EYES on the NATIONS: A 5-Day Journey Exploring God’s Unchanging Heart for the NationsSýnishorn

Let All the Nations Praise Him!

Abraham’s family became a numerous people, just as God had promised. When they found themselves enslaved in Egypt, the Lord heard their cry, came down, and rescued them with mighty acts of deliverance (Exodus 3–12). He established a covenant with them (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5) and made them into a nation set apart for his missional purposes. He set symbols in the midst of their camp—the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant—as visible reminders of his promises to them and his presence with them.

Fast forward several centuries, and we find that one of those symbols, the ark of the covenant, has fallen into enemy hands during the reign of Saul, Israel’s first king. When David replaces Saul as king, one of his tasks is to bring the ark back to Israelite territory (1 Chronicles 15 and 16).

The return of the ark is a moment of joyful, celebratory worship, a time when David’s appointed singers and songwriters (“Asaph and his kin”) make their debut. It is significant that on this day of great national rejoicing, which could easily have been an occasion for an exclusionary self-focus on Israel by Israel, the people are called to a very different focus. The song of Asaph in 1 Chronicles 16 takes Israel farther back than its own founding, to the creation purposes of God. This worship song, especially verses 23–36, highlights the worship of the Lord by “all the earth” (vv. 23, 30), “the families of the peoples” (v. 28), and “the heavens and the earth” (v. 31). Israel’s experience of God’s work of rescue and redemption (vv. 8–22) is not only for Israel’s own benefit, but also for a witness to the rest of the world (the nations).

God’s redemptive purposes for “the nations” are present even in Israel’s most exalted moments of celebratory worship. The experience of salvation and rescue is not just a gift to be gratefully received but a witness to be given to the watching world.