Amen. Well, I invite you to take your copy of Scripture this morning and turn to Psalm 113, Psalm 113, as we continue our series in the Psalms. And if you're using one of the Bibles that we provide for you, you'll find our passage on page 510, page 510. Psalm 113, and I'll begin in verse 1. I'll read the psalm in its entirety, and then we'll consider God's Word together. 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 setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations and is glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful for your mercy and grace in our lives. We're thankful for the mercy that you have shown us this morning that has brought us together to worship you. And Father, we pray now that you would be with us and help us, Lord. I pray that you would help me as I preach, and I pray, Father, that you would help us as we listen and hear your word. And Lord, we pray that all that is done would bring you Glory, and Lord, we pray that by the power of your word that we would be changed and become more like your son, the Lord Jesus, and that we truly would be a people of praise. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. All gods are the same, or all religions are the same. Have you ever heard anyone say that before? I'm sure you have. The idea is that each religion assigns their God a different name. It might be Allah or Vishnu or Jesus, but in the end it's all the same thing. Well, I've entitled our message this morning, Who is Like the Lord Our God? Which is actually the question that is posed at the very center of Psalm 113. In fact, depending on how you count the lines of poetry in Psalm 113, some make the claim that there are nine lines of poetry before the question that's presented in verse 5. and nine lines of poetry after the question in verse 5, which locates who is like the Lord our God at the very center of the psalm. And the implicit and obvious answer to the question is no one. No one is like the Lord our God. No one is like the God of the Bible. And therefore, He is to be praised. Psalm 113 actually begins what is known as the Egyptian Hillel Psalms. Now the Egyptian Hillel Psalms begin in Psalm 113 and they span to Psalm 118. And these songs were sung as a part of the Passover feast, which was a celebration of God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt. So the word hallel is the Hebrew word for praise. And Egyptian is a reference to Israel's deliverance from Egypt, so the Egyptian Hillel Psalms are songs celebrating God's deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery. Now, traditionally, two of these psalms would have been sung before the celebration of the Passover meal, and then four of these songs would have been sung after. And so it's interesting because if you remember the account of Jesus, the night in which He was betrayed, He and His disciples were celebrating, they were observing the Passover meal. And as they observed the Passover meal, and Jesus transforms this meal into what we now call the Lord's Supper. the gospel writers record, and when they had sung a hymn, and then he speaks of them departing from the room. Well, when they sang that hymn, it is likely that they would have been singing one of these Egyptian Hillel Psalms. And so Psalm 113 begins these series of Psalms. Well, as we turn to Psalm 113 this morning, who is like the Lord our God, I want us to consider our psalm in two parts. First of all, we will consider a call to praise the Lord, which we see in verses 1 through 3. And then we will consider the Lord who is to be praised, which we'll see in verses 4 through 9. So a call to praise the Lord, verses 1 through 3, and then the Lord who is to be praised in verses four through nine. So look there at verses one to three, and we read these words. 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 setting. The name of the Lord is to be praised. Now as I mentioned earlier, many people today are comfortable speaking about God in very general terms. They're willing, maybe even eager to speak of a general and undefined deity. But they feel very uncomfortable speaking about God with any specificity. For example, they might feel very uncomfortable acknowledging that Jesus is Lord and God. But notice, this is not the way that the Bible speaks about God. Right away we see that the psalmist in Psalm 113 is eager to affirm the unique status and claims of the God of the Bible. So in the first three verses in Psalm 113, you see here that the psalmist three times makes reference to God's name. So in verse 1, the last phrase in verse 1, you read there, praise the name of the Lord. The first phrase in verse 2, blessed be the name of the Lord. The last phrase in verse 3, the name of the Lord is to be praised. Now, what is the name of the God of the Bible? Well, we've considered this before, but it's important for us to revisit it and to understand it in context of Psalm 113. You see it here in the text. Every time, actually, you see LORD in all caps here in Psalm 113, that is a representation of the Hebrew word Yahweh. There are two main words in Hebrew for Lord. The first word is Adonai, which can be translated Lord or Master, and it refers to Lord, Master kind of generally. But then the second Hebrew word for Lord that's translated into English as Lord is Yahweh, which translated means something like, I am who I am, or I will be what I will be. And this word Yahweh is represented in our English translations by the word LORD in all caps. You see the distinction between these two words Adonai and Yahweh are so significant that English translators have determined a way to represent Yahweh in a way that's distinct and unique. And so they translate this word LORD in all caps. This is, in fact, the name that God gave to himself and revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3. This is the unique and personal name of the God of Israel. And during the time that the psalmist was writing Psalm 113, there were many gods among the nations. The word for God in Hebrew is Elohim. It can be translated God or God's plural. And so there were…people spoke generally of gods or a god, but Yahweh was the name for the God of Israel. Some of the names of the gods of the nations were Baal, or Ashtoreth, or Chemosh, or Molech, but Yahweh was the name of the God of Israel. And the psalmist calls us here three times in the opening verses of Psalm 113 to praise His name. Not to praise any God in general, but to praise the name of the God of Israel. The specific God represented by the name Yahweh, the God of the Bible. And then notice how many times the psalmist uses his name in Psalm 113. Look there, if you're looking for LORD in all caps, that name Yahweh, just scan through Psalm 113 and you see that three times His name is mentioned in verse 1. Once it's mentioned in verse 2. Once it's mentioned in verse 3. Three times it's mentioned in the rest of the psalm. Eight times total the name Yahweh is presented to us in Psalm 113. This is the one whom we are to praise in distinction from, set apart from all the other gods. We are to praise Yahweh, the God of the Bible. Now this takes on even greater significance when we turn the pages to the New Testament and we see that Jesus takes on the divine name for Himself. And then we see His disciples applying the divine name that we see here in Psalm 113 to the Lord Jesus. And of course the idea is that Jesus is God in the flesh. He is the God of the Bible who has come to dwell among us. Like the God of the Old Testament, Jesus himself claims to be unique and distinct and set apart from all other supposed saviors and gods. Therefore, Jesus declares in John chapter 14 verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. And His disciples would later declare in Acts chapter 4 verse 12, there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. You see, many people even today are uncomfortable with the exclusive unique claims of the Lord Jesus that He and He alone is Savior, that He and He alone is God. But the Old Testament is actually the most helpful resource for us in understanding the unique and exclusive claims of Jesus. You see, the God of the Bible has never been comfortable with sharing the stage with other gods. The God of the Bible has always set himself apart as unique and supreme in his relationship to other supposed deities. And the psalmist here calls us not just to praise God in general or a God or a host of gods, but to praise the name of Yahweh, the God of the Bible, the one true and living God. Notice this call to praise, and not only does the psalmist here call us to praise Yahweh uniquely and specifically, but notice who is to praise. You see there in verse 1, praise the Lord, praise, oh, servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Now, if we were to think of this psalm in the context of the celebration of the Passover, and as one of the Egyptian Hillel Psalms, we know that the Israelites would have remembered a time when they were servants, when they were slaves of Pharaoh. But having experienced God's salvation, having experienced God's redemption, they are now servants of the Lord. They are servants of Yahweh. In other words, the Lord has purchased them. He's redeemed them to be His own. And of course, this is now true for all who have trusted in the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the payment, as the ransom for the debt of our sins. The Lord, through the payment of Christ's sacrifices, purchased us back. He's paid the price in full for our sins. He has redeemed us and made us His own. Now we belong to Him. We are His servants. We are servants of the Lord, and we are to praise Him. And notice this call to praise. Not only are we told who to praise, that is the Lord specifically, uniquely, And not only we know it's us who are called to praise Him, that is those who are Christians who have trusted in the Lord Jesus because now we are His servants. But notice the time in which we are to praise. When are we to praise Him? You see it there in verses 2 and 3. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore, from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. So when should we praise the Lord? We should praise Him all the time. There is never a time when we are not to praise the Lord. We are to praise Him now, and we are to praise Him for all eternity. That is, as the psalmist says, forevermore. We are to praise Him when our alarm goes off in the morning. And we are to praise Him when we lay our heads down on our pillows to go to sleep at night. and we are to praise Him every time in between. We are to praise Him when all is going well, and we are to praise Him when our hearts are weary and sad. We are to praise Him when we are healthy, and we are to praise Him when we are sick. We are to praise Him when we're young and energetic, and we are to praise Him when we are increasingly weak and nearing the end of our journey in this life. There is no expiration date on the Christian's call to praise the Lord. So my friends, is your life characterized by praise? Or we could ask more broadly, is our church characterized