Of the Way

“I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people.” Psalm 35:18

Who is like You, O LORD?  Indeed, to ask the question is to answer it.  For You alone are from everlasting to everlasting.  You alone are uncreated, One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.  You keep Your covenants eternally.  They shall endure long after heaven and earth pass away.  You alone are able to perfectly remember mercy in Your justice, to redeem Your elect, to conform them to the image and likeness of Christ, and to build the church.

Let us shout for joy and be glad, for You are unrelentingly faithful to Your people.  With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, You delivered Your people from slavery in Egypt and parted the Red Sea that they were able to cross on dry land.  You vanquished Og of Bashan and Sihon of the Amorites.  You redeemed Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.  Though their sins were like scarlet, you have made them white as snow.  You ordained the random arrow that slew Ahab from before the foundations of the earth and converted Nebuchadnezzar.  Is anything impossible with You?  Grant us faith to more continuously believe it!

Let us say continually, “Let the LORD be magnified, Who has vanquished sin and Satan, Who has bound the strong man and is now plundering his house through the foolishness of preaching to prove that it is by His hand and not by the false wisdom of man.”  Let us extol You, O LORD, for You are taking us, a ragtag bunch of misfits and outcasts, quarrelsome, petty, and bloodthirsty, and building us into a glorious and spotless bride.  You alone can accomplish this, for You raise the dead to life.  Like Jacob, we are limping toward glory against all odds because You have commissioned it.  You are building Your church and the gates of Hell shall not stand against it.  Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember Your name O LORD, our God.

And our tongues shall speak of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long, for these tongues belong to sheep who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and nobody can snatch us out of His mighty hand.  It is in His name that we dare to approach Your throne Almighty Father, through the Holy Spirit, amen!