Psalms: Songs of Ascent

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Bless our all who feared the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor. Blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

Yes. This will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life? May you live to see your children's children peace be on Israel. Thanks, Sophie.

I'm not used to this thing. Normally, I'm the guy doing the sound desk, but not the guy putting this on. So give me a second. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word.

And I pray that you would use this simple heart cleansed by the blood of Jesus to reveal your word, Lord, that you would reveal it through me and that you'd help you to be glorified above Amen. So, as Dean said, my name is Richard, a little bit about me, because I don't tend to come to the evening service so for those who are evening service only people, it tends to be my wife who comes, and I serve her by putting the kids to bed. She gets a bit of sanity for a couple of hours and she gets to be blessed by the word here. Day to day, I work in digital marketing, and part of that is actually working with Google. And I love Google.

Right? Obviously, I love my kids and my wife more, but I do love Google. So when starting this sermon, I thought the best thing to do would be to Google types of fear, because as you can see in verse 1, it says, blessed are all who fear the Lord. So, when googling types of fear, there are a very large number, apparently 2400000000.0 results. On the first page alone, I had, what are the 3 types of fear?

What are the 4 types of fear? What are the 20 types of phobia? What are the 5 core fears, the 7 primal fears, the 3 innate fears, and the 5 fears that we all share. And to save you the job of going through all of that stuff yourself, I've whittled it down to the types of fear, which I found most useful. The first 1 I've called the thrill Secrets This is the kind of fear that people actively go and seek, whether that's on a roller coaster ride or a scary film, it's basically a huge endorphin and dopamine hit as your body is trying to figure out whether what it can see on the screen is real or fake.

And, it's the same kind of hit or drugs you get when actually you take cocaine. So that's I think the reason why most people do it. The second fear I have is upcoming anxiety. And where if additional fear is more immediate and how we can react to what's in front of us, upcoming anxiety is more future and looking ahead to what we see on the horizon, whether that's a job interview or a meeting with the manager, preparing a sermon, proposing, an awkward chat with a friend Your hands get sweaty and clammy. You can feel your heart beating.

Your concentration levels drop through the roof. You tremble, you shake, your mouth goes dry, you can't sleep. And either your mind goes blank or it won't stop racing, You feel nervous, afraid, overwhelmed, or just a huge sense of dread. And the final fear I have is the imminent threat. That's whether it's irrational or irrational, but that's something directly in front of you that you can see.

I, myself, have arachnophobia. I know this is irrational, I can't explain why, but when I see 1 of those things in front of me, I have 2 courses of action, either I shout for my wife to deal with it. Or I find the hoover, I close my eyes and point in the general direction. That's irrational, and I am sure that there are many completely rational fears as well, whether that's walking down on street or a dark alleyway, living in fear with an abuser, someone in front of you wanting a fight, something imminent, immediate, and real. Now, there is a point to this, and as I said, in verse 1, it points to the fact that blessed are all those who fear the Lord.

Now before I go any further, it would be good to clarify what kind of fear that is based off what we've just discussed. Is God, for example, a hormone pinata based off the first the first type of fear. Does the idea of future judgment cause you anxiety, or is the fact that there is a constant higher power in charge of everything make us live in a in a state of worry? So to start, we're going to look at a few verses to hopefully help us understand what it means when we read fear the lord. I haven't put them on the board, but I'm going to read out the passages and if you want You can note them down and look at them in your own time.

The first 1 I've got here is Proverbs 1, chapter 7. The fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge, but falls despite wisdom and instruction. The fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge. Solomon, who wrote the proverbs, knows what he's talking about when it comes to knowledge and wisdom. And he he says the foundation is God.

Now the word beginning doesn't necessarily mean that without God, you are brainless. We know that there are some very, very clever people out there who don't follow Christ. But beginning could also be translated as the first As in knowledge is out of place, if God isn't placed first. It's saying that to have knowledge of the Lord, You seek him first, and that is when you fear him. So if you fear the Lord, you place him first, and with that becomes godly, sorry, comes godly knowledge and wisdom.

Secondly, Proverbs 19 23. The fear of the Lord leads to life and whoever rests is satisfied. Sorry, whoever has rest, whoever arrests satisfied, he will not be visited by harm. The fear of the Lord leads to life. And once more, those who fear it will have rest.

