Recently I went to a church service in which I paid attention to the words we were singing (for a change). At the end, as far as I could recall, we hadn't sung anything about God's works. The songs were very God-focused, and God was spoken of as being eternal and sufficient for our every need, but not one of God's past or future acts was mentioned. No mention of God's work in creating everything. No mention of God's mighty deliverances of old. No mention of Jesus' works on the earth, or his death or his resurrection. No mention of God actually doing anything in the future (except continuing to be eternal and sufficient). No mention of what we want God to do in our lives (except to be sufficient). No mention of what we expect God to do at the return of Christ.
Two thoughts.
First, we need to think about the songs we choose and the songs we sing. God is made known to us not as the God who simply exists, but as the God who acts, in history, for our deliverance. The Psalms are full of this (the title of this post is from Psalm 92:4). It's not that every song we sing has to mention God acting in some way. But if none of the songs we sing mention anything God has done or will do, then something has gone seriously wrong.
Second, it strikes me that there must actually be some appeal in thinking of God's eternity and sufficiency quite apart from his works in history. Why is that? Why do we like to think of God as the one who is transcendent, outside of time, and far beyond this world? Is it because we ultimately long for something similar: to escape this world, and to exist for ever in the timeless glory of God's eternity?
Next time you are in church, pay attention to what you sing, and ask yourself at the end, What acts of God did we sing about?