Category: sermon-archive

ALEF

Psalms 119:1-8 NET.

¹ How blessed are those whose actions are blameless, who obey the law of the LORD. ² How blessed are those who observe his rules, and seek him with all their heart, ³ who, moreover, do no wrong, but follow in his footsteps. ⁴ You demand that your precepts be carefully kept. ⁵ If only I were predisposed to keep your statutes, ⁶ Then I would not be ashamed, if I were focused on all your commands. ⁷ I will give you sincere thanks when I learn your just regulations. ⁸ I will keep your statutes. Do not completely abandon me!

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, with 176 verses. I doubt any of us chose to memorize this psalm. But there is something else special about it: it is an acrostic. It has 22 sections, each with eight verses. The first letter of every verse in a section begins with the same Hebrew letter. That’s why I titled today’s sermon “Alef.” Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It doesn’t always match the English letter “A.” Alef serves as a placeholder letter representing a vowel sound. Words starting with Alef can begin with the sounds of a, e, i, o, or u.

Here is a chart showing the first words of Psalm 119:1-8 (the Alef section) and what they mean in English:

אֶשֶׁר	esher	blessed (1,2)
אַף	af	also (3)
אַתָּה	ata	you (4)
אַחֲלַי	ahalay	if only (5)
אָז	az	then (6)
אוֹדְךָ	odecha	I will thank you (7)
אֶת־חֻקֶּיךָ	et chukecha	your statutes (8)

The main message of Psalm 119 highlights the greatness and glory of God’s word and stresses the importance of obeying it. It also introduces a list of synonyms for God’s word. God’s word includes his law, rules, precepts, statutes, commands, and regulations. Each term carries a particular emphasis, but they all refer to his word.

The entire psalm praises scripture as a source of guidance, wisdom, and comfort, and shows the psalmist’s deep love for God and desire to live righteously according to His teachings. 

There is no way to cover the entire psalm systematically in just one sermon. My friend Kimon Nicolaides preached on this psalm on the radio in Hawaii. He focused on one section at a time each week, so it took him months.

For today’s sermon, I will focus only on the first section. I’ll review this section verse by verse.

The word esher (אֶשֶׁר), meaning blessed, appears as the first word in verses 1 and 2.

A blessed person is someone who is fortunate and makes wise decisions that lead to good fortune. The wise people described in these verses owe their fortune to blameless actions. Their behavior was upright, and no one could accuse them of wrongdoing. How did they achieve this? It was not by chance. They intentionally chose to obey the law of the LORD. Note that it was not just a choice to obey human law. Sometimes human laws are unjust. Many evil people justify their wicked acts by claiming they were obeying the law. But the law of the LORD is perfect. It is a just and moral law. You can’t go wrong by seeking to follow God’s law. It cuts through hidden motives and reveals the hypocrisy and selfishness behind human laws.

The people who are blessed are those who observe God’s rules. These rules are specific; they serve as God’s warning signs. We see human warning signs all around us, yet we often ignore them, which can lead to harm—like a stop sign. If we ignore the stop sign and keep driving, we risk crashing into something or someone.

The rules demonstrate the existence of those responsible for them. They are somewhat like the signs we see scattered around Columbus County right now, which list the names of candidates running for public office. These signs serve as reminders to vote for your preferred candidate in the elections on November 4th. Similarly, God’s rules remind us to remember Him when we make our choices. Observing His rules means living in a way that honors Him. Today’s text tells us that those who follow God’s rules and seek Him with all their heart will be blessed. Conversely, ignoring His rules and trying to fulfill our own desires with all our heart is the opposite.

The word af (אַף), meaning also, or moreover, appears in verse three.

This word shows an example of the same thing. People who seek God with all their hearts avoid doing wrong because they have chosen to follow in God’s footsteps. Now, God is a Spirit, and since he has no physical feet, it’s clear what it means to follow in his footsteps. It means to go where he goes and not stray from his path.

God has always made the correct path clear in His word. But since the Lord Jesus appeared, His path has become even more evident. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. People cannot come to the Father except through Him, and they cannot follow God unless they are following Him. Jesus said, “No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). So, if you really want to know what it is like to follow in God’s footsteps, you should study the Gospels and learn all you can about Jesus Christ.

For a good three years, most of my sermons focused on Christ’s commands as revealed in the Gospels. I don’t regret that choice. Christ’s commands are so important that Jesus told the apostles before he ascended to teach all nations to obey everything that he commanded. That is how we follow in God’s footsteps. Jesus did not replace the law; he explained it and fulfilled it.

The word ata (אַתָּה), meaning you, is the first word of verse four.

The “you” in this case refers to God Himself. He requires that His precepts be followed carefully. A precept is a rule or principle that guides behavior or conduct. I might also call it a guideline. In the army, we had to be very diligent in following the SOP for every task. SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedures. What the psalmist is telling us here is that God Himself has established the SOP for how we live our lives. He doesn’t want us to do it our way; He wants us to do it His way. To ensure we live according to His way, God has provided some guidelines in the Bible. If we choose to ignore these guidelines, our lives may not immediately fall apart, but they will always be flawed. There will always be some dysfunction. God doesn’t want that.

The word ahalay (אַחֲלַי) means if only, and appears in verse five.

This word expresses a desire for something to be true. The psalmist reveals his inner longing here. After everything he has said before, you might think he’s an expert at obeying God. But that’s not the case. The psalmist admits that he also struggles to get it right. He says, “If only I were predisposed to keep your statutes!” This means the psalmist isn’t naturally inclined to follow God’s statutes. I appreciate how the psalms’ writers are open about their own weaknesses and failures.

Last Monday night, Brother Martin spoke about taking up our cross daily and following Jesus. I’m also glad he quoted Romans 7, which shows that even the Apostle Paul struggled with this. He admitted that he had trouble doing the good things he knew he should do. That is what the psalmist is expressing here. He knows the rules but struggles to follow them. The Bible’s message is not “Be perfect and God will save you.” The Bible’s message is one of grace. The good news is that God saves imperfect people through His grace.

The word az (אָז), meaning then, appears first in verse six.

It continues the idea from verse 5. Both verses say: “If only I were predisposed to keep your statutes, then I would not be ashamed if I were focused on all your commands.” The psalmist admits that he doesn’t always do it right. He struggles to focus on God’s commands, so his life often becomes something he’s ashamed of.

These verses introduce two additional synonyms for God’s word: his statutes and his commands. We understand what a command is, but what exactly is a statute? Our English word ‘statute’ refers to a written law passed by a legislative body. However, that is not precisely what is meant by the term here. The Hebrew word suggests something that is prescribed. In my translation, I use the word ‘prescription.’ We all know what a prescription is — the doctor prescribes medication for you to take, and if he is right, you will take it and get better. That is what a biblical statute is. That’s why the psalmist wishes he were predisposed to follow God’s prescriptions. He knows that if he simply straightened up and took his medicine, he would improve. It’s an if-then condition. The psalmist says that if he would only keep God’s statutes, then he would not be ashamed.

I’m picturing the walk of shame in my mind. You know, that walk into the courthouse for trial. The suspect often covers his head, partly out of shame and partly to keep anyone from taking his picture to broadcast on the six o’clock news. I can imagine what might be going through those people’s minds as they walk that walk of shame. They are thinking, “if only I had stayed away from that fight, if only I had not tried to rob that bank, if only I had not tried to get rich by cheating people.”

The word odecha (אוֹדְךָ) means I will thank you. It’s the first word in verse seven.

The psalmist thanks God for His regulations, while most of us do not thank the government for its regulations. We see those regulations as unnecessary barriers to our success and happiness. But God’s regulations are a means to our success and happiness. He sets limits on what we can do and when we can do it. If we are wise, we will seek out God’s instructions to guide our lives, families, and work. Wise people understand that living life God’s way will eventually cause them to thank Him for those rules.

The words et chukecha (אֶת־חֻקֶּיךָ) mean “your statutes.” They are the first words in verse eight.

We’ve already discussed statutes because the word first appeared in verse 5. We also see that the psalmist is honest enough to admit he did not always follow God’s prescriptions exactly. In this final verse of the Alef section, the psalmist pleads with God not to abandon him and promises to keep God’s statutes. These are the words of someone who has failed before and understands the shame and guilt that come with that failure. He is determined to do better next time. We have a word for that kind of person: we call that person repentant. A repentant person comes to God not based on their track record but because of their need. A proud person might approach God asking for help so they can be a winner. But a genuinely repentant person always comes to God, desperately seeking His help because without God, they know they are a loser.

