Hope (Your Story Ends Well)
The God enthroned on high stoops to lift the needy from the ash heap. Your story ends well.
What do you do when the fog of hurt is so thick you cannot see two inches through it? In Hope (Your Story Ends Well), Dr. Toby B. Holt preaches Psalm 113, where a God who is no absentee walks with His people and tends them still. The psalmist commands praise three times over and lifts the lowly: "He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes" (Psalm 113:7-8). From a Reformed and Westminster perspective, the transcendent LORD humbles Himself, condescends in covenant grace, and finishes the story He has begun.
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Questions This Sermon Answers
Psalm 113 is a hymn of praise that opens the Egyptian Hallel, exalting the LORD who is both infinitely high and tenderly near. It calls God's servants to praise His name "from the rising of the sun to its going down" (Psalm 113:3), then declares that this exalted God stoops to lift the poor from the dust. Dr. Holt preaches it as a word of hope: the transcendent God is intimately concerned with what His people are going through, and your story ends well.
The command "praise the LORD" appears three times in verse 1 for emphasis. The Hebrews had no exclamation points or emojis, so they conveyed emphasis through repetition: said once is significant, twice more so, and three times in a single verse is something else entirely. Dr. Holt likens it to a text message in all capitals or with twenty emojis. The threefold call signals that we ought to pay attention and praise this God with everything in us.
"Hallel" is the Hebrew word for praise, and "Hallelujah" means "praise the LORD." Psalms 113-118 form the Egyptian Hallel, sung at Passover to remember God rescuing His people from Egypt and Pharaoh. Psalm 113 was sung at the outset of the Passover meal, so in all likelihood Jesus and His disciples sang it the night He was betrayed. It recalls a God who, in His people's greatest need, came through.
Very likely. Because Psalm 113 opened the Egyptian Hallel sung at Passover, in all likelihood Jesus and His disciples sang it the night He was betrayed, before going out to the Mount of Olives. The hymn that praises a God who delivered Israel from Egypt was on the lips of the Savior as He approached the cross by which He would accomplish the greater deliverance. It binds the Passover, the Last Supper, and Calvary together in one song of praise.
God does not need our praise, but He deserves it for two reasons: because of who He is and because of what He has done. Dr. Holt illustrates with a glorious Gulf sunset that transfixes us and makes us call others to "come see this" — and how much more the author of a million sunsets, whose nature dwarfs them. Our problem, as Romans 1 shows, is a thick veneer of sin over our eyes by which we suppress what we know of Him.
Psalm 113:6 says the LORD "humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth." The psalmist does not say He is merely big and strong, though He is; he marvels that the high God stoops. The Baals, Zeus, and Molech never condescended, for gentleness was not in their lexicon. Our God is not only strong but tender, who, as Philippians shows, did not hesitate to be born in a manger and embraced the cross to save us.
Verse 5 asks, "Who is like the LORD our God, who dwells on high?" The answer is no one. His incommunicable attributes are shared with no creature; the Creator transcends the created. Dr. Holt notes his young daughter once compared him to Batman and later to Fred Flintstone, but God can be compared to no one. He is high above the nations and their laws, and the whole earth is His footstool over which He reigns. The Westminster Confession (2.1-2) confesses this incomparable God.
Psalm 113:7 declares, "He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap." A king scanning a crowded room looks for other kings, for power is attracted to power and wealth to wealth — but God is the opposite. He seeks the lowly, the needy, the widow, and the broken, and seats them with princes. You may sit on the ash heap, Dr. Holt preaches, but you will not stay there, for God seeks out you.
The God who humbles Himself to behold is most fully seen in Jesus Christ, who, as Philippians shows, did not hesitate to humble Himself and be born in a manger and embraced the cross. He did not place Himself atop a mountain only the strong could climb; He sought out sinners and tax collectors and the woman at the well. Psalm 113's exalted yet stooping God is Emmanuel, God with us, who seeks us out in the very crucible of our pain.
Psalm 113 assures the hurting that they are not alone and that the story ends well. A day will come when you look back and see God was with you every step of the way. Our God does not leave His projects half-baked; He finishes what He has begun, and He has appointed the church as His arms to bind up the wounded. The church is not a museum of saints but a hospital for sinners, for we were all once without God and without hope in the world (Ephesians 2:12).
