Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 113 | Date: September 14, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Take your Bibles, if you will, please, and turn to Psalm 113. Psalm 113. I’ll take time to read through the entire psalm.

Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord.

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we’re grateful for this wonderful psalm, we’re grateful for this wonderful book that we have been working our way through, and to see how your people can, ought, and have praised you through all of the centuries, to learn from it new aspects of your glory, and to revel in it as your children. We pray that you’ll bless us to that end today. Give us, through this psalm, your word, a new appreciation of the glories of our God, the greatness of our Redeemer, the sense of privilege that ought to be ours as your people, and help us to glory in it as this psalm calls us to do. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We have seen several times now throughout these studies in the Psalms that there is plenty of evidence that there were various collections of Psalms that finally became the Book of Psalms. We see in the Psalter itself various collections coming together, sometimes a collection of Psalms by David or a collection of Psalms by Asaph or a collection of Psalms with a similar theme and so on. We see that quite often. In this part of the Psalter we see it in a particular kind of way. You notice as we’ve gone through many times we’ve seen what we call praise psalms. There’s a sense in which the entire book of Psalms is a book of praises, but there are some psalms that are given particularly and exclusively to praise; we call those praise psalms.

And we have a collection of those here in Psalm 111 through 118. These are often referred to as the Hallelujah Psalms. The Hallelujah Psalms. And that is because each of these psalms, if you want to glance back through them, beginning with Psalm 111, begins the same way. Psalm 111, verse 1: “Praise the Lord.” Know what the Hebrew there is? Hallelujah. These are Hallelujah Psalms. Psalm 112, verse 1: “Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.” Psalm 113, verse 1: “Praise the Lord.” In fact, we have at the end of this psalm, as we’ve read, the same thing. “Praise the Lord.” Psalm 115 begins the same way, “Praise the Lord.” Or it ends that way, “Praise the Lord.” It ends in Psalm 116 as well, ends this way. Verse 19, “Praise the Lord.” Psalm 117 begins, “Praise the Lord.” Actually here the expression is not hallelujah, but hallelujah at Yahweh, the longer form of God’s name. Then verse 2, “Praise the Lord,” and then Psalm 118 caps these off, “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” “O give thanks,” verse 29, “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

So we have here an obvious collection of Psalms brought together to serve a common purpose, and that is to give praise to the Lord. So these are referred to as the Hallelujah Psalms. You might hear it sometimes referred to as the Hallel, just for short. The Hallel, the praise. This is a collection of praises brought together for the purpose of praising God. We have another collection of Hallel Psalms or Hallelujah Psalms at the very end of the Psalter. You’ll remember Psalms 146 to 150 are “Praise the Lord” Psalms as well. Within this collection, Psalms 111 through 118, we have in Psalms 113 through 118 what are called and often referred to as the Egyptian Hallel. The Egyptian Hallelujah Psalms.

The reason is because these Psalms were brought together traditionally and evidently collected for that purpose, the best we can tell, to be used at the time when the men of Israel were called on those three occasions of the year to come to the temple at Jerusalem to observe the worship of the Lord. That was Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The crowds would gather together at the temple particularly in view in this Egyptian Hillel, Psalms 113 to 118, is a celebration not only of God’s deliverance generally, but in particular what seems to be in view is God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt in the Exodus. And so these Psalms were collected, and these evidently collected for that purpose, and used traditionally in Judaism for centuries going back to be sung during the celebration of the Passover. Now we have evidence of that going back almost to the time of Jesus where the Jews have integrated these psalms into the observance ceremony at the Passover.

The evidence is very clear and very plain. A couple of the Psalms up front were sung at the beginning of the observance of the Passover meal. Then a little later in the meal, the remainder of the Psalms were sung together as a unit. We have evidence of that going back almost all the way to Jesus himself. But these are the Egyptian hallels. They’re sung at the Passover celebrating God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt.

