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"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast
created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev. 4: 11).
Without a Creator in full control, the glorious consummation of the ages could not be
reached. The Book of the Revelation, which reveals some of the steps towards this goal,
speaks of a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21: 1), which demand the great Creator as
surely as they did "in the beginning". The same book also speaks of the "everlasting
gospel" that will be preached at the time of the end:
"The everlasting gospel . . . . . Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His
judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the
fountains of waters" (Rev. 14: 6, 7).
Returning to the Psalm which supplied our text (Psa. 95:) we observe that it falls into
two parts. The first part (verse 1-7) is a call to worship "our Maker"; the second part
(verses 8-11) a reminder of Israel's failure in the wilderness--two aspects of truth that
at first do not seem very closely related. The link is found in the words, "Your fathers
. . . . . proved Me, and saw My work", for unless the Lord had been also the Creator, how
could Israel have survived that forty years' ordeal? Who but God could have fed the
multitude for such a time in the wilderness?
We will conclude this article with the full quotation of Psalm 95: 1-7:
"O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our
salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise
unto Him with Psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In
His hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is
His, and He made it: and His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship, and
bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God; and we are the
people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand."
#6.
Worship in the beauty of holiness.
Psa. 96:
pp. 97 - 99
Psalm 95: opens with a call to "sing"; Psalm 96: begins with a call to "sing unto
the Lord a new song". The call to worship in the second of these two Psalms is given in
verse 9: "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."
There is an intended contrast here with the "gods of the nations" in verse 5, and in
verse 4 we read: "The Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: He is to be feared above
all gods."
The expression "the beauty of holiness" is one of the gems of the A.V., and at first
sight is so crystal-clear, that it almost seems sacrilege to examine it. The Margin gives as
an alternative rendering, "In the glorious sanctuary", and the expression is found in
Psalm 29: 2, II Chron. 20: 21, I Chron. 16: 29, and (in the plural: "The beauties of