Word of Encouragement (10/02/2024)
Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. 24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 25 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods. 26 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens. 27 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place. (1 Chron. 16:23-27)
David goes on to give more reasons for all the earth to sing to the Lord and declare His glory. David declares that the LORD is great: “For great is the LORD...” (v. 25). What a simple description! But what do we expect? What human language can do justice to the ineffable glory of God? No amount of elaborate and lavish terms can ever describe God adequately. The Bible has many descriptions of God, but they are rather simple. We don’t get the sense that the Bible is embellishing or fabricating facts in a desperate attempt to convince its readers of God’s glory. Sometimes, when asked a difficult question regarding our integrity, a simple “Yes!” or “No!” carries more weight than an elaborate answer. While get deeply blessed by the biblically rich prayers of mature believers, we also get blessed very much by simple prayers of children or new believers, don’t we?
Because the LORD is great, He is “greatly to be praised”—thus, David’s call unto “all the earth” to sing to the LORD. But to be greatly praised is more than just to be praised by a great number of people or angels. To be greatly praised also refers to the quality of the praise offered to the LORD. God deserves better than what the best orchestra or choir can perform. No creature can give to God the kind of praise that is good enough for God, including the praises of the glorified angels and saints in heaven. What God looks for is the sincerity of our hearts when we sing to the Lord and declare His glory. It is not that our sincerity makes our praise acceptable—can we ever be sincere enough in praising God? But without sincerity (which stems from our faith in Christ), our praise will only be an empty noise and, worse yet, an insult to God. What is the condition of your heart when you participate in the congregational singing during worship?
Because the LORD is great, He is “to be feared above all gods.” This statement assumes that gods (whether they are just figments of human imagination or manifestations of demons) are objects of fear. There is something dreadful about their supernatural abilities to wreak havoc in our lives. But these “gods” are mere creatures—either of God or our imagination: “For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols.” Whatever dread they can impose on us cannot be compared to the fear of the Lord. For He is infinitely more powerful than any creature. But the fear of the Lord is grounded in God’s infinite being itself. No matter how strong our assurance of God’s love and kindness may be, it cannot be devoid of the fear of the Lord. The weight of His matchless glory is such that it induces a deep sense of fear in those who are in His presence. Even the glorified angels in heaven must cover their eyes and their feet in holy fear.
Our fear of the Lord is different from the devil’s fear of God: his fear causes him to run away from God; our fear draws us near to Him. It is because we fear the Lord that we treasure God’s love and kindness toward us. How can we not praise our God for His grace when we recognize that He should be feared above all gods?