Last week I was reading through Psalm 95-97 and it struck me that towards the end of each of those chapters the Psalmist is praising God for his wrath or judgement upon the people.  Now I understand that for the most part David wrote the Psalms and was being hunted by his family so I’m sure justice was a big deal for him at that moment.  Then I started thinking about the praise and worship songs that are sung in churches today and there is a lack of songs praising God for his justice (judgement, righteous wrath).  I believe that the run of the mill christian may not understand God’s justice so we can’t even say why this is a praise worthy attribute.  With the help of Shai Linne I hope I can help you understand how to praise God for his justice.

Judge of All The Earth

Written by Shai Linne

 

Verse 1

Tune in with concentration as we resume the conversation

The loftiest thoughts conceivable for human contemplation

Trying to search the mysteries of the divine is real deep

And when it comes to the nature of God, at times we still sleep

We must risk people tuning us out as we discuss this

The topic on the table for reflection? God’s Justice

The Scriptures are clear: salvation belongs to God alone

And that righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne

He’s the priceless gift and treasure, all life exists for His pleasure

And He is the standard by which all righteousness should be measured

All human judges fail- no need to share the statistics

But God judges perfectly due to His characteristics

First, He’s omniscient, so He never lacks information

Secondly, His understanding: it has no limitations

Plus He knows the thoughts and all the motives behind them

And no one could ever go hide in a place where the Sovereign LORD cannot find them

When passing a sentence, He has the power of execution

The proper retribution for our private revolutions

And He’s in the position to smash us for our treason

No one’ll be copping please when God dispatches all His legions

To execute the sentence on resolute defendants

Who rejected the truth because they never knew repentance

And those who stood against the Great I Am and His Anointed

When God judges the nations through the Man He has appointed

 

Chorus

The Judge of all the earth shall do right

The Judge of all the earth shall do right

He is good and His ways are just

Worthy of our faith and trust

The Judge of all the earth shall do right

 

Verse 2

As we continue to consider this particular perfection

Let’s take a second to address a few misconceptions

When many think of God they assume His love is a must

That’s true, but it doesn’t negate the fact that God is just

So when we say this, they’ll wanna take us off the play list

But God is never under obligation to be gracious

See, justice and mercy are two separate categories

And God is the one who chooses which way He’ll have His glory

The choices The Holy One certainly can’t be faulted

In punishing the guilty, His righteousness is exalted

He also rewards the righteous, we kind of/ sort of like this

The problem of course is that nobody who’s born is righteous

Because of Adam’s descendants are inherently filthy

That’s problematic for a God who will not clear the guilty

If God is gonna save us and demonstrate what His love is

It must be in a manner that’s consistent with His justice

Jesus Christ, The Righteous One, the perfect solution

Proving that God is just on the basis of substitution

Perfect obedience, consecration without a flaw

Yet, on the cross He suffered the condemnation of the law

So now God is able to be just and the justifier

Of all who turn from their sin and place their trust in Messiah

The resurrected Lord is our infinite treasure truly

He gives us new eyes to see His justice in all its beauty!

Okay, first take a deep breath.  Now here’s how I see praise flowing from this:

First, understanding his judgement helps me see more of what I deserve and what I’ve been saved from by the blood of Jesus Christ.  My response is reverent contrition for my sins followed by the forgiveness found in Jesus. Praise the Lord!  Second, when others have attacked me or wronged me I know that if they repent God will forgive them but if they do not God will be their final judge and will execute a sentence in accordance with the sins.  I can forgive and release judgment because I cannot perfectly judge and God will righteously and justly save or condemn for the sake of his glory.

Happy Day

Read from Psalm 95-97 throughout the next 5 songs.

Come Let Us Worship

Holy

Fire Fall Down

From the Inside Out

He Reigns

Let the Praises Ring

Nothing but the Blood

Hosanna

Fire Fall Down

You’ll Come

We Are the Frees

But why was it great?

The Holy Spirit united us as a body of believers with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It goes beyond just singing songs.

Another aspect of God’s active involvement this morning is how a huge chunk of the congregation is so passionate about Jesus that they are willing to give their whole life for Him. Singing With Everything this morning took on a fuller definition. Everything – as in, like, everything.

