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Psalm 105/78 || Historical: Perspective Matters || 3-7-21

This morning we’re going to do things a bit differently than we normally do. - Normally we look at a section of Scripture and walk through it verse-by-verse.

Today we’re going to compare two chapters of and work through the text in chunks rather than verse-by-verse because one chapter has 45 verses and one has 72 verses.

So we’ll read and then reference verses from , taking note of similarities, differences, and why it all matters. ---- READ PSALM 105

Psalm 105 and Psalm 78 focus mostly the same event – of the Israelites.  Though they deal with mostly the same historical events, they focus on different things. o It’s because of this that my talk today is titled “Perspective Matters”. o What you focus on in any given situation and why you focus on it are shaped by your perspective.

 Today’s message is NOT a 3-step process how you can “elevate your mindset – change your perspective – so you can reach your goals!” - There are deeper things going on in these chapters and deeper things going on inside you and me.

Psalm 78 emphasizes some specific reasons for remembering this monumental event (the exodus): - [78:6] that the coming generation would know the deeds of the Lord - [78:7] that they would tell them to their own children (even children not yet born!)

 Dads and Moms – when you tell your kids and grandkids stories from your childhood, it’s not usually just for entertainment. o There’s a deeper, more important, more lasting reason, isn’t there? . We hope to TEACH them something.

So many of the stories we pass on are told to reinforce a particular value.

- We tell the story of a time when we did the wrong thing and the consequences that followed in hopes that they might avoid doing the same thing.

- We tell them stories of how things turned out so much better than we expected as a way of encouraging them to trust the faithfulness of God no matter what the situation looks like.

One generation teaching the next has always been God’s way.

Psalm 78:7 and Psalm 105:45 lay out almost identical reasons for their writings:  “That they (the next generation) should set their hope in God & not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments” (Ps. 78:7). 2

 Psalm 105:45, “that they (the next generation) might keep his statutes & observe his laws”.

The point of retelling history is so that the next generation might learn something. - In particular, that they might learn how to obey God & keep His commands.

 I realize I have a relatively young perception of the world, but from what I can read and hear, our current culture today seems more afraid of history than ever before. o There are many who would rather deny, forget, bury, erase, tear down, or cancel the parts of our history that deal with hard things. . This is a shortsighted and ridiculous approach to teaching the next generation.

To be sure, we don’t promote or exalt wrong, sinful behavior of those who have come before us. - Even when it’s from people that we admire or look up to. o But to ignore or erase the parts of history we don’t like is a sure-fire way to repeat it.

Read through these chapters in full some time, especially Psalm 78. - This is a Jew writing about his own people. o He’s reflecting on and commenting on his people’s history.

- And there’s a reason why the author calls this history “dark sayings” in Psalm 78:2.

John Wesley said of the phrase, dark sayings, “Not that the words are hard to understand, but God's superior goodness, the people’s incredible ungratefulness and ignorance, despite such excellent teachings of God's word and works, are extraordinary and hard to be believed.”

It’s hard to read the biblical account and believe the Israelites acted the way they did sometimes. o We cry out, “Don’t you remember the incredible things the Lord has done?! Why are you so quick to doubt now?!” . Do those words ring in anyone else’s ears about your own experience?....

Let me ask this: What is the purpose of the ?  Jews were required by God to observe & remember their incredible deliverance from Egypt.  They were supposed to recount all the unprecedented events that led them out of slavery. o And they were instructed to remember how they came to be where they were. . By the kindness and power of God Himself, the One and only True God.

Were there parts of that story that they wish they could just cut out and forget? ---- surely! - I can’t imagine any Jew being proud of how many times they turned on Moses in the desert. - How their spirit’s caved in to fear the moment they saw Pharaoh’s army, when they came to the Red Sea, or when they ran out of food to eat and water to drink. o And regardless of those things, they were commanded to REMEMBER.

Let me ask another question: What is the purpose of the Lord’s Supper? - To remember His death until He comes again. (1 Cor. 11:26) 3

- Is thinking about what happened on the cross pleasant? o Do we reflect on the brutal torture of the Son of God with happy smiles? o Does anyone watching the movie “The Passion of the Christ” jump up clapping? . No, those things are hard to watch, hard to think about. . We are commanded to remember.

