Monthly Archives: April 2016

Singing with the King (74) – Praise Enough?

Dancing in the Sun1Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever.  Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise Him enough? (Ps 106:1-2)

I’ve probably said this somewhere in this blog, but every time you see the phrase “Praise the LORD!”, it’s literally the English translation of the word Hallelujah! That’s not only a great way to begin the Psalm, it’s a great way to begin your day, because it puts your day into the proper context. The Lord is your focus, the Lord is your purpose, and your thoughts, words, deeds, and emotions are permeated with praise.

Since the Lord is our focus, and our purpose, we discover that the object of this praise and thanks (at least in this Psalm) is: He is good. And His faithful love endure forever. That’s something worth hanging onto, especially when surrounded by the uncertainties, sorrows, and pain that life brings. We need to remember “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30:5) And “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

When you ponder that verse from Lamentations, about a love that never ends, about mercies never cease, you then realize what the psalmist was writing in verse two: Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise him enough? Those are what you call rhetorical questions, because we can never list His glorious miracles, nor will we ever praise him enough.

There’s an old hymn called The Love of God, the final verse goes like this:

Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky
.

And notice that that’s just writing about the love of God. What about His other attributes? Such as His goodness, and His faithfulness. The end of the Gospel of John says something quantitatively similar:

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that His testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:24-25)

May you begin your day with His praise. Because His love endures forever, you may discover that His praise may occupy your day.

 

Singing with the King (73) – In Praise of Judgment

Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice! Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise! Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy! Let the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he is coming! He is coming to judge the earth. (Psalm 96:11-13)

Judges gavel with  old paperThis psalm begins on a grandiose scale: Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Nothing less than “the whole earth” is to sing to the LORD. The verses continue to crescendo until, in these final few verses, all of creation joins in the song. The heavens are glad; the earth rejoices; the sea and all its creatures shout His praise; the fields and crops burst with joy; and the trees sing.

That is a pretty remarkable chorus.

But why are they glad, and why are they rejoicing? Why are they praising and singing? Because He is coming to judge. What? All of creation is getting stirred up, tuned up, and geared up because God is going to judge the earth? Frankly, I don’t see a reason for such a production. Doing all that for His love, or His grace, or His mercy—that I can see, and I would even join in. But judgment?

Now I’ve got to admit that my view of judges and judgment is a bit skewed. Because I look at such things in our country and I see little reason to rejoice. In fact there is a verse in Psalm 11 which describes our current state of degradation:  “The foundations of law and order have collapsed. What can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:4)

The good news is Scripture tells us what judgment looks like—God-style.

God is an honest judge. (Psalm 11:7)

He will judge the world with justice and rule the nations with fairness. (Psalm 9:8)

It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall. (Psalm 75:7)

Rise up, O God, and judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you. (Psalm 82:8)

And at the end of the above Psalm it says: He will judge the world with justice, and the nations with his truth. (vs. 13b)

We see that God’s brand of judgment requires honesty, justice, fairness, and truth. If you just consider truth, and how it has been dismissed, is there any wonder why man’s judgment is critically flawed? It also says that He alone is worthy, and since everything belongs to Him, then He alone is rightful.

And when you see God’s version of judgment, then you realize that it will be something to rejoice about. But until that day comes, you must remember: The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. (1 Peter 3:9)

Now balance that with this request: They shouted to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?”(Revelation 6:10)

Fear His judgment, or praise His judgment. The choice is yours.

Singing with the King (72) – Understanding

When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end. (Psalm 73:25)

waiting3This Psalm was written by Asaph, who was a Levite in the service of King David. He was also a drummer, and spent a lot of time serving before the ark of the LORD.

So the singers, Heman, Asaph and Ethan were appointed to sound aloud cymbals of bronze. (1 Chronicles 15:19

So he [King David] left Asaph and his relatives there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD to minister before the ark continually, as every day’s work required. (1 Chronicles 16:37)

Let’s face it, life is filled with things we don’t understand. No,  I’m not talking about formulae, or equations, or theorems. I’m talking life problems— the kind that cause you anguish, misery, and as Asaph said, trouble.

Now the fact that he was a singer AND a drummer pretty much explains his confusion (oops—sorry). And what he was confused about was that he, as a righteous person, was constantly being punished and under affliction, which he thought, was from the Lord. The other side of this problem was that wicked people flourished, and they never seemed to have any problems. He had wrestled with this long enough to where he wanted to throw up his hands, declare “I don’t care”, and give up. But rather than giving up, he did something important. He entered the sanctuary of God.

Another way I would put it, is that he put himself, his life, and his world, within God’s context. So what’s God’s perspective like?

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.   For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:8-9)

Sounds pretty out of reach and inscrutable. Until you read what Paul has to say about it.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned… “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14,16) You have the mind of Christ!

If you’re facing an unfathomable or agonizing problem, go into the sanctuary of God, and get His perspective.