Sermon: Praise the Lord! Let All Things Their Creator Bless

This morning we are going to be, uh, studying Psalm 1 48. It's, it's the next of the halel psalm. So it's just been that I've been preaching through, uh, these last five Psalms of the Salter, which together are called the Halel Psalms. And they are the five concluding psalms that call on God's people on God's creation to give him praise, and they give us the reasons why we should do so. So Psalm 1 48 is what we're gonna be

a studying this morning. And before we read it together, just point it out to you as you've got your bibles open. This, the psalm has a structure to it, and it's really a kind of two-part Psalm. These two parts are in parallel with one another. So you'll see that, uh, there is an opening exhortation in each of these sections. So that's in verse one and in verse seven, to where the two sections begin, it begins, praise the Lord from, from.

So that's the opening exhortation. Then the exhortation is followed by a, a short, comprehensive summary of all of the created order, created matter that belongs to that realm. So from the heavens and from the earth. And then each of those sections concludes with, uh, identical exhortation. Um, and you'll find those in verse five and 13. So it says, let them praise the name of the Lord. There's that conclusion, that exhortation

forming the conclusion then followed by reasons for which we should praise the Lord. And that's the, the way we will tackle this, uh, uh, sermon as well today. So having laid that out for you, let's hear it together. Now, this is God's word, so listen carefully. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise him all his angels. Praise him, all his hosts. Praise him. Sun and moon, praise him. All you shining stars. Praise him.

You highest heavens. And you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created and he established them forever and ever. He gave a decree and it shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth. You great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains in all hills, fruit, Trees in all cedars beasts and all livestock, creeping things

and flying birds, kings of the earth in all peoples princes and all rulers of the earth, young men and maidens together old men and children, let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is exalted. His majesty is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people. Praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him. Praise the Lord. Let's pray. Oh Lord, as we have opened your scriptures, would you now

open our ears to hear your voice? Would you open our eyes to behold wondrous things from your word? Would you open our minds to understand your word? And would you open our hearts to receive the word and to respond as we ought? We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, dear friends and the Lord Jesus Christ, uh, you are probably familiar with that short little phrase. I was born for this, I was made for this.

Sometimes we might ask children before a big performance, whether it be a concert or a play or a big game, are you ready? And that child might respond, I'm so ready. I was born for this. Or maybe some of you women here in the church have wanted to be a grandma for so long. And someone asks you, are you ready? I am so ready. I was made for this. So ready this psalm, Psalm 1 48 tells us, tells you why you were made. In fact, it tells us not just why we in this room were made,

but why all things in the world were made. It was made to praise God. So this morning, this psalm is going to help us to see who is to be praised. It's going to help us to see who is to praise God or what is to praise God, all things. And the psalm is going to help us, uh, to see why it is good, why it is proper, that all things should praise the Lord. So that's going to be our outline this morning. Who is to praise God, uh, who to praise God, who is

to be giving praise to God all things and why all things should praise God? Well, this psalm is, is most simply a psalm of praise to God. And it's telling us over and over again that God alone is worthy of praise. You'll notice as you read through the psalm and as you've heard it, that God is the object of praise here in this psalm. 13 different times we see the word praise in this psalm. And each and every one of them, the object

of the praise is God. God everywhere from the beginning and the end. And in between God is to be praised. That's the main exhortation of this Psalm. Praise the Lord. So it tells us explicitly to praise the Lord. But this Psalm is also implicitly telling us and reminding us and exhorting us to not give our praise to any other thing. But God alone, praise is only ascribed to God. And we need this reminder. Dear friends, the temptation

exists in each and every one of our hearts to give praise, not to the creator, but to the creature. And the Psalm is warning us against worshiping the created and calling us to worship God. This is a very real temptation, a very real danger. If you remember the, the words of Romans one, when it describes the depravity of mankind, it describes man's depravity in this way, speaking about our worship, who we worship. Listen to this, this from Romans chapter one,

claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. This is the, the sin that mankind has fallen into. And most simply then Romans one says, they exchanged, changed again the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

The temptation to worship the creature rather than the creator exists in each one of us. The temptation can come to our very hearts, beware. It was just two weeks ago, I was pulling up to a, a red light and just two cars in front of me to the left. There was a bumper sticker, had no idea what this meant. Um, said simply dirt worshiper. Dirt worshiper. I think it is maybe a lyric from a song, but it just so plainly points out how

easy, how ludicrous it is for God's creation to worship a creature, a created thing rather than the creator. And Psalm 1 48 is pointing out, identifying many of the, the created things that God has made, some of which have been, uh, objectified, have ma have been made, the objects of worship, of man worship. So you think about the angels, the the temptation to worship angels, the sun and stars. Even now today, the stars are sometimes, um,

thought to give you your destiny through horoscopes. That they're revered in a way that they ought not to be. Great sea creatures are, can be worshiped, princes, kings of the earth. Rulers can be made the objects of our worship. But Psalm 1 48 is telling us, these are not gods. They are creatures. They do not exist to receive praise. They exist to give praise.

Augustine helpfully warns in the fourth century, he says, do not allow your pleasure in what God has made to lure you away from him. Who made it to temptation, isn't it? We see beauty, we see goodness, and we quite quickly begin making that beautiful thing or that good thing, the object of our worship. Do not allow your pleasure and what he has made to lure you away from him whom made it. Rather, Augustine says, if you love what he has made,

love the maker far more. If the things he has made are so beautiful, how much more beautiful must he be? Who made them? Isn't that exactly right? Don't be tempted to worship the creature, rather as a psalm is exhorting you to do praise the Lord, worship God. So he might ask, if, if creation exists to worship God, not to be worshiped, then what does creation exist for? Why is there something rather than nothing? Why did God create all of these things?

Psalm 1 48 tells us, creation exists to praise God. All of creation, everything. That's what we find in Psalm 1 48.

I encountered just recently maybe something that would make you wonder. Really all things are to praise God. All things can give praise to God. I wonder if you saw recently the news about the corpse flower, the corpse flower. It's a flower that blooms just once every few years. So it's very rare. And a few just bloomed in Australia. Just a little over a month ago, 27,000 people stood in line to see the corpse flower. And as the name would suggest, corpse flower,

they were not actually really standing in line to see the flower. They were standing in line to smell the flower. The flower has a, the name corpse for a good reason. One of the botanists there said that the corpse or the corpse flower when it bloomed, first began smelling like wet laundry, then dirty socks, then a dead rat, then a dead, a possum, then a dead cow.

I don't know why you have to stand in line to go smell what? A flower that smells like dirty socks. You can just go to my house. Okay? This is crazy. A flower that all it does is stinks and blooms every once in every few years. What purpose does this flower have in the creation? The same purpose as every other created thing to praise God. The psalm is interesting because it, it points out to us various created things that you would not expect to be giving praise to God

or expect to be able to give praise to God. So the snow fell a little bit this morning and Psalm 1 48 says in verse um eight, that snow and mist fulfill his word and praise the Lord. How does snow praise the Lord? I can comprehend what it looks like for someone, a human with a voice to give praise to God. But what about snow? To praise the Lord. How does the subhuman praise God?

Here we find help from some of our older brothers in the faith, John Christas and Augustine Christas writes helpfully creation praises him by its beauty, by its position, by its greatness, by its nature, by its usefulness, its service, its permanence. And the advantages coming from it. Creation doesn't have to have a voice to praise God. Its existence by its very existence. It exists and praises God. Augustine writes these creatures, the sun, moon,

and stars do not praise him with their own voices and hearts, but when they are contemplated by intelligent observers, God is praised through them. And if God is praised through them, it can be said that in a way they too praise God. All things, whether they have voice or not exist to give praise to God. Maybe some of you are familiar with the the children's catechism. We've been teaching our kids at home, the children's catechism.

The first three questions and answers go like this, who made you God? What else did God make? All things. Why did God create you and all things for His glory? This Psalm would be a great proof text to those three questions and answers. Who made you God? Why? To give him glory. To give him praise all things. That's the emphasis here in Psalm 1 48. Did you hear that as I read through it? How often the word all was repeated

just in verse two, you see, praise him. All his angels. Praise him, all his hosts. Verse three, praise him. All you shining stars, all, all, all, all things meant to praise him.

And everything from heaven above to the earth. Beneath everything in between. This psalm would be a lot longer if it tried to catalog every created thing that is meant to praise God. And so what it's doing in literary form is trying to comprehensively summarize this for you that all things are meant to praise him. And I wanna show you how this happens in verse 11 and 12. Look at verses 11 and 12 Kings of the Earth and all peoples princes

and all rulers of the earth, young men and maidens together, old men and children, all things are to give him praise. Verses 11 and 12 remind us that governors are to give God praise. And those governed are to give God praise. The powerful are to give God praise. And the powerless are to give God praise. Men are to praise God and women are to praise God. Old men are to praise God. And young children are to praise God.

There is not any human being that is too great to give praise to God. There's no human being who's too small to praise God. None too old, none too young. Nothing is exempt in God's creation. Everything is meant to praise God. So we've seen that the Creator is to be blessed and praised by all things. Now we move to the reasons, the reasons why it is proper for all things to bless their creator. And so we look first to verses five and six.

