Beautifully Situated

Psalms 48:1,2

Great is the Lord, And worthy of glory, Great is the Lord, And worthy of praise, Great is the Lord, Now lift up your voice, Now lift up your voice, Great is the Lord! Great is the Lord!

This is the chorus of one of the hymns we sing occasionally called “Great Is The Lord” and it is one of my favorites! I love to hear our congregation sing it because it is one of those hymns that really invites God presence into our service. We may all come in each service with different needs, different ideas, different personalities, but the one thing that we all agree on is GOD IS GREAT AND GREATLY TO BE PRAISED!!!

I say all of this because the Lord directed me this morning to Psalms 48. It says:

1 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

These two verses are a description of two great truths...God is Great and greatly to be praised and that the city of God is beautifully situated!

The first thing I would like for you to reflect on today is that God is greatly to be praised because He is great. You see no matter what the situation is God is great and greatly to be praised because of WHO He is! Situations may change for the good or the bad but God remains the same. He is unmovable! Of course we praise and thank Him for all He does for us but remember He does FOR us because of WHO he is.

The second great truth is that the city of God (in this case Jerusalem) is beautiful and situated in the right place. I have never been to Jerusalem and hope to go there someday but I am told that no matter what direction you come from the view of the city is breathtaking! And it should be because God has put it in the perfect place. So perfectly situated it is that verses 4-6 tells us that the surrounding nations marveled, revered, and was astonished by it.

So what is God saying to us today in this Psalm. I believe the same two truths apply. First, He is great and greatly to be praised in this situation that we are facing with COVID19. He is still God and will do great things in this moment and is doing great things! Great not just for what He does or is doing but great because of WHO He is! Remember He does what He does because of who He is.

Second, what a good situation we as His Church find ourselves in today! You see just as Jerusalem is the city of God in the geographical sense, the Church is the city of God in today’s world in the spiritual sense. Just as I said yesterday in my sermon what makes a city is not buildings but people. We are the people of God and that makes us a city. When the disciples first met Jesus the first question they ask Him was “Where do you live?” Jesus answered “Come and see.” His home is in His Church. And what makes a Church? His people!

My point in all of this is just as Jerusalem of old was in the right place, God has put you and I at Crestview in the right place at the right time. We are beautifully situated! Let us lift up our voice in declaring that God is great and that He is in control of all things or as I said yesterday “A fixture in the midst of conflict and chaos.” And because we live in Him and He in us we too are unshakable in time of shaking. (See Hebrews 12:27,28 and 1 Corinthians 15:57, 58)

I leave you with this verse from Esther 4:14

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

We as God’s people are in the right place and at the right time so let us not be silent but let us “Lift up our voice, lift up our voice and say Great are you Lord!” You never who is listening and will marvel, be astonished, and will come to know the Lord by it.

Pastor Robby