Feature 1 for March 2009 G&T

Feature 1 – March 2009 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Encouragement From The
PASSOVER PSALMS

Oh, praise the LORD, all ye nations; praise Him, all ye people. For His merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of the LORD endureth forever. Praise ye the LORD. Psalm 117 KJV

The Passover Psalms (113-118) are praise psalms used by the Jews in celebrating the Passover. In the New Testament our Lord most likely sang Psalm 118 with His disciples at Passover (Mt. 26:30; Mk. 14:26). Among other things, these psalms encourage us to do seven things: praise, thank, trust, love, seek, bless and remember our Lord.

1. Encouragement – To Praise The Lord
The word “praise” appears 13 times in these psalms. Psalm 113:1-3 answers three questions about praise: “Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD. Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the LORD’s name is to be praised.”

A. To whom is praise to be given? These verses tell us four times that it is “the LORD” – a capsule form of all of His excellences. We praise His name whenever we praise His being, His character, or His attributes.

B. When is praise to be given? Psalm 113:2 is quite clear: “From this time forth and for evermore.” If we are in the habit of praising God at all times, we are obeying this command. If we are hearing this command for the first time, we should start now to praise the Lord forever.

C. Where are we to praise God? The answer is in, “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same” (Ps. 113:3), but this verse does not mean merely from sunrise to sunset, because that would exclude praise at night. Psalm 34:1 tells us we are to praise the Lord “at all times ... continually.” Psalm 113:3 speaks more of geography than of time. Since sunrise occurs in the east and sunset in the west, it means whether in the east or west you are to praise the Lord. From one end of the earth to the other our joy is in praising the Lord. So where are we to praise God? Everywhere!

2. Encouragement – To Thank The Lord
Psalm 116:17 says, “I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.” Psalm 118:1 says, “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; because His mercy endureth forever.” The only thing that we can really give God is our thanks. When we give God our money and our time, we are returning to Him what He has bestowed on us. Ephesians 5:20 tells us to “give thanks always for all things unto God” – not sometimes for some things! We give thanks not because things are good but because He is good and does good, and because “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

3. Encouragement – To Trust The Lord
“O Israel, trust thou in the LORD; He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield. Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield” (Ps. 115:9-11). In these verses, we are encouraged three times to trust in the Lord. All repetition in the Bible is for the purpose of emphasis. “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes” (Ps. 118:8-9). Much is said in the psalms about trusting the Lord. We are commanded to trust Him “at all times” (Ps. 62:8), and that means in adversity, in prosperity, when we don’t understand and even when He’s silent.

4. Encouragement – To Love The Lord
Psalm 116:1 says, “I love the LORD because He hath heard my voice and my supplications.” Psalm 118:5 says, “I called upon the LORD in distress; the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.” And 118:21 says, “I will praise Thee; for Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.” An important reason to love the Lord is repeated three times in these psalms – because He has heard and answered our prayers. Our love for God is always a response to His love for us. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19).

5. Encouragement – To Seek Him When Troubled
“The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD: O LORD, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul ... For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling” (Ps. 116:4-8). Here the psalmist enumerates conditions that cause us to seek the Lord – the sorrows of death and the pains of hell. On top of all this, he adds anguish and sorrow.

Prayer is never out of season, so the psalmist tells us that when we pray, our gracious God answers and gives a threefold deliverance - from death, from tears, and from falling. When God delivers us, His deliverance is complete.

6. Encouragement – To Bless The Lord
Psalm 113:2 says, “Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.” And Psalm 118:26 says, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the LORD; we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.” Referring to the Messiah as “He that comes in the name of the Lord” is common among the Jews. We understand what Scripture means when it says “The LORD blesses His people,” but how can we bless the Lord?

Can we add to His power, increase His glory, augment His wisdom? Psalm 103 answers these questions when it says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits” (Ps. 103:2). We bless the Lord when we remember that He is the giver of “every good gift and every perfect gift” (Jas. 1:17) which includes spiritual as well as temporal gifts such as health, job, spouse, children.

7. Encouragement – To Remember His Works
“He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of His people. He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children” (Ps. 113:7-9). While heaven is full of God’s glory, earth is full of His mercy. He is in the habit of lifting men and women from the depths. His power is unlimited. He can make a prince out of a pauper, and a mother out of a barren woman.

Psalm 114 is the psalm of the Exodus. It recalls God’s power in delivering the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Referring to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and to the land of Judah, the psalmist says, “The sea saw it, and fled; the Jordan was driven back” (Ps. 114:3). God answers our prayers and blesses us (Ps. 116:1; 118:5,12-15).

The Passover Psalms invite us to renew our commitment to a life of praising God. His being, attributes and works are all worthy of praise. Only by a life of praise may we respond properly to our incomparable and always faithful God. We were chosen in Christ before time began, predestinated to adoption as the sons of God, purposed, redeemed, and blessed “to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:6-14). A life lived without praising God is not worth liviing.

By Maurice Bassali