Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19990912.htm

PSALMS: DIARIES OF GODLY OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
Psalm One Hundred And Forty-Eight - Becoming Secure Through Resting In Our Great God Of Security
(Psalm 148:1-13)
  1. Introduction
    1. As Americans increasingly adopt pagan ideologies like Hinduism, New Age ideas, etc., they edge toward a self-manipulative relation with its deities. Such views hold man can manipulate deities to his advantage.
    2. However, that self-manipulative tendency breeds enormous insecurity. One into such deity manipulation never knows if he has done enough to appease or motivate his god to perform according to his wishes.
    3. Such a mentality is prevalent in believers coming out of religions like Catholicism or Liberal Theology, for the emphasis in such groups on works for salvation creates an insecurity so that laymen never quite feel God approves of them! Evangelicals who emphasize legalistic expectations also suffer from insecurities as they never know if they measure up to what they assume or have been told God expects of them!
    4. Psalm 148:1-13 counters that insecurity by countering such self-manipulative THEOLOGY as follows:
  2. Becoming Secure Through Resting In Our Great God Of Security, Psalm 148:1-13.
    1. This Old Testament era psalm is set in Israel when the nation was surrounded by pagan nations.
    2. Such pagans idolized items in nature such as the heavenly bodies or landmarks or animals and other created forms on earth, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, v. 1, p. 706; Rom. 1:18-23.
    3. Thus, in stark contrast to trying to manipulate these false gods to find security, the psalmist looked to Israel's sovereign Creator in praise for His secure provisions of faithful love to Israel:
      1. The psalmist called on his Hebrew listeners to praise Jahweh, the covenant-keeping God of Israel, v. 1a.
      2. They were to praise Him from the heavens along with all the lofty angels there, Ps. 148:1b-2.
      3. Additionally, what the pagans worshipped as gods were to praise Israel's God as well:
        1. The sun, moon and stars that were worshipped by the pagans were all to praise Jahweh, Ps. 148:3.
        2. They were to do so as things God created by commands of His mouth (Gen. 1:14-16), Psalm 148:5.
        3. Indeed, the heavens of heavens (where God dwelt, cf. 1 Cor. 12:2) and the waters that were above the heavens as recorded in Genesis 1:6-7 were all to praise their Creator, Ps. 148:4-5.
      4. Since God had established these created things of the heavens to last in perpetuity by divine decree, the hearers of the psalm were to rejoice in the stability of the creative order because of the Creator very unlike the pagans who worshipped by manipulation in a never-ending quest for secure blessings!
      5. Items on the earth such as sea creatures of the ocean deep, fish that the Philistines via Dagon, their fish-god were to praise Jahweh as they also were but created things of God, Ps. 148:7.
      6. Things like fire, hail, snow, vapors, stormy winds, mountains, hills, fruitful trees, cedars, beasts, cattle, creeping things and birds that were worshipped as gods by pagans were to praise the Creator, 148:8-10.
      7. Every person on the earth was to praise Jahweh as well even though pagans made gods out of men: kings, people, princes and all judges of the earth with young men, maidens, old men and children were alike created by Jahweh, and were to worship Him, Ps. 148:11-12.
      8. Since God's name alone is inaccessibly exalted, His glory above that of the creation in the heavens and the earth, all in the heavens and the earth were to praise Him.
      9. Having dwelt on the absolute sovereignty of God, Creator of all things, the psalmist applied that insight of God to His relationship and provisions for Israel that provides them national security as follows:
        1. The psalmist claimed God had raised up the "horn" for His people, a figure for power, Theological Wordbook of the O. T., v. II, p. 815-816 . God had restored Israel's power after insecure weakness!
        2. He had done this for a people that was near to Him in relationship, Ps. 148:14.
        3. Thus, Israel owed God praise for giving her security backed up by His all-sovereign, creative power and motivation to help based upon His love for the nation!
Lesson: To be SECURE, we must focus on God's absolute SOVEREIGNTY over ALL creation along with His LOVE for us to see that God's INFINITE POWER works in OUR interests. SEEING these truths causes us to TRUST, not MANIPULATE God for ALL things, and praise Him in SECURITY!

Application: The key to becoming a secure person is to get an ADEQUATE view of our CREATOR -- that He is INFINITELY sovereign over all that is in creation AND totally LOVING toward us!