At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
As we continue praying the Psalms, today we come to Psalm 138. I give thanks, oh, Lord, with all my heart. I will sing your praises before the gods. I bow before your holy temple as I worship. I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:For your promises are backed by all the honor of your name. As soon as I pray, you answer me. You encourage me by giving me strength. Every king and all the earth will thank you, Lord, for all of them will hear your words. Yes.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They will sing about the Lord's ways for the glory of the Lord is very great. Though the Lord is great, he cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud. Though I am surrounded by troubles, you will protect me from the anger of my enemies. You reach out your hand and the power of your right hand saves me. The Lord will work out his plans for my life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Your faithful love, oh Lord, endures forever. Don't abandon me for you made me. By way of reflection, I wanna draw our attention to something he says there in verse six. Though the Lord is great, he cares for the humble. Another translation might say, though he is far above us, he still sees the lowly.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In other words, this prayer is drawing attention to the fact that God's grandness today, his majesty, the way just like how vast God is, doesn't take away from his ability to see you and I. People who are in the grand scheme of things, pretty unimportant. And that's good news for you and I. As Jesus says, the meek will inherit the earth. The unimportant people, the lowly, the humble, the people who are forgotten on the ends, on the fringes, they will receive everything.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so this Psalm draws our attention to this beautiful truth that as high as God is, he still sees you today. In the midst of your troubles, in the midst of your responsibilities, your to do list, the people that you gotta deal with today, the conversations that you're, you know, a little bit worried about having, all of those things God sees and is fully aware of. And now he invites you in this moment of prayer and of communion to consider how his vastness has not kept him from seeing you, who maybe feel unimportant and small today. There's an invitation to humble ourselves in our frailty, in our smallness. And in so humbling ourselves, feeling and sensing the closeness of God.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He's with us. He is the king and his love is with us. Jesus, we hear you now inviting us to be humble, to find our place among the lowly, the unimportant, but to know God, you still see us and you lift us up. And so would we, in our own moments of vulnerability and of feeling fragile, would we know that your strength comes. You answer us, you encourage us.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so in our weakness and in our smallness, God, would we sense your greatness today. In Jesus name, amen.