All Praise to Him Who Reigns Above
Every couple of weeks I release a song which I've recorded from the old 1912 Nazarene hymnal Canaan Melodies. I've done 43 at this point, and I hope to get through all 160 over the next 8 years or so!
I try to give them a modern feel so that we can appreciate the great words of these songs without them sounding like they come from the 1910s. Today I want to share with you song 8 in the hymnal which I recorded back in 2023. My CrossRoad band members really helped me rock this one up, and it begins like this:
All praise to Him who reigns above
In majesty supreme,
Who gave His Son for man to die,
That He might man redeem!
The Majesty of Our Reigning God
I love this verse! The song begins by declaring that God who reigns above in heaven is worthy of all our praise. He is in heaven, and His majesty is supreme and without comparison. I wonder if you think of God in such terms - if, to you, He is grand and wonderful and majestic and worthy? I wonder if our prayers and our songs give Him glory and declare that we see Him as great and mighty?
But this verse also declares the good news of the gospel - that this same mighty and majestic God sent His Son to redeem humankind by dying for them. Perhaps you've heard this a thousand times, and if that's the case may I encourage you to try and imagine you're hearing it for the first time. The God who reigns above all creation became one of us so that He could die on the cross and redeem us.
God's Love Displayed in Jesus
Be reminded today, friends, that a holy and majestic God has no need for us humans. But His love for us humans is so great, that He laid aside that greatness and became one of us, to purchase our redemption.
Paul states it so well in Philippians 2:6-11, where he talks of Jesus, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
So we praise God, not just because He is great and mighty and beyond measure, but because despite His majesty and glory He came down and gave His life for us on the cross.
It's a wonderful mystery, that He would do this in love for us. But He did. So join me, today, in giving Him all praise, as we sing that verse again.
