Friday, October 14, 2011

Psalm 117

1 O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.
2 For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.

Devotion:
This is a millennial psalm. I would point out that all nations have never praised the Lord. At the beginning of the last century, there were many people who felt that Christianity was at last arriving, that the new century (the 1900’s) would see peace on earth, a thousand years peace. What happened? We had the most violent war-filled century man has ever seen, and for the first time, the specter of self annihilation loomed large. At the beginning of the 1900s we had many post-millennial people—people who crowed that we would have made peace on earth, and that we would prepare the world for the return of Christ. Says McGee: “That was the heyday of postmillennialism, and a premillennialist had to run for cover. They would have run anyone out of town on a rail who would have been pessimistic enough to say that a time of Great Tribulation was going to come upon the world!”

Contrast that attitude to today. Today we have groups from all over predicting destruction and some sort of cataclysmic end to the world. If you do not know that already, try googling 2012 and seeing all the “prophetic” signs that come up. There is a Saint Malachy who predicted a sudden change after the last pope, and prophesied about 82 popes before that cataclysm. We are on the 81st Pope today, a fact which has many Catholics watching to see what is going to happen. Islam predicts the return of the 13th Iman, and Ahmadinejad is one who has infamously posited this. The Mayan Calendar runs out this next year which is a fact that many zealots of a variety of persuasions are interested in. The world seems to be preparing for the idea of severe judgment.

The world is indeed, according to premillennialism—the most literal interpretation of the Bible—going to come to an awful judgment. It’s days are numbered exactly in Scripture, and we know the end. Our sovereign God will come back to earth and spend a long while ruling here on earth, ushering in a period of peace and prosperity that the world has never known. And this psalm depicts that atmosphere: “For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.”

Christ Returneth!

1. It may be at morn, when the day is awaking,
When sunlight through darkness and shadow is breaking
That Jesus will come in the fullness of glory
To receive from the world "His own."

2. It may be at midday, it may be at twilight,
It may be, perchance, that the blackness of midnight
Will burst into light in the blaze of His glory,
When Jesus receives "His own."

3. While its hosts cry Hosanna, from heaven descending,
With glorified saints and the angels attending,
With grace on His brow, like a halo of glory,
Will Jesus receive "His own."

4. Oh, joy! oh, delight! should we go without dying,
No sickness, no sadness, no dread and no crying.
Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into glory,
When Jesus receives "His own."

Chorus:
O Lord Jesus, how long, how long
Ere we shout the glad song,
Christ returneth! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Amen.

Lyrics: H. L. Turner

No comments: