Sermon
His Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom - Psalm 145
June 15, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our Bibles. We're in Psalm 145. We've entitled it "His Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom". I'm enjoying the preparation for these sermons. I trust that you are growing along with me as we glean the glorious truths from this precious portion of Scripture. Before I read it to you: this is David's last Psalm. In the Psalter it's, of course, 145. There are five remaining choruses or songs that finish out the Psalter, but they are simply the added doxology; but this is David's last song of praise. Listen to him:

"I will extol You, my God, 0 King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over His works. All Your works shall praise You, 0 Lord, and Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless His holy name forever and ever."

I start our notes today with the comment -- the psalm that we're studying is a psalm of worship. Someone has said that, "Christian worship is the most momentous, the most urgent, the most glorious action that can take place in human life." Worship is the dramatic celebration of God in His supreme worth in such a manner that His "worthiness" becomes the norm and inspiration of human living. If the celebration of God's worthiness is meant to lift us into the light of His presence, that elevation will provide a place from which we see our lives in a fresh light. To be meaningful, worship must address God the Creator who is at once above us and yet gloriously near-the beyond who is in the midst of us. Worship is an exercise of the human spirit directed primarily to God. The worshiper embarks on an enterprise undertaken not simply to satisfy his needs or to make him fell better or to minister to his aesthetic taste or social well-being, but to express a worthiness of God Himself. The very word means "worth-ship".

True worship will entail a response that is thoughtful, costly, and worthy, appropriate to the high occasion and in line with the serious intent of a person's coming into the presence of the all-holy, gracious God. True worship is that exercise of the human spirit that confronts us with the mystery and marvel of God in whose presence the most appropriate and salutary response is adorning love.

Adoration confesses that there is more in God than our finite minds and limited capacities can absorb; love rejoices that this God, the beyond who is in our midst, wears the human face of Jesus Christ whose distinctive name for God was Father -- worship.

We take worship very serious here at Church of the Highlands. Those who prepare our worship today blended the songs together, spent hours in prayer, and thought, and preparation. We want our expressions of worship to lead us right into the very thrown room of God, and I believe that all of us will agree as we blend our hearts and our thoughts, and the great expressions of our faith that we sing, we are drawn into God's very presence.

I love worship, and I know you do too. When I'm away from you, and I was just a few weeks ago for a Sunday, as I tell you I get up early in the morning and about 7:00 I find the first church door that's open. I don't care what name is on it. I go to that church to see what's happening. And a few weeks ago while away early in the morning I went to a church. I immediately recognized that those who came were people anticipating worship. They were respectful and they had the love of God written across their face. The hymns that were sung where hymns that drew our hearts to God and exalted and extolled Him. The message that was given by the pastor made me know that he had been with. When I walked out of the sanctuary and got into my car I felt I had enjoyed an hour of great worship, and so I headed for the next church.

When I arrived at that church I was somewhat disturbed by all of the noise that was taking place and the disrespect and dishonor to what I felt should have been God's house. They had thrown away all the great instruments of time, such as the organ and the piano, threw the songbooks out the window, and there was a cacophony of sound that was irritating, at least to me. And after all of that noise and a brief word that took little thought, and a quick prayer, it was all over. And I walked out and got in my car and said, God, You deserve better than that.

God is a holy God. He reigns supreme, and the wonder about David is that his concept of God, just with the very thought of God, brought him into an attitude of beautiful worship. And in our Psalm today we're going to observe why David was known as the man after God's own heart. He was a worshiping man.

Our notes tell us that the psalm we are studying today was called "David's Psalm of Praise." This is the only psalm thus described. It is a psalm of pure worship, a fitting end to the Davidic psalms. It brings all of David's other hymns to a climax. It forms an end, too, to the main body of the book of Psalms itself. The remaining five psalms are an appropriate appendix of appreciation for God, a supplementary doxology.

There's something else interesting about this psalm. It is the last of the acrostic psalms. All the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are present, with the exception of the letter NUN, which is the fourteenth letter of the alphabet. In other words, if we were reading this in the Hebrew, each stanza would begin with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Now this psalm is a psalm about God. It begins with these words, "I will extol Thee, My God." Nobody can praise God apart from this personal relationship. To try to worship God in the abstract is absolutely unsatisfactory. Such concepts as "providence" or "nature", these do not touch the chords of the heart. But to think that the God of the suns and the moon and the stars, the God of singing seraphims and adoring angels, is my God -- that can set the heart to singing and the feet to dancing.

