DUNCAN/There’s no one like him
As we continue our way through the fifth book of the Psalms, I’d invite you to turn with me to Psalm 113. We’ve said many times that the psalms never ask us to worship God without telling us why we ought to. The reason is, the only kind of worship that God wants is worship that we truly want to give, and we won’t truly want to give that worship unless there’s a reason to, and that reason resides in God Himself. Therefore, we need to understand the reasons that impel us to worship, otherwise we will go through the motions. Ever gone through the motions in a worship service before? Ever gone through the motions when you were singing a hymn before? Ever zoned out in the ministry of the Word before, whether it was being read or proclaimed? It’s a danger that all of us face, and the psalms provide us reasons why we ought to worship God so that we combat that kind of externalism and formalism and simply going through the motions in our worship. As we go through this psalm, I want us to see three things. First, how this psalm exhorts us to worship. Second, how this psalm puts our worship in its proper context, and lastly, how this psalm gives us a striking set of reasons for worship.
The Importance of Worship
Let’s start off looking at this psalms exhortation to worship, and you see it in both the first and last verse. “Praise the LORD” is how the song begins, “Praise the LORD” is how the song ends. There’s this exhortation from the leader to us to give worship to God, to praise the Lord. What we have here is an exhortation to declare God’s work, an exhortation to praise the Lord, an exhortation to give the Lord the glory due His name, an exhortation to ascribe to the Lord glory, to declare the worth of the Lord. Worship is about saying this person, this thing, this experience, this whatever is what matters most to me. It’s the thing of highest value in my life. That thing might be a relationship, a dream, a position, a status, something you own, a name, a job, some kind of pleasure — whatever name you put on it, that thing is what you have concluded in your heart is worth most to you, and whatever is worth most to you is what you worship. As a result, worship fuels our actions and becomes the driving force of all that we do. And we’re not just talking about the religious crowd. We’re talking about everybody on planet Earth. A multitude of souls proclaiming with every breath what is worthy of their affection, their attention, their allegiance, proclaiming with every step what it is that they worship. If we value God more than anything, it changes every relationship which we sustain on earth. We live, literally, for God’s glory. That’s what the new birth does, is it moves a person from worshiping herself or himself to worshiping God and everything in life flows from that.
The Context of Worship
Second, this psalm shows us the unseen but very real context of worship. Look at verses 2 to 4. The praise of the Lord is unending in space and time. Think of that. There is an echo or a parallel in verse 3 of Malachi’s vision of worldwide heartfelt worship to which the prophet found a painful contrast in the attitude of his contemporaries. Malachi looked around and he didn’t see very many people in his own land who were really worshipping God, but he dreamt of a day when God would be worshiped from this time forth and forevermore and from the rising to the setting of the sun.
One of the beautiful things about the Gospel and the Great Commission and the Day of Pentecost is we are having now more than just a foretaste of that great worldwide and unending worship of the living God, which should encourage us no matter how small our gathering may be. Though you may feel outnumbered in your culture, in the end, there will be a multitude that no one can number from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation and they are going to worship Him unendingly. It’s very important for us to remember that. No matter how few of us remain faithful to the Word of God, we are just a drop in the bucket of a multitude that no man can number that will sing God’s praises forever. Do not feel yourself outnumbered when you are worshiping God, no matter how few of you there are.
The Reason Why We Worship God
Lastly, look at verses 5 to 9. In this passage God is declared to be unlike anything. Listen to what the psalmist says, “Who is like the LORD our God?” He starts off by saying, “There’s no one like our God. He has to stoop; He has to stoop down just to see the earth and the heavens above. That’s how great and high He is.” So, there’s the first reason why we ought to praise God. He’s bigger than the earth; He’s bigger than the universe. The psalmist stands there staggered, and he says, “Could you please just show me something that’s like Him? Any of you, show me something that’s like Him. There’s no one like Him! This God who has to stoop to see the heavens and the earth but cares about a barren woman and a poor man oppressed by princes and exalts them? Who’s like Him?”
It is this truth that makes Christ’s incarnation so marvelous. Two things constantly weigh with me as I reflect upon Jesus Christ and the first is this. I do not believe that anyone could have created Christ. I am told by many scholars today that Jesus is the creation of the gospel writers. I find this utterly incredible. The man who criticizes the apostles, His own culture, who teaches the most splendid parables, who preached the Sermon on the Mount, who prayed the prayer of John 17, which one of them created Him? Which one of the gospel writers had the literary genius to create Him? They were unlearned men; they were unlettered men. Which one of them created Jesus? He is unsurpassable. He is great in the glory of His person as the God-Man. He is great in His teaching, great in His work, great in His promises. Where would I improve Him? Where would I alter Him? Where is His equal? Where is His superior? If I couldn’t worship Jesus Christ, I would worship the man who created Him. There’s no one like Him. I’ve never met the like of Him. And that, my friends, fuels worship. When you think of God like that, when you think of Jesus like that, it fuels worship. You want to tell the world about Him, and you want to tell Him about Him.
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III is Chancellor & CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson.