Zwingli (again)
Last year my wife and I visited Zurich, not so much to see the birth place of Ulrich Zwingli, the great Swiss reformer, but to visit the place where a parallel reformation was taking place - "Anabaptism."
This label was given to them by their enemies who said that they were getting baptized "ana" again - as an adult, whereas they had, said their enemies, already been baptised - as a baby.
Of course the Anabaptists just saw themselves as regular New Testament Christians who were following the command of Christ to believe and be baptised - in that order. (They did not regard their first "baptism," which they had not agreed to or consented to, as a baptism at all.)
We went to Zurich to follow the Anabaptist's story. Bright witnesses such as Felix Manz and Conrad Grebels, forgotten now, but pioneering believers who wanted to go right back to the New Testament.
But in Zurich you can't avoid the shadow of the good reformer, Zwingli, or his towering statue.
Let's briefly return to what has been called Zwingli's "death hymn" (a morbid title; it should really be called his Restoration Hymn), which he wrote during and after he contracted the plague.
Folks wrote long hymns those days; here is the point at which Zwingli's Restoration hymn turns from near-death gloom to daytime praise and worship:
My God! My Lord!
Healed by the hand.
Upon the earth
Once more I stand.
Let sin no more
Rule over me;
My mouth shall sing
Alone to thee.
Though now delayed,
My hour will come.
Involved, perchance.
In deeper gloom.
But, let it come;
With joy I’ll rise,
And bear my yoke
Straight to the skies.
On the one hand Zwingli is a realist - he knows his last day will come - but on the other hand he wants to live a godly life "let sin no more rule over me" and a worshipping life "my mouth shall sing alone to Thee" in the present.
And by God's grace Zwingli did both.
Cosmic Worship
The last four verses of Psalm 103 lift our souls in cosmic worship!
The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Praise the Lord, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
We have already noticed one purpose of verse 19 - to remind the reader focussing on personal worship not to become self-absorbed and forget God's larger world (verse 6 does much the same, we observed).
Today we see another reason for verse 19. As David ends his personal soul-worship psalm, his horizon widens out to the whole universe and he urges the cosmos to join him in praise. In verse 19 David reminds us that God has established his throne over all, which means God rules over absolutely everything, both seen and unseen.
Do you believe that, reader? God rules over everything.
With New Covenant eyes, we know that on this now-established throne sits King Jesus, who after ascending into heaven was installed at the right hand of the Father, to rule over the universe for the good of the Church.
Since Jesus is the Universe's Cosmic King, it is only right that his subjects bow at his loving feet.
David encourages two kinds of creatures to join his song of praise.
Living Beings should Worship
First, all the angelic hosts. Angels first appear in Genesis chapter 3 when God placed Cherubim to guard the now emptied Garden of Eden. They show up right throughout Scripture. They comfort Jesus after his forty day temptation and are available to him, should he want to call them, when arrested in Another Garden. Angels seem to be ordered in ranks with archangels such as Michael at the "top" and then the ordinary angels who serve us (Hebrews 1:14).
Angels are a reminder that there is a parallel world of living beings all around us. If we know the Lord, angels are protecting us and serving us. It is most likely that you have been recently served and preserved by an angel or two. My dad used to pray over our family, "protect us from dangers seen and unseen."
Unlike we, who should serve the Lord obediently, but so often fail, the angels do everything God requires, without fault, says David. That is why Jesus was able to encourage us to pray that God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven - in heaven his will is done by the angels who follow precisely all of God's commands.
Well, says David, angels and heavenly hosts, ought to praise the Lord:
20 Praise the Lord, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
Things that are not "alive" should Praise God
And then David encourages everything else God has made to praise him, including those things that we do not consider capable of praise, all his works:
22 Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Stars and planets, galaxies and black holes, quasars and quarks, rocks and oceans, sky and sea - everything God has made should praise God.
I don't know how nature praises God! Just by being unbelievably complex and beautiful, they exalt their Designer!
One day, we read, "the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (Isaiah 55:12)
Have you ever thought of this: many species of living creatures remain to this day undiscovered. New ones are being sighted, named and catalogued every year.
Humans may not have known about these creatures, but God has known about them all along. And they have given him "praise" long before they were known to us. The earth belongs to God and brings him joy and praise before it brings us delight. These creatures were designed to glorify God first; and then created for our benefit second.
Deep in the sea, creatures bright and beautful, unseen by mankind, are the delight of their Maker, and give him praise.
Hear it one More Time
David ends, where he began, with a command to his soul:
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Unlike all of God's other creatures, we have an additional reason to praise God: we have been Redeemed. And it seems to me, from the book of Revelation, that the great objects of heaven's praise will be the salvation of our souls and The Lamb who was slain. He is worth to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise.
Summing it Up
There is only one proper response to Psalm 103, and that is to renew our commitment to be a person and a people of praise.
In the often gloom-laden secular atmosphere of lockdown we have a thousand reasons to praise God, both providential and redemptional.
Praise God!
A SONG FOR THE DAY
It would be remiss of us to miss out one of the best-loved hymns based on Psalm 103, written in 1834 by Henry Lyte, as we close these Psalm 103 meditations.
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven;
to his feet your tribute bring.
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
evermore his praises sing.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Praise the everlasting King!
Praise him for his grace and favor
to his people in distress.
Praise him, still the same as ever,
slow to chide, and swift to bless.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Glorious in his faithfulness!
Fatherlike he tends and spares us;
well our feeble frame he knows.
In his hand he gently bears us,
rescues us from all our foes.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Widely yet his mercy flows!
Angels, help us to adore him;
you behold him face to face.
Sun and moon, bow down before him,
dwellers all in time and space.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Praise with us the God of grace!
Henry Lyte
You can hear this majestic hymn in many versions, here is ONE and here is ANOTHER.
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Dear Father in heaven,
We thankyou for the pslamist's timely reminder to praise you. Help us to look beyond ourselves and our circumstances and worship you.
We join our voices with the cosmic chorus of worshippers today and praise your great and holy name.
We thank you for the angels who minister to your people and who do your bidding without hesitation or fault. Oh that we were like them!
We thank you for all the additional reasons we have for praise. We thank you for sins forgiven, for your Fatherly compassion and your everlasting love.
We worship Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.
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