They stood on the beautiful sandy beach, and the sun, glistening on the mountains, highlighted their red color and reflected back on the water. A scene of natural beauty! Yet it was not an ode to nature that arose. Their eyes were not trained on the mountains, the white sandy shores, or the sea; they saw a sight that overwhelmed them and caused a spontaneous outpouring of praise. There, on the distant shore, lay their enemies in defeat. “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel . . .” (Exo 15:1). And so they sang the first recorded song in our Bibles – without hymn books, choir director, or even a day to practice. Spontaneous, spiritual, and sincere, the song rose from the shores of the Red Sea to the heart of God.
Fast forward 800 years. To a young – perhaps teenage – prophet named Jeremiah, God delivers a message to the nation, a nation not now enjoying the sight of a vanquished foe, but faced with its own impending defeat. “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness …” (Jer 2:2).
Eight hundred years after the crossing of the Red Sea, God still remembered the heart-thrilling worship of His people. “I remember!” God was still enjoying that moment of pristine, unsullied love and adoration.
Does God need our worship? Does God need anything? The question answers itself. Yet God delights when His people, rising to our highest honor, scaling the heights of our ultimate purpose in life, and reaching the limits of human experience, worship Him.
So take heart, missionary. Those few souls gathered in after years of toil, as worshipers of the living God, bring Him infinite delight. What of the evangelist who labors in tent and hall for weeks and sees so little? That “little” results in worship for God, worship He remembers.
Take courage, Sunday School teacher. Those few children entrusted to your care are potential worshipers of God and His Christ. As God gives you the great joy of seeing them brought to the Savior, you are also afforded the great joy of being conscious you are providing worshipers for the Father.
Every personal worker, laboring with so little fruit from each day’s exercise, can encourage himself in the great truth that seeing one soul led to the Savior means another paean of praise, of which, God says, “I remember.”
What if instead of counting souls and converts, we counted worshipers won for the Lord? What if instead of lamenting over the sparseness of results from our efforts, we longed for a harvest of worshipers for God?
Each time a soul bows in worship, whether in the quiet of a bedroom or in a company of believers, offering praise brings delight to the heart of God. Over each, we will learn at the Bema and rejoice eternally, He had written, “I remember.”
