Devotional for this Sunday’s worship music. Sunday, March 21, 2010
Posted by Rod Hamilton on Mar 25 2010
Majestic – “The heavens declare Your greatness…”
Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
When you sing these lyrics do you ever visualize what it would sound like – the heavens declaring the greatness of God? This term is anthropomorphism, meaning literally to change (morph) something to give it human (anthropo) qualities (ism). God chose to use this technique in conveying His message in many places in the Bible. Often, as the Word refers to God’s “hand,” “face,” “arm,” etc., we see this technique used to, I believe, give man some idea of God, because God is Spirit and does not have a body as we do, therefore He cannot be imagined. But in the sense of Psalm 19:1 and so many other verses, the technique is shown to help us visualize the majesty of God. All of creation is His - every part of it – and every part submits to Him as the Creator. Hebrews 1:10 tells us “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” All of creation is God’s handiwork, including you and me.
If God chose for us to imagine the whole of creation shouting His praises it stands to reason that we, who have the intellect to understand His creation to a certain degree, MUST also shout His praises!
You Reign – “Even before Your hands made the heavens, even before the breath of all mankind. Even before we had to be forgiven, You were on Your throne and You reign!”
Colossians 1:15-17 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
I love this passage in Colossians which talks about the “supremacy of Christ.” It makes so clear the statement of the eternality of Jesus Christ and that His hand is all over the creation story. Before time Jesus was, just as the Father and His Spirit were. Before time, the Uncreated One, in a way we can never understand on this side of heaven, had a plan for the entire universe and every person who would ever be formed in the womb. And now that creation has been established, it isn’t on it’s own to fend for itself; “all things” are held together “in Him.” What a mighty God we serve!
From the Inside Out – “A thousand times I’ve failed still Your mercy remains…”
Matthew 18:22 “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
I always find this dialogue between Jesus and Peter humorous. I imagine Peter, a not so educated fisherman, to be childlike in his thought about forgiving someone “seventy seven times.” Peter may literally have not been able to count that high! Seven, that’s easy,: 5 fingers on one hand, 2 fingers on the other. But seventy seven? Who has that many digits?! But we know that Jesus’ point to Peter was that we ought to forgive even as the Lord has forgiven us. (Col. 3:13)
“…and should I stumble again I’m caught in Your grace.”
John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”
We are caught by the grace of God the moment we have faith. Nothing can separate us from the love of God! (Rom. 8:38-39)
The Power of the Cross – “Oh, to see the pain written on Your face, bearing the awesome weight of sin. Ev’ry bitter thought, ev’ry evil deed crowning Your bloodstained brow.”
Isaiah 53: 3,5 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Can you imagine looking into the face of Jesus as He was on the cross? The completely defeated looking Messiah, now crucified and well on His way to death. The anguish on His face; the pain in His limbs, the heavy gasping for breath, the very life in His body fleeting? And the two things you would have known completely as He was hanging there: 1) it was your sin that put Him there and 2) it was His love for you that kept Him there. And as the spotless, blameless Lamb of God fades, He cries out in a loud voice, stronger than you could have ever have imagined a man in His condition could have: “Eloi, Eloi,lama sabachthani?"—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46) And soon thereafter, the Light of the World was snuffed out, seemingly leaving you without hope, without a victory, without a Savior and in utter darkness.
But you and I can read these stories with the blessing of God’s word and the advantage of time and perspective. We know that Christ’s death on the cross was the only acceptable sacrifice that could have appeased the wrath of God against sinners.