Psalm 98:1-2
It would not only be unfair but plainly untrue to say that although Jesus healed many of their painful diseases, He never raised one person from the dead. Scripture clearly ascribes to Him the resurrection of Jairus' daughter, of the widow of Nain's son, and of Lazarus.
Yet it is not a rare thing today to hear men deny that God raises us from spiritual death. Man, they say, did not die spiritually, when he fell in paradise. He still kept the ability to want salvation, before God caused him to be born again with a new spiritual life.
Actually this is an attempt to rob God of His glory. It paints a picture of God wherein He is less glorious than He is in the picture Scripture gives us of Him. But listen to what God says Himself through the psalmist in Psalm 98:1-2: "O sing unto the Lord a new song: for He bath done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory. The Lord hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the heathen."
Note that we are to sing a new song, a song we just could not sing and did not want to sing because we were spiritually dead. God did a marvelous thing when He made us spiritually alive again. He has gotten the victory, and the point is that we were fighting Him and did not want salvation. Being spiritually dead we could not want to be given love for Him.
Rather than to try to rob God of one bit of His glory let us (PRC Psalter):
Sing a new song to Jehovah
For the wonders He hath wrought;
His right hand and arm most holy
Triumph to His cause have brought.
In His love and tender mercy
He hath made salvation known,
In the sight of every nation
He His righteousness hath shown.
Robbing the neighbor of some of his goods is one thing. How much more vile and godless is it to try to rob God of some of His glory? Let us confess that He has done that marvelous thing of causing us to be born again with a new spiritual life. Let us say with Jesus that except God gives us spiritual life, we cannot even see the Kingdom of Heaven, and surely cannot then want it (John 3:3).
Read: Psalm 98
Psalter versification: #261:1
Daily Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
Song for Meditation: Psalter #9
Why not sing along??
Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Deuteronomy 33
Luke 13:1-21
Psalm 78:65-72
Proverbs 12:25
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Quote for Reflection:
“[In the second commandment] we see to what end ‘good intentions’ serve. For if there is anything which men are able to excuse in themselves, and do so well, it is the proclivity to conceive of idols, then say its only to worship God better and to be incited to greater devotion…God despises such ‘good intentions’ and pronounces a horrible sentence of condemnation on all who allow themselves to be governed by their own opinion…When it is a matter of worshipping God, we are not to give any attention whatever to our imagination. But we are to follow in all simplicity what he has ordained in his Word, without adding anything to it at all. For as soon as we fall away from that, however slightly, whatever case we might cite, and try to justify ourselves, God will surely punish us.” (John Calvin, Sermons on the Ten Commandments).
Additional Info
- Date: 9-April
Heys, John A.
Rev. John A. Heys was born on March 16, 1910 in Grand Rapids, MI. He was ordained and installed into the ministry at Hope, Walker, MI in 1941. He later served at Hull, Iowa beginning in 1955. In 1959 he accepted the call to serve the South Holland, IL Protestant Reformed Church. He received and accepted the call to Holland, Michigan Protestant Reformed Church in 1967. He retired from the active ministry in 1980. He entered into glory on February 16, 1998.