Psalm 114, by the way, gives us another brief psalm of praise, the next psalm here, but here specifically it is with regard to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. You’ll see that in verse 3, “the sea looked and fled,” reference to the exodus from Egypt, crossing of the Red Sea. Then you have in verse 8 of Psalm 114, a miraculous provision of water in the wilderness as well. He turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

So they’re looking back to God’s acts of deliverance and then provision for his people after the Exodus as well. So taken together, these are the Hallel. Praise to the Lord for his greatness. Praise to the Lord for his compassion, his steadfast love and mercy, these are celebrated here, but particularly as all of that was demonstrated in their deliverance from Egypt and God’s provision of them ever since. I mentioned that this tradition of singing this at the Passover goes back almost as far as Jesus. We have historical evidence for that, singing particular psalms at the beginning of the observance of the Passover meal.

Several of the rest of the psalms in this group sung toward the end of the meal. The Gospels, particularly Matthew and Mark, Matthew 26 and Mark chapter 14, record for us that Jesus went with his disciples to observe the Passover meal. And it says at the end of that they sang a hymn. Almost certainly a reference to this tradition. It was already in place even at the time of Jesus and his apostles, and that seems to be the consensus of most everyone, virtually everyone that I can find, that this is reflection of this tradition that we know of outside of scripture and later was already in place at the time of Jesus. So we have Jesus then singing these psalms with his disciples at the Passover meal.

So when Jesus went out with his disciples and sang a hymn, the choice of songs to be sung was already made for him. It was this collection of psalms that they would sing together. And at that point, the deliverance that is spoken of in these psalms and being celebrated takes on its fuller significance, just as the Passover meal itself at that time was being transformed into the Lord’s Supper, the last supper into the Lord’s Supper, with the deliverance from Egypt fulfilled now in the deliverance of his people from his sin through his death and now also these songs celebrating the deliverance of God from Egypt finding their fuller significance as Jesus sang these Psalms that day, that evening, as he went out with his disciples after the meal. One British scholar has written a book on these psalms, just this collection of psalms, and he’s entitled it Anthems of a Dying Lamb. An insightful title because these songs were sung by Jesus then as he went out from that last supper out to his death. Well, we ought to expect then that these psalms anticipate Jesus in some way. And we’ll see that as we go through.

Psalm 113 then, by way of overview, you’ll see that the psalm, as we often see in these praise psalms, is framed with the idea of praise. Psalm 113, verse one, “Praise the Lord.” And then verse nine, at the end of the verse, “Praise the Lord.” So this is a psalm of praise, and typical of the psalms of praise that we’ve seen—not always in the Psalms of Praise Psalms, but typical of the Psalms of Praise—you see a call to praise at the beginning of the Psalm, calling the people of God to praise the Lord.

And then you have a reason for praise, or the cause for praise, explaining why we should praise God. And then you have a renewed call to praise at the end. And that’s what we see here. Verses one to three, we have a call to praise. “Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the Lord.” Verse four begins the reason for praise. Why should we praise him? “The Lord is high above the nations,” and so on. And then a renewed call to praise at the very end of verse nine, “Praise the Lord.” It’s worth noting as well, and we’ll see this as we go through, verse five is the center line of the psalm: “Who is like the Lord our God?” And then verses four through nine, the reason for praise, are given to answer that question. “Who is like the Lord our God?” And then those verses fill in the answer that we can give.

Verses 1-3: The Call to Praise

All right, with that broad overview in mind, then let’s look at verses 1 to 3. We have the call to praise. Verse 1, “Praise the Lord.” This of course is the idea of ascribing greatness, ascribing glory to God. It’s not adding anything to God that he doesn’t already have. It’s just our recognition of what he has and what he is. And here it’s in the imperative, it’s a command: “Praise the Lord.” And the Psalter, this command regularly, “Praise the Lord,” it’s not simply to be understood in a general sense, “everybody praise the Lord,” it has a liturgical aspect to it.

Remember, the Psalms are written for use at worship at the temple. And so this is the worship leader now, at the beginning of the Psalm, we sing, “everyone come together now, praise the Lord.” It’s the formal calling of the congregation to join at the temple and sing praise to God. “Praise, oh servants of the Lord,” verse one, that is the congregation itself, those who acknowledge God as the true God, come together and give him praise. So here then, at the outset, the congregation is called to give praise.

