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Daily Devotionals
Music For the Soul
THE GRATITUDE OF REDEEMED SOULS
Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honour and the power. - Revelation 4:11
Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain. - Revelation 5:12
Irrepressible gratitude bursts into doxologies from John’s lips, even here at the beginning of the book, as the seer thinks of the love of Christ; and all through the Apocalypse we hear the shout of praise from earth or heaven. The book which closes the New Testament "shuts up all" "with a sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies," as Milton says in his stately music, and may well represent for us, in that perpetual cloud of incense rising up fragrant to the Throne of God and of the Lamb, the unceasing love and thanksgiving which should be man’s answer to Christ’s love and sacrifice.
Such love and praise, which is but love speaking, is all which He asks. Love can only be paid by love. Any other recompense offered to it is coinage of another currency, that is not current in its kingdom. The only recompense that satisfies love is its own image reflected in another heart. That is what Jesus Christ wants of you. He does not want your admiration, your outward reverence, your lip homage, your grudging obedience; His heart hungers for more and other gifts from you. He wants your love, and is unsatisfied without it. He desired it so much that He was willing to die to procure it, as if a mother might think, "My children have been cold to me while I lived; perhaps, if I were to give my life to help them, their hearts might melt." All the awful expenditure of love stronger than death is meant to draw forth our love. He comes to each of us, and pleads with us for our hearts, wooing us to love Him by showing us all He has done for us and all He will do. Surely the Cross borne for us should move us! Surely the throne prepared for us should touch us into gratitude!
That Lord who died and lives dwells now in the heavens, the centre of a mighty chorus and tempest of praise which surges round His throne, loud as the voice of many waters, and sweet as harpers harping on their harps. The main question for us is: Does He hear our voice in it? Are our lips shut? Are our hearts cold? Do we meet His fire of love with icy indifference? Do we repay His sacrifice with unmoved self-regard, and meet His pleadings with closed ears? "Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? "
Take this question home to your heart, How much owest thou unto the Lord? He has loved thee, has given Himself for thee, and His sacrifice will unlock thy fetters and set thee free. Will you be silent in the presence of such transcendent mercy? Shall we not rather, moved by His dying love, and joyful in the possession of deliverance through His Cross, lift up our voices and hearts in a perpetual song of praise, to which our lives of glad obedience shall be as perfect music accompanying noble words, " Unto Him that loveth us, and looseth us from our sins by His own blood? "
'Music For The Soul' daily readings for a year from the writings of the Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D.D., selected and arranged by the Rev. Geo. Coates, published by A.C. Armstrong and Son, 51 East Tenth Street, (1897). The original text is in the Public Domain and this electronic version is free for anyone without cost or obligation. This a year long daily devotional was written by the Rev. Alexander Maclaren over 100 years ago. This Scottish pastor had a heart to follow Jesus and a love for souls.
