Sermon: The Kingdom of God - Psalm 33

Date Preached: Sunday 8th August 2010

Bible Reference: Psalm 33:1-33:22

In 1536 John Calvin wrote to the King of France, "Now, the king who, in ruling over his realm, does not serve God’s glory exercises not kingly rule but oppression (brigandage). Furthermore, he is deceived who looks for enduring prosperity in his kingdom when it is not ruled by God’s sceptre, that is, his Holy Word.

We’ve been trying to get our heads around the notion of the kingdom of God – and the difficulties people had in Jesus’ day and have had throughout history understanding what it’s all about – that God is about bringing his creation into (to quote Monty Python) “something completely different”. Centuries before Calvin tried to get the French monarch to understand that he’s on a loser going in any other way, in the psalm we just read we get the same kind of idea – because it’s what God has always intended.  “Happy, (blessed), is the nation whose God is the LORD!" It’s a different basis for life that seems to have something to do with continually thanking God for his greatness and goodness – something that moves us in worship to having a solid hope in a faithful God. I don’t know whether it’s the gloomy weather, or because I’m feeling a bit jaded, but I’ve been so grumpy this week – ask Sue. Maybe it’s a national characteristic, but we Welsh - and maybe the British as a whole can be rather dour or ’dwer’ (as some people say). Perhaps it is the climate, but for lots of people the glass is always half empty. Contrast that with the verses we have at the beginning of Psalm 33:

 1 Let the godly sing for joy to the Lord;
      it is fitting for the pure to praise him.
 2 Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre;
      make music for him on the ten-stringed harp.
 3 Sing a new song of praise to him;
      play skilfully on the harp, and sing with joy.
 4 For the word of the Lord holds true,
      and we can trust everything he does.

It’s an invitation to the righteous (those who know they’ve been forgiven) to praise God; - to make time for joyful worship. The Hebrew verb ‘rejoice’ originally means to dance for joy, so it’s a strong expression for the liveliest kind of exultation.” [And of course the harp of 10 strings is the NRSV’s rendering of the 6 stringed Lowden acoustic guitar!!]  But note how the psalmist appreciates the use of musical instruments in praise.

That prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon says, “To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly. He (or she) who would have a double heaven must begin below to rejoice like those above.”

The psalmist is trying to say literally ”clothe yourself with praise” so that praise becomes the outfit you wear: - as befits those that are upright. (Heb. yasar, Gr. euthus) “those that are straight; those who’ve been straightened out.”

And ”Sing to him a new song” implies the continual discovery of fresh reasons and occasions and ways for praising God, and the spontaneous outburst of thankfulness from our hearts.

One contemporary Christian composer and commentator on the Psalms says, “The very nature of music is to change — and true artists, by definition, grow steadily, change constantly, and create regularly.”

Moreover, we are to "praise skilfully" - with a shout of joy. In 1^st Sam chapter 16: v.7, we’re told David played “well." – he knew his way around his lyre. The basis of our worship is knowing ‘truth’’ Knowing what’s right and true brings praise to the heart. The knowledge of God is the air that worshippers know they need to breathe.

Yeah, yeah yeah... (you might be saying) – but why would we do that? What reason do we have?

Well for a start how amazing is it that however capricious we might be – worshipping God when we feel like it, and not bothering when we don’t, that God is a Covenant-keeping God who doesn’t let us down.

Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 4 of the psalm: “For Yahweh’s Word is solid to the core.” All he does is done in faithfulness - he loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. And here again is that wonderful Hebrew word, hesed, or lovingkindness – it’s a word that denotes "covenant loyalty." –and we often translate it as (?) mercy.
It was St. Augustine who reminds us that, "just in case we think that by the merit of our works we have arrived at faith, all the works which God himself loves are done in faith." ”By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all their host by the breath of his mouth.” God said – and it happened – Let there be – and there was:- light – land - air to breathe – vegetation – plants – fruit - animals – and people

So what makes the world turn? Is it the global multinational corporations and world banks? (Trust them if you dare!). Is it the world according to CNN – the Atlanta –based news network. If you’ve ever been abroad and watched CNN, it’s tempting to believe their   version of events – it’s quite scary. The Bible represents God’s relationship to the whole of his creation, including you and me as being faithful to his Word, his Covenant oath.  Quite a way removed, really, from some evolutionary and secular concepts of natural law is the idea that it’s God’s faithfulness that keeps the world turning; and that faith is what enables us to appreciate how his economy, his way of doing things actually works. And it’s this idea of the way God always intended for things to be that Jesus is at pains to get across to all those religious folks who reckoned they’d got it all ‘done and dusted’, taped.

As I close let’s listen again to some verses from the New Testament which capture this idea:

Heb. 11:3 says, "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible."

And about Jesus, Heb. 1:3 says, "He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.” 
”For in him” (Colossians 1: 16 this time) “all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers - all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

I just wanted us to get a sense of what our response needs to be to God’s love expressed in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and released in us by the Holy Spirit – and the reasons we have to sing ‘new songs’ – because his sweet mercies are “new every morning.”