Friday, June 1, 2018

Regularly Singing His Praises

I'm 16 years old and reading the word of God, and suddenly it hits me, "I am a Christian!" I quickly write it in my journal in big bold letters, "I AM A CHRISTIAN!" I proceed to take up the entire page, "Christ has saved me! I am going to heaven, I am a Christian!" I begin to rejoice. Oh what an amazing thought that I was saved by Christ! 

As I look back at that moment I often think that was the moment I was saved. How could the thought of knowing Christ not have brought me to that rejoicing before then? Then again, how could the thought of knowing Christ not bring me to rejoicing every day since? 

I remembered this memory today as I had my devotions. I've been reading a Psalm a day, and then 1 Chronicles. Today, by God's providence, it just so happened that after I read Psalm 98, I read 1 Chronicles. 
Psalm 98 is about rejoicing over the Lord's Salvation, specifically His steadfast love and faithfulness to Israel, which was clearly witness by all the earth. Therefore, because all the earth had witnessed it, all the earth must break out in a joyful noise. Consider the joy here in God's salvation, and the Psalmist hadn't even yet experienced the marvelous work of Christ on the cross! I was hit by this thinking, "Should I not then rejoice all the more?" 
I then turned to where my second bookmark was, in 1 Chronicles 16, and read about the Song of Thanksgiving that David, Asaph, his brothers, and all of Israel sang before the Lord, concerning His faithfulness to fulfill his promise of bringing them to Canaan. The Psalm itself has multiple parallels to Psalm 98, with singing to the Lord, and how all the earth can see His marvelous works, but I was further struck by the use of the word "regularly." 

"Asaph was to sound the cymbals, and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God.""So David left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister regularly before the ark as each day required""offer burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly"

I began to consider a few things. 
Consider all that worship that was done regularly before the Lord! Consider Psalm 98:1 that says, "Oh sing to the Lord a new song." Consider the new song of praise that I sang when I first was pierced by the Love of Christ through salvation! Consider how I have not done that regularly since! 

How I am now burdened that I do not regularly minister before God's presence, He who now dwells within me! And so I cry out, asking God to create in me a heart that needs to worship Him each day, that is required to, not by the law as Asaph was bound by, but by a deep love of Christ that cannot keep silent! Oh that I may daily go back to the day when I was pierced by God's kindness at the cross, and sing a song of thankfulness. 

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