, as simple as they may sound, have no direct translations for us into English. And this is where the scripture is trying to remind us of these facts by using different imageries as well as words to define these things. The word that is used for love in this refrain means covenant love or the favor God shows to those with whom he has entered into a covenant or promised relationship. It's enduring because God is God and God is a God of his word and God doesn't change. It's about his mercy bestowed upon people who deserve the opposite, living in sin, rebellion and hostility toward God. It's about grace poured out upon people who do not deserve the riches of his blessings, having lived for oneself and not worshiping the God of creation and redemption that we see in 136. It's about love given to people who did not love and who even after receiving love do not love well, who profess one thing with their mouths, but actions betraying those alleged convictions that they hold dear. it is covenant love that according to scripture that has been fulfilled in the son jesus christ and through his son's name alone here as we hear what apostle paul teaches us in ephesians chapter two i would like you to note with me not the mechanism of salvation that is indeed there is a understanding of how god saves indeed these verses should be used to understand soteriology is the theology we speak of in terms of how one saves how god saves but yet what we want to hear is not the mechanism of salvation but god's motivation for redemption his motivation for salvation in the verses in ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 through 8 when he declares but god but god being rich in mercy being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in christ jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace do you see how cumbersome that phrasing is the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in christ jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith there are no words no human words certainly no English words, maybe Dutch words, that can be used to fully describe this fact of God's motivation that's founded upon his love, his overflowing love, his abounding love, his abundant love that he has for us in Christ Jesus. This is why Paul keeps repeating being rich in mercy. Because of the great love, great love, not just love, it's not enough. Great love with which he loved us in Christ Jesus. The immeasurable, it's unmeasurable. There are no ways, there are no rulers, there are no measuring tapes that can actually get around the whole thing. And as he expresses this he simply says the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus he declares this is why we're able to hear without any doubt what Romans 5 8 declares but God demonstrated his love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us not when we were clamoring for god not when we were seeking his son not thinking that we were sinners when we were running away thinking that we are right and good here he demonstrated his love for us that while we were still sinners christ died for us but the key in psalm 136 is that this love this unconditional love this unceasing love this sacrificial love doesn't end it's constant it never ends it never quits for his people who are in christ jesus thus romans 8 being able to declare who shall separate us from the love of christ he says nothing nothing in this world and no one will be able to separate us from the love of god in christ jesus our lord friends it may not seem like this at times i recognize the world is a rough place and i'm sure for our young ones as well as the oldest of us we recognize it doesn't feel like the love is super abounding in our lives sometimes the lord seems distant if i can use that word sometimes the requests that we have made seem to go unheeded or unnoticed or unanswered. Sometimes our hearts grow cold. Maybe this is too PCA of me, but may I give you an illustration that's meant to be both silly and hopefully illustrative in some ways this way. I have two kids. I think many of you know this Anna and Simeon are their names Anna is 17 a senior in high school Simeon's 15 we name them Anna and Simeon primarily because they're taken from Luke 2 and our hope and prayer as parents is that even if at the end no one recognizes Jesus these two will testify to the name of Jesus is our our humble prayer before the Lord now before we had children I was an expert in child-rearing. It's amazing how much you know when you don't know, and you're able to declare with confidence exactly how you ought to raise children. My sister, who had three children, I knew exactly what she ought to do, and really frowned when she wasn't doing what I told her she ought to be doing in raising children. One of the things that I really didn't like when I was younger was watching parents with a backpack for their children. I don't know if you've ever seen these things. It's got a tie in the back if the kids wear it and the parents hold the tie because kids run around a lot I hated it because it felt like you're raising your child like you're raising your pet is the thought that I had and I thought that was no no nobody should ever be doing that and then we had a daughter who can sit and concentrate and focus like no one's business amazing how much she's able to sit and memorize and read and enjoy herself and the son was completely the opposite I don't know what he's why he's so busy, but he's always busy. He's got places to go, things to hit, things to break, and he had things to run toward that he never sat still. I was told by all the older moms and dads that's a sign of his health, we're told, but I wish he would just sit, is what I kept thinking to myself. That was all fine and dandy living at home until he was about two, and my in-laws decided to gift us with a trip on a cruise. I don't know if you know this. A cruise is a boat and all off the edges. There is no land. About a week before the trip, I kept every single night having the same dream all over again, which is my son running toward the edge and falling off the end of the ship. Have you had dreams like that before? That was my dream every single time. So my wife and I prayerfully decided to do what we needed to do we bought a backpack my son didn't know any better it was cute he could put his cars and trains his books in there he would wear it and then of course there is this 10 foot string in the back as we're going on to the ship we were holding on to this rope and he doesn't know any better he's looking around and as he's walking away he looks back when he sees his mom not his dad particularly when he sees his dad he smiles big he's safe but sometimes people would get in the middle of our holding and then as he looks back he can't see his mom and you know the panic face kids can have he starts looking for his mom and dad and when he finds us he starts to