“I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people; and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. 4. For your mercy is great above the heavens: and your truth reaches unto the clouds (skies). 5. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and your glory above all the earth; 6. That your beloved may be delivered: save with your right hand, and answer me.”
These verses caught my attention this morning as I read Psalm 108. I have read these words hundreds of times, but they have never spoken to me as they did this morning. In my imagination, I see David composing this psalm, and the reality of who and what God is came to Him by the Holy Spirit, and he broke out in praise of God. Thank God that this psalm has been preserved for us to read. As David praised God, he gave reasons why we should praise the Lord. David began the extent of his praise. In verse 3, he wrote, “I will praise you, O Lord, among the people: and I will sing praises unto you among the nations.” David was not ashamed to praise God and would praise Him openly and in front of all of the people of the world. The Old Testament is primarily about God’s dealings with Israel, but occasionally, the “nations” will be mentioned. David knew that praise for God reaches across all national and international boundaries. The God we praise is the God of the whole world. Praise of almighty God is not limited to any one place, but should reach around the world. David praised God for His mercy and love: “For your mercy is great above the heavens; and your truth reaches unto the clouds.” God’s mercy has no limits, and His love reaches even into the heavens. One of the major themes of the Bible is God’s mercy. It is illustrated in the Old Testament with God’s dealings with Israel. Though His people had to be disciplined and became recipients of His wrath, God still loved them and had mercy on them – and still does. God’s mercy is illustrated in the New Testament by the coming of Jesus into the world to save all people who would come to Him by faith. God didn’t have to do any of this. God could have squashed us and gone on about His heavenly business, but He chose to have mercy and grace. God’s mercy and love are still realities today, and, as David did, we need to call attention to this fact. David called attention to God’s truth: “and your truth reaches unto the clouds.” The truth about God is that He is eternal – “from everlasting to everlasting.” His truth rises above the earth and soars into the heavens. The Bible’s main truth is that God created us, loves us, has mercy on us, and by His infinite grace will save us. Jesus pinpointed this truth in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.” It was always intended that God would save people by sending His Son into the world. His Son would live a perfect life and die as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. On the third day, He would rise from the grave, ascend to the Father and intercede for lost humanity. The Bible calls attention to this time and time again. We need to praise God that in a world where truth gets all tangled up in disorder, He has given us the truth through His Son. David called attention to God’s glory: “Be thou exalted O God, above the heavens: and your glory above all the earth.” God’s glory is entwined with His mercy and love for us. We know that God is the glorious God, because of what He has done for us. We miss this glory sometimes because we get bogged down in the problems and troubles of life and take our focus off of Him. We need to focus on God’s glory and we will see all of the things that we worry about from a different perspective. We will focus on God’s mercy and love for us, stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and praise the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His glory for what He did, is doing, and will continue to do, for us. Joe Beauchamp
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|