Ps. 96-98
I see a couple of themes in these three Psalms. One is that the call for praise to God goes out to all of creation – the whole earth! We, as God’s chosen, join together will all that He has created to sing His praise. In the end, every single living thing will praise His name, whether they want to or not. Another theme I see is the call to rejoice in God’s righteous judgment. Now that is one I can’t see all people embracing! God’s wrath is certainly something to fear. The thought of it makes me so very grateful that I am covered by grace through the blood of Christ. How else could I possibly rejoice in God’s judgement? As it says in Psalm 97:10, “O you who love the LORD, hate evil!”. Only then can we follow the call to rejoice in His righteousness.
One last thing I noted – we shouldn’t keep praise to ourselves. “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Ps 96:3). Creation declares God’s praise for all to see and hear. We should do the same. It is not enough to praise God in the privacy of our own hearts and homes. We need to shout it from the rooftops, how great is this God we serve! That is a little tough for me, as I don’t speak out too much in general. But I don’t believe this requires preaching on every street corner. We, like creation, can praise God through our very existence. We can be careful that all we say and do reflects His Spirit within us. And when given the opportunity, don’t hesitate to ‘gush’ about Him like you would that great movie you just saw or the fantastic deal you just got. Our God is great – let the whole world know!
Acts 14:1-15
How hard the Evil One works at suppressing the Truth! The religious leaders and other powerful Jews in Thessalonica did not like Paul and Silas upsetting their little empire, so they ran the men out of town. But that was not enough. When they heard that Paul and Silas were then preaching the Truth in Barea, where it was being well received, these jealous Jews pursued them and stirred up trouble for them there as well. Truth will always elicit a harsh response from those who don’t want to hear or accept it. Always. What this tells me for me is that if someone confronts me with something and I get upset about it, I need to take a good, hard look at why. As hard as it can be to take sometimes, I need to be sure that I remain receptive to the truth.