What Ails You?

Psalm 114 is where we are headed tonight. Psalm 114. I’ll read it and then we’ll pray together.

“When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob, from a people of a strange language, Judah became his sanctuary. Israel, his dominion. The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. What ails you, oh sea, that you flee, oh Jordan, that you turn back, oh, mountains that you skip like rams, oh, hills, like lambs? Tremble, oh Earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.” Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, once again, we come to Your Word and we ask that You would open it to us, that You would help us to see light in it, that we would be convicted by it, encouraged by it and impressed by it, by the power of your Spirit. This we pray in the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

As you know, we are in the Hallel psalms. Tom started us off on this series last week. My outline for this psalm is quite simple, verse 1 and 2, God’s Possession, verse 3 through 6, God’s Power, verses 8, or 7 and 8, God’s Presence. The main idea for tonight’s meditation is first, that God calls us out and dwells with His possession. Second, that God shows His power through His possession, for His possession, of course, to bless them, and sometimes even in spite of His possession, and third, God shakes the very foundations of the world by being present with His chosen possession, His body, His church, you.

In short, we are thinking once again, about God’s possession, God’s power, God’s presence. By way of introduction, recall that God has purpose from long ago and planned and has carried out this agenda throughout history. That is, that God determined He would display his power, His Lordship and His presence through His people. This is not the only way He displays His power, but the story of the Bible teaches that it, teaches us that it is a main way. That story, in short, is that He chooses a people, He protects his own, He redeems them, He dwells with them and amazingly, that He would show forth His power to them and through them.

God uses the people of old and He is still using His people today to turn the world upside down. It continues. It began and it continues. Listen to a few passages throughout the Scriptures that point us to this idea.

Exodus 9.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. For this time, I will send all my plagues on you, yourself, and on your servants and your people so that you may know that there is none like me in all the Earth.’” There is a little bit of that the Lord will use people to show his power. Continuing:

“For by now, I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence and you would have been cut off from the Earth, but for this purpose I have raised you up to show you My power so that My name may be proclaimed in all the Earth.” In the process of calling His people out of Egypt, He intended to show His power.

Joshua 3, verse 7.

“The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today, I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Isreal, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.’” God works through His servants.

Psalm 106.

“Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works. They did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea, yet He saved them for His namesake, that He might make His mighty power known.” We could just surveying and we’d find this theme all over.

Psalm 77.

“You are the God who works wonders. You have made known Your might among the peoples. You, with Your arm, redeemed Your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.”

Or, moving to the New Testament, Matthew 5.

“In the same way, turning it into a command, let your light shine before others so that they may see Your good works and give glory to Your Father, who is in Heaven.” Yes, the world, the church, should see God at work in His people.

Second Corinthians 12.

“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.” Showing forth the power of Christ. God’s plan for His people is that they might bear witness to His power. He chooses them, He dwells with them, He powerfully changes and protects and cleanses and preserves them and His presence is full of awe to them. As we sing in the older hymnals, He is, we are awe-full, full of awe when we face our Lord. He is their living water, their life, their hope. They understand that there is only one who can destroy both body and soul and so they tremble before their God and are eternally grateful for the blood of His Son, which covers and cleanses and saves them from the wrath to come. There is the nugget of the sermon. That’s where we’re headed. When you stand before the lion of the Tribe of Judah, you will shake in your boots. That was the other title I considered for this sermon, “Shaking in your Boots.” At the same time, I believe your heart will just burst apart with joy.

Now, let’s back up and see how we got there. Tom said last week, these Psalms, or these verses are called the Egyptian Psalms, and Psalm 114 makes that obvious. When Israel went out from Egypt, looking at verse 1, so we’re immediately positioned in a time and place right at the exodus. After 400 years of slavery, something momentous is about to happen and it deserved, and it did happen, and it deserved the song, a poem.
“When Israel went out from Egypt, the House of Jacob from a people of a strange language.” Now, most likely, the language itself is less of the focus, although that’s true as well, but that strange language also represents a different way of talking, of being, of maybe even thinking of, certainly of, of worshiping. There were two different cultures colliding. For 400 years they had been under Egypt’s dominion, but now something was happening. The clash came to a head and Judah would no longer be the possession of Egypt. No longer would they be under Pharaoh’s dominion. No longer would they have to listen to an Egyptian taskmaster. They would no longer be owned by them. They would, instead, be Gods, owned by someone else. They would no longer build Pharaoh’s cities and sanctuaries but would instead become the very sanctuary of the living God. They would no longer be building, but they would be built up as the Lord’s temple, living stones as it were. Israel would no longer be dominated by taskmasters, but in time the Israel of faith would be dominated by a law written on their hearts, a word set as frontlets in front of their eyes, a truth spoken in their lives as they rise up, as they lie down. They would be dominated by an indwelling of the Spirit. This is the Israel of faith, of course.