Psalm 113 holds together two truths the Reformed tradition insists on: the Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens (Psalm 113:4), yet He humbles Himself to behold the heavens and the earth, raising the poor from the dust (Psalm 113:5-7). R.C. Sproul, in The Holiness of God, stressed that God's transcendence and incommunicable majesty set Him infinitely apart as the Holy One; the wonder of grace is that this exalted God stoops to lift the needy, magnifying rather than diminishing His majesty.
1. The Transcendence of God and His Incommunicable Majesty
Psalm 113:4-5 declares, "The LORD is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the LORD our God, who dwells on high?" None can be compared to Him; the Creator transcends the created, and His incommunicable attributes are shared with no creature. The earth is His footstool, and every nation, angel, and mountain is subject to His reign. The Westminster Confession (2.1-2) confesses one God, infinite in being and perfection, who alone is the fountain of all being.
2. The Condescension of God Culminating in Christ's Incarnation
The marvel of Psalm 113:6 is not that God is strong but that He "humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth." The pagan gods never stooped, for gentleness was not in their lexicon, but the LORD is tender as well as mighty. This condescension culminates in the Son, who, as Philippians shows, was born in a manger and embraced the cross. The Westminster Confession (8.2) confesses that the Son took man's nature to accomplish our salvation.
3. God's Grace to the Lowly and the Church as His Ministering Arms
Psalm 113:7-8 promises, "He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes." God owes us judgment, yet He gives grace and seeks out the broken whom the powerful avoid. He has appointed the church as His arms to bind up the wounded — a hospital for sinners, not a museum of saints. The Westminster Confession (25.3) teaches that to the church Christ gives the ministry and means of grace for the gathering of His people.
The Scripture Text: Psalm 113:5-8 (NKJV)
"Who is like the LORD our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth? He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes—with the princes of His people."
Continue studying: explore the full Book of Psalms sermon series, or browse the complete Reformed Sermon Archive.
About The Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt serves as the third President of New Geneva Theological Seminary (Colorado Springs, CO), founded 1993. An expository preacher with over 1.9 million sermon downloads on SermonAudio.com, Dr. Holt brings over 17 years of pastoral experience to his verse-by-verse Bible teaching. New Geneva offers fully online Reformed theological education — M.Div., Th.M., D.Min., and other degrees.
Summary. In this sermon on Psalm 113, Dr. Toby Holt of New Geneva Theological Seminary teaches that the God who transcends all nations condescends to dwell with and rescue His people, so that every believer's story ends well. Drawing on the doctrines of God's providence, transcendence, and condescension, he shows that the Lord is never an absentee God but stoops to lift the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap. The result is enduring Christian hope: no matter how dark the present chapter, God is committed to finishing what He has begun and carrying His children to a good end.
Hope in a Darkened World: Suffering and the Presence of God
There are times in life when things look bad. There's times in life when things look miserable. There's times in life when things look rocky. There's times in life when it looks like there's no hope.
There's times in life, much as we see out this window, where the clouds have come in. Darkness has entered. We can't see the horizon two inches in front of our nose because of the thick fog of hurt and pain that has entered into our circumstances. Can you relate?
This morning, your situation may seem particularly dark. You may feel that you're stuck in place, frozen in time. You may feel like you have no recourse except to throw up your hands and say, Dear God, what are You going to do next? If you're feeling that way, if you can relate to having felt that way in times past, it's understandable because this is a darkened world.
Man alive, I served in a chaplaincy, dealing with people on the front lines of trauma, pain, hurt, death, and I can tell you that there are dark clouds that can and will enter into our lives at times when we least expect them, at times when we're not prepared, in times when we are the most vulnerable.
There are things we do not want. There are hurts in the past. There may be hurts in the present. There may be hurts yet to come.
But our hope is this, that no matter what our circumstances may be, no matter what our situation may be, that we have a relationship with One who transcends it all. If we had to face the fears, the hurts, the pains, the anxieties, the depression, the dangers, the death that this world can bring to our door, if we had to face that on our own, we don't stand a chance.
But here's the thing. We don't face it alone. You have never been alone. You never will be.
No matter what lie you've bought into that you're isolated, you've never been alone.