The message of the Alef section is that the word of God serves as a way to connect with God’s righteousness and power. It speaks theologically about a God who has gone before us and prepared our path by giving us guidelines to live by. It demonstrates that humans often fail to do what God desires, even when we know it is right. It offers us a second chance. It tells us that God will not abandon us if we admit our failures and seek Him through repentance. Even if we have failed Him in the past, He remains faithful to His word. So, we can always return.

HIS WINGS

Psalm 91 NET.

¹ As for you, the one who lives in the shelter of the sovereign One, and resides in the protective shadow of the mighty king —  ²     I say this about the LORD, my shelter and my stronghold, my God in whom I trust —

³ he will certainly rescue you from the snare of the hunter and from the destructive plague. ⁴ He will shelter you with his wings; you will find safety under his wings. His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall. ⁵ You need not fear the terrors of the night, the arrow that flies by day, ⁶ the plague that comes in the darkness, or the disease that comes at noon. ⁷ Though a thousand may fall beside you, and a multitude on your right side, it will not reach you. ⁸      Certainly you will see it with your very own eyes — you will see the wicked paid back. ⁹ For you have taken refuge in the LORD, my shelter, the sovereign One. ¹⁰ No harm will overtake you; no illness will come near your home. ¹¹ For he will order his angels to protect you in all you do. ¹² They will lift you up in their hands, so you will not slip and fall on a stone. ¹³ You will subdue a lion and a snake; you will trample underfoot a young lion and a serpent. ¹⁴ The LORD says, “Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he is loyal to me. ¹⁵ When he calls out to me, I will answer him. I will be with him when he is in trouble; I will rescue him and bring him honor. ¹⁶   I will satisfy him with long life, and will let him see my salvation.

There is no superscription in today’s Psalm, which means we don’t know who wrote it or why it was written. Based on the content of the Psalm itself, we can assume that the priests may have used it to encourage and comfort believers facing challenges in their lives. I chose to title today’s sermon “HIS WINGS” from the statement in verse four, which says, “He will shelter you with his wings; you will find safety under his wings.” The imagery is that of a mother bird covering her young with her wings to protect them and keep them from harm. I like that picture because it shows that we are vulnerable to the enemy’s attacks, but that God has invested Himself in protecting us.

This Psalm is Hebrew poetry, so we should expect repetition as we read it. What we see throughout this Psalm is that the same principle, stated in metaphor: “He will shelter you with his wings,” is restated five times in different words.

God will rescue.

In verse three, the believer is assured that God will certainly rescue him “from the snare of the hunter and from the destructive plague.” This does not mean that the believer will never face problems. Instead, it suggests that the enemy (Satan himself) will attack the believer in at least two ways: by setting traps and spreading plagues. Satan aims to hurt us and make us victims of epidemics and pandemics. The priest assures the believer not that he will never encounter a trap, but that God will rescue him or her from it. Similarly, the priest does not promise that the believer will never catch a disease, but that God will actively deliver him or her from it.

God’s promise for believers in this Psalm is found in verse fifteen: “When he calls out to me, I will answer him. I will be with him when he is in trouble; I will rescue him.” This is a promise from God, but also some advice and a challenge for us. The rescue is not supposed to be automatic. It involves something on our part. He will rescue, but first, we must call out to him. 

We have already encountered this idea numerous times in the Psalms:

• “To the LORD I cried out, and he answered me from his holy hill.” (3:4).
• “When I call out, answer me, O God who vindicates me!” (4:1).
• “The LORD responds when I cry out to him.” (4:3).
• “I call to you for you will answer me” (17:6).
• “I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I was delivered from my enemies.” (18:3).
• “In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried out to my God. From his heavenly temple he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help.” (18:6).

The word appears twenty-eight more times in the Psalms we’ve already read. The main idea is that God is present and eager to rescue us from danger, but he waits for us to take prayer seriously. By praying earnestly to God, we show him we mean it. This is what God wants. He wants to be there for us. His wings are ready to cover us, but he will stay distant if he never hears a peep from us.

God will shelter.