It’s not a passion for emotion’s sake; it’s passion inseparable from biblical truth. On Friday, Carl Medearis talked about the parables of Jesus and challenged people to consider why they love Jesus. This morning he talked about Luke 4:16-30 and 2 Kings 6. The crowd in the synagogue in Luke 4 is really fickle. “Wow! Such authority. We speak well of you. Wait a minute! Wrath! Wrath!” (My summary, not Carl’s.) You tell a story in Israel about God blessing a Syrian guy and a Lebanese guy and some people will get mad. Not much has changed over the centuries.

And have you thought about what it means to love your enemies? Sure, it’s simple to say, but could we do that as foreign policy? Could you have tea with Hezbollah?

So how is this different than the other Sunday mornings out of the year? Answer: it’s not, really. Yes, we had a ton of people from different parts of the country in our congregation this morning, but I would be willing to bet that not everyone who regularly attends FCOV was born in Chandler, Arizona. We also have a number of religious traditions show up each week, much like this morning.

I think the passion was more noticeable to me this weekend for two reasons:

1. Most people are not in TOAG because it’s just a part of their weekly routine.
2. We’re familiar with each other.

If you’re going to church simply because that’s what you’ve always done, I hope that God is sparking a reviving fire in your heart. I hope that I can come by your side and encourage you towards life.

By being familiar with each other, we can sometimes let interpersonal issues distract us from admiring God’s handiwork in His masterpieces around us. Who are we to give an art critique on what God has created? He makes even my best efforts look like cracked macaroni glued to construction paper. (No offense to the Macaroni School of Art.)

Here’s the beauty of it, though. Our familiarity should give us the freedom to take risks with God, to trust that Jesus knows what He’s talking about when He says that we are all a part of the same vine and that true life comes from abiding in Him. We take risks with God’s people. We don’t have comfort for comfort’s sake. We have life to live for Jesus and His Church.

We’re in it for the long haul with the regular attenders. Much like any relationship worth maintaining over an extended period of time, it takes work. It takes faith, hope, and love.

Encourage each other towards loving enemies. And remember: we’re called to the same hope.

Rejoice in being connected to believers around the world. You are a part of the most powerful kingdom ever to set foot on Earth (or anywhere else) and the kingdom is ruled by the most righteous king ever. Now we know in part; then we will know fully, even as we are fully known.

Rejoice in being connected to believers locally. You need them to fulfill God’s design for His people.

Rejoice in being a part of God’s family here and there.

Let the Praises Ring

Our God Saves

All I Have is Christ (you can watch the video we played with here)

Surrender

With Everything

Endless Hallelujah

A great Sunday all together, great speaker, great update on missionaries.  Looking forward to our senior pastor back next week

For Your Glory

Trading My Sorrows

You Are My Strength

Mighty to Save

Revelation Song

Behold Our God

When I was a child my mom would have us listen to classical music and draw pictures that came to our heads based off the music. Right from the beginning of this album pictures were coming to mind and they always were tied beautifully to the lyric. As the first song, Let There Be, starts there is no distinguishable time or rhythm which gives this feel of nothing solid. We are experiencing pre-creation. Then the song begins to take form, I can see the Spirit of God hovering over the waters, the lyric “let there be” keeps repeating until the HUGE crescendo where she finally sings “Light.” The music made me feel as if I had been in darkness and I was beginning to see something happening, then there came light.

Move to the next song, and the next phase of creation. Brother Moon starts out musically with dancing flutes and I saw flowers and plants sprouting out of the ground and creatures beginning to move, creation was happening. I love the lyrics of this song, especially when they take terms like “Mother Earth your giving us life” and show God at the center of it by adding “with God’s open had you always provide for us.” God made everything and is in everything, this song does a great job of driving that truth home.

Crags and Clay is a beautiful reflective song of praise to God who made everything and us and finds it beautiful.

From the first notes of The Fall I felt this sad, painful lament. Then the lyrics drive home the fall and it’s effect on creation.

When Death Dies is probably my favorite song on the album. A wonderful response to The Fall, when I first heard the beginning I thought it sounded like Simon & Garfunkel then moves to a driving rock tune. Again musically it takes me to the same place as the lyrics. When death dies, all things live.

Church Bells and Wake up Sleeper are two songs that really complement each other. First a call to children to dance and respond to the death of death, old men get up and dance. Church Bells seems to be a call to those ready to enter the Kingdom, Wake Up Sleeper is a warning to, specifically the religious teachers, but those who are unaware salvation has come. Again there is a lightness in the music of Church Bells and an edge to the music in Wake Up Sleeper, great pairing of music and lyric.

