Wilderness Wanderings

Praise the Lord (1). We have sinned, even as our fathers did (6). Therefore, the Lord was angry with His people (40). But he took note of their distress (44). Save us, O Lord our God (47) Praise the Lord! (48) (Psalm 106).

It's a long song, a full 48 stanzas. But for all of that, it only makes one point. You see, the Hebrews of old understood that those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. And if there was one thing the Jews who experienced the Babylonian exile didn't want, it was to repeat those mistakes.

And so, the song writers got together and composed this hit single. Well, I'm not sure it quite made it to the top of the pop charts; it's more of a county song. Actually, its difficult to pin it to any genre. The opening and closing are catchy enough, but in between it feels more like a dirge.

It's unlikely that the trumpets were blaring this tune as the people streamed into the worship centre. It's doubtful that the children sang it as they splashed in the river or the women as they hauled water from the local well. But it was taught by worship leaders and Sunday School teachers, its lessoned engraved on the hearts of young and old alike.

Much of the psalm recounts the sins of Israel's past. It points out that the division of the 10 commandments into two halves, our relationship with God and our relationship with fellow humans, is artificial at best.

Whenever Israel mixed the worship of other gods with the worship of the Lord, the neighbour paid. The psalm cites the most grievous example - human sacrifice (37-38).

Whenever we put trust in something other than the true and living God, our neighbour will suffer. When we worship wealth, we cannot see to our neighbour's needs. When we pursue power, we do so at the expense of the neighbour. When we deify career, or family, or country, concern for the widow, the orphan, and the sojourner will be tragically subordinated. When we take our eyes off God, everyone suffers.

Today is Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada. Wealth, power, and the advancement of white civilization were driving forces in Canada's past and are still in vogue today but maybe more subtly. And yes, we must add that the advancement of white civilization was tied intimately with the Christian church. The result is that first nations folks are deeply scarred, and many remain without necessities like clean water. Is the nation of Canada less guilty of human sacrifice than the Israelites?

Today, we need this psalm. It invites us to remember God, to know his story, and to find our place in his story. In this narrative, it is "not possible not to sin." Thus, to find our place in the story of God is to take up our place in the story of those who have willfully rebelled (43).

Can we do that today as Canadians, as Christian Canadians? Will we allow ourselves to be part of the Canadian story, recognizing the many ways that this nation has caused much suffering? Can we admit that many of the harmful attitudes of the past still linger in our hearts and minds? That is what this psalm invites us to do. "We have sinned, even as our fathers did" (6).

But that is not the end of the story. This song invites us to also take our place in the history of those who have turned and been delivered and forgiven, again and again, by the Lord. It is to take up our place in a relationship of dependence upon the gracious forgiveness of God.

The song is not about our triumphs but about the triumphs of God and His grace: a grace that roots out the attitudes of racism; a grace that gives us the courage to hear the pain we have contributed to; a grace through which we work towards shalom for all people.

We remember that this grace is a gift. None of us deserve it. None of us have earned it. Having received it, we got to join the song, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting."

Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob. He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever… For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham. He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy; he gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws. (Psalm 105:5-7a, 42-45)

This is a psalm of praise. It is also one of the few historical psalms that recounts the story of Israel. What is unique about this psalm though, is that it doesn't share anything about Israel's own part in that story. Nothing is said of Israel's failures or faithlessness. The psalm focuses squarely on God.

But it is addressed to Israel. This account of what God has done is given to inspire their praise, focus their eyes, sharpen their memories and their obedience.

It was God who gave the promise; God who brought them to Egypt; God who raised up Moses; God who brought the plagues; God who brought them out; God who protected and shepherded them through the wilderness; God who brought them safely to a new land. All of this was God's work and not their own. It was not Moses' doing, it was not Abraham's doing, it was the accomplishment of no one but God.

Most significantly, the psalm is bracketed by the God's own "remembering." God remembers his covenant forever the psalm says at the beginning. Then it launches into the story of Israel to prove again exactly how God showed his remembering of that covenant. At the end, the psalm circles back around to the point, declaring: "he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham." In other words: God was faithful. God did what he said he would do, even though it was some 400 years later. God remembers his covenant forever.