This is another way the psalmist describes how God covers us with His wings. He is our shelter and stronghold (verses two and nine). He will protect us (verse four). The Hebrew word used here is also used for building a fence.

Psalm 5:11 says, “But may all who take shelter in you be happy! May they continually shout for joy! Shelter them so that those who are loyal to you may rejoice!” It suggests a preventative measure in which God builds a shelter around the believer so that he can find happiness and joy.

I was once told that if I wanted to see happy children, I should look at a house where the parents have built a fence around their play area. The idea is that kids feel free to play and enjoy life because they are protected from anything that might endanger them. I did not like that idea at first because, to me, a fence suggested that the kids were in bondage, like slaves. But I soon realized that children are okay with fences as long as they know the fences are there to keep them safe.

God will protect.

God’s wings symbolize His faithfulness, which “is like a shield or a protective wall” (verse four). The LORD promises, “Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he is loyal to me” (verse fourteen). The imagery behind this word is that of a tower, elevating someone high enough to prevent harm from touching them. A shelter acts as a fence, keeping danger away. A tower places the believer securely on high.

• “Indeed, you are my shelter, a strong tower that protects me from the enemy” (61:3).
• “The name of the LORD is like a strong tower; the righteous person runs to it and is set safely on high” (Proverbs 18:10).

The tower of God’s protection is Himself. He doesn’t just cover us with His wings; He lifts us into the lofty heights of His own presence.

God will honor.

God promises believers not only that He will rescue us but also that He will honor us (verse 15). This needs some explanation because the root idea is to make someone heavy. Most of us don’t need God to make us heavier; we can handle that ourselves. All it will take is a few more trips to the diner on Sunday afternoons!

No, the idea of honor in this text is to earn the respect of others—to maintain a good reputation and personal dignity. God does not want to protect us from harm just for the sake of protection; he wants to bless us.

God will satisfy.

The Psalm concludes with the LORD promising to satisfy the believer with a long life. He doesn’t just answer our prayers for protection when we are in danger; he wants to bless us with a satisfied life and enrich our lives. The Lord Jesus said that he came that we might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).

Now, here is where we, who are the recipients of God’s promises, often prevent the abundance that he offers. We become satisfied in the wrong way. We settle. God wants to satisfy us, but we are okay with just having a small bit. We get by with a nibble when God wants us to feast.

One of the stories in the Gospels tells of ten lepers who came to Jesus for healing. One of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He fell with his face to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?”

He said to the man, : Get up and go your way. Your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:11-19).

Ten lepers came to Jesus for healing. All ten were cleansed of their leprosy, but only one was made well. All ten were healed, but only one was satisfied. His gratitude enabled him to receive another blessing beyond the answer to his prayer.

That is a lesson for all of us. We need to learn how to follow through on our prayers for healing. In our Sunday evening Bible studies, we are discovering that in the Book of Acts, every miracle of God’s power for the early church was more than just a blessing; it was an opportunity to share the gospel with those who saw the miracle.

Similarly, God wants to answer our prayers for healing, but he doesn’t want it to end there. He desires every miracle to become a way of worshiping him and to inspire our testimonies of his goodness. When that Samaritan leper returned and thanked Jesus, he received the chance not only to regain a normal life but also to experience an abundant one. That is the difference that satisfaction makes.

Today’s Psalm also hints at prophecy. The author speaks of the believer seeing God’s salvation. Of course, this can refer to deliverance from trouble or salvation from sin. But I think in this context, the Psalmist is talking about ultimate salvation. In several places in the Psalms, the NET translators render this word as “saving intervention” (42:5, 11; 43:5).

The outcome of God’s blessing on believers is witnessing His great salvation through our resurrection at Christ’s return. We don’t have to choose between an abundant life now and eternal life at the second coming; we can have both. The wings of our rescuing and protecting God will keep us safe from harm now and carry us into our final destiny when Christ returns.

YESTERDAY’S SONG

Psalm 77 NET.

 For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of Asaph.

¹ I will cry out to God and call for help! I will cry out to God, and he will pay attention to me. ² In my time of trouble, I sought the Lord. I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. I refused to be comforted. ³ I said, “I will remember God while I groan; I will think about him while my strength leaves me.” ( Selah) ⁴ You held my eyelids open; I was troubled and could not speak. ⁵ I thought about the days of old, about ancient times. ⁶ I said, “During the night I will remember the song I once sang; I will think very carefully.” I tried to make sense of what was happening. ⁷ I asked, “Will the Lord reject me forever? Will he never again show me his favor? ⁸ Has his loyal love disappeared forever? Has his promise failed forever? ⁹ Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has his anger stifled his compassion?” ¹⁰ Then I said, “I am sickened by the thought that the sovereign One might become inactive. ¹¹ I will remember the works of the LORD. Yes, I will remember the amazing things you did long ago! ¹² I will think about all you have done; I will reflect upon your deeds!” ¹³ O God, your deeds are extraordinary! What god can compare to our great God? ¹⁴ You are the God who does amazing things; you have revealed your strength among the nations. ¹⁵ You delivered your people by your strength — the children of Jacob and Joseph. ( Selah) ¹⁶ The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and trembled. Yes, the depths of the sea shook with fear. ¹⁷ The clouds poured down rain; the skies thundered. Yes, your arrows flashed about. ¹⁸        Your thunderous voice was heard in the wind; the lightning bolts lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook. ¹⁹ You walked through the sea; you passed through the surging waters, but left no footprints. ²⁰ You led your people like a flock of sheep, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

The words to that Beatles song keep coming to my mind as I think about today’s text. Asaph was a musician, and like the Beatles in 1965, he sang about yesterday. He was grateful for his past, because that was a time when all his troubles seemed so far away. But, as he prepares to write this psalm, that is no longer the case. Now, his troubles look as though they’re here to stay. Asaph believed in yesterday, and he penned this psalm, which I call Yesterday’s Song.

Asaph was a popular musician and music leader during the reigns of King David and King Solomon. He, along with those associated with him, wrote twelve of the Psalms found in the Old Testament. He led a music school with 148 students. One hundred twenty-eight of his descendants returned from Babylon and continued the tradition of providing music and song for the nation.

Asaph did not write popular love songs. He wrote songs about God’s people struggling during difficult times. In today’s passage, we hear the voice of a man who had lived during wonderful times, but was now facing less-than-wonderful times.

• When his prayers failed him, Asaph sang yesterday’s song (1-5).

Asaph prayed the way people were accustomed to in his day. He raised his hands and prayed with his eyes raised toward heaven. In his time of trouble, he prayed and kept on praying through the night.  Some times call for simple sentence prayers. But when our hearts are breaking and there is nothing else we can do, we stay in prayer.

Jacob wrestled all night in prayer, and his persistence resulted in a new direction for his life and a new name. Jesus prayed all night before choosing the men who would become his twelve apostles. Night is a time for rest, usually, but occasionally, it is appropriate for us to decide against the norm. There comes a time when normal has to be sacrificed for something more urgent and more critical.

We preachers talk about prayer all the time. I think sometimes we overstate the case for prayer. We give people the impression that if they pray hard enough or long enough, the sky will open up and a miracle will make everything right again. That was not Asaph’s experience. He records no miracle happening in his life in this psalm. There was no breakthrough. He prayed all night, and there was no magic in the morning.

The magic happened not after he prayed but while he was praying. His mind went back to the past. His song about yesterday went back over all the songs and stories he had heard before. They were songs and stories about how God had done amazing things and delivered his people from danger and death time after time. Asaph was not in danger of being overwhelmed and obliterated by his present troubles. His problem was discouragement. His prayers led him to focus on who God is and what he had already done for his people. The song about yesterday that became part of his prayer was what Asaph needed to encourage him.

• When he could not make sense of today, Asaph sang yesterday’s song (6-9).

Asaph admitted that he had tried to understand what was happening to him. He could not figure out how his present difficult experiences could be within God’s will. But it looked like God was rejecting him. He wondered if this could be permanent. He asked, “Will the Lord reject me forever? Will he never again show me his favor? Has his loyal love disappeared forever? Has his promise failed forever? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has his anger stifled his compassion?” 

Those are some serious questions. They are actually theological questions. When we are trying to figure God out, we look to the Bible and our own experience and ask those important questions for the first time. When they do that, people conclude that God is all-powerful, immortal, and immeasurable, and that he never changes into anything else. He is always the same. They also conclude that God is good and his goodness is just as permanent as his greatness. So, his holiness, righteousness, faithfulness, and mercy are just as constant as his great power.