Though the full scale of that domination would only come to its fullest by the wonder working power of the Lamb, yet it is clear that this is the end game. Jeremiah makes that very clear for us. So, God plucked the people out of poverty and gave them the riches of Himself. They were transferred from a dominion of darkness into a dominion of light, into the living and active Word, which teaches all such that we need no teacher. A very different paradigm. Of course, we know Israelite history, in fact, one of our readings pointed this out some, but it was not all fun and games after the Exodus. In fact, they stumbled and stooped so low as to wish they could go back to the old language, the old way of life, that culture, that yummy food. And yet, to be transferred from one way of being to another, from one language to another, from one way of thinking to another, from one way of worshiping to another is what the Exodus is all about.

So, let me ask, are you dominated by a new way of thinking, of being, of acting? Maybe even a feeling, of worshipping. Are you under the Lord’s sway, His dominion? My guess is that there are many among us, at least at times, if not a lot, struggle. We sense the controlling power of the Spirit, and yet sometimes it’s a fight. The leeks and the onions of Egypt just call our names. The promise of a full belly and no decision-making because you’re told what to do, looms large in our hearts. Sadly, some would prefer to swim back across the Red Sea in order to serve the desires of their bellies. Is that you?

Kevin’s message this morning was powerful and it’s worth continuing to ask. Are we sick of the manna, the daily grind? Sick of controlling yourself or being Spirit-controlled instead of serving yourself? Some of us get lost in the desert, still dominated by the taskmaster we could call self-preservation, old love, old anger, old lusts, old temptations of ease and carefree living apart from the law. It lurks in every corner of our hearts. Egypt continues to whisper, “It’s hot there in the desert. It’s nice back here.” They whisper, “That hot road just leads to dry bones.” I would simply suggest that you ask yourself maybe a different series of questions. Ask yourself, “Am I sick of my tendency to try to get my way? Am I tired of the slavery to addictions or lust or guilty pleasures, even if they seem small, to anger in my heart, to constant dissatisfaction with others or circumstance? Am I tired of the burden of trying not to transgress the laws of culture, which modernity affirms? If you’re tired of all this turmoil in your heart, then perhaps you should ask the Lord Jesus Christ for a new language, a new way of thinking, a new heart, that you might become His sanctuary, a new place of worship.

But I think that many of us here have stepped into the desert and miraculously, we remain satisfied with nothing but manna. Of course, the Lord is gracious, and He gives us so much more than that, but we sense the controlling power of the Spirit, and we are so, so grateful that we have, we are now living under the law of liberty, happy to have a new King. Happy, both astounded by what the Lord has done and eager to see what He will do. Perhaps you’re like many in Israel who rejoice, and we see this in the psalm. They rejoiced at being set free. They saw the sea rolled back. They saw amazing miracles, wonders performed. They witnessed things happening that could not happen. A people that was relegated to slavery just walked out of the most powerful nation on Earth because the mightiest Lord on high was fighting their battles, because they were His possession. So that’s meditation on verse 1 and 2. We are His possession.

Verses 3 through 6, God’s Power. You see the sea looked and fled, Jordan turned back, the mountains skipped, the hills, “What ails you oh, sea.” It’s a great little passage through here. “Oh, mountains that you skip like rams.” If the first section of the psalm should cause us to have wonder and gratefulness that the Lord chooses and makes us His own, this section of the psalm expresses confidence. It might even come across, and I think it should come across, as taunting. The sea looked and it was scared to death, got up and fled. The mountains were as frightened as lambs. Have you ever gone up behind a fainting, fainting, what is it called, a fainting goat, yes, and clapped? (clap) I’ve never had that opportunity. I’ve only seen the YouTubes, they go (clap) and they fall over. That, that’s not in my sermon.

