Psalm 75:1:
1 We give praise and thanks to You, O God, we praise and give thanks; Your wondrous works declare that Your Name is near and they who invoke Your Name rehearse Your wonders.
This is the in obedience to Psalm 100:4:
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His Name! 5 For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, his faithfulness and truth endure to all generations.
Then God answers the praisers in Psalm 75:2-3:
2 When the proper time has come [for executing My judgments], I will judge uprightly [says the Lord]. 3 When the earth totters, and all the inhabitants of it, it is I Who will poise and keep steady its pillars. Selah [pause and calmly think of that]!
We all want to have the assurance that God is in control. When things look so chaotic, as they do in our world right now, we want to know that God sees and knows and that HE has the best plan to follow. HE DOES! His plan, though, involves us (as born again believers in Jesus of Nazareth) taking the responsibility for our own lives! He has set up this New Covenant so that we can walk in control in every situation in our lives by the Word of God and by the Spirit of God who lives inside of us. If we DON'T take that responsibility, it doesn't get done. The reason that so many believers seem to be "under the circumstances" is that they ARE! Instead of standing on the Word expecting God to perform it as He said He will do (Jeremiah 1:12), they run from meeting to meeting, and church to church, trying to get someone ELSE to believe for them! Jesus said, in Mark 9:23, that ALL things are possible to HIM who believes! We need to spend the time it takes in the Word of God to get to the point where we BELIEVE that He meant what He said and said what He meant! That the Word is TRUTH! Then we will think, talk and act like Jesus did when He walked the earth, and we WILL have the same results! (John 14:12)
I found an interesting statement in the Bible Exposition Commentary- New Testament concerning Hebrews 9 that goes right along with this:
"The Christian is a citizen of two worlds, the earthly and the heavenly. He must render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's (Matthew 22:21). because he is a citizen of two worlds, he must learn how to walk by faith in a world that is governed by sight. Like Moses, a believer must see the invisible if he is to overcome the pull of the world (Hebrews 11:24-27). Practical man says, "Seeing is believing!" But the man of faith says, "Believing is seeing!" I like that! Now on to Hebrews 9!
I have been so impressed lately with the fact that our God is a God of order! Even though he Himself is not bound by time, He has certain "set times" for things to take place! He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10)! Let's look at Hebrews 9:11-12:
11 But [that appointed time came when Christ (the Messiah) appeared as a High Priest of the better things that have come and are to come. [Then] through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with [human] hands, that is, not a part of this material creation, 12 He went once for all into the [holy of] Holies [of heaven], not by virtue of the blood of goats and calves [by which to make reconciliation between God and man], but His own blood, having found and secured a complete redemption (an everlasting release for us).
People had been waiting and watching for the Messiah to come to deliver them, but most of them thought He would come as a Warrior and take control of the world. HE WILL! But THAT "set time" is for the future, at the end of the Tribulation. Instead, He came as the PERFECT sacrifice for sin so that we could be free from the kingdom of darkness and its authority, and be planted firmly into the Kingdom of God and HIS family! ONCE for ALL! That is what Hebrews 9 is talking about! And the church is looking forward to THIS "set time" that we see in verse 28:
28 Even so it is that Christ, having been offered to take upon Himself and bear as a burden the sins of many once and once for all, will appear a second time, not to carry any burden of sin nor to deal with sin, but to bring to full salvation those who are [eagerly, constantly, and patiently] waiting for and expecting Him.
That word "salvation" is the Hebrew word, "soteria", which means: rescue, safety, deliverance, health. We WILL BE rescued from this Earth and all that will take place on it in what is referred to as the Rapture of the church! COUNT ON IT!
Now Isaiah 63 gives us a picture of the conquering Warrior Who WILL COME at the end of the seven years of tribulation after the Church is removed. He will conquer, for Israel, all of the armies that will come against her in the Valley of Meggido. We had the opportunity to see this area when we visited Israel earlier this year. We stood on the top of Mount Carmel, where Elijah defeated the prophets of baal, and looked across that vast expanse of land where all of the armies of the world will gather against Israel. The Messiah, Jesus will defeat all of the armies and then set His feet on the Mount of Olives and walk right into Jerusalem through the Beautiful Gates. And WE will be coming back WITH HIM! I am looking forward to THOSE "set times"! Come quickly, Lord Jesus! AMEN!
Shalom in Him!