Again – whether we’re looking at our own history, the history of this church, the history of our nation, or the history of the human race, we don’t look at the dark parts of it in order to celebrate them – we look at them to remember God’s deliverance and how to keep His commands.

We remember the past & teach the coming generation about it – even the unsavory aspects of it – so that the next generation “should set their hope in God & not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments”. (Ps. 78:7)  This is why perspective matters.  And this is why Historical Psalms serve Christians still today.

[105:1-5] – Every phrase in these verses is a command.  give, call, make known, sing, tell, glory, seek, search, remember

Why? ---- Why should we give thanks to the Lord? - Why should we sing to Him? - Why give glory to His name? - Why seek His presence continually?

o Because [105:7-45].

Because “He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations…” [v.7-8a]

Christians give thanks, sing to, glorify, seek, and remember the Lord because He remembers them. - God remembers the covenant-promise He has made to His people.

Psalm 105 is kind of like a synopsis of an Israelite history book.  Really, it outlines how God kept His promises to the Jewish forefathers: , Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, & Moses.

If God requires us to remember His works, you can be sure He remembers His promises, too. - He never forgets them. Get this: there were 45 generations from Abraham to Christ, but God’s promises last beyond the years that the forefathers would live through. o His covenant would last for a thousand generations. [105:8] . The obvious understanding is that His faithfulness last forever.

 But sometimes we don’t easily or quickly see the fulfillment of God’s promises. 4

- Look at how the psalmist remembers Joseph’s story in [105:16-22].

Not only did Joseph accomplish God’s will, but the famine that struck the land did too.  “Famine is represented as a servant, ready to come and go at the call and command of God; calamities, whether public or private, are the messengers of divine justice” – Horne.

Joseph was “sent ahead of them” as a fulfillment of God’s promise to sustain His people, but did Joseph see it that way when his brothers threw him in a pit, sold him into slavery, and pretended he was dead two decades?

Did Joseph clearly see the promise of God when “his feet were hurt with fetters and his neck put in a collar of iron”? [105:18]

Did he understand God’s ways being separated from his family for 24 years while they thought he was dead? o But God’s purposes were being fulfilled in ways no one else expected or saw coming.

 God’s faithfulness endured.

Did the Israelites experience God’s promises being fulfilled during centuries of slavery? - But they began to see it when God called two ordinary dudes to lead them out.

Sidenote: God sent Moses and Aaron as His servants, not because of their own natural ability, or because they finally said they’d do what He told them to, but simply because He chose them.

The Lord continually taught His people and still teaches His people today that victories do not come from military strength or creative planning or pragmatic programming: - Deliverance and victory come from the One true God alone. o Just ask Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Moses, Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, or Abednego.

Here’s the thing that each one of those guys would tell us today: God often reminded the Israelites that they were brought into a covenant relationship with Him not on account of their own merit or worth, but solely by His own, free, sovereign choice and abounding grace.

 God’s faithfulness endured.

And if our perspective is to blot out the disobedient and rebellious parts of our past, then we will begin to forget why God brought us through them in the first place.  Again – we don’t exalt wickedness or wish to copy it, but we do need to learn from it.

In fact, Psalm 78:8 lists this very thing as a secondary reason for having a full-view perspective about the past – to not repeat the same mistakes as those who came before us. o “and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.” 5

Our perspective includes all of history so we don’t make the same mistakes.

READ Psalm 78:10-29

What a sad and dark part of their history. - And the author goes on to remember situation after situation where God graciously delivered His people and then they turned right back around and “did not believe Him or trust His saving power”. [78:22]

 When we read through Psalm 105, we didn’t get this kind of perspective, did we?

When the Psalmist talks about the time in the wilderness in 105:40-42 he mentions the quail and manna and water from the rock and it all points back to God remembering His promise. o It was cause for celebration and joy and singing. [105:43]

But in Psalm 78 the story focuses not on God’s power, but on the wrong response of the people.

