Well, good morning everyone. It is always a joy to be up here and to preach the word of God. Today is it's a very joyful sermon and I'm excited and I'm also pumped full of caffeine right now. So, in the midst of the excitement and all that, I'm going to try and speak slowly against everything wanting to go really fast right now. But our voices are fascinating. We like to talk and they are a wonderful work of creation.
The loudest human voice ever recorded is 121 dB. To give some perspective, that's about the how loud a chainsaw is. So being beside that person would not have been a very good time. And our voices achieve this by forcing air from our lungs up through our windpipe into our vocal cords. And our vocal cords tighten like a sheet. And then the air slips through and they shake.
This is how we get our vocal vibrations. This is how we speak. This is how we sing. This is how we yell. This is how it works. But the pressure that is required to force this air up through our lungs past our vocal cords is actually shockingly low. In order to yell, it takes about 0.4 PSI in order to like scream at our loudest. To put it in perspective, it takes about four times that to blow up a balloon. And the average pop can is loaded at about 30 PSI.
And when you load those, that's all you get. So it takes 0.4 in order to fill our lungs and push that air out. Because the way that the Lord has created our voices, he's made them a marvel of efficiency. Our voices are extremely good at what they do. And because of this, it allows us to talk a lot. The average adult speaks about 15,000 words per day. If you were to speak that every day, you would be writing a small book every week.
We love our voices. But there is a critical question that comes out of these facts and this marvel of science is what are we doing with them? And I hope you are ex as excited as I am to join me today to work through this question. What are we doing with our voices? And we're going to look at Psalm 118 to answer that question. This psalm is a really interesting one both in the way that it's written and the way that the psalm is used elsewhere in scripture.
This psalm is known is part of what's called the Egyptian halal. This is a group of psalms from Psalm 112 to Psalm 118. And most likely these psalms were written as the as a celebration of the Egyptians or the Egypt as the Israelites leaving Egypt around a time called Passover. And so the word halal is something that we actually use quite often in our worship because it means praise and it is the root of the word hallelujah.
So if we take halal and yah which is short form for the word yahweh which means god hallelujah means praise the lord. And in this psalm there are many different schools of thought about who wrote it. Some commentators would believe that this is a psalm of David for a few reasons. One is because there's a heavy gospel focus in this psalm and also because it's short and punchy like David is in his writings. But other commentators and myself laying my cards on the table would agree that this is most likely written by Moses.
This is a psalm of Moses. And there's a few reasons for that. Firstly, because multiple multiple times in this psalm there are things that are quoted that were directly penned by Moses and there are other times where or sorry this is either indirectly or directly quoted in this psalm and because some of the themes and the events that are talked about in this psalm do tie back to the life of Moses. Keep that in mind as we'll come back to this. This psalm is also one of the mo the most quoted psalm in the New Testament.
And as we read through this psalm, we're about to read it in its entirety. I imagine that you'll see a few verses and you'll think, I've heard that before. I I think I know where that's actually quoted in the New Testament. I I think I've heard that said before. And as we get to some of the other verses, you'll be like, "Oh, I've heard a song written about that that we sang in church. Christian contemporary music loves Psalm 118. And so this psalm is rich in theology and gives us a great knowledge of who God is.
So we're going to take our time and we're going to read this psalm in its entirety. Psalm 118. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures forever." Let the house of Aaron say, "His steadfast love endures forever." Let those who fear the Lord say, "His steadfast love endures forever." Out of my distress, I called on the Lord.
The Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side as my helper. I shall look and triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. All nations surrounded me. In the name of the Lord, I cut them off. They surrounded me. Surrounded me on every side.
In the name of the Lord, I cut them off. They surrounded me like bees. They went out like a fire among thorns. In the name of the Lord, I cut them off. I was pushed hard so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord exalts.
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of the righteous that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O Lord. Oh Lord, we pray. Give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. You are my God and I will give thanks to you.
You are my God. I will extol you. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. I really hope that you can see what I'm talking about here. This psalm is so full, so rich, and so jampacked of amazing verses that it would take us a very long time to fully unpack and break down everything that is said in this psalm.
So, we need to use a fancy little thing called hermeneutics. Hermeneutics, if you don't know, is the lens through which we read scripture. It's our interpretation tool essentially. And when we read the Bible, there are certain things that we want to look to that help us to find the main thing that this passage is speaking about. We're going to use two of those skills. The first one is we want to always look for repetition. And the second one is we want to always look for common themes.
And so first we're going to look at repetition. And I imagine as you read it, you caught that there are several things here that are repeated over and over and over again. Verses 1 to 4 say, "The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever." Verses 6 to7, "The Lord is on my side." Verses 8 to9, "It is better to take refuge in the Lord." Verses 10 to 12, "In the name of the Lord, I cut them off." Verses 15 to 16, the hand of the Lord does valiantly. Verses 14 and 21, the Lord has become my salvation.
Verses 18 and 19, the gates of the righteousness, the gates of the Lord. And then verses 1, the very first, and verse 29, the very last, which repeat, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Which means that this psalm also does some inclusioing in our passage. But when we look at this entire passage and we take a closer look at the repetitions within these psalms, they're not random. They're not trying to repeat in different things. And when you see repetition in the Bible, it's trying to highlight something.
All of these repetitions highlight who the Lord is and what he has done. Another way to put this is that this psalm is a shout of acclamation to the Lord. Acclamation is a word that's kind of fallen out of our modern vocabulary. We don't use it a lot. But what I mean by this is that this psalm ascribes to the Lord the glory which he is due. The word acclaim means to give praise widespread praise to someone or something.
Specifically if what that someone or something has done is described as excellent. So for example if a painter makes a fantastic marvelous work of art people would give that artist a claim for the work that they've done. When a wide receiver in football makes a phenomenal catch and scores a touchdown, the the crowd there will give that wide receiver a claim for what they've done. When a singer does a great performance and the people all stand, give a standing ovation, that's them giving a claim to the one who has done the performance.
But I hope that we can agree that what the Lord has done is greater than any Van Go painting, any catch that Odell Beckham Jr. Has made or any song that any artist on this planet, even Chris Tomlin himself has made. What the Lord has done is the true thing that should be described as excellent. The word Lord has done excellent work. But you might be asking, "But Pastor Joe, what if I don't know what the Lord has done?"
Well, there's good news for you, random congregant. This psalm lays it out clear as day. All of the good work that the Lord has done and who he is. Like I said, I could spend hours and days breaking down this psalm. So instead, I'm going to try and do it in two minutes. We are going to do a fly overview of everything that the Lord has has done and described in this psalm. So get ready.
We're going to go really quick here. In verse one of this psalm, we can see that the love of the Lord is steadfast, meaning that it's longlasting and long-suffering. His love outlasts our our our not enoughness. It outlasts that we're not good enough. His love is greater than that. We see this quoted in 1st Chronicles 16:34 and as well as many other psalms. Let's move on to the phrase the Lord is on my side from verse 6.
The that term in verse 6 is quoted multiple times in the New Testament. Firstly, we see it in Romans 8:31 indirectly which says that if God is for us, who can be against us? And then this psalm is quoted word for word in Hebrews 13:6 where the author is encouraging the believers to hold fast to Christ to not deviate from that. Verse 14, which we described, is directly quoted from Exodus 15:2, which Dave read for us.
This is the song of Moses. It is a celebration of the Lord bringing them out of the land of Egypt. And so this is quoted from that song. And that's that saying is the Lord is my strength and my song. Verse 22 where the psalmist talks about the stone the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone is quoted five different times in the New Testament. Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10-11, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:7. So already we have that the Lord is loving and his love lasts forever.
We see that the Lord is on our side. We see that the Lord is for us. We see that the Lord saves his people and delivers them. We see that the Lord is a stren has strength and that he's worth singing about. He's worthy of worship. And we see that the Lord is the stone that the builders rejected. So here's the encouragement. If you're feeling unlovable, his love lasts forever. If your sin is holding you captive, the Lord is on your side. If you're lost and exposed, the Lord is a refuge.
If life leaves you surrounded, the Lord will cut them off. When you find yourself weak, his strength is worth singing about. When you're in need of a hero, the Lord is your savior. When you're deserving of death, the Lord holds you upright. When you need some stability, Christ is the cornerstone. And when you need salvation, Jesus paid it ALL FOR YOU. THAT IS THE GOD WHO is being heralded here. This is who we give a cry of acclamation to. And he is worthy of it.
Every verse in this psalm is a call to worship him who has done great things in our lives, who has defeated the enemy, and who has brought us from death to life. But even in the midst of that, there is one more thing yet that we actually haven't approached. And I've done that on purpose because I want to spend the rest of our time in this portion of the psalm. Because don't worry, I haven't forgotten that it's Palm Sunday. Let's go back and reread verses 25 and 26.
It says this, "Save us we pray, O Lord. Oh Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord." Verse 25 in specific has a very different tone from the rest of the psalm. The rest of the psalm that we've gone through does all this praising, all of this worship, all of telling you who the Lord is and what he has done.
And then right in the middle here, we have a request, a request of the Lord to save the author. Because here in this psalm, we transition in our psalm from a shout of acclamation to a cry for help. I think often about the first few weeks that our our son came home, our son Jonathan, he's two now.
And we were happy that he was home and he was safe. We were excited. He was our first first kid. And if for all of you who are parents, you know what happens in the weeks that follow bringing that kid home. You don't sleep. But we Jonathan was actually quite a good sleeper. We were very very thankful until we got to 6 months old and the wheels fell off the wagon. He had a terrible sleep regression and it was frustrating not because he was he was going through it.
He was teething so he was upset all the time. But it wasn't because he was waking up. We'd wake up and you know we we'd deal with him. My wife and I would deal with him. Put him back to bed and we would lay back down in bed and be wired unable to go back to sleep. And you're stressed because all you can think about is what if the baby cries again? So, you're so stressed about sleeping that you can't sleep, right? It's ridiculous. But I So, I did some digging. I did some looking into, okay, why do our bodies respond this way?
Well, the cry of a baby releases a hormone in our body called cortisol. If you know anything about cortisol, it's the stress hormone. It's what stresses us out. And we say, "Okay, well, that's great. Why does a crying baby stress us out?" There's a point to this in God's design. Cortisol is also the hormone that keeps you focused. It's what helps you to hone in and analyze what's going on and get the thing done. Cortisol is released in our fightor-flight response. It allows you in the midst of a stressful situation to understand what's going on and deal with it.
And so when babies cry, it releases this hormone so that we immediately know what's going on and know how to deal with it. Helps us to stay focused. When our kid bumps into something or we hear a kid crying in the distance, everyone starts to get a little stressed out. Everyone's aware of what's going on and so maybe you're ready to go and deal with it. God has done this on purpose because in between the loud crying of a baby and the hormone release that happens, it makes the cry of a child impossible to ignore.
You have to go and deal with it. It keeps you focused and alert to what's going on. They when they are crying for help, the parent cannot ignore what is going on. Thankfully, when we cry for help, our God doesn't try to ignore us. He doesn't need that increase in cortisol. He is already more awake and alert than we could ever imagine.
And so when we cry, save us, O Lord, he hears us. So the psalm psalmist here uses two very interesting words in Hebrew for the term save us we pray. It also could be translated save us now or save us we cry. It's a combination of two Hebrew words. Yasha which means deliver or save and anna which means to beg or beseech. Together we get the Hebrew word yasha which means literally save us now with emphasis.
It is a desperate cry for someone to rescue the crier from their distress. A desperate plea for aid or assistance. This isn't a hey I could use a hand. This is save us now please. And this word Yasha hana is where we get our word hosana from. But we will get to that a little bit later. So this begs the question, what is the author of this psalm needing salvation from?
Well, let's run with a theory that Moses is the author of this psalm. When we think about that, it actually gives us some clarity. It wouldn't make this sense for this psalm for for this psalm to be a call to save them from the land of Egypt. If we go to verse 18 and read it, reread it really quickly. Says this, "The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death." This is most likely referring to to the time in Moses's life where he was wandering in the wilderness with the Israelites and they need water.
And so Moses commands him to go and speak to this rock. Moses instead completely disobys the Lord outright and strikes the rock with his staff. Water still comes forth. But because of this, the Lord bars Moses from entering into the promised land. And the Israelites instead enter after he's died. It's a pretty significant punishment, but at that moment, the Lord doesn't kill Moses. I'm going to contend that that's what being is being spoken about here. He disciplined Moses severely but didn't give him over to death.
But this story happens in Numbers 20, not all the way back in the Exodus story. So what could this possibly mean? Well, I'm going to contend that through this Moses it in his divine inspiration, the word words given to him by the Lord, Moses here is calling for the Lord to save him from his sins. This is bolstered even further when we dive into the word meaning of the word succeed.
While I I enjoy the ESV, I like that the way ES the ESV words specifically verse 25, I do think that the LSB, the Legacy Standard Bible gets it a little bit better. In the LSB, this is this verse, verse 25 is six words. Oh Yahweh, save. Oh Yahweh, succeed. Quite the difference. But let's think about that for a second.