The Bible provides the content that allows theologians to discover those things about him. It also records the experiences of the Israelites and the New Testament believers that confirm the content. This is important because sometimes what we are experiencing in our everyday lives tempts us to draw a different conclusion.

When we woke up this morning, we lived in a universe controlled by an all-powerful and all-loving God. But when we got into the shower, the handle came off, and water went everywhere. That happened to me last Sunday morning. I have to admit, when I was standing there with the handle to the cold water in my hand, and not being able to put it back on, I was temporarily questioning my theology.

Asaph had some experiences that led him to think similar thoughts. We will all deal with problems like that. That is the beauty of his song. He is giving us advice. He is telling us what to do when the world no longer seems to be what we know it is. He is showing us how to deal with the problems that make us question what we think we know about God and his commitment to us.

• When he was tempted to doubt God’s power, Asaph sang yesterday’s song (10-20).

Asaph admits that he was sickened by the thought that the Most High might become inactive. Some people boast about the idea that God is dead, but that was not true of Asaph. He chose to go back to the record book. This Bible we are reading is a record of what God has done. When tempted to be uncertain about who God is, Asaph got out his Bible and started reading.

He told himself, “I will remember the works of the LORD. Yes, I will remember the amazing things you did long ago.”

As he recounted each story, miracle after miracle presented itself to his memory. All the impossible things that were part of his people’s history flashed before his eyes. He saw God create the world and plant a garden in it for his creatures. He saw God destroy that world by a flood and rescue one family to repopulate it. He saw God build a nation from one man, then exercise his great power to deliver that nation from the clutches of enslavement. He saw this amazing, powerful God tame the forces of wind and water to shepherd his people through the Red Sea. He saw a loving God lead his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

He promised God, “I will think about all you have done; I will reflect upon your deeds.”

As he thought about what God had done, his anxiety about his present predicament seemed to calm down a bit. Singing yesterday’s song helped Asaph get through the uncertainties of today. It helped him continue to believe that there would be a tomorrow, and that it would be as glorious as God promised it would be.

Biblical faith is not always demonstrated by a show of God’s miraculous power. Sometimes, it is revealed by believers who dare to testify that the same God they trusted in yesterday will get them through the difficulties of today.

You might remember that a few years ago, we had a series of messages based on Chapter 11 of the Book of Hebrews. We discovered that the people of faith described in that chapter could be divided into two categories. Some had faith and received displays of God’s power. Others had the same faith but did not receive such displays. But both groups were included in the hall of faith. When facing difficult times, both sang yesterday’s song, reminding themselves of the greatness and faithfulness of their God. That is what yesterday’s song is for.

Communion Meditation.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever!” – Hebrews 13:8 NET.

When we are discouraged today, there are two places we can look for hope. We can sing yesterday’s song, remembering what God has done for us in the past. We can also look forward to the culmination of all things at Christ’s return.

As we remember the Savior’s sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, we also remember that today, with all its troubles, will not last. Little Orphan Annie was not correct. Tomorrow is not always a day away. One Day, tomorrow will come. One Day, our Savior will come. In the meantime, He who is the same yesterday, today, and forever is worthy of our worship and worthy of our trust.

LISTEN TO THIS!

Psalm 49 NET.

For the music director, a psalm by the Korahites. ¹ Listen to this, all you nations! Pay attention, all you inhabitants of the world! ² Pay attention, all you people, both rich and poor! ³ I will declare a wise saying; I will share my profound thoughts. ⁴ I will learn a song that imparts wisdom; I will then sing my insightful song to the accompaniment of a harp. ⁵ Why should I be afraid in times of trouble, when the sinful deeds of deceptive men threaten to overwhelm me? ⁶ They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches. ⁷ Certainly a man cannot rescue his brother; he cannot pay God an adequate ransom price ⁸ (the ransom price for a human life is too high, and people go to their final destiny), ⁹ so that he might continue to live forever and not experience death. ¹⁰ Surely one sees that even wise people die; fools and spiritually insensitive people all pass away and leave their wealth to others. ¹¹ Their grave becomes their permanent residence, their eternal dwelling place. They name their lands after themselves, ¹² but, despite their wealth, people do not last; they are like animals that perish. ¹³ This is the destiny of fools, and of those who approve of their philosophy. ( Selah) ¹⁴ They will travel to Sheol like sheep, with death as their shepherd. The godly will rule over them when the day of vindication dawns; Sheol will consume their bodies and they will no longer live in impressive houses. ¹⁵ But God will rescue my life from the power of Sheol; certainly he will pull me to safety. ( Selah) ¹⁶ Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich and his wealth multiplies! ¹⁷ For he will take nothing with him when he dies; his wealth will not follow him down into the grave. ¹⁸ He pronounces this blessing on himself while he is alive: “May men praise you, for you have done well!” ¹⁹ But he will join his ancestors; they will never again see the light of day. ²⁰ Wealthy people do not understand; they are like animals that perish.

