David in Psalm 98

Psalm 98 (NIV) A Psalm



1 Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
2 The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn— shout for joy before the LORD, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy; 9 let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.



Verse 1:

David is expressing the joy of someone who has truly come to know Christ in his heart. David has been forgiven of many things in his life; among his offenses are lusting in his heart and murder. Because David has been forgiven of so many sins he can be justified in thanking God for all that God has done for him. What an amazing testimony David's life must have been to the people all around him. Today we can read about what happened in his life but that's not the same thing as being a member of his family or a close friend and actually seeing the change in his daily life. Imagine for a minute if your brother or sister had gone from a life of crime to studying for the priesthood. If you haven't noticed any difference in their behavior you would be skeptical, with good cause; Imagine though that they seemed completely different from what you had known before. What a wonderful testimony that would be for everyone around him/her. It must have been wonderful for all of those around David to see come back to God and back to his old way of life after heading down the wrong road for so long.

Verse 2:

2 The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

My first thought when I read this was that David was in an almost unique position to "go ye therefore and teach all nations". He was a king who loved the Lord dearly. I'm sure that back then David mentioned the Lord in many different ways in the course of a day. I imagine him saying things like "what a glorious day the Lord made for us today to ..." (fill in the blank). It would have been unusual for someone back then not to know about a certain god so I'm sure that they would have asked. David would then be able to tell his guest all about his loving God. David could testify in person but also indirectly when that person returned home. Upon returning home they would talk about their trip and what had gone on since they had last seen each other, much like we do today. Back then traveling wasn't an easy event. It would take a long time to get from one place to another either you walked or you went by boat. It must have been quite a news flash to hear about this new god of David's. I can only imagine the reaction that it must have caused when other people from far away lands heard about this God of Israel.

Verse 3:

3 He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

I'm sure that David grew up hearing all the stories of the Exodus and what life was like before under Pharoh in the time of Moses. I'm sure that David is also giving thanks to God for forgiving Israel for all of her sins, including his own. At this time the Israelites were still the apple of God's eye. They had not at this point gone so far astray as to lose God's favor. Still the Lord cries out to them daily. Later I'll have to do a post on the Prodigal Son. In verse two we discussed David having the oppurtunity to use his position to testify. I imagine that David was genuinely happy when he saw interest in his God start to grow the world over.

Verses 4-9

4 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn— shout for joy before the LORD, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy; 9 let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.

David is calling for an outward expression of the Holy Spirit in those that are saved. I wonder what David would think of some of our churches today. I wonder if David would have had instruments of every type in his church. I bet David would love to have the church rocking every week. How could you even hear a harp over the sound of a ram's horn and a trumpet and all that singing to the Lord? How coud you hear the harp over the sound of the all the rivers of the world clapping their hands on the shore along with the mountains singing their deep bass voices? David, it seems to me, is calling for a loud real spiritual service not something just made of us routine. David wants everyone to be excited about what happens when they attend church. They should be so excited about meeting God that they have to tell their friends and family because they won't be able to help themselves. So why should we, according to the Psalm, be so happy? Because the Lord will be coming to judge the world and to reward his church. He said this even before Jesus came the first time, amazing.

God bless,

Bruce

The Most Misunderstood Commandment

Exodus 20:1-3



1 And God spoke all these words:
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me.



As a child I knew this part of the Ten Commandments, as I'm sure that most of us do. It was only recently that I realized that this was deeper then it first appeared. (For the past week I have been trying to convince myself not to write this post. God wouldn't let me get away from thinking about this verse. Finally, at work, third shift, I couldn't deny it anymore. I didn't have a choice; I have to write this now.) I have come to believe that this is the first commandment because it is the root of all the others. Let's look at this way; God has given us a code of behavior to set us apart from the world. If you codify a law you have to set up a clear explanation of what it is contained beneath. All of the other Commandments below stem from that one Commandment.

What is it about this Commandment that is so difficult to understand? In my personal opinion it is the language of our translation. In the time of the Exodus there was a real golden calf that had taken the attention of the Israelites. This calf, this small statue had replaced God in their hearts after He had led them out of slavery. Back in Moses' time it was more obvious if you weren't worshipping God you were worshipping Bail or Aries or some other god. We do the same thing with our homes, our mortages, our rent and our bills. I'm as guilty of it as the next person. Things get so expensive in the world that our focus shifts just a bit; that's all that the Devil needs. If our attention is diverted then we have made an idol of whatever we are now looking at the moment. Back in the days of Moses people worshipped many different gods. Today all the Devil needs to do is to just distract us long enough for us to decide not to give our tithes. I should look up to see what would happen to people who didn't give their donation to their god back then. I kind of remember from High School that horrible things would happen to those that upset the gods. God wants us to tithe not because He needs anything but because God wants to check our loyalty to Him. What happens is that we make ourselves God and that we put Ourselves above God. By paying our tithes we are submitting to the will of God. We are putting ourselves back in alignment with Jesus Christ, at least for a moment. All sin comes from this one commandment. Even if we are faithful in our tithes and offerings we sin in other areas. Why do we sin? We sin because we decide that we have to do something, even if our conscious, the Holy Spirit, tells us that we are doing the wrong thing. God wants us to admit our sin to Him even though He already knows it, for the same reason. God wants us to come to Him and to submit to His love. He wants what is best for us yet we are disobedient little children who think that we know everything. The hardest thing for us to do is to "let go and let God". I know how hard that can be. I struggle with it myself all the time. Every time that I think that I'm making progress I fall on this point. That is why I'm emphasising this point.



God bless you all