The question left open in this psalm is how will Israel respond? The very last line of the psalm declares that God not only kept his promise, but that he did it with a purpose: so that Israel "might keep his precepts and observe his laws." God meant for Israel not only to be the people who belonged to him, but also to be the people who embodied his words and ways to the nations around them. God's desire was that Israel might be "the word of God made flesh" among the nations.

And so: faced with the purposes and promises of God that God remembers and brings to fulfillment in them and in the nations—how will Israel respond? Will they remember God as God has remembered them? Will they faithfully embody the word of God that God has spoken into them?

The same question comes to the church. Will you hear, see, remember and believe that your God has remembered you: chosen you, loved you, forgiven you, and adopted you as his very own in Jesus? Will you embody this word made flesh in Jesus in your own flesh as you die to yourself and live and speak and act each moment of this day in the ways that Jesus himself lived and spoke and acted?

How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time (Psalm 104:24, 27).

Psalm 104 is a creation hymn weaving together several complimentary themes. Thus, it speaks into today's environmental fears. It may not dispel our fears, but it will challenge God's people to enter the conversation with a distinctly hopeful perspective.

The first theme is that of the Lord as once-and-ongoing Creator. The creation story does not end with Genesis 2. God's fingers remain constantly immersed in the clay, shaping and moulding. Listen to some of the phrases: "He waters the mountains…He makes grass grow…You bring darkness…"

In summary the singer writes, "All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time…when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground (27,29,30).

We are compelled to look for the Lord in creation and find His fingerprints in the trustworthy order, joyful nature, and ongoing wonder of re-creation. Being renewed spiritually by the Spirit of God does not remove us from His creation but sends us back to it with full anticipation that we will see much of and learn much from our redeemer as we dwell in this creation.

A second theme is that of the creation's trustworthiness. Genesis 1:2 tells us that the earth was 'formless'. The Hebrew word here is more dramatic because it suggests 'chaos'. The rest of Genesis 1 tells how God created order out of this chaos.

Throughout scripture evil is portrayed as attempting to push the world back into this chaos. But God's presence keeps things in order. Much of western scientific development is predicated on the belief that God created order and maintains it. Our delight is to find that order and use is for the good of humankind.

Of course, there is evidence of chaos, such as storms like Fiona and Ian. We must note that, as destructive as these are, they are the exception. Most of the natural order carries on in an orderly fashion. We see the creation's trustworthiness is the daily, seasonal, and generational cycles. It is observable every time we plant a seed, and it grows, producing a new crop of food and/or beauty. God promised it would be so, and it is. God will not allow chaos to engulf his creation. He will hold chaos at bay until it if finally banished altogether.

Thirdly, this psalm celebrates the sufficiency of creation. The Lord provides enough to satisfy the earth, the trees of the field, the wild animals, and indeed satisfies every living being with good things.

In an age in which we fear that we cannot feed the people on earth, this psalm offers a necessary corrective. It gives motivation to all those who ponder the issues of food distribution. The problem is not lack of sustainability but human greed and avarice which hordes food and wastes it. Economic and political systems tend to be controlled by those who already have more than enough.

For this reason, before the psalm closes, we read "but may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more" (35). Evil is perpetrated by people who do evil things. When we pray for God's shalom, we pray for an end to evil and those who refuse to turn away from chaos bringing acts. We grieve these destructive actions recognizing God's own sorrow when his creatures are extinguished by human selfishness.

Finally, Psalm 104 celebrates God's joy in His creation. The Lord delights in Leviathan, creates wine to gladden the human heart, and rejoices in all His works. The psalmist himself rejoices in the song of praise, ending with "Praise the Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord." God's gift of Sabbath to us is the gift to enjoy the creation. So let us sing this psalm and keep sabbath.

He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:7-12)

Right at the heart of psalm 103 is this familiar title for God: "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love." It's the title God used as he proclaimed his name to Moses, way back on Mt. Sinai—on the second trip up the mountain for the second set of the Ten Commandments.

