Speak the Psalm together…

This Psalm is known as an acrostic. There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the twenty-two lines in this Psalm begins with the appropriate letter. For example, the first line has a word in the Hebrew that begins with the letter “aleph” (or A to us). The second line begins with the letter “beth” (our B) and so on. There are more than twenty-two lines in the English but that’s just the way the authors of the hymnal laid this Psalm out so that we might be able to speak or chant this Psalm in a more orderly fashion. The original has twenty-two lines for the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Knowing this we can rightly assume that this poem was carefully created for use in public worship. That’s what the Psalms were for. They were not only meant to be read for personal devotion – but also for praise and adoration in worship. And that’s important for us as this Psalm stands as the bases of the sermon today. Sure, one can praise God in solitude. However, the Psalm would tell us in the first verse to praise Him with a “whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.” When we are placed in the midst of God’s mighty and powerful Word – when we are moved by our Lord to sing praises to His Holy Name – it causes us to not only stand in awe of His precious grace in the gift of life – but also to reflect in the life and creation that God has made.

A famous author by the name of J.B. Priestley once gazed at the wonders of the Grand Canyon and wrote: “I felt God had set it there as a sign. I felt wonder and awe, but at the heart of them a deep rich happiness. I had seen His handiwork and rejoiced.” We praise His handiwork because “His righteousness endures forever,” as it says in verse three of the Psalm. Righteousness here means the power to love and recreate the lives of other people which God gives to those whom He has redeemed.

Look at the Psalm once again. Five different times God’s great “work” is mentioned. It’s mentioned in verse 2…in verse 3…in verse 4…in verse 6…in verse 7. God provides through what He does and what He has made. “Work” can mean either one of those two things. God’s work can be His wondrous creation. Or, God’s work can be what He is doing and providing for you and for me. Both are different, but both are quite the same as well.

The prophet Isaiah says to us in chapter 45 of the book that bears his name, “It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.” Isaiah, just like the Psalm, reminds us not to draw too sharp a line between what He has made and what He is doing. They are all of one piece. We cannot separate what God has made with what God loves and preserves. The work of God in the Psalms calls us to mind that He has not made the things of heaven and earth for the sake of creation and then left them to fend for themselves. The Psalmist and even Isaiah draws a very important and meaningful connection between what God has made and what God preserves – between what God did and what God is doing. His “work” is one in the same.

And the danger for us is to separate the two. Today we know of all kinds of people who do not know our creating and giving God. They have replaced God with their own religions and philosophies. They have their own misguided ideas or have listened to “theories” and turned them, into fact. Today, there are also many who believe that we need to separate God’s creation and God’s continued providence – God preserving His creation. They believe that God made the heavens and the earth and then has retreated to the furthest reaches of the universe – allowing His creation to fend for itself on earth – by itself. This is not the truth.

It’s easy for us to think God is not “working” with and for what He has made. It’s easy to think this way when we look around and see the trouble, the pain, and the suffering. “God surely is not involved,” we might think. “He made us and now has left us.” At times we use such a way of thinking to justify our anger with God – to explain why things in life go wrong.

Beloved in the Lord, within God’s creation is something that He never intended. This was something that man brought upon himself. It’s called sin. In this fallen sinful world that consumes us today – tragedies, suffering, disease and wars exist. But through it all – though man has brought it all forward – God still provides for His precious creation. He calls His sinful children, you and me, His very own. He still calls His creation good because He made it and still takes care of it. By His work He has made all things and by His work He still preserves all things.

The acts of God are not just found in God’s work to create but also in His work to preserve. Who among us would make a fine piece of art or build a beautiful house and not take care of it? With creation from us comes preservation. With God, it is the same. He has made us – but would never leave us alone to fend for ourselves. In this day and age of unrest and uncertainty, we need to rely on our protector and preserver more than ever.

All we have to do is go back to the Word of God to find how our Lord continues to keep us in His mighty works. For example in verse four of our text it says, “He has caused His wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful." The faithfulness of God is before His people as He puts before us in verse five that “He remembers His covenant forever.”

Never to forget what God’s work means we look around and know what He has made – me and all creatures. We look around and know of His preserving hand – His Word goes forth from the mouths of His believers and from this place into the lives of those who do not know Him. His work goes forth in the message of the Gospel that points people to the covenant that God never forgets – in the Father’s only begotten Son – that by His preserving death and resurrection, we have new life.

Never forget how God loved His work from the beginning and how He loves that work today. Never forget what God would do for you for your preservation today. Never forget the gift of Jesus and the suffering and death He would experience for you. Never forget the pain and horror that He experienced and the blood that He shed so that we can have what we do not deserve – heaven. Beloved in the Lord, by the only begotten Son His works remain at the forefront of our lives and keeps us today and forevermore in this precious gift of life.

A Psalm of worship and praise in the company of the congregation is before us. A Psalm of “God at Work” is given to us. A Psalm of promise – that not only God has made all that we have – but that He keeps us as His very own today and forever more. “His righteousness endures forever.” Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.