Psalm 148 is called the Choir of Creation by Derek Kidner, one of the supreme commentators on the Psalms. His little work is just outstanding and has taught me an incredible amount about Hebrew poetry and how to pick out the features of the psalms, not to mention keen insights into each individual psalm.

The first thing to notice about this psalm is the ‘locale’ of each potential worshipper. The psalmist begins in heaven, calling the angels to worship (1-2). The first half of the psalm (1-6) descends ‘Jacob’s ladder’ to the realm of sun, moon and stars then to the ‘firmament’ and the waters above the ‘firmament’ (to use the Genesis 1 kjv terms!) — that is, the third stage refers to the clouds and the air above the earth. All things in the heights are called to praise our God.

The second half (7-14) of the psalm begins in the ‘deeps’ and works its way up through the earth and the creatures on it, to man, even man in covenant relationship with God, i.e., Israel itself, in the midst of the earth. You can see by this ‘movement’ that all creation is compassed by the various groups called to praise the Lord.

There is a precious kind of parallelism that we often see in Hebrew poetry called chiasm (that is, a parallel outline of the material looks like the left face of the letter X — the Greek chi — hence, chiasm). There is a majestic chiastic structure to this psalm, which intensifies the interest on the covenant people of God. I will try to reproduce it here (this is where a visual aid would have been handy).

Level 1 of the chiasm parallels the ‘sentient beings’ of creation. Level 2 parallels the things ‘on the surface’ of each sphere; sun moon and stars are just ‘above’ the atmosphere, as it were on the surface of the ‘firmament’; while hail and snow, mountains and hills, trees and beasts are on the surface of the earth. Level 3 parallels the things that are ‘below the surface’ of each realm – the waters that are above the heavens (clouds) and the highest heavens that are below the clouds, compared to the deeps and the creatures of the deeps.

The point of this structure seems to be the place man occupies in God’s mind – parallel to the angels in his regard. But notice that God goes a step further in the second summation and names Israel, a special class of men  in covenant relationship with him. They are ‘a people near to him.’ (14, emphasis added)

There is one more thing to note about the structure of the psalm: the ‘summations’ are parallel in thought to one another. The creatures of heaven are exhorted to praise the name of the Lord on the basis of their creation by fiat (command). The whole of them are established and function according to the laws of God’s command. No wonder they reward fruitful study!

Psalm 111:2
Great are the works of the LORD;
They are studied by all who delight in them.

But what of the men who are likewise exhorted to praise the name of the Lord in the second summation? Well, they are reminded of God’s great name, but it is great in their eyes because he provided for men “a horn for his people” (14) – a refuge, a place of salvation!

This is a word of redemption! Hear Zechariah after the birth of John the Baptist:

Luke 1:68 "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, 69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant

Here then we have the real heart of the psalm. All the Choirs of Creation are called to sing praise to the name of the Lord of Heaven because he has caused his people to be near to him through the redemption he himself provides. He is the horn of salvation!

Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

Praise ye the Lord!

~~~

Pastor Don

We’d like to point out our recent changes to help you understand them better.

In the past, we have used the upper right section of our site for the ‘blog’ updates. Here we have been giving the sermon summaries and occasional announcements. This was the primary place for finding recent sermons when we started the site. We also had a system of indexing sermons by category something that appears in the menu bar above.

Last year, we added the Sermon Browser plug-in which is accessed by the “Our Sermons” menu item. Sometimes we would delay posting a sermon summary, even though the sermon itself was posted in the Sermon Browser. The Sermon Browser makes updating our sermons very easy, but it wasn’t as easy to find as we would like it to be.

So we have divided our ‘upper right’ section to give you a feed directly from Sermon Browser of our Recent Sermons as they come on line and links to our Recent Blog Posts so that we can pass along announcements and devotional writing. We’d like to make the ‘blog’ section of our site a more regular feature than in the past to make our site even more helpful for you. We plan to simplify our categories above to make navigation of our site a little simpler and reduce the clutter of our menus.

Finally, we have added a Facebook page for our church. We aren’t sure that everyone should be on Facebook, but it is very widely used and can be a way for people to become aware of our doings at church, especially friends of our church people who wouldn’t normally look at a church website. So you will see a button on our Home Page to ‘Find us on Facebook’ and links in our menu bar to our Facebook page and to our RSS feeds for our sermons and our blog posts.

That wraps up the changes for this year. We are sure things will keep on changing as time goes on!

~ Pastor Don

We conclude our Christmas series with the realization that every one of the promises of God that we looked at still await some fulfillment. In the meantime, the seed of life remains to be sown, the sure word of God that promises yet that future fulfillment and consummation of all things that is to come. Be ye hearers and sowers of that seed.

A Great Invitation (Isa 55:1-13)

Duncan Johnson

Our pastors son, Duncan Johnson, brought us the wonderful promises of Isa 55 today. He reminds us that all need to hear and take advantage of the blessing promised by God for the obedient and repentant soul who is willing to think after God’s thoughts instead of persist in his own self-righteousness.

The psalmist recalls a blessed season of revival – it was like a dream! He prays that the Lord would bring the revival again. He pledges himself to the human work of revival – sowing in tears, bearing the seed, waiting for the streams in the desert.

Faith Like the Rock of Zion (Ps 125:1-5)

This psalm speaks about the faith the believer has that is unshakable because of the believer’s conception of God and his surrounding presence. The believer follows righteousness because of his confidence in the Lord. The product of this faith is peace.

Sunday, Dec 19

The Seed of David (Mt 1:1)

In this message we consider the Establishment of the Kingdom and the promise of our coming Shepherd King.

Church Ethics (2)

In this session we complete our look at the IFCA Standard of Ethics for Churches. It outlines a basic standard of practice that Christians commit themselves to in joining a Bible believing local church.

God’s Christmas Gift (Titus 2:14, Ps 23:3-4)

Rory Johnson

The gift of God to us is our Lord Jesus Christ. The gift of God to Himself is a people He gave Himself through His own great gift and tender shepherd’s care.

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For other messages see our Sermons page where you can filter by series and by speaker.

Our Help is in the Name (Ps 124:1-8)

The central theme of Ps 124, as in many psalms, is faith in the name of the Lord. David paints vivid word pictures of the overwhelming enemies who would take him in the nation, but these are nothing because it is the Lord who has helped us.

Sunday, Dec 12:

The Seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16, Gen 22:15-18)

We show how Christ is the focal point of the Abrahamic covenant, as pointed out by Paul in Gal 3.16 and as revealed in the typology of Abraham offering Isaac, the place where the Abrahamic Covenant specifically promises blessing to ALL NATIONS because of Abraham’s obedience.

Church Ethics (1)

In today’s lesson we take a look at a document establishing standards of conduct in the IFCA International. We discuss the personal responsibilities of the Christian in today’s session.

The Manner of the Minister (1 Tim 5:1-2)

Our passage today calls the minister to a particular attitude in ministry. The minister must not be one who uses words as a club, but one who comes along side with admonition, with entreaty, with correction by means of the Word. All this must be conducted in purity, especially when ministering the Word to women.

Our first Christmas message of 2010 looks at three necessities found in Gen 3.15: the seed of the woman must be Human; the seed must be Virgin born; and the seed must be Victorious.

The Self-Emptying of Christ (Phil 2:5-11)

This lesson deals with carefully defining the doctrine of kenosis, or self-emptying, as described in Phil 2.5-11. We attempt to say what the Bible says and not go beyond it in trying to explain every detail. There is danger in saying too much, more than the Bible says, about the emptying in order that Christ be able to die for us.

The Cup of Blessing Which we Bless (1 Cor 10:16)

This communion message emphasizes the idea of ‘fellowship’ and the things we share in common with the Lord Jesus Christ and indeed the whole Trinity.

Ps 123 is the voice of the pilgrim, having entered the City only to find the contempt of those who are at ease in Zion – they are too sophisticated for the sincere religion of the faithful pilgrim.

Who Needs Lordship Salvation? (Rm 6:15)

In this message we examine the questions Paul raises as objections to the doctrine of salvation by faith alone through Romans 1-6. These objections suggest the concerns raised by the Lordship salvation debate. We attempt to navigate between both ‘sides’ and present a scriptural approach to the doctrine of salvation.

The Person of Christ Incarnate (4)

In this lesson we emphasize various points about the union of the Divine and human characteristics of Christ in the one Person, Jesus Christ the Son of God. Our concluding lesson lists some of the heresies concerning the person of Christ that the church fought out in the first five centuries of church history.

Eat Meat! (or – The Quirks of the Cults) (1 Tim 4:3-5)

In this message we consider two particular cultic asceticisms (forbidding marriage and meats) which are marks of the ‘special knowledge’ that cults and cultic personalities seem to delight in. The message is designed to aid discernment and warn against delight in special interpretations of the Scripture.

In this message we talk about how Paul became so identified with Christ that he could call other men to be his imitators. We also point the way for any believer to become such a model for other Christians.

Summarizing Psalm 119 (2)

In this session we conclude our brief summary of key words and sections of Ps 119.