August 23, 2015
Worship: I Will Sing of My Redeemer
by Phillip Bliss/Fernando Ortega Version; How Majestic is Your Name by Michael
W. Smith/Choral Version
I will sing of my Redeemer
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross he suffered
From the curse to set me free.
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross he suffered
From the curse to set me free.
Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer
With his blood, he purchased me,
On the cross, he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
With his blood, he purchased me,
On the cross, he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
I will tell the wondrous story
How my lost estate, to save.
In his boundless love and mercy,
He, the ransom freely gave.
How my lost estate, to save.
In his boundless love and mercy,
He, the ransom freely gave.
Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer
With his blood, he purchased me,
On the cross, he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
With his blood, he purchased me,
On the cross, he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I'll tell,
How the victory he giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.
His triumphant power I'll tell,
How the victory he giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.
Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer
With his blood, he purchased me,
On the cross, he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
With his blood, he purchased me,
On the cross, he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav'nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.
And His heav'nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.
Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer
With his blood, he purchased me,
On the cross, he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
With his blood, he purchased me,
On the cross, he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
O Lord, our Lord
How majestic is Your name in all the earth. O Lord, our Lord How majestic is Your name in all the earth. O Lord, we praise Your name! O Lord, we magnify Your name; Prince of Peace, Mighty God, O Lord God Almighty |
At The Cross"
There's a place where mercy reigns and never dies,
There's a place where streams of grace flow deep and wide.
Where all the love I've ever found,
Comes like a flood,
Comes flowing down.
[Chorus:]
At the cross
At the cross
I surrender my life.
I'm in awe of You
I'm in awe of You
Where Your love ran red
and my sin washed white.
I owe all to You
I owe all to You Jesus.
There's a place where sin and shame are powerless.
Where my heart has peace with God and forgiveness.
Where all the love I've ever found.
Comes like a flood,
Comes flowing down.
[Chorus]
Here my hope is found
Here on holy ground
Here I bow down
Here arms open wide
Here You save my life
Here I bow down
Here I bow down
[Chorus]
There's a place where streams of grace flow deep and wide.
Where all the love I've ever found,
Comes like a flood,
Comes flowing down.
[Chorus:]
At the cross
At the cross
I surrender my life.
I'm in awe of You
I'm in awe of You
Where Your love ran red
and my sin washed white.
I owe all to You
I owe all to You Jesus.
There's a place where sin and shame are powerless.
Where my heart has peace with God and forgiveness.
Where all the love I've ever found.
Comes like a flood,
Comes flowing down.
[Chorus]
Here my hope is found
Here on holy ground
Here I bow down
Here arms open wide
Here You save my life
Here I bow down
Here I bow down
[Chorus]
Personal: My cold kept me from
sleeping well. I’m praying for healing now. Why didn’t I do that before?
Waiting on a message from from my friend. My wife messaged me with stock
question/statement, “Hope your day went well”. I answered but no reply as of
yet. Interesting days, hit and run I call them. Church was good tonight. My
daughter Deborah has faithfully come and seems to really be growing in the
Lord. I praise God for this!
Word:
Ps 22:25-23:1
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him. 26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. 30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. ESV |
Ps 22:25-23:1
25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows. 26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the Lord will praise him — may your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 28 for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. 29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him — those who cannot keep themselves alive. 30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. 31 They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn — for he has done it. NIV |
Psalm:22:27-28
Just how big will this great congregation be? Is it made up only
of the afflicted, poor and meek? Not according to these verses. It extends to
all “the ends of the earth” and all “the families of the nations”. They are
described as doing two things: turning to the Lord (v. 27) and worshiping Him
(v. 28). This is partially being fulfilled today as Christ’s church is
spreading throughout the world and touching families in all nations everywhere.
However, the language here pictures a time when everyone will turn to God and worship
(bow down) before Him.
Notice also that this is not only about how great this
congregation will be in numbers, but even more about the greatness of our Lord
in terms of the extent of His rule. He is said to rule “over all the nations”.
How can this be? Because “kingship”(ESV) or “dominion belongs to the Lord”(NIV).
Sovereignty is intrinsic to our Lord because of all of who He is. All His attributes
merge to make Him “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord
of lords” (1 Tim 6:15 ESV).
The Lord’s people can say with Jeremiah:
“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by
your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” Jer. 32:17-18 NIV
And confess as Nebuchadnezzar was made to confess:
“…the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets
over them anyone he wishes.” Dan 5:21 NIV (Read Daniel chap. 4)
And one day as Daniel sees in a vision and Psalm 22:27 – 28 envisions:
"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one
like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient
of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and
sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his
kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Dan 7:13-14 NIV
This is our hope. This is what we look forward to. But what of
today, is God any less Sovereign, is He any less in control? No our God is
“same yesterday, today, and forever”. (Heb. 13:8; see also Psalm 102:27-28,
Malachi 3:6, James 1:17).
