Declare His Glory among the nations

“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.” – Psalm 96:3 NIV

The prophet Habakkuk prophesied many centuries ago the quest of God on the earth;

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” Habakkuk 2:14

If you want to understand what our God is up to in the world today, this is it: He wants to see the whole earth filled with the knowledge of his glory as the waters cover the sea – completely saturated.

Now it does not say ‘the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD’, because that is already the case. The glory of the LORD is already everywhere. It fills the earth. The prophet Isaiah heard the Seraphim affirming this;

‘They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”’ – Isaiah 6:3 (NLT)

So the reality in the world today is not that the Glory of God is not everywhere (indeed even creation testifies of his glory), but the knowledge of that glory is what is lacking in many places. You see, when men see this glory and lack the knowledge of that glory, they (with the help of the enemy) often misinterpret it and end up ascribing that glory to other gods. This was what happened in the Lycaonian city of Lystra;

“The people saw what Paul did. They called with loud voices in the language of the people of Lycaonia, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us.” They said that Barnabas was Jupiter. Paul was called Mercury because he spoke more than Barnabas. The god of Jupiter was in a building near the gate leading into the city. The religious leader of that place brought cattle and flowers to the gate. He and many other people wanted to burn these as gifts in an act of worship to Paul and Barnabas.”

Paul and Barnabas had to rush out into the crowd to stop them, and then to go on to share the knowledge of that glory with these men, which led to a large number becoming worshippers of the true God.

Today there are millions worshiping all kinds of false gods around the world, ascribing to them the glory that is God’s, just because they lack the knowledge of that glory.

The Psalmist says;

“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.” – Psalm 96:3 NIV

This is our call – to declare his glory among the nations. The preaching of the Gospel like Paul and Barnabas did in Lystra is how we declare that glory. It is in the face of Christ Jesus and his finished work on the cross, that men come to know the glory of God.

According to joshuaproject.net there is presently a total population of 3.14 billion people who are unreached (or unevangelised). These are nations who have had little or no chance to hear the Gospel. This then is our call – to go and declare his glory among the nations. Let those who have not heard, hear and turn to him. All the unreached nations need to hear of his glory.

If you want to find out more about how you can be actively involved in declaring his glory among the nations, please contact me by replying to this devotional.

May all the nations worship him!