We are continuing our reading of the Psalter (the book of Psalms) in the Old Testament. Although it contains poetry, the Psalter is more than mere poetry. It is the source of many of the predictions about the coming Messiah that are revealed in the New Testament. For example:

• This book teaches that Jesus was called to a permanent priesthood that would replace the Aaronic priesthood.
• This book teaches us that Jesus was passionate about his Father’s house, the temple at Jerusalem.
• This book teaches that the world’s leaders would rise against King Jesus. He would have many enemies and be hated for no reason. It predicts that a close companion would betray Jesus.
• This book teaches that Jesus would die an agonizing death on the cross, that the soldiers would gamble for his clothing. He would cry out to God, asking why he had forsaken him.
• This book teaches some of the most essential New Testament truths about theology: the revelation of God in nature, the need for a Savior, justification by God’s grace, and the supremacy of Christ.

We don’t know the tune for today’s song, but we do know its authors. It was composed, not by David, but by the sons of Korah. You might remember the name Korah from our reading of the book of Exodus. If you do, you might be asking yourself why we have psalms from this group. Korah was a rebel Levite who tried to overthrow Moses. The ground swallowed him and all his followers as punishment.  But Moses had allowed any of the sons of Korah who would dissociate themselves from their father’s sin to be saved. Three of them did. We even know their names: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. Abiasaph was an ancestor of Samuel. But mostly we know about the sons of Korah from the psalms that they wrote. So far, we have read eight of them: one in 1 Chronicles 6, and seven in Psalms. Four more will appear in the Psalms as we keep reading.

I’m glad we have psalms written by this group because they remind us that God can redeem anyone. It doesn’t matter who your parents were or who your ancestors were. God can use you. He can take the mistakes of your history and turn them into a message of hope and mercy for today.

But what did the sons of Korah write about in today’s psalm? What was the focus?

This is a song for everyone.

The psalm challenges us to listen. One of the most memorable passages in the Old Testament begins with the same word: the Shema. Deuteronomy 6:4 says: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” It’s called the Shema because the Hebrew word for hear or listen is Shema. The sons of Korah use the same word to begin this psalm. It starts with the phrase שִׁמְעוּ־זֹאת, which could be translated “Y’all listen to this.” So, the message that the sons of Korah teach in this psalm is not directed merely toward the nation of Israel. It is for all the nations, all the inhabitants of the world.

When I get an email from someone who has a message for me, I can reply to that email, and my reply will go to the original sender of that email. But if the sender includes a bunch of people in the same email that he sent to me, I have the option to send my reply not just to him but to everyone who got the original message. If I want to do that, instead of hitting the reply button, I can hit the reply-all button. That’s what the sons of Korah are doing here. They have looked around all over the world, and they have learned a valuable lesson about life. They want to share that message with everyone it applies to. So, when they say “Listen to this”, their song is not going out to an individual “you.” It’s not even going out to a collective nation of y’all. They’re saying, “All y’all listen to this.”

This is a song for everyone: the great and the small, the wise and the simple, the rich and the poor. The sons of Korah say, “Put this on your playlist.”  

The rich need to listen.

Some people in this world never have to worry about which bills get paid this month and which stay on the stack. They get a bill, and they pay it. They don’t have to consult their accounts to see if they have enough because they always have enough. The sons of Korah have met these people. They know about wealthy people. They probably were not rich people, but they knew about them.

