READING: Job 18-20, Psalm 141, Revelation 15
As a young believer, I was introduced to a style of music I had never heard before: gospel music. I first heard a singing evangelist sing songs like “The Lighthouse,” “In the Garden,” and “Through It All.” Later, I heard gospel quartet music and fell in love with that genre. Looking back, the songs were all the same (songs about heaven and the second coming . . . ☺), but I appreciated the four-part harmony and the obvious fun of singing about God. My tastes have changed since then, but I still love it when God’s people get together and sing from their hearts. There’s just not much that matches the joy of praising God through song.
That’s one of the reasons I can’t imagine the joy of heaven. In today’s New Testament reading, the believers who endured in faith and conquered the beast sang a song of victory—first modeled by Moses as the people sang of God’s deliverance through the Red Sea (Exo 15:1-8), but later magnified even more in the song of the Lamb. Deliverance from Egypt was great, but deliverance from sin through the Lamb is much, much greater. No wonder the victors sang together:
Great and awe-inspiring are your works, Lord God, the Almighty;
just and true are your ways, King of the nations.
Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All the nations will come and worship before you because your righteous acts have been revealed. (Rev 15:3-4)
I cannot improve on the lyrics of the song, and I dare not try; I can only sing them with the saints—and that I will do. I trust you’ll join me!
PRAYER: “Great indeed are Your works, God. We worship You.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Job 21-23, Psalm 101, Revelation 16