David had this very personal relationship, and he brings it up constantly in his writings; He's my God. When he thinks about the shepherd, he says, He's my Shepherd, and he identifies that relationship as something very cherished. David said my relationship with God -- He's my God and I extol Him. I lift Him high.

When David says, "I will extol Thee," he is saying that he will lift up the name of God and he will praise Him so that his praise will be heard from afar! David wasn't a silent worshiper. When he began to rejoice, all the passion, all the feeling inside of him, he said, I will extol Him, I want to shout His praises so all the world can hear it! I want the world to know I love God, he said, I will extol Him.

I suggest to you I always wondered why churches sometimes represent a morgue; not if you read through the Old Testament. Those Old Testament folks, they had a great time. They shouted for joy. They sang with all of their being, and David said, when I think of You, God, every fiber of my being wants to shout. I extol Thee O my God.

Now someone has suggested that if we do not learn to worship and praise our God here on earth, we're going to be extremely uncomfortable when we get to heaven. And I would agree. You see, our great challenge is to learn how to worship so when we get to heaven we'll feel right in place.

John, when he looks into heaven, he sees it filled with praise. He said, "I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." Saying with a soft voice? No, no. "Saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Heaven is filled with loud and joyous praise.

We are going to be worshiping and praising God throughout all of eternity; so I suggest we get started now. Amen? As we receive blessings from God every day, it is proper that we should render to Him daily praise and thanks; as God is the same always, yesterday, today and forever, it is proper that He should receive from day to day the tribute of our praise.

Now David starts his song -- first of all he tells us why he can worship and why he wants to worship; he is saying He's my King, and that relationship then leads him into some other thoughts. Look at the top of Page 3. Verse 3 starts by extolling God for being great. "Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom." David is thinking here of the greatness of God displayed in His mighty works. When we read of mighty acts, and glorious splendor, and wonderful or awesome works, and great deeds, it is natural to think of God's work in nature, which is not a bad place to start our praise.

If you can look at the surge of the ocean, the glory of the mountains, or the splendor of the sky on a cloudless night and not be moved to praise God, you are more to be pitied than a person who has lost his or her physical sight. I have suggested that it must have been a wonderful experience to go on a nature walk with King David. I mean, every place he looked it reminded him of God; as the frogs would croak along the pond he'd stand there and listen to them praise God; as the wind blew through the trees and leaves and he listened to the rustle of the leaves, that was the leaves praising God; as he listened to the waves of the see it was the waves praising God; as he listened to the waves of a sea it was the waves shouting praise to God. Everywhere David looked he was amazed at the grandeur and the greatness and the majesty of God's creation.

Sadly folks, you and I move through life so fast we miss much of it. I suggested that many, many times I walk by that flower bed out there in front of the church. When you stop and you take that snapdragon that's got such a gorgeous red, you'll have to notice it when you go out today, and you take that beautiful flower and hold it in your hand and say, God, so majestic, so great, so glorious is Your creation. David was always overawed by the splendor of the mountains, and the roaring of the water, by the rustling of the leaves. He said, God, not only do I know You, but You gave me a beautiful world to enjoy. We hurry too fast and we miss too much of its beauty.

I've suggested yet as wonderful as God's works of creation are, a person who has come to know God's goodness in Jesus Christ can hardly stop there. The greatness of God's works are His salvation works - and it was at Calvary. There's the wonder of sunrise and sunset, wrote George Beverly Shea, there's the wonder of all, but the wonder of wonders that fills my soul is the wonder that God loves me. He's my King, and He gave me a beautiful world in which to live.

I'm in the middle of Page 3. "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and 'His' -- now his thoughts move from the relationship from the world around him to the person himself, to God. David is talking about the great I Am, the God whose name is ineffable and unpronounceable, the God who met Moses at the burning bush with the demand that he remove his shoes from off his feet because he stood on holy ground. He is a God so unsearchable that no human mind can comprehend Him. He is so vast we can touch but the fringes of His garment.

