Blessing Beyond Borders

Transcript

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[0:00] Well, our reading today for the sermon text is Psalm 22, verses 25 through 31. And so you may notice this is our third Sunday preaching on the Psalms, which is exciting. And next Sunday we'll also be on the Psalms, which I'm glad for. Victoria's going to preach on the Psalms next week. And we're reading the Psalms, we're preaching on the Psalms that are part of the lectionary readings for this season of Easter. And this psalm, which we're about to look at, is a psalm of praise. It's a messianic psalm. But this psalm, if you remember, it starts off as a lament. Because the very beginning of this psalm is quoted by Jesus as He is hanging on the cross. And so there's a shift from a lamentful sound at the beginning of the psalm to a song of messianic hope and praise at the end of the psalm, which is a psalm of praise. which isn't that unusual. Psalms can transition as they go on.

[0:59] And there's this description of a future that God is himself going to direct, which I think is very exciting. Now, what a lot of people don't realize about the Old Testament is that over and over again, it doesn't just describe that God has this great relationship with his chosen people. And that is definitely a theme in the Old Testament. We see that God has his chosen people. They're the descendants of Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on, right? And these are his special people. They have, he gives them special blessings. He has, gives him them special revelation. But in the Old Testament, and it's there and we'll see it. There is always this hope that all the nations, and this is the theme for today, the hope that all the nations will be blessed by this one nation. So that God is starting here, but he's not, he's not ending here. He's starting with his chosen people, but the goal is the entire earth. All the nations, all the ethne is the Greek word, all the ethnic groups, all the nations, all the peoples, everybody have to come to God. And at first he's using his chosen people to bless the nations. And then when Jesus comes, all of that is fulfilled in him. And then he is wanting to bless all the nations through his son, Jesus Christ.

[2:15] Even our reading from Acts is in line with this theme for today, which is that here you have somebody from another country who's reading the Old Testament. Interesting. And one of the apostles, one of the disciples meets him and explains to him what the gospel actually is. And this is an important person in a foreign government's, in a foreign government's sort of administrative rules. And so by him becoming a Christian, then Christianity spreads to the royal court of Ethiopia. And even now today, the Ethiopians will tell you that, that that's the history of how their nation became Christianized is because of this story. They also say they have the Ark of the Covenant in one of their churches, you know, the golden box, but they won't let anyone see it. So that's another story. But, you know, I just wish we could see it. I don't know if they have it. I don't know. Just where is it? It's in there, right? Okay. Maybe not. All right. Anyways, but there are, there is, so already we see in Acts chapter eight, Acts chapter two with Pentecost, that this is for all nations. And there's a list of all these nations that go up. But even in Acts chapter two, the story of Pentecost, these are Jewish people who have come back to Jerusalem for Passover, for Pentecost, right?

[3:35] And they hear the gospel and they go back out. So even God's chosen people, the Jews, do get sent back out into the world and they make Christians of all these other nations. Okay. So there's this future that God is pointing towards all throughout the Old Testament. And here in Psalm 22. So I want to ask you as we read it to listen for the ways that the Psalmist describes that future. There's a future that's being described where all the people are blessed because of what God is doing. So Psalm 22, starting in verse 25.

[4:07] I will praise you in the great assembly. I will fulfill my vows in the presence of those who worship you. The poor will eat and be satisfied. All who seek the Lord will praise him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.

[4:25] The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him. All the families of the nations will bow down before him. For royal power belongs to the Lord. He rules all the nations. Let the rich of the earth feast and worship. Bow before him all who are mortal, all whose lives will end as dust. Amen. Our children will also serve him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord. His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born. They will hear about everything he has done. Let's pray.

[5:07] Father, thank you for this word. And we ask that you add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, what I want to do is I want to look at each verse bit by bit. We're going to kind of go through. Because it's short enough, we can do that. And kind of draw out some of the interesting things from each one. And then we'll kind of try to pull it all together at the end. But before we do that, I want to again remind us that this is a psalm that starts as a lament. And this is how it goes. Verses 1 and 2 go like this. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Does that seem a little odd that a psalm that ends this way started this way? My God, my God, why have you abandoned me or forsaken me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.

[5:54] Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief. That's how this psalm begins. And this is a psalm that Jesus himself quotes from the cross. It's known as the cry of dereliction. The cry of abandonment. God is abandoning Jesus, or so he feels. So Jesus is able to lament from the cross. Jesus is able to say, I feel cut off from God in this moment of grief. I feel the pain of my impending death and agony.

