August 2, 2020
Upcoming Events and Notices
Please note the time change for livestream worship service. Please join us for livestream worship at 10 AM, August 2, 2020 here.
You can find the order of worship and songs here.
The July 26, 2020 sermon, Proverbs 1:20–33. "The Lady Wisdom" is available on our church website. You can also catch up on older sermons from our Sermon page and subscribe to sermon podcast here.
We hope to resume our midweek online studies in a few weeks. If you have not already done so, please visit this survey and indiate all days / times you can participate.
August 2 (11:15 AM Lord's Day): Please join us for online fellowship after the worship live-stream via Google Meet. You can also join by phone. Please contact pastor Ken for call-in information.
Thank you for your coninued support of Grace Fallbrook (PCA). Your loving support makes the proclamation of the gospel and the building up of the saints possible. Please continue to mail in your gifts and offerings to our church treasurer, Bruce Summers. In addition, our church website now features online giving. Please visit the church website and click on "Give" which you will find in the upper left corner of our church's website. When you click on "Give Online Now" button on that page, you will be directed to the PCA Foundation where you give towards Grace Fallbrook (PCA).
Before We Worship
Psalm 117 is only two verses. And its subject matter, the call to praise the LORD, is a common theme that runs throughout the 150 psalms, and therefore, a little prosaic, a little too common and ordinary. These two verses do not inspire any deep emotional response in us as we prepare to worship. But a part of meditating on Scripture means taking the time to mull over slowly what Scripture says, and it is a practice that often yields nourishment for those willing to savor their spiritual bread.
Indeed, there is nothing ordinary about this psalm. "Praise the LORD, all nations!" The divine appellation "LORD" translates God's Hebrew covenant name, YHWH (in English, Jehovah). It was the name by which God was known to his covenant people, Israel. No other people on earth knew God as YHWH/LORD but Israel. And, of course, no other people but Israel praised God who made covenant with Abraham. Once we understand this, we see how striking it is that the psalmist calls all nations to praise the LORD. This psalm expresses the desire for all nations, not just Israel, to know and worship YHWH who made covenant with Abraham, and know him as their covenant LORD.
But why should the nations praise the LORD? The psalmist answers, "For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever." God's "steadfast love" is the Hebrew word "chesed" which is also properly translated as covenant mercies. The psalmist therefore invites all peoples, Jews and Gentiles alike, to join in celebrating God's covenant mercies liberally poured out on all nations and peoples.
But how could this be? In their best moments the Jews merely tolerated their Gentile neighbors. More often than not they burned with contempt for them. They did not think the nations were worthy of God's covenant blessings. This psalm therefore demonstrates for us that God's will for the Jews was for them to be the channel and conduit of God's blessing to all nations, not a dam that stops the flow of God's mercies, only allowing a trickle of truth and mercy to occasionally flow to those they deemed worthy. Indeed, God opened the floodgates of his mercy through Jesus Christ, who unites in himself Jew and Gentile, who commanded his gospel be proclaimed and disciples be made of all nations. This psalm, though in an oblique, but nevertheless in a true way, leads us to Christ.
And it is on Christ's account that we, representing all nations, gather and worship our covenant LORD. And we worship with a longing for all nations and all people to know the LORD. May we not be a dam, withholding God's grace from flowing freely. Instead, may we be wide open channels of God's grace to many people. For our God is worthy of praise by all nations and peoples.