Exultant Praise

God chose us before He formed the creation. He separated us out from all those whom He would create and proclaimed that He would be our God and we would be His people. He loves us now even though we daily reject the guidelines He has given us and turn instead to our old chains. What a great God we serve! Why would God choose to love us, miserable people that we are? Our great God chose to love us so that we would see His wonders and praise Him for His glorious grace.^[1] We will then praise Him who He is and what He has done for us.

What a glorious God He is! God is the King of Creation. He is sovereign over all things, and has predetermined all of history to serve His own divine will. Not only is He the original being, the Creator of all, and the sovereign King, but He is also the only source of all good. Only God is worthy to be praised. Whom else can demand the praise of men? The greatest of us are but dirt and grime in the light of His boundless power and goodness. Every good thing is given by God, and every evil thing He gives power to and directs to serve His purpose.^[2] If this Eternal King gave us nothing but punishment, He would yet be infinitely worthy of all our praise. If He had promised us hell, yet our every thought and desire could only be well directed if it served His commands.^[3] He is the one and only God.

This great God is our God! This high and mighty Master of the universe came down to earth in the person of the Son. The Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, condescended to our filthy state to face every temptation and suffer the rejection of His Father, who was one with Him in being!^[4] All of our sins were erased before the sight of our righteous God as our bleeding Savior, rejected by man and by God, cried out, “It is finished!” Therefore it is not only our duty to praise our powerful Creator, but it is our joy to praise the endless mercies of our loving Father.

We praise our Father, for He has made us heirs of Christ’s reward. We praise Him, for He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings.^[5] We bring glory to the Name of our Master as we direct our every purpose, goal, though, desire, and action to the service of His people in the station He has given us. We praise Him as we do His commandments, for only He could free such sin-bound creatures as us. We praise Him after we fail to do His commandments, for we know that only He could turn such stubborn sinners back to Himself. We honor Him for His perfection, and we love Him for He first loved us.

Our Father loves us now. He has loved us from the beginning and He will love us eternally. Despite our wretched state He has purchased us to be members of Christ and live in communion with Him. He has done all of this to serve His own good pleasure , so that we would praise Him for His beauty and grace. Let us praise our King forevermore!

Seth Bleyenberg

^[1] Ephesians 1:5-6, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

^[2] Examples include: God’s use of Cyrus, emperor of Persia (Ezra 1:1-4), God’s use of Satan’s work in the book of Job, and God’s use of wicked nations to purify His people and redirect their hearts to Him (Isaiah 1:24-28)

^[3] Even the wicked are called to repent and believe, and therefore are called to obey God’s commands. (Matthew 22:14, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”)

^[4] Jesus did not face every temptation, but He was “in all points tempted like as we are,” so that He fully understands our struggles against sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

^[5] Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:…”