- By remembering the dark parts of their history, does the author of Psalm 78 exalt the disobedience of the Israelites? - By remembering God’s faithfulness & power, does the author of Psalm 105 bury his head in the sand to the truth of what happened in the past?

No – these are both historically accurate descriptions of what really happened.  And even though they’re written from different perspectives, we need them both.

“We should be greatly affected by a review and recollection of God’s mercies to our ancestors.”-Plumer

- We need to reminders of God’s faithfulness, how He provided in times in our past, how He had mercy on us and delivered us. o May this be the cause of rejoicing and praise in us today!

- We need reminders of our own selfishness and pride, how it hurts us and those around us, how pushing God out of our history has real consequences in real life. o May this be the cause of much repenting and humility in us today!

I hope you’ve heard it enough this morning to remember it well: God’s faithfulness endures.

Despite the rebellious nature of the Israelites, and despite the overwhelming odds, God cared for and increased His people.  And this was under the old covenant.

Plumer again says, “How much more shall the new covenant bring blessings to all believers through God’s unspeakable love to Jesus Christ, whom He has given as a covenant to His people?”

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If God protected His chosen people throughout their history, He will not forsake them now. o But we cannot believe that we will never face trials or difficulties.

In fact, Peter and James both tell us to expect trials, and Peter goes so far as to tell us to rejoice in them! [1 Peter 4] - He also says to “entrust [your] souls to a faithful Creator while doing good”.

Is it possible to see our trials as God’s grace? o Is it possible? ---- yes o It is easy? ---- no

 But Psalm 105 includes Joseph’s story for a reason.

“God’s ways are indeed very strange, but they are all holy and infallibly wise. God reveals the future to Joseph in a dream; he tells his dream to his brothers and they envy him; they doom him to death, but God touches their hearts and they sell him instead of kill him; to Egypt he goes in the hands of the Midianites; soon he is locked up in prison, loaded with chains; there he lies long, long years; and yet every step is towards deliverance and exaltation. Why are we so slow to trust an infinite God.”

Commentator Scott says, “We greatly mistake if we do not rank afflictions among our mercies.”

 God’s faithfulness endures.

We see it with joy as we remember the good times, and rejoice as we ought. We see if with pain as we remember the hard times, and humble ourselves as we ought.

Each perspective of history is needed and useful for how we move forward.  To ignore or forget one for the sake of the other will lead us toward ungratefulness or despair.

- What hard part of your history is God using to humble you? - What pleasant part of your story is God using to motivate you to worship?

God uses them both and we need them both.

 What does a fuller view of the past do for us?

Last week we learned that understanding and remembering history will lead us to worship. - Remembrance leads to worship. And from these 2 chapters today, there’s something else that understanding and remembering history does for the believer.

Let’s look back & compare: - Psalm 105:45, “that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws. Praise the LORD!” 7

- Psalm 78:7, “so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments”

Whether it’s pleasant lesson to learn or not, God’s command to remember is designed to lead us to holiness. - Understanding and remembering history will lead us to holiness.

How many times must we make the same mistake to learn?  Maybe we don’t learn because we so quickly forget.  Or maybe we don’t learn because of our pride.

God’s faithfulness endures. God keeps His promises. Your perspective of history leads to either forgetfulness or worship, to depravity or holiness.

May God use His Word to lead us in righteousness and truth and away from the enemy’s lies.

 Lastly, if the people of God (the church) do this regularly, imagine the impact it would have on future generations?

Your testimony of God’s faithfulness encourages me to trust Him more. Your testimony of God’s discipline challenges me to turn from sin.

If our time is spent retelling God’s movement throughout history, future generations will be better prepared to obey when faced with temptation, credit the Lord for His works, and better defend what they believe.

If you haven’t put your faith in Christ alone, you currently have the same mindset as the Israelites. - They preferred to forget or ignore God so they could be the ones in charge. o But that doesn’t work for very long.

Eventually it all comes crashing down, and if your hope is in yourself, what will you do?  Christianity – believing in Jesus – isn’t a crutch. o It’s an admission of what is true for every human being – we need to be rescued.

 The Lord, Jesus Christ, is the only One who can do it, because of His perfect life, atoning death, and resurrected eternal life.

You can find real life in Him today.