With harps of God in their hands . . . they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” Rev. 15:2-4
Dear heavenly Father, I find that the songs of heaven have an amazing power to center my heart when life seems a bit out of control, and events in the world unnerve me. What did followers of Jesus need in the crazy-making chaos of first-century Rome? The same thing we followers of Jesus need in the off-putting madness of our 21st century world. We need to sing your story. We need to sing our theology. We need to sing the gospel!
Hand me a harp today, Father. I’ll gladly join the heavenly chorus singing the song of Moses—a song of Exodus grace—deliverance from the bondage of Egypt into a land of freedom. But I’ll sing the song of the Lamb even louder. For Jesus has delivered us from sin and death, into the glorious freedom of the children of God; and Jesus will yet deliver us into the ultimate land of freedom—the new heaven and new earth. Oh, the peace and joy…
Father, I choose to live and sing in light of the Day when all nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been most profoundly revealed in the gospel. Great and marvelous are your deeds, Oh Lord, full of mercy and overflowing with grace, for us in Jesus.
All of your ways, in heaven and on earth, are just and true, for you are the King of the ages. Every other king gets the “15 minutes in the spotlight” you appoint them; but you alone are “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God,” and to you “be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:17).
Therefore, I’ll not be afraid of any human king, but I will live in awe of you, Lord, for you are incomparably holy and irrepressibly good. So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ sovereign and saving name.