PSALMS FOR CHRISTMAS: Christmas Celebration

Hi, I'm Shelby Abbott, and this is Psalms for Christmas Time, a podcast mini-series from Family Life with pastor and author Dane Ortland. Dane has written a book, In the Lord I Take Refuge, 150 Daily Devotions Through the Psalms. And all this month, with a gift of any amount, not only will your donation be matched, we'll send you a copy of the book to dive deeper into the Psalms and stir your affections for Jesus Christ.

To learn more about how to give, visit familylifetoday.com. Psalms 95, O come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. In this Christmas season, we know that we're quote-unquote supposed to celebrate. Some people start it the day after Thanksgiving.

Some people start it in early October. And whatever your opinion about that might be, we all know that the end of the year leads toward celebration. But the Psalms point us in some very specific directions to tell us to celebrate for a specific purpose. We're going to be talking today about Psalm 95 with author and pastor Dane Ortlund. Dane, how are we to celebrate as Christians as we're looking through the lens of the Psalms, specifically this Psalm 95? I love this Psalm. O come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

I'm a Presbyterian, so I've got to keep learning this. Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving, let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise, for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods, so that the text always gives us reasons, not just, hey you, go celebrate God. No, for, here's why, the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains are His also.

The sea is His, for He made it, His hands formed the dry land. Just one or two verses more here. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God and we are the people of His pastor and the shape of His hand. So, Shelby, let's you and I agree together and all those who are listening and we're going to celebrate our way forward this holiday season, no matter what. You know, the Psalms do not let us respond and say, well, I don't have really as many reasons at this season in my life to celebrate, so I'll pass, maybe next year. Psalm 34 is similar, it opens up, I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

And of course, that Psalm is written at a time when David is in profound adversity. So, we don't wait for our circumstances to get smooth, for the seas of life to get calm, before we will then begin celebrating. Now, let's be careful what we mean when we say celebrate.

We don't mean we're walking around smiling and joking and laughing all the time. The heart might be breaking and we are celebrating. We might be weeping, but actually we are rejoicing our way forward.

Why? For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods, Psalm 95 says. He is, not only is He a great God out there, but then verse 7, He is our God. That great God is mine and more wondrously, I belong to Him. He's my shepherd, I'm the sheep of His hand.

There I am in His hand, everything that gets me has to go through Him first. So, we are rejoicing our way forward, celebrating our way forward right now, and of course, Shelby, we're doing that here in this holiday season because of what Christmas represents, namely, God gave us a single glorious, matchless reason to celebrate our way forward when He came in the person of a little gurgling baby. Good news of great joy, the angel said in Luke chapter 2. Good news of great joy of celebration. So, let's not let the adversities of life weigh us down so much that we are not also at the same time and even more deeply celebrating our way forward. So, how can a person in this season who might be feeling deep pain, sorrow, sadness, push through and know that the Lord is with them and celebrate in that process?

What an absolutely urgent question. A couple of thoughts come to mind. Number one, get a Bible. Number two, get up tomorrow morning with your coffee and your favorite chair in an undistracted way and open it up and open your heart up accordingly. Number three, as you inhale the Bible, exhale prayer. Breathing involves both and communion with God involves both.

He speaks to us in the Scripture, we speak to Him in prayer. Number four, get a friend of the same gender and open your heart up and tell them where you're really at. That is profound and powerful strengthening for us in this time. Say, hey, I'm in this Christmas season and I do not feel that I can celebrate my way forward and here's why. And if you are someone and someone else is saying that to you, your response to them should not be advice. Your response should be, let's pray. You listen to it, you let them be heard and then you don't fix them. Even if you think it's blindingly obvious what advice you should give them, you pray.

You can actually exacerbate the loneliness if you try to tell them how to fix it. You say, let's pray. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed, James 5 16. Not confess your sins to one another and then counsel one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed.

So get a friend. Fifth and finally, we will not move forward in celebration in this time if we are not part of a basically healthy local congregation that preaches the gospel. That's a big part of it as well. So no secrets, Shelby, just the things that everyone already knows, being sure that we operate in that way. Christianity is not at all a solo thing and the more we remind ourselves of that, the better off we'll be. And I think it was actually your dad, Ray, who had said everybody needs someone in their life with whom they can be 100% transparent about how they're doing and that person not shy away from that.

They lean into it, say, I love you. You're accepted. You're full in Christ Jesus, but thank you for being honest.

Let's get on the solution side of this and move through it. We all need to be honest. Christmas sometimes can be so about the fake dressing of everything and things are really small in our lives, but Jesus is really big.

The fake dressing won't feel like it's one of those things we have to put on until in order to make Christmas a special celebratory season. Amen. Hey, that was a great conversation with Dane.

I really enjoyed that. If you want to go deeper, Dane has written a book called In the Lord I Take Refuge, 150 Daily Devotions Through the Psalms. All this month during the month of December with a donation of any amount that you give to Family Life, we will send you a copy of this book that Dane has written. To learn more about how to give, visit familylifetoday.com. This podcast has been a production of Family Life, a crew ministry, helping you pursue the relationships that matter most.