Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States - Lutheran Seminary's God Pause "Moved by the Promise" for Tuesday 18 November 2014 - Scripture: Psalm 95:1-7

Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States - Lutheran Seminary's God Pause "Moved by the Promise" for Tuesday 18 November 2014 - Scripture: Psalm 95:1-2 Come, 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!
3-5 And why? Because God is the best,
    High King over all the gods.
In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns,
    in the other hand grasps the high mountains.
He made Ocean—he owns it!
    His hands sculpted Earth!
6-7 So come, let us worship: bow before him,
    on your knees before God, who made us!
Oh yes, he’s our God,
    and we’re the people he pastures, the flock he feeds.
7-11 Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:
    “Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising,
As on the day of the Wilderness Test,
    when your ancestors turned and put me to the test.
For forty years they watched me at work among them,
    as over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked—oh, was I provoked!
    ‘Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes?
    Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?’
Exasperated, I exploded,
    ‘They’ll never get where they’re headed,
    never be able to sit down and rest.’”(The Message)
Having lived in Canada, Germany and the United States, I have had the opportunity to celebrate three different Thanksgiving Festivals each year. During one that sticks out in my mind, the organ was playing majestically and the choir singing softly, "Now Thank We All Our God." Superimposed over this glorious music a narrator was reading these seven verses of Psalm 95. The response of the congregation after each verse was: "We Praise Thee O God."
The majestic words of the psalm and the hymn along with the moving music stirred within me the sense of awe and majesty. It was as though one would soon see royalty walking down the aisle as the King or Queen entered in all attending splendor.
The psalmist invites us to worship, bow down, kneel and experience the wonder and splendor of the majesty of God's kingship through the presence of the "humble servant king," Jesus the Christ.
Gracious God, empower us by your Spirit to be your servants, sharing hope, strength and forgiving grace to a broken and fragile world. Amen.
Ben H. Coltvet
White Bear Lake, Minn. 
Master of Divinity , 1970
Psalm 95:1 O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!(New Revised Standard Version)
____________________________