How can we make music in the morning
and at night? Is it just an ideal thing or a really possible one? If possible,
how may we do it? Is it not what we really are wanting to do? Praising the Lord
and making music to his name, the Most High, proclaiming his love in the
morning and his faithfulness at night. How wonderful would it be to praise the
Lord for his love in the morning and for his faithfulness at night? That would
be awesome and is what we are really in want. The problem is how to do it. We
know that we are not doing most of our times. Instead, we are constantly
anxious and occupied with a lot of busyness in our daily lives from morning
till night. How are easily distracted from a life of prayer! We experience full
of troubles and worries today and surely they will be coming tomorrow. There
are so many things either tiny, moderate, or big to take care of everyday.
Vacation is good. But it still does not rule out the daily worries and
troubles. It seems having freedom, even a glimpse of it, but it is not true
freedom at all. What is worse is that there are all kinds of unjust and evil
practices going on in our midst. Outcry from all corners of the world are
intensely increasing and growing higher, wider and deeper. That is our real
experience. We have to deal with reality of our lives. So, it seems we are torn
in two, just as Paul describes, “For I know that good itself does not dwell in
me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but
I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do
not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now
if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin
living in me that does it.” (Romans 7:18-20) We do not want to be in such a
position of being worried and consciously uneasy. We know that it is not right
to go on and on. Rather, we really want to be like what the Psalmist says, making
music to him and proclaiming his love in the morning and his faithfulness at
night. Now the Psalmist is going to through the process of how to do that.
“It
is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High,
proclaiming
your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night,
to
the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.
For
you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have
done.
How
great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!
Senseless
people do not know, fools do not understand,
that
though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be
destroyed forever.
But
you, Lord, are forever exalted. For surely your enemies, Lord,
surely
your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered.
You
have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured on me.
My
eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my
wicked foes.
The
righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of
Lebanon;
planted
in the house of the Lord , they will
flourish in the courts of our God.
They
will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
proclaiming, ‘The Lord
is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.’” (Psalm
92:1-15)
Firstly, observe carefully the deeds
of the Lord and what his hands have done. Measure how great are his works and
how profound his thoughts. Only senseless people and fools do not know and understand.
What they do not know and understand is that though the wicked spring up like
grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever. God is the
Lord and the Creator of all things, visible and invisible. He spoke and the
universe is made in its majesty and magnificence. Vastness and limitlessness
are his deeds. His hands designed, chiseled, carved, shaped, and fashioned what
it is as it is. Billions of billions of stars and galaxies are told to run its
due courses without fail. He made it and hold it together so that everything is
in order and harmony. “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or
authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before
all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17) The
Creator God also made man in his image and in his likeness. Even if man has
lost and fallen by listening to the twisted and wicked voice of the devil, God
still loved man that he sent the Son Jesus Christ and whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life. The Son of God, Christ whom the Father
sent was crucified on a cross like a criminal in our place. The Son had no sin
but was made to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). We cannot fathom the mystery of Christ that God
the Father put his own Son under such a circumstance, even to the crucifixion
of cross. Why did God do that? God is forever love. Yes, he is love before and
after the fall of man. It does not mean that God does not keep and maintain
justice. “And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any
tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” (Genesis 2:16-17)
His love is not letting go as if nothing happened, but taking long-suffering
because he is love yesterday and today and forever. Instead of punishing man
who disobeyed him, he bore the sin of the world in his body and shed his blood
and died. He saved us once for all and will be delivering us from evil forever.
“But God demonstrates his own love for
us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now
been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath
through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him
through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we
be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:8-10)
Christ did not die in vain. Prophet
Isaiah says, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return
to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it
yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out
from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I
desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11) Whosoever
believes in the Son Jesus Christ will not perish but have eternal life. He
demonstrated his love such a way that he offered himself as the ransom
sacrifice for the sins of the world. Love suffers long and is kind. God suffers
long to bring the fallen race back to himself through the Son Jesus Christ. Manifested
in public and in history and in the hillside of Golgotha, the long-suffering
love of God. Senseless and foolish are those do not see and understand the
deeds and hands of God for it is heartily and wholeheartedly told and shown again
and again. More than that, the sufferings of Christ is present and real in our daily
experience of sufferings and troubles in the midst. Christ died once for all,
which means we died to our sins with him. Now, every time we fail and trespass,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ comes and intervenes and even penetrates our
hearts, offering abundant grace which surpasses our guilt and pains. “The law
was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased,
grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also
grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21) Our sins and failures can never outpace the
grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is abundant and overflowing enough
to cover our condemning hearts for God is bigger than our hearts and knows all
things (1 John 3:20). So, we have boldness and confidence in Christ that we may
stand in the holy presence of God, even before the throne of grace for there is
no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). All we are asked
to do to confess our sins in contrite and broken spirit and he is just and faithful
that he forgives and cleanses us from all unrighteousness with the blood of
Christ (1 John 1:9).
In the end, the enemy will be
destroyed. Surely, there will be the Day of the Lord coming. People are not our
enemy but the devil is. He is a liar and the father of all lie and a murderer. He
is the accuser of humanity all time. He is doing all kinds of wicked things,
like demoralizing, dehumanizing, disheartening, depressing humanity at any
moment relentlessly. We are the victims of the devil’s scheme and lie. But soon
he will be condemned and punished by the Lord. He has already been condemned by
the Lord because he rebelled against the Holy One (John 16:11). The accuser
will receive the due punishment and be consigned to the fiery lake of burning
sulfur forever. And God will exalt the righteous who endured the trials and
persecutions of the world. He will reward those who stand firm on the
foundation of Christ Jesus to the end. “And without faith it is impossible to
please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and
that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) There will be the
Day of the Lord when all evil things done even in the name of religion will receive
the due penalty by the righteous Judge of all things.
“My
eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my
wicked foes.
The
righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of
Lebanon;
planted
in the house of the Lord , they will
flourish in the courts of our God.
They
will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,
proclaiming, ‘The Lord
is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.’” (Psalm
92:11-15)
That is why we make music to praise
the Lord in the morning and at night and forever, proclaiming his love and his
faithfulness. What God says is true and will be fulfilled because he is
truthful and faithful in keeping his promises. Once we were the enemies of God,
yet he loved us by sending his Son Jesus Christ to redeem and free us from the
slavery of dark and evil forces. “All of us also lived among them at one time,
gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.
Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways
of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now
at work in those who are disobedient. But because of his great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive
with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have
been saved. And God raised us up with
Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order
that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,
expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:1-7) How much
more will he love us in Christ if he loved us while we were still enemies? Boundlessly
forever he loves, gives, protects, embraces all of his children in the Son
Jesus Christ. Amen.
2017.
11. 30.
©
2011-2017 David Lee Ministries – All Rights Reserved.
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