His Work, His Way, For His Glory: The Story of Nehemiah
Nehemiah 11-12
Sharing God’s Joy
Introduction
Good morning!
I want to invite you to open your bibles to the OT book of Nehemiah.
Why is it so important for the health of the church, the health of a Christian soul, to sing songs to God about how much we love Him? If we were to do this with any other being, then we would be in danger of idolatry, right? To praise another human being the way we praise God would cause all kinds problems – ego, pride, self-adulation, and so on.
So, does God need our praise? Is he needy for it?
The Problem of Praise? The Dilemma of C.S. Lewis
Early in his Christian life, C.S. Lewis struggled with the idea that God demands our praise and commands us to give Him glory. However, he soon realized that this “stumbling block” was due to his misconception of God and a misunderstanding of what praise really is. He writes in his book, Reflections on the Psalms:
The most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless …shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars.
I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.
The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.
The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.
For Lewis, and the Westminster assembly, the highest good human beings can achieve is to worship and enjoy God. In short, the command to worship isn’t so much for God’s sake as it is for ours.
This morning we are going to see how Nehemiah’s community returns to this primary calling Israel had been given: to worship God! But more so, to obey the Mosaic command of rejoicing in and being happy in God! Now, when most of us think of the Law of Moses, we don’t automatically think about rejoicing or happiness; many of us might wrongly assume that the Law of Moses was dour and joyless – a legalistic burden that no one could achieve on their own. While it does become this for the people, the heart of the Law of Moses as I tried to show you last week is about spiritual loyalty to God, and to love Him above all else. The way in which this gets expressed as we’ll see, is through doing exactly what CS Lewis talks about here: sharing in God’s joy by rejoicing in and giving thanks to Him.
So, if you are here this morning and perhaps you are wondering what is the point of it all…I hope to show you…
Let’s pray…
Review: The Completion of the Wall & Covenant Renewal Ceremony
For those of you just joining us this morning, we are in a series on the OT book of Nehemiah. To give you a quick overview…
The wall is complete, and the people of God are now renewing their commitment to Him and His invitation to them to be in fellowship with Him. Last week we saw in chapter 9 how, under the spiritual leadership of Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites and priests, the people publicly acknowledge the failure of their forefathers and recommit themselves to the obeying the whole law. I showed you this renewal ceremony they were doing was evidence that God is still committed to His “Big Plan” for them from Leviticus 26:11-13.
God’s “Big Plan” for His People:
To dwell among His beloved people in fellowship and love
Today, we will see the specific commitments the people make before God and how they planned to stay spiritually loyal to Him. We will then examine what spiritual loyalty looks like in our day in light of Christ.
Exposition of Nehemiah 11-12
Jerusalem is repopulated
Nehemiah 11:1-2
People began to move back into the city and to restore it. Amazing sacrifice! Next, we find that worship is being prepared as part of the Temple-service, which last week we find that they are going to commit themselves to, “not neglecting the house of our God.”
Ceremony to dedicate the Wall
Nehemiah 12:27-30
On this historic day the people gather together to sing praises to God, to give Him thanks, to rejoice in Him. In a few verses above (12:24), we are told that the service of the Levites is to be done in accordance with the command of David, the man of God, the prophet. What does this mean? To understand the significance of what’s taking place we need to dig into some of the biblical background.
David’s understanding of worship
There are three components to OT worship in accordance with David: place, presence, pleasure, or receiving life. In Deuteronomy 12, we get instructions about how they are to worship in the place which God chooses to put His name, that is, His presence by seeking first and foremost the place of His choosing:
God’s place
Deuteronomy 12:5-7
For David, being in the place of God meant that you could then access something of His presence of God, which, for David, meant to experience life as it was meant to be lived! It was the pinnacle of the human experience! Listen to Him:
God’s presence
Psalm 16:11
Psalm 63:1-4
So, David believed he had discovered that place where Deuteronomy 12 can take place and people can experience the saving presence of God, and receive life from Him like in Psalm 16 and 63. So in 1 Chronicles, we find that one of David’s first moves is to bring the Ark of the Covenant home to Jerusalem, which becomes the capital of the nation.
Listen to what happens:
God’s pleasure
1 Chronicles 15:8-13
The song goes on to praise God, and then it closes with this refrain:
1 Chronicles 15:35-36
In moving the Ark to Jerusalem and setting up the Levites to worship God, David believed that he was fulfilling the “Big Plan of God” in Leviticus: God dwelling there in the midst of His people.
Well, now, we see Nehemiah’s community doing exactly the same thing patterned after David: they have come out from exile, rebuild the temple, rebuild the walls, hear the Word of God afresh, repent of their sins and the sins of their forefathers, and recommit themselves once again to obedience – and now this whole restoration process is going to be sealed with worship – thanksgiving, and enjoying God’s presence again. Listen:
The joy of Jerusalem is heard from afar
Nehemiah 12:31-43
If you think about all they had been through, all they had suffered, all they had endured, and finally, for Nehemiah, to get the people to this point: it’s a beautiful picture of a moment in time when Jerusalem is once again all that God intended it to be. It’s a beautiful picture of obedience and worship.
Sadly, as we will see next week, the whole project falls apart, but before we get there, let’s just reflect on the rich theology of worship which the Law of Moses, and the ministry of David, and the obedience of the people under Ezra and Nehemiah gives us here.
Main Idea:
God’s people share in His joy as they gather in His place to experience His presence for the sake of His pleasure/glory
Application: How do Christians share in God’s joy today?
Well, the answer is quite simple: the place which God has appointed for His presence to dwell, wherein His people may join Him and receive joy in worshipping Him, is not a building; it is not brick and mortar; but it is a person, a person who reveals God Himself, and makes God Himself accessible to us. And this is none other than the Lord Jesus Himself.
John 1:1-5, 14, 16-18
And the like the pattern of worship we find in the OT, loving and worshipping God, experiencing His pleasure, now happens by loving and worshipping Jesus is what consummates our enjoyment of Him.
So, what might this look like in practice? In practicalities? Let me show you…
Philippians 4:4-7
Turn your anxiety into prayer! Rejoicing in God through Christ brings Him pleasure, relieves our anxiety and gives us peace.
Philippians 4:8-9
Turn your troubles into praise! Mediating on God/Christ’s attributes/character brings Him glory, relieves our distress and gives us Christ’s peace.
Questions for Small Groups:
- Does God need our praise/thanks? What does praise/thanks actually accomplish?
- Why did Nehemiah’s community follow David’s pattern of worship? (hint: see Deut. 12:5-7; Psalm 63:1-3; 1 Chron. 15:8-13; 35-36).
- Where is the “place” of God’s presence today for believers? (hint: see John 1:1-4). What is significant about this new reality for us vs. what Nehemiah had?
- How does Paul encourage us to share God’s joy today in Christ? (hint: see Phil. 4:4-8).
- What is keeping you from experiencing God’s peace/pleasure? How can you more intentionally incorporate praise/thanksgiving into your daily life?