Worship Warship
“Save us, LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.
Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
Praise the LORD.”
Today’s Text: Psalm 106:34-48 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
In a way, we could think of these verses as the thesis of the whole Bible. In fact, we could think of Psalm 106 as a summary of the entire biblical narrative. And in the end, He saves us and gathers us together to praise His holy name.
The end of this psalm gives us a summary of God’s divine plan for each and every one of us, and it comes after recounting the idolatry and rebellion of Israel, as told in the Bible.
And if we can be honest in our self-reflection, the people of God continue in idolatry and rebellion up to this day. But the key verse comes when the psalmist writes that “for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented” (verse 45).
Really! Where would any of us be if God, for our sake (!), did not remember His covenant with us and did not relent by sending His Son to die for all of our sins?
Are we encouraged, yet?! But knowing that we are hopeless sinners saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone, how then ought we to live? That is the ultimate question that the Bible tries to train us in (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Pastor Ben and I were talking during lunch about how crazy this world is. And every generation of Christians seems to think that their generation is in the worst state that humanity has ever seen. And he pointed out that, in a way, each generation is correct. Because with each new generation, we are getting closer to Christ’s return.
The Bible tells us two things about when Christ will return: (1) evil will rule the world, and (2) the full number of the elect will be saved.
As sinners who have been redeemed by grace, we are called to resist and intercede and even fight against the evil of this world, even knowing that in the end, evil will rule the world. We definitely should not join in and frolic in the evil! Yet even if we stumble (and we will sometimes), we know that it is the grace of God that saves us.
But more to the point, we are called to seek and to save the lost. Of course, it is not us who saves, but the Holy Spirit. We are simply called to seek the lost and get the gospel out to the full number of the elect in our own generation. That is God’s revealed will for each and every one of us who believe.
And that doesn’t mean that we have to give up everything and go to seminary and become professional ministers and missionaries. God has established and ordained that work through His church. The church is not a social club. The church is not counselling center. The church is not an entertainment venue. The church is not restaurant.
The church is a warship of worship with Christ at the helm to seek and to save the lost.
Father, You have revealed to us the beginning and the end and everything in between. You have called us into Your salvation even though we don’t deserve it. But You have elected us so that we might declare Your praises and proclaim Your gospel so that the full number of the elect in this generation might do the same. Give us that heart and passion. Give me that heart and passion. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
