Let us Rejoice and be Glad

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Psalm 95

Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. Psalm 96


This morning, let us praise the Lord and rejoice in the day that He has made. Let us thank Him for setting Barak Obama before us as our president. Let us thank Him for sovereignty placing this man in this position at this time. Some of us wanted him to win. Others did not. Let us thank Him that we live in a democracy and had the opportunity to make our voices heard. But now the choice has been made, so let us thank the Lord and honor our government. We prayed that His will would be done. And it was. For those of us who believed that God’s will was to elect McCain, and cannot imagine otherwise, are we really claiming to know the mind of God? Obviously, His will was for Obama. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than our ways. For there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. It is inconsistent to call ourselves Bible-believing Christians if we refuse to believe that God willed Barak Obama into office. And if we fail to honor and respect him, we are disobeying the express Word of God. If God calls us to serve as prophets in our nation, may we be faithful to that call. But may we refuse to be agents of self-fulfilling prophesy and naysaying. If Obama appoints liberal judges to the Supreme Court, let us thank the Lord that he holds in His hand the heart of the king. If American professionals are forced to choose between their convictions and their jobs, let us thank the Lord for the opportunity to suffer with Jesus’ body all around the world, that we may, someday, share in His glory. If life gets harder, let us rejoice that trouble produces perseverance and we know that nothing can separate us from the Love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us do everything without complaining or arguing, that we may be blameless and pure children of God, without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which we may shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life. So let us keep a tight reign on our tongues and meditate upon that which we learned in kindergarten: if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. But no worries. We have lots of nice things to say, because the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.