Psalm 97

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Hey, hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions.
This Wednesday night, this is where every day we get together. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we will make it through all of the wisdom literature. Well, tonight we are at, let's see here, Psalm 97. We're at Psalm 97. Thanks so much for joining me tonight.
Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much For what a blessing it is to be your people. We thank you that you have loved us with a never-ending love. Lord, we pray that we would hear these words tonight and that you would teach us. In Jesus's name, amen. All right, well, why don't we go ahead and turn over in our Bibles here to Psalm 97. Psalm 97, the Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitudes of isles be glad.
Clouds and darkness surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. A fire goes out before him and burns up his enemies round about. His lightnings light the world. The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
The heavens declare His righteousness, and all peoples see His glory. Let all be put to shame who serve carved images, who boast of idols. Worship Him, all you gods. Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O Lord. For you, Lord, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.
You who love the Lord hate evil. He preserves the soul of His saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. What an amazing psalm.
We need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? So A, what is this about? Well, this is a wonderful word. First, starting with a call to worship, then talking about who God is, and then following at the end with the reality of idolatry and joy. So first, a call to worship. The Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitudes of the isles be glad." Right? God is to be praised everywhere.
And then it talks about God here in verses 2 through 6. He has these amazing pictures. I mean, our mind is taken back to Mount Sinai when God descended upon the mountain and the mountain shook at the sound of His voice as the cloud descended upon it there with much lightning and flashes and fire and so much so that the people were trembling. And so this is, I think, what this is talking about here, right? The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord, the whole earth. He is the Lord over the whole earth. This is a radical claim that the scriptures make. See, God's not just some little deity who's just the God of Israel. He's not like the gods of Greece or Rome or of Egypt or of Philistia. No. God, not just of a little tiny region, but of everyone, of every nation and every place. Why? Because He made everything. The heavens declare His righteousness and all people see His glory. Every time we open up our eyes and see a sunrise, it declares His glory.
Every time you go out at night and you see the stars, God set them in their place. Every time you go to the lake or to the ocean and you see the mighty waves crashing upon the shore, it is God who is sovereign. Every time you see pictures of Mount Everest or any other giant mountain in the world with their snow-capped peaks, it is God who raised them up.
It is God who is the Lord over all and His glory is seen all throughout creation. Let all people, in light of this, let all people be put to shame who serve carved images, who boast in idols. Worship him, all you gods. As if these gods were absolutely anything. You have the god of the mountains, and the god of the storm, and the god of this, and the god of that. If you've ever read mythology, you know there's always these little gods all over the place doing stuff. And it's saying, all of them are useless. If they even existed, they would serve him. The ocean is there to proclaim His glory. The stars are there to proclaim His glory. The mountains are there because they proclaim His glory. The trees are there because they proclaim His glory. The thunder is there because it proclaims His glory.
All of it. In light of that, it's sad to think that people would cut down a tree, take half of it and cut it down, make firewood, make a sandwich over it, and then with the other half, carve it into an image and bow down to it. God says that's not how this works. Because Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O Lord, for you, Lord, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.
This should be the impetus behind missions. This is what drives the Christian's heart go and share the gospel with those who are in places like India, places like Pakistan, places in the Amazon rainforest, places in Chile, in Bolivia, Argentina, places like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and even in South Sudan. Because we want all people to come and to worship the one true living God. You who love the Lord, What's our calling? Hate evil. Hate evil. Hate evil and love good. Hate evil and love righteousness. Hate evil and love justice.
That's what we're called to do. He preserves the soul of his saints. He delivers them out of the hands of the wicked. Do you believe that? This is where We've kind of gone all the way from the ABCs here, but I'm just wanting to tell you, the Lord preserves you. And the Lord's desire for your life, if you are in Christ, is to do righteousness, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God, to serve Him and worship Him alone, to cling to Him alone. So are you. Are you resting in Him? Will you praise Him? Will you worship Him? Will you live your life that His kingdom might expand?
Let's pray. Father, thank You so much for who You are. Thank You that You are not some small tribal deity, but You are the Lord of the universe. Father, we pray we would worship you in spirit and in truth. Thank you that you preserve our souls. Lord, continue to reform our hearts that we might hate what is evil and love what is good. In Jesus's name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you tonight with a great sleep, and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.