THE GODNESS OF GOD: Meditations on Psalms 95-100
By Dustin Shramek
Do you believe in God? Do you? Maybe you think that is a silly question. I mean, why else would you be here? But I still ask it. Do you believe in God, the God of the Bible?
J.I. Packer says, "No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God..."[1] Packer is so right about this, but he is only right if our thoughts of God are thoughts of the God of the Bible. I know many people who think about God, but they certainly are not humble. Why? Because they do not understand the awesome power of our God. They don't believe all that God has chosen to reveal to us in scripture. So there are many people who talk about God, but their god is not one to be feared. There is no need to stand humbly before their god.
What about your thoughts of God? Do they give rise to humility? Does your heart rejoice with song when you think of His love? Do you tremble in fear when you think of His wrath?
Tonight I want us to worship. I want us to feast on God. I want us to think rightly about Him. Last night at BASIC, Chad spoke about God's passion for God. Why is God so passionate about Himself? Because He knows how great He is. Our passion for God is directly proportional to our view of God's greatness. If our God is small, our affections for God will be weak. But when we see God as He really is, O how are affections soar! My desire is that God will be pleased to increase our view of Him so that our affections for Him will be higher than the mountain tops.
For our worship, I want us to meditate on Psalms 95-100. Our theme will be 100:3, "Know that the LORD Himself is God..." We want to find out what it means for God to be God. Why is Jehovah, the God of the Israelites, God? Psalms 95-100 have many great snapshots of the Godness of God. Let's take a look at a few of them.
Psalm 95:3-5 says, "For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In whose hand are the depths of the earth; the peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it; and His hands formed the dry land." Psalm 96:5 says, "For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens."
God is the Creator. All other gods, they are nothing. They are powerless idols, but not our God. No, before anything was, He existed; and then out of great love for His glory, He created us out of nothing, that we might partake of His glory. All things on the earth are His, all things in the heavens are His. He is over all. Speaking of Christ, Paul writes in Colossians 1:15-17, "And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Everything in existence was created by God and for God. All things that have ever come into being, have done so for God's sake. God is the reason that He creates. God creates for His joy and glory. Our God is God because He is the Almighty Creator.
For God to be God, He must prove Himself more powerful than any other thing. 97:3-5 says, "Fire goes before Him, and burns up His adversaries round about. His lightnings lit up the world; the earth saw and trembled. The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth."
Know that all of God's adversaries will be destroyed by Him. Mountains melt in His presence. Who can stand before such a God? No one. Remember the Exodus? Do you remember the mighty display of God's power over Pharaoh? God powerfully proved that He alone is God when He delivered His people.
Israel triumphed over the might of Pharaoh. Why? Because God delivered them. Imagine being amongst the millions of Israelites standing on the shore of the Red Sea. There is nowhere to go and then you hear Moses say, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent."
Moses tells you to run into the sea, and as you begin to run the waters divide providing dry ground. How terrifying to look on both sides of you and see a huge wall of water that would crush you if it fell. Then you look behind and see Pharaoh and his army chasing you. They are better armed and know how to fight. If they over take you, you will be doomed. They will certainly destroy you and your people. You finally get across and you happen to see Moses in the corner of your eye as he stretches his hand over the sea. Then the waters begin to fall. O, the sound of rushing water colliding, the sound of men screaming as they face their deaths. And just like that, God has destroyed the whole army of Pharaoh--but you have been delivered.
Is our deliverance from sin any less spectacular? The walls of sin and death have been divided by the out stretched arms of Christ! He has called you forth from death to life. As you lay dead at the bottom of the sea, He spreads forth the waters and runs in and rescues you from your sin. And as He pulls you out, the waters of sin and death collide together as your former self is crucified with Christ. For it is Christ who is devoured in the waters this time. But Christ is the mighty deliverer and He rises again. Oh how glorious. We have been delivered! What joy and comfort we receive from such a wonderful truth as it rests on our hungry palates. Exult in our great Savior. Yes, we have mightily been delivered. Jesus has proved Himself as the Almighty. Jesus is God!
Our next picture of the Godness of God comes from 96:6, "Splendor and majesty are before Him, strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Our God is God because He is the most beautiful being in the entire universe. He is full of splendor and majesty. Nothing compares to Him. "For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods" (Ps 96:4). Who or what compares to God in beauty? He is the Creator of beauty. Who compares to God in majesty? Before whose knee will everyone person bow? Who compares to God? No one. God is God because at the end of the age every knee will bow down and worship Him. He is God because He is worthy of such worship. If we saw Him in His glory, we would die, for no person can see God's face and live. Yes, He is God!
