Live, God! Blessing to my Rock, my towering Salvation-God! This God set things right for me and shut up the people who talked back. He rescued me from enemy anger. You pulled me from the grip of upstarts, You saved me from the bullies. That’s why I’m thanking you, God, all over the world. That’s why I’m singing songs that rhyme your name. God’s king takes the trophy; God’s chosen is beloved. I mean David and all his children— always.
Psalm 95:1The MessageCome, let’s shout praises to God, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us! Let’s march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns! See the chapter |
36 Cross References
My theme song is God’s love and justice, and I’m singing it right to you, God. I’m finding my way down the road of right living, but how long before you show up? I’m doing the very best I can, and I’m doing it at home, where it counts. I refuse to take a second look at corrupting people and degrading things. I reject made-in-Canaan gods, stay clear of contamination. The crooked in heart keep their distance; I refuse to shake hands with those who plan evil. I put a gag on the gossip who bad-mouths his neighbor; I can’t stand arrogance. But I have my eye on salt-of-the-earth people— they’re the ones I want working with me; Men and women on the straight and narrow— these are the ones I want at my side. But no one who traffics in lies gets a job with me; I have no patience with liars. I’ve rounded up all the wicked like cattle and herded them right out of the country. I purged God’s city of all who make a business of evil.
Bless our God, O peoples! Give him a thunderous welcome! Didn’t he set us on the road to life? Didn’t he keep us out of the ditch? He trained us first, passed us like silver through refining fires, Brought us into hardscrabble country, pushed us to our very limit, Road-tested us inside and out, took us to hell and back; Finally he brought us to this well-watered place.
A song to our strong God! a shout to the God of Jacob! Anthems from the choir, music from the band, sweet sounds from lute and harp, Trumpets and trombones and horns: it’s festival day, a feast to God! A day decreed by God, solemnly ordered by the God of Jacob. He commanded Joseph to keep this day so we’d never forget what he did in Egypt. I hear this most gentle whisper from One I never guessed would speak to me:
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to God, giving voice together, I’m singing my heart out to God—what a victory! He pitched horse and rider into the sea. God is my strength, God is my song, and, yes! God is my salvation. This is the kind of God I have and I’m telling the world! This is the God of my father— I’m spreading the news far and wide! God is a fighter, pure God, through and through. Pharaoh’s chariots and army he dumped in the sea, The elite of his officers he drowned in the Red Sea. Wild ocean waters poured over them; they sank like a rock in the deep blue sea. Your strong right hand, God, shimmers with power; your strong right hand shatters the enemy. In your mighty majesty you smash your upstart enemies, You let loose your hot anger and burn them to a crisp. At a blast from your nostrils the waters piled up; Tumbling streams dammed up, wild oceans curdled into a swamp.
Jeshurun put on weight and bucked; you got fat, became obese, a tub of lard. He abandoned the God who made him, he mocked the Rock of his salvation. They made him jealous with their foreign trendy gods, and with obscenities they vexed him no end. They sacrificed to no-god demons, gods they knew nothing about, The latest in gods, fresh from the market, gods your ancestors would never call “gods.” You walked out on the Rock who gave you your life, forgot the birth-God who brought you into the world.
Then I heard the sound of massed choirs, the sound of mighty rapids, the sound of strong thunder: Hallelujah! The Master reigns, our God, the Sovereign-Strong! Let us celebrate, let us rejoice, let us give him the glory! The Marriage of the Lamb has come; his Wife has made herself ready. She was given a bridal gown of bright and shining linen. The linen is the righteousness of the saints.
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