He is a God who has revealed Himself in three persons as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one and one in three! He is a God who is without beginning and ending of days. He is eternal, uncreated, and self-existing. We go back before the dawn of time, before the first star glimmered in the sky, before the rustle of an angel's wing disturbed the silence of eternity, back into the dateless, timeless past, into the void of nothingness-and lo, God was there and had been there, glorious, sublime, needing nothing.

Surely, with David, we must fall down and worship at His feet too. I fear and I tremble as I watch the deterioration and the trivialization of the sacred and of God. Ladies and gentlemen, He's not the man upstairs, He's the Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, the God who rules the universe, who holds the stars in His hands! David had this magnificent glorious concept of God and he let no one diminish that glory. Why should we? To think that the creator of the universe, God, loves us and cherishes us as His children and as His jewels is an amazing thought.

I move on. Look at the verse 7: "They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness." Now his thoughts move from the relationship to the glories around him, to the God above him, and now to the character of that God. What he is saying is, God, You're good; You're righteous; everything You do is perfect. Even though I do not understand my ways yet You hold my pathway in Your hand. God, You're good and there's no capacity for You to do other than that which is good. He's talking now about the character of God. He's saying, God, You're righteous. You always do what is right, always.

God, You're a God of mercy and You let Your mercy flow. You do not become selective -- it's on the evil and on the just You allow the rain to fall. God, Your mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. You're a God of compassion, a God of love, and David becomes overwhelmed with the character of God. God who is so good, so gracious, so merciful, the Almighty God and David's heart is drawn to worship.

Then we come to the heart of his song. It's the middle stanza. It's absolutely -- when you think it through -- it is marvelous. David talks about the kingdom. He said, Your kingdom, O God, is a kingdom that's everlasting; from generation to generation the majesty of Your kingdom, and that becomes the center of his song.

You say, pastor, why is it to you such an impressive stanza? What you have to understand -- the concept of the kingdom -- is a concept that weaves its way all the way through the Old Testament. But when you get to the New Testament, when Jesus picks up the concept of the kingdom, in the four gospels the kingdom is mentioned 130 times. And if are going to understand the theme of the Scriptures we have to understand the gospel of the kingdom. Now when David writes those words hundreds of years before Christ, the Jewish people had a concept of the kingdom. It was literal. It was physical, and Jerusalem was the capital. It started way back when God calls Abraham, 2500 years before Christ, and out of Abraham's loins flows a nation and for 1500 years that nation is God's nation.

Then about 1000 years before Christ those people wanted a king, an earthly king, because all the nations and all the tribes around them had kings. God had always been their King; now they wanted an earthly king. God said, Okay, if that's what you want, that's what I'll give you. He gave them Saul, son of Kish. He stood above every other man in his country. He could have been a marvelous king but he was selfish, disobedient, and rebellious. He dies, the first king of Israel, by suicide.

After Saul comes David, and David's rule is magnificent. There was peace. There was prosperity, everything was lovely, and David was a great king. And then after David comes Solomon, and after Solomon the kingdom is split and for the next number of generations it was war, it was bloodshed, no possibility of any kingdom whatsoever. They are just a nation that is beat up by everybody. They had one brief period of history known as the Maccabean period in which they were independent as the people, but other than that the Israelites were controlled and beat down by foreign nations for centuries. They had one heartbeat, and that heartbeat was the heartbeat of a kingdom. Because throughout the Old Testament God said He would establish the throne of David. And they lived with the anticipation that the day would come that the kingdom would be brought back to Israel, Jerusalem would be the capital, and they would be a people who would rule the world. That was there concept, a literal kingdom circumscribed by boundaries.

In fact, right after Christ's resurrection He's talking to them, and He's getting ready to ascend back into heaven, and He's talking about the kingdom. And do you know the question they asked Him? When will the kingdom of Israel be restored? They are still thinking about that literal, physical kingdom. They had missed the message of Jesus!

The New Testament starts and says, when John the Baptist came preaching, he came preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Matthew chapter 4 says when Jesus started His ministry, He preached the gospel of the kingdom. And when the apostles started preaching in Paul, they preached the gospel of the kingdom. The last days that Paul's in his prison there in Rome, he's pulling in people and talking about the kingdom; Acts chapter 28. But Jesus had changed it, and that has been one of the great misunderstandings of time. The Jewish people in Christ's day wanted a physical kingdom. They wanted the enemy to be conquered and they wanted to rule once again; like David.

