Singing a Song of Praise

Singing a Song of Praise
Jeremiah 51- Lamentations 5
“Then the heaven and the earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers will come to her from the north, declares the Lord.”
We sing the songs of praise for the grace of God, but are silent in affirming his judgment.  We celebrate and affirm the existence of heaven, but want to deny the reality of hell.  A quick perusal of the top 100 most popular worship songs, there is not one song that celebrates the justice and judgment of God.  Yet when we read through the chapters of Jeremiah 51 through Lamentations 5, we find the words hard and difficult to read for they are a series of pronouncements of judgment upon Israel and the nations around them.  The message is dark and foreboding as God proclaims that he will pour out his wrath upon the nations for their idolatry. Yet just as a God who is angry without anger is terrifying, so also a God who is loving without justice is complacent about sin.  To allow evil to exist unjudged and unabated is to placidly affirm it. The result would be a world where sin runs rampant and unabated.  Imagine a world where Hitler or Stalin reigns supreme and unchallenged and evil is unrestrained.  It would be to live in the realm of hell itself. In a world where sin exists, our only hope is in a God who is just and will bring judgment upon evil.
In Jeremiah 51:48 we find that all of heaven shouts for joy at the destruction of Babylon. They are rejoicing because God had pronounced the coming judgment upon Babylon.   The angels not only sing the praise of God’s grace but also sing the praise of his judgment.  For those who are oppressed by evil, their hope and joy is that justice will be restored and judgment will be executed.  
When we praise and affirm the character of God, we rightly sing of the praise of his love, compassion, and grace.  However, we must also sing the praise of his judgment, wrath, and punishment of sin.  We must not only rejoice for the presence of heaven, but we must also rejoice in the justice of hell. The one necessitates the other. The presence of heaven without hell results in the reign of evil.  The presence of hell without heaven results in the reign of an unloving and ungracious God.  But in the nature of God, we discover both his love and grace in perfect balance with his holiness and justice.  We are to worship him for both.  John Newton wrote one of the most loved and embraced songs of God’s grace.  Throughout the years it has remained as a favorite.  The song is “Amazing Grace.” It is a song that is perhaps the most popular hymn in modern history and the most widely sung hymn throughout the world.  But he also wrote another hymn entitled “Day of Judgment! Day of Wonders!”
1 Day of judgment! Day of wonders!
Hark! the trumpet's awful sound,
louder than a thousand thunders,
shakes the vast creation round.
How the summons
will the sinner's heart confound!
2 See the Judge, our nature wearing,
clothed in majesty divine;
you who long for his appearing
then shall say, "This God is mine!"
Gracious Savior,
own me in that day as thine.
3 At his call the dead awaken,
rise to life from earth and sea;
all the pow'rs of nature, shaken
by his looks, prepare to flee.
Careless sinner,
what will then become of thee?
4 But to those who have confessed,
loved and served the Lord below,
he will say, "Come near, ye blessed,
see the kingdom I bestow;
you forever
shall my love and glory know."
May we learn to sing both in an anthem of praise for the God who is gracious and forgives our sin is also the God who will not allow sin to reign unabated.  Heaven is not silent in the face of evil, for there will come a day when he will come forth from heaven to restore righteousness in the world.  Then we will sing both the songs of his grace and the songs of his justice.