“But Jesus told him, "Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead."
“And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them.”
We trust a Living God and so we are made alive. But idolatry is mocked by the author of this Psalm as not only gold or silver items which are not alive but made by people who are also not alive. And you may ask, how can that be? How can the person taking up the activity of forming little statues of made up gods not be alive? And it is because they are not spiritually alive. Their idolatry is proof that they cannot see how silly the whole activity is. There are many places in the Bible where those who make idols are mocked for the absurdness of the activity that identifies their spiritual deadness. And so the ‘dead now’ only have the ‘dead later’ to look forward to beyond the grave. They will not be able to praise God. But we are made alive. And so we see the agreement between what Psalm 115 teaches and what we later learn is made possible by what God does through Jesus Christ.
MAIN POINT: We are called on to praise Jesus who gives His priests life forever to praise Him.
“But we can praise the LORD both now and forever! Praise the LORD!”
“3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, ...
23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.”
So let’s look at what Jesus said about life forever. The summary of the conversation Jesus had in the night with the learned Bible scholar Nicodemus was that Jesus could give life that lasted forever.
“35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. 36 And anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn't obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God's angry judgment."”
Jesus in His prayer near the time He would be crucified prayed to the Father in heaven and he talks about defending and helping his disciples (John 17:11-12). The God who is worthy of eternal praise in Psalm 115 is the same God who gives life and is the same God who helps us and shields us. That person is Jesus, the very same who claimed he came to give life abundantly.
You have been invited to a praise meeting in heaven around the throne of God! All living creatures are going to join in and all the angelic beings too. And we who know Jesus have been described as a kingdom of priests (just like Psalm 115 calls on the descendants of Aaron) in the expanded kingdom of priests who worship God eternally.
“10 And you have caused them to become
a Kingdom of priests for our God.
And they will reign on the earth.””
What does Psalm 115 tell us about Jesus that would cause us to praise Him?
We find our answers set in contrast to the dead activities of idolatry. Idolatry makes man the creator of god. But we serve a God like this:
v1 “unfailing love and faithfulness.”
We serve a God who is able to be found, praised and spoken to. We serve Him; He does not serve us. And yet He does care for us.
v2-3 “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.
v4-7 Our God was not made and He speaks, sees, hears, smells, feels and walks among us.
v8 & 18 Our God lives and so do we who worship Him.
v8, 9, 11 Our God can be trusted
v9-11 Our God is a helper and a shield for those who trust and fear Him
v12-15 Our God remembers and blesses
v16 Our God gives the earth
v17-18 Our God is praiseworthy
Conclusion:
We who have been called out from the spiritually dead have been given new life in Christ Jesus. We worship a living God, so we do not call to mere idols that cannot hear but to an eternal living God who defends and cares for us.
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| Handwritten Psalm 115 |
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