This is a very short psalm of praise. Each verse has only one sentence, and they are short and to the point. It is praise to God for His care for human beings. But one sentence bothers me.
In verse 3, the writer said, “Everywhere – from east to west – praise the name of the Lord”. But how can people praise a God they do not know? Some nations have many gods. Muslims view Allah as being so transcendent (other worldly) and holy he cannot be known. And of course, many people do not believe in a god at all.
Is there really a God and does He care about human beings? Jesus gave us the perfect answer. A Jewish leader named Nicodemus went to Him one night with questions. Jesus explained to Nicodemus what he really wanted to know. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18).
In 1 John 2:2, John explained about Christ’s work; “He Himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins – and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.” In other words, between these two passages, a person may go to hell in their sins but not because of their sins. They will go to hell because they did not accept Christ’s sacrifice for them.
God has from the beginning shown man how to find eternal life when He promised redemption through the “seed of the woman” and sacrificed animals to make skin coverings for Adam and Eve. (Gen. 3:15,21). But either parents forgot to explain this to their children or like Cain decided to make their own plan. God then chose Abraham to be the head of a nation to evangelize the world, but Israel rejected God’s plan (Ex. 19:3-6 and 20:18-19) and next rejected God’s plan of salvation (Matt. 27:25-26). Finally, God chose the church to share the plan with the world, and while the early church had success, we have not completed the mission.
The challenge for us today is to be like the early church. We must begin on our knees until the power of God comes down and an awakening is sent by God. (Acts 1-28).