Our weeks are shaped and directed by people, tasks and ambitions making demands on our time. Sundays give us a chance to reset. A day to remember why we worship God. Although this psalm was written by worshippers in Israel’s Temple, the call to worship is for all peoples (v 1). It is packed with reasons why we should worship God.

Which of the reasons strikes a chord with you? The fact that God is the supreme ruler, that he is totally other, holy, exalted beyond our imagining (vs 2,8,9)? Or that he acts in justice to free people from oppression (v 3)? Or maybe you are struck afresh that he has chosen you and planned good for you (v 4). The reference to Jacob, who was a liar and schemer, reminds us that God chooses to love flawed people. 

God’s decision to extend his love to all nations (v 9) is worth pondering. Anyone from any nation who responds in faith to the quiet prompting of God’s word becomes part of the family of Abraham. They are blessed with the covenant love of God (Galatians 3:7–9)! 

‘God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.’1 Invite God to do this again today.

This is another psalm of exuberant praise – which has also been set to music in different contexts. Like Psalm 46, it has a focus on the particular and the universal. The God we praise is the Lord, the particular God of the nation of Israel; whenever we see Lord (in small capitals, vs 2,5) that is a translation of his name, which was thought too holy actually to say. He is the pride of Jacob and the God of Abraham – but we need to note why we should praise him and who is invited to the praise party.

At first it might read like a nationalistic celebration: ‘He subdued nations under us’ (v 3). At first it seems as though he is the God of Israel, but not the God of the Egyptians, the Canaanites or the Edomites. However, there is something more nuanced going on here: ‘He chose our inheritance for us … whom he loved’ (v 4). God has set his love on Israel, not because they are great, or because they deserve it, but just because he has.² Our natural response to thinking about the greatness of God is to think of ourselves as small – but the psalmist does the opposite, because he is so convinced that this great God is on his side. God’s power for us is something to shout about. 

This God of Israel is also the God of all nations. He reigns over the ‘kings of the earth’ (v 9), a phrase Revelation picks up in declaring that Jesus is ‘ruler of the kings of the earth’.³ The celebration of God being ‘for us’ (v 4) isn’t in any sense ‘He is on my side, so he is against you’, but ‘God is for me – and you can discover that he is for you as well’.

In the different contexts of your daily life – home, work, school, neighbourhood – what might it mean to realise that ‘God is for me’?

¹ Rom 5:5  ² See Deut 7:7,8  ³ Rev 1:5