Skip to main content

The 46th...and The 47th, by Pastor Charlie Handren

By
The 46th…and The 47th
By Pastor Charlie Handren

For the sixteenth-century Reformers, Psalm 46 was one of the most important Psalms. In our day, we tend to think of the Reformation as a theological movement but for them it was as much a political revolution as a battle over the Bible. The nations were indeed raging specifically because some courageous men and women took a stand for biblical truth and would not back down, even at the cost of their lives. Their families. Their countries.
It was, therefore, a great comfort for them to hear the blessed words of Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.” This verse, and this Psalm, in fact became an anchor for their souls and for their movement, so much so that they came to refer to it as “The 46th.”
Each day I read a Psalm, and as the Lord would have it, I read The 46th early this week. The next day I read Psalm 47 and immediately wondered how I had never noticed the connection between it and The 46th, especially verse 10. Psalm 47 is fairly short, so let me quote it in its entirety.
1 Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! 2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. 3 He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet. 4 He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah
5 God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. 6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! 7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! 8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. 9 The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!
So whereas Psalm 46:10 assures God’s people that he will be exalted among the nations—future tense—Psalm 47 provides a prophetic vision in which God’s exalted state is a reality. And although this prophecy has yet to be completely fulfilled, it did indeed come to pass in Jesus Christ who is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high where he reigns as the King of all kings and serves as our merciful High Priest.
There is a sense in which the Christian soul cries out to God, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!” And there is a sense in which the Christian soul rests in his ultimate reign over all persons and things as though the fullness of it has already come to pass. This is how faith works: no matter what our circumstances, we so trust in our Father’s promises that we receive his vision of the future as a present reality, and we receive the rest and joy that go along with it. May the Lord give us his rest and joy as we meditate on The 46th…and The 47th! 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflective Glory: How the Moon Displays the Mercy of God

By
Our sun is a fitting metaphor for the glory of God. In the context of our solar system, it is massive, bright, beautiful, powerful, self-sufficient, heat-producing, life-giving, and dangerous. It is, by far, the dominant feature of our solar system and without it the system would fling apart and all living things therein would die.  On the other hand, our moon is a fitting metaphor for human beings, especially for those who believe in Jesus Christ. First, compared to the sun, the moon is tiny and dim. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, its mass is 27 million times greater than the mass of the moon, and from our perspective its light shines 450,000 times brighter than that of the moon. The sun is so much greater than the moon that it’s difficult to quantify and express the difference. Likewise, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is so much great than each and all of us that it’s impossible to quantify or express the difference. Indeed, the Lord is very great and greatly...
Post a Comment
Read more

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

By Anonymous
To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rejoicing in the Wrath of God: Part 1 by Pastor Charlie Handren

By Anonymous
This Sunday we resume our study of the book of Revelation and within the first eight verses of chapter 6 we will encounter the wrath of God being poured out upon the world. In one sense, being confronted with the reality of God’s wrath is uncomfortable at best, but in another sense, it fills the believing heart with joy.  One of the first essays I wrote in college was on the wrath and love of God, and probably the main effect it has had on my life is to cause joy to rise up in my heart whenever I contemplate God’s wrath. Sometime ago I shared this with a pastor friend of mine and though he said nothing in response, he looked at me as if to say, “If you knew anything about the wrath of God, you would not rejoice in it.” At the time, I wasn't sure how to respond, but I knew that the joy in my heart was not stemming from a belittling of the horror of the wrath of God. Then several years ago, as I was reading through Revelation, I came across a couple of passages in chapters 15 and 16 ...
Post a Comment
Read more