May 25, 2020 -- Psalm 119:172 -- Crescendoing praise
/My tongue will sing of your word,
for all your commandments are right.
Psalm 119:172 English Standard Version
What a radical calling we have as followers of Jesus Christ! We see in His Word His justice and perfections and through life experiences know His great faithfulness. As Christians we stand in direct opposition to the world that surrounds us. We sing, literally, we answer back to God our praise and wonder. We cannot help ourselves we must shout and sing.
There are many memorial tributes to Ravi Zacharias as this internationally renowned Christian-speaker and apologist for the faith died on May 19, 2020. There are many things I appreciated about Zacharias, one being his uncanny ability to quote exactly the right poet or musician, philosopher or mathematician to make his point. One memorial tribute video montage had Zacharias defending the Christian’s awe of our Maker. He noted all of us will worship. Christians worship the God Who reveals Himself in Scripture and in Creation. The atheist worships chance. He quoted Turner to make his point about the atheist’s worship.
“If chance be the Father of all flesh,
Disaster is his rainbow in the sky,
And when you hear
State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!
It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.”
― Steve Turner, Poems
The atheist, the worshipers of chance worshipers of the cruel domination of the deified man, faces constant upheaval. The ideal of a man-made utopia is torn apart by every inhumane act and the incontrovertible evidence that people and our circumstances and our living conditions are not improving. Political parties are more polarized and fractured than ever. Peace treaties are made and broken. There is no basic goodness in the human spirit.
The life lived in praise to the LORD of Angel Armies and such life which is structured according to His right commandments is one that is constantly confirmed in the magnificence of our God. This world and universe is wearing out like a garment. The cumulative effects of the Fall and sin are evident all around us. Equally clear and backlit in glory over against all this is the tremendous kindness of our God. He Who reaches down into time and the circumstances of our lives in order to bring healing and hope by the cross of Jesus. He Who by His Spirit living within us shows us the grand riches given us and guarded in us and for us by this same Spirit so that the enemy cannot snatch glory from our clumsy grasp. It is joy to praise Him. It is our crowning hope to honour Him in our words and thoughts, in our actions and planning.
With the hymn-writer of old we give full throated praise to You, Immortal, Invisible, God-only wise! Every reflection on Your excellencies and majesty cause us to search out, asking of ourselves, how can I more fully, more dearly serve You? May praise of You ever be on our lips and may our tongues ever be employed to bless You. As the treasures of Who You Are are made known within our innermost being through reading the word and prayer let our anticipation of that great, glorious wedding feast in heaven fill our thoughts and minds. May we constantly, wantonly invite all those around us to the feast in glory. Draw many of our friends, our neighbours, our co-workers and people in our world to Yourself, blessed and Triune God—so that the chorus of praise will ever increase swelling to that great crescendo of creation-wide adoration of Your Name which will take place when Jesus returns on the clouds. Hallelujah! Amen.
