“For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.” Psalm 95:3-7a
Devotional Thought For The Day
The psalmist is making sure that his audience understands the difference between God and the all the other “gods” of the nations. Much of the idolatry of antiquity included the concept of “regional” gods – a god of the sea, another god of the air, another god of the river, a god of the plains, a god of the mountains – etc.. Even the Greek and Roman gods had weaknesses, squabbles, arguments, contests, and had much in common with fallen and sinful human personalities. This is what makes idolatry such a pitiful, lamentable, and even laughable phenomenon. In contrast to this, God, the only True and Living God, is over all things, Creator of all things, present everywhere, above all so called “gods,” and also “our Maker,” the Creator of all human beings.
The most fundamental theological error is to confuse things about God, to think there could be anything like Him, to think that He could be in any way limited like we are, to turn away from contemplating His absolute uniqueness and sublimity and to begin fashioning Him to our own images and speculations. Always, God is being shaved down, carved down, modified, conformed to our sinful desires, so that He approves of what we want or so that we can speculate climbing up to His level and becoming His peer. No, there is only one appropriate response to the reality of God, and that is to “worship and bow down, to kneel before the LORD our Maker.” Any response other than absolute humility and awe, fearfulness at His majesty and unimaginable awesomeness, is absurdly ridiculous and blasphemously disrespectful. But we can’t seem to help ourselves, and even those who seek to respect, honor, and love God find themselves thinking about Him in comparison to themselves, their own thoughts. Lord, we need Your mercy and grace!
Best of all God is “our God,” that is, we belong to Him, He loves us, He has made us and claims us as His own. We do not “become” His by our own efforts, obedience, works, behavior modifications, or our own righteousness and holiness. No, He wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He desires not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his ways and live. He sent His Son as the blood atonement for all people’s sins, for the sins of the whole world. The only people who are lost are those who reject Him, who repel themselves away from Him, who refuse to have Him as their God, who deny Him as God, who demand to have nothing to do with Him and to be separate from Him – and this includes all who prefer some false “god,” whether of their own making or one fashioned by other rebels.
All too often we start off on the wrong foot with God. We think that He is against us and that we have to do something to turn Him back around toward us. The truth is that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” The truth is that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” The truth is that “He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand.” If we will have Him, if we will receive His mercy and grace and clemency, His forgiveness, blessing, and salvation. But alas, this our sinful nature rejects, and many follow their sinful nature in rejecting God and “worshiping” something else. May it not be so for us! Rather, let us join the psalmist in embracing the “great King above all gods,” our Creator and Redeemer, the One Who loves us so deeply and so dearly that He gave His Son into death and condemnation for our salvation! This is the heart of Christmas – how could we ever forget?
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, You are our great God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, above all gods, full of power and might, full of love and glory. Help us to keep You clearly in focus, as You have revealed Yourself to us – as our God, our great Lover and Benefactor. Make us rejoice to remain in Your pasture as Your dear people, that we be filled daily with awe and joy in Your love. May the joy of Your coming, the joy of Christmas, fill our hearts with peace, joy, reverence, and love for You, that we too worship and bow down to You, kneeling before You in adoration. Amen.