[6:22] And as we've seen over and over again, that kind of lament is okay. It's okay to say that. It doesn't actually mean that God did abandon him. It doesn't necessarily mean that. Now some people theologically think that God did. Some people think God didn't. It may not really matter that much. What matters more is that Jesus was free to say something like that in his deepest pain. And I think God was able to hear it in that moment too. As a feeling of being abandoned. Of dereliction.

[6:53] So there's this sense that God was gone. And that's how this psalm begins. But if you look at verse 3. And we didn't read the whole psalm. It's quite long. But if you look at verse 3 of this psalm. The first word of verse 3 is, at least in the New Living Translation, is the word yet. Yet. Not but. There's a difference between yet and but.

[7:15] The grammarians amongst you can tell you. But the but kind of negates everything that comes before. Yet kind of gives context to what comes before. Kind of builds on it. So it doesn't erase it. It adds data to the equation. Those of you who are engineers or people like math people. If you want to add data to the equation. What does verse 3 say? Yet.

[7:40] The end of verse 2 says, Every night I left my voice, but I find no relief. Verse 3 says, Yet. You are holy. Yet. You are enthroned on the praises of Israel. There is more to come. So there's this sense that even though I feel abandoned by God. But God you're holy. I just said but. But I really should have said yet. See even I did it. Yet God you're holy. Yet there's more to it. Yet is kind of an and and an add on. Yet you're holy. Yet you're enthroned on the praises of Israel. So I have to kind of take that feeling of abandonment. And put it into the context. That God is for me. God is amazing. God actually feels like God doesn't listen. Feels like God doesn't know. Feel like God doesn't care. But he must. Because he's holy. He's enthroned on the praises of Israel.

[8:33] And then we look. So what we're looking at here. Verses 25. Is like the crowning end of the psalm. Where in a way the psalmist has gone on a journey. From a place that he's not going to. This is David most likely. From a place where he's lamenting and feeling abandoned. To a place where he's beginning to praise and hope for. In a messianic way for what God will do in the world. So let's look at verses again. And you can. Andres if you're willing to. You can put those up again. Starting at verse 25. And I'm going to reread each verse. And we're going to just say a few words about them. Verse 25 says. I will praise you in the great assembly. I will fulfill my vows to you in the presence of those who worship you.

[9:16] And so David. You see that David is coming around. The word praise here is very different from the sense of being abandoned. Right? So he gets the sense. That God is actually listening to the pleas. And to the suffering of the needy people. And so he plans to praise God. But this is the interesting thing. He plans to praise God. Not in sort of the privacy of his own room. Where he does many things. But he wants to go to the assembly. He wants to go to the assembly. He wants to go to some place of public worship. And he wants to praise God publicly. So I want to go to the assembly. He says I want the whole world to know. That I need to praise you. I've come around so far in a way. That I need to tell everybody about it. Right? So there's this plan to bring God's blessings to a wider world. It starts where many of the people of Israel are already together. And they're gathered for worship. So the movement keeps moving outward. You think about it. Starting with an individual understanding. That God is for the world. Now David is telling the assembly. Which would be just the people of Israel around him. All who have gathered to worship in a particular place. He's going to tell them about God. And then the hope is that that keeps moving out.

[10:34] And it does as we see in history. Now let's look at verse 26. It says here's this messianic hope. That will come. This is so different from the abandonment. The poor will eat and be satisfied. That's good news. All who seek the Lord will praise him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.

[10:55] There's a future tense here. Right? This is a promise of something to come. Right? And this is the beginning of the news that David wants to share with all the people. There's this reversal coming. The poor are going to be satisfied. The ones seeking God. And perhaps who hadn't found him up until now. Or asking why he's abandoned them. They're beginning to find him and praise him in joy. So there's this sort of progression. A reversal.

[11:22] Verse 27. The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him. All the families of the nations will bow down before him. So now we're getting to see it, aren't we? This is moving beyond David and the assembly and the country. And it's going out to all the whole earth. The whole earth. I don't think there's more to it than that. Right? The whole earth. All the families of all the nations will bow down before it. So there's this sense that these are people who had wandered off. Think of David as the shepherd. Right? The sheep wandered off. The nations wandered away from God. All throughout the Bible you can kind of see that this is how God sort of sees the nations. These are my beloved. These are my sheep. These are my children. They've wandered away.