Continue reading the full transcript 29-minute read · 14 sections · every section links back to the audio
God Is Not an Absentee: The Doctrine of Providence Against Deism
When God created the world, think back. When God created the world, did He just spin it like a top and just watch it go, maybe watch it drop off the table? When God created the world, did He, like the deists believe, did He just go off and do His thing and cast not a care on the hurts and pains that would befall that which He'd created?
No. We see right from the beginning this, that God, after He had formed the world, after He set down man and woman, that He dwelled with them, that He walked with them in the cool of the afternoon. He walked and talked and interacted and encouraged. He hung out, He visited those that He had made.
He didn't just create the world, spin it like a top, see what was going to happen. He did not do this because He's not an absentee God. He's not an absentee father. He's not an absentee landlord.
And throughout the centuries since, He's proved it. Think of this. He was with Adam and Eve in the garden. Thereafter, He spoke to their children.
He spoke even to Cain. Thereafter, He sent the prophets. Thereafter, He created the temple where He dwelt between the cherubim. Thereafter, He sent His own Son to live and breathe and die in the midst of those who are hurting.
He is not indifferent to what His people are going through. He is not aloof a million miles away. That is the God of the deists. It is not the God of the Christian.
Our God is not an absentee. He doesn't leave children alone unattended. Our God doesn't sit back and fiddle while the world burns. That's not the God of Scripture.
Instead, our God is consistently depicted at His people's side, no matter what they went through. If there was a problem, if there was a fracture in the relationship between God and His people, it was not on God. How often did His people in the Old Testament push God to the periphery? How often have you and I done that?
If there seems like there's a fracture in our relationship with God, I can tell you this, it is entirely man-made.
God's Intimate Attentiveness to His People's Suffering
God, for His part, is not aloof or indifferent to us at any time in our life. This morning, no matter what we're going through, something to be encouraged about is you look out and see all that God has made. God has fashioned trees and rain and the clouds and the stars and the cosmos and the universe.
God who created all that is as intimately concerned with what you're going through today as He was when He formed the universe. God doesn't give part of His attention to some of us and focus more on others of us. He doesn't give most of attention to keeping the world spinning and only have a little bit of time for us.
He is as attentive now to what's going on in your life as He was when He created the world, when He created the cosmos, the universe itself. He is that attuned. He is that attentive. He cares that much.
If you live long enough, you may have seasons when no one else cares for you in that way. There may be times when it feels like no one else can relate. No one else has the empathy and compassion you desperately need, but God does. And that's the message of the psalmist.
The Story Ends Well: The Ground of Christian Hope
Furthermore, the message of the Psalms we're going to see in these nine verses is this, that things end well. The story really does end well. The story ends well, whether it's the story of creation, whether it's the story of Scripture, whether it's the Gospel, whether it's your story, the story ends well. But when you're in chapter 1, or chapter 2, or chapter 5, or 10, some of us here may be in chapter 30 or 40, when we're along the path, we may not see that.
If only you could flip to the end of the book and see the hand of God wiping away your tears. If only the confidence that the story ends well would give you so much hope no matter what you're facing today. I'm here to tell you the story does end well. It does end well.
You may be sitting upon the ash heap, but you won't stay there. You won't stay there. And that's what we see in today's passage.
The Call to Praise the Lord (Psalm 113:1-3)
“Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD! Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its going down the LORD's name is to be praised.”
— Psalm 113:1-3 (NKJV)
Let's look now. Let's look at verses 1 through 3, and then we'll work our way through the text. Verses 1 through 3 say this. Praise the Lord.
Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its going down, the Lord's name is to be praised.
All right, what's the main takeaway from verses 1 through 3? It's not a trick question. In the very first verse, we see this. Three times we see this.
The psalmist is telling us, inviting us, compelling us to praise the Lord. It's not a hidden objective here. The first verse, the psalmist says it three times. Praise the Lord, praise the servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.
Have you ever had someone send you a text message? You get a text message and someone really wants to convey something important to you. So really wants you to know what's on their mind. So what do they do?
Well, maybe they'll send the text message and it'll be in all caps. I've got some of those. Sometimes you get the text message and there's like 10 exclamation points at the end of the message. Got some of those.
My phone used to not get emojis, so it'd like blow up when I'd get 20 of those. But sometimes people will send all the emojis. And the idea here is they're conveying some emphasis. Something is important to them.
Well, the Hebrews didn't have emojis. They didn't have anything quite like that. So what they had was this. They had repetition.
