Psalm 148: 1-10 Praise the name of the LORD! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all the deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Mountains and all the hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beast and all livestock, creeping things and all flying birds!
I love this portion of Psalm! It is the perfect display of jubilee as one looks at all God created and realizes how it was created to be good. The earth declares his majesties! We read in scripture even the rocks will cry out in worship if we do not! (Luke 19:40)
God's created order reveals His glory and goodness. How we read and respond to this sets the course of our worldview and our view of God. A.W. Tozer says, "the most important thing about a man is what he thinks about God." Ask yourself today, what do you think? What do not just your thoughts but the evidences in your life say about God- do you give account to a Creator or as you look around; do you realize there is more of an obligation to the created?
As we have studied the creation account this week we see that God spoke, and it came to be. He creates man in His image. God transitions from "Let there be," to " Let us make man..." Such a profound thought. Making man in his image was personal. The plurality of God is stressed. V26 In our image after our likeness. My mind goes right to John 1 again, In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. I am breathless. I read Genesis, I hear the echo of John- I look outside and I hear the declarations of the Psalmist.
Adapted from John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion we read, " Whether it is in the beauty, power, or complexity of creation, a taste of God's wonder is engraved on all things as an unmistakable testament of His incomprehensible glory." A right understanding of God will cultivate a right worship and posture before God. Calvin goes on later in this passage, " The glory of God is inscribed in creation with bold letters, yet the unbeliever has exchanged the glory of the incorruptible for images of corruptible things( Romans 1:23). This confusion of the creation with the Creator supplants the true God with a shadow deity, depriving God of his right as Creator and denying creation's proper place as an announcement of the glories of its Maker."
How then do we worship God in response? Through Christ! God speaks to us through Jesus Christ! And when we come to a firm understanding that in Jesus and through Jesus and by Jesus we have the ability to love and worship God, we are able to love and serve Him fully. We can declare Him Creator and King!
As we continue in this journey next week we will build up to the fall. We will get to see how one man's disobedience created the need for one Man's obedience.
Attached is a sermon of Genesis 1 that points us right there. https://mthopechurch.org/prologue-of-promise/
And some worship songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58SieFo42F0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw_VAnvAyvs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUZD0hgtSgE
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