Come and See
On January 25, 2015, I preached my first sermon as a pastor at Cities Church. We were at Minnehaha Academy, and I assume it was very cold outside. The following Sunday, we would begin our first sermon series in the book of Acts, but this Sunday was the second part of our formal launch and so I preached from Romans 12:1-2 (“Present your bodies as living sacrifices…”). The main thrust of the sermon was to connect worship and mission. Worship is the heartbeat of the church that pumps blood to the rest of the body. We worship Jesus so that we can serve one another and seek the good of the Cities. We gather weekly and walk through the five C’s of our liturgy, as God calls us into his presence, and we confess our sins and receive his pardon, and then we are consecrated through song and sermon, and we have communion with him at the Lord’s Table, before we are finally commissioned out to be salt and light in the world. That regular worship frees us from being conformed to the world, gives us discernment and wisdom, humbles us so that we self-assess rightly, and then binds us together as one body with various gifts on mission together. It was under 30 minutes.
And as I preached that first sermon as a pastor of Cities Church, God knew that eight and a half years later, I would preach my last sermon as a pastor at Cities Church today, on July 2, 2023 from Psalm 66. And just like that first sermon, I (and we) need his help for this one, so let’s pray.
Part of our goal in annually preaching through the psalms is to help orient you so that you can mine the psalms for the riches they offer. Our hope is that you would grow in your ability to meditate and reflect on the psalms in order to feed your soul. This means sometimes noting connections between psalms so that you see the Psalms as a book, and not just a random collection of isolated songs. For example, Psalms 65-68 are each called “a Song” in the superscript. That’s part of why they are clustered together. There are also thematic links between these psalms. Let’s just note some of them between Psalm 65 and 66.
Awesome Deeds
“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation” (65:5)
“Say to God ‘How awesome are your deeds!’” (66:3)
“he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man [sons of Adam]” (66:5)
Global Focus
“The hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas” (65:5)
“Shout for joy to God, all the earth…All the earth worships you…Bless our God, O peoples” (66:1, 4, 8)
The Temple and Vows and Sacrifices
“To you shall vows be performed…you atone for our transgressions…We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple.” (65:1, 3, 4)
“I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will perform my vows to you” (66:13)
Prayer
“O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come” (65:2)
“Blessed be God because he has not rejected my prayer” (66:20)
These thematic links between psalms are opportunities for us to meditate and enlarge our vision of God and what he’s done.
On top of the themes, we also want to help you to notice structures that organize the psalms. Psalm 66 breaks down into five sections, each introduced by an exhortation or call.
1) Shout for joy (1-4)
2) Come and see what God has done (5-7)
3) Bless our God, O peoples (8-12)
4) I will come into your house (13-15)
5) Come and hear, all you who fear God (16-19)
“Blessed be God” as closing exclamation.
As we walk through each of these sections, I want you to pay special attention to what God has done, and the possible human responses that the psalmist considers.
1) Shout for joy
The psalm opens with a cascade of exhortations: Shout! Sing! Give Praise! Say to God! These exhortations are addressed to everyone (“all the earth”) and fills out the content of the praise.
“Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds…All the earth worships you and sings praises to you.’”
This is a triumphant note to begin the psalm, celebrating God’s power and might. The word “awesome” in older translations is “terrible.” God’s power produces fear and reverence in his people.
Note that God’s power is so great, that his enemies come cringing to him, like a dog that knows it’s in trouble. This response is not the one that the psalmist is aiming at. He’s after joyful praise and glorious worship. To come cringing is to come simply because God’s power terrifies you. This is the sort of obedience that always looks for the exit, for the escape hatch. But it’s important that we recognize it: it’s possible to come to God, not because you’ve tasted his goodness and desire his holiness, but simply because you don’t want him to crush you.
The language here provokes a question: if God’s power is so great that even his enemies come cringing, how will his friends come to him? What will their response be?
2) Come and See
Having exhorted all the earth to shout joyfully and say to God, “How awesome are your deeds,” the psalmist now invites us to come and see these awesome deeds. And he has a particular story in mind:
“He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him, who rules by his might forever.”
When the psalmist wants us to see the awesome and glorious and terrible deeds of God, he takes us back to Exodus, when God made a way for his people through the sea. And he takes us to Joshua, where God splits the Jordan River so that the armies of Israel pass over to take possession of the land.
This reminds us of how important it is for us to know the stories of Scripture, to learn them by heart, so that we catch these allusions and references and can call to mind what the psalmist is doing. We won’t say to God, “How awesome are your deeds,” if we don’t have those deeds before our minds.
So the psalmist invites us to remember the people of Israel, desperate at the Red Sea, with the armies of Pharaoh in pursuit, and then God parting the sea so that they pass through on dry land and then rejoice together at God’s deliverance. If you need a refresh, I’d invite you to read and meditate on Exodus 14-15 this week, and then turn to Joshua 3-4 and behold God’s awesome deeds at the Jordan River.
But again, this section invites us to consider an alternative response: “let not the rebellious exalt themselves.” Now, if we’re at the Red Sea, and you hear a reference to a self-exalting rebel, who do you think of? Pharaoh. In fact, both the stubborn self-exaltation and the cringing obedience likely refer to Pharaoh. Remember that during the plagues, Pharaoh would frequently relent and ask Moses for relief, promising that he would let the people go worship God. But as soon as the relief came, he hardened his heart and took it back. In other words, his obedience was a lying, cringing obedience until he could find the exit, until he thought God was no longer watching.
So with Pharaoh in mind, we remember that God’s awesome deeds don’t merely bring salvation for his people; they bring destruction to his enemies. That’s what Israel celebrates when they rejoice in Exodus 15:
1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying,
“I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
2 The LORD is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The LORD is a man of war;
the LORD is his name.
4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea,
and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
5 The floods covered them;
they went down into the depths like a stone.
6 Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power,
your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;
you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.
8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;
the floods stood up in a heap;
the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them.
I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’
10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;
they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11 “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.
13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people
whom you have redeemed;
you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
14 The peoples have heard; they tremble;
pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;
trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;
all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16 Terror and dread fall upon them;
because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,
till your people, O LORD, pass by,
till the people pass by whom you have purchased.
17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,
the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
18 The LORD will reign forever and ever.”
Come and see what God has done; he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
3) Bless our God
This section still has the nations in mind. “Bless the Lord, O peoples. The Lord keeps watch on the nations.” Now notice the reasons here. God has kept our soul among the living; he has not let our feet slip. In other words, “We’re alive. We made it.” But then we get a surprise. Notice the word “for” in v. 10. Why should the peoples bless God? “For you, O God, have tested us.” Listen to the imagery for God’s testing:
You have tried us as silver is tried (that is: you melt us to the boiling point in order to remove the dross, the junk).
You brought us into the net (that is: we’re trapped).
You laid a crushing burden on our backs (like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress).
You let men ride over our heads (this image comes from battle with horses and chariots. If you’re wounded in a battle, the horses and chariots just ride over you and crush you).
We went through fire and through water (that is: we were burned and we almost drowned).
I was trying to think of an image to help us get this, and I know that there are films that depict this sort of thing well. Like Dr. Leo Marvin in What About Bob? At the beginning of the film, he’s put together and in command, and after Bob’s awesome deeds, he’s a wreck. That’s the image we’re looking at.
I wonder if you feel the tension in this section. It’s the tension between “You’ve not let our feet slip” and “You let men ride over our heads.” So picture this scenario. You’ve got a guy who is singed and soaking wet. He’s bent over double with a burden on his back, and he has tire tracks on his face. He looks like he tried to rob Kevin Macalester’s house at Christmas. This is Marv and Harry. Now imagine if that guy looked at you and said, “Praise God my feet didn’t slip.”
What do you mean? Your scalp was burned with a blow torch, you have a branded hand, your feet are bloody from nails and micro-machines, your face was smashed with a paint can and a hot iron. What do you mean your foot didn’t slip?
Here’s what he means: he means he is more concerned about his sin than he is about his suffering. That’s what “foot slipped” means here. “I didn’t bow up. I didn’t rebelliously exalt myself in the face of God’s awesome deeds.” The psalmist’s main concern is not the fire and the water and the battle and the net and burden and horses trampling him. His main concern is “Did I honor God? Did I remain faithful to God? Did God keep me faithful to God through the hardship and testing?” And he did. “Bless our God, O peoples, who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip.”
4) I will come into your house
Now let’s follow Marv here. Picture him limping, with missing teeth and a singed and smashed head. Where are you going, Marv? “I will go into your house with burnt offerings; I will perform my vows to you, that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.”
Here at this church, we know what this is. We’ve studied Leviticus. The burnt offering, the ascension offering, the offering of total surrender. “All of me, to all of you, O God.” That’s where Marv is going. Because he made vows. When he was in trouble, when God was testing him, and he was trapped in the net and the men were riding over his head, he made a vow to God. “If you bring me through this – if you keep me alive and keep my feet from slipping – I will give all of me to you, O Lord. I will offer fattened animals, rams, bulls, and goats as an expression of my total surrender.”
This is fundamentally different from cringing obedience. Cringing obedience comes when threatened, but is always looking for the way out. The psalmist desires to draw near to God, to dwell in his courts, to live in his house. As Pastor Mike showed us last week,
“We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple” (65:4).
5) Come and Hear
Now let’s finish the picture. Marv is limping, beaten, burdened, burned, snared, soaked, and smashed. And as he limps, he says, “Bless God. He did it. He tried me, and he kept me.” And then he goes to the altar, “All of me to all of you, O God, just like I promised.” And then he turns and looks at all of us, and says, “Anyone here fear God? Come and hear, you who fear God. I have something to say to you. I want to tell you what he’s done for my soul.”
Now notice the shift there. Earlier, it was corporate. It was about us. God kept our soul, and has not let our foot slip. He tested us, and tried us. But here, Marv gets personal. “Let me tell you what he did for me.”
So you’re looking at this guy with missing teeth and branded face, soaking wet, bent double, and bleeding, “Let me tell you what he has done for my soul…He heard me. He heard me! I cried to him with my mouth, and he heard me. When the horses were trampling me, his praise was on my tongue, and he heard me. When I went through the fire and water and called out to him, he heard me, and he answered me. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, if I had treasured my sin, he wouldn’t have listened. But he kept my feet from slipping, and so he heard me. He attended to the voice of my prayers. He inclined his ear to me. The living God – majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, working wonders – surrounded by myriads of holy angels crying “Holy, Holy, Holy!, when I cried to him, he said, “Quiet! He needs me.”
And this is what I want Cities Church to hear in my last sermon. I know that many of you are in the thick of it. You’re being tested and tried. You’re harried by day and haunted by night. Anxieties pile up in your soul, and you get stuck in your own head and can’t find a way out. You’re sad and frustrated that life isn’t going the way you expected. The path before you is not the one you would have chosen. You’re burdened; you feel overwhelmed, like it’s all too much. Or you feel trapped and stuck, like there’s no way out. Maybe there are people in your life who are punching you while you’re down. There are men riding over your head and horses stomping you while you’re wounded. Here’s what you need to know.
First, God is the one doing it. It’s clear as day in 66:10-12. He did it. He tested us. He tried us. He brought us into the net. He put the burden on our backs. He let men ride over our heads. All of these trials and hardships and suffering are God’s doing. They are his awesome deeds. There’s no hint here of God’s absence when the hardship comes. Don’t try to get him off the hook. The sovereign and good purposes of God in these trials is part of the hope of this psalm, and of the whole Bible.
Second, why is he doing it? Well, it’s testing; he’s trying you in the furnace of affliction. He’s purifying your faith. To be more specific, he’s brought you into trouble so that you will give him your all, so that you will offer yourself as a living sacrifice to him, holy and acceptable and pleasing in every respect.
And so third, you have three options before you, three possible responses. You can come cringing; you can offer superficial obedience with your tail between your legs, and then bail when he sends relief. That’s how his enemies respond when he shows his power.
Or, you could rebel and exalt yourself. You can bow up and shake your fist at him, and harden your heart like Pharaoh. You can blame and accuse God of doing evil to you, and justify yourself in his sight. That’s possible, in the face of his awesome deeds.
Or, you can bless him. You can shout for joy to him. You can give him glorious praise and sing to him in worship. You can gladly surrender all that you have and all that you are to him, taking refuge in him, knowing that his steadfast love is better than life and that the goodness of his house is supremely satisfying.
And as someone who has been there – who has been overwhelmed and distressed and oppressed and weary and terrified, I just want to tell you what he’s done for my soul. “My head got crushed, but my feet didn’t slip. I had a crushing burden on my back, but I didn’t cherish iniquity in my heart. God did not reject my prayer or remove his steadfast love from me. He heard me. He truly listened to me. He answered me, and he kept me. Blessed be his name.”
One final note as we come to the table: a few weeks ago, Pastor Jonathan taught us that, any time we read a psalm, we should ask three questions. We’ve answered two of them already: What does the text say? And how should I respond? But the third question is this: Where does the text show us Jesus?
Jesus is speaking here. He is calling for us to join him in his joy, in singing the glory and praise of the God who does awesome deeds. He invites us to come and see what God has done, to consider not only the deliverance at the Red Sea, but the greater deliverance at Calvary. There we rejoice in God, who rules by his might forever.
God tested and tried the Lord Jesus. He brought him into the net and delivered him into the hands of wicked men. He carried the crushing burden of sin and sorrow – plus a Roman cross — on his back. His own people and the nations of the world beat him and flogged him and kicked him while he was down. He passed through all manner of suffering, but his foot did not slip. After his death, his soul was found among the living, and God brought him into a place of abundance.
And now he speaks to all of us and says, “All you who fear God, let me tell you what he has done for my soul. He heard me. He heard me every time I prayed. God heard me in the storm on the seas. He heard me at the tomb of Lazarus. He heard me in the Garden of Gethsemane, when I said, “Thy will be done.” He heard me on Golgotha’s hill, when I cried out “It is finished,” and “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.” He heard me in Hades, and he heard me on Easter morning when I shook off the shackles of death. And he still hears me, when I intercede for you. I always live to make intercession for you.”
And so, come and see, come and hear, come and taste what God has done. Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.