(Psalm 98:1-9) Sing a new song to the Lord,
For He has done wonderful things,His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him.
2 The Lord has made His salvation known;
He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered His graciousness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Be cheerful and sing for joy and sing praises.
5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
With the lyre and the sound of melody.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
Shout joyfully before the King, the Lord.
7 May the sea roar and all it contains,
The world and those who dwell in it.
8 May the rivers clap their hands,
May the mountains sing together for joy
9 Before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth;
He will judge the world with righteousness
And the peoples with fairness.
TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:
One way to explain the Trinity and that "relationship" is using an example such as this: I am a mother, I am a wife, and I am a servant - yet - I am one person. God is three Persons in One, and each "Person" has different roles. Verses 1 and 2 is another way to explain the Trinity, using "the body" to represent God in a visual illustration:
- the body represents the Father, who is omnipresent
- the arm represents the Holy Spirit, who is outstretched to all, and firmly links all believers to God (Isaiah 53:5)
- the hand represents the Son who carries out the work (Colossians 1:15-19). Some of the other scriptures to check out are 1 Peter 3:22, Isaiah 41:10, 48:13 and Psalm 118:16
Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord (Jesus pre-incarnate) would appear to people in various ways for different reasons; but when the time was right, He was born through a virgin who was in line of King David's throne. In this way, Jesus could be fully man who was qualified to be Israel's rightful king, while still being fully God who is the King of kings.
Being a man, Jesus could live and take our place in death to pay the price for sin. The body and hand analogy helps to explain Jesus' words on the cross when He said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mt.27:46) Think of Jesus as being the hand (still part of God's body). Because God is holy and cannot look on sin, at the point when Jesus took on all the sins of this world, God the Father had to turn away from looking at His own hand.
Being fully God, Jesus was able to rise again and have victory over death, providing salvation to anyone who believes in Him. As one repents of their sins, Jesus is faithful to forgive and clothes us in His righteousness. As well, in that moment of being born again - adopted into God's family and body of Christ, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise for eternity so we cannot ever lose our salvation. As the strong arm of the Lord, His Holy Spirit is with us always, to convict, guide and empower us, and to work in and through us as we ask. In this way, we can grow closer to Him, to mature and serve, to reflect His righteousness to those around us.
In our salvation, we can shout joyfully, be cheerful and sing - for the Lord has delivered us from death, and we can enjoy having a close, personal relationship with the Lord God. We have a perfect heavenly Father! And because He has forgiven all our sins, when He judges us, He will only judge our good deeds and reward those done in His righteousness. The Lord will also judge all unbelievers according to their sins, and because they have chosen not to be part of God's body, they will go to a place void of God and void of His goodness.
God will judge everyone, but it is up to us how we will be judged. It comes down to which relationship one wants to have: a relationship with the world, or a relationship with the Lord God. The world might offer temporary happiness but it leads to death, while the Lord offers everyone joy and eternal life!
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