Monday, April 28, 2008,6:44 p.m.
THE LORD'S ANTHEM
I had a neat revelation this weekend from some song lyrics that hit me a new way. Do you ever get that? Something so familiar, and then it seems that God is literally opening our eyes to see the truth in a new way.

This weekend it was from Chris Tomlin's "Holy is the Lord", and the lyrics are:

It's rising up all around. It's the anthem of the Lord's renown.

I have always thought of these words in terms of our own voices being lifted up in an anthem that would fill the earth with the Lord's praise and declaration of His renown. The song also sets to music the scripture from Isaiah 6 that says, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"

The whole earth being filled with God's glory is something cool to think of - His presence, our anthem declaring His glory - the earth should and will be filled! But all of a sudden a new thought occurred to me. The earth is FULL of God's glory, and not just His presence or the fact that we shout or sing of His fame, but actually all the things that he does, too. The things He does for us in our lives also declare the renown of the Lord, and they speak not with words but just facts. Our salvation, everything He has created, the promises and gifts He gives us, the prayers He answers not with words but with practical actions - these things are all an anthem of the Lord's renown.

I wonder if this is something like what Jesus meant when He told the Pharisees that if His followers quieted their own praise, the rocks themselves would cry out. They would not in words, surely, but certainly their very existence screams of the renown of the Lord and His creative powers. My life screams of the Lord's renown and His healing and generosity. Our very physical existence even screams of the Lord's renown and His mercy, grace and love.

Holy is the Lord indeed. The whole earth is certainly filled with His glory.

Let the fullness of the anthem of the Lord rise up.
 
posted by Karyn Baker
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