Now, that doesn't mean that God is like a bed dream is a dreams advert where you're going to have the perfect night's sleep or premier in where nothing is everything's premium except the price. It isn't saying if you have trouble at night with your sleep, that God is going to help you with But what it is saying is when you fear the lord, he allows you to have life and rest in him safe in the knowledge that you will not be visited by harm. Or rather, his grasp on us is so tight that nothing can separate you from him. We can rest in God even in our most vulnerable moments, and it's the same satisfaction you see on a child when they feel safe for their parents. So to have real life, we must fear the lord.

And finally, Psalm 33 verse 8, Let all the earth fear the Lord, and all the people revere him. The verse is echoing itself. And we can see that fear and reverence go hand in hand. The type of fear in this passage is honor, respect. Adoration, admiration, exaltation, to worship.

It's the same kind of fear that a created should have for the creator, or what a children, or what a child should have for their parents. Take my children. I mean, I hope they love me. I'm their provider, their protector, their teacher, and there when they hurt themselves, when they need comforting, when they want praise. When they want to tell me something exciting.

And in spite of all that, they also need to respect my authority over them. And there to discipline them when they do wrong, to direct them when they go astray. God is our provider. Our protector, our teacher. He also, on an infinitely larger scale than our earthly fathers, has authority over And as our authority, how much more should we honor him than our parents?

To fear God is to be aware of where he sits in your life and adore him for that. So let's remember the context. To fear the lord, we place him first, we turn to him for rest, and we revere him as our creator. Now, we don't know we don't know who does and doesn't revere the Lord. And all we can look at is outworking.

And likewise for ourselves, we sometimes might not get that doubt in the back of our heads, that niggling thought. But how do you know you're a Christian? Let's look back at verse 1 of this passage. Bless are those who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience with And I'm not sure if you noticed, but this reads very similarly to a beatitude. A piece of wisdom that God wants to give you.

And we could put it in context of other beatitudes and see if you can see how it just fits in. Bless are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Less of those who mourn for they will be comforted, less of the meek for they will inherit the earth. Less of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, they will walk in obedience to him.

It slots in as an important piece of information and wisdom for us to remember. If you fear the Lord, you will walk in obedience with him. Or to put it another way, the inward element, the inward element of a Godly life is to fear the Lord. And the external element, the part that everyone can see, is living in obedience with him in your actions. The inward and the outward go hand in hand.

And although it seems pretty obvious, it does help us to state it the other way around. If you don't fear the lord, you will live a life away from him. If you don't fear the Lord, your fear will be based instead on this world. If you don't fear the Lord, your steps will not follow his. When you sin, do you shrug your shoulders and tell yourself that you do better next time?

Or do you go to your father in heaven? Face bow down in reverence and despair at your wretchedness. When you prioritize things of this world over God, do you tell yourself it's okay? I'll do better next week. If you really want to know if you fear the lord, you need to spend some time assessing whether you walk in obedience with him.

And only you can answer that. You can have all the appearances of someone who fears the Lord, serving, teaching Sunday school, going to home group, prayer meeting, going to church twice on a Sunday, Going to the women's bible study or reliable men. But where is your heart? It's like COVID lockdown. Millions of workers sent home.

I mean, if you know me, I work in the cupboard, so it wasn't particularly fantastic for me. It was pretty hot because it was 1 of the hottest summers I can possibly remember. I think I had more barbecues in our back garden in the previous 5 years that we'd live there before that. But when it came to work, The temptations were there. Just a reply to the essential emails or speak up at the important meetings.

You know, just a skive off for the last hour of the day. Is that you at church? Do you make all the visual affirmations of someone who fears the Lord? Or do you know in your heart that you were here to learn about him? Spent time with his people and serve him and the church.

Also noticed that here in this passage, fear isn't just an emotional outpouring. It isn't just a feeling. It's not going somewhere to be knocked off our feet. But there's also that practical element to walk with him. If we truly revere your God and fear him, we will submit to his authority And as a result, we walk obediently with him.

And when we walk obediently with him, we are blessed. So how does God bless those who fear him? Let's look at verse 2 and 3. You will eat the fruit of your labor. Blessons and prosperity will be yours.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Now, before I go any further, I just want to clarify what these verses aren't. There are so many sermons, bible studies, pod past YouTube videos, which you can find online, which state that verse 2 and 3 say that if you're a Christian, your life will be blessed financially, relationally, will be no problems with it, that if you fear God, you can expect wealth, prosperity, happiness, and tranquility. Just a categorically state, if you have financial difficulties or receive no recognition for your work, it does not mean that you don't fear God.

If you have a family and when you come home after work, it's like a bombs hit. The kids are screaming. The carpet isn't the same color you left it. If your family isn't like the Walton for those who are old enough to remember that, it does not mean that you do not fear the lord. When I finish work, I'm welcomed by an understandably frazzled and exhausted wife, who grunts points to the kids and says those 3 magic words.

Your turn now. The kids have turned the living room into a mess. There's a scene from a horror film. I'm ignored by whatever's on the TV. And the first words that the kids run are either daddy.

Daddy, he hit me, or get out the way. Bed times a minefield. The arguments between what books to read are legendary that the neighbors know pretty much our entire library. Even the arguments over what pajamas to wear are pretty epic, You know, I've given up with Kenzie our youngest, I just put her in the same pajamas for a week straight, because that's the only 1 she ever wants. Sometimes, she wears it for 2 weeks if I can't be bothered to get around to the washing.

I tend to do bedtimes most nights to give my wife a rest She comes up for the last 10 minutes. But honestly, it feels like that she is texting, what's happening, YouTube, and face timing, everyone that she can possibly imagine to take as long rest as she can before she walks up those stairs. She's probably gone round and watered our flowers and everyone else is on the streets as well, just to take the extra 5 minutes. And now for the kids who are asleep, we collapse on the sofa, make the motion towards the TV because that's how we have the energy left for. Our life does not represent what this passenger is saying.

Then there's a reason for that. Genesis 3 verse 17. To Adam, he said, because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat from it, cursed is the ground, because of you. Through painful toil, you will eat the fruit, eat from it all the days of your life. William, we live under the curse of sin.

Everything we do is tainted. It's like Plato. It drives us crazy when the colors are mixed together. Those kids, for some reason, just like putting the red and the blue in 1 pot. My wife would spend hours if she could, trying to pick out the different colors.

It's futile. They are too mixed and too entwined with each other. You just can't separate them. SYn has cursed the ground and our work. And we cannot separate sin from our work.

We cannot work the way God has intended because sin is just too mixed up in it. Likewise, there are similar reasons to why our families don't feel like their family in verse 3. Genesis 3 16. You desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. As a result of sin, there is an immediate tension between husband and wife.

Let alone all the passages in proverbs that talk about directing us to discipline our children because no matter how old they are, we are all sinful. Just because you don't have the perfect family life with the white picket fence, trophies on the wall or whatever, doesn't mean that you don't fear God. If your marriage isn't perfect or you're having real difficulties, It doesn't mean that you don't fear God. If your children aren't angelic, it doesn't mean that you don't fear God. This sum does not guarantee health, it doesn't guarantee wealth, it doesn't guarantee success.

The God they are not immune from financial difficulties, marriage troubles, rebellious children, The blessings of God do not cancel out the realities of a fallen world. But instead, the blessings of God help us overcome the realities of a fallen world. Understanding that our lives won't be perfect comes with understanding how God does does bless us. And everything in society tells us to be blessed. We need belongings, worldly wealth, financially and materially well off.

And because we're a part of this world, we tend to fall for that lie. But God can bless us in so many ways that I can't actually be painful. They aren't always evident, but they are always for hour and others good. In Romans 5, verses 3 or 4, we read, not only but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character and character hope. God can bless us through suffering.

Because not only does it help us to grow, but it can also cause us can also help us with others who are going through a similar trial to be a blessing to them also. In fact, I read most of Matthew 5 that I touched on earlier, where Jesus tells us that the poor in spirit, the meek, the hungry. And others are all blessed because essentially in their trials, they trust in the lord. But we need to know that God does bless, those who fear him. Just not in the way that we as sinners expect.

