Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Jensen Holt McNair. If I asked you to think of some of the imagery

used throughout the Bible to describe God, what would come to mind for you? A gentle father,

a mother protecting her young, a loving shepherd, maybe our

sacrificial lamb. Those are more often than not what comes to mind for me. I tend to remember and focus on the imagery of God that helps me see

him as my comforter, my provider, someone who is near and loving and gentle and kind. So often I imagine the God of Psalm 23, my shepherd, my close

companion, my generous and good host, which is absolutely true, all true of God. That's why these images are used throughout

scripture. I am guilty though of forgetting that in many places throughout scripture we see other bits of imagery that portray other

attributes and truths about who God is, particularly the imagery of God as a warrior, a conquering king. I wonder sometimes if the reason that I don't

often lean on this imagery is because it makes me uncomfortable. I want the soft and cuddly and comforting Jesus. I don't always want the warrior.

It can get messy with my modern sensibilities. It's easier to just focus on everything else.

But scripture doesn't let me do that. And honestly, when I try to cut out

this side of God as the just powerful conquering warrior king, I miss a massive part of God's bigger story, something worth celebrating, something

that is absolutely necessary for our salvation.

See Psalm 98 in particular does a really wonderful job of pointing us to this larger truth about who God is.

This Psalm is broken up into three stanzas and we're going to just take it one stanza at a time and then we'll see how this

Psalm points us forward to the big picture of God's redemption for all people and all of creation.

Okay let's jump in Psalm 98 verses 1 through 3 sing to the Lord a new

song for he has done marvelous things his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Okay, so let's remember context. This psalm is written for the nation of Israel to sing together.

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