Psalm 47-48

Bible Passage:  Psalms 47-48

The two psalms are both psalms of the sons of Korah, praising God as the Ruler of the Earth and His Glory in His city on Mount Zion. In fact the beginning of Psalm 48 says it is a song. Wonder how the song sounds. I tried to do a search on Youtube, but those songs that contain the English lyrics didn’t sound great to share, and I don’t understand those in Hebrew, so I decided not to post any of those.

The verse that caught my eyes when I read Ps 47 was

6 Sing praises to God, sing praises!

Sing praises to our King, sing praises!

7 For God is the King of all the earth;

Sing praises with understanding

All Christians are taught to praise God and sing praises to Him, and indeed God is worthy of our praise, but do we sing praises with understanding?

We are sometimes asked the question of whether we mean what we sing, especially in services dedicated to singing hymns and also in choir. But other than that, I think the more important question is whether we understand the God whom we worship.

I believe that if we do not know the God whom we worship, we cannot truly praise Him from our hearts. And the only way we can know about Him, is actually through experiencing His Word, which is the Holy Bible that He has given to us. Now I note the difference between calling it life experience and experiencing His Word.

I remember that in my first internship job, I had a colleague who is converted to Christianity, yet she also retains her Taoist beliefs. Why is that so? That is because she said that she experience extraordinary workings of God in both religions, and since there are experiences, how do you deny the faith?

Indeed experience is a big part of believing in God. Christian faith is about our experience with the true and living God. But in fact there are more than Christianity that people testify of experiences. Are not some gods being worshipped because they seem to have blessed their worshippers with riches or children? Have we not heard of sculptured elephants that could give out milk?

However, are our experiences truly with God or with other extraterrestrial beings in the universe?

If we believe in God, we should also know that in the world there are also angels, Satan and devils in the spiritual realm.  My point is, does your experience in your faith speak of the God as (He) described in the Word He left for us? Or is the god you seeking just a spiritual being who can fulfill your desires?

The Bible does not write to preach God. It writes down the history of mankind and through the stories you know about how man has experienced God through generations. Not everything written in the Bible may speak about God the way we want to hear about Him. In fact there are many stories that may leave us baffled why God reacted (or did not react) in the way He did.

Lazy men will say that God is too mysterious and we can never understand Him so we shall not question.

Indeed God is mysterious and beyond man’s understanding. But it does not mean that we should not seek to understand Him. In fact, God favors those who seek Him diligently.

I love those who love me, And those who seek me diligently will find me. 

Prov 8:17

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jer 29:13

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Heb 11:6