In a former life I was a musician and can still act out the role if required and anyone can bear the noises I make, but I still love to worship God through music and lead others to do the same. I still enjoy playing piano, organ, guitar, keyboard, recorder and a bit of flute, but I only play them one at a time. The flute playing is very basic, by the way, I've a lot more to learn in that area.
Enough about me, I want to share today some thoughts on the first half of Psalm 24 which is close to my heart at the moment and gives me great excitement and encouragement. I may share the second half with you at a later stage, the Lord willing. As a musician the Psalms are very close to my heart as you may imagine. I have conducted and accompanied choirs singing them in many different styles and traditions over the years.
Psalm 24: The King of Glory A PSALM of David
1 The earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
2 For he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Sela (probably Hebrew for a music interlude)
Lenny Leblanc in action
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I attended a large conference in 1976, as a student, in which Ern Baxter was one of the main speakers. He started one of his talks by stating "The world belongs to God!" For some inexplicable reason that came as a total revelation to me. Somehow, as a result of previous teaching I had received, the Christian tradition I had been brought up in or a quirk in my thinking, I believed that the world belonged to one who before man was made had sought to become greater than God and was cast out of Heaven with a host of other angels who were his followers. In my thinking they kidnapped or hijacked the world and made it their playground to bring back chaos, disorder and confusion where God had created order out of chaos and brought harmony where there was previously cacophony.
In another place the enemy of our souls is described as the prince of the power of the air, which seems to me to ascribe more worthiness to him than he really deserves. Let me reaffirm verse 1 of this wonderful Psalm, "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof," which includes everything He created in His infinite wisdom, birds, trees, millions of species of animals, every kind of plant and tree, the hills, valleys, seas; it's an inexhaustible list. What an awesome God we serve! We can read all about it in Genesis 1 of course, and it amazes and thrills me every time I read it.
In verse 3 the question is raised, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?" In other words, who is worthy? The answer given could be summed up as anyone who is perfect. That excludes 100% of us, I think. Oh dear, not good news. However, don't despair, God has made it possible by sending His Son Jesus from the heights of glory to this planet where we live (His world!) and by His sacrifice on the cross, as the only perfect one, through believing in Him and asking for His forgiveness for our sins, we are declared worthy to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place. When the temple veil was torn in two when Jesus died, access was made into the Holy of holies, symbolic of entering the very presence or throne room of God, Heaven itself.
Following on to verse 4 there's yet more good news, a promise from God who, unlike earthly leaders, never lets us down or fails to deliver what He promises. "He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation." The righteousness we possess is the righteousness of Christ, we can't earn it by our good works, Bible knowledge or what we call 'Brownie points' here in the UK, but He clothes us His righteousness. It is imparted and imputed to us, when we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour and put our faith and trust in His complete work. When He declared, hanging on the cross, "It is finished," the redemption price was paid and our salvation was secured.
Verse 6, I feel, really ties in with the mission with which we are involved, that of reconnecting a broken world to God and Christians to fellowship and the visible and invisible church. "Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob." Brothers and sisters, we have friends, colleagues, family, Facebook friends and fellow Twitterers who are a generation of those who are seeking something, often they don't know what. I think it was St. Augustine who said that there is a God-shaped hole in all our lives. We try to fill it with hobbies, music, cars, football, baseball, money and many other things, but these things just don't fit, they are the wrong shape and not large enough to fill it!
I believe we are on the verge of a massive harvest, bigger than any that has ever been seen since the Church was born at Pentecost. Yes, there have been great revivals and outpourings of the Spirit of God over the centuries, but now, every day I read news about what God is doing across His world. It may not be happening on our doorstep right now, but it's started and is going to snowball! Look at Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. God is raising up people there who are bold in their witness to Him even though it means being ostracised by family and friends. A young 21 year old Indonesian told me this week that they have been burning down church buidings since before she was born, but they can't stop the advancement of the real church, the kingdom of God! The kingdom of hell will not prevail against God building His church.
I am humbled to be working alongside brothers and sisters who are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation! Yet so often, here in the UK, where it should be so easy, I hold back in talking to people about the Lord. May the Lord give us boldness and fearlessness as shown by the example and testimony of these wonderful brothers and sisters, with whom it is such a privilege to work! May we count everything else as rubbish in order that we may follow Him, who has given us everything and to whom the whole world belongs.