[12:12] And the nations, the peoples, God is hoping will come back and return to the fold. Come back into the fold. And they followed false gods. They followed other shepherds, really, is kind of how it goes. And so they need to get rid of their false gods and their false shepherds, their false leaders, and come and worship the true God. Come and bow down before him. Now, verse 28. For royal power belongs to the Lord. He rules, again, all the nations.

[12:43] And this, I think you could honestly say to yourself, does he though? Do we think that? Does God rule the nations? Sure doesn't feel like it. I mean, just think about that. Does God rule all the nations? I wish. Kind of. It doesn't seem like it. Now, there's a sort of an, this is, we're talking about the future here. So there's sort of an already but not yet. Aspect to this. That God is clearly the king and ruler of the entire universe. And thus all the nations of the earth, all the peoples, all the languages, everything. Right?

[13:20] And so God is already king over all of them. But I guess you would say that there's some pockets of resistance out there in the world. You know? There's one right here in my heart. If you're honest with yourself, there's one inside you. There's one in this city. There's one in this state. There's one in this country. There's one in every land, every nation, every country. Is actually has its own sort of rebellion against God. There's pockets of resistance. So yes, God is ruler over everything. But yes, people are resisting that rule. Right?

[13:53] This was probably written around 1000 BC, about 3000 years ago. And even then it didn't seem to David, perhaps if he looked out his window, that God was ruler over all things. But there was this hope that he would be and was. And not yet, but someday would be completely. And so we believe that in time, God will assert his kingship over all these things. And I look forward, I honestly, I do look forward to that day. I really do look forward to that day. But I also think that he is giving us an opportunity to come to him on our own terms first, which I think we should do. I think that's important.

[14:33] And that's maybe part of this effort to bring people into the kingdom. And the whole world to know God is that we want them to also see who he really is. He really is the king and lord of the whole universe and of all the nations. It's just it doesn't look like it. And I think that's a place where we can lament too.

[14:53] The world doesn't look like God is in charge. The world looks like Satan is in charge. Honestly, that's how it looks to me sometimes. So that's a lament. But then it's just like in this Psalm, you would say, but in actuality, you are in charge. But in actuality, you are in charge. You are the lord of all these things. You're letting some of us be rebellious for a time. But the day is coming when justice will come, when your rule and your reign will come. We look forward to that day. But even before that day, we have work to do to bring people to know you better. Now let's look at verse 29. Let the rich of the earth feast and worship. That sounds a little bit strange. We're going to get to that. Bow before him, all who are mortal, all whose lives will end as dust.

[15:36] Now, does anyone, does that? I talked to Natalie about this so she can't answer. Does that seem a little discordant when it says, let the rich of the earth feast and worship? Doesn't sound like normal Bible stuff. Because it was just saying that the poor will be satisfied. Why do the rich, the rich are already satisfied. This is what Jesus would say. The poor will be rich and the rich will be poor. He didn't say that, but there's a lot of things kind of like that. The last will be first and the first will be last. So guess what? Little nerd time. Ready for nerd time? Let's go to the very last slide. There we go. So I'm going to teach you two Hebrew letters from the Hebrew alphabet. The first one is Dalet. And it looks like a seven or a letter L that's been rotated 180 degrees.

[16:23] Doesn't it? And the one below it is something called a Yod, which makes a Y sound. And does it look a little bit like the Dalet? A little bit? Just a smaller version of it, maybe a little curvier, right? Here they are side by side. And they, if somebody was writing them quickly, like a scribe, is it possible the next person reading it could go, wait, is that a Yod or a Dalet? I can't quite tell. Sloppy handwriting.

[16:53] Now, this is that word for the rich. It's with a Dalet. So this is the rich of the earth. The fat ones. Actually the fat ones. Back then if you were fat, you were rich. Right? Now if you're rich, you actually, I don't know.

[17:15] Obesity respects no class boundaries, it seems to me. I don't really know. But back then if you were fat, it was clear that you had plenty to eat. So you were the rich ones. But if the scribe had written this a little bit too big, but he really meant to write a Yod, then that word actually would be these that sleep.

[17:38] Not the fat. Sleeping there is a euphemism for dying. Right? Often in the scriptures, those who go to sleep or sleep early are those who are about to die. And if you look at the rest of the verse, go back to verse 29, would you please? Let the rich of the earth feast and worship, bow before them all who are mortal. Let's go to the next one. All whose lives will end as dust. So you see here that in the original manuscript that we have, it's called the Masoretic Text, there was a Dalet. But we look at this and we say, it doesn't seem like the rich should feast. They're already feasting. This isn't the messianic future is that the rich will get even more. The messianic future is that even those who are about to die or even those who have fallen asleep or even those who are about to die, they are going to feast and worship. They are going to be rewarded. So you have both in this case.

[18:39] A plausible transcription reason why that was wrong and a contextual reason why that was wrong. Does that make sense? So the transcription error is that these two letters look a lot alike. That's the plausible transcription error. And the contextual error would be, we don't normally say that the rich should feast. We normally say that those who are poor shall feast, right? Or those who are about to die or those who have died shall, right? So this is a reversal. So you're going to have to do this. Your Bible, the New Living Translation, didn't translate it this way. This is a commentator that did this. Other Bibles might have a note. The New Living Translation doesn't even have a note about it. Other translations might have a note about it saying, we're not sure about this one. Now let's go back to Acts 8. Look at verse 36. Because this doesn't just happen in this text. We're still in nerd zone, okay? So take a look at verse 36. Next slide.

[19:37] One more. There we go. So take a look at verse 36. As they rode along. Now notice the verse numbers. I know they're very small. Look in your bulletin. Look in your bulletin. The bulletin has larger superscripted verse numbers. I need to fix this in how these get rendered. As they rode along, verse 36. Look, there's some water. Why can't I be baptized? Verse 37?

[20:03] Bueller? Bueller? Where's verse 37? Verse 37. Where's verse 37? What's next? Verse 38. Well, what's in verse 37? Verse 37 has a baptismal liturgy in it that was deemed probably inauthentic by translators. Why?

[20:25] Well, the original, say the King James, is based on a manuscript that was probably found around 500 AD or so, maybe 700 AD. As we found earlier manuscripts, we found that verse 37 has a baptismal liturgy in it. Verse 37 wasn't in there in those earlier manuscripts, which means it was probably a later edition. Here, somebody was getting baptized, and some later copier said, oh, he's getting baptized. Let's put in the thing that people always say when they get baptized.

[20:53] So they didn't really want to preserve the text as strongly as we do. We think we shouldn't fiddle with it at all. Some of them are like, oh, yeah, this is what people say when they get baptized. Let's put that in there. Then later we said, oh, our most reliable manuscripts don't have verse 37. So if you take out, you're not going to do it right now, but if you take out your pew Bible and you look at it, you'll find a note at the very bottom that will tell you what's missing. It's a text note. It's not a study note. It's a text note. It's a note that tells you why the text is rendered the way it is.

[21:25] Now, I got so excited I got lost here. So what does this tell us, though? One thing is that, yes, there are errors in the Bible as we have it. Is that okay? I'm sorry. Now, the important thing is there are transcriptive errors, like a dalet looks like a yod and somebody missed it. And that's okay. And we can kind of figure that out. The other thing is in some cases, and not too many, some cases, especially with the New Testament, a few people, as they transcribed it, they added a few things to it. And that was detected by going to an earlier manuscript and finding that it wasn't there. And that's okay, too. Now, one other example might be this idea that Jesus was sweating blood.

[22:10] That's in the least reliable manuscripts, but the most reliable manuscripts don't have that. And so you'll also find that as a text note. Things like that. Now, the skeptics out there will go, oh, your Bible's full of mistakes. And we would say, yes, there are transcription errors, and there are other errors in the transcription. And they're not just errors of editing that happen when things were copied. But we're honest about all of them. And we point them out to ourselves. And we study them. And we're very open about it. So that's important. The other thing is that none of these mistakes that you may find, for example, the other example might be that did Jesus send out 70 disciples or did he send out 72? Right? That could be a transcription error. Or did he do it twice? I mean, the other thing is he did it twice. Right? One was 70 and one was 72. That's not plausible. Really, that's not very plausible. That's kind of thinking too hard. So to the skeptic, we would say, yes, there are errors. And we're honest about it. But none of the errors that we've been able to find materially in any way change the core of what Christianity teaches and believes. So none of these errors that have crept in change what we believe in its centrality at all.

[23:24] And so the idea of Jesus dying on the cross, being raised from the dead, none of that is in question at all by any of these things. So we could talk about this more some other time. This is a bit of a diversion. But I want you to know that there are people who have been studying this. And they were working really hard on it. It's really fascinating stuff. But the Bible that you have is very reliable and I think is truly inspired.

