Who is like our God?

Details: Published: Wednesday, 23 March 2016 03:07; Written by James Dean

With the excitement of the Passover still ahead, Jesus entered Jerusalem to the acclaim of the crowds as they sang the "Hallel" or "Praise" songs found in Psalms 113-118. Singing them reminded the Jews of God's greatness, hisother-ness. Psalm 113 reads:

5 Who is like the Lord our God,
    who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down
    on the heavens and the earth?

As I read those words I was reminded of the words of Isaiah that we heard this last Sunday morning from chapter 55:

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As Jesus travelled into Jerusalem the people thought they were welcoming a great leader; someone who would free them from the Romans. They thought they understood what God was going to do, that he would once again make Israel great. But their thoughts were too low, too rooted in earthly thinking.

God's plans reached far above and beyond what anyone understood. His wayswere higher, his thoughts were higher. He wasn't just going to save one nation. His Saviour would save people from all the nations! Psalm 118 reads:

25 Save us, we pray, O Lord!
    O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
    We bless you from the house of the Lord.

Jesus was the one that these Psalms anticipated. He was the one who came in the name of the Lord. But what the people missed was that it was the Lord HIMSELF who came, and the victory he would win would be not simply over the Romans but over death!

As we again consider all the events of Easter let's not lose any of the wonder and amazement of what actually happened in Jerusalem all that time ago:Jesus, God's own son, gave his life that we might live. Whatever you're doing, just pause for a moment, reflect on that wonderful truth and then praise God for Jesus!