Family Bible Week 2015
July 19, 2015 :: Psalm 147
As you’ve seen today, the theme of our Family Bible Week was “To the Edge,” and the subtitle of our theme is our title for today’s message, “Encounter the God of the Universe.”
And by that, we don’t mean encounter the god that the universe is. We mean encounter the God who made the universe in which we live. Encounter the God Who created everything that there is.
That’s the God our kids have been learning about all week long.
And when I thought about that theme, my mind went to the 147th Psalm, especially verse 4 which Marilynn put on the cover of your bulletins today.
Psalm 147 is about encountering the God of the universe. And more than just encountering Him, worshiping him, and more than just worshiping Him, wondering at Him, and more than just wondering at Him, putting our hope in His unfailing love.
I have just three short points this morning. All are application.
This psalm wants us to encounter and respond to the God of the universe in at least three ways.
Worship, Wonder, and Hope.
Let’s take those one at a time.
#1.WORSHIP!
Did you hear all of the worship words in this psalm?
It starts and ends with the call, “Praise the LORD!”
Praise YHWH!
Do you know what the Hebrew is for that?
Hallelujah!
V.1 “Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!”
It’s just right to praise God!
And to sing to God. V.7 “Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp.”
And the guitar, and the bass, and the keyboard, and the drumset!
Verse 12. “Extol the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion...”
Praise, Sing, Extol. Those are worship words.
This psalm wants us to encounter the God of the universe and bring Him the worship that He deserves.
Let me ask you a question.
Does the psalmist give us any reasons to worship God?
You bet he does. This psalm is just loaded with reasons to worship God.
And they turn on two different points.
One is that God is the amazingly powerful creator of everything and Lord of the universe and the other is that God lovingly cares for His people, in this case, the Old Testament people of Israel.
V.2 “The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
This psalm was probably written after the exile of Israel when they were being restored to the land. The story covered in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah which the adult class talked some about this week.
The LORD cares for His people. Verse 13 has the same theme.
“He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.”
God provided for Zion, for His covenant people. Including giving them the Law. V.19
“He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the LORD.”
Again, that’s in the age of the Old Covenant. God had a special relationship with Israel, and the psalmist says that because of that God’s people should worship Him.
But most of the verses talk about how powerful He is over all of creation and how that should lead us to worship.
V.8 “He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.”
V.15 “He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes [remember snow and frost?]. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.”
Do you see how God is credited with being responsible for nature?
How God is in control of everything, including the weather?
Everybody cares about the weather, but none of us can control it.
But God can!
And because of that, God deserves our worship.
More than that, God deserves our wonder.
#2. WONDER!
Our praise should be full of marveling at God’s majesty.
This theme is so clear in verse 4.
“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”
This is a God who deserves astronomical praise!
“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.”
That is a mind-blowing statement.
Do you know many stars there are?
Cody asked the kids that question during Family Bible Week, and one of them said, “There must be a least a hundred!”
Without Googling does anybody want to take a stab at how many stars there are?
It’s not millions.
It’s not billions.
It’s 70 billion trillions.
That’s 7 times 10 to the 22nd power.
If I’m doing the math correctly, and that’s always a possible concern, 70 billion trillion is a 7 with 22 zeroes after it.
And that’s just the stars in what astronomers call the "Observable Universe."
There may be and most probably is more than that out there.
Now, get this and get ready to wonder:
Our LORD determines the number of those stars.
And the psalmist says that He calls them each by name.
Now, I don’t know if that means that God has His own pet name for each individual star, but it does mean that He created each one and is Lord over each one.
Doesn’t that make your brain bubble?
Wow!
“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”
Wonder!
When Heather and I were in California last month, we walked on the beach in Carlsbad each night.
And one night while we were there, Heather was taking pictures, and I just watched the waves come in and go out. Come in and go out.
And I thought about how many grains of sand there are and how I could never keep track of them, coming in and going out.
And right now, that same spot I was standing in the waves are still coming in and going out. Pounding away.
And I thought about how God knows every wave pounding that spot on that beach for however long.
Pound, pound, pound.
And more than that, He knows every spot on every beach in the world.
Pound, pound, pound.
The Lord Jesus said that every sparrow that hits the ground is known by God the Father.
“He determines the number of the stars [more than 70 billion trillion!] and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”
Wonder at the God of the Universe!
But not just at how big God is.
Wonder that that God wants a relationship with you!
That’s what’s been so amazing for our kids to think about this week.
The God of the universe who is not impressed by anything or anyone, wants us to enter into a personal relationship of faith and followership with Him.
This psalm wants us to know that it’s because we’re so wonderful ourselves.
V.6 “The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.”
He’s not impressed with the proud.
He’s not impressed by anyone or anything. V.10
“His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”
He’s not looking for help.
He’s not look for strength.
He’s not looking for strong people to join His team.
He just wants us to fear Him and hope in Him. V.11
“The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”
#3. HOPE!
You know when I first read this psalm this week, it seemed a little proud.
Especially in verses 19 and 20.
“He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the LORD.”
It sounded a little snooty to me.
But it’s not like that. This is WONDER. This is amazement.
This is the psalmist saying, “He paid attention to us? Little old Jacob? Little old Israel? He loved us? He reached out to us? The God who made everything. Who just says the word and it rains or snows or frosts or burns, or hails or blows or flows?”
That God has reached down to us?
Not the strong? But the humble?
Not the powerful but those who fear Him and put their HOPE in His unfailing love.
That’s who?!
That can be me.
That can be you.
That can be us.
Hope in God’s unfailing love.
The God of the universe is worthy of our worship.
When we encounter Him, we will wonder and praise and extol and sing.
And that God has invited us to put our faith in Him and Him alone.
Hope in His unfailing love.
And you and I know so much more about this God than the psalmist did.
We know that this God who names the stars humbled Himself and came to earth as a little baby.
Jesus.
And then lived a perfect life and died on the Cross to save us from our own sins.
And then came back to life to give us life.
That’s unfailing love!
And it is our own only hope.
“The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”
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