Yeah. you Good morning and welcome to all, all members, all visitors. It is good to be in God's house. It is good to give praise to him, to give thanks to him. And certainly that's true every day, but it is good to have a day set apart to give thanks. And God is the one to whom all our thanks is due. God is the one who is holy. Let us then begin our time of thanksgiving worship with a moment of silent reverent prayer before him. Amen. If you would stand. Our call to worship comes from Psalm 105. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him. Sing praises to Him. Tell of all His wondrous works. Glory in His holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His presence continually. Indeed, I direct your attention to our bulletin and I ask you, congregation, where does your help come from? Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Let us receive then God's greeting this morning. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Let us, people of God, open in song number 216. Let's sing stanzas 1, 2, 3, and 5. 1, 2, 3, and 5 of number 216. He the King of creation O my soul, praise Him for He is thy help and salvation Alleluia, now to His temple so gently Thou, my desire, dear, have been granted in what He ordained. Peace to the Lord, who doth prosper Thy work and defend What the Almighty will do If in His love He regrets me? And hath come now with praises before Him. Let the amends come from His people again, That He bore every adornment. Amen, amen. We are certainly those who are made in God's image. Intelligent from the very beginning. Of course, Adam sings a love poem upon seeing Eve. We are not Neanderthals. That's a much better way of saying it. That was the hymn, the great hymns from Joachim Neander. that beloved German pastor and psalm writer, he passes away, they name the valley after him. And then they find bones in that valley 100 years later and they say, oh, we're gonna take his name and name Neanderthals after him. And of course, all ways of pretending that God did not make man intelligent from the beginning. Ways of mocking God that have to be peeled back as they find out that they were actually very intelligent people. No, we don't do any of this. We don't say that God needs help. We don't say that things happen by chance. No, from the beginning, we are made in the image of God. From the beginning, we were made without sin. And then we fell into sin. And so now we are image bearers in need of salvation. We are in need of restoring that image of God which was lost. And that's very much what Colossians chapter three speaks about when the apostle says that we must set our minds on things that are above. For you have died, Colossians 3 verse 3, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. All of these things which have come with the fall into sin. But people of God, moving on then to verse 12, Since we can have salvation in Jesus Christ, we then hear these words culminating in and bringing us to a final word of thanksgiving. Colossians 3 verses 12 to 17, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. He is our creator. He is our savior. So we give thanks to God through Christ. Let us sing then again now from 105C. You may remain seated as we sing 105C, stanzas one through three. ♪ For His deeds they know and call upon His name ♪ ♪ O sing to Him, sing praise to Him ♪ ♪ His wondrous works proclaim ♪ ♪ Let hearts rejoice and sing glory to Him ♪ remember all his His promise he remembers to all generations old. His promises will stand Amen, amen to the God who makes the promises that stand will come now in a prayer of Thanksgiving. I will give one update on Bernie and that's that there is no update. He's remaining as he is and so we'll continue to keep him in prayer. We even there, for Bernie, our oldest member who is passing away, even there we give thanks for the almost 100 years, not quite, 96 plus, that the Lord has given him. And people of God, we have much to give thanks for. So let us come before the Lord, our God, in a prayer of thanksgiving. Lord, God Almighty, our Father in heaven, may we with our very souls give thanks and praise to you. May this be upon our hearts and minds every day. The very breath we breathe is due to you. The life knit together in the womb is made by you. Lord, you are over all. You made it all, you sustain it all. Without you, the world would cease to exist. It would fall apart. There would be nothing. But Lord God, you have made everything. You have made all people in your image. worthy of respect, every life being valuable, every person carrying dignity in that they are made in your image. Lord, we give thanks for this. We give thanks that we are not just chance combinations of chemicals. that lives really do mean something. That you have not left us alone, but we have the law written upon our hearts. That we are not only made in your image, but we also know with a basic sense in our hearts what is right and what is wrong. Lord God, You have done these things and you have done them well. And yet we kick against you. We spit upon you and so fail to give thanks to you, our creator. We also fail to love our fellow image bearers as we ought. We also fail to care for the creation which you have put under our care, as we ought. Lord God, in thought, word, and deed, we are sinners before you. We, Lord God. In short, our praise comes especially to you, not only as our creator, but as our savior. May Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, be always on our hearts and minds. May we not forget this when we fall into sin and we stand in need of your hand for forgiveness. May we not forget this when we stand in need of growing and sanctification and holiness and in walking in your ways. And Lord God, this also you do. You have not left us alone. Your Son has sent the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Lord, we give thanks. that we are not left in darkness, that we are not left in our sins, and that while we continue to struggle against them on this earth, you lead us in holiness, Lord God, these are reasons to give thanks. These are foundational reasons to give thanks. The very physical breath that we breathe, the very spiritual life which is had in you alone. Lord, we thank you that you are the one who builds up your people. And we pray that you would indeed strengthen your family of faith. And we give thanks when we see the love and the service within the body of Christ. We give thanks when we see families which have you at the center Lord, we give thanks when we see little ones raised in the knowledge of truth. We give thanks when we see a maturity in these things, decade by decade, from the younger to the older to the oldest. And Lord, you have given health and strength to many. We give thanks for this. some who have been brought through great physical trials, who still continue to battle against pain and weakness. This is the sin-cursed earth upon which we live. Our bodies, as well as all of creation, groans, but Lord, you have given much health and strength to our people. Even think of our oldest member, the one who is now the weakest. almost a century upon this earth you have given to Bernie. And Lord, we pray that you would be with him yet in the last days that he has. Let him battle that last enemy, which is death, and bring him into your arms. And Lord, as we think of your arms, of the home which you build for your people, surely your promises are great and wondrous. You have made this all known to your people in your word, and you assure us of it, making us to know the truth of these things in our hearts. Lord, again, we give thanks for all that you have done this year. We give thanks, as we have thought of our oldest member, for babies on the way, our youngest members, the pausma, maybe the Carson baby, the Freswick baby, Lord, bring each one of these little ones to a safe day of delivery for mother and child. Lord, you have given a good harvest this year. Lord, in your abundance, you are the one who has made the seasons. You are the one who promised so long ago after the flood that the seasons would not discontinue. And Lord, we see that and we give thanks and we give thanks for a good harvest this year. Lord, our Lord, we pray that there would be a good spiritual harvest, that your word would fall upon good soil. That's even our prayer this very morning. May we come before your word and be directed to give all thanks and praise and glory to you, especially in your son. This, Lord God, is our prayer in his name, in Jesus' name, amen. Let us then, people of God, stand to sing another psalm of thanksgiving, 136, now stanzas one, two, and six. Stanzas 1, 2, and 6 of 136. Let us stand to sing. O thank the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever. Give thanks unto the Lord, our God, His love endures forever. Give thanks unto the Lord, our Lord, His love endures forever. To Him alone, who does great works, His love endures forever. ♪ Who o'er the seas, the air, and the surf ♪ ♪ His love endures forever ♪ ♪ Who made great lights for day and night ♪ ♪ His love endures forever ♪ ♪ Till sun and moon, the stars are gone ♪ His love endures forever. And save us from our foes who hate His love endures forever. Each creature's food He does supply. His love endures forever. Let us turn now to the reading of God's Word, a psalm of praise. A psalm of praise and thanksgiving, Psalm 148. page 667 in most of the Pew Bibles. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Psalms, taking up the middle pages of the scriptures. Psalm 148, one of the Hallel Psalms, hallelujah, means praise the Lord. So many of you know a good portion of this Psalm, not only in English, but also in Hebrew, because every time it says praise the Lord, that's just hallelujah. Hallelujah, praise to Yahweh, praise to the Lord. Psalm 148, let us hear now the word of God. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise him, all his angels. Praise him, all his hosts. Praise him, sun and moon. Praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created and he established them forever and ever. He gave a decree and it shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds. kings of the earth, and all peoples, princes, and all rulers of the earth, young men and maidens together, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted. His majesty is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people. Praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near him. Praise the Lord. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there are two intelligent creatures who must give praise to God in a literal spoken from the heart way. And in between, those two intelligent creatures, namely the angels and mankind, there is all the rest of creation, all of the dumb beasts, all of the earth, all of the heaven, all of the heavens, and this too, every inch of creation included in this Psalm must give praise and does give praise to God. For indeed, praise is due to God, Praise, so closely related to Thanksgiving, is due to God from all the heavens and all the earth. Praise to God from all creation. And that's what we consider together this morning. We follow the clear two-point structure of our psalm. We see the first words, praise the Lord, and then we see in the middle of verse one, praise the Lord from the heavens. And then that exact phrase with one word different in verse seven, praise the Lord from the earth. And that's essentially our two points here this morning. Praise from all the heavens, taking us to the end of verse six. Praise from all the earth, seven to the end of our psalm. So first praise from all the heavens, from the heights and moving generally downward to things that come closer and closer to us. So we'll move from from the heights, from the very invisible realm of heaven where the angels dwell, and we'll move down from that to the sun, moon, and stars, those things which are far from us but still visible, and then to the clouds, the waters above the heavens of verse four, which is nearer to us but still high above us. And so first we begin with those angels, those first intelligent creatures in all of creation. First, also in that they were the first created. When were the angels created? Well, certainly they were created before day four. Job 38 tells us that the sons of God sang when the morning stars appeared, which is in Job 38 when God says, where were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you, Job, when I created? And then it says that few verse later about the angels singing at the creation of the stars. Well, it's said in a poetic way, but that means the angels were created before day four. If the angels were singing when the stars were created, they were made before that. We might be able to get more specific. Some have said, some Reformed theologians, I think they are right, have said that Colossians 1.16, we read from Colossians 3 for our New Testament Thanksgiving passage, now Colossians 1.16, Many have said that this is a commentary on Genesis 1, verse 1. Here, Colossians 1, verse 16. We'll begin at verse 15. He is, that is Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by Him, Christ, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. What does Genesis 1 verse 1 say? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, if this is a commentary on Genesis 1 verse 1, that would mean angels were created right then on the very first day. Because here, heavens is including the invisible realm. Invisible heaven, visible heavens. Does New and Old Testament speak in these ways? Yes, it does. Yes, it does. Heaven is used to describe that which is above us and visible, and heaven is used to describe where God dwells, the invisible heaven. That's also where the angels are. Now, when I was Younger, I tend to think of things being invisible as being not real. That's not how scripture speaks. When scripture uses the word invisible, almost always what it's speaking about is that which is invisible to us from our human perspective. Indeed, when scripture speaks of that which is invisible, it's talking of that which is real. It's just something that's real that we can't see. but it's very real. Who does see the real, invisible to us, heaven? Well, angels see it. God sees it. You see, it's invisible. It's unreachable. We can't jump on a spaceship and get there. It is another realm, but it's a real realm. The real, invisible heaven. which is included in the heavens of Genesis 1, which is included in all of the heavens of Psalm 148. Certainly this is true in Psalm 148, because when the Psalm says, praise the Lord from the heavens, it then begins to speak about that invisible realm by speaking about who, the angels who are there, the angels all his angels, all his hosts, which is a way of saying that his angels are his army. God's ministers who do his will, as Psalm 103 says. God's soldiers, all his hosts, and they dwell with him in this real, though invisible to us, heaven. all of creation is to give praise to God. Now, what does this mean for us when we think about that invisible to us heaven? Well, it's a reminder, certainly, that God is beyond us. But it's a reminder, even just hearing this song, hearing words about how angels must sing his praise to him in the same song that we'll come to that we must sing praise to him, that this is real. In other words, God is real. The invisible to us heaven is real. God must be praised even as the angels are praising him in that invisible heaven. And also, This is, it's not only what angels see, it's not only what God sees, it is this invisible to us now heavenly realm where those who die in the Lord will go. It's also a real visible heaven to those who die in the Lord. People of God, this is a real place. Let us, even from our youth, not confuse this. There's something invisible which is real. God himself, who is spirit, and the heavens in which he dwells. And that's where the angels are, and that's where those who die before the Lord comes again go. It is a real place. There is a real place for God's people. We can't reach it by a spaceship, but we can reach it how? We reach it by repentance of sins. By saying, God, I am a sinner. in need of Jesus Christ, and then in looking to Jesus Christ, his blood on the cross, the one who is already preparing a place for us. Where? In heaven. In heaven. There is immediate dwelling with God in this real, though invisible now to us, heavenly realm. Now, heavens is a broad word in the Old and New Testament, so that includes the visible heavens as well. And that is where the psalmist then moves. Sun, moon, and all you shining stars, verse three. These are still far from us, sometimes almost unfathomably far from us. We still don't know how far. We're still reaching back further and further and further. Now, is it 40 plus million light years, which is of course a measurement of distance. So many galaxies, some of the dots, some of the shining stars are actually galaxies. This is all visible, it all displays the glory of God, and these two are called heavens. Then another reference at the beginning of verse four to heaven itself, the highest heaven. The psalmist is generally working down from a top-down order, but he has poetic freedom to break that pattern. But then now a reference to the waters above the heavens. What's that? Well, that's the psalmist way of describing the clouds. It's the waters that are above us that will then fall down on us as it will say in verse eight. And all of these, all of these were made by the voice of God. Verse five. All of these he has established and continues to maintain for all of time. And all of these only continue to move by his decree. So verses five and six tell us. God is the creator, God is the sustainer, God is the one who still commands all of these things. Now, how can sun and moon and stars and clouds, how can such things give praise to God? Well, they do so in that seeing these things, Unless we are fools, makes us to know that there is indeed a creator. Psalm 19 says it this way, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. John Calvin once said it regarding this truth that the created things speak about their creator in that non-literal spoken way, in that proclaiming in their majesty kind of way, he said it this way. And the psalmist begins with angels but immediately proceeds to address the brute creation and the dumb elements, telling us that there is no part of the world in which the praises of God are not to be heard. in as much as He everywhere gives proof of His power, goodness, and wisdom. In other words, to anyone who is paying attention, the stars and all of creation are a symphony telling us there is one Creator God. Wonderful, majestic, powerful, wise, good. There is one Creator. The heavens declare this, he sustains it all. He's not only the creator and sustainer of the heavens, but of the earthly realm as well. And to this we now turn our attention, our second point, praise to God from all the earth. There are a couple of patterns the psalmist generally follows. The first point generally moved from the heights, even the invisible heavens, down to what is nearer to us. Now we work from the bottom up. And in doing this, the psalmist is also generally following the created order. Again, not exactly, but generally. And so in verse seven, we begin with the deeps and the creatures of the deeps. You know, we know more about the surface of Mars than we knew about the ocean floor. We haven't mapped all of the ocean floor yet. It's very difficult to do. The creatures of the deep, including the psalmist highlights the great sea creatures. What that all includes is not the easiest question, but I'd say it includes all of those which are massive in their size, including the whales, including the largest living creature, the blue whale, sometimes being over a hundred feet, sometimes weighing more than a hundred tons. These massive creatures of the sea, which so visibly display the power of God, but it's all of the deeps. All of the deeps, they all show his majesty, his creative power. There are creatures the psalmist didn't know about, which we now know about, that live in the depths of the ocean. Some very even strange looking, and they live down there in the dark. God's deeps are full of his wonders. And this is surely a place where we can step back and say this is one of the blessings of modern technology. We can see these through sea documentaries that can be brought right to our TV screens. Beautiful creatures, all very different creatures. All of the depths show the wonder of who God is. And as we think about how we know more about the surface of Mars than the surface of the ocean floor, does that not lead us to sit here and think God's creative power has a depth which we have not yet plunged. God's creative majesty has a distance to which we have not yet seen. Do these things not tell us, even with all our modern technology, we cannot plunge the full beauty of what God has done and his power and the vastness of it and the depths of it. Surely this is true. But we need not think just on that which is currently out of our reach. We might map the whole ocean floor sometime. We don't need to go there. We can just look at all of creation. And this is then where the psalmist moves. Mountains and all hills, what a way of describing all of the land. The big mountains, the rolling hills, the plains, and all everything in between. the the elements which fall upon the earth again in verse eight he mentioned the clouds in in verse Four, now he mentions those things which come from the clouds, fire being a picture for the psalmist of lightning, and hail, which is often accompanied by lightning, snow and mist, all of the storms. And what does he emphasize again? That God has control over all of these things. No storm comes but by the command of God. He not only creates, he also continues to rule. And all the mountains, all the hills, that's all the land. What about all the vegetation? Well, there it is at the end of verse nine, fruit trees and all cedars. What about all the dumb beasts? So that the intelligent angels take up the beginning of the psalm, we're coming soon to mankind, the intelligent creatures of the earth. What about the dumb beasts? Well, all of those too. And so words that would, carry one and the other and everything in between. So beasts is all wild beasts. Livestock is all domesticated creatures. And then to make sure we're not leaving any creatures out, he'll mention the creeping and the flying as well. All the earth, every creature, every inch of the earth, God has made them all. This may make us to think, reminded also multiple times through here that these things all do the fulfilling of his word as it says at the end of verse 8. This might make us to think of the definition of providence we have in the Heidelberg Catechism. What is the providence of God? It's his almighty and ever-present power by which God upholds as with his hand heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that, leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things, in fact, come to us not by chance, but by His fatherly hand. And as the psalmist has now moved through all of creation using these sweeping terms to refer to all the earth, all the vegetation, all the animals, We're reminded that we need not merely look to the distant stars. We need not look to the depths of the ocean. We just need to look in our own backyard, right? And we don't have to go to the Rocky Mountains. We don't have to go to the marsh with all of the different flying creatures, especially that come there. We just need to look in our own backyard. It is everywhere. It is everywhere. Such that no one is without excuse. It's what the apostle says in Romans 1, isn't it? For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, again, invisible, but very real. His invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. We see it in the highest mountains. We see it in the depths that we can't plunge, in the distances which we can't see, but we see it in our own backyards. We see it everywhere. We see it in our own hand. We see it in our own body. We are creatures made by the one creator. We must give praise and thanksgiving and worship to him and to him alone. To not do so is to be a complete fool. Everyone who goes to a Thanksgiving celebration today and does not give thanks first and foremost to God as creator and to the son who he sent to die for sinners as the savior of their soul is a fool. missing what is right in front of them, as far as the evidence that yes, God is the one creator, missing which is right in their own hearts, which is the sin of which we must all repent. Everyone who fails to do either one of these things is a fool. There is one name to be praised in heaven and on earth. And so we move from the first created creatures, the first intelligent creatures, the angels of the heavens to man. And no man is left out. Kings, all peoples, all rulers, all peoples. Men and maidens, young men and young women, old and young, it matters not. We are all made by him, we all must give praise to him. Now, we cannot give praise to some random creative power. No, there's only one name. Let them praise the name of the Lord, Lord in all caps, Yahweh, the personal name of God applied only and ever to the one true God in all of the scriptures. The I am, the one who is eternal, the one who is the savior of his people, This is the one to whom we must turn and trust in every way. And he does, he does raise up the one from whom our salvation comes. The creator God is the same God who sent his son for salvation. The one who sent strength to redeem those in need of redemption. See the word horn there at the beginning of verse 14? He raised up a horn. It's spoken in the past tense, as the tenses are often done in the Psalms, is that it's speaking though of a future event. But it's speaking as though it is already done, because certainly it was the plan from the very beginning of time, that even before the foundations of the world, there was a plan that God would what? That he would send his son. Send the one who is the horn, who is the strength. That's what a horn is. It's a symbol of strength. It's a symbol of one who can bring redemption, bring salvation. And it even has particular ties to redemption and salvation and the washing away of blood. There's the four horns on the four corners of of the altar. This is the ultimate reason to give thanks. That God has not only created us and continues to sustain us, but He has not left us in our rebellious sins because we have spit upon our Creator, but we are not left there. A horn is raised up, namely Jesus Christ, and in looking to Him, now we really can give thanks. Zechariah said it this way, filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the song of Zechariah in Luke chapter one. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant, David. Now, if we read the rest of that song, we see that in the last few verses, Zechariah sings about his son who prepares the way for that Jesus, his son, John the Baptist. But the whole beginning of that song is focused on not his son, but the son of Mary, Jesus to be born in Nazareth. That horn of salvation, the one who at the time of the singing of that song was conceived, but not yet born, the only one by whom we are saved. Then as the psalm comes to a conclusion, heaven has already been mentioned again at the end of verse 13. And then the psalm mentions in a particular way the people of God. So we speak not only about all people in verse 13, we speak especially about the people of God in In verse 12, we speak about all people. Now we speak especially about the people of God in verse 14. And how will the nations know that there's not only a creator, but that his name is Yahweh, that his name is Lord, that the name of his son is Jesus? How will all the peoples know that? Well, it has to be through his people going forth and proclaiming this. That's how they will know not only that he is their creator, for which they stand without excuse, but that they will also know the name of the creator's son by whom they can be saved. That horn who is raised up. And so now the people of God are mentioned last, because we are the ones who know that name, who must go forth and say it, even as the apostle does, all right? In Acts 17, he goes and he says, I know you have a altar to the unknown God, the creator God. I'm here to tell you, yes, there is a creator God, and I know his name, and I know the name of his son. That's a very brief paraphrase of Acts 17, isn't it? And that is what we must do. The people of Israel who are near to him, who know what the name of that creator is, we must speak that name to all. And speak that name of the horn of salvation, the strength of salvation, Jesus Christ. And so the psalm then ends with the same words that it began, praise the Lord, alleluia. Now people of God, will, the invisible heavenly realm and the earthly realm always be separate? No. There will be a time when they will be joined together, will there not? That's why Revelation speaks not just about the new earth, but the new heavens and the new earth. when God unites the invisible realm with the renewed visible realm. And all will, all God's chosen ones, all of his angels and all of his people give praise to him in that united new creation. the new heavens and the new earth. Psalm 148, coming to its perfect end at that time. But already now as we give thanks in the time when that has not yet happened, in the time when we are on the visible cursed earth. Already now, let us give praise and know that when we do so, it's praise and thanksgiving which is echoed by the angels and the deceased saints in that invisible but real heavenly realm as well. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, You who have created all things, that which we can see, that which is real but we cannot see, make us to come before you to give thanks to you, to know that every thanksgiving is due to you. From every inch of your creation, all the heavens and all the earth. In Jesus' name, amen. Let us now, people of God, stand to sing from that Psalm 148, 148B. Let's sing all the stanzas together. Praise Yahovah from the heavens, praise His name. Praise Yahovah in the highest, all His angels praise proclaim. All His hosts together praise Him, sun and moon and stars on high. above the sky, and our praises enjoy. ♪ And His glory is exalted ♪ ♪ And His glory is exalted ♪ ♪ And His glory is exalted ♪ ♪ Far above the earth and the sky ♪ ♪ For with Jesus in Jehovah ♪ ♪ They were made at His command ♪ Be established, visit we shall ever stand. From the earth, O praise Jehovah, all ye seas, new monsters all. Fire and hail, and snow and rain, birds, stormy winds, their ear is call. When praises give Jehovah, for His name alone is high. Then His glory is exalted, then His glory is exalted, then His glory is exalted far above the earth and sky. Hills and mountains high, With kings and beasts and cattle, Birds that in the heavens fly, Kings of earth and all you people, Princes, greaters, judges all, Praises in young men and maidens, Aged men and children small. Let them praise His name, Jehovah For His name alone is high And His glory is exalted And His glory is exalted And His glory is exalted Amen, amen. It's time now for our gifts and offerings this morning. Following that, the benediction and doxology. 181, stanza three. 181, stanza three. You would stand now, receive the parting blessing of our God. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. The Father now be given The Son and Him who reigns With man in highest heaven The one eternal God Who birthed and hath not borne Who thus it was is now and shall be evermore. so