Moses broke the first set, if you recall, because the people had made a golden calf to worship. Within the 40 days that Moses spent with the Lord on the mountain, the people had forgotten their God. Which is odd, because God had made known his ways to Moses, and his deeds to the people of Israel. They had seen the mighty pillar of fire. They had watched the sea roll up so they could pass through on dry ground. They had seen God's provision of water, manna, and quail in the middle of the desert where nothing grows, nothing lives, and no rain falls.

The Israelites had seen the deeds of the Lord. But in just a little over a month—they forgot. And it was then that the Lord more clearly showed them not only his deeds, but also his ways. Because God, knowing what the people were up to down there at the foot of the mountain, put aside his anger at their idolatry. God forgave his people.

We all have a tendency to forget who our God is. We get pulled along by the steady current of activity, conversations, and news in our lives and world and lose track of the matters of real importance in the process. Like the Israelites before us, we can very quickly forget who our God is and wind up with caricatures of him instead: maybe as this senile benevolence or the specter of a distant, wrathful punisher.

Psalm 103 puts our feet back on the ground in our relationship with God. He is near, like that Father who has compassion on his children. He is intentional: he knows our sins. And yet he is also very good and gracious—"he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities." His love is as high as the heavens, and his ability to remove transgressions from us is limitless. This is our God: the kind of God that sends his son so that we might see him in the flesh, get to know him, and learn from him just what the love of God means in action—that he is a God that would go to any length to forgive his children, even dying for them.

Our God did not treat Adam and Eve as their sins deserved, nor the Israelites fallen into idolatry, nor us today. Our God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. Tuck that word away in your heart, remember it throughout the day no matter what happens, read it again tomorrow. Remember it, and believe. Our God forgives. Thanks be to God.

My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass. But you, O Lord, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations (Psalm 102:11-12).

In New York City, in front of the RCA building on Fifth Avenue, stands a gigantic statue of a massively proportioned, magnificently muscled Atlas, the world resting on his shoulders. As powerfully built as he is, he is straining under the weight, barely able to stand.

Close by stands St. Patrick's Cathedral. Inside, behind the altar, is a little shrine to the boy Jesus. He appears to be no more than eight or nine years old. As little and as frail as he looks, he is holding the world in one hand, as if it were a tennis ball!

Here is the fundamental choice of life: either we live like Atlas, straining to carry the world, or we worship Jesus, who easily holds the world in one hand.

As Christians, we sometimes glibly tell people to choose, as if the choice is easy. When we do that we forget that Psalm 102 is part of our sacred text. In this Psalm, Israel's singer goes through a spiritual struggle to hold on to that choice.

This is not the Psalm for those who think religion ought to be easy or who believe that God's primary purpose is to make us happy. It's easy to fall into this trap, so let's not skate away too quickly without recognizing these tendencies in our own spiritual journeys.

This song is for those who find themselves buried under a load of misfortune and pain. Take a long time to read through verse 1-11; feel the pain and loneliness expressed here. Imagine the situations that would have caused the psalmist to write these laments.

Now pay attention to the opening of verse 12, "But you, O Lord, sit enthroned forever." This is astonishing! How can the psalmist be so confident of God's enthronement after such lamentation? Here is the faith that keeps us from getting buried under the misfortune of life.

Notice that it is not the past that this psalmist relies on; not God`s historic deeds. Rather, it is the present and future acts of God which give heart to this poet.

The psalmist has come to recognize that God is present with his people not to shield us from bad things, but he does unexplainably sustain us in all things. God does not prevent the tragic thing, the cruel thing, the unfair thing, from happening. Rather, He carries us along in the intimate depths of the tragic thing itself—and will continue to do so in every moment of our lives up to and through death, and beyond.

When this is difficult to believe, and during tragedy it is easy to doubt, Christians cling to the cross. This is part of its mystery. Jesus prayed to be delivered from it, but he was not spared. But God raised him from the dead. Jesus was not abandoned, not even in death.