So keep this in mind. This is, as we have seen, either a time of David or after. To David, we have the entrance of psalm singing, connected with temple worship, in connection with the sacrifices and everything else. And so here we have the people coming together at the temple. Picture in your mind choirs, the congregation singing, choirs singing, musical instruments, all of them coming together to join in praise to God. Verse 1 at the end, “Praise the name of the Lord.” We find that often. We find that actually in the first three verses. Praise the name of the Lord. That is simply his character. Who he is. What he is. And what he has done. The reputation that he has earned for himself through his activities and his self-revelation.

“Praise the name of the Lord.” In fact, that is throughout this stanza. Verse 1, “Praise the name of the Lord.” Verse 2, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Verse 3 at the end, “The name of the Lord is to be praised.” Look at who God is. Consider how he has revealed himself. Consider what he has done and praise him for who he is. Praise the name of the Lord. Now verses 2 and 3 then expand the purview both in terms of time and space. Not just come to the worship at the temple for now and give praise. And not just here locally. But notice how he expands it.

Verse 2, God is worthy of unending praise for all time. “Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” And then verse three, his praise ought to be universal in every place. “From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” So consider, for example, the third commandment. Don’t take the name of the Lord God in vain. Every time we speak of God, we must be careful that it is not in an irreverent way, but always in a way that is worthy of him. Here in these verses, as we find often in the Psalter, he takes it a step further. Not only are we to speak of God only in terms of worship and reverence, but we must also give him due praise as well. Every last one of us, verse 2, everywhere, forever, verse 3, “from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” That is, when we think about God, what ought to come to our minds first is thoughts of reverence. And what ought to come first to our lips is praise. Can’t be said too often. His praise can’t be expressed too many times or in too many places, but all people, great and small, all over the earth, everywhere, from the rising to the setting of the sun, continually, forever, sing the praise of God.

Verses 4-6: God’s Transcendent Majesty

Well, that’s stanza one, verses one to three. Now we have stanzas two and three, verses four to nine, and here we have the specifics, the call or the reason for praise. These tell us just why God is to be praised universally forever. In verses 4 to 6, it’s because of who God is, his nature and his character. And then verses 7 through 9, it’s because of what God has done, his actions on behalf of his people.

So, verses 4 to 6 then. Praise God because of who he is, and what’s emphasized here is God’s transcendent majesty. Verse 4: “The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?” The heavens here, that expression, “the heavens,” is a catch word that works throughout this stanza. Verse 4, the end of the verse, “his glory is above the heavens.” Verse six, “he looks far down on the heavens.” And so here he’s speaking of the majesty and the transcendence of God that is above the heavens. He’s not like one of us. He’s above the heavens. He’s transcendent in glorious majesty. He’s emphasizing here the sheer greatness of God.

This is one of the wonderful aspects of the Psalms. When we have this reason for praise in these praise Psalms, they call us to praise and then they say why we should give God the praise. And in that section, there’s reason for praise. We have some of the most exalted presentations of God that we have in the Old Testament. Here it speaks of his transcendent majesty. Both lines, actually, of each of these verses stress the same thing. Look at verse 4 again. He’s transcendent. How great is God. When you think of it, that he looks down, not just on the earth, he looks down on the heavens. He’s exalted above it all.

This is God who is not at all part of his created order. This is the God of Genesis 1, who all by himself spoke and the world came into being. And there is this distinction that can never be crossed. There’s God, and there’s everything else, and he is over it all, looking down. The transcendent majesty of God. Included in all of that is the ideas of his sovereignty, his rulership over it all, his unthreatened majesty, looking down over all of his created order. And then we have verse 5, the center line and the focal point of the psalm. The question: “Who is like the Lord our God? Who is seated on high?” Answer? No one. That’s just the point. He’s unique. He’s one of a kind. He is God over all. There’s God and there’s everything else. He is over it all reigning as the creator over it all and the ruler over it as well. He is in the unthreatened majesty over all of the created order. The supreme ruler, the transcendent God over all.

Who is like the Lord? No one. Now Psalm 115 will expand on this theme. It’s a theme actually that’s sustained throughout the Psalter and actually throughout the Bible as well. It’s the whole presupposition of a worship of God that he is not like anything. A famous line in one of the books by A.W. Tozer who asks the question, “What is God like?” and Tozer answers the question, “He’s not like anything. He’s God.” Well, that’s the thinking here. He’s the creator above all. He has chosen Israel. He rules over the nations. He’s rescued his people from Egypt. He is the God who rules over all things.