Ezekiel is as passionate cry from the Father petitioning us to come back to him. He gave, his heart his love and we sold our bodies and gave up everything he gave us. I feel the heartache in the music.

Vous Etes Mon Coure (You are My Heart) the Father looks everywhere for us, highest mountain to wooded valley. I felt at peace listing to this one and I think I should knowing that the Father is out there looking to save those he loves.

No, This is Not the End. A celebration of the fact that death here is not the end but the beginning. We will see clearer, breathe bigger and shine brighter, AMEN!!

You Are the Beauty is filled with imagery of things redeemed, all things made for good.

Although it is wonderful to look to the day we are with the Father and Son in paradise, we are here on earth right now and Every Breath is a charge to live wholly sold out to God, every breath for His Glory. Here I am Lord, send me.

As I was thinking about this post I began to wonder if this is what they intended that listeners get out of this album or if I’m just plain crazy. I’m going to try and contact Michael Gungor and ask him, we’ll see

Hosanna (Praise is Rising)

Everlasting God

Holy

You Are My King

Never Once

The Stand

Endless Hallelujah

The blessing I read at the end of the service was Colossians 1:9-14

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

(Colossians 1:9-14 ESV)

My input was in song choice for this morning. Hopefully it’s obvious each week that we don’t just sing random songs, that there is a purpose to each lyric chosen. Thanks, Jeremy, for having me lead during week 10 of the Seeking Him study, the sexual purity week. (There’s only a tiny bit of sarcasm in that thank you. It really was a good week to plan a set list for.) Here’s a cut-and-paste from an email that I sent to the team to get ready for this Sunday. The side notes explain my thought process for each song.

Start of service:
#1 – Be Glorified - our ultimate desire and prayer
#2 – You Alone Can Rescue - we cannot checklist our way to freedom/we cannot save ourselves

Communion: The same God who raised Jesus from the dead gives us the power to walk in purity, “to will and to act to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13) We’ll do communion like we’ve done recently, with the small tables and people choosing when to take it. During that time we’ll play:

#3 – Repentance Song - Chris’s use of the Isaiah 6 imagery is awesome and fits perfectly for an honest internal examination compared to a very holy God.
#4 – Before the Throne of God Above - when Satan reminds us of the guilt within, we cling to the fact that we are one with Christ and justified

Then, our victory response:
#5 – Stronger - “You broke my shame and sinfulness/You rose again victorious” -  awe of his faithfulness
#6 – Shout Unto God - “Because the enemy has been defeated” – We shout with a voice of triumph :>

Sermon

Offering:
#7 - TBD - (whoever published the song “TBD” could be getting a ton of royalties, we play it so much)

Repentance Song is written by Chris Poehls and, like I said, uses Isaiah 6 beautifully. The “To Be Determined” (TBD) ended up being Chris singing Surrender (Marc James, right?). Chris chose it in direct response to the content of John’s sermon, although chatting with Chris I know that God had told her earlier in the week that she would be singing that song. The same God that inspired John’s sermon inspired Chris’s song choice. Imagine that.

John preached from Job 31 and Matthew 18:7-9. Sin is deadly. Jesus does not mince words in just how serious sin is. I’m reading two books that are helping me see that, Don Everts’s Smell of Sin and R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God. I’m going to give a special shout out to Don Everts since he’s a friend of mine from the InterVarsity branch of the family tree.

This morning I also prayed from Ephesians 6:13-18, Galatians 5, and Matthew 5:6. When you’re talking holy desire and true power in the Spirit, these are great verses to start with. Remember: it’s a good thing that we need God.

Before communion, I didn’t use Philippians 2:13, which has been hugely encouraging to me recently, but instead wrote a semi-poem that incorporated a progression of truth:

It is only through Jesus’s death and resurrection that we have any strength to walk in God’s ways

Because of his broken body and his poured out blood, we are made whole

Through Jesus, we are forgiven and can forgive – Jesus gave thanks when he broke the bread with his disciples

Through Jesus, relationships are renewed

We are brothers and sisters

Through Jesus, we are heirs to the kingdom

We are made righteous and clean

Through Jesus, the accuser is silenced, the enemy is defeated, and death has lost its sting

Jesus did not leave us as orphans and knew what he was talking about when he told his disciples that it was to their advantage that he went. It is through Jesus that we have the Holy Spirit.

We do not live as slaves to the passions and the lusts of the flesh.

Let us take up the authority given to us and walk by the Spirit.

Whoever the Son sets free is free indeed.