Sabbath Conquest

“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightiest still the enemy and the avenger” (Ps. 8:1-2).

This is why we are here. The Lord who made Heaven and earth is majestic in all the earth. His Name is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died and rose again in the power of the Holy Spirit, taking away our sins and setting His glory above the heavens. We gather every Sunday to worship, to proclaim: how excellent is Your name in all in the earth. He is worthy to be praised. 

And compared to His great glory, all of our praises are like the babbling of babies and infants. Which, incidentally, is part of the reason our children are most welcome to join us in our worship. They are constant reminders to us, that we all come as little children, singing and praising and praying to God our Father in Jesus’ name. 

God promises to receive our prayers and praises and send down His potent blessings, ordaining strength in and through our worship, in order to silence our enemies and avengers. 

And yet, the word used here for the “silencing” or “stilling” of our enemies is the verb form of Sabbath. God promises to use our childlike prayers and praises to give Sabbath rest to His enemies. We know this is wonderfully true because while we were still enemies, Christ died for us. God has silenced the storms of our hearts by forgiving all our sins. While we were striving to be good enough, to earn our way into God’s good graces, He paid all our debts and welcomed us home scot-free.

So we are here to declare that He is worthy of all our praise and we are here because we are eager for our enemies to come and find that same glorious Sabbath-rest with us in Jesus Christ. And so, this is your call to worship and an open invitation to everyone that can hear my voice: Jesus said, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  

Photo by Clément Falize on Unsplash