Easter Countdown: 3) O Praise the Name (Hillsong)

O Praise the Name (Anastasis) is one of the most popular new songs to be written in the last few years. As a worship leader at a previous church I really enjoyed being able to introduce this song to my church and it remained a favourite there.

'Anastasis' is Greek and means recovery from a debilitating condition or resurrection from the dead. This song begins with the suffering, death and burial of our Lord Jesus but then shifts the focus to the triumph and joy of the resurrection.

Calvary and the cross should always have a significance to us. Not the geographical place as such but the significance of what Jesus' death means to us. That He bled and died for me because that was the only way, through His body "given for you" and His blood which is "poured out for you" (Luke 22:19-20), that we could know the forgiveness of sins and be justified before God.

It "pleased God to bruise Him" (Isaiah 53:10) - it was all part of God's plan for salvation that the Messiah should suffer. So when Jesus sweated great drops of blood in the garden and prayed earnestly about the cup He had to drink (Luke 22:42-44), it was not because He feared death and suffering at the hands of men, it was because the full punishment of God was going to come down upon Him. He was to be made sin, the thing God so much hates, when He had been the perfect, sinless man.

Then, having been made sin and having experienced the forsaking of God, He died and was buried in a new tomb. Joseph of Arimathea was prepared to give his own tomb for the Lord's burial place. Yet it was only needed for three days - at the very first moment of the third day, Jesus rose from the grave and defeated it's power!

In verse four we then have the second coming of the Lord, when "the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we the living who remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall be always with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). That's what the resurrection has achieved - our eternal future with the Lord in glory. We begin the song of praise now but 'for endless days we will sing Your praise'. As John Newton says in Amazing Grace:

'When we've been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun!

We've no less days to sing God's praise

Then when we'd first begun!'

Eternity is coming and it will be spent in one of two places. Because of Jesus' death and resurrection we can choose to spend it in glory with Him, if we come in repentance for our sins and profess faith in Him.

Praise His Name!

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I cast my mind to Calvary

Where Jesus bled and died for me.

I see His wounds, His hands, His feet.

My Saviour on that cursed tree

His body bound and drenched in tears

They laid Him down in Joseph's tomb.

The entrance sealed by heavy stone

Messiah still and all alone

O praise the name of the Lord our God

O praise His name forever more

For endless days we will sing Your praise

Oh Lord, oh Lord our God

And then on the third at break of dawn,

The Son of heaven rose again.

O trampled death where is your sting?

The angels roar for Christ the King

O praise the name of the Lord our God

O praise His name forever more

For endless days we will sing Your praise

Oh Lord, oh Lord our God

He shall return in robes of white,

The blazing Son shall pierce the night.

And I will rise among the saints,

My gaze transfixed on Jesus' face

O praise the name of the Lord our God

O praise His name forever more

For endless days we will sing Your praise

Oh Lord, oh Lord our God

Oh Lord, oh Lord our God

Oh Lord, oh Lord our God