Psalm 104
What is most striking to me when I read these verses, is the stark contrast between our Creator God’s heavenly existence and our Redeemer’s mission to the lost on this fallen earth. David’s heavenly view of God leads him to proclaim, “Bless the Lord, my soul!” He can only describe God in human terms like: clothed with, covering Yourself, stretching out, He lays, He walks…. All of this to paint a picture of a transcendent God that he – and we – might somehow behold.
David understood God was his Redeemer, but did not have the vantage point we have from the glorious gospels. We now know that the One who “hung the stars in space” descended here below and became our “Incarnate gift of grace”. He is fully God and fully man, and he came to befriend the sinner and give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28) He came to live a sinless life, to become “sin for us”, die in our place, and allow our trust in his sacrifice to become our salvation.
When Christ – the Son of man – came, he put off his “splendor and majesty” and clothed himself with suffering and misery. Isaiah 53 describes him as “a man of sorrows”, or a man of “great pain”. We hung him on a cross of wood and buried him in a stone tomb. His glorious resurrection shocked those who demanded his death, and even his followers whom the Savior himself informed prior to it.
Now, the Risen King would build his church and fill it with those who would continue his mission to the lost in the world and into the future. The Holy Spirit would now put glorious songs of praise for the Father’s plan to reconcile us to himself in the hearts of all his believers to sing his praises continually until his return and into eternity. Let the churches gather and let them sing of his glorious salvation!
Let all of us proclaim, “I will sing of Your goodness all my days!”
: )~