We are invited to hear Paul's prayer to be relieved of his 'thorn in the flesh'. And even more, we are called to hear God's response, "My grace is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak" (2 Corinthians 12:9)

As you read the second half, notice the hints of Christmas this psalm contains. Not nicely decorated houses, elevator worthy Christmas carols or heaps of food and gifts but the Christmas of the Bible, the Christmas strains of redemption: God hearing the groans of the prisoners and releasing those condemned to death (20).

Peering into the future, the psalmist sees all nations gathering to bow before the Lord enthroned forever. The wise men's worship was only a foretaste of this. Christmas marks the beginning; Jesus' second coming will be its fulfilment. God will finish his work of redemption. The fall will be undone. Shalom will guide the nations. Trust him and let him hold your world. He is able.

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Genesis 3 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS

1. What is "sin"?
2. What was the "sin" of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3? How does that same "sin" impact our own world and lives today?
3. What is the difference between "sin" with a small "s" and "Sin" with a capital "S"? What implications does that have?
4. What do Adam and Eve do when confronted by God? How could've that story been different?
5. What did God himself do differently, especially through Jesus?
6. In what way are we called to take up our cross and follow Jesus when it comes to our Sin/sins and the Sin/sins of others? Where is Jesus calling out to you today?

I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life—when will you come to me? I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart. … The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil. (Psalm 101:1-2,4)

It is supposed that this psalm of David was composed more or less as a formal declaration of conduct from the King. The king declares both how he himself will live, but also how he will enjoin his subjects to live within the city and land. The psalm spells out what is meant by a blameless heart and conduct, as well as what is meant by perverseness of heart and its conduct. All of this is modeled, of course, on the love and justice of the Lord, under whom the King serves—the Lord who many of the previous psalms have acknowledged loudly and repeatedly is the real ruler of the land.

It's easy on a first read through this psalm to think that it just ticks off a bunch of boxes of behavior: those who secretly slander, who are arrogant, or deceitful will be cut off from the land by the king! But the psalm actually digs a bit deeper than that. This isn't about a list of wrongs or a rule of law and order by some legal or legalistic standard. No: what the King is entrusted with is something more—a cultivation of his own character and the character of the people in his kingdom.

The word "heart" shows up multiple times in this psalm. The king promises to conduct himself not by means of checking all the right boxes of all the right deeds, but by the cultivation of character and practice that arises from a blameless heart. Similarly, what the king promises to root out of himself, his house, and his land is not merely a specific brand of law-breaker, but instead that which arises from a perverse heart. This is reminiscent of Jesus' words in Matthew that "out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person" (Mt. 15:19-20).

The drum beat of "law and order" has grown louder these past years in the political arena. Morality codes are also increasingly popular in the church too. These trends can lead very quickly to a harsh, black-and-white, loveless orthodoxy with many dangers for leaders and majorities to control, coerce, and erode the space for real, fallen, foibled human people to live. But the faith of the bible always seeks to drive us deeper than that—to attend not just to the surface infractions against an abstract legal code, but to drive down to the matters of the heart—and firstly our own, as it is here with the king. This is where character and maturity are cultivated. It goes beyond the law and rests instead on the heart.

Does that make the law unimportant? No, but it is also not sufficient. Reading through this list of wrongs in Psalm 101, I'm convicted that I fall short of the legal code. I too am in danger of being cut off from the land. According to the law: we're all toast. Thanks be to God it's about more than that then: the slow growing to maturity by the grace, mercy, and lovingkindness of God that transforms our hearts more and more to walk in his blameless ways. We all need God to "come to us" in order to live this psalm—thanks be to God that in Jesus Christ, he has!

But we also need other, embodied examples in our lives to see what this can look like, lived. Which was the point of the King offering his own example to the people in this psalm. Queen Elizabeth might be a good example of such a ruler today. No human example is perfect of course, but it is striking what the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby said of her in his funeral message before hundreds of the world's leaders and rulers who had gathered for it. He said: "people of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer. But in all cases those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privileges are long forgotten." That is just the sort of challenge to live with deeper integrity and character of heart that a good leader ought to give.

