Psalm 138
I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.
All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord,
for they have heard the words of your mouth,
and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory of the Lord.
For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly,
but the haughty he knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and your right hand delivers me.
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Psalm For August 27, is Psalm 138. It reads, I give you thanks so Lord with my whole heart, before the gods I sing your praise, about down towards your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness. For you have exalted above all things, and your name and your word. On the day I called you answered me, my strength of soul you increased. All the kings of the earth shall give thanks, oh, Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord. For great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord has high he regards the lowly, but the hottie he knows from afar, though I walk in the midst of trouble you preserve my life, you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me, for the Lord will fulfill His purpose for me, your steadfast love, oh, Lord endures forever. Do not forsake the word of your work of your hands, your hands, the reading. Let's take a look. I give You thanks the Lord with my whole heart. Before the gods I sing your praise, I bow down towards your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness. This begins with something interesting, I think, for Christians, where it says, Before the gods, I sing your praise, that seems weird, right? We only believe in one God, we don't have multiple gods. We have to go back into the minds of the Old Testament and say, there were a pantheon of gods who are out there that were options for everyone. And David, when he writes, this psalm is saying, You God are the best of them all. Like there is no God like you. I will sing your praises in front of everyone, all the gods, you know, they will, they will show up. And I'll be like, no, no, no, I sing praises towards only the true God, the God of Israel. And when he does that, he goes towards the Holy Temple for his steadfast love and faithfulness. And what is this a steadfast love and faithfulness? It reads, For you have exalted above all things, your name and your word. On the day I called you answered me, my strength of soul you increased. Now, for David, it might be the the word is the promise that he received. David received some pretty great promises, beginning with the anointing of Samuel, when Samuel chose David to be king, and meant that David couldn't be killed until he got to be king. And so he could trust in this word. Later on. After David became king God came to him and said that he would always have a son on the throne of Israel. And perhaps that's the promise that God had given David. He calls out to God and He waits for this promise to come true. We also cry out to God and wait for the promises he gets us to come true. They come true to us for Jesus is Jesus is the one who's who answers our prayers when we cry out by giving us salvation. The psalm continues, all the kings of the earth shall give you thanks so Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord. For great is the glory of the Lord. For the low. The Lord is high. He regards the lowly, but the hottie he knows from afar. So we have a transition here. It moves from I will praise you to all the kings of the earth shall give thanks, all of them will praise you. But here's another thing. Why is it because God is powerful? No. Is it because he's mighty? No. Is it because he crushes the enemies? No. Here's why. For the Lord is high. But he regards Filoli but the hottie he knows from afar, so even the Lord even though the Lord is high up, even though he is the most powerful and the most mighty, he gives mercy to the lowly and judgment to the proud. And that is the true as we see it in Jesus Christ, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. The psalm continues, though I walk in the midst of trouble you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand delivers me. The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me, your steadfast love Oh Lord endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. Here's where I think the The the idea that this is a Psalm of David becomes most important, because we see David as a stand in for Jesus, like David was his life was preserved in the midst of trouble in the midst of enemies God was going to get deliver on these promises. But how much more is that true of Jesus? Jesus walked in the midst of trouble in yet God preserved His life, the wrath of their enemies came and they fought and they even killed Jesus. And yet God preserved His life. The purpose of God was was set out and achieved because God's steadfast love for his King Jesus Christ endured forever. And so because of that, we know that God's steadfast love for us endures forever through Jesus Christ, because he is raised from the dead. So will we be to that's the end of our reading. I hope to see you on Sunday. Thanks, bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai