The Soundtrack of Salvation
Download MP3Good morning. It's a joy to be with you all on this Palm Sunday. Our primary text today is gonna be Psalm 118, which is in your worship guides. But to begin our time together, looking at God's word, we are gonna read from Matthew chapter 21 verses 1 through 17. The Palm Sunday text of Jesus, his triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna be looking at that, to begin our time. So, hear these words from Matthew chapter 21, beginning with first 1. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent 2 disciples saying to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
Jeffrey Heine:Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them, and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
Jeffrey Heine:Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds went before him and they followed him shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this?
Jeffrey Heine:And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, our God, we give thanks that you have become our salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:We give thanks that your steadfast love endures forever. And we ask now that you would draw near to us by your spirit, and you would give us ears to hear, minds to understand, and hearts to both adore you and obey you. Today, may we grow in the knowledge of your perfect and steadfast love. So speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. A few weeks ago, I found a box in my basement that had 2 big cases of CDs. Sorry. CDs are kind of like little records. They don't sound as good as records, but they sound a 1000000 times better than your phone.
Jeffrey Heine:But I found all, like, the archives of my CD collection. These were and still are prized possessions. They traveled with me on road trips. Whenever it was, time to take a flight, you know, you'd have to curate a smaller number of CDs that you would be able to take with you. And as I flipped through these pages of CDs, I came across disc after disc that served as a soundtrack to a particular point in my life.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, soundtracks to the high school years, graduating, moving away from home for the first time. Soundtracks to when I started dating jess, my now wife. Every season had a soundtrack. And soundtracks are important. They root feeling and they color our experiences.
Jeffrey Heine:They can draw us back in our memories, and carry our emotions to a time long past. They can stir us up to feelings and memories long dormant and forgotten. And so the soundtracks to the different seasons of life, they they help keep us from forgetting to remember. The passover celebration has a soundtrack too. An ancient soundtrack made up of Psalms.
Jeffrey Heine:In particular, Psalm, 113 through 118, known as the Hallel Psalms. Their collection of praise songs that were regularly used by the people of God in their ancient liturgy. I'd like to focus our attention today on one of those Psalms. One of those songs that was a part of the soundtrack of the Passover, Psalm 118. It shows up in 3 distinct places during Jesus's celebration of the Passover, what we now call Holy Week.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the week leading up to Jesus's betrayal and his suffering on the cross. But before we look at how this song, Psalm 118, shows up in Holy Week, let's first consider the purpose of the Passover celebration, and the message of Psalm 118. So what is Passover? Passover was a week long annual celebration commemorating the liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt. You may recall the story of Moses confronting the pharaoh, and demanding that he let the people of God go free.
Jeffrey Heine:Passover is a week long celebration remembering Israel's Exodus. It includes singing, sacrifices, and storytelling. God commanded the people of Israel to observe Passover, And this command is recorded in Leviticus chapter 23 verse 5, which says, in the 1st month, on the 14th day of the month at twilight, this is the Lord's Passover. Part of the Passover celebration is a meal called the Seder. Seder is Hebrew for order.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's called the seder, because the order of this meal is very important. Every element, from the number of cups to the items on the plate, they tell the story of the Passover. It's a memorial meal. It's a time for remembering, and teaching the next generation about the works of the Lord. So there's a scripted order that is followed for teaching the story of the Exodus.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a most of it is a q and a kind of format, where one of the oldest in the family who's leading the Seder meal is asked questions by the youngest member of the family. It's part of that instruction and remembering. The story told at the Passover Seder is the account of God redeeming his people out of bondage. The food at the beginning of the meal, you taste bitter herbs that are reminders of the bitterness, and the harsh harsh oppression that Israel endured while in captivity. The cups of wine, 4 cups represent 4 promises from the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:To bring the people out of slavery. To free them. To redeem them. To take them as his people. The cup of sanctification, the cup of the plagues, the cup of redemption, and the cup of praise.
Jeffrey Heine:The centerpiece of the meal is a lamb. The lamb would have been taken to the temple to be seder meal, the lamb is a reminder to the people of the final plague that God brought in Egypt. The plague of the firstborn. Through Moses, God gave a warning that if Israel was not released, the destroyer would come through the land, and every firstborn, whether human or animal, would be struck down that night. Through Moses, God gave this warning to pharaoh, but God also gave his people a way to escape that judgment.
Jeffrey Heine:They were to take a lamb, perfect spotless lamb, sacrifice it to the Lord, and next they were to mark their door frame with the blood of the lamb. And then when the plague came through, this judgment of God would pass over the homes marked with the blood of the lamb. That is why the feast is called Passover, And that is the story told and retold every year. God redeemed his people out of slavery, and brought them out of captivity into freedom to obey him and worship him. And the Seder meal culminates at the end with the singing of Psalm 118.
Jeffrey Heine:So what does Psalm 118 say? Look with me in your worship guides and in your Bibles. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. Let Israel say his steadfast love endures forever.
Jeffrey Heine:Let the house of Aaron say his steadfast love endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord say his steadfast love endures forever. This first part of the Psalm, verses 1 through 4, it's a call, an invitation to praise the Lord. In particular, it's a call to praise God for his steadfast love. The Psalm begins with this refrain, repeating, his steadfast love endures forever.
Jeffrey Heine:It was a common refrain in the Psalms. And the repetition is part of why it's a Hallel praise song. In English, we translate the Hebrew word hesed as steadfast. Hesed used, in the context with God is not simply love in general or kindness, but a relationship, a covenantal relationship. Hasid is a relational, loyal love that can be depended upon.
Jeffrey Heine:It is unrelenting. It is steadfast, unshakable, unquestionable. The opening refrain of Psalm 118 is that Yahweh's love is steadfast. It goes on forever. And after this invitation and call to praise Yahweh, part 2 includes verses 5 through 18.
Jeffrey Heine:And in this part, the second part, we hear a report, an account of what God has done, and why he is worthy of this praise. The cause of praise can be summarized in verse 5. Look with me. Out of my out of my distress, I cried to Yahweh, the Lord. He answered me and set me free.
Jeffrey Heine:You can see why this was such a fitting psalm for the passover, and for the Seder meal. Because while in captivity and bondage in Egypt, the people of Israel cried out for deliverance, And the Lord answered them, and he set them free. The psalmist declares, the Lord is for me. I will not be afraid. Verses 89 reiterate the might of the Lord, and how he is their refuge.
Jeffrey Heine:Not mortals, not princes. God alone is truly trustworthy. He is trustworthy because he is faithful. As the psalmist began, his steadfast love will endure forever. Verses 10 through 13, continue this report of deliverance.
Jeffrey Heine:The nations surrounded me on every side. Enemies surrounded me like bees, but the Lord helped me. Look at verse 14. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:The sound of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted high. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The second part gives this report of God's redemptive work, the cause of the praise.
Jeffrey Heine:The second part closes out in verses 17 through 19. Here the worshipers say, I shall not die, but I shall live, and will proclaim the works of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Again, we hear the echo of the Exodus and the Passover. The Lord delivered his people, spared their lives, so that they might proclaim his wondrous works from generation to generation.
Jeffrey Heine:They suffered in Egypt, but they learned through their suffering to trust in the Lord. And he has not disappointed them. They cannot forget to remember this deliverance. It must be passed down. As Bilbo said to Frodo, someone else always has to carry the story.
Jeffrey Heine:So now it's Joel's Joel's move after that. The psalmist continues. Part 3 verses 19 through 29. The first section was a call to praise. The second section was recounting what God has done.
Jeffrey Heine:And this sir third section here moves focus to the future. Future hope, future praise of God. Look at verse 19. Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will enter through them.
Jeffrey Heine:I will give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous may enter. I will give thanks, for you answered me. And you have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
Jeffrey Heine:This is from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Here the worshipers, they're they're looking to the Messiah, the greater Exodus, the great deliverance to come.
Jeffrey Heine:They cry out verse 25. Oh, Lord, save us. Oh, Lord, grant us success. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord is God. Yahweh is God. And he has made his light shine upon us. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give you thanks.
Jeffrey Heine:My God, I will exalt you. The worshipers are looking forward to the future salvation to come, not simply from mortal enemies, but from sin and death. They look forward to an ultimate sacrifice that will give them an exodus, not from slavery to a foreign nation, but an exodus from the grave to life eternal. The Psalm ends with the same call to worship that it began with. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
Jeffrey Heine:His steadfast love endures forever. 1500 years after that first Passover meal, when God led the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. Jesus and his disciples traveled to Jerusalem for this memorial Passover celebration. And as I've said, part of that tradition of the week long celebration was the singing of Psalms. The Hallel Psalms.
Jeffrey Heine:Psalms 113 through 118. They would sing these songs as they traveled in their caravans to the city. They would sing them in the streets. They'd sing them in the temples. They would sing them during the feast.
Jeffrey Heine:And like any good soundtrack, the words of these Psalms were always in the background at Passover. So when Jesus goes to enter the city on a borrowed colt, Not only is he fulfilling the prophecy from Zechariah, as we read earlier from Matthew chapter 21, But Jesus is also enacting the picture given in Psalm 118 of the Messiah entering the city of Jerusalem. And that's why these people respond the way that they do. Taking branches of palm trees, and meeting Jesus in the road saying, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:Bear in mind, that many in the crowd are welcoming Jesus into the city. They they had seen him with their own eyes call Lazarus out of the tomb and raise him from the dead. Crowds of people were bearing witness to what they had seen, And that's why they welcomed Jesus into the city with such a royal and ecstatic manner. They sang out Psalm 118, and the people declared that this rabbi, this prophet from Galilee, was the King of Israel, the son of David, the long awaited messiah. This Jesus, he is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:So that's the first time we see Psalm 118 in the Passover, Jesus' entry into the city on Palm Sunday. For the next few days, Jesus taught in the streets and in the temple. And on Thursday, he instructed his disciples to prepare a place for them to gather and celebrate the seder meal. The purpose of the meal was to remember and instruct. And it was during the seder meal, in the upper room with his disciples, when they had gotten to the 3rd cup, the cup of redemption.
Jeffrey Heine:It was here that Jesus pivoted from the traditional script. And he declared that this cup, that symbolized the redemption of God's people, this cup was the cup of the new covenant in his blood. This new covenant, this covenant of redemption foretold by the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jesus is saying that the ultimate redemption is not this memory of Egypt. It is a redemption from sin and death, and that covenant redemption is made possible by his blood.
Jeffrey Heine:Then he took the unleavened bread, it's matzo, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he gave it to his disciples and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Not do this in the remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt. He said, do this in remembrance of me, remembering his body for them. Remember his blood that would be poured out for them.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus and his disciples closed the seder meal, just as every family gathered in the city of Jerusalem would have done that night, and as they had done for 100 of years, by singing Psalm 118. Jesus stood up with his disciples, and they sang together the ancient hymn of praise and promise. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God.
Jeffrey Heine:He has made his light shine upon us. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. When the hymn was over, after they had all just sung about binding the sacrifice, tying it to the altar, Jesus would go to the Garden of Gethsemane and pray, and wait to be arrested and bound. The lamb of God led to the slaughter, laying down his life, becoming our sin, becoming our cornerstone, becoming our salvation. This was not a mistake.
Jeffrey Heine:It was not a tragedy. It was not martyrdom. It was the will of the father to crush him. This is from the Lord, and it should be marvelous in our sight. This is how he saves us.
Jeffrey Heine:This is how he grants us success. This is how he makes his light shine upon us. It's through the cross of Christ. Jesus is greeted at the gate of the city with the words of Psalm 118. Before he departs to pray and await his arrest, Jesus sings the words of Psalm 118 with his friends.
Jeffrey Heine:But there's one other place that Psalm 118 comes up during holy week. During the middle of the week, Jesus is teaching a crowd of people. And he has this intense back and forth with some of the Pharisee leaders. And after this back and forth, Jesus laments over the city of Jerusalem, saying, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you are not willing.
Jeffrey Heine:See your house is left to you desolate, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jesus is telling the people that he will be greeted again with the words of Psalm 118. But it will not be like the first time. First, Christ came into Jerusalem as the lamb to take away the sin of the world through his submission to the father and suffering. But when he comes again with the fullness of his kingdom and all of the authority of heaven and earth, the people will once again cry out, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Psalm 118, the soundtrack of the Passover, will become the victory cry at the second coming of Christ. That means we need this song echoing on repeat in our hearts and our minds. We need the lyrics of verse 5. Out of my distress, I cried out to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free. We need the lyrics of verse 6.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord is for me. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? We need the lyrics of verse 14. The Lord is my strength and my song.
Jeffrey Heine:He has become my salvation. We need the refrain. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. Do you know this steadfast love?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you know and experience this love of God today? The late author, Brennan Manning wrote of this steadfast love in his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, and I wanna read a portion to you. He says, quote, the question of the gospel of grace puts to us simply this. Who shall separate you from the love of Christ? What are you afraid of?
Jeffrey Heine:Are you afraid that your weakness could separate you from the love of Christ? It can't. Are you afraid that your inact inadequacies could separate you from the love of Christ? They can't. Are you afraid that your inner poverty could separate you from the love of Christ?
Jeffrey Heine:It can't. A difficult marriage, or loneliness, anxiety over the future? They can't. What you think about yourself, it can't. Economic hardship, it can't.
Jeffrey Heine:Rejection by loved ones, it can't. The suffering of loved ones, it can't. Your mistakes, your fears, your uncertainties, they can't. The gospel of grace calls out nothing can ever separate you from the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord. You must be convinced of this.
Jeffrey Heine:Trust it, and never forget to remember. Everything else will pass away, but the love of Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Faith will become vision, hope will become possession. But the love of Jesus Christ that is stronger than death endures forever. And in the end, it is the only thing you can hang on to, end quote.
Jeffrey Heine:May we never forget to remember. May we never forget to remember the steadfast never ending love of God, And may this holy week be a time of remembering, a time when the lyrics of Psalm 118 work their way deeper into our hearts, and minds, and memories, because in the end, it is the one thing that you will hang on to. His steadfast love endures forever. Let's pray. Oh God, as we come to you in prayer, we ask that you would confront us with your greatness and graciousness.
Jeffrey Heine:You would comfort us, Challenge, transform us to be more and more like Christ our Lord. We pray your blessing over this time as we continue to worship you and turn our attention to your table. Be near to us Lord That we might love you and trust you and obey you with all our hearts. We pray these things in name of Christ. Amen.
