All God’s Benefits To Me | Psalm 116

Scripture

• Psalms 116

About this sermon

Introduction: The personal and the public. These are the two aspects of the life of a worshiper of God. They are often contrasted but we need to understand how they relate to each other. There is always that part of my walk with God that I experience privately, personally, internally. There will always be a part of my walk with God that exists between God and me — that exists outside the sight and knowledge of others. No one is a genuine believer who has no private devotion to God. But in the life of any genuine believer there will also be that part of our walk with God that we experience in the community of God’s people. There will always be an aspect of our walk with God that requires others, shares with others, invests in others, and receives from others. Every genuine believer demonstrates private devotion in the congregation and in the world. This is something we must be clear on. How does Scripture relate the personal to the public? If both are genuine, how do they relate to each other? How do they reflect each other? How are they served by each other? Public worship, if it is genuine, simply reflects what is true in my inner man. If my worship to God is genuine, it is first a matter of private devotion before it is a matter of public expression. If it is genuine it is coming from my heart. But private devotion must never be divorced from public obedience. To claim a private to devotion to God that finds no public expression that accords with Scripture, is a lie. It is a lie because that private devotion would require ears to hear what God says about public worship and He has much to say about public worship. In fact, when we see these two aspects of worship correctly, we will see that there is a mutual dependency that exists between our private devotion and our public devotion. God has ordained public worship to be a means by which our private worship is maintained and enriched. Public worship does not just express personal worship, it is instrumental to it. What goes on in my heart every day is informed by, fueled by, revived by, sustained by, corrected by, guided by, what takes place in the midst of the congregation. God has ordained private worship to be the spring source from which our public worship flows. And in addition to being the spring source, private worship often represents the means by which edification exists in the public realm. My personal story in Christ Jesus, may well be the means that God uses in the public realm to express His glory and to encourage other worshippers. Baptism, for example, is a personal story that edifies publicly. The Lord’s table is a public celebration of what has been known by each of us personally. That is what we have in Psalm 116. We have a personal story that forever serves in the public worship of God’s people. We have a personal story that REQUIRED public expression. The circumstances that explain Psalm 116 are left unknown to us. We do not know who penned this. We do not know the precise time period to which it belongs. What we do know is that what this man PERSONALLY experienced has something to say about our SHARED experience. Derek Kidner – “There is an infectious delight and touching gratitude about this psalm, the personal tribute of a man whose prayer has found an overwhelming answer. He has come now to the temple to tell the whole assembly what has happened, and to offer God what he had vowed to him in his extremity. Such psalms as this, once written down, would help many another person to find words for his own public thanksgiving.” This Psalm has been variously divided by commentators, but we will look at it tonight in three parts.

Topics

• Bible Study