Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Psalm 33: 1-5

Sing for joy in the Lord, you His righteous ones.
Praise is becoming to the upright.

Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.

Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy!

For the word of the Lord is upright,
and
All His work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord!

1. Mark references to God including personal pronouns.
2. List what you learn about God in a notebook.
3. Underline the verbs in v:1-3.
4. Put a box around the word joy.
5. Mark who is to do this in blue.
6. List what you learn about them in a notebook.

QUESTIONS:
Who is to worship?
How are they described? Are you one of these people? Why can you say you are?
What are some expected means of worship to God mentioned in this passage?
Describe how we are to do this?
What emotion should permeate our worship?
How can that emotion be expressed?
Do you have the freedom in your personal worship to express your joy in the Lord?
What is this joy based on according to this passage? v:4-5

My thoughts:
In Christ I am one of His righteous ones. God in Christ made me right with God. He died in my place taking my sin upon Himself as the full wrath of God was poured out on Him for me. He called me to Himself, brought me to life  and I responded to Him. He forgave the guilt of my sin and filled me with His Spirit. Where does the expression of my joy come from? From the joy He filled me with! From the joy of being forgiven! From the joy of being made new! He gave me a new song!

Why this Psalm speaks so loudly in my heart? The Word of the Lord is upright. Who is the Word of the Lord? It is Jesus Christ. John 1:1, 14- "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God..., and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
In John 5:36 Jesus says, "...for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish- the very works that I do- testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me." When Jesus was hanging on the cross before He died He said, "It is finished!" The work the Father sent Jesus to do was to die on the cross to make atonement for all those the Father had given Him before the world began. Jesus actually, fully accomplished that work. God accepted His sacrifice by raising Jesus from the dead on the 3rd day just as He said!
Only Jesus is upright. He is truth, His Word is truth. He faithfully carried out the work needed to make us His righteous ones who are upright. It was necessary for God to do this for us. When I think about who I was before He changed me. I know the depth of my sinfulness, that there is not anything that I could have done if I had wanted to (and I didn't) to make me right enough to even ask Him to save me. It took the miracle of grace in Christ to rescue me, to deliver me from the domain of darkness and to transfer me into the kingdom of God's dear Son where I received the forgiveness of sin the redemption of my soul!
How could my heart not be filled with joy? How could I not shout for joy?
This praise is becoming to those who have been born of the Spirit. It is a befitting, right, expected, good, appropriate expression of thankfulness for what He has done for us!
The earth is filled with His lovingkindness. God demonstrated His love by sending Jesus, the only Savior for this world!
If you have come to know Him or have a renewed expression of joy I would love to hear about it!



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