Now, there’s a little bit of a translation question in verse 6. It’s just how to render it. In our version, it says, “who looks far down from the heavens and the earth?” There’s another verb here in the Hebrew that means to be low, to sink, or to be humbled. And so the NIV and the Christian Standard Bible translate this, “who stoops down to look.” Actually, we could put it all together: stooping low, he looks down. Well, it’s a metaphor however you look at it. In either case, we have here God is presented as the majesty who reigns transcendent over all things and any involvement in the earth and its affairs is something far beneath him. And he looks down to it.

Two words here you might like: transcendent—he reigns over all. Back in the 18th century, Deism became popular and theists had to argue with the deist. The deist would say God is transcendent, but he’s kind of like in the classic example that’s always given, he’s kind of like a clockmaker, winds it up and lets it go. He’s not involved in this world. And so it had to become very important for theists to argue he is not just transcendent; he’s immanent. He’s in his creation as well. Now this is not “imminent” with an i in the middle, that’s close with regard to time. “Immanent” is close with regard to space. So God is not only transcendent above, but he’s close and involved in his created order as well.

Verse five then is the transition in those, exactly those thoughts. “Who looks far down,” there’s his transcendence, and “humbles himself to the heavens and the earth.” There is his immanence. Verses four and following, what he emphasizes is God’s transcendence. He’s high above the nations. He’s exalted above the earth, has to look down. But then, verse 5b through verse nine, anticipates this idea of his immanence. He’s involved in his created order.

Verses 7-9: Surprising Compassion

So verses seven to nine, the third stanza, not only his immanence, his involvement in the created order, the extent of his involvement in terms of the surprising compassion. Look at verse 7: “He raises the poor from the dust, lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.”

So here is further reason for praise. Not only is God transcendent and sovereign above all the nations, but he’s also immanent. He is transcendent above the life of this world, and yet he involves himself, and he involves himself in this world in a marvelously compassionate way. This is the God who is exalted above the heavens, has a heart and an eye for the good of his people. And so he says in verse 7, he raises the poor from the dust, lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, the princes of his people. This is probably a reference to the exodus from Egypt. He rescues them, makes them sit with princes.

Verse nine, “he gives the barren womb a home, making her the joyous mother of children.” Actually, the language here borrows from 1 Samuel chapter two. You remember Hannah’s song that she sang? She was desperate to have a child, prays, God answers the prayer, she comes to the temple in 1st Samuel chapter 2, and issues that song of praise and thanksgiving to God. And this verse here borrows from that language. It’s reflection back on what God did for Hannah in the birth of Samuel. But it’s more than that. It’s reflective also of Sarah. It’s reflective of what God did for Rebecca. It’s reflective of what God did for Rachel. Samson’s mother is another. This is a pattern that we find in the Old Testament. And it’s reflective of Israel herself. God took a very old man and his old childless wife and made a nation. All of that here is probably reflected in verse 9. “He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.”

And there’s a play on words that’s going on here as well. Notice verse 4: The God who is “high,” raised above the nations. Verse 7: He “lifts” the needy. Same word. He lifts the needy from the ash heap. Verse 5: He says he’s “seated” on high. And then we have the same word used again in verse 8: He “makes them sit” with princes. In verse 9, he gives, or really here, the word “seats” or “sits” the barren woman in a home. The idea there is that God is bringing his people to himself and blessing them in a way that only he can. Exalting them. The psalmist says here, this is reason for praise. This God of transcendent majesty, so far from remaining detached from his created order, so far from being disinterested in what they experience, has looked far down, and amazing compassion has come to the help of his people.

