Praise the Lord Forever!

September 21, 2015

Praise the Lord Forever!

I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever;

    with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 89:1 (NRSV)

A few days ago I saw an article encouraging churches to eliminate the sacrament of Holy Communion because it was outdated and not applicable to today’s culture. I am not surprised, but saddened that some churches are throwing out the baby with the bath water. Jesus said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me” (Luke 22:19b). Even so, many churches seldom celebrate Holy Communion. Regrettably, the sacrament is sometimes stuck into the worship service like a leftover Christmas ornament trying to fit onto the tree. When we de-emphasize Holy Communion, we do so at our peril. In Holy Communion, we are remembering all we need to know to remain faithful to the psalmist’s call to sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever, and to proclaim the Lord’s faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 89 was probably written after the fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.) when the Jews were taken away to captivity in Babylon. (2 Kings 24) The psalmist, in remembering God’s covenant, knew that even though Israel had forsaken their covenant responsibility, God would remain faithful to His covenant obligations. Thus the psalm ends by reaffirming its opening stanza, “Praise the Lord forever! Amen and amen!” (Psalm 89:52).

The sacrament of Holy Communion remembers the faithfulness of God to His covenant. Within the bread and cup, we recall that while we were dead and lost in our sin, Christ Jesus came to save us, and to give us new life. The same Jesus who offered himself as ransom for humankind promised us, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b). Because of the faithfulness of God in Christ Jesus, I have all I’ll ever need to sing of his steadfast love, forever!

Of course we do not have to wait until our local church offers Holy Communion to remember the faithfulness of God our Father. The point is to remember and to sing! If the psalmist went into captivity in Babylon singing of the steadfast love of God, if Paul and Silas, while jailed in Philippi with their feet clamped in stocks, were praying and singing hymns to God, what, pray tell, is preventing us today from singing of God’s steadfast love, and with our mouth proclaiming God’s faithfulness to all generations?

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.