And Jesus talked about the kingdom - old Pilate says, tell me about Your kingdom. He said, well, if My kingdom were of this world My servants would fight, but My kingdom is not in this place. Others asked Jesus, and Jesus said, My kingdom does not come with observation; My kingdom comes, the kingdom of God is within you. Now He spiritualized the concept of the kingdom. And He said, when you pray, you pray our Father which art in heaven hollowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus had taken the concept of the kingdom, eradicated the physical material aspects of it, and says, I want you to come and join my kingdom. It's a kingdom where the King rules within the human heart, and where the King rules, that's the kingdom. It's a spiritual. If Jesus Christ rules your heart today, His kingdom is right here (pastor beats on chest). He said, My kingdom is within you.

That you didn't get into the kingdom, as the Jews thought, on nationality. You get into Christ's kingdom by repentance. You forsake for sins. You turn your heart and life over to Jesus Christ and you make it the passion of your being to do what God wants you to do. You just don't say, Lord, Lord. When you are part of His kingdom you live with that desire. God, I want to please You; I want to love You; I want to serve You; You are my God, my King. Why? Because the King is ruling inside.

He's got some interesting rules in His kingdom -- interesting rules. The first one that He says, it's not the big that's great; it's the slave. It's the one who serves that's the greatest in His kingdom. What Jesus did is He took the natural laws of life and He just turned them all the way around. It's not the greatest -- it's the man who serves who's the greatest in My kingdom. They didn't like that.

He added another one to it. He says, you always give to get. All the world says you get it and then you give it. No, no, Jesus said. Give and it shall be given on to you. You see, He took the laws of life and absolutely reversed them.

He added another one. Love your enemies. That's hard. It's easy to hate them. Jesus said, no, no. If you're going to be a part of My kingdom you're going to love your enemies, and you're going to do good to those who despitefully use you.

Then he added another one. He said, in My kingdom worry is forbidden. If we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, everything is taken care of by God. It's an interesting kingdom. You enter His kingdom through repentance with a commitment to do what He says and allow Him to rule your heart. And Jesus says, that's the kingdom. That's why we sang that great hymn: We declare that the kingdom of God is here; within you; within me. We are children of the King. The King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Now here's the amazing thing, and with this I've got to close. David is writing hundreds of years before Christ, and the concept to the Jewish mind of the kingdom is literal. Oh no, said David, it's not literal, it's spiritual. His kingdom is from everlasting to everlasting; from generation to generation. Somehow in that moment of song the prophetic voice speaks to the heart of David and David sees that vast picture of the kingdom of God that never has an end. And what made him really worship was he knew he was a part of that eternal kingdom that went on forever and ever.

Now ladies and gentlemen, may I suggest when you come to church next Sunday -- I'm going to ask you do something -- prepare for worship and be like David. When you get into that car, before you let off the hand brake, say God, You're my God and I've got the joy today of going to Your place of worship and I'm going to worship You. Now the rest of the passengers in that car may be wondering what you're doing, but you just simply say, I'm going to worship today and I'm going to worship my God. Then when you drive along the streets look at the trees and the flowers and all that He's created, and get all excited about the beauty of the world in which we live. Then when you come into this sanctuary you lift your heart and you rejoice in the goodness and the greatness of a God who is eternal, forever, the omnipotence one. And rejoice in His mercy and His goodness and His love, and then really begin to shout when you can talk about the kingdom. I'm a child of the King, a child of the King! I'm part of His kingdom! And because I am, I'm going to spend eternity with the King.

I tell you folks, nations rise and fall, history moves on in turbulence, it doesn't bother me a bit. That takes place down here. I'm a citizen of heaven. I'm a part of His kingdom. One of these days it will be over and we'll be up there and it isn't going to make a bit of difference. David lifted his eyes above the world around him and said, I'm a part of a kingdom that lasts forever, God's kingdom. And I have every reason in the world to rejoice. Amen?

Father, what a joyous song. We join with David and we call You, my God -- my God. My God! You love me so much You sent Your Son to die for me. You're my God. I pray that You'll make all of us worshiping people, anticipating as we come to the sanctuary enjoying Your presence and knowing that we're only children of time, but we're men and women of eternity. We're a part of Your kingdom, and we rejoice today. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. God bless you all.