September 6, 2020
Upcoming Events and Notices
Please join us for livestream worship at 10 AM, September 6, 2020 here.
You can find the order of worship and songs here.
The August 30, 2020 sermon, Proverbs 3:11–12. "Children of the Heavenly Father" is available on our church website. You can also catch up on older sermons from our Sermon page and subscribe to sermon podcast here.
August 30 (Lord's Day 11:15 AM): Please join us for online fellowship after the worship live-stream via Zoom.
September 16 (Wednesday 7 PM): We will begin a new online study series based on J.I. Packer's "Knowing God."
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
This week's call to worship brings us to Psalm 150. And with it, we have finally reached the end of the Psalter. Many weeks ago we began with Psalm 1, with the words, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." In many was, all the psalms that follow have put these words to the test.
Throughout the Psalms we have seen the wicked who have conformed to the world in progressively worsening ways, who "walks in the counsel of the wicked (accepts the world's advice)…stands in the way of sinners (being party to world's ways)…sits in the seat of scoffers (adopting the most fatal attitude of sinners, removing them far from repentance)". Yet, in so many ways, things seemed to go well with them. They are the powerful and the wealthy ones who oppress God's people throughout the Psalms. They enjoy the good things of life and live a long, trouble-free life. Even their death seems painless.
On the other hand, it was often so inexplicable why those who "delight in the law of the LORD", who were supposed to be fruitful and prosper, suffer so much. They cry out to God for help in their need. Sometimes God delivered them. At other times he would not. Sometimes we heard praises of thanks. At other times we saw the saints desperately holding on to hope, because hope (and that often weak and fading) was all they had. Thus the entire book of Psalms tests our hearts, and forces us to examine our notion of blessing. What, after all, does it mean to be blessed?
As we have wrestled with these important questions, the book of Psalms has gradually shaped our hearts. We now understand what it means to be blessed. It is not necessarily to live a trouble-free life. Rather, it means living in such a way that God's glory and goodness are displayed in our weakness. It means to be brought to the place where we praise the LORD with all sincerity, to acknowledge that he is truly good. Praising God is the fruit we bear. And true blessing is to rest and delight in God.
So we end with Psalm 150. "Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!" This psalm is all the more beautiful for following all the difficult and the inexplicable reality of suffering and tears. For they are not the naive words of someone who does not know the harsh realities of life. Rather, they are the words of one who has conquered in the LORD, who has tested and seen the goodness of his God. He sees, indeed, that while life made him often feel withered and barren, the LORD was with him always. And now the winter is past. The leaves are coming back. Flowers bloom with their beautiful fragrance. And his fruitfulness lasts for eternity. Praise the LORD!