Now again, keep in mind, all of this is to answer the question of verse 5. “Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high?” The answer is, there’s no one like him. He’s not like any of us, and that’s the point. He is supreme and he’s majestic, ruling over all, and yet he has an amazing heart of compassion to come down, stooped to the help of his needy and helpless people. It’s tempting to read that, all of this against a sort of a challenge to the neighboring nations. They had their gods and they had all of their characteristics of their gods, usually some kind of superhuman form, but that’s about it, with lots of the human limitations as well. Who is like the Lord, our God? Our God is like no other. He’s high, he’s above the nations, he’s transcendent over all, and yet he looks far down in compassion and mercy. He’s incomparable. There’s no one like him. And so the psalmist concludes his psalm in verse 9, again with a call to praise: “Praise the Lord.” Such a God is worthy of praise endlessly and universally.

Now, one step, one mark of the inspiration of scriptures is its revelation of God, what it has to tell us about God. It’s a marvelous mark of inspiration throughout the written word, where the writers presume to tell us what God is, why he did what he did, and so on. It is the self-revelation of God, and that’s reflected in the high presentation of God, the exalted nature of God that we find here in the Psalter. In terms of verse five, who could have imagined such a God? Verse four, transcendent with all power, His glory is above the heavens. He’s deserving of universal submission, universal praise, forever and unending, and yet, verse five and following, taking notice. Looking far down, giving attention to his people. In fact, stooping low. Those creatures who have nothing to offer him. And yet, stooping low to help and to raise them up.

Well, you don’t have to read your Bible too many times, at least if you’re reading thoughtfully, before you notice: that’s the whole story of Israel. That’s the whole story of the Bible. From Genesis 3 onward, it is God in the gracious pursuit of his undeserving creatures. We find it as we move on from Genesis. We find it in his call of Abraham making a nation out of an old man and an old woman who had no children. We find it in his deliverance of Israel from Egypt in the Exodus. We find him coming low and helping his people. We find it in his coming to David and making a promise of a king. Throughout the Old Testament we find these patterns, these trajectories that are established in the Old Testament that prepare us to understand the gospel. We get to the psalter. There’s praise over and again. He delivered me from the pit. He delivered me from destruction. He delivered my life from evil men and from my enemies. We come to Psalm 113 verse 6. He speaks of it metaphorically but wonderfully. He looked far down and saw us poor and needy and sinful. And yet he determined to save us.

That ought to ring a bell if you’ve read the New Testament. These patterns, these trajectories are setting us up in the Old Testament to find what we find in a climactic way in the New Testament. You open your New Testament and it’s, “his name shall be called Emmanuel. God with us.” Who would have imagined? “You call his name Jesus because he, the Lord saves, will save his people from their sins.” You go to John chapter one and you find it in just amazing terms. The one who is with God from all eternity, the one who in fact is himself God from all eternity, was made flesh and dwelt among us. We saw his glory.

We find this in the New Testament where, in the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter two, he humbled himself. It’s almost an echo of this, isn’t it? This one who is in the form of God laid aside his glory and humbled himself, became in fashion of a man. Became obedient all the way to the cross. He looked down, he stooped low. One commentator, Derek Kidner, brief commentary on Psalms—there’s a wonderful comment here in verses 7 to 9. He says these verses anticipate the great downward and upward sweep of the gospel, which was to go even deeper and higher than the dust and the throne of princes, from the grave to the throne of God, seated in the heavenlies in Christ. That’s verse seven. He raised the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap. Verse eight, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. You read this with your fuller understanding of the New Testament as all of this is fulfilled, to which all of this is pointing. You think, this is setting us up. This is what we find in a climactic way in the New Testament. And all of this is to inform the question of verse 5: “Who is like the Lord our God?” What kind of God is this who would stoop so far down to help his people and to bring them deliverance? So far down that he laid aside his glory, joined himself to the humanity that he had created, so that as one of us, he could bear our sin and take the penalty and the curse of our sin for us.

In a sense, this is the story of the gospel. This is the story of the Bible. There’s no God like him. Greatness in power and greatness in majesty, ruling over all, far transcendent above all of the world. And yet he looks far down in an amazing kind of compassion. We sang this this morning, didn’t we? “Who can imagine such boundless mercy? What heart can fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages laid aside his glory to wear our sin and bear our shame.” We heard it at the offertory as well. “When I think that God, his son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in.” What kind of God is this? Verse 5. There’s nobody like Him.

This is a God who’s raised far above the nations and far above the heavens, and yet, verse 7, He raises and lifts needy sinners from the ash heap of their sin. Verse 8, he seats them with Christ in heavenly places. Verse 9, he gives them a home with God himself as their father. And it must be in some way like this that our Lord sang these psalms with his disciples that night before his death. The deliverance this spoke of, the psalm reminiscing in the deliverance that God had brought his people in order to make them his people, now reaches its climactic fulfillment and deliverance that he will bring in his death. Stooping so far down, he stands in the place of sinners, leaves that upper room, and goes to take their place on the cross and bear the curse of their sin to bring the deliverance from sin.

Our Lord must have sung verses two and three then with a corresponding sense of anticipation as well. Verse two, “Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” Verse three, “From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” Keep in mind, this is book five of the Psalter. These Psalms were collected and put together after the exile. There’s no king in Jerusalem. People were back, but they were just a shadow. Not even a shadow of what they had been. There’s no king. There’s no kingdom. And yet they come together and they sing, “from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” You might wonder, what some of those people gathering together to sing these psalms in those days, what did they think? Is this religious excess? Is this devotional fervor that’s just gone too far? From the rising of the sun to its setting, God is to be praised? You must be kidding.

This reflects the faith of the editors when they brought it together. This is what they had anticipated. And this is the prospect throughout the Psalter. Psalm 100, we saw that the whole earth is called to make a joyful noise to the Lord and come into the gates of the temple with joyful praise. Here in Psalm 113, from the rising of the sun to its setting, in the name of the Lord, praise. Actually, the prophet Malachi picks up these words from verse 3. And he says, “from the rising of the sun,” this is Malachi chapter 1 verse 11, “from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations.” Don’t you love prophecies like that? Where God says, “here’s my purpose in history.” From the rising of the sun to the setting throughout the globe, my name will be great. And he says, “in every place, incense will be offered in my name and a pure offering.” And then in turn, the Apostle Paul echoes Malachi’s prophecy. And he says, “I desire that in every place, men and women should pray, lifting their hands in holy worship.”

The psalmist here, when he says this, “rising to the setting of the sun, the name of the Lord is to be praised,” he’s not wasting his breath. This is not devotional excess. It’s a marvelous prospect. This is God’s purpose in history. I love just to reflect on it. This is God’s purpose in history. The rising of the sun to its setting, his name will be praised. His name will be great. This is what we pray. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Exalt your name in the earth. Sanctify it, set it apart. Make it great, so that all the people of the world will recognize it as such.” And in fact, the Lord Jesus himself assures us that this will happen. In Luke chapter 13, verse 29, Jesus says, “people will come from the east and the west and the north and the south and recline at the table in the kingdom of God.” Throughout the Bible, we have this prospect of this ever-growing company of men and women. Yes, the weeds will grow, borrow from Jesus’ parable, but the wheat will grow also. Throughout this phase of the kingdom, there is this growth of the kingdom and this advance of the gospel throughout. My understanding of Romans chapter 11 is that at the return of Jesus and after there’ll be a massive advance of the gospel after that. As the Lord Jesus sang this song with his disciples, he sang it with a firm anticipation of the kingdom of God and its consummated glory that will come to realization in his return. A kingdom that he went from that upper room to establish in his death and resurrection. And so this is what we pray for: “Thy kingdom come.”

We saw this week in the news some horrible things. And one of the things we saw this week was just how hateful our world can be toward Christian values. I don’t care what political side of the political aisle you’re on, but one of the most stunning things that we’ve seen this week is not just the assassination itself, but the gleeful rejoicing of so many because of it. At least one I saw, gleeful that his three-year-old daughter was there to see it. I don’t care what side of the political aisle you’re on. This is sheer evil. It is not, it is not the world that this psalm anticipates. This psalm leads us to anticipate the time, and it assures us, in effect, that the time will come when from the rising to the setting of the sun, the name of the Lord will be praised. Imagine it. The psalm concludes with that sense of anticipation as it began, “Praise the Lord.” Why? Because there’s nobody like him. God that is great above the heavens is stooped far low to the rescue of his people. And universally, his name will be great in the earth, and men and women throughout the world will recognize him as such and sing his praise. And so we come to what we come to so often as we study each of these Psalms. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Make it soon. Amen.