That which was important to the Hebrews, they would state multiple times. If you stated something once, it was significant. If you stated something twice, it was really significant. You get up to three times, especially in one verse.
Oh, my stars, that is something else. That is important. We are supposed to pay attention at what is being said. Praise the Lord, praise the servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.
The psalmist, no matter what we might think of what he's saying, we know this much. His emphasis is on praising the Lord.
Why We Praise God: For Who He Is and What He Has Done
Now, why should the people respond? Why should you and I respond? Why praise God? Does he need it?
No. Does he deserve it? Yes. You see, there's two primary reasons. There's a lot of reasons, but there's two primary reasons why people of every age would be wise to praise the Lord.
The first is because of this, because of who he is. The more you know about the nature of God, the more praising is the obvious reaction to who He is. So we praise God for who He is. Beyond that, we also praise him for this reason, because of what he has done.
Who He is, His nature, who God is, His attributes. You also praise him for the things that he has done. Let's linger for a moment on who he is. If you and I were to go out and look at a beautiful sunset, I don't think we're going to see one too brightly today, but if we were to go out on the beach, go down to the gulf, and it's one of those beautiful sunsets out on the water, it's, it's gorgeous, it's amazing.
If you were to look out a window of a tall building, you saw the sunset and the colors and the hues, you would stop, you'd be transfixed. How many times has that happened to us, where you just look and just marvel at a sunset? Sometimes sunsets are so amazing you can't help but invite people to share the look at what you see.
You say, hey, you look at this, look this, come on, come on, it's going down, you got to see this, you got to see this, so beautiful. We look at the sunset, we admire the sunset, we even praise the sunset for this reason, because its nature compels us. It is that good, it is that beautiful, is that majestic, is that radiant, it lights up the sky in the way it does.
Well, if a sunset can do that, if a sunset can gender that reaction on the basis of its nature, how about the author of the sunset? I'm not the author of a million sunsets. One whose nature dwarfs the sunset a million times over. Isn't he worthy of our praise?
Absolutely. If we were to look upon God and His radiance and his glory, it would dwarf every sight you've ever seen by an infinite magnitude. He is worthy of praise. He is, he is, he is.
Our problem is that we have such a thick veneer of sin before our eyes that we can't see him for who he is. We can look at nature, the world around us, and even suppress what we know about it. That's our nature. However, I don't think that's a problem the angels have, and I don't think that's a problem we'll have down the line.
God's nature warrants our praise. Every last ounce we have to give of it. But that said, as I said a moment ago, we not only praise God for who He is, we also praise God for what He's done, for what He's done in times past, maybe long past, maybe your past. We praise God for what He has done.
The Egyptian Hallel: Remembering God's Redemption at Passover
Now, what's an example of that? Well, in the book of Psalms, there are three collections that are called Hallel. Hallel. Does anyone know what that means in Hebrew?
Praise. Someone, I heard it from the left. That sounds right. There we go.
It means praise. So when you're saying hallelujah, what are you saying? You're saying praise the Lord. So there's three segments, three sections in the Psalms that are called Hallel.
And Psalm 113 through 118, which starts with today's text, Psalm 113 through 118 are often referred to as the Egyptian Hallel. The Egyptian Hallel. And that's because they were sung during Passover celebrations that remembered the time that God saved and rescued His people out of Egypt. We remember what God has done.
The Psalms are a reminder of what God has done. They were sung with that intention. God's people remembered how He had saved them from Egypt, how He had saved them from Pharaoh. Psalm 113 through 118 were sung at the Passover.
The first of those psalms was sung at the outset of the Passover meal, the others towards the end. In all likelihood, Jesus Christ Himself and His disciples sung Psalm 113, which we're looking at this morning, sung Psalm 113 the night He was betrayed. This was a song of praise. It was a song of reminder who God is and also what He has done.
They remembered. That's what the Passover was all about. We remember what God has done, and we praise Him for what He has done. They look back, they remember ten plagues.
They look back, they remember the Red Sea that parted. They look back, they remember being set free from exile. When God's people had been in the direst condition, when God's people had needed Him the most, and in our greatest need, He came through. He does that.
He came through for His people. And it's not limited just to Passover. You can look at Passover, you can look at Sinai, crossing the Jordan, you can go to Calvary, you see it time and time again in Scripture. If you're introspective, you can probably look back at your own life and see it, picture it, remember it.