Let them praise to the name of the Lord first. Because all things, all of creation was established by his word. All things were created by his word. Everything owes its existence to God. I love how verse five emphasizes this. He commanded and they were created. He established them. He gave a decree. God is the one who created. Creation did not come into order by chance. It came into existence by divine decree. Let there be light.

And there was light and, and the creation remains in existence by divine decree. Hebrews one says that God, even Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power. All creation owes its existence to God.

Do adults remember when you first realized how dependent upon your parents you really were? I think about when I went off to college for the first time, it was on me to make sure that I was eating. It was on me to do laundry. It was on me to get my car fixed. All those things. As a child I depended upon my parents for. And so college I, I first realized, wow, I was way more dependent on my parents than I ever realized.

Do you remember when that happened for you? The right response, right? With that amazement is not to just, huh? Thank you. Mom and dad, move on with life. A good response to that realization would be to go to mom and dad and say, thank you. I had no idea how much you did for me, how much I depended upon you. Thank you for all that you've done.

Creation similar to children with their parents depends upon its creator. And so it is right that the creation would give praise to its creator. Secondly, why is it proper for the creation to give praise to God? Because verse 13 tells us, he that is God is exalted above all things. Alec Moir and and his commentary observed what I found to be an important difference in an interesting difference in this psal. He points out that eight times in Psalm 1 48, the word all

is used all but then only once is that word only used. It's a big difference. And he points out that that word only or alone as it's translated in the ESV, is attributed to the exaltation of God and his name, he alone is exalted. Another way to to say this or way that theologians have talked about it is to say that God is transcendent. He's transcendent. He is infinitely above and beyond his creation. He is high and holy.

His majesty, verse 13 says, is above earth and heaven. He's transcended and unlike his creation, which depends upon him for its existence, God exists apart from his creation. He does not depend upon his creation for his existence. He exists apart from his creation. And he is set apart from his creation. There is a great distinction throughout the Bible between the creator and the creature. God is transcendent. He is great.

I think one of the keys to understand why this psalm is calling upon all of God's creation to praise him is, is to come to this realization that God is great. That he alone is exalted. Because as we are more enthralled with God's greatness and with his goodness, we can't help to give him more praise 'cause we're more enthralled with his greatness. We want to sing it out and exclaim it. You think about this in your own life,

we're we're natural evangelists for the things we love, the things we appreciate. I want others to love what I want, what I love. I want others to appreciate what I appreciate. And so it's easy to recommend a book that I appreciate and hope that you'll appreciate it too. It's easy for me to recommend a podcast that I enjoy and I hope that you'll enjoy it too. Or a sports team. We want others to appreciate what we appreciate and to love what we love.

And I think that's what's happening here. A Psalm writer is so enthralled with God's greatness, how exalted he is that he realizes that his lone voice is insufficient to give praise to God. I want others to join me. In fact, I want all of creation to join me and giving praise to God. We praise him. Verse 13 says, for his name is exalted, transcending all others. And then verse 14, third reason

God is imminent. He is near, he is not only transcendent high and holy set apart, but God comes near to his creation. Did you see that at the end of verse 14, the people of Israel who are near to him, God has ordained praise as has helped them to praise him. Isn't that so interesting? If God is transcendent, he's high and holy, and he's set apart from his creation, how can it be said that someone or something is near to him?

If God is transcendent, we cannot ascend to God. He must condescend to us.

And verse 14 is reminding us that God has come near, he has brought his people near. And the way that he has done this, at least in this case for the Psalm writer and for his people of Israel, was to raise up for them a horn. A horn throughout the Bible is, uh, is a symbol. It's symbolic of strength. And so to raise up a horn would be to to declare victory, to declare strength. But a horn cut off would be to signal and show humiliation or defeat.

God has raised up a horn for his people. The strong God raises up the symbol of strength for his people. He has saved them and he brings them near.

We see this in again in the scriptures, a reference to a horn being raised up for God's people. Luke chapter one, where Zacharia is, is sitting, uh, over his newborn child, perhaps John the Baptist is even sitting in, is resting in his arms. John the Baptist begins to, to prophesy. He senses that God is doing an amazing work. He's about to do a work of salvation. And so he prophesies about his little one, John the Baptist,

what he would do as a forerunner to Christ, but he also prophesies about Christ. Listen to what he says, his father Zacharia Luke 1 67, his father, Zacharia was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. For he has visited and redeemed his people and he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.

