The Scope of Song
From Psalm 68 – 7 O God, when You went out before Your people,
When You marched through the wilderness, Selah
8 The earth shook;
The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God;
Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
9 You, O God, sent a plentiful rain,
Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance,
When it was weary.
10 Your congregation dwelt in it;
You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor.
In News from Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor notices that he tends to be imposing to children. His genesis of genuine approachability, then, is to sing. He observes, 3 “You don’t intimidate people when you sing. Takes you back to a time when people singing to you was the only way that they could tell you that they loved you.”
Perhaps that's why the Gospel in song, in the 150 Psalms in the middle of the Bible, is so engaging. Awed or convicted to speechlessness at one point? The song will go on as it has for thousands of years before. Conviction of our otherness apart from God is quite right, but it is not the endpoint. Keep singing, and we have reinforced more of Who He is. Keep singing, and we have reinforced who we are, collectively and individually.
This is the scope within one stretch of Psalm 68. The Psalmist helps us gain a wider vantage point than our comfort in convention, singing to the Lord in Psalm 68:7 that He went out before His people, and the earth shook. The earth doesn't shake at our steps the way it.at the strides of the One Who formed it. We, with our fondness for man-sized perspective and accomplishment, needs to be reminded of that, usually first.
Insists James MacDonald in Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives with God's Changeless Truth, “If counseling is to be restored to the church, affection must be restored to reflection. If counseling is to be restored to the church, delight in God must be restored to doctrines about God. Savoring Christ must be restored to seeing Christ. Tender contrition must be restored to tough conviction. Communication with God must be restored to contending for God." There is a preeminent place for Psalm 68:7-8, remembering Who God is and that we are not Him.
But then, how sweet is the gentle yet undiminished glory of God in the next two verses! As we keep singing, preaching to ourselves in song, singing before children, singing in our work and our play before the culture, the panorama of God as God comes into view. The same God who submerged mountains in His wrath upon the wickedness of the earth in Genesis, the Psalmist says, drops rain gently, expertly, to green the inheritance of His people. His timing, his subtlety germinating the seed in season is what translates His overwhelming glory into that which is palatable for the perishing poor.
As we know and remember in our song that He is the Terraformer and Demolition of strongholds, we begin to be amazed and to personally declare the tenderness of the individual encounter. We begin to see that same character in the hands that break the daily bread and which invite us into its cultivation and preparation. Worship penetrates, permeates, pulsates, and personally invites.
When You marched through the wilderness, Selah
8 The earth shook;
The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God;
Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
9 You, O God, sent a plentiful rain,
Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance,
When it was weary.
10 Your congregation dwelt in it;
You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor.
In News from Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor notices that he tends to be imposing to children. His genesis of genuine approachability, then, is to sing. He observes, 3 “You don’t intimidate people when you sing. Takes you back to a time when people singing to you was the only way that they could tell you that they loved you.”
Perhaps that's why the Gospel in song, in the 150 Psalms in the middle of the Bible, is so engaging. Awed or convicted to speechlessness at one point? The song will go on as it has for thousands of years before. Conviction of our otherness apart from God is quite right, but it is not the endpoint. Keep singing, and we have reinforced more of Who He is. Keep singing, and we have reinforced who we are, collectively and individually.
This is the scope within one stretch of Psalm 68. The Psalmist helps us gain a wider vantage point than our comfort in convention, singing to the Lord in Psalm 68:7 that He went out before His people, and the earth shook. The earth doesn't shake at our steps the way it.at the strides of the One Who formed it. We, with our fondness for man-sized perspective and accomplishment, needs to be reminded of that, usually first.
Insists James MacDonald in Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives with God's Changeless Truth, “If counseling is to be restored to the church, affection must be restored to reflection. If counseling is to be restored to the church, delight in God must be restored to doctrines about God. Savoring Christ must be restored to seeing Christ. Tender contrition must be restored to tough conviction. Communication with God must be restored to contending for God." There is a preeminent place for Psalm 68:7-8, remembering Who God is and that we are not Him.
But then, how sweet is the gentle yet undiminished glory of God in the next two verses! As we keep singing, preaching to ourselves in song, singing before children, singing in our work and our play before the culture, the panorama of God as God comes into view. The same God who submerged mountains in His wrath upon the wickedness of the earth in Genesis, the Psalmist says, drops rain gently, expertly, to green the inheritance of His people. His timing, his subtlety germinating the seed in season is what translates His overwhelming glory into that which is palatable for the perishing poor.
As we know and remember in our song that He is the Terraformer and Demolition of strongholds, we begin to be amazed and to personally declare the tenderness of the individual encounter. We begin to see that same character in the hands that break the daily bread and which invite us into its cultivation and preparation. Worship penetrates, permeates, pulsates, and personally invites.
Comments
Post a Comment