Prayer
Great God of heaven and earth, shower Your grace upon us that as we approach You in all Your glory and greatness that we would worship You worthily. Whether we come before You alone in our private worship, or collectively in the congregation of Your people, by Your Spirit gives us minds filled with truth and hearts burning with fervent and intense love and affection for Christ. Amen.
Today’s Hymn
WE REST ON THEE (Click here for tune.)
Words: Edith G. Cher¬ry, cir¬ca 1895.
Music: FIN¬LAND¬IA, Jean Si¬bel¬i¬us, 1899
We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go.
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go.
Yes, in Thy name, O Captain of salvation!
In Thy dear name, all other names above;
Jesus our righteousness, our sure foundation,
Our prince of glory and our king of love.
Jesus our righteousness, our sure foundation,
Our prince of glory and our king of love.
We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go.
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go.
We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender!
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
Thought Provoker
We have before us today what is probably the most succinct, concise and complete praise to God that is assembled in a single Psalm. Spurgeon’s introduction to this Psalm captures its nature best:
It is David’s, David’s very own, David’s favorite. It is David’s Praise just as another (Psalm 86:1-17) is David’s Prayer. It is altogether praise, and praise pitched in a high key. David had blessed God many a time in other psalms, but this he regarded as his peculiar, his crown jewel of praise. Certainly David’s praise is the best of praise, for it is that of a man of experience, of sincerity, of calm deliberation, and of intense warmth of the heart. It is not for any one of us to render David’s praise, for David only could do that, but we may take David’s psalm as a model, and aim at making our own personal adoration as much, like it as possible: we shall be long before we equal our model. Let each Christian reader present his own praise unto the Lord, and call it by his own name. What a wealth of varied praise will thus be presented through Christ Jesus!
Dad’s Study
In this Psalm David praises God for His:
Glory verses 1-7
Goodness verses 8-10
Kingdom verses 11-13
Providence verses 14-16
Saving mercy verses 17-21
Verse 3 says, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.” When David says that God is great it means in His importance, that God Himself is the important One. No one and no thing is more important that Jehovah. What follows from this is that One who by nature is so great should be the object of great praise. This kind of great praise is a praise that is “exceedingly much” and demonstrates the magnitude of the object, Jehovah. The nature of the object of worship should be reflected in the worship itself. We worship a great God who is worthy of the greatest worship. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:11). God, and God alone is worthy of such great praise. This attribute of God’s, His personal greatness, is beyond a complete investigation or searching out. God’s greatness is so great that we cannot completely find it out or know it. David, in this Psalm provides great subject matter for this great praise of Jehovah focusing upon attributes and works of God that will evoke a response of worship from those whom are the recipients of His great grace. Click here for Matthew Henry’s Commentary
Truth in Practice
Family Worship
How do we “greatly” praise such a great God? Just today I was meditating upon Romans 8:17 and what it means to be a fellow heir with Christ and what lies ahead for all who are united to Him. In looking at the inheritance that awaits us my heart was enthralled to ponder the truth that when we receive that inheritance in full we will be able to perfectly worship Him and His greatness. Now we strive to worship Him worthily, but because of the weakness of our flesh, even with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we fall short in worshipping Him “greatly.” Spurgeon described the “great” praise of God like this, “Praise may be said to be great when the song contains great matter, when the hearts producing it are intensely fervent, and when large numbers unite in the grand acclaim. No chorus is too loud, no orchestra too large, no psalm too lofty for the lauding of the Lord of Hosts.” In other words God is greatly praised when we worship Him in Spirit and truth. God is greatly praised when the song of our lips engages our mind with the truth of His Word and our hearts with a sincere and fervent love and affection for Christ.
Catechism Question : 10
Q. How did God create man?
A. God created man, male and female, after his own image (Gen. 1:27), in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24) with dominion over the creatures (Gen 1:28).
