Tag Archives: Worship

How Great a Debtor

Jesus was invited to dine with a Pharisee. Perhaps surprisingly, he accepted. He who said that he came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10) would presumably have plenty to seek and save over supper. But as the party proceeded, it was unexpectedly crashed, by a woman known not by name but by sin. Luke records neither.

The Dwelling Place of God

Have you ever longed for something, with great anticipation, only to find that when that something arrived it fell far short of what you imagined? How often is our ideal contrary to reality? How often does this lead to frustration with our circumstances and discouragement in the moment? It is likely that all of us have experienced this to one degree or another. But what if your religion, family, home, nationality, your identity, were all connected and directed toward what was to come, and what if you had waited not three or four years but seventy? It sounds like a set-up for disappointment. Coming out of the Babylonian exile and returning to their homeland, the children of Israel were more than disappointed; they were despondent.

God So Loved

Connecting God’s love to our love, John goes on to say, “God is love,” John tells, “and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). Loving our enemies does not make us “sons of the Most High,” but it does reveal that we are. Doing good to those who hate us, blessing those who curse us, praying for those who mistreat us, expecting nothing in return, does not mean that they will love us in return, but God will reward us for it in conforming us more and more to the image of his Son, who in love laid down is life for us.

Call the Sabbath a Delight

Scripture tells us, in the second chapter of Genesis, that “on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation” (Gen. 2:2-3). He who has no need to rest, rested from his work in creation. He who created every day of the week purposefully blessed the seventh thereby making it holy, set apart, from the other days, establishing the precedent of the sabbath and the principle of one full day of rest in seven.

Great is the Mystery of Godliness

And so, I ask you, is this your confession? If not, let it be today, and forevermore. Is this your confession? If so, then rejoice that your name is written in heaven, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Luke 10:20; Col. 3:1). Is this our confession? Indeed it is! For, it is not a mystery to be hidden but heralded to people of every tribe, tongue, and nation, a confession of salvation: “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

With Reverence and Awe

In his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Trueman describes the age in which we live as “a world in which it is increasingly easy to imagine that reality is something we can manipulate according to our own wills and desires, and not something that we necessarily conform ourselves to or passively accept.”[2] We perceive it to be a world of our making, not God’s. This should not surprise us. Though it seems insignificant, the Disney movies that children grew up watching told them they could be anyone they wanted to be if only they followed their heart. Who knew they would take this mantra literally in interpreting human sexuality? But personal perceptions of self-creation and autonomy are prevalent not only in modern views of sexuality but a myriad of other matters, including Christian worship.

Blessed to Worship

The eighty-fourth psalm is similar to the Songs of Ascents as its focus is worship, directs us toward Zion, and emphasizes the temple. Within the psalm we find characteristics of a hymn, a prayer, and a lament. It is also a psalm of longing, and yet the most oft-repeated word in the psalm is “blessed”: “Blessed are those who dwell in [the LORD’s] house.” “Blessed are those whose strength is in [the LORD].” And, “blessed is the one who trusts in [the LORD]!” And blessed are we, as we read, sing, and meditate upon this psalm.

The Blessing of Corporate Worship

While we are still assessing the worldwide issues that came out of the pandemic, for Christians, surely, we can agree that one of the key lessons learned was the value of corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. Perhaps we got a taste of what our brothers and sisters face in countries where they are not free to assemble in worship or even persecuted for it. How easy it is to take in-person, assembled worship for granted. You may remember, like me, the anticipation and excitement of returning to corporate worship with grateful hearts to praise the Lord together. Now, I want you to think back to that moment, and capture that in your memory, if you can. Because, that experience captures the essence of this psalm. Or, borrowing from this psalm, we could say that we were blessed to bless the Lord.

Trust in the Lord

It’s not only the height and breadth of a mountain that speaks but also its stature of permanence. That which we consider ancient is “as old as the hills,” and to do the impossible is “to move mountains.” Mountains so easily yield metaphors, because they have been there, cannot be moved, and continue to endure. And this is where the psalmist starts in the one hundred twenty-fifth psalm, pointing to a mountain known to all of Israel, Mount Zion, and speaking to the often unsettled and fearful, saying: Those who trust in the Lord are stable and secure.