As we seek to walk a blameless life, we are called to follow and align our hearts in just such a humble, self-giving way—ultimately after the pattern of our Lord who did not come to be served, but to serve and to offer his life sacrificially for many.

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth…Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture" (Psalm 100:1, 3).

All over the world (and through the ages) this psalm is used in Christian congregations to launch worship services. It's a good song and is rightly used. But it is also problematic. Let me explain.

When we Christians gather for worship services, not all of us feel joyful. Some may already be bored before the worship leaders emerge on the stage. Several may only be there because they got dragged along. Others may be there with deep and real pain in their lives. So how can we talk of joy?

The second problem is not the pew sitters but the leaders. In many contexts, they are attempting to launch the audience, to get them into it. We have taken the approach of the pop concert. I'm not being negative about pop concerts. What I am saying is that worship services are not concerts

Communal worship in Christian communities is a much deeper and a much richer experience than rock concerts. At least, it ought to be. These gatherings are events in which a Christian fellowship assembles in the presence of God to commune with Him.

As Christians, we gather to praise and thank our God. We petition Him and sometimes even groan before Him. But we also gather to hear from Him. We come to listen! We receive his grace and respond with thank offerings.

We talk about the dialogue of worship: God speaks, and we respond. In many services we insert scripture between songs. This is not just filler, not a moment for the singers to catch their breath. It is dialogue: God speaks, we respond. Its not just random stuff stuck in a lineup.

Thus, this psalm is not to be used to launch a worship service. It is rightly used as a call to God's people to worship him. We hear it as God's call to us to assemble and to turn our attention to him. When God calls, He recognizes that we gather with all sorts of mixed emotions. We may indeed not feel like worshipping at all. Our hearts may be joyless. The only thing we can offer him are our groans, our despair.

Therefore, the Psalm calls us to dig deeper than our emotions. "Know that the Lord is God" (3). This is the real heart of the Psalm. It calls us to examine not our emotional well being but the very foundation of the world: our Lord is God. This is our covenant God, who comes to us and declares that He is our God, and we are his people. We belong to him!

In life, this foundation may appear to be on precarious ground. As they say, life happens, and it is seldom pretty. And that is one reason God calls us together for worship, to remember that our Lord is God, and we are His. Life is often lonely; ask any refugee, the person dealing with mental illness, the grieving, those who weathered the pandemic living alone. But in the gathering of God's people for worship we know that we belong to God and thus to each other.

He cares for us like a shepherd cares for the flock. Jesus took for himself the title, "Good Shepherd", letting us know that he is the God of Psalm 100. And then he adds another layer to this song. "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep," he says. Only after his resurrection did his disciples understand that he meant this literally. In worship, we see the nail scarred hands of our Saviour, now seated at the right hand of God.

Sometimes we cannot sing, we can only sit. Sometimes, all we can do is tune in from afar. But sitting there, we listen, hearing our faith expressed by other. We hear the grace of God pronounced. Somehow, the Spirit is at work, even in us.

This worship is missional. Consider what the world sees as God's people worship: a people who dare to declare that their Lord is the God of all the earth and the only glue that holds them together is the blood of Jesus. But what a glue! What a song!

The Lord reigns… Great is the Lord in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise your great and awesome name—he is holy. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy. (Psalm 99:1a,2-3, 9)

Like Psalms 93 and 97, psalm 99 also begins with the declaration: "The Lord reigns." Each of these psalms praise God for a different aspect of his kingship though.

The theme for psalm 99 is God's holiness. Three distinct words on God's holiness are given, which offers some echo or precedent to the hymn found in the heavenly throne rooms of Isaiah and Revelation where all cry out: "Holy, Holy, Holy" before the throne of God.

What is interesting is that Psalm 99's definition of holiness differs somewhat from our own. Holiness here does not necessarily refer to purity or a sense of distance between God and ourselves. It starts there, perhaps, when we hear how God is exalted over all the nations. But the majority of the psalm marvels at how such an awesome God who rules over all the earth and all its peoples still has concern for Israel.