From the rising of the sun to its going down, the Lord's name is to be praised.
The Transcendence of God: High Above All Nations (Psalm 113:4-6)
“The LORD is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens. Who is like the LORD our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth?”
— Psalm 113:4-6 (NKJV)
Let's look at verses 4 through 6 now. The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the nations. Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold all things that are in the heavens and in the earth? Who is like the Lord, our God?
When my daughter was young, she was real small, she once compared me to Batman. I thought that was pretty cool. You know, a kid compares you to Batman, I can live with that. That sounded pretty good.
Of course, later down the line, she once compared me to Fred Flintstone. That didn't have the same effect. In either case, my daughter was likening me to qualities of someone else. There was a comparison that was being made.
With that said, you can't do that with God. Who is the Lord our God? Who is like the Lord our God? Given his infinite majesty, given his attributes, his nature, and his characteristics, the answer is no one.
No one, no way, no how is like the Lord our God. God's very nature. It's in the job description of being God. God's very nature precludes Him from having an equal.
He has attributes that He's communicated to mankind, and yet He has attributes that He has not. They're incommunicable, that no one else shares. The Creator transcends the created. It can't be any other way, no matter how much the created might try to rob the glory from the Creator.
The Creator transcends the created. And we see that. It's implied in verse 4 when it says that the Lord is high above the nations. Not just hanging out in the midst of the nations, although we do believe He's immanent just as He's transcendent.
The point is here, He's above the nations. He's above their laws. He's above their precepts. We march to His tune, not the other way around.
Now, presuming that's true, and I want to encourage you that it is, presuming that that's true, that God is high above the nations, presuming that He is in a throne room and that the earth, such as it is, is just His footstool, as we see in Scripture, presuming that's true, then everything in the world around us is under His feet, is subject to Him, subject to His reign and to His rule, subordinate to these.
Every person, doesn't matter whether you believe in them or not, every person, every angel, every mountain, every molehill is subjugated to the reign and rule of the Creator. And yet, in spite of that, as amazing as that is to consider, and the more you consider it, the more your mind will spiral, the more you think about the majesty and the size and the infinite nature of God, that He always was, He always will be, when you think about these things, sometimes your mind can't really process that quite right.
The more you think about that, the more you think how majestic He is, the more His nature stands out to you, the more mighty you perceive Him to be, then the more amazing it is, as verse 5 says, that He would condescend to you.
The Condescension of God: The Creator Who Stoops to Us
As big as He is, how amazing that he has time for you and I. That He carefully fashioned us together. He formed us in our mother's wombs. He who made the cosmos spent the same focus and attention when He formed and put you together and when He decreed your circumstances, which can be a hard thing sometimes for us to understand.
But we know this much, as in verse 5 says, that this God, in spite of being high, in spite of being powerful, in spite of being radiant, in spite of being majestic, at the same time, He gently, patiently stoops, stoops down to us, condescends into our lives and our circumstances. Who is like our God, verse 5 says, and it might have been, He could have said, who is like our God who is big and strong?
And that would have been true, but that's not what He says. He says, who is like our God who humbles Himself to behold the things on earth? The Baals didn't do that. Zeus didn't do that.
The gods of the pagans, the gods of the Egyptians, the gods of the Greek didn't do that. Baal didn't stoop down. He didn't humble himself. He didn't have gentleness and mildness.
It was not in the lexicon of Baal or Asherah or Molech or any of them. Who is like our God that does this? No one, no how. All the gods of pagans, you might know them for their strength, so what?
Our God is not only strong, but He's tender. And that sets Him apart. How cool is that, that you don't just serve a big God, but a tender God, a caring God, a patient God, a merciful God. A God who is, we see in Philippians, when your life was on the line, did not hesitate to humble Himself and be born in a manger.
When your life was on the line, did not shy away from the cross, but embraced it in order that you and I might be saved. There is no other God like this. The question is, who's like Him? No one is.
And the more you reflect on who He is and what He's done, the more amazing He is, the more obvious praise becomes. Sometimes praise can be something that we find difficult or hard, or we'd rather praise ourselves or praise politicians or praise other people, what have you. Well, phooey! Whatever praise we might give ourselves, yeah, that's not the attention we're supposed to have.
Praising God because who He is and what He has done outshines us by an infinite magnitude. He is worthy.
