Our Hearts Burn Within UsSample

Praising Him in the Past, Present, and Future

Palm Sunday represents the very best of what we as disciples of Jesus can do, bringing full-focused praise and honor to His royal name in total surrender before Him. Two thousand years ago, a multitude of Jesus’s first disciples gathered on the hillside of the Mount of Olives to welcome His descent into Jerusalem. Their shouts of praise and symbols of worship were befitting of “the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Lk 19:39, ESV). At the same time, their actions foreshadowed a day far into the future when disciples from all over the world will be gathered together to do this very thing (Rev 7:9-10). What a profound image of the gospel! The Apostle John describes seeing, “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Rev 7:9, ESV). Like the followers of Jesus on that first Palm Sunday, these future multitudes will cry out “with a loud voice” to exalt the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

As believers in the 21st century, we live between the times described above. We have arrived on the scene long after Palm Sunday, but we have not yet reached the time of future praise described in Revelation. As we wait, the praise of past and future disciples inspires us to engage in the kinds of unbridled worship we know we will one day express to our King, face to face. On that day, we will join with brothers and sisters from across the globe, waving palm branches as we sing, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev 7:10, ESV).

Prayer

Father of Life,

Let the Holy Spirit stir up our hearts to praise King Jesus

Whose reign affords “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Blessed is the King!

Amen!