Sometimes he blesses by building us up. Other times he blesses us by breaking us down. Sometimes he blesses us by allowing us to be in poverty. Sometimes he blesses us financially. So The ultimate reward here is an understanding that when we are blessed, it is nothing that we have done, but entirely God pouring out His love on us.

When we understand that being successful in our job and marriage and in our children is not down to us, but the blessings of God it's liberating. Let's look at verse 2 again. You'll eat the fruit of your labor. Blessings and prosperity will be yours. If we fear God, 1 of the outcomes will be hard work.

That's his plan for us. That's how life works best. The implications aren't only that God blesses those who work hard, but that he doesn't bless laziness. God's plan doesn't involve our self gratifying and imposing our needs and our wants on others. In Ephesians 6, it's a slave to obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and within sincerity of heart.

Just as you would obey Christ. Abay them not only to win their faith, though, when their eye is on you, but the slaves of Christ doing the will of God from your heart, serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not people. Because you know that the Lord will reward each 1 for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. God's plan for us is to work hard. And it's important for us to remember that work itself isn't cursed.

God tossed Adam and Eve to work the garden. Work is a beautiful gift from God, and God doesn't make mistakes. It's just that our sin has cursed everything that we do. When we work hard, it's not just for our managers, our CEOs, it's for him. You can work hard and receive little recognition or rewards.

And God's God's blessing there might be to humble you or give you opportunity to witness about him. But when we do receive reward, it's important to acknowledge that the blessings, as I've said, are not down to us, but God. Understanding this frees us from self idolization and instead can turn us to praise. And of course, we need to acknowledge that not everyone has a job. There are those who are unable to get 1 or can't get 1.

We are in strange economic times. Redundancies have become more and more frequent. Electricity cost rising, are causing businesses to shut down left, right, and center. And that's not even touching the iceberg with the many unemployment difficulties in this country. But work isn't just your vacation.

But every part of your life, how do you spend your days? How do you serve the church? Everything we do, we should do it to our best knowing that we are serving the lord. So don't sit back on your laurels. See the time that you are given as a gift.

Work hard. That's got to plan. First 3 goes on to say, your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Again, we need to reiterate this is how family works best, but not always how it actually works in real life.

Even if you do fear the lord, your family life isn't guaranteed to be perfect. They can be real pain and difficulty in marriage. And when we are obviously blessed, it is vital to remember that that blessing is from him again. When pain are hurt or more evident, draw close to him and allow him and the church to comfort you. Also, God promises fruitfulness.

And while this could mean children, we know that not everyone is blessed this way. And not everybody wants children, but you can still be a blessing to others as the church is 1 family. Fruitfulness could also mean productivity. Psalm 31 talks about the woman who fears the Lord, In fact, it specifically talks about the women who fear the Lord and how they deserve praise. And if we read Psalm 128, It seems that being able to act in this way is in itself a blessing.

Now women, Psalm 31 is 1 of the scariest chapters that I've read. And I'm not even a woman. And if you find yourself unable to tick against them, you have to remember again that we're in this fallen world. Don't measure yourself up against others instead walk the path that you've been given and that God has directed you on. We also read that children are like olive shoes.

And the image here is 1 of love and nurture, olives of very slow growing trees. They need frequent watering. Especially in the summer if they don't, they will dry and shrivel out. But when they do grow, they grow to be what was considered a luxurious fruit. Likewise, as children, they take a long time to nurture and require attention and love.

But if they bloom, having been brought up in the fear and the knowledge of the lord. They will be a blessing to you and to others. The other thing about olives and grapes from the vines mentioned in verse 2 is that they are luxuries. They're the nice to haves. We don't need them.

Likewise, if you are not married or not seeking to be married, or don't have children or seeking to have children. God doesn't mandate that you need these things to be blessed. The church is a family. We're all mothers, brothers, fathers, and sisters. And 1 of the great joys I have at this church, As a father myself is knowing that if someone sees my children stepping out of line, as they pretty much always do, I feel more than comfortable that they will speak up to them and tell them off.

It instills a sense of family being greater than the traditional nuclear view that we have. And if they grow up to be, valued members of society and Christians and fear the Lord, that won't be solely down to me and my wife, but down to God and the input from the church. As we move to verse 4, we can see that God reiterates this blessing and how we receive it. Yes. This will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.

