Oh Lord, you’re beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child,
Your grace abounds to me.

There is nothing more beautiful that to give God enthusiastic and sincere thanks for all He has done, is doing and will do in our lives.  He loves our praise for who He is, but I wonder if He really loves knowing we are grateful for how He loves us.  Isn’t that the way we feel when our family member or a good friend tells us how much they appreciate our loving provisions or actions for them?  Think about it.  God is our Father in Heaven who loves us and provides for all our needs in His timing.  How beautiful it is to acknowledge what God has done for us!

Because our God reigns supremely, and always will, we can be the people of God that He wants us to be. Gratefully appreciative!  The psalm describes the characteristics of believers who trust a sovereign God.  Let’s take a look;

We are to be a worshipping people.  A part of Israel’s covenant relationship with the Lord was their honoring of the weekly Sabbath. It was a special sign between Israel and the Lord and reminded them that God had delivered them from Egypt (Deut. 5:12-15). But the Sabbath also reminded them of God the Creator.

In Genesis 1 we are told that what God made was “good.” The psalmist added an eighth “good thing”–it is “good to give thanks [praise] to the Lord.” Believers today can praise the Lord for His generous creation gifts, His salvation through the blood of the Lamb, and His gracious covenant with us because of what Jesus did on the cross. Worship ought to be the natural outflow of a heart that loves the Lord and appreciates who He is and what He has done for His people. 

“To announce your love each daybreak, sing your faithful presence all through the night”.  We can begin the day assured of His love and end the day looking back on His faithfulness. We can look around and marvel at His works, including His providential care and leading in our own lives, and we can look into His Word and probe the depths of His great thoughts.

We are an overcoming people.  The psalmist shifts our attention to the enemies of the Lord who make life difficult for God’s people.  These people are God’s concern.  He takes care of those who are against Him and provides for those who are with Him.  God wants His people to be overcomers (Rom. 12:21; 1 John 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 21:7), and this comes when first we are worshippers.

We are a people of The Promise.  God grows and matures His own to be strong, flourishing and fruitful.  As believers, we take root in Christ, becoming the branches of The Vine.  As we take nourishment from Jesus, we begin to bear the fruit of the characteristics of God.  We can’t make this change without the help of His Holy Spirit. The fruit-bearing of His Holy character are named in Galatians 5:22-23, “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  Apart from The Vine, we wither and die.

The promise in Psalm 91:16 is still true, and so is the picture in 92:13-14. To stay “fresh and green” in old age and not spend one’s life complaining and demanding is a mark of God’s special blessing!  What a joy it is to hang out with an older saint who is fresh, fruitful, and flourishing. We change as we grow older, but the Lord never changes. He is our Rock, and what He wills for us is perfect, so we will not complain.

PAUSE TO PRAY…

How can this theme be the theme of our lives?  Are we grateful worshippers, overcomers with Jesus, as people of The Promise of His return?

Do we really believe what we believe about God is really real?

Then “come to his gates with thanksgiving and praise”!  How beautiful it is to praise and thank God!

Worship and Wisdom, Psalms and Proverbs

Psalm 92, The Message

A Sabbath Song

^1-3 What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
    to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
    sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
    the full-bodied music of strings.

^4-9 You made me so happy, God
    I saw your work and I shouted for joy.
How magnificent your work, God!
    How profound your thoughts!
Dullards never notice what you do;
    fools never do get it.
When the wicked popped up like weeds
    and all the evil men and women took over,
You mowed them down,
    finished them off once and for all.
You, God, are High and Eternal.
    Look at your enemies, God!
Look at your enemies—ruined!
    Scattered to the winds, all those hirelings of evil!

^10-14 But you’ve made me strong as a charging bison,
    you’ve honored me with a festive parade.
The sight of my critics going down is still fresh,
    the rout of my malicious detractors.
My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
   “Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
    transplanted to God’s courtyard,
They’ll grow tall in the presence of God,
    lithe and green, virile still in old age.”

¹⁵ Such witnesses to upright God!
    My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!

TRUTH:  What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God!

Proverb 28:5, The Message

WISDOM:  Justice makes no sense to the evilminded; those who seek God know it inside and out.

Abba Father,

Holy are Great are you, Lord!  You are God and I am not.  You are provider of all that is good and right, beautiful and appropriate, timely and encouraging.  You are our strength by day and our song in the night.  Your Presence is appreciated.  Your teaching is welcomed.  Your love is amazing.  Your grace and mercy–so undeserved, yet you give both from a love that is beyond our human thinking.  Keep me focused on You.  Help me to hear Your voice above all others and obey quickly.  My hope, trust and faith are in You alone.

In Jesus Name, Amen

O Lord, you’re beautiful

Your face is all I seek

And when your eyes are on this child

Your grace abounds to me…

(Keith Green)