smile again back and forth he went when he would see us he would smile and sometimes when he can't see us he would frown and start looking panicking it's a silly example i recognize but i wonder how much of it is very similar to our lives with the lord that oftentimes as we look around we don't see our lord around us perhaps he seems distant to us but one thing that the psalmist reminds us always and every single time is that his eyes has not his eyes have not been off of his children ever the child may not recognize what's going on and all he sees is whether mom and dad are nearby. And like us, many of us look around wondering where God may be at a particular moment. But one thing that the scripture reminds us always is that our God has never been cut off from you. For his steadfast love for you, though your faith may cool, though we may be forgetful, here are God's remembrance of you and our God's eyes on you have always, always been constant. This is what the psalmist is trying to remind us when he says, his steadfast love for you endures forever, no matter how you might feel the moment. For you and I change, but our God never changes. It's at this point when we know that God's steadfast love for us never ends or nor quits. This is when the psalmist comes back with a response that you and I ought to have before the Lord. Here, verses 1 through 3 and 26, repeat four times the very response that you and I ought to have when he says, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord, the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever. And verse 26, give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever repetition is meant for us because we can often forget he says give thanks to the god of heaven for his steadfast love endures forever give thanks to the lord give thanks to the lord give thanks to the lord i realize friends that this is easier said than done our hearts are prone to wander and our eyes fixate on what is missing rather than what is present but the psalmist says give thanks full stop it does not say give thanks in perfect circumstances over abundant provisions when your kid's future is secure or in light of secure future for you and me no he simply says give thanks even non-christians give thanks when they are healthy loved and successful what makes christianity so unique is that the spiritual and hidden realities are made visible to the children of God. We give thanks not only when things are going well, visibly and tangibly, but we give thanks even when circumstances do not seem right because of the Lord's constant love for us demonstrated in His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We give thanks. And the only qualifier in this command is this. Give thanks to the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord whose steadfast love for you endures forever the apostle paul the way he demonstrated for us in terms of the motivation of god's love reminds us of this fact in his writings in ephesians 5 20 when he says giving thanks always and for everything to god the father in the name of our lord jesus christ philippians 4 6 says do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god colossians 3 17 says and whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through him first thessalonians verses that you know well says rejoice always pray without ceasing remember the third one giving thanks in all circumstances all circumstances for this is the will of god in christ jesus for you give thanks heidelberg catechism question and answer 28 asks and answers this question how does the knowledge of god's creation and providence that is god's superintending of all things in life how do these two things help us heidelberg catechism asks and you know what the answer is we can be patient in adversity thankful in prosperity and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful god and father that no creature will separate us from his love romans 8 for all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved is what it says we can be patient in adversity because he is in the midst of it with us we ought to be thankful and prosperity because at the end he's done it all we haven't done anything. To him belongs all the glory, the good things that we see before us. And for the future, we can have sure confidences in our faithful God and Father. Why? Because he promised us that no creature will separate us from his steadfast, unending, never quitting love he has for us in christ jesus dear congregation of the lord jesus christ may you remember each and every single day this week and the days to come that our god is good to his sons and daughters we have seen it demonstrated in the living and dying and rising of our lord and savior jesus christ our lord and may our lips always praise the truth that his steadfast love for you endures forever leading us to thankfulness and praises of his name always in every place. Let's turn to the Lord in prayer, shall we? Father, we give you thanks this morning that in the midst of many trials, Lord, we give you thanks because you promised to be there with us, strengthening us, encouraging us, leading us and taking us forward we thank you in times of prosperity because we recognize that though we sometimes think we have done these things we know by the teaching of your word you have done all things thank you for giving us life in your son jesus christ thank you for keeping our hands busy with the work that is before us thank you for daily providing for our needs oh lord sometimes we ask for things that we want never giving thanks for the things that you have already provided us with thankful oh lord for the ways that you secure us going before not because of what we have saved but because what you have done for us in christ jesus and lord as we look to the future we have good confidence in you not because of our faithfulness because of your faithfulness to us in christ jesus remind us of these things each and every single day both for those of us who have seen your good hand and your powerful work among us so often. And for those of us who are young here, O Lord, who have not fully experienced these things in different times, but Lord, by your spirit work in us for our young friends that they may daily grow up to open their eyes by your spirit to see your goodness in their lives. For those who are young in spirit or new, Lord, may you work in their hearts and minds that they too may witness your goodness in them. We thank you for this morning of worship and the word proclaimed. We ask that you apply these things to our lives as you lead these members of this congregation of Escondido United Reformed Church to declare the name on high and to live faithfully for you, not only in Escondido, but all this environment, all this area. For we pray these things in the matchless name of your son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.