Word of Encouragement (10/23/2024)
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; 30 tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. 31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” 32 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! 33 Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. 34 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! (1 Chron. 16:29c-34)
David calls on “all the earth” to worship the LORD and tremble before Him. Why? Because the LORD is the sovereign Lord of all the earth: “The LORD reigns” (v. 31)! It is He, who established the world so that it won’t be moved. The heavens are called to be glad and the earth to rejoice (v. 31:a) because God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). He made the heavens to declare the glory of God and the sky above to show His handiwork (Ps. 19:1). To those who have the eyes to see, the earth is full of God’s majesty (Ps. 8:1).
Of course, David is using personification here. The heavens and the earth are not living, sentient beings that they can rejoice. But through personification, David is showing that it is only right that the things that are created should be glad and rejoice, especially for the privilege of reflecting the glory, wisdom, and beauty of the Creator. If non-animate objects should rejoice in God’s creation, man, who is made in the image of God with the intellectual and spiritual faculties to know God and have a relationship with Him, should do so all the more! When the Pharisees told Jesus to make the crowd quiet when they greeted Him as “the King who comes in the name of the Lord,” Jesus said, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40).
David also calls on “the sea [to] roar, and all that fills it,” and “the field [to] exult, and everything in it” (v. 32)! Maybe David is envisioning the sea in a storm, especially the waves crashing against the shore with thunderous noise. And maybe he sees the field bursting with striking colors as flowers blossom in their season. He also speaks of “the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord” (v. 33). This one is easy: he is describing the rustling sound of the trees as the wind blows through the mountains. These are all personifications. We know the point David is trying to make: creatures glorify God their Maker by doing what they are made to do.
We can see that the whole universe is constantly engaged in glorifying God by doing exactly what it is made to do. The only exception is man. As a free moral agent, man is capable of going against God’s will, God’s law, and his own conscience. In his fallen condition, that is all he does. How sad and terrible this is! Of all creatures, man with his unique faculties to know God and have a relationship with Him should be the one to lead the universal chorus of praise to God. But he has filled his mind with ungodly thoughts and his lips with profanities.
We can say, then, that man is saved to properly worship God, for which he was created. Jesus came into this world, willing to suffer and die in our place, to redeem man from sin so he might worship God in spirit and truth. How is your worship of God, not only on the Lord’s Day but also between Sundays? Is your worship characterized by gladness and rejoicing (in godly fear and trembling)?