You see, dear friends, this is repeated in greater measure. What we find in Psalm 1 48, how God raises up a horn of strength, a horn of salvation for his people coming near to them. He has done so in the person of his son. He has come near, he is imminent. He takes on flesh and he dwells among us. God raises a horn of salvation by condescending to his people. God is to be praised for his transcendence. And at the same time, God is to be praised

for his imminence. He is near some commentators pointed out rightly. I think that because of this nearness between God's people and God, God and his people, there is a, a greater responsibility for the people of God in praising him. We have a special role in the economy of God's creation. That role is to lead the creation in giving praise to God.

God's people, I think, are kind of like the first chair in the orchestra. They're the ones who have, who are most familiar. They're the ones who have been appointed to lead the rest of the orchestra, to play beautifully skillfully. And God's people are like that in the creation because we, dear people of God, are the ones most acquainted with God out of the rest of the creation. We have not only been made by him, we have not only

understood that he is high and holy, he is exalted, but we understand that he is near because he's come near to us. We have been brought near through his redemptive love. And we have learned God's praise.

We have come to know him and his great love for us through His son. And so it is right that we, the people of God would have a greater responsibility, a special role marked out for us to lead the creation in praising God. And that's what Psalm one 40 is, envisioning the whole creation, harmonizing together a song of praise to the creator, all of us in unison and in harmony.

It's glorious, isn't it? It's glorious to, to think about all of us here in this room and everything in the world singing praise to God. But I wonder if you, you sense a little bit of tension of of discord, disharmony. You see, this is a, a glory that is in a sense unrealized still today, this glorious vision that we find in Psalm 1 48. Because since sins entrance into the world, the Bible says that the creation is not

joined in song in praising God. The creation is joined in groaning to God under the weight of sin.

Psalm 1 48 can, can maybe feel like a soundtrack in your favorite adventure movie out of place. How weird would it be to hear the, the light adventurous, soaring sounds of Star Wars soundtrack when death Far, when death Vader walks into the room. It just isn't right. There's a theme for Darth Vader and it's dark and it's ominous and it's somber.

And that's kind of like the world we live in today. The, the soaring sounds of Psalm 1 48 of all the creation gathered together, singing praise to God. It really feels, in some ways more like a, a somber tone because of sin. So how, how does this psalm, how do we know that this psalm is not out of place? How do we know that this psalm can actually help us in a, in a world of groaning? How does this psalm help us? I wanna give five concluding thoughts.

These, these really, I think, summarize everything I've just covered. So we're not covering new territory necessarily, but meant to sort of help us think about how this Psalm helps us in the world in which we live right now. First, Psalm 1 48 reminds us of God's worthiness. Sin does not diminish God's glory, but sin does is sin taints our vision of God's glory. But sin cannot taint God's glory. God is glorious. And Psalm 1 48 reminds us that he is glorious

and that he is worthy to be praised. Secondly, the Psalm reminds us of creation's, true purpose creation exists for God's glory. And how we need that reminder in this world, that creation exists for God's glory. Third, this Psalm helps us to envision a redeemed and renewed creation. You see, when sin entered the world, God did not just say to hell with it and sin entered the creation. God intended that he would enter it to redeem it,

to restore it, to renew it. God has a plan for his creation to restore it, not just to its former glory, but to restore it to a a glory that will be unsurpassed. Fourth, the Psalm helps us in this world of groaning by pointing us to Christ. The eternal son of God entered his creation to redeem it from the curse and by the blood of his cross. Colossians one tells us Christ has made peace reconciling us sinners to himself,

but not just reconciling sinners to himself. Christ by the blood of his cross is reconciling all things to himself. Colossians one tells us.

So these realities that we see and find here in Psalm 1 48, they are, they're really present here. And now they're real because of Christ that he has inaugurated the kingdom coming through His coming to earth. But we only experience them. In part they are not. Yet there is a a sense in which what Christ has done is going to be fully experienced, to come fully experienced when Christ returns for us, when he brings in all things into the

new heavens and the new Earth.

So this psalm is pointing us to Christ. This is how the creation will sing God's praise together through Christ. And so fifth, what it does for us, dear people of God, is this Psalm then exhorts us right now here today To worship God through Christ, worship God through Christ.

So the Psalm helps us to know who to, who to praise, who is to give praise to God, and it gives us reasons to praise God. The Psalm ends with that exhortation. That is the main exhortation throughout the whole Psalm. Praise the Lord. Amen. May it be so. Let's pray. Oh Lord, as your word has gone out, we pray that it would not return void, but would rather accomplish those purposes for which you have intended it. We pray, oh Lord, that we would not be hearers

of your word only, but we would be doers of it. So make us worshipers today to help us to worship you, our transcendent God, our imminent God, the God who is exalted above things, who has brought us near through Christ. Would you help us for we ask it in His name? Amen.