Title: The sound of the Lord God
What is our purpose for living?
We were created for something better than what materialism and technology can offer, and that is the worship of God forming the basis for our existence.
Worship is the only voice that communicates our soul to the very throne of God. While the cosmos performs an unending symphony in the silence of stars for the pleasure of God, man should do no less because he is not truly alive unless his life is one continuous act of worship.
Title: He takes nothing from his labour
There are two ways to respond to the brevity of life and the triviality of material possessions in the transition to eternity: we could choose hedonism or we could manage what we have in order to advance the kingdom of God.
Both would promote a certain degree of satisfaction, but only the latter would guarantee everlasting joy.
Title: You are a gracious and compassionate God
Anger that shuts out the love of God can never be justified, even in view of an indignation that seeks to uphold what is just.
God is sovereign even over our emotions, so we must give room for it to override our basic instincts or even our theology, when it appears easier to change directions in response to the convenience of retribution, which is the prerogative of God alone.
Title: The Jews did not enter the palace
Any external religious expression has to have as its basis for legitimacy the death of the Lamb of God at the cross of Calvary. It has to be a picture of God’s mercy and our inadequacy to please God with what we do not possess – a righteousness of our own.
We do not hope to be cleansed in the performance of a spiritual exercise, rather we show by our worship that God’s justice has been served, and a righteousness borne out of judgment of sin through the death of the Perfect Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus, has nullified rituals that demand outward holiness alone without the benefit of an internal salvation.