We are God’s
people – a simple
statement, four simple words but what a profound, amazing, life changing
concept and expression of truth.
David asks a
very appropriate question in Psalm 8 – He asks:
“When I consider your heavens, the work of
your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is
mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You
have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and
honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything
under their feet,…”
What is man that God, the creator of all
things – Would be mindful of him? His notice and caring is an honor that we
should never take lightly or take for granted.
Psalm 100 says:
“It is he
who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”
David, the writer of the 100 Psalm was a
shepherd in the early years of his life and when he wrote that “we are His people - the sheep of his
pasture.”, he knew very well what that meant. The sheep
in David’s pasture belonged to him just as we belong to God. He was responsible
for their every need, their safety, their nourishment, their health. THE SHEEP
DEPENDED ON DAVID FOR EVERYTHING.
This is a beautiful picture of the
relationship that God wants to have with each of us. He wants us to know that we are His people
and that we can 100% depend on Him for everything we need.
1 Peter 2:9 says
“But you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you
may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light…”
So, not only are we His people,
we are “His own special people.”
We are the people that He has called out of darkness into His
marvelous light;-- We are the people that He is caring for, working with,
teaching His ways, looking after even when we walk wide eyed into all sorts of
difficulties. Just as David went out to pull a single stray sheep out of a
thicket, God is always there to pull us out of our thickets of life.
There is a hymn that we frequently sing
entitled “We Are God’s People”.
This hymn is one of the more contemporary
hymns that we have in our hymnbook. We usually consider that hymns were written
way back many years ago and preserved through generations. But this one was
written only 44 years ago in 1976 by Bryan Jeffery
Leech. Mr. Leech died
on June 30, 2015, in California, but left us this beautiful reminder of our
precious relationship with God. We are God’s people.
I encourage you to look at the words of this
hymn and to visualize the truths he conveys through his metaphoric style of
writing. As an assistance to get the most out his lyrics, note that each verse
describes certain biblical attributes using beautiful pictures and metaphors
– and then in the last line of each
verse , he gives us instructions, as God’s people to follow.
The first verse is my favorite.
We are God's people, the chosen
of the Lord,
Born of the Spirit, established by the Word;
Our cornerstone is Christ alone, and strong in Christ we stand;
O let us live transparently and walk heart to heart and hand in hand.*
Born of the Spirit, established by the Word;
Our cornerstone is Christ alone, and strong in Christ we stand;
O let us live transparently and walk heart to heart and hand in hand.*
We are God's people, the
chosen of the Lord. When we really think about this
statement, it is mind boggling that He loves us so much. How much does He love
us? He allowed His perfect, sinless son to be tortured and put to death so that
we can live and be made right in His sight and be the recipients of His grace
and blessings.
Christ was born of the
Holy Spirit – The Son of Man - and was predicted by the prophets many years
before His birth.
The family of faithful
believers is built on the foundation of Christ "our cornerstone is
Christ alone", The Biblical picture of Christ as the cornerstone of
the Church and of each of us as living stones is a study that would take more
space than I have in this writing so I will simply quote.
"You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ
Jesus himself being the cornerstone" Ephesians 2:19-20
The last line, as is
his style, gives us our instructions. The picture he relates is a beautiful one.
“O let us live transparently”.
Something is transparent when you can see right
through it, clear like glass. Our lives, my life, should be transparent to the
point where people around me can see right through the “me” and only see the
Christ in me.
“And walk together heart to heart and hand in hand”.
What a great picture of
people so united together that their hearts are as one and they are
inseparable.
Being
God’s chosen people is because of the free gift of His grace - but it comes
with this responsibility.
Hymns are a window into God’s word.