Pastor Fredo Ramos: Psalm 118. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, and his faithful love endures forever. Let all Israel repeat this. His faithful love endures forever. Maybe a phrase we need to repeat over ourselves.
Let Aaron's descendants, the priests, repeat his faithful love endures forever. Let all who fear the Lord repeat his faithful love endures forever. And you see a theme in this Psalm. For in my distress, I prayed to the Lord and the Lord answered me and he set me free. The Lord is for me so I will have no fear.
What can mere people do to me? Yes. The Lord is for me. He will help me. I will look in triumph at those who hate me.
For it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. Though hostile nations surrounded me, I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. Yes, they surrounded and attacked me, but I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. They swarmed to me like bees.
They blazed against me like a crackling fire, but I but I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. My enemies did their best to kill me, but the Lord rescued me. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has given me victory. Songs of joy and victory are sung in the camp of the godly.
The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things. The strong right arm of the Lord is raised in triumph. The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things. Notice the the repetition, the song that this would be, sung. I will not die instead I will live, he says, to tell what the Lord has done.
The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not let me die. Verse 19. Open for me the gates where the righteous enter and I will go in and thank the Lord. These gates lead to the presence of the Lord and the godly enter there. I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory.
The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing and it is wonderful to see. This is the day the Lord has made. We would rejoice and be glad in it. Please, Lord, please save us.
Please, Lord, please give us success. Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord for the Lord is, the Lord is God shining upon us. So take the sacrifice and bind it with cords on the altar for you are my God and I will praise you. You are my God and I will exalt you.
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His faithful love endures forever. That repeated word becomes a theme of this song and prayer in which the psalmist is encouraging all of Israel to praise God for his faithfulness. They just saw his faithfulness primarily through victory. And so the psalmist is bearing witness to the fact that they were on the verge of, defeat and yet God delivered them.
And so this is a scene in which the the victorious group is entering into Israel, praising God for the victory and on their way into the temple to worship. Which is a good reminder for us as we step into our days. Maybe there's something that you are experiencing victory in. Don't forget Thanksgiving. Don't forget the role of Thanksgiving in your life today to say, you know what, God, thank you for the way that you have delivered me because your faithful love does in fact endure forever.
I love specifically verse 24. It's a verse we're familiar with. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. We oftentimes will sing that verse.
We will, share it with other people, but forget the context in which it comes from. It comes from them just experiencing, victory in the face of defeat. And so they're they're grateful for the day, not just because it's a new day, which, you know, that's a good reason to praise God. But they're specifically grateful for this day because they have just experienced true victory in God delivering them. And I by way of reflection, I wanna draw our attention back to verses eight and nine.
In light of that repeated theme that his faithful love endures forever, you have this encouraging statement. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. In other words, it's one thing to say that God's faithful love endures forever. But it's another thing to be able to locate where we have put our trust in light of that other truth.
Right? Because you can say with your lips that God is faithful to the end, but then still feel like your identity comes from what other people say about you. You can say that God is faithful to you until the end, but then still feel like you need to rely on the power of those who are above you to give you security, which is why the Psalmist is saying no. Take refuge not in a prince, not in what people can say, not in what they can do, but take refuge truly in the Lord today. Why?
Because his faithful love endures forever. And so Jesus, we hear you now inviting us to respond in prayer to begin to locate maybe where we have tried to take refuge in. Perhaps we've tried to take refuge in what people say about us. We've tried to take refuge in, using people to manipulate a situation that makes our life better. And so God, we ask that you now by the power of your spirit would free us from the praise of men and the acceptance of them so that we might truly live from this place that your faithful love endures forever.
And your faithful love sets us free and gives us victory. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.