VIDEO
Are We Leaving A Legacy Of Hope? (Psalm 48:9-14)
GIST: Know Him, so you can encourage the next generation to know Him.
Last week, we started Psalm 48. When we did, we noted that it was a psalm about the city of God. However, in a very real way, since Jesus came and took on Hell in our place and granted us access directly to the throne of God, the whole symbolism of the city of God being where God dwells has been transferred to… us. That’s humbling. It also means what we see being applied to Jerusalem here should be true of our lives, as well.
In the first eight verses, we saw these truths: Our lives and our church should be a place where God is known as great & greatly praised, a place that’s different because of His transforming grace, a beautiful place because He’s lifted us up and sent us out, a place all about Jesus, a place of security, and a place of eternal hope! Today, we’re going to break down what the rest has to say to us. Let’s read it.
“9 We have thought on Your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of Your temple. 10 As Your name, O God, so Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. 11 Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of Your judgments! 12 Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, 13 consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation 14 that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.”
Isn’t that beautiful? This is a picture of who we should be, and it really boils down to this gist: Know Him, so you can encourage the next generation to know Him. If I had to have a more detailed gist, it would look like this: Dwell on His steadfast love, share His message of rescue widely, take joy in His ways, and leave a legacy of hope! And those are our points this morning ☺️. Let me start with this disclaimer. Like last week, a few of these points are ones it seems like we’ve been coming to repeatedly over the past few weeks. I promise I’m not purposefully picking topics. If we keep seeing it in these passages, it has to be because God really wants us to hear it. I know this has 100% been true for me ☺️!
Let’s dive in!
I. Dwell On His Steadfast Love.
“9 We have thought on Your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of Your temple.”
For this first point, let me just ask two questions. First→
What Consumes Your Mind? I know I think about a lot of things… all the time. Until it just shuts down, which I’ve noticed can literally happen in an instant ☺️, it seems like I’m constantly bouncing from one thing to the next. Now, a lot of that has to do with the “tasks” I have to accomplish for the day, but not all of them. I think about my family. I think about school stuff. I think about church stuff. I think about… Mizzou basketball. I think about music. I think about ideas for stories. I think about exercising (sometimes more than I actually follow through with exercising ☺️). This list goes on. But… do I think about the steadfast love of God? The love that is patient with me. The love the keeps on loving even when I’m consumed by so many other things. The love that never gives up even when the world around me is falling apart or seems to be running at me with sorrows I can’t take.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said this—and, man, I love this passage— “8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8)
Take a second to run through all the thoughts that really grabbed you this week. Maybe they were things that got you super excited. Maybe they were things that had you worrying. Maybe they were plans you were making. Were any of them the amazing grace of Jesus? Yeah, that one hurt me too.
Wait until you think about this one ☺️→
What Consumes Your Mind… When You Come To Worship? I was told after church last week that, though I am usually a teaching pastor, I preached last week ☺️. I have a feeling that was in reference to my question about how we talk about church and what impression of God that gives to the people around us—especially our kiddos. This section of the psalm starts by saying we should think about the steadfast love of God…when we come to the temple. Why did people go to the temple? To worship. To sacrifice. To be near God. When you come to worship, what are you thinking most about?
II. Share His Message Of Rescue Widely!
“10 As Your name, O God, so Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.”
What we have here is a picture of what could be called a→
Missional Mindset. That was actually a buzzword in Christian circles about ten years ago, so much so that it kind of took on a whole identity of its own. However, the word missional should 100% define us as Christians and as a church. We should want to→
Praise Here. Again, that’s one of the points that seems to keep coming up over the past few weeks. Our lives should be all about praising God for who He is and what He’s doing regardless of how we feel. And we should→
Long To See Him Praised Everywhere. He is the God of all the earth. We should want to see His praise reach to the ends of the earth. One of the songs I would play all the time as a teenager was “Let Everything That Has Breath”
Praise You in the morning; Praise You in the evening
Praise You when I'm young and when I'm old
Praise You when I'm laughing; Praise You when I'm grieving
Praise You every season of the soul
If we could see how much You're worth
Your power, Your might, Your endless love
Then surely we would never cease to praise
Let everything that, everything that, everything that has breath praise the Lord
That should be the desire of our hearts. As we also→
III. Take Joy In His Ways.
“Your right hand is filled with righteousness. 11 Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of Your judgments!”
There are a few points here. First→
His Ways Are Good and Right. His right hand, that symbol of power and strength, is filled with righteousness. That’s a poetic way of saying He’s fully righteous—a characteristic we lack. Though we’re flawed and can be misguided and misinformed and completely wrong. God doesn’t have those limitations. Whether or not we like what He has to say, He is good and righteous because He’s God. His nature is so different from ours. Because of that→
His Purpose Should Bring Us Joy. This one is hard sometimes. Look at what the passage says. They are rejoicing because of His judgments. What He declares. What He determines. What He calls right and wrong. What He purposes— should bring us joy. You might have doubts sometimes. You might struggle with His truth. Bring that to Him. Wrestle with Him as you trust in His wisdom and grace. However, you won’t find lasting joy by twisting His truth to more comfortably fit into societal expectations. I was listening to Tim Keller preach this week on a completely different passage, but he made a great point. He said something like this: “So often, people struggle with God’s word because it makes them uncomfortable. They can’t possibly believe because God is too judgmental…etc. However, the problem with that line of thinking is that it ignores the fact that people of different cultures are made uncomfortable by completely different aspects of God’s character as revealed in Scripture. While you might be bothered that He seems too judgmental, others find the notion of His grace and forgiveness unfair. We can’t let our experiences and culture dictate what God should be like.”
IV. Leave A Legacy Of Hope!
“12 Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, 13 consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation 14 that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.”
Forever, and ever, and ever. There is an emphasis here on His eternity. As God’s people, we should want to leave a legacy of hope. I love how this psalm ends. I’ve been chewing on this for awhile now and have been looking forward to breaking this down with you. Don’t worry though, it won’t take long. We’re told to→
Take In His Presence & Consider What He’s Doing Among His People. That’s the picture of walking about Zion and numbering her towers and the ramparts, and citadels. Take it all in. Think about who God is. Look at what He’s doing among His people. This goes back to what we talked about last week. The church should be a place where we do just this. We make much of God. We talk about who He is. We get excited about what He’s doing. We trust in His strength together even when everything is broken around us. When we do that, we’re able to fulfill this glorious purpose, as well. We take Him in→
So We Can Tell The Next Generation. What are we going to tell them?
-This is God. The God we see revealed in the Bible. The One True God we see continuing to work and save souls today.
-This is our God—Forever! This is God who wants a personal relationship with you that will change everything—forever! This is the God who comes into your brokenness and offers the rescue only He can because Jesus took Hell in your place and rose victorious over sin to be your savior!
-He will always guide us! No matter what we face. No matter how hard life gets. No matter what flavor trials and temptations take. He. Will. Guide. Our. Steps. We can follow Him!
That’s A Legacy Of Hope! That’s what we should be about.
Let me just recap real quick in our→
TAKEAWAYS
Dwell on His steadfast love.
Share His message of rescue widely!
Take joy in His ways.
Leave a legacy of hope!
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