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Commentary on "Worship and Song and Praise"
Day 4: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 – David: A Song of Praise and Worship
Overview
“Their part was to love, obey, and worship Him as their Father and God. However different our context today may be, the same principle still holds.” (Teacher’s Quarterly, Page 70)
Problems
Here is God’s initial statement to Abraham:
“Now the LORD said to Abram,
‘Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ ” (Genesis 12:1-3)
The Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, clearly describes Abraham’s obedience to be prompted by faith. In other words, he did not receive God’s promises because he left his home town; he left his home town because he accepted God’s promises as an already accomplished fact.
The importance of this cannot be overstated. We are called to obedience in exactly the same way – not in order to receive something from God, but because we already have been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3b).
The obedience that comes from faith is this: We know, beyond all doubt, that Jesus is utterly victorious and that our future is absolutely guaranteed in Him. This is our hope. We apply this hope to this moment and act on the basis of its truth, not on the basis of our ability. This application of hope to the present moment is faith (see Hebrews 11:1).
We never, ever receive spiritual blessings because we obey. We have already received these blessings and the blessings themselves enable us to obey. I freely concur that temporal blessings – jobs, relationships, and the like – are heavily influenced by obedience, regardless of the form it takes, but God is pleased by only one thing: faith (see Hebrews 11:6).
Paul explains this perfectly in 2 Thessalonians 1:9-12 –
“These [the lost] will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed. To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The word “power” in verse 9 (“glory of His power”) has to do with Jesus’ inherent Godliness. His moral, physical, spiritual and mental capabilities are so unique, so perfect, so God that they have a glory all their own, a glory that is a consuming fire to the lost.
The word “power” in verse 11 (“work of faith with power”) is the typical word for power, δυναμισ, from which we get our word dynamite. This is power applied or expressed.
Our obedience is nothing more and nothing less than Jesus’ inherent power converted and then expressed through our physical selves by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
It cannot work any other way, because anything we do in our own strength actually veils the real power the Spirit would like to exercise through us. This is exactly analogous to the veil that covers the eyes of anyone who reads with the intent to keep the Old Covenant.
David understood this completely, even though he lived under the Old Covenant. He accepted the coming Messiah as fact, and acted accordingly by applying that fact to his present situation. As stated before, this is the difference between David and Saul.
This is why David’s calls to worship and praise are so effective. How can we not worship and praise in view of Jesus’ past victories, present blessings and guaranteed Kingship!
Summary
- We must be exceedingly careful not to make God’s spiritual blessings dependent on our ability to obey. We have no ability to obey.
- The reality of God’s spiritual blessings, already present in the lives of His children, enables us to obey.
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised July 26, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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