“The True and Living God”
Psalm 115

June 5, 2005
by C.W. Powell

“1 Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
2 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
9 O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
11 Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
12 The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
13 He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great.
14 The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
15 Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth.
16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
18 But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.” (Ps 115:1-18 AV)

Anyone who thinks that the Bible is an archaic and out of date book, either does not understand the Bible or is disconnected from the real world, living in a dream world of fantasy and confusion. You should read the Bible every day and pray for understanding that you might be connected to the world as it is and know yourself and your work in the world. Why labor for that which is no bread? Why toil for that which cannot satisfy?

Because I believe that a man can rise no higher than his worship, I have been preaching on the fundamentals of worship over the last months, and this is the twelfth sermon on the series that began back in February.. They are all on the church site, and will be on cdrom shortly. After I am gone to heaven, these sermons will be a witness against this church if you ever decide that you want to get up to date and worship after the course of the world and according to accepted standards of political correctness. My desire always for Trinity Covenant Church was for us to be as large as the Lord wanted us to be, and faithful to the nature of spiritual worship that the Lord sets forth in Scripture.

What a wonderful Psalm this is! How great and wonderful are the promises of God in Jesus Christ.

The setting of the Psalm is unknown, as is the author and the time of the writing. It appears that it was written at a time when the name of god was blasphemed. The covenant people were despised and afflicted. Some place it in the time of Moses; some in the time of David, some in the days of Hezekiah, some in the days of the captivity in Babylon. Nothing is known for certainty, and it doesn’t matter. This is a Psalm for all the ages. Spiritual worship has never been dominant, for the whole world is given to idolatry. But let us look at the words.

I. It is a good prayer to pray for the glory of God for the display of His mercy and His truth. Vs. 1-3

A. These always go together. When we pray for truth, let us also pray for mercy, for if God only remembers His truth, we are all undone.
B. It is intolerable for Christians to hear the name of God blasphemed. Why should the heathen say….”
C. Faith affirms that God is in the heavens.

1. “Our Father, who art in heaven.”
2. He does not dwell in the world of sense. He cannot be sensed with the senses of the flesh. The senses can only see the effects of His works, not He Himself.

D. It is not because God is unwilling or weak that the church is despised and poor.

1. God has appointed afflictions and troubles, as we have seen. The kingdom does not come with outward observation or display. It is spiritual in nature, and cannot even been seen by those who are not born again.
2. There is a great market in objects and places appealing to the senses; those who traffic in them do not want to hear of spiritual worship, for they glory in the flesh.
3. These want to be validated by the flesh; displayed in the flesh, and promoted by the flesh, but the result is always the same.

II. The Paradox and Result of Idolatry: 3-8

A. Though purporting to rule the world of sense, false God’s and senseless. They are fakes and impostors.
B. The paradox:

1. Gods what glory in the flesh and display the organs of sense: sight, hearing, smelling, touch, and taste really are senseless. Gods that are of the world have no contact with the world but are irrelevant to it. To deny Him who is in heaven is to be shut of from the world of sense, for the world is not ruled by the knowledge and will that originates in the world; but from the knowledge and will that is Him who is in the Heavens. False gods pretend to rule and dominate what we sense with our senses, but in reality that are deaf dumb, blind, and stupid. Note: “ For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.” (Jer 10:3-5 AV)

2. The Living God has no organs of sense He has no eyes, but He sees all things; He has no nose but he smells the sweet odors of the pure offerings of His people and is repelled at the stanch of idolatry; He has no ears but He hears the blasphemy of unbelief and the sweetness of the words of faith, and so forth.

3. What is the test of your faith in the true and living God: who do you think and fear brings all things to pass in your life?

a)See HC:

Q27: What do you understand by the providence of God?
A27: The almighty, everywhere-present power of God,[1] whereby, as it were by His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures,[2] and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink,[3] health and sickness,[4] riches and poverty,[5] indeed, all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.

b) Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Ps 127:1 AV)

4. Who is your God? Who predestines the future? Who gets the glory? Who makes the laws? Worshppers of false gods always answer these questions by something in and of the world:

a) Who predestines the future?

(1) Cause and effect: the cause of everything is something in the world.

(a) Personal: worship great persons.

(i) Experts, powerful people who transcend history and events.
(ii) Me, myself, and I.

(b) Impersonal: whatever will be will be: flow of events.

(2) Or, there is no reason; the god of chance is enthroned

b) Who gets the glory?

C. The Result

1. The inventors of false gods do not live in the world of reality.

a) Religions are created by men, have their source in the world.
b) Powerful incentives to conspiratorial theory.

2. Does not deny the occult, for the occult is part and parcel of the world of sense.
3. The worshippers of false gods also do not live in the world of reality. They do not seek that which is above, where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. “They seek Him in the world. I walk today where Jesus walked.” Holy places, shrines, ceremonies, sacred icons, pictures, places, etc. They even seek Christ after the flesh.

4. You are like the god you worship: Do not worship dead gods. You may choose your gods; you may not choose the effect of their worshp.

III. You and I are called to trust in the Lord: the Creator: He is mindful of us. Vs. 9-15.

A. Why would you trust in gods that can do neither good nor evil. Why live in an impersonal world, tossed about by blind forces and senseless gods.
B. The Lord is mindful of us: He does not forget us. He has done whatever He has pleased. He has not forgotten His promises nor His covenant. It is we who forget.
C. Dead gods cannot forget, because they never knew anything to begin with.
D. You are blessed, and He will bless you. He brings to pass all His holy will. He is the maker of all things.
E. The heavens, even the heavens, are the Lords. Only He brings to pass all His holy will. Why waste your time with gods who cannot get anything done. Why not go to the top, and learn to know and love Him to rules the heavens and the earth. He has time for you. He is mindful of you. He loves you.

Application.

1. Do not fret because of events, places, things, and people of the earth. They are not even the cause of their own existence.
2. Learn to pray and to fellowship with the True and the living God. Look at this Psalm: your only problem is unbelief: the only thing that can ruin your sould is unbelief. When you begin to doubt the truth of this Psalm, then you will begin to do stupd things, because you will think that the events and things of this earth are caused by blind forces, and you will become as blind as the forces you fear. You will run to and fro and get nothing done because unbelief brings and awful and impersonal blindness into the soul.
3. Wake up. Open your eyes. Abandon your senselessness and trust in the Living and True God, the Father of Jesus Christ our Lord—the make of Heaven and Earth.
4. Remember the words of Christ. When his disciples asked Him to show them the Father [John 14], He said, “Have I been a long time with you….” There is only one time in the history of the world that God became physical and was united to His creation, and that was in Jesus Christ. But He was taken up to Heaven, that we might know not to seek the Lord with these five senses, but after the spirit, by faith and by the Scripture..

Amen and Amen Amen and Amen. May God bless you.