Psalm 47 tells us to get off our seats and quit sitting on our hands. Being a Christ Follower is not about sitting quietly in a pew. It is about worshiping a lving God. It is about letting Him and the world around us know that He is King. The psalmist tells us to:
- “Clap your hands
- Shout to God with loud songs
- Sing praises to God”
To many of us just show up for church and think that covers things. But being alive in Jesus means we are that – alive. It means we need to sing praise and glory to Him. We need to clap and shout and sing. If you’re like me and can’t keep a beat, God still hears our heart. He knows our intent. We just need to worship Him.
Why? Because “the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared”. This is a difficult concept – that the God who loves us so much and sent His only Son to the Cross to die for our sins is to be feared. But that is exactly what the situation is. It isn’t that He is mean or will beat us into submission. But He is almighty, all powerful and has expectations that must be met. He will punish us for disobedience. And He has the authority, the power, and the love to do exactly that. We need to have reverence for God – that is the kind of fear scripture is talking about. To know His character and the reality of what that means.
So does God deserve our praise and our fear? Scripture gives us a whole list of reasons in this chapter why that is the case:
- “He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet
- He chose our heritage for us
- God is the King
- God reigns over the nations
- God sits on his holy throne
- the shields of the earth belong to God
- he is highly exalted”
Still wonder if He is worthy? He is indeed. God is on the throne and in control. He is large and in charge. And we need to recognize that in how we live. First by making some noise about it in our life. We need to let people know the God we know and worship Him with gusto. We need to let people see God at work in and through us and allow our lives to be part of God’s plan to draw people to Himself. But we also need to fear Him – not by hiding in the corner or cowering because of the punishment we think may come – but by holding Him in high esteem and respecting Him for who He is. We need to recognize the power of our God. He is almighty. He is worthy of our praise!
