Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God!
We thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
…that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever. (Psalm 48:1, 9-10, 13-14 ESV)
God deserves our praises. For he is great and greatly to be praised! Thinking of his steadfast love, our heart is moved to worship him. It is a beautiful thing for God’s people to worship him whenever we gather as a church. God is glorified when our thoughts and our affections are focused solely on him.
Yet it is not all that God intended in our worship. He wants our worship to overflow to the nations. If he is truly great and that he is the King of all the earth and he reigns over the nations (47:7-8), then he rightfully deserves the worship of all nations. Those who worship God truly desires to see God’s name to be praised “to the ends of the earth” (48:10; Acts 1:8; Matt. 28:19). As we worship God in our local congregations, our heart must also desire to “declare his glory among the nations” (Ps. 96:3). We don’t worship Jesus as a mere local deity; we worship the King who has global and universal authority.
As we seek the worship of God among the nations, we must not neglect the next generation. The one concerns distance and culture, the other concerns the passing of time from one generation to another. “That you may tell the next generation that this is our God” (48:13). A heart captivated by the greatness and the glory of God can’t help but tell that greatness and glory to his children, to unbelievers, and to other disciples of Jesus.
Our mission of making disciples of all nations is both local and global. We desire that his name be praised in our family, in our church, in our city, and among the nations.
May our heart burn with passion to see the name of Jesus worshiped by all nations and the next generation.
Treasuring Christ PH 