Singing hymns to the Lord has always been an important part of worship for believers. The Book of Psalms has been called the hymnbook of the Bible. Just like there are hymns in our hymnbooks of praise, of thanksgiving, of the different attributes of God, of sorrow for sins, and of our calling out and coming to Him for help, there are psalms in the Bible for the same. Whatever we are looking for, whether to praise God, call upon Him for help, confession, or give thanks, we can find psalms for that.
Our psalm today, which was written by King David, is one of thanksgiving for answered prayer. The theme throughout this psalm is that God will work out His plans for us, and bring us through every difficulty we face. David was giving thanks to God when he wrote this psalm, as he had in so many other psalms he wrote. While reading this song of praise, we see that as blood-bought children of God, we should praise and thank Him for all of our material and spiritual blessings and answers to prayer (vs. 1-3).
Throughout his life, King David saw and knew about all the false gods that the neighboring countries followed and worshipped, and which were constantly being a temptation for the children of Israel to follow. David knew that Yahweh is over all of the false gods of other nations (vs. 1). He would go right before those false gods and sing the praises of the one and only true God, as a token to show that they were nothing, and his God the only true God. We should not give any false gods any credence or acknowledgment, but give praise and worship to only Yahweh.
Right now we don’t see too many, if any, world leaders who are praising the Lord, do we? In verses 4 and 5 of our psalm says that one day all of the kings of the earth will praise God when they hear His Word. Won’t that be a wonderful day, when all world leaders praise God! In the meantime, we have to be sure that we are getting His Word out. How else will they hear the Word of the Lord, unless we are speaking it?
Sometimes we might wonder whether God, being enthroned up high in heaven as God of all the universe, has any regard for us people. Verse 6 reassures us that yes, indeed, He does care about us. He sees and considers what we go through in our life, and has concern. He also sees what the proud and those who oppose Him are doing. One day He will make all things right. He is not a god who is too busy or unconcerned about the “lowly”, nor unconcerned when the rich and powerful, the “proud” take advantage of them. He does care, and He will one day make all things right.
Throughout his life, David often had to flee and hide from his enemies. He knew what it was like to fear for his very life from those who hated him, and would eagerly have killed him. During those days David personally learned that he could trust and rely on the protection of the Lord God (s. 7). No matter what our trouble may be, even if it is life threatening, we, like David, can take hold of God’s hand. His hand is always outstretched to take hold of ours and come to our aid.
The Lord God has a plan for each of us, and that is a plan that He will bring to a perfect end (vs. 8). Since He knows what is best for us, we need to be sure that we include Him in all of our plans. Only God can faithfully fulfill His true purpose for us, and His purpose is always best.
In closing I want to look closer at the last line of verse 2. God has magnified His Word, even above His Name. Here God says that He has made great and exalted the Bible, His Word, above how great His Name is. We know how holy and exalted God’s Name is. The fourth commandment says that we are not to take God’s Name in vain. Here, though, God says that His Word, which is the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, is magnified or exalted even above His Name. How do we treat the Bible? Do we treat His Word as sacred? Is it important to us? God’s Word is His revelation to us. God says it is even greater than His Name. If His Word isn’t trustworthy, how can we trust His Name? His Word, though, is trustworthy! And so is His Name! Do we love the Name of God, the Name of Jesus? If so, we should love His Word as well. Men and women have died for God’s Word, and it should be that important to us, as well.
Thank you for this encouragement!
ReplyDelete