Tag Archives: Deliver

Singing with the King @ Christmas (5)

Leave a reply

Christmas Star

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end. (Luke 1:31-33)

It had been about 400 hundred years since Israel had heard from the Lord, and within six months, the angel Gabriel came down twice to speak of Messiah’s birth. When Mary heard the above words from him, it’s easy to skip to the part about kings and thrones and forever. (Don’t we do the same… get to the good part and skip over the hard stuff?) But the first thing Gabriel told Mary was to name Him Jesus; and we learn from another angelic vision that the Child will live up to His name: for He will save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21).

Mr. Wesley got it right, for the first line of the above verse is: Born Thy people to deliver. The advent we celebrate is for the One Who will deliver us from our sins. The advent we expect is when He will rule as King of kings and Lord of Lords forever.

 

Singing with the King (46) – He Came Down

Leave a reply

He bowed the heavens also, and came down…(Psalm 18:9)

Milky Way3So what’s the context here? Why did God come down? We begin in verse 6:

In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple,  and my cry for help before Him came into His ears.

And that’s why the LORD came down. You may want to read the first 19 verses, which will show you what extent God will go to rescue His child.

We don’t always know the specifics behind God’s actions, but we can always credit His works to His mercy, or His grace, or His glory, or His holiness, etc., etc. But God revealed to David the specifics behind his deliverance: He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me. (vs. 19)

What does it means to have the Sovereign Lord of the universe delight in you?

The word in Hebrew is most often translated as some form of delight, but it is also translated as pleased, pleasure, desire. Do you get the impression that God really does love you? Here are more verses:

Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, because He delights in him. (Psalm 22:8)

The steps of the men are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way. (Psalm 37:23)

Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious acts of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. (Micah 7:18)

Bethlehem Star 3

So, God came down because He delighted in David. Christ came down because He delighted in you.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. (Ephesians 5:2)

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Read through the first 19 verses of Psalm 18. God will move heaven and earth to save you. His Only Son went to the grave for you… because He delights in you.