Tag Archives: Revelation 7

Not just background noise..

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Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him all you peoples For great is his love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever. Praise the Lord.

(Ps 117)

In that day you will say: “I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

(Isa 12)

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

(Rom 15.5-7)

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb… And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

(Rev 7.9&10)

The people of God are summoned many times in the great story of our salvation to sing, to make a joyful noise to our Lord and King. Singing in scripture is the proper response to the free gift of God to us – the gift of his love, his faithfulness, his forgiveness and most of all, the gift of Jesus Christ our Saviour by whom all other gifts come to us. We sing not because we like the sound of our voices so much, but because praise is absolutely the best way to acknowledge that we are beginning to appreciate all that has been done for us. The picture of God’s people from all around the globe joining their voices in song is deeply moving, and we long to experience it for ourselves. One day, we shall!

In the meantime, the song may be hard to sing, because our experience in the world feels so far removed from that triumphant rejoicing which is described in scripture. We are bombarded with accusations of bigotry, cruelty and arrogance from a culture that rejects the gospel; we grieve for the real pain, evil and destruction of God’s beautiful creation; and sometimes we are simply made to feel utterly irrelevant to the lives of those around us – as fools with nothing to offer. It can be hard to tune in to the triumph song of God’s saints when the world’s songs are so loud in our ears.

But as we discipline ourselves to return to God’s word regularly, choosing to preach the good news to ourselves in defiance of the world, we will find that the song of heaven sounds louder again and it becomes easier to sing it with confidence.

We are assured throughout the bible narrative that what is going on around us is far from the whole picture. I find it helpful to think of the scriptures of the Old and New testaments as a minority report on history – a counter-cultural understanding of events based on a conviction that God Almighty is on the throne, that He is faithful, powerful and purposeful, and that His plan is the redemption of a people for himself and the full  realisation of his kingdom.

As people who believe in the resurrected Christ, we have every reason to be certain that God will fulfill his plans, that we are as secure in our eternal future as if we were already through death and entered upon it. NOTHING can take that inheritance from us, and no experience of pain, abandonment, age, disappointment need silence our song. Rather, as the realities of this broken world press upon us, we can take comfort in that song which speaks of undying love, fulness of life, a reality more glorious and satisfying than anything we have known here.

Great Author of creation’s song, I praise you this day out of my full heart, and thank you for all that has been done for me in your plan, so that I have a place with you now in glory. Thank you that I can sing heaven’s triumph song here, in defiance of the dark, and in witness to the light. Thank you that as your people sing, they encourage one another and grow in strength. We are created to sing this great music together to your glory, and I pray that no matter what circumstances may weigh upon me, I may sing in harmony and with confidence. Let your song be the loudest in my life, no mere background music but the signature tune of my days. Let it be so, for your glory and the blessing of many, Amen.

The gift of salvation

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How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” … Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.

(Isa 52.7&9)

.. an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

(Matt 1.20&21)

Simeon took [the child] in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel

(Lk 2.28-32)

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

(Rev 7.9&10)

As we enter the season of Advent – of remembering in advance what the Christmas celebration is all about – we are both looking back and looking forward. We look back to what happened in that disturbed season in the Roman Empire, when great movements of people in order to make a census, took a man and his heavily pregnant fiance down the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem. We look further back to millennia of Jewish expectation that something would be given, would come from their God, something that would make all the difference in the world to their relationship with Him – because it would remove for ever the barrier caused by the stain of sin in every human heart.

It is not easy to assert in our culture that humankind needs to be saved from itself, that every living soul is naturally oriented away from God, and that what is counted a ‘good’ life by our standards is yet in God’s eyes as far from his standards as that of the greatest tyrant. But this is what the bible tells us, and the work of salvation is assigned to the person of Jesus, born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem – how wonderful to see the assurance in the angelic message, ‘he will save his people’, not ‘might’ or ‘will try to’! There was no doubt in the realms of glory that victory would be gained..

It is not easy to explain that we believe in judgement for sin – that a price must be paid in order to turn aside the just wrath of a holy God against the rebellion of his creatures, and all the destructive fruits of that rebellion. Once again, the bible is consistent in its message – sacrifice for sin is the only way to restore our relationship with God, and as imperfect, sinful creatures, we cannot provide the perfect sacrifice necessary to deal with sin once and for all. Instead, we have Jesus, recognised by his cousin John the baptiser as the Lamb of the world – why a lamb? Because this was the creature of sacrifice, and as Isaiah had prophesied – all our griefs and sins were laid on him, so that we might be saved and healed.

So we look back to the birth of Jesus as the coming of God’s perfect gift of salvation to the world, the full realisation of all the promises that the Jews had lived by, and on which the eternal establishing of God’s kingdom would rest. Without the work of salvation, without the brutal realities of atonement for your sin and mine, Christmas would be an empty celebration, a pointless party, with gifts of no lasting value.

But, because of what Jesus did, we can celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour as the beginning of a new reality, where sin no longer has the upper hand, and death is no longer the end of hope. Because of him, christians can live forgiven, can live hopeful, can live out grace to one another – because we have been saved from ourselves and all the old tyrannies, to love and serve another, in whose service we are fully alive.

Finally, we look ahead, to the great day when all those who have accepted the complete salvation from sin which is found only in Jesus, join together in the new heaven and new earth to celebrate that glorious work, and to praise the amazing love which conceived and carried it out.

I worship you today my God, generous beyond imagining and loving beyond reason. I praise you for the gift of salvation which came to us through your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you that I can live forgiven; can live without guilt; can live with hope. May I know how to value this priceless gift, and seek to share it with all who will receive it. Because of Jesus, I can pray this prayer; praise to his name, Amen!