Monday Music

One of my favorite parts of EPC's Evening Service is the opportunity for all of us to discuss the morning sermon. So many good questions, so many amazing insights, so many ways to see how God's Word preached resonated with His people. While Steve and I had not heard the Word expounded earlier in the day (Thanks, Steve Leavitt), having driven home from Pittsburgh PA, we still were edified greatly by the discussion.

The question was raised by someone about how "WE" could possibly bless God. What can sinful people ever do to bless the God who blesses us every moment of every day? One of the answers was that we can confidently (Thanks, Sharon) lift up our voices, our hearts, and our worship to God Almighty. 

This morning I received the following link from my brother (Thanks, Chet). It's a video of a worship service IN THE MIDDLE OF TIMES SQUARE during a Luis Palau Festival in 2015. Being from a small New England church it always amazes me to see throngs of people lifting up their praises to the Lord. It reminds me very much of Rev. 7:9:

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

I look forward to the day when we are all clothed in white and singing our praises to the One who "saved, saved, saved" us. Until then may we appreciate God's amazing power to give us a little picture of heaven through unexpected events like the one in this video, where even in the midst of New York City His people can confidently and unashamedly bless Him and give Him all the glory He so richly deserves.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo--H_yx2vg  (The ad can be skipped after 5 seconds in the lower right side of the screen.)

Lyrics:

Chorus: Bless the Lord oh my soul

Oh my soul

Worship His Holy name

Sing like never before

Oh my soul

I'll worship Your Holy name

The sun comes up

It's a new day dawning

It's time to sing Your song again

Whatever may pass

And whatever lies before me

Let me be singing

When the evening comes

*Chorus

You're rich in love

And You're slow to anger

Your name is great

And Your heart is kind

For all Your goodness

I will keep on singing

Ten thousand reasons

For my heart to find

*Chorus

And on that day

When my strength is failing

The end draws near

And my time has come

Still my soul will

Sing Your praise unending

Ten thousand years

And then forevermore

Forevermore

Yes I'll worship Your Holy name

I'll worship Your Holy name

Sing like never before

Oh my soul

I'll worship Your Holy name

Jesus I will worship Your Holy name

Worship Your Holy name.

Quote on Prayer

Beeke thoughts: "He who does not pray privately is his own thief and murderer. He robs himself of the greatest blessings and kills his own spiritual life. Every newborn child cries for his mother: every spiritually newborn child of God calls out to Him. Can it be said of you as it was said of Saul at Damascus, 'Behold, he is praying'?"

Candy's thoughts: How long will it take me to learn this lesson?

How Marvelous, How Wise, How Great

 In Shaped by God: thinking and feeling in tune with the Psalms, author John Piper lists three concepts that all of us should understand about this wonderful book of the Bible:

1. Psalms Are Instructive

2. Psalms Are Poems

3. Psalms are From God

#1 is today's focus, #s 2 and 3 in future posts.

Piper's thoughts: "The Psalms are meant to be instructive about God and human nature and life... Some poetry makes no claim to instruct the mind, but the Psalms do. One of the pointers to this instruction (among many pointers, including the doctrinal use made of the Psalms in the New Testament) is that Psalm 1 introduces the whole book of Psalms. The book begins, in a sense, in Psalm 1:2, "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." The word for law is torah, and the general meaning for torah is instruction. In other words, the Psalms cover the whole range of God's instruction, not just legal ordinances. The entire book of Psalms is introduced by a call to meditate on God's instructions."

Candy's thoughts: Generally when we think of instruction manuals, we envision boring textbooks or endless lists of vocabulary definitions related to the area of teaching that we are researching. How amazing is it that God designed something far better and more beautiful for us - an amazing array of different types of Psalms that display the human soul on a grand scale? This reminds me of a verse in a hymn that we sing during worship:
       

"How marvelous, how wise, how great, how infinite to contemplate: Jehovah's saving plan." 

(Hymns For A Modern Reformation, James Boice)

Apparently part of God's 'saving plan' is to help His people understand, process, and adjust to the emotions that He gave to us in the first place. In refocusing our often confusing and contradictory feelings, we can then be led back to Almighty God through the reading and singing of the Psalms.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?

  From the book Prayers of the Bible: 366 Devotionals to Encourage Your Prayer Life by Gordon Keddie. April 23rd reflection: "Hope for the Dejected Soul: A Prayer for joyous fellowship with God."

Psalm 43:5

"Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
   Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God."

Keddie's thoughts:

The transparent honesty of Scripture in recording the sins of real saints and their experiences of self-doubt and dejection is a testimony to both the stresses of the human condition and the reality of the gospel of saving grace. It is therefore a wonderful encouragement to the flagging spirit of believers battered by adversities of one kind or another. "It has pleased God to suffer many of his most eminent servants to be in trouble," writes Charles Simeon, "and to record their experience for our benefit, that we, when in similar circumstances, may know that we are not walking in an untrodden path, and that we may see how to conduct ourselves aright... We may "hope in God" precisely because it is God who sends our troubles ("they spring not out of the dust [Job 5:6]) and he only can remove them."

Candy's thoughts:

These words are a wonderful gift from God to me on this day, my son Sam's birthday. For those not intimately aware of my story, Sam died 10 years ago at age 22 by suicide resulting from a depression for which he was being treated, but the medicines which were aimed at curing him, ultimately had the opposite effect.  Charles Simeon's words are a great encouragement in shepherding us to remember the right perspective of hoping in God when doubt and despair threaten to undo us. O how I long for the time when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, "and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” [Rev 21:4]. Come soon, Lord Jesus!