Derek, Derek Kidner writes about this psalm like this, “A fierce delight and pride in the great march of God gleams through every line of this little poem, a masterpiece, whose flights of verbal fancy would have excluded it from any hymnbook but this.” Now, I’ve read through hymnbooks, and I’ve seen some verbal fancy, but, but this is really taking pride in what the Lord has done. They’re looking around and seeing, ‘Well, the sea just parted. Let the mountains be mowed down. Everything will get out of the way of this God.” There is a note of pride here. It’s like a high school basketball team that just won the championship, and they walk out, “Victory, victory!” The Israelites are beyond the sea, and they just saw the whole army swallowed up and they’re, like, “Ha! The seas part in front of our God!” They saw what God did to Egypt. The Lord showed up, clapped and Pharaoh fell over. Neither nation nor nature could withstand God’s power and so there is a loud note, dare I even say, of boasting on behalf of the Lord, pride in what the Lord has done, even taunting.

Now, in today’s political climate, taunting is all the rage. It is completely in vogue. I get it. It’s an effective and pragmatic rhetorical device to either frustrate your opponents, fluster your opponents or to divert attention away so you can pay attention to substantial things you’re trying to do. I get that, but the talk here is not the same as political chess. This psalm deals with the impossible. Things that can’t be done are being done. Seas rolling back, rivers flowing the wrong way. Every valley lifted up; every mountain made low. It’s as if we could ask, “What ails you?” And we could add then, “Which king’s heart, which president’s heart, which dictator’s heart has a chance at resisting the eternal decrees of God?” You will look and you will flee away. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you’d be swept away in the flood.

Now, I’m telling the truth here. This morning, Kevin gave a clear warning that we may be tired of all the light that we receive from week to week. I just spoke about that. I’m also going to say a little bit about preaching to those who are not here. He included that this morning, and I have a dog example. We did not confer before we preached these messages, before we wrote these messages. Now I know it’s easy to preach against those who are not sitting here with us tonight in this building, and that’s not my intent at all, especially with the last little bit that I just said. In addition, we need to be careful to avoid becoming truly haughty and prideful in a sinful way in our hearts. And yet, as long as we, I think, put the appropriate guardrails up, it’s helpful to remember, and this psalm does it so well for us, that we can be supremely confident in the Lord’s ability to guide all of history, no matter what the circumstances may look like.

Elijah taunted the Prophets of Baal, why? Because he knew for certain that the idea of the Gods of wood and stone competing with the living Lord was ludicrous. He knew it, and so he teased them. He taunted them. Of course, as I mentioned, we need guardrails because our hearts are prone to sinful things. It’s easy to become overconfident or descend into treating, say the power of prayer, like, a rabbit’s foot. Like the Israelites did with the Arc of the Covenant to drag it into war and say, “Now we’re gonna win.” Well, that’s obviously not what this psalm encourages, but as long as our confidence is truly in the Lord and what He is doing in history, what He is working out under His providential care, then I think the church can and should celebrate what the Lord does, the works of the Lord. If laws protecting abortion fail, praise the Lord. If evil leaders are brought down, praise the Lord. If we were to modernize this text, that the psalmist is using here, or writing, we might ask it this way, “What ails you? What’s wrong, oh influencer of culture? Why are you so angry with the church? Oh, is it because you see that the Body of Christ has outlived, outlasted, out-preached and out-survived every single political and cultural sea and river ever? Does that make you upset?” The great dragon will breathe his fire and hurl himself against the bride over and over again, but she will only be refined by fire. The Lord will preserve His possession. She will be purified and emerge glittering like gold. How many emperors or dictators have tried to snuff out the church? And how many have failed? All of them.

Do you know that you’re part of a victorious people? Do you know that you’re, the church has a wonderful trajectory in history? We have a glorious end and even though we will be maligned along the way, yes, we will be maligned, and sometimes we deserve it; however, we also leave a victorious path because the church is called “chosen, cleansed, and finally glorified by the power of almighty God.” Once in a while a well-chosen taunt is appropriate, not because we are intrinsically special or better, no, not at all. Only because we are His possession and therefore, there are times that we should just be gleefully confident that He has the power both to call us out of slavery and then remove every sea and every mountain that might stand in the way. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

And finally, we come to then versus 7 and 8. God’s presence in the Earth.

