God goes up with shouts of joy, the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
Sing praise for God, sing praise, sing praise to our king, sing praise.
These verses from the 47th Psalm are set for
today’s major Christian festival of the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Festal singing, shouting, clapping and trumpeting and incense
no doubt were associated with the enthronement of the kings of Israel which was
pretext for affirming God's own kingship over all. As the kings took their
seats the people led by the choir gave praise to God as supreme ruler.
Christian worship builds from the Old Testament so Psalm 47
is used to mark and engage with Christ's ascension and enthronement as universal
King. God's sovereignty is now exercised through his Son 'who ascended into
heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the
living and the dead' (Apostles' Creed)
Jesus is Lord! God goes
up with shouts of joy or in Tudor English, has 'gone up with a merry
noise'. The carpenter born in Nazareth who shows the world the love, truth and
power of God – he is Lord! A life of 33 years lived at the start of
our era continues the same yesterday, today and for ever through the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews
7:16b).
Jesus is Lord, right above all that is or has been or will be. He's
God’s final word to humankind. Jesus is to be the merciful last word over us
all.
God goes up with shouts of joy, the Lord goes up
with trumpet blast. Sing praise for God, sing praise, sing
praise to our king, sing praise.
As
we move now well into the Diocesan and Universal Year of Mercy we are consoled
by the thought that God’s last word on us will be from the One who today ‘ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the
Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead'.
He
is One who shares our suffering, who knows our every weakness, living like us
for 33 years yet without consent to sin. His sinlessness isn’t a setting apart
from us. It’s the means by which he is able both to sympathise with us and to
stand above and beyond us in our sinful frailty so as to welcome us heavenwards.
In
the Feasts of Christ we read, mark and
inwardly digest truths that are ‘once for all’ and yet evermore inspire and
cleanse our souls. Christ is risen,
ascended, glorified so that we can be raised
from the works of the flesh, ascend
in prayer and anticipate the favourable judgement and glory that’s for all who live in Christ.
The
Chinese writer Watchman Nee wrote a short commentary on the letter to the
Ephesians entitled Sit, Walk, Stand
to remind Christians that as Christ is ascended and seated at God’s right hand,
so are we. We are to keep seated with Christ above sin, to keep walking in the
Spirit and keep standing fast against the devil.
God goes up with shouts of joy, the Lord goes up
with trumpet blast. Sing praise for God, sing praise, sing
praise to our king, sing praise.
The
incense today is symbol of rising prayer, of costly sacrifice, and
lastly of our life to come in the court of heaven seated with its Monarch. God raised Christ from the dead and seated him
at his right hand in the heavenly places, Paul
writes to the Ephesians. This is so, he continues, that we can be raised us up with him and seated us with him
in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
So be it!
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