Psalm 33

The Lord calls us to worship Him through the ministry of His ambassadors. They are men like us, They know that we are are weary and subject to bouts of laziness and foolishness. We would marvel that a starving man would need to be told that he should eat. Though that does happen, it is rare. But because of our spiritual insensitivity, it is not unusual that people who are in great need of the presence of God would have to be told to worship the Lord with all that we have and all that we are..

We should worship God. That's what people who have been made righteous by the blood of Christ do. They give thanks even without opening their mouths, just as they can offer up prayer to God in silence, or even without having proper words in their minds. But isn't something missing if we do not find ourselves moved enough about the God of the universe to stand up and shout? Are we just too tired or self-conscious to praise the Lord of heaven and earth? We should pick up an instrument and praise the Lord. Perhaps the music that flows from lifeless strings can open our ears and wake up our souls so that our minds and mouths would be engaged in our highest duty and our most rational delight.

We have reasons to shout to the Lord. The word of the Lord is upright. We spend much mental energy trying to prove that we are perfectly right, but God is right in everything He has said. Not only are His words entirely safe for us to consider and obey, we can also contemplate all his great works forever, and we will never find anything unfaithful to the glory of His own Name and the accomplishment of His excellent purposes. All of His ways are righteous and just, because in the unfathomable riches of the depths of His glorious being, He loves righteousness and justice. The evidence of His covenant faithfulness and loving kindness is already everywhere upon the earth. Imagine what heaven must be like! And what will the world be like when God's purposes are fully accomplished here. Then all of creation will shout with joy to the Lord and will testify that the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

Consider the glorious creation of the earth in the beginning. God spoke, and the heavens were made. How far away from us is the nearest star beyond the sun? How may years does it take for light from that star to reach your eyes? Yet by the Spirit and Word of God all the host of the heavens were made. How vast is the ocean? How many billions of billions of gallons? Yet God can gather up the waters upon the earth to make the dry land appear according to His plan.

It is only sensible that man should have the highest holy fear of the Lord. This is the first step of wisdom. We should speak about such things. We should open our mouths and speak to our own dull souls so that we might then began to speak to the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. He invites us to call upon His Name and to praise Him, or we would be too afraid to even consider addressing a being who is so far beyond us in every way. All of the inhabitants of the earth should worship the Lord.

What about the movement of history since the beginning of God's great works of creation? We give thought to notable rulers and are impressed with the plans of nations, but God is far above them all, and He reigns over all. We imagine that the pathway of events is the result of the accumulated will of powerful people, but so few of their orders can even be followed by anyone. They make all kinds of plans that amount to nothing. It is the Lord who rules. His Word never returns to Him void. Kings and kingdoms come and go upon the earth, but the Lord is forever. His church should acknowledge Him always and forever be blessed.

If a grown man were to climb the tallest tree in his town, others might consider it an amazing feat, though perhaps foolish and dangerous. But the Lord looks down on us from the heavens. He is over all the inhabitants of the earth, and He is no danger at all. He made us, and He moves us according to His secret purposes. There is no man that frightens Him, but there is one Man who has impressed Him.

There is one Man who fully worshiped God. He has known the justice of God, and He loved it enough to die for it it. In reason's timing, Christ's work on the cross was directed toward God before it was directed toward man. It was worship before it became mercy. Though the mercy of God is eternal, yet it is built upon His greatness and His holiness. Christ came as the God who was made Man in order to be the perfect worshiper of God, and to die the death that we deserved, we who are often too confused to shout with joy to the Lord.

Because of this one righteous Worshiper, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love. He will deliver our souls from death forever, and will establish the perfect reign of His holy worship upon the earth.

If we are spiritually sensible, this blessed hope is what our souls are waiting for now. Though we are weak, and our eyes are weary in looking for the return of the perfect Worshiper, we still wait for the Lord. While we wait in hope, we should sing. God is our Help and our Shield. We have every reason to be glad in Him, and to trust His holy Name. Surely His steadfast love will never be taken away from those who call upon His Name with sincere hearts.