Therefore, He is Sovereign today and deserves the worship that one
day will be on the lips and in the hearts of all who dwell on earth.
The word “majesty” is a word in the Bible to describe God’s
sovereignty. J.I. Packer says:
“Our word majesty comes
from the Latin; it means greatness. When we ascribe majesty to someone, we are
acknowledging greatness in that person, voicing our respect for it: as, for
instance, when we speak of “Her Majesty”, the Queen.”1
He goes on to
say:
“Now, majesty is a word which the Bible uses to express the thoughts of
the greatness of God, our Maker and our Lord. ‘The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty…. Your throne was established
long ago’ (Ps 93:1-2). ‘They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your
wonderful works’ ( Ps 145:5). Peter, recalling his vision of Christ’s royal
glory at the transfiguration, says, ‘We were eyewitnesses of his majesty’ (2 Pet 1:16).2
Other verses converge with
these to declare our God’s greatness:
For great is the Lord and
most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above
all gods.
For all the gods of the
nations are idols,
but the Lord made the
heavens.
Splendor and majesty are
before him;
strength and joy in his
dwelling place.
Ascribe to the Lord, O
families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory
and strength,
ascribe to the Lord the
glory due his name. 1 Chron 16:25-29 NIV
Great is the Lord in Zion;
he is exalted over all the
nations.
Let them praise your great
and awesome name —
he is holy. Ps 99:2-3 NIV
Great
is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can
fathom.
One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your
mighty acts.
They will speak of the
glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your
wonderful works. Ps 145:3-5 NIV
In Ephesians Paul prays we
would understand, to the best of our finite minds, the greatness of God’s power
which leads to his declaring our Lord Jesus’ sovereignty over all things!
I pray also that the eyes
of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which
he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and
his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working
of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the
dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all
rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not
only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things
under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which
is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Eph 1:18-23
NIV
In fact Paul uses an adverb
here that tries to describe the indescribable greatness of God’s power. The NIV
translates it as “incomparably”. The New American Standard updated has
“surpassing” and the original NASB had “exceeding”. The ESV has “immeasurable”.
This is no hyperbolic language, even though I suspect that our English word is
derived from the same Greek word. The word used here is uperballw (huperballo) which Thayer defines as:
“to transcend, surpass,
exceed, excel”. (from Thayer's Greek Lexicon, PC Study Bible formatted
Electronic Database. Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
That “immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power”(AMP Version) 3
has seated our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:
“at his right hand in the
heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and
every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one
to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head
over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who
fills everything in every way.”Eph.1:20-22 NIV
This is the knowledge that
we are to strive for in order to bring more glory to God and increase our
satisfaction and Joy in him. However, this knowledge is often lacking in the
Christian today, as J.I. Packer points out:
“But this is knowledge
which Christians today largely lack: and that is one reason why our faith is so
feeble and our worship so flabby. We are modern people, and modern people, though
they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have as a rule small thoughts of
God. When the person in the church, let alone the person in the street, uses
the word God, the thought is rarely
of divine majesty”.4
Furthermore, he points out
that:
“Today, vast stress is laid
on the thought that God is personal,
but this truth is so stated as to leave the impression that God is a person of
the same sort as we are—weak, inadequate, ineffective, a little pathetic. But
this is not the God of the Bible! Our personal life is a finite thing: it is
limited in every direction, in space, in time, in knowledge, in power. But God
is not so limited. He is eternal, infinite and almighty. He has us in his
hands; we never have him in ours. Like us, he is personal; but unlike us, he is
great. In all its constant stress on
the reality of God’s personal concern for his people, and on the gentleness,
tenderness, sympathy, patience and yearning compassion that he shows towards
them, the Bible never lets us lose sight of his majesty and his unlimited
dominion over all his creatures.”5
Beware of false teachers
who in any way limit our Sovereign God in power or knowledge or wisdom or
goodness or love or holiness or presence or majesty or any other attribute that
pertains to our glorious Lord.
For certain men whose
condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you.
They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for
immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Jude 4 NIV
“Now to the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
1 Tim 1:17 NIV
“To him who is able to keep
you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault
and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and
authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!
Amen.” Jude 24-25 NIV
1J. I. Packer, Knowing God,
20th Anniversary Ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993),
p. 82
2 Ibid, p.82
3The Amplified Bible. (1987). (Eph 1:19). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
4 J. I. Packer, p. 83
5 Ibid, p. 83