“Tremble, oh, Earth at the presence of the Lord.” Do you ever tremble before the Lord, and if so, how? Hebrew is an interesting language. Words in Hebrew can take on various nuances, based on context and here, the word “tremble” has the sense of standing before an all-powerful prince or king. In this case, it’s the King of Kings. We just got through saying that the seas and the mountains give way before this King, so what about you? Are you as powerful as the sea, stalwart as a mountain? When you stand before God Almighty, will you say, “Hey, high five”? No.

Revelation Chapter 1.

“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around His chest. The hairs of his head were white like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars. From His mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword and His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw Him,” writes John, “I fell at his feet as though dead.” We will all tremble; however, for the child of God, though we will shake in our boots and fall on our faces as if we were dead, I think we will also quiver with awe and pride and joy because this is our God who called us, who dwells with us, protected us.

We have dogs, which by Kevin’s definition, makes us insane, but we do have dogs, and I can’t say that I’m a complete dog lover, but sometimes they’re cute. When we get home at the end of the day, our dogs make a beeline for us. Yours probably do too, and both our dogs just shake and run circles, and especially our poodle, just yaaa, just, he’s just so excited. He can’t wait and he’s just waiting for us to put down our bags or our guitars so we can give them a thousand pets, right? Do you have dogs like this? It’s crazy.

Jesus laid his hand on John and said, “Fear not.” Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe, eyes like fire, hands full of power, face like a sun, word like a sword, and yet He will stoop down, touch us on the shoulder and say, “Fear not.” We touch our poodle, and it just goes still, loves that pet. Your shaking will stop, and you will be comforted by God almighty; however, others may tremble in a different way. Then the kings of the Earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, hide us, from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of the wrath has come.” Who can stand? Asking if you tremble is the wrong question. The better question is, what will be the nature of your trembling? You will be racked with fear. Asking, or will you be racked with fear, asking the mountains to crush you or will you fall on your face in awe and then quiver with joy at the hand that comforts you?

At many funerals here, 1 Thessalonians 4 is referenced. It’s one of my favorite passages. It teaches us that when someone dies, we grieve. It’s only natural. In fact, I would say it’s good that we grieve, and yet if that person was a believer, we grieve, how? As, not as those without hope. We know and love that passage. I think fear and trembling may work in a similar way. We will fear. We will tremble, but not as those with no hope. Make sure your trembling is one that’s mixed with and mingled with and intertwined with hope placed on Jesus Christ.

Verse 8 reminds us of both real history that the Israelites saw and experienced and hints and points toward the power of God to provide for his people, to turn a rock into streams of living water. It was no accident that Moses struck the rock and water poured forth. His sin brought blows upon the rock and yet life sprang forward. Do you believe that your sin dealt a death blow to the rock of salvation, to Jesus Christ? Well, if you have looked to Christ as your Savior, then what issues forth is springs of living water. Jesus Christ is the rock of our salvation, and He promises that we will never thirst if we drink from His cup. If this is your hope, then before the face of God, in His presence, you will tremble with both fear and hope. You will shake in your boots or fall down as dead, whatever happens, I don’t know, but I suspect we will be quivering with anticipation to feel our Savior’s hand on our shoulder, saying “Fear not.”

When Israel went out from Egypt, the House of Jacob, from a people of a strange language, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. You see, the Lord takes a people for Himself. Among His people is the sanctuary of worship. God was in the midst of them and therefore, the sea looked and fled. Jordan turned back. Mountains skipped like rams and hills like lambs. “What ails you, oh sea, that you flee, oh Jordan that you turn back, oh mountains that you skip like rams, oh hills, like lambs.” You see, we are confident that the Lord is powerful to protect and provide for His possession. “Tremble, oh Earth, at the presence of the Lord. At the presence of the God of Jacob who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.” Tremble before Him. Be grateful for his provision. You are the Lord’s possession. He has the power to preserve you and His church, and He provides all you need. So, let us tremble, both with fear and with peace. Let’s pray.

Father, we are grateful for your Word, that at times convicts us and brings us to our knees, that other times reminds us that You are guiding all of history, for our good and for Your glory. Lift our eyes to see Jesus, I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.