By Henry Law
Warm exhortations call to joyful thanksgivings. It is shown that God is truly entitled to such homage. Warnings to the unbelieving and disobedient are adjoined. May the life-giving Spirit teach us!
1-2. "O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms."
It is good to encourage each other in every holy work, especially in the work of encircling our God with praises. Abundant causes awaken thanksgivings. He is the strength of our salvation. Who can estimate what salvation is? It is decreed in the counsels of the Triune Jehovah. It is wrought out by the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. It is applied by the great God the Holy Spirit. Let us therefore gladly hasten into His presence and throng His courts. Let us be loud and fervent in acclamations of delight. Salvation is a rock raised and supported by Jehovah.
3-5. "For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His, and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land."
Consider the mighty motives which kindle our gratitude. Ponder God's majesty and greatness. Potentates of earth vanish before Him. Their power is utter weakness. He is invested with all supremacy as King of kings and Lord of lords. Mark creation's multitudinous fabric. He spoke the word, and the world assumed existence. All things in land and sea bow to His sway. Great are these wonders. He is Lord, whose will created and maintains the universal frame of nature.
6-7. "O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand."
Such contemplation should prostrate us before His throne. We are also especially led to worship when we consider His inestimable goodness. He is the tender Shepherd. We are the flock of His watchful care. He leads us to lie down in the green pastures of His truth. He guides us to drink the still waters of His refreshing love. Let us then in deep humility adore.
8-11. "Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people who err in their heart, and they have not known My ways. Unto whom I swore in My wrath, that they should not enter into My rest."
Let there be no delay. Today Jehovah calls us. Tomorrow our ears may be incapable to hear. Let us use every means to melt and soften our obdurate hearts. If they are hardened, we shall love error and hate truth.
The case of the children of Israel gives dreadful warning. We know how they tempted and provoked their God. We know how His word went forth that they should not enter into the rest of the promised land. The home of faith is open to us, where we may calmly rest from all our works. The rest of heaven is also promised. By faith may we now rest in Christ, and pass from this present rest to the eternal rest of heaven. We marvel at the mad rebellion of Israel's sons. We condemn their hearts as harder than the nether millstone. It seems incredible that through their long pilgrimage they would not see the leading hand of God. While we blame them, let us look inward. If we should similarly err, can we escape their doom?