by praise? One of the things that's been encouraging for me to witness over the last even number of weeks and months is that I know there are increasing number of families within our church who during your family worship time sing together as families. I know in our community groups there are an increasing number of community groups who set aside some time to sing together. I've even heard that this has been taking place some in our cohorts as well. This, at least in part, is what it means to be a people of praise, to be a people who praise the Lord. And this is what the psalmist is calling us to hear in Psalm 113. Notice secondly though, we see first of all a call to praise the Lord, but then notice secondly, the Lord who is to be praised. And we see this in verses 4 through 9. So we're called to praise Him, but who is this Lord who is to be praised? And now the psalmist will tell us in verses 4 through 9, this is the Lord who is to be praised. Look at verse 4. The Lord is high above all nations in His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ashy to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord." Now, my friends, there are no doubt many reasons why we should praise Yahweh, the God of the Bible. But the psalmist here, and he could give many reasons, but the psalmist here zeroes in on one. And the psalmist here says in Psalm 113 that we should praise the Lord, if for no other reason, for this reason, because He is other and because He is near. The fancy way to say this theologically is that He is transcendent and He is imminent. Or as one, Author puts it, which I like this, nothing is too great for him and no one too small. Notice, I want to show you both of these things here in Psalm 113. He is both transcendent and He is imminent. Now notice this in verses 4 and 5, the psalmist declares God's transcendence. Now what it means that God is transcendent is that it means He is above. He is beyond. He is over all that He has created and made so that He rules and reigns in sovereignty. And notice here in verses 4 and 5, we're going to read them again. Notice all the spatial language here in verses 4 and 5 that communicates to us the transcendence of God. Look there in verse 4. The Lord is high above all nations and His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God who is seated on high? who looks far down on the heavens and the earth. Do you get the point? The Lord is above all the nations. He is above the heavens. He is above all that He has created. In fact, He is so above all that He has created that He must come down and stoop to look upon His creation. My friends, this is all the more stupendous when we consider that our entire solar system with the sun and the planets that orbit the sun is just a part of the larger Milky Way galaxy. And now astronomers estimate that there are some 125 billion galaxies in the universe. Now how they came up with that number, I have no idea. But even if they're off by a little, even if they're off by a lot, that is still incomprehensible. And the psalmist says, that God must…He sits enthroned above it all, and He must come down and stoop to look upon His creation. Charles Spurgeon writes, quote, higher than the loftiest part of creation, the clouds are the dust of His feet, and sun, moon, and stars twinkle far below His throne. Even the heavens of heavens cannot contain Him." The psalmist declares that God is transcendent, He is above, He is beyond, He is over all that He has created and He rules and reigns over it all. And at the same time, immediately following verses 4 and 5, at the same time, the psalmist declares that God is imminent. He is near. He is present. Look there as the psalmist declares God's imminence in verses 7 through 9. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes, with the princes of the people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord. So here we have the Lord taking the poor and raising them to be princes and the barren woman and making her a joyous mother of children. Now, what I want you to notice here is that God's transcendence far exceeds our natural assumptions or imagination. So that God is not just the creator of all things. But He is so far above and beyond all that He has created that He must come down in stoop to look upon His creation. And in a similar fashion, God's imminence exceeds. our natural assumptions or wildest imaginations so that not only is God involved in His creation, but He is so near, He is so present in His creation that He takes interest in the weakest and the most distraught among us, the poor and the barren woman. In other words, nothing is too great for Him and no one too small. Who is like the Lord our God? Actually, these verses here in Psalm 113 verses 7 through 9, the psalmist is quoting from the song of Hannah. Do you know who Hannah was? Hannah's story is found in 1 Samuel. In 1 Samuel chapter 1, we are told about a man named Elkanah. Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah, the text tells us, had children, but Hannah had no children. And every year Elkanah would take her family, or take his family, I'm sorry, to Shiloh to sacrifice to the Lord. And Peninnah, the text tells us, would provoke Hannah grievously to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb. And Hannah would weep and she wasn't able to eat. And in 1 Samuel 1 verse 8, Elkanah, so this is Hannah's husband, Elkanah is trying to be helpful, but he's oblivious, he doesn't get it. And this is what Elkanah says to Hannah. He says, Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons? And sweet Hannah actually never answers that question in the text. And at one point, Hannah was at the temple and she was praying to the Lord and she was so distraught and weeping before the Lord that Eli the priest thought she was drunk. But as Hannah cried out to the Lord, the Lord heard her prayer. And in time, Hannah bore a son named Samuel. And when Samuel was weaned, Hannah then took Samuel back to the temple and devoted Samuel to Eli and to the temple. And Samuel grew up to be a priest and a prophet of the Lord. And Hannah then composed a song, an expression of praise, an expression of thanks to the Lord that he had heard her cry. And that song is found in 1 Samuel chapter 2. And actually, Psalm 113, going back to our text, Psalm 113, verses 7 and 8, are a citation from Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2.8. Now, I'm going to read it for you, and you can just follow along in Psalm 113. Look at verses 7 and 8. You can follow along, and I'll read you Hannah's song, and you'll see how they're almost exactly the same. Hannah wrote, he raises up the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. And then actually Psalm 137 verse 9 is an allusion to Hannah's song in 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 5. And here, the wording is not exact, but the concept is the same. So if you look there in verse 9, and then compare it to Hannah's words in 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 5, the barren woman has born seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. Now, of course, as the psalmist readers would have been reading Psalm 113, and they were steeped in the Old Testament Scriptures as they read these verses, they would have been reminded of Hannah and her song and how the Lord had visited her, and that the psalmist in saying this, he was saying it because he knew it was true because God had acted this way before. He had heard Hannah's desperate cry. But it would not only remind them of Hannah. It would also remind them of Sarah, who was barren, but miraculously gave birth to Isaac. And of Rebecca, who was unable to have children, but gave birth to Jacob and Esau. And of Rachel, whose womb was closed, but she gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin. And then there's Samson's mother, who was unable to have children, but miraculously gave birth to Samson. And you see, this is a pattern in the Old Testament Scriptures where God miraculously intervenes again and again to enable women without children to become the joyous mother of children. And of course, this pattern is escalated and ultimately fulfilled when Mary, who was not just barren but a virgin, gave birth to a son and named Him Jesus. And Mary, also like Hannah, responded in a song, which is recorded in Luke chapter 1. It's come to be known as the Magnificat, where Mary declared, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. And many of the themes in Mary's song are a repetition of the themes that we find in the song of Hannah. Some of you may know the name Rosaria Butterfield. Rosaria Butterfield was a self-professed radical feminist, lesbian, and a tenured professor in English at Syracuse University. And through her ongoing exposure to a small reformed church that was in her area, she came to faith in Christ. She later wrote an article entitled, how Psalm 113 changed my life. And in that article, she shares a little bit of the story of her conversion and how she repented of her radical feminism and lesbianism as she trusted in Christ. And then she shares that years later, she met her now husband, who is actually a pastor of another small Reformed church. And once they married, they discovered that they were unable to have children. But the Lord was gracious, and she writes, quote, unable to bear children of our own, the Lord allowed us to adopt four, two out of foster care at the age of 17. Today, the ages of my children span 13 to 31. I spend days teaching my two youngest children at home. being a helper to Kent, that is her husband, teaching high school English in my homeschool co-op, and taking care of my three-year-old grandson on weekends and whenever my son and daughter-in-law need." End of quote. And so here we see that this woman who was once a radical feminist and lesbian is now a pastor's wife, a mother, and a grandmother. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. And my friends, we need to acknowledge that God may not always provide a woman with children, whether biological or adopted. And God, of course, and there are many places we could turn in Scripture, has a heart, For the woman who is not able to have children or for those who are single, we know in particular the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, how he declares that there is a certain blessing that comes with singleness and that singleness can be leveraged as an opportunity for greater service and ministry to the Lord. But as our text points out, it is also true that God is able and He often does provide children to those who long for them. And this speaks to us of the imminence of God, that He is so very near, that He is so very present, that He is concerned even with the individual person who is poor and without and who has needs, or to the barren woman who longs for a child. You know, some critical scholars find fault with Psalm 113. And this is the criticism that they make of Psalm 113. Some critical scholars will say that the conclusion of Psalm 113 is anticlimactic. It's disappointing. I mean, in verses four through six, God is transcendent. He's above, He's beyond, He's greater than all that He's created, and He's ruling and He's reigning. And then the Psalm concludes with God giving barren women babies. It's kind of like, wah, wah. I mean, what's that about? But here's the thing, my friends. Those scholars missed the whole point of the psalm. This is the climax. That the God who rules and reigns over the entire universe, is delighted to raise the poor up to be princes and the barren woman to have children. This, in fact, is what sets apart the God of the Bible from all the other gods. He is majestically transcendent and He is personally and tenderly imminent. Nothing is too great for Him and no one too small. You know, some religions emphasize God's transcendence. I was actually having a conversation with someone about this recently, and we're talking about Thomas Jefferson, and I don't know if you know this, but Thomas Jefferson was a deist. Deists believed that God, and there were a number of deists in Jefferson's day, it was a popular idea, philosophy, but deists believed that God created the world, kind of winded it up like a clock, and then set it loose. And so He's out there somewhere, but He's distant, He's removed, He's not personally involved in His creation. And in many ways, the God of Islam is somewhat like this. The God of Islam, Allah, is transcendent. He is the only God, He is the Creator of all things, but He is nowhere near as personal and tender and near as the God of the Bible. Or some religions emphasize God's eminence. Think about pantheism. Pantheism claims that God is in everything. So God's in me, He's in you, He's in this pulpit, He's in the trees outside. It's almost like God is one synonymous with what He has created. There are other religions that emphasize the eminence of God, like the Greek mythology in the Apostle Paul's day. or polytheism in Hinduism today. It stresses the eminence of God. In fact, the gods are so like us that they can become jealous and angry and petty like we do. Or they may possess some unique power or rule over a particular jurisdiction, but nowhere near like the vast sovereign power of the God of the Bible. But here's the thing about the God of the Bible. He is transcendent. He looks down on the heavens and the stars and the planets. He rules with absolute sovereignty and power. And He is also near and present, so near and present that He cares for the weakest and the most distraught among us. And both are true at the same time. Nothing too great for Him. and no one too small, who is like the Lord our God." And my friends, nowhere is this sense of God's transcendence and this sense of His eminence more clearly displayed than in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus. When the eternal Son of God took on flesh and He dwelt among us, the Apostle Paul says it this way in Philippians chapter 2 verses 6-8, though He was in the form of God, transcendent, the eternal Son of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. but emptied himself by taking the form of servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So the transcendent, the sovereign God, and the psalmist in 113, he could have never imagined this, right? I mean, He's delighting in the transcendence of God and that He's sovereign, He rules and He reigns. He's delighting in the eminence of God, that He would care for the poor and for the barren woman. But could He even conceive that the transcendent, eternal God who rules and reigns over all things would in fact take on flesh and become a man? And yet, this is what the God of the Bible does. He identifies with us in our weakness, so identifying with us in our weakness that He takes on flesh and He pays the penalty for our sin by His death on the cross. And now He offers the weakest and most distraught sinners among us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life through faith in Him. And how should we respond? The psalmist tells us, doesn't he? He tells us over and over and over and over again in Psalm 113, how should we respond? We should praise Him. In fact, it's the last words of this psalm. It's the words that begin this psalm and it's the word that ends this psalm. It's actually just one word. It's translated, praise the Lord, but it's the word hallelujah. We've talked about this before. It's the third person plural of the Hebrew word halal. It could be translated, all y'all praise the Lord. That's how we should respond. We should praise Him that He is transcendent yet imminent, that nothing is too great for Him. in no one too small, and He has ultimately proven that to us in His Son, the Lord Jesus. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank You and praise You for Your glory, that You are above and beyond all that You have created, that You rule and reign in sovereignty. And Lord, we thank you that you are imminent and near, that you are so very close to us and that you have come so very close to us in your Son, the Lord Jesus. Father, we pray that as a result, our lives, our hearts would be full of praise. Lord, I pray for anyone here this morning who has maybe thought of you in just general terms, generic terms, I pray that even this morning they would see the glory of who you are. And I pray, Father, that they would trust in the Lord Jesus and that they would know you for who you are and that they would rejoice in your salvation. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your promises. We thank you for who you are, and we give you praise. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.