Whilst it's important to repeat the verses, I think there's a little bit more to this. But we'll jump back to it and move to verses 5 and 6 for now. Verse 5, may the lord bless you from Zion and May you see the price prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you live to see your children's children peace beyond Israel? We need to remember that these songs were likely sung on the way back to Jerusalem.

And as a result, they're likely they're talking about the prosperity of their we can take that to be the prosperity of our home, the church, local and global. God wants to bless the church for those who fear him. And again, those blessings can be found in many ways. In Cornerstone, we've been blessed richly over the years with biblical teaching, this building, with overflowing children's work, with abundant growth, financially, spiritually, But we've had trials, the most obvious and recent being COVID. In all that we've read, you need to frame it with the context that God blesses those that he that fear him.

He wants to bless us in every aspect of our life. But there is more to it, which is alluded to in verse 4. Yes. This will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord. The first word in the first word introducing this verse is yes.

And if you look at the original if you look at it before it's being translated, pretty much everywhere else in the Bible, they use the word behold, instead. Behold, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord. The man, It doesn't use the word all, like in verse 1, but instead uses the singular. It points to a particular person who fears the lord. We could expect this to be a king that the Thomas is writing about.

But it's likely that depending on when these songs are written, that there was no king ruling over them at this time. Therefore, it must mean someone else. We know that Jesus was the 1 who fulfilled the law, but does that mean feared the Lord. With our definition earlier, where fear was the beginning of wisdom, we can turn to Luke chapter 2, where it says, and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Jesus grew in godly wisdom, and to have wisdom in the first place, we know that he must have feared the Lord.

On top of that, with fear being reverence, there are multiple occasions throughout Jesus' life where he shows utter obedience and submission to his father. The most obvious being in the final hours were here in his tearful submission to his father, starting in the garden of gethsemane and ending up the cross. Jesus is the blessed 1 who fears the Lord. And this is great news for us too, because it turns this passage from being just about now and our current blessings to heaven and the blessings to come, and we have inherited that blessing with him. Back in verse 3, where it mentioned the vine, the bible also has other uses of vine.

As I chapter 5 verse 7, The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delights in. The people of the lord are the vineyard. If you fear God in this world, you are the vineyard, And therefore, as part of the church, we are all the bride from verse 3. The blessings that Lord, that the Lord pulls out a man who fears the Lord, Jesus are due to us too. With this view that there is so much more that God will lavish on us.

It's more evident when you look at the new Jerusalem. Verse 5 points to Jerusalem and in Revelation 21, it says, and I saw a holy city new Jerusalem coming down from heaven from God. Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Now there'll be some who tell you that these verses are a description of where We will live in heaven. But they're much more closely aligned with about where God will live with us.

As in we are the new Jerusalem. And if this is the case, we can use Psalm 28 not to look at our blessings now. But our blessings to come. And it leads to the following conclusion. We are the bride, verse 3.

And as a result, we share in his inheritance. We are also described as the as the New Jerusalem. Then God will pour out his blessings on that city. Verse 5. And these blessings will be so much more glorious than any blessing that we have now.

So what does this mean for us? Stick with it. Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord, and he will pour blessings on you. Revere him.

Honor him, exhorts him, praise him. You will be blessed in this world with spiritual blessings. They may hurt but they will build you up and they will be for your good. You may not always like it, but God knows what's best for you. When you are blessed to remember that it is him who is pouring out those blessings.

And in all of your pains and troubles and trials, Remember that you are the bride. And through Jesus, the blessings in heaven will be much greater than you have now. Ignore the call of this world, ignore the temptations to think that spirit material and wealth are the real blessings. But understand that Jesus is the real blessing. Keep your eye on Him.

And keep him first in your thoughts. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word and thank you that you are a God that is worthy of reverence. That you are a God that is worthy of exaltation that you promised to pour out blessings on us, Lord, that your blessings are much greater than we can imagine, and that your plan for us is better than anything we could afford. We pray that as we go away, Lord, that your fear of us will be something instilled in our hearts are not something that is fleeting.

That your eternal blessings that are poured out in us in heaven would be something that we seek, and that we would know it is not down to us, but down to Jesus. That you'd keep our eye on him and help us to remember what he has done for us, amen.