"Praise the Lord"

PSALMS 117

  Coming to terms with what it means to be not only called, but chosen by God, we need to reflect upon His mercy towards us; especially when it comes to how little we actually deserve it. As I was praying about what to say this morning, I was reminded of a message I heard from Pastor Jon a while back, a message about the righteousness of God. We are not righteous! God informs us of that fact in His word, many times. That said, we are capable of doing good, as well as bad; we have choices that we need to make, and being righteous is not one of them. We become righteous when God accounts us righteous, and that is it. We cannot work to be righteous, because there is none righteous except Jesus Christ. There are all sorts of fables that will try to distort the fact that Jesus was perfect; I grew up thinking that His cleansing of the Temple was a sign that He was not perfect, because anger is not living a righteous life. If we only could realize just how righteous God really is, then maybe we can see how far off we are to getting there on our own; it is impossible! There is no other way that we can be made righteous other than being washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. That is why we Praise the Lord! He has done more than just rescue us from death; He has made us righteous and made it possible that we might have fellowship with a Holy God; all of us, from every nation...

"Sing a new song to the LORD! Sing his praises from the ends of the earth! Sing, all you who sail the seas, all you who live in distant coastlands. Join in the chorus, you desert towns; let the villages of Kedar rejoice! Let the people of Sela sing for joy; shout praises from the mountaintops! Let the whole world glorify the LORD; let it sing his praise." (Isaiah 42:10-12) NLT