Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A Sermon for Talitha Grace

I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven & earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper; He is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night;
The LORD will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in
 from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 121)

The inspired Word of God tells us that Psalm 121 is what the writer calls “a song of ascents”, which basically meant that this was one of the many psalms that the chosen people of God would sing during their pilgrimage towards Jerusalem for one of the three required festivals God required of them.

Not unlike our pilgrimage in this life, theirs too was fraught with apparent uncertainties, unseen dangers, acute anxieties and even the threat of death, as bandits and robbers and beasts lurked in the dark shadows of the night.

With all these daunting circumstances encompassing them on their pilgrimage, such songs of ascent were a God-inspired and God-given gift to His special people.  Such songs reminded God’s people that they were not to focus their eyes upon the all-too-present dangers and evils that are part and parcel of this fallen age.  No, God had called them to lift their eyes to the horizon, towards Mount Zion, the place chosen by God where He had promised to dwell in the midst of His chosen people, a place where the never-slumbering nor sleeping God of the universe would forever “keep” His people from every evil.

 Gazing upon the immensity of God’s dwelling place was a merciful means given to God’s people to silence their fears and vanquish their doubts as they pilgrimaged through the valley of the shadow of death.  As the only true and living God, the One who alone created the heavens and the earth, He was sovereign over every threatening circumstance that endangered the well being of His people.  Even more, as covenant God, Yahweh, He was intimately and imminently present to comfort and overshadow His people as a cloud protected the helpless infants from the scorching heat of the sun. They knew that the unchanging, undying sovereign and covenant keeping God had promised to never leave or forsake His people, that nothing, nothing, could ever separate them from His eternal and electing love.

This was their comfort in this life as they pilgrimaged not merely to the earthly Jerusalem, but ultimately to the heavenly Jerusalem, the eternal abode of the eternal triune God, a place of promised rest and safety and peace and security, a place where God Himself dwelled in the midst of His people as their Immanuel, and thus a place of eternal and unceasing joy and gladness and glory.

Some had to travel many miles and endure many trials to reach Mount Zion, the dwelling place of God.  In immeasurable mercy, some were born there.  Yet regardless of their lot in life, all those whom God had entered into covenant with would certainly arrive there.  Talitha’s pilgrimage was sovereignly shortened; she was one of those so privileged as to be born within the gates of the City of God.

In accordance with God’s revelation of Himself to us through His inspired Word, and even more, through His revelation of Himself to us in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, we as God’s people have great and unwavering confidence that Talitha Grace was included in the gracious electing purposes of God to save a great host of people to Himself, so that in the coming ages they might demonstrate the immensity of His grace in kindness towards them in Christ Jesus. 

For those who have tasted and seen that the LORD is good, we long to be amid the redeemed throng, alongside Talitha, where we all in glorious harmony will sing with unbridled joy the eternal Song of the Lamb, Who by His blood ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation – unborn children included.

Talitha is safe in the arms of Jesus. He has become her Refuge and Strong Tower.  He is the first One whom she was so gloriously privileged to gaze upon.  He is the One to whom we are reminded yet again to lift up our eyes by faith and gaze upon: the Son of God who lived, died, and was raised again, so that those who trust in His finished work of redemption might find solace and safety in Him, not only in this life, but ultimately as the Psalmist wrote, “from this time forth and forevermore.”

Dear listener, our prayer has been that through this glory-tinged tragedy, many would put their trust in, that is, would lift up their eyes in hope-filled and confident faith towards Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.  Those who die outside His grace die without hope.  Those who refuse lift up their eyes and trust in Him as Savior will likewise be refused when they lift up their eyes to gaze upon Him as Judge.

The LORD has mercifully kept Talitha Grace “from all evil.”  For those of us who have sinned against our holy and wrathful God, the only way we can be kept from all evil is to be found in Jesus Christ, the One who on the cross bore the wrath of God for us as sinners.  Oh, look to the One whom Talitha is now intently gazing upon! May He alone be the One from where your help comes.

In beautiful Name of Jesus Christ, and for His eternal glory, Amen.



Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fear relieved;
How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come;
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

And when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil, a life of joy and peace.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we’ve first begun.

No comments:

Post a Comment