The Choir!

In Psalm 46 the confession of faith in the Lord Almighty is made when the nations “are in uproar.” Here we discover a different note: the worshipers who joined in this ecstatic song of praise celebrate God’s rule over the earth and its peoples and invite them to join in praise! By the end, it seems that the invitation has been accepted, as the rulers of the nations “assemble as the people of the God of Abraham,” to whom they also belong (9, Gen. 12:3). In an act of extraordinary faith, the psalmist imagines the whole world finally recognizing the gracious rule of God and celebrating with “cries of joy” (1).

In the New Testament, faith in the crucified and risen Christ has the same power to anticipate the universal triumph of the kingdom of God. His disciples confess that Jesus is Lord in a world in which human rebellion and wickedness often suggest the opposite, but like the psalmist, they know that the nations will come to join the everlasting song. Unlike for the psalmist, the fruits of mission confirm that hope. John of Patmos sees the psalmist’s vision fulfilled as “a great multitude that no one could count” sings before the throne (Rev. 7:9,10). This ecstatic praise and irrepressible hope of the psalmist and the prophet rebukes our weak faith and lukewarm worship. Let us celebrate the triumph of God.

“I cannot tell how all the lands shall worship, when, at his bidding, every storm is stilled, or who can say how great the jubilation when all our hearts with love for him are filled. But this I know, the skies will sound his praises, ten thousand, thousand human voices sing, and earth to heaven, and heaven to earth, will answer, ‘At last the Savior, Savior of the world, is King!'” (William Young Fullerton, 1857-1932).

Allow the psalm’s radiant hope to speak to your heart and strengthen your hope in God.