Sovereign Grace, Not Debt: What Is Man That You Are Mindful of Him?
Psalm 8 puts it another way. It says this, who is man that You're mindful of him? It's about who You are. Who is man that You're mindful of him and the son of man that You would visit him?
Newsflash. God doesn't owe you and I jack squat. God doesn't owe us anything. And yet, and yet, who is man that we would receive this sort of grace, this sort of love, this sort of compassion?
We tend to think that God owes us. He doesn't. If He owes us anything, He owes us judgment, because that's what we deserve. And yet, and yet, and yet, He gives us grace.
We think, the world thinks, the secularist thinks, the humanist thinks, that the world orbits around us, and that God, if He exists at all, that He's a genie, that He's a divine butler. We bang a gong and He shows up. Wow, that is not, that's not the God of Scripture. That's just a little bigger version of ourselves that we're appealing to when we do so.
But the psalmist knew that God is altogether holy, is altogether transcendent, and that even as He is transcendent, He takes notice of us. What you're going through today or this week or next week, God is not so big that He doesn't care. He's not so big that He doesn't know. And He's not so big that He can't or won't help.
God has both the ability and the inclination to love you, to help you, to come alongside you. And you know what? That won't change tomorrow when you mess up. Those of us who have children, do we stop loving them when they mess up?
No. Our God's love for us is sustained. It's sustained.
God Lifts the Poor and Needy (Psalm 113:7-9)
“He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes—with the princes of His people. He grants the barren woman a home, like a joyful mother of children. Praise the LORD!”
— Psalm 113:7-9 (NKJV)
Let's see how God's humility is further manifested as we look at our final verses, verses 7 through 9. He raises the poor out of the dust. He lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes, with the princes of his people. He grants the barren woman a home like a joyful mother of children.
Praise the Lord. You know, when a king looks around a crowded room, he's looking for other kings. When a king looks around a crowded room, he's looking for other noblemen, magistrates, people of his clout and his authority. Power is attracted to power.
Wealth is attracted to wealth. Beauty attracted to beauty. But verses 7 through 9 remind us that God is just the opposite. He seeks out the lowly.
He seeks out the needy. He seeks out the widow. He seeks out the broken. He seeks out the hurting.
He seeks out you. He seeks out me.
Christ Seeks Out the Broken: The Humiliation of the Savior
When our Savior came into the world, He was born in the most humble estate, a manger. The animals lowing in His midst. He grew up in a humble estate. He went to the most humble of places, a cross.
He did not, when he came down to earth, just place Himself at the top of a high and lofty mountain and make it so hard for you to approach Him as to make it impossible. He didn't. Now, He could have, I suppose. I mean, He's that worthy.
He could have put Himself far at the top of a mountain, a red carpet, but you have to scrape and scratch every inch just to get up to Him, and only the strong could do so. Only the worthy could make it into His presence. He could have done that, but He didn't. Instead, what He did is He sought out broken people where they were.
He went and He hung out with the sinners and the tax collectors. He went to those who were lost. He went to those who were broken. He sought out the woman by the well.
He seeks you and I out in the midst, in the crucible of our pain. There's times when no one else will because they're afraid that someone is going to rub off on them. There's times in our lives where things are going so bad for us that other people will give us words of help from a distance, but they don't approach us closely for fear that something that's going on in our life will rub off on them.
Christ seeks out. Christ embraces. Christ comes alongside. He did it then, He does it now.
Whatever our circumstances are, He's with us. Emmanuel, God with us. Like I said before, it does not change. He doesn't need us.
Again, I want to make that point clear. There's no man-shaped hole in God by which He needs us, and we're not that lovable that he can't help himself. No, that's not true. And yet, in spite of that, in spite of our failures, in spite of our flaws, He seeks us out.
That will only fail to make a dent in your conscience if you have too high a view of yourself. You think, God just can't help Himself, I'm that good. The more you understand you, the more we understand who we are, the more amazing this is. The more we understand us, the more we understand him, the more marvelous such a thing is.
And the more we'll be able to relate when the psalmist says, praise the Lord. The more we'll be able to relate. He raises the poor out of the dust, He lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes, with the princes of His people. He does that today, for many of us He's done that in times past, And He will yet do it tomorrow.
God Finishes What He Begins: Perseverance and a Story That Ends Well
And in the end, we will see this, that our story ended well. A day will come, it might be on the other side of glory, when you will look back, and you'll look back upon your life, upon your walk, and you will see that He was with you every step of the way, He carried you every step of the way, and that your story ended well.
Again, in chapter 2 or 5 or 10, you might wonder how things are going to turn out, but if you could flip to the back of the book of your life, you'd see. And you'd be encouraged. And that is no matter who you are. If you're a child of God, no matter who you are or what you've done, God is capable and willing to do this.
And He's committed to it even when we aren't. He's committed to wiping away tears, to cleaning and restoring us, to giving us hope for a better tomorrow. Even if the whole world turns its back on us, He won't. God is on the side of His children.
That won't change. Again, that's what got the psalmist excited. That's what they sung with such hope. Even in the midst of darkness, even the night Christ was betrayed, even in the midst of the darkest circumstance, then in the days yet to come, there was this understanding that God would not abandon His people.
That God would not abandon His people. That's what got the psalmist excited in today's passage. The psalmist, who we believe to be King David, had made some seriously bad life choices, and yet God's love had not left him. God is committed to what He has started.
Our God does not leave His projects half-baked. He finishes what He has begun. In time, we will see that. We will see that.
David saw it. I know I've seen it. I trust that you may have as well.
The Church as God's Everlasting Arms: A Hospital for Sinners
With our remaining time, our remaining moments this morning, I want to transition this thought, this mentality of God's care for us to how He uses the church to be His arms. We know our God is in the heavens, and He has appointed a church. He has appointed a church to be His everlasting arms, to breathe out and speak words of encouragement, to provide love and care for those who need it.
Let's talk for just a moment as we close to how the church is part of God's solution to our problem, how God uses the church to help bind up the wounds of those who are hurting. Years ago, there was a doctor in Europe, and he had a patient that had a condition that he was unable to treat.
He was in rural Europe. He didn't have all the means to treat this patient. He needed to refer him somewhere else. He needed to refer him to a specialist to deal with his terminal condition.
Now, this patient he had encountered on a number of occasions was important to him. He loved this gentleman. He wanted what was best for this gentleman. And it pained him to some extent that he was unable to handle it all on his own.
With that said, when he referred this man out, he wanted to refer him to the best. He wanted to refer him to the best. So what kind of specialist did he refer him to? Did he open up the phone book and just pick a name?
Well, no, because the doctor loved this patient and he had this patient's best interests at heart. The doctor did not want to send him just to anyone because he knew that not all doctors care equally for their patients and not all hospitals are equal in their care. So the doctor did some research and he sent this man to the best single treatment facility in the land.
When our physical needs are dire, we need good hospitals. We need good doctors. In the ER room, in the ICU, a less than sterile or less than competent environment will do us no good. In fact, it will harm us.
The same principle holds true with regards to churches. Spiritually dying, hurting, broken people need loving, caring, patient, competent, godly, theologically driven care. And I can tell you that the greatest confidence, or I can tell you with the greatest confidence, that one of the best validations a church is ever going to have that God is with it, that God is in the midst of it, that God is at work, one of the greatest validations that a local congregation like ours could ever have that God is at work in its midst and that it is on track with its mandate is when God trusts that church enough to send it broken people.
To refer to that church, those who are desperately hurting. To refer to that church, those who are crying out and those who are in need. If we're doing God's work now and in the time yet to come, one of the signs of God's confidence in us, in our ministry, is when He sends us those whose needs are desperate.
When He trusts us enough to know that we will take care of the wounded. That we will love those who are hurting. What a validation that is of our work. That it is in line with Christ's own work.
When He trusts us enough to be the house, to be the church, to be the hospital, where He refers those in desperate need of treatment. But here's the thing, that can be hard. That ministry can be hard, it can be difficult, it can be messy. By their nature, hospitals are hard environments to work in.
By their nature, hospitals deal with hurts and heartache every day. Someone once said the church is not a museum of saints, it's a hospital for sinners. This is true. Whatever the case, my prayer is that God would continue to send our church broken people in the time yet to come.
Send us broken people just as we were once broken. At one point, we were all without God, without hope in this world, but praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for His gracious work in our own lives. Praise the Lord for the kind and humble way in which He once came to us.
Praise the Lord for the privilege we have in serving Him, serving His children. Let's pray.
More in The Book of Psalms
Continue the verse-by-verse series.