In order to be God, our God must be sovereign. There cannot be anything outside of His control, for if anything was outside of His control, God would no longer be God, it would. If I have ultimate self determination, meaning, I have the final say in anything I do, I would be God. For I am the one who would determine the future, not God. Such thoughts steal great power and glory from God.
But praise Him that He is in control. Both Psalm 97 and 99 start with the phrase, "The LORD reigns." It is He who is in control. There is nothing that He does not reign over. He rules all things.
But notice, in each verse there is a different response to His sovereignty. 97:1 says, "The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice;" Our response to God's sovereignty should be one of joy. It gives us great hope to know that our loving Father is in control. But 99:1 says, "The LORD reigns, let the peoples tremble..." Our response to God's sovereignty should also be one of fear and reverence. We must recognize that God is free to do as He pleases as it says in Psalm 115:3, "But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He please." God owes us nothing and is bound by nothing outside of Himself.
What a glorious God who is in control of all things. What hope could there ever be in a God who is unable to control His creation and bring forth His desires? There would be no hope. But thank God, that we do not serve such a weak God. No, our God is strong and mighty, able to always bring forth His will. Feast on our sovereign God!
There is one more thing describing the Godness of God that I would like to look at. God must be holy and righteous and therefore God is the Judge of the universe and He will judge all people. 96:11-13 says, "Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all it contains; let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the LORD, for He is coming; for He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness."
Our thoughts of God should humble us and nothing is more humbling than God's right to judge His creation and do with it as He pleases. Turn with me to Exodus 13:15. This verse is one that most people just simply skip over. It isn't one that we memorize and treasure in our hearts. No one wants to hear a sermon on this text. Why? Let's read it. "And it came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed every first-born of man and the first-born of beast."
God killed them. Every first born son, dead. If I had lived in the time of Pharaoh, I would have been killed by God. How many of you are the first born son? If you were Egyptian, you too, would be dead. And you know what? We wouldn't have had a clue that it was coming. The hardness of one man led to the death of multitudes. Many households would have lost their son, the father (if he was the first-born) and possibly, even the grandfather. In Ex 12:30 it says that there wasn't a single home in Egypt where someone hadn't died.
This is a hard teaching. It doesn't sit well with us. All of those people, who didn't know, dead. How could God do such a thing?
Our answer to that question will depend on one of two places you could start. If man is the center of the universe and everything is for our sake, we could not make sense out of it unless we conceded that God is not all good. But if we start from a God-centered perspective things change. Everything looks different. For God has the freedom to do whatever He wishes. And if in His wisdom He sees fit to kill all the first born of Egypt, who are you to say that He is wrong.
You see, God doesn't owe us anything. I can't go up to God and say, "God, you owe me 70 years" or, "You owe me 30 years." I can't tell them that He owes me another minute. He owes me nothing! And He is free to kill me at anytime.
This is true even for babies. If God causes Kellie to get pregnant after we're married, we can't tell God that He owes that baby life. If he chooses to cause a miscarriage, He is free to do it. He has sovereign Creator rights over His creation. "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21).
So I ask again, "Do you believe in God?" Do you? Is your god as big and powerful as the God of the Bible? Is your God free from all restraints outside of Himself? Or do you believe in a super human who has to play by our rules? Do you believe in an all powerful Creator who can do as He pleases, or one who is subject to the whims of His creation. Do you believe in God?
God is a God who judges and He can cast His judgment at any time. Don't be so arrogant to think that God will certainly cause you to prosper with a long life. You have no claim on your life. God created you and He can take you whenever He wants. If you wake up tomorrow, it is only because God was pleased to give you another day.
This truth drops us to our knees as we see how utterly dependent we are upon the Lord. The fact that you are listening to me now is owing to the grace of God. He doesn't have to keep you alive, no, He freely chooses for you to remain alive.
Don't think that I say these things in an experiential vacuum. Don't think that this is all theology and I have never experienced the pain of losing someone. I have. 5 « years ago, God took my mother through breast cancer. I wept over my mother's death and I still feel sorrow about not having her. But I know that a wise, loving God was the one who sovereignly used cancer to kill my mother. God didn't owe my mother the 36 years that He gave her, He didn't owe her anything. My mother's life was a free gift of God. And I praise Him for her. God gave me a great mother and God took her away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
May God be pleased tonight to open our eyes that we may see His greatness. May we truly bow before Him as Lord of the universe and Lord of our lives.
"Know that the LORD Himself is God." He is God, fear Him. He is God, depend on Him. He is God, trust Him. He is God, love Him. He is God, hunger for Him. He is God, yearn for Him. He is God, rejoice in Him. He is God, delight in Him. He is God, worship Him.
Worship with me as I read Psalms 95-100.
Note
1. J.I. Packer, Knowing God, (Downers Grove, Il: Inter Varsity Press, 1993), p. 18
All Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation.
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