Crazy Chaos

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Singing and Worshiping in the Middle of Chaos

     With harps of God in their hands . . . they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” Rev. 15:2-4

     Sovereign Father, every single time I begin to get a little antsy, anxious, or angry about national and international politics, you center my heart with the music of heaven. What did followers of Jesus need in the crazy-making chaos of first-century Rome? The same thing we followers of Jesus need in the crazy-making chaos of our twenty-first-century global community. We need to sing your story. We need to sing our theology. We need to sing the gospel!

     Hand me a harp today, Father. I’ll gladly join the heavenly chorus singing the song of Moses—a song of your Exodus grace, of the great deliverance from the bondage of Egypt and into a land of freedom. I praise you for acting in time and space to love your people so well. You are the God who does all things well all the time… so merciful and mighty, so gracious and loving.

     But I’ll sing the song of the Lamb even louder! For Jesus has taken us through the ultimate Exodus. He has delivered us from sin and death, into the glorious freedom of the children of God—into your eternal welcome and endless favor. And he will yet deliver us into the ultimate, quintessential, most-glorious-ever land of freedom—the new heaven and new earth! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

     Father, I choose to live and sing in light of the day when all nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been and are being revealed so clearly in the gospel. Great and marvelous are your deeds of mercy and grace in Jesus, Lord God Almighty.

     All of your ways, in heaven and on earth, are just and true, for you are the King of the ages. Every other king gets the “fifteen minutes in the spotlight” you appoint them; but you alone are “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God,” and to you “be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:17).

     I’ll not be afraid of any human king, but I will fear you, Lord, for you alone are holy and you alone are good. As the gospel does its work in my heart, I pray my thoughts, words, and deeds will increasingly bring you glory. So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ sovereign and saving name.