One thing they had learned about rich people was that they tend to be overconfident. Since they never met a problem that they could not fix by throwing money at it, they tended to trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches. They never met a wall they could not scale because there was always money to build another ladder. But the sons of Korah discovered that there was a limit to even what a millionaire’s money could buy.

They can’t buy a better coffee than Chock full o’nuts. No, that’s not it. Even a millionaire gets stopped in his tracks when he comes face to face with the enemy, death. If his brother gets sick, then all his money cannot rescue his brother from the danger of death. If he gets ill or injured, and death comes a’calling, he’s not going to prevent that inevitable appointment.

Even if you are lucky enough never to lose your fortune, one day it’s going to go to someone else. You can’t keep it where you are going. You’ve never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul, and you never will.

So, the song of the sons of Korah is a song to the rich. It tells them that their money cannot buy them the one thing that they need more than anything they now have. They can contribute some of their money to God and his ministry, but that does not make them like God. Money cannot buy immortality.

They might have all the money in the world, but when they lie in that hospital bed, they will discover that it cannot reverse the curse. Sin’s penalty is death, and no amount of money paid will commute that sentence. They are like sheep being led by death as their shepherd. They can’t turn around. They can’t run in the opposite direction. They are headed to Sheol – the state of death.

The rest need to listen.

The rest of us need to listen to this song, too. What is true of the rich is also true of the not-so-rich. We also have a date with the undertaker, and we will keep that appointment.

When my father died, my mother purchased a headstone for him and included another with her name on it. For years, she would go to the cemetery and stare at a tombstone with her name on it. It was creepy, but it was also a reminder of the reality that she was going to Sheol, too. She kept her appointment. We laid her to rest in 2019. A few years ago, when I was studying this chapter, I noticed that one of my study Bibles said that the unrighteous go to Sheol when they die, but the righteous go to God. That’s just not true. The hope that the sons of Korah had was not that they would automatically float up into God’s presence when they die. Verse 15 says that their hope was for God to rescue them from Sheol, to pull them to safety.

David shared the same hope, stating in Psalm 17 that he planned to see God face to face when he woke up from the sleep of death. His hope was not going to God at death, but being raised to life by God. That is the biblical hope. When his friend Lazarus had died, Jesus didn’t tell his disciples that Lazarus was in God’s presence. He said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I am going there to awaken him.”  He says the same thing to us today about those friends and family who are out in the cemetery.

In our responsive reading this morning, we read what Jesus promised in John chapter 6. Jesus promises something four times in that chapter, and it is not that he will welcome our loved ones to heaven when they die. The promise is that he will raise them on the last day—the day of his second coming.

The sons of Korah were not looking for a transition at death; they were looking for a rescue at the resurrection. They said, “God will rescue my life from the power of Sheol; certainly he will pull me to safety.” Like Job, they were looking for their redeemer to come and restore their lives so that in their flesh they could see God (Job 19:25). Like Isaiah, they encouraged the righteous with the promise that their dead will come back to life, their corpses will rise (Isaiah 26:19). Like Daniel, they encouraged believers to look forward to the day when those who sleep in the dust will rise to eternal life (Daniel 12:2). Their goal in life was not to die. Their objective was to live again. Like Paul, they aimed to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection and to attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:11).

This is the gospel, and it applies equally to the rich and the poor because nobody is rich enough to avoid death. But the gospel good news is that we have a redeemer. We have hope after death because God does not intend for death to have the last word. Death is the last enemy, and all of God’s enemies will be destroyed. The question for you and me today is not how much money we have, because money can’t buy everything. It may not be able to purchase much happiness, but it certainly cannot buy eternal life.

Today’s psalm talks about rich fools who work their whole lives for something that they will all eventually lose. But the rest of us can live like that, too. You don’t have to be wealthy to focus your life on making money. Poor people can throw away their lives, too. The lasting message of this psalm is sometimes missed. Jesus once pronounced a woe upon the rich because they had received their comfort already (Luke 6:24). He told a parable about a pearl of great value. When the merchant found it, he went out and sold everything he had and bought it (Matthew 13:46). The Christian life is a life of sacrifice because the goal of eternal life is worth the sacrifice. Everything else pales in comparison to that great salvation.

The sad thing is that most people will not try it. They would rather waste their lives on temporary things that they cannot keep. It takes faith to go against that current. It takes faith to tell Jesus, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.”