It shows that this verse isn't saying, "Lord, please give us strength so that we can deal with our issues on our own." It's saying, "Lord, please come in and save us from the position that we find ourselves in." It's not a Lord, I I can do this. Just empower me. It's Lord, I need you to fight this battle for me. I need you to come in and rescue me. The word succeed here in Hebrew literally means to cut through or to force entry. I don't know how many of you enjoy ancient civilizations and their tactics and their war tactics. I certainly do.
And the Romans did this fascinating things. Now, back in these days, you'd have two lines with shields, right? One enemy and the the Romans here, they'd have their shields up. And the goal was essentially you needed to break through the enemy's lines. The first army to do that gained a massive advantage. And so, what the Romans would do is they would have this thing called a wedge formation where they'd have one guy in the front shield up, two guys behind him, shields up, three guys behind him, and they'd have this wedge and they'd have the strongest fighters up in the front. That's called the bullnose.
And then what these guys would do, they'd stack up and then they'd all push each other through the enemy's shield barricade. Pushing through the shields and getting into the enemy's defenses and cutting them down. But in order to do that, they had to cut through. They had to force entry. And so this cry here is, "Lord, I need you to be the strongest soldier. I need you to be upfront. I need you to cut through the enemy's defenses because I can't do it myself.
Save me from my plight. This sin is too great for me. Lord, cut through them. Moses here recognizes that he is unable to do it himself. Our hearts should also echo this cry all the time because friends, there is no possible way that we are able to save ourselves from our sin.
Romans 3:23 lays it out pretty clearly and says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. But we wouldn't trust our physical health to someone who's deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Yet, we do it with our hearts all the time. We do it with our soul. I don't know everyone out there. I don't know where you're at, but I promise you there is no self-hel self-help book.
There is no amount of meditation. There is no amount of therapy. There is no amount of introspection. And there is no amount of trying harder that will ever be able to save you from your sin. There is nothing on this earth that can erase the amount of debt that you have. You are in need of a gracious and perfect savior. So I implore you, if you are not in Christ today, you need to cry out to him.
This needs to be the call of your heart to the Lord. Call out from the deepest part of yourself. And even if you are in Christ today, continue to cry out from the deepest part of yourself and know that this is not weakness. It is not a weakness to admit, Lord, I need help with this. It is not a failure to call on God and coming to him in your weakness. He is sitting there waiting for you to come to him to cry out to him.
Psalm 145:18 says that the Lord is near to those who call on him. And that cry for help, that weakness is the greatest strength the believer can possess. Let's turn with me, if you will, to 2 Corinthians 12. This passage is very near and dear to my heart. In my last year at Miller College of Bible, this was our hall's theme verse.
We have sweaters with it on it, so I come back to it often. I'm going to be reading 2 Corinthians 12:9 and 10. Says this, "But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. What a magnificently humble form of worship. It this is to ask for help from a perfect helper. But praise the Lord that we don't have to stay there because my friends, salvation has come.
And this plea is now and forever turned to praise. Our cry for help has now turned into a roar of celebration. I did say that this is the Palm Sunday sermon. So, let's go to that classic passage, the triumphal entry. Turn with me, if you will, to Matthew 21. And I'm going to be reading Psalm 21:es 1 to10.
Just going to wait for people to get there. I like to wait until I stop hearing pages turn and then I'll read. Says this, "Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethage to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, "The Lord needs them," and he will send them at once."
This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the f of a beast of burden." The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. And they brought the donkey and the colt and the colt and put them on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road. And others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
And the crowds went before him that that went before him and followed him were shouting, "Hosana to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosana in the highest." And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, "Who is this?" And the crowd said, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee." So, here we've come to this moment. We've arrived. It's the beginning of Holy Week, and Christ is entering into Jerusalem, both in a triumphant way, but also in an incredibly humble way on the back of a donkey.
No big horse, no chariots, fulfilling the prophecy that was given in Isaiah 62:1. And the people are gathered around him and they're excited. They're celebrating. They're laying down palm branches and robes for Jesus the Passover, which is how people would have celebrated royalty at this time. So these people recognize that Jesus is some sort of person of stature of a person of high authority and they're crying out hosana to the son of David.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosana in the highest. Yes and amen to that. But let's take a second here and let's think about that because we we already talked about what hosana means. It means save us we pray. Save us now. Doesn't it seem strange to use this in celebration to cry out save us but also be celebrating? This word hosana is a cry for help.
Why would the people be using it like this? Why would they take the cry of Moses from Psalm 118 of all places and use it to celebrate the Lord? Well, it's because of the actions and the events that would follow this time. I'm not going to steal too much thunder from Easter Sunday cuz that's going to be a joyful celebration. But 5 days from now, from this moment, the Lord is going to go and die for the sins of the people. And then three days after that, he's going to be raised again on on resurrection Sunday.
And then we experience the true meaning of this because the people here are missing the point. They can't see the big picture. They're so focused on their right now. They want some sort of political leader or a militaristic leader. They want someone to save them from the Roman oppression. Maybe they think that Jesus will heal them. Maybe they're just there for the spectacle. Like Matt said, they're just there because there's a crowd and people are drawn to crowds.
But we now being post this time see the whole picture or at least see the bigger picture. We can see that this man, this innocent man was beginning his march to the most undeserved death in history. And they can't see the truth that this man wasn't here to free them from their worldly enemies, but he was there to free them from the one who desires to see their soul snuffed out. But we see the entire picture.
We can see that he would go through this week and go and die so sinners can change their cry from hosana save us now. And it could instead be turned to to hosana, salvation is here. Salvation has arrived. Hebrews 12:2 says that for the joy that was set before him, Christ endured the cross. Christ knew that when he went on the c on that cross, he would die and buy back a hopeless people out of their debt.
That he would finally answer this cry for help and it was a joy for him. Now for the believer, this anguish that we have, this pain that we experience, this suffering we endure, the sadness, the fear, the anger, the frustration can be turned into loud celebration, joyful celebration. And how could it not be? This is exactly on brand for how the Lord works.
The Lord is the one that takes things like pain and suffering and turns it to a joy that we can't even comprehend. Psalm 30:1 says, "You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness." 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come." And Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Do you see it? If you are in Christ today, you have been made new. You have been washed white. You have been made clean. The sin that is clung so tightly and so closely is cast off. And you are free. Free from sin. Free from the promise of hell. Free to live with Christ forever more.
So now you can shout, scream and declare, "Hosana! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." This is good news. It is the best news. And this news should elicit a response from us just like it did from Moses and just like it did from the people who did it un unintentionally on Palm Sunday. They say in celebration, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
Now, this is an interesting phrase because we've talked a lot here at Gateway Bible Church about what this term blessed means. And oftentimes it means happy or fortunate. We would get that from places like Matthew 5:es 2 to12, which is called the biatitudes. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Everything like that, etc. But in our passage in Psalm 118, it's used a little bit differently. The Hebrew word there means praise. Praise him who comes in the name of the Lord.
It also could mean make way, take a knee, bow to the one who comes in the name of the Lord. That's some authority. That's the name that Jesus is coming in. But he is worthy of that praise. Why? Because of our first point and what the entirety of the psalm says. Because of who Jesus is and what he has done. That is what makes him worthy of praise. He is coming in the name of the Lord.
So my question for you today is will you do you praise him? Is your life a beacon for everyone everywhere that Jesus is your king? Do people see your hosana overflowing out of every part of you? Do people hear your hosana echoing off the walls of every single room that you walk into? Can people smell the hosana out of every single action that you take?
Can believers watch you like the believers at the gates that day, taking the very cloak off your back to worship the Lord? Can people tell with every act of service, every kind word, every single gift given, every moment spent, every calming touch, every word of counsel, every tear of shed, every heartfelt laugh, and every action you take is your life a deafening torrent of hosana. We use our voices to say 15,000 words a day.
How many of them do we use for the Lord? How many of them do we use to praise? Do we tithe with our word count? Do we give back to the Lord what he has due? Cuz my friends, he is worthy of it. He has saved you. Salvation has come. So let your plea for your cry for help be turned to praise and let your life be overflowing with joy this Easter season. Dear God, I thank you for this day. I thank you for the truth of the gospel.
Thank you that we have this time set aside every year where we can remember the work that you did on the cross. That we can celebrate that you have won the war and we are no longer crying for help. We are no longer waiting for a messiah or a savior that salvation has come. Help us to celebrate with joy that salvation is here. Let us cry hosana.
Help us to smile as we do it. We thank you that you love us and have loved us so much that you did this for us. >> We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