[23:47] Here's how maybe it looks. God gave it to the apostles. They wrote it down. And then you have these manuscripts that get passed around. And it doesn't seem, from logical sort of point of view, that God perfectly preserved it every time somebody read it out loud and another person was copying it. So the ancient version of a copy machine, you stick it on the thing and you press the button and choop, choop, choop, all the papers come out, was one guy was over here reading it carefully, reading it out loud. And there were four other guys over here who could write. And that was a rare skill then. And they're all like, OK, slow down, slow down. OK. And so then you know what's happening. You try. You try. You're going to make some mistakes. So did God protect that from happening? They were careful. They were careful. But no. It doesn't seem that God protected that from happening.

[24:49] One other note about this, though, is there was great care taken when things like this were copied because they did treat it as holy. In fact, when you have it, you can't just say, oh, sure hear it well, he had to make sure that he didn't have a brand new pen. He needed a broken-in pen that was well inked before he wrote the holy name of God so that he could write the name of God in one motion with one dip of his pen because he didn't want to trail off as he was writing this name. All that gives you an idea of how carefully some of these people who transmitted these documents, how careful they were. So who's ready for that to be over with? Okay, all right, all right. I know, I know, I know. So let's go on. Let's look at verse 30 and 31. We're almost done. Our children will also serve him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord. His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born. They will hear about everything he has done. And so I'm going to, I'm going to, combine these last two. The idea here is that this movement is out from this place, is both in space, it's geographical, but it's also in time. It's talking about future generations will encounter this God who is for all people. So what to make all of this, and you can make it go away if you

[26:39] want, Andres, is that this is a messianic psalm. It's no accident that Jesus quotes it on the cross both for the dereliction he felt on the cross, but I think also because of the messianic hope that's contained in this psalm. And it describes a future which has now arrived in Jesus, that the blessings of God are for all the nations. And the chosen people is not just one people of one ethnic background and one language. The chosen people are the ones who find that in the Messiah, God is planning and is planning and is actually ruling the whole world. And so where is this kingdom? The kingdom is primarily in our hearts. We take this kingdom, this rule, his sovereignty, with us wherever we go. So we may be in a nation that's opposed to God, right? Now some people might disagree with that, but I think all nations are really opposed to God because they're run by people. We live in a nation that's opposed to God in a lot of the ways that it acts, but we ourselves are members of this nation, and we have the Holy Spirit in us, and that means God is reigning over us in our hearts, and so we're part of that. And so this was always God's plan. One of the most important sections of the Bible is in Genesis 22, which is the story of Abraham and Isaac on the mountain.

[27:57] And when Abraham faithfully passes this test, this is what God says. God says to him, through your offspring, he's really kind of congratulating him. He says, good job, you passed the test. Through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me. Now who are the offspring? This is actually plural, so it's not just one person. But so God, from the beginning of time when he chose Abraham to be the father of his people, he built into that idea of Abraham being the father of his chosen people, that the long game, the long stretch of history in choosing Abraham was that one of Abraham's descendants would bless all the nations of the world, and Abraham's obedience would be a blessing to all the peoples of the world. And so the whole world, this is kind of the thing that we're talking about, the whole world is blessed by what God's doing, not just his people, his chosen people. So I think finally then, the word for us then is, if what we are doing in our personal lives, or our church life, or our national life, is not seeking to bless all the nations. So ask ourselves this, are we blessing the nations by what we're doing in our own lives and what we're doing as a church? And if we're not trying to bless all the ethnic groups, then are we blessing the

[29:21] nations by what we're doing in our own lives and what we're doing as a church? And if we're not doing that, then we're not living into the messianic promises of God. We're not. We're not living into it. We're doing something else, you know. And it sounds strange, but we need to acknowledge the humanity of all people. We need to stand for the people whose humanity has been negated by their enemies, right? So we can't, as Victoria got it just right in the children's sermon, it's like, this isn't just for some people that we want to give it to. This is for every person. Every last ethnic group, every last people, every last people, every last people, every last nation, every tribe, every tongue, every nation. We can't discriminate. And you can choose your conflict in this world. There's all sorts of conflicts in this world. And it's always started as a stated or even implied sense that the people we are against aren't people. That's how these are all going. But we know that's wrong. We know they are children of God and they're made in his image. And so if they are all God's children and all the nations deserve this message, then we need to bring it to all the nations. And we need to live that way ourselves. It's not easy. And we have to hold

[30:27] some things in tension while we do it. But this is our command. This is the messianic hope through Jesus. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your word. Father, send us out from here, whether it's what we say or what we do. Send it out to all the nations. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.