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The Lord is Our Help and Shield
Psalm 115
Andy Nagahara
In this week of Easter Sunday, typically I bring a message from a chapter of the gospel, putting aside the general topics. Interestingly however the series from Psalm suits the context of Easter very well. Thus we continue reading Psalm, and today’s chapter is 115.
A. To whom does the glory belong? (1-3)
1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.
2 Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
“ a glory” is not comprehensive to us sometimes. According to the bible, it means God’s visibility and presence. Generally, glory is used in order to praise someone’s great work, fame, and social status.
In this psalm, this term is used to look for God’s presence around the psalmist instead of wishing our own turn out to be brightened like God. What is wished in this psalm is not about mercy, righteousness, and sincerity of human-being rather he looked for those coming from God.
People in countries around Israel said, “ there is not God that you say.”
Here is a response to those people from God’s people.
“There is no God that is visible. A real God is invisible and existence that goes beyond what is supposed to be seen.”
Do you remember a phrase that Bonfeffer said last week?
We live before God, with God, and without God.
This sentence “ Without God” does not teach us that we see God as our tool. Rather it teaches us that we walk as a tool of God for being equipped by God who is supernatural one invisible to human eyes so that God’S glory becomes apparent through our walk.
It can be rephrased by “ “ we live under God and/or live in God.”
As we continue reading, an example of life that goes completely different is introduced.
B. The folly of idol worship (4-8)
4 But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see;
6 they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell;
7 they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
It says that A life not seeking God’s glory is idol worship. Idol worship is not limited to a belief in God’s presence in man-made wooden and stone objects. In fact, such idol worshiper is not so many. The nature of idol worship is to believe in something else but God.
For example, our own social status and fame. Such things are settled by human beings and do not help us in the real matter. Because such value is established by human-being having limited power, thus it is natural that it is powerless in many emergency cases.
Verse 8 describes something scary. Anyone who creates an idol and lives on it will be like an idol. What will it look like?
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see;
6 they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell;
7 they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
If you worship an idol, you cannot see or hear the truth. That’s why you can’t say the right, powerful, loving words, or you cannot bring act right, powerful, and loving actions.
Yet, we easily create idols and worship those. It cleverly sneaks into our hearts.
As if it were faithful, things even related to the Bible and Christianity turn into idols. Instead of Lord and Jesus, books and human organizations become ones that people follow.
Psalmist teaches what we need to do.
C. Trust results in blessing
1. Let us trust in the Lord (9-11)
9 O house of Israel, trust in the LORD– he is their help and shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD– he is their help and shield.
11 You who fear him, trust in the LORD– he is their help and shield.
Trust the Lord. It is the bottom line that our heart is not moved by idols.
“Jesus is our help and shield.”
if you don’t tell this to your soul every day, before you know it, something else will kick Jesus out of your heart and sit in a chair in the middle of your heart.
Whenever I open my mouth, I say “ let’s keep the worship at the center of our life”, and it is written at the beginning of the covenant. It is so that we do not lose our trust in the Lord and get lost.
DO not overestimate our own will. It is to give glory to yourself. Its color will be faded out eventually. If you know your weakness and depend on God, God will help you and bless you.
2. Let us seek blessing from the Lord (12-18)
12 The LORD remembers us and will bless us: He will bless the house of Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron,
13 he will bless those who fear the LORD– small and great alike.
14 May the LORD make you increase, both you and your children.
15 May you be blessed by the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
16 The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man.
17 It is not the dead who praise the LORD, those who go down to silence;
18 it is we who extol the LORD, both now and forevermore. Praise the LORD.
When Jesus appeared in front of his disciples at his resurrection after dying on the cross, disciples saw the most glory ever. This event restored the disciples’ faith which had mostly faded out.
Since then, the disciples went out to different places in the world, good news reached us for over 2000 years.
It is the good news that we continue living in God’s overflowing blessings when we live in the trust of Jesus.
We gather together every Sunday morning and worship God. it is because we rejoice in the presence of God that the disciples faced and worship it.
As long as we live not limited to this morning, we continue praising Jesus who resurrected from the death by saying “ Lord, you are surely alive, and our help and our shield.”
(Prayer)
Lord, we look up to you on the day to celebrate your resurrection. We just trust you, without falling into empty idolatry. We know events that affect our trusting heart to you happens from time to time. Regardless of circumstances, we do not forget you are our help and shield.
Please guide us to continue walking with the joy of your resurrection as a force.
Summary
Jesus was crucified, but he defeated the power of death and was resurrected. Even today, the Lord is with us, helps us, and protects us from the enemy’s attack. Because we believe in Jesus, we are no longer finite beings on this earth, but we have been given eternal life. And this eternal life is guaranteed by Jesus, who himself is eternal. Let us praise God for his grace through eternity.
For Discussion
1. What is the glory of God?
2. When, in recent times, have you experienced God’s blessing?