With harps of God in their hands . . . they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” Rev. 15:2–4
Sovereign Father, every time I begin to get cynical, anxious, or angry about international politics, you center my heart with the music of heaven. What did followers of Jesus need in the crazy-making chaos of first-century Rome? The same thing we followers of Jesus need in the crazy-making chaos of our twenty-first-century global community. We need to sing your story. We need to sing our theology. We need to sing the gospel!
Hand each of us a harp today, Father. We’ll gladly join the heavenly chorus singing the song of Moses—a song of Exodus grace, deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, deliverance into a land of freedom. But we’ll sing the song of the Lamb even louder. For Jesus has taken us on a far greater Exodus—out of sin and death into the glorious freedom of the children of God. And he will finally deliver us into the ultimate land of freedom—the new heaven and new earth. O, the blessed peace and hope that we have in the gospel! How can we keep from singing?
Father, we choose to live and sing in light of the day when all nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed so clearly in the gospel. Great and marvelous are your deeds of mercy and grace in Jesus, Lord God Almighty. All of your ways, in heaven and on earth, are just and true, for you are the King of the ages. Every other king gets the “fifteen minutes in the spotlight” you appoint them, but you are “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God,” and to you “be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:17).
We’ll not be afraid of any human king, but we will fear you, Lord, for you alone are holy and you alone are good. As the gospel does its work in our hearts, may our thoughts, words, and deeds will increasingly bring you glory, even in this very day. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ sovereign and saving name. Amen.