Tag Archives: Psalm 93

Holy… me?!

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“I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”

(Lev 11.44)

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.

(Ps 29.2)

Your statutes, Lord, stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days.

(Ps 93.5)

Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds and his righteousness endures for ever.. the Lord is gracious and compassionate.. he remembers his covenant for ever… The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.. enacted in faithfulness and uprightness… holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…

(Ps 111, extracts)

Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands… Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who … conduct their affairs with justice. Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered for ever.. their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord… their righteousness endures for ever..

(Ps 112, extracts)

… so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.. now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life.. the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Rom 6.19,22&23)

In [Christ] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

(Eph 2.21&22)

It is only recently that I have properly come to understand that the word ‘holy’ is almost a synonym for God – meaning as it does the otherwise indefinable ‘otherness’ of the divine in all his glory, power and purity. Psalm 111 expresses many of those qualities in lyric power. So when the bible talks about holiness adorning God’s house, it is in the sense that a person’s home expresses their character, their taste and interests.. Ultimately, the word can only be applied to God, but the bible narrative is clear that in relation to God both people and things may be described as holy – meaning that they are to be regarded as his peculiar property, and again, designed to express and mirror his unique qualities. Again, in Psalm 112, we find a description of those who reflect God’s nature, the same words being used of them as were previously used of God.

God made humankind in his likeness, made them holy, to reflect and express his nature as they exercised stewardship in his name in creation. After their rebellion, God’s purpose in all the great story of redemption and re-creation is to restore that god-likeness or holiness in humankind, so that we might return to the joy and fullness of life for which we are designed. Jesus has accomplished the victory which makes holiness the birth-right and inheritance of all who trust in his saving power, and we may be sure that God who has begun this work of transformation will not rest until it is complete.

Holiness therefore is not something to be afraid of as somehow depriving us of opportunities or enjoyment of life. Holiness is the likeness of God as revealed in us by the work of the Spirit, as our minds and hearts are transformed in the freedom which Jesus has won for us. Those qualities when blossoming within the church as a dwelling place of God by his Spirit are indeed an adornment, a beautiful expression of the master of the house and an attraction to all who would find peace, hope and new life.

You, O Lord, are holy – what a tiny word to encompass and denote all that is your glory and character, your essential qualities. To become holy is to be gaining in those qualities – reflecting in our human sphere those aspects of your character which are within our scope to express.

We are your people, made in your likeness, created to thrive in so far as we reflect you and fulfil your purpose for us. You have set eternity in our hearts and endowed us with the life of the age to come where your holiness will be perfectly mirrored in our sinlessness. Lord, grant us even now to grow in this godli(ke)ness, this set-apartness, which is your nature and our destiny, that we might be a clear and winning witness to you in our day and generation. Thank you, that because of Jesus’ victory, we know that you will not cease to work in us to this end; let us then be joyful and praise you. Holy and awesome is your name, God our Lord!

Defiant praise!

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The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity.

The seas have lifted up, O Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty.

Your statutes stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days, O Lord.

(Ps 93)

A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry? All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands for ever.”

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”

(Isa 40.6-8 &28-29)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance than can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

(1Pet 1.3-5)

It’s what we do…as Paul and Silas praised God with songs and prayers in the prison, bound with chains, perhaps aching and bleeding from beatings.

It’s what we do….as David praised God in psalm and prayer while he was on the run from Saul; as his hope of kingship was pushed further and further into the future; as his men doubted and supplies ran low.

It’s what we do….as Daniel did, when to do so meant that his life was threatened; as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did while standing beside the furnace into which they would be thrown, with the heat beating on their backs.

It’s what we do…as Habbakuk did even while he contemplated the utter ruin of his land, and the destruction of all good things at the hand of an invading army.

In the face of darkness caused by human sin and rebellion; in face of a threatened planet and anticipated global suffering; in face of war and malice, degradation and naked evil exploitation; in face of so many well-meaning and misdirected people who think it is enough to try one’s best, that being kind is all that matters…God’s people fall on their faces at his feet in praise, adoration and total submission to his will, to every expression of his holiness and in awestruck recognition of the depths of his mercy.

In defiance of all those who mock our supposed bigotry or blindness and narrow-mindedness; in defiance of those who reject any God, and try to confine us to the bleak, limited and merciless ‘now’; in spite of those who condemn and despise Jesus because of the grievous failings of his church down the centuries…still today his followers lift their voices to acclaim their King; to tell the world that He came to die to make all things – even us – new, and that there IS so much more even than what we currently perceive.

Human kingdoms rise and fall, pandemics sweep the planet causing immeasurable harm, the life-sustaining ecosystems strain to survive…BUT our God is on the throne, and nothing is impossible with him. When his people choose to praise, choose to dwell on the truth of his character, his promises, his love and mercy; then their courage rises, their strength is renewed, and their hope brightened.

Friends, let us choose adoration; choose to put God on the throne of our lives, so that we may face our world and all its challenges with courage because we have an eternal hope for which we are being kept – in every situation, you and I are shielded by the power of God because nothing can cut us off from him and the inheritance which Christ Jesus died to give us.

Halleluia, our God reigns!