This is the second "holy" in the psalm. The fact that the King is mighty, that he loves justice—that he has established equity, even doing what is right and just in Jacob. Israel is reminded that God rules from Zion, that he sits enthroned between the cherubim of the Ark. So the psalm encourages the people to "exalt the Lord our God." This Holy One who is already exalted over all the nations should receive exaltation among his own people too for his justice displayed before them.

The third "holy" in the psalm is the fact that God is not too distant from his people to hear their cries. This aspect of God's holiness is all about prayer. When the people or their leaders have cried out to the Lord, the Lord has answered with forgiveness. The people still needed to follow in obedience, sure, and they were still punished for their misdeeds by this God of justice, yes. But when they cried out to the Lord their God, there was also forgiveness. A way out of their misery and hardship was provided. A salvation was given. This too is part of the holiness of God: his great forgiveness for his people.

In this psalm, the notion of God's holiness transforms from any abstract theoretical sense of some fascinating, fearsome, far-off deity into something markedly more personal. The psalm speaks about Israel's history with God, Israel's experience of God. This is a people who has a relationship with God that defines what they mean when they say "holy is he."

This is the High King over all who has nevertheless done what is right for us, listened to our cries, answered, and forgiven us. We know his name. He is our God. As Christians following in the footsteps of these psalms, we can say much the same. We also know this holy, listening, and forgiving God's name: it's Jesus.

For a peaceful setting of Psalm 99 by the Sons of Korah, you can click this link.

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him…Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it…let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity (Psalm 98:1, 7, 9).

Momentous events need to be celebrated. In our personal lives, birthdays and anniversaries are marked with celebrations. We throw a party for graduations and other major accomplishments.

In our communal lives we do the same. We mark the anniversaries of our churches with special gatherings worship services. I've been part of a few of these. We celebrate the birth of our country with red and white celebrations each July. Some can remember the celebrations which marked the end of WW2.

Great art and great music also mark turning points in human life. Who can miss the grandeur and pathos of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture? But how many of us know that it was composed to commemorate Napoleon's defeat at the gates of Moscow? Or who can remain seated as Handel's Messiah crescendos in the "Hallelujah Chorus"? (Except yours truly at the age of four, who slept through it – my dad used to love to tell the story).

The cultural revolutions of the 60s coincided with the birth of rock 'n roll.

Church history also shows us that every great revival has produced new songs. Suddenly an awakened people break traditional forms, giving voice to their praise. This was true in the Reformation, in Wesleyanism, Pentecostalism, and the Jesus movement. They all brought new worship music into the life of the church.

In Psalm 98, God's marvellous works prompt the call for a new song. Israel has experienced "marvellous things." God has acted and gained the victory (1).

Israel has experienced salvation because God has remembered His covenant (2-3). The earth is called to join in the singing with instruments and joyful shouts (4-6). Finally, all of creation must add its praise because God is coming to judge the earth and bring in His final resolution (7-9).

Nothing is to be spared in praise of God; every voice and every known instrument are to raise a shout of praise. The celebration is to be as over the top as possible. Nothing is too big to express the praise of the one who made us and saves us.

But this calls forth a question: do we dance and sing when we think of "judgment day"? Do we trust God to judge with equity all the peoples of the earth? Can we really join in the celebration in loud voices? The celebration here is not trite. We are called to celebrate God's judgment on us and on the world.

What is this judgement? Pastor Anthony spoke about it yesterday, but I think its worth a few more words. Israel's expectation that God would come 'to judge the world in righteousness' was her faith that one day 'God's will would be done one earth as in heaven.' As Jesus would later explain, his reign begins with the deep foundation of God's rule in the human heart, yours and mine. God's shalom will govern the earth.

As Ezekiel foresaw, our hearts of stone would be broken and replaced with hearts tuned in to God's Spirit. This judgement will remove our conflicted loyalties so that we worship God alone.

To sing such Psalms is too long for God's salvation, not just for the world, but for ourselves as well. They awaken in us a renewed dedication to our Redeemer, inspiring in us a desire to flee from all evil and to embrace all that is good and righteous. These are good songs. Are you singing them?