I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.
Hebrews 2:12
My understanding of the Christian life can be summed up with two verses. The first one is found in John’s gospel: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The second one is: “Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:11). Jesus is all for and in us! He is our Christian life.
He’s the vine who supplies all spiritual life, growth, and fruitfulness to every branch. We exist to magnify His beauty, excellence, and glory. All the good we say and do comes from Him: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (2 Thess. 3:16-17).
Today, we have a quotation from the twenty-second psalm. The author referred it to Jesus. We know that because of the previous verse: “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise” (Heb. 2:11).
In Matthew, we read: “And no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matt. 11:27). Jesus is the only one who can reveal the Father. In today’s verse, we read that He reveals the Father to all his brothers and sisters—to all who’ve received Him by faith. His revealing of the Father isn’t a once-for-all, but a continual revelation: “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known” (John 17:26). That includes eternal ages.
The great news is that Jesus uses us to make the Father known. For example, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice” (John 10:16). While Jesus calls and brings them, He uses Christians to do so, as we see in Peter’s preaching: “For this promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Acts 2:39). Even though it was Peter who spoke, God is the one who calls people to Himself. That brings us to the main point of this devotional: Jesus is my song.
What does that mean? There are two possibilities. The first one is in reference to Jesus singing to the Father in glory. In other words: when we’re in heaven, Jesus will sing God’s praise “in the midst of the congregation.” That may very well be the meaning of this statement.
The second possibility is that Jesus’ song of praise to the Father flows from the vine through the branches. Either possibility is Biblical. Is it not an incredible thought that Jesus’ songs of praise to the Father flows through His branches, including as we lift up our voices on Sunday morning? Indeed, “Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:11).