A Fresh Look at God
Speaker: Andrew Brown
Key Passage: Psalm 29
Date: 11 Jan 2009
January is a time of refreshment
Body –sleep, beach
Mind -reading
But what about soul?
Was interested to read that until 1766 eating-places were always part of a hotel or an inn. In that year a French chef opened the first public dining place in Paris and he put up a sign in front of his shop based on Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The place then became called after French a restaurant.
But where do you go to refresh your spirit?
One great place to go to is to the Psalms
These are a collection of songs, instruction and prayer that has fed people for generations. People have gone there for refreshment for centuries
e.g. monasteries read Psalms daily, I do this regularly
Part of the appeal of the Psalms is that they are intended to light a fire under us. They impact our emotions. In the books of the prophets, we have God speaking to His people. In the Psalms, we have people pouring their hearts out to God.
There are 7 different styles (examples)
Praise, thanksgiving, instruction in wisdom, lament, enthronement, pilgrimage
Will look at 5
Today a praise psalm – one of earliest, Psalm 29
At the end of my talk I’ve taken the liberty of translating it into NZ setting for impact, but right now we’ll read it in the original. ‘Sirion’ is not a Daihatsu car, but the Phoenician name for Mt Hermon in South Lebanon. [Read]
it came out something very different than what we started with,
e.g. ‘My friend thinks ice cream is pretty nice’ becomes ‘my aunt has smelly armpits!’
In the same way I think we tend to
whittle God down.
We know that God is majestic, great and grand, but we tend to shrink Him down to our size.
For instance, did you know that there are nearly 40 names for God in the Old Testament and around 275 descriptive titles for Jesus in the new?
Yet each year our word list seems to get smaller.
By end of year we saying…”Thanks God for being a Father to us. You are good.”
J.B. Phillips wrote a book called “Your God is too small.”
I agree. Is this something that happens to you?
1. The Psalmist reminds us that every once in while we need to catch a bigger vision of God (v1-2)
Need to capture a picture of God that expands and enlarges our souls –one that opens up a whole new impression of who God is and what God is doing.
We need something eye-opening:
1. That makes us want to stand up and tell the heavens how great and good God is
2. That humbles and amazes us. Makes us bend the knee before Him.
Won’t you like to start 2009 like this?
How do we do this?
How do you catch a fresh new vision of God?
2. If you are bored with God, you need to rekindle your sense of wonder (v9b)
(If you’ve got God in a box, you get to get to a place where He can rock back on your haunches and cry out like everyone did in the temple (verse 9) “Glory!”
The dictionary definition of wonder is:
a. To be affected with surprise or admiration; to be struck with astonishment; to be amazed; to marvel.
b. Also -to feel doubt and curiosity; to wait with uncertain expectations; to query in the mind and to be uncertain
Someone once said, “We cease to wonder at what we understand,” so its to bring yourself to a place where you are over awed and amazed at what you are experiencing.
3. This is what happened with King David of Israel.
-David saw a great storm sweep in off the Mediterranean (place of chaos & fear). It thunders in over the seas to the north of Israel.
-The storm strikes the mountains of southern Lebanon (the high places). It hits the highest point the usually snow-capped Mt. Hermon. It devastates the great cedar forests that the Romans milled for their galleys.
-He sees the rain and he hears the wind. He saw (eye) the lightning (fire in the sky) and heard the thunder (noise in the sky).
-It then sweeps down the river Jordan (past Jerusalem, across the length and breadth of the land) to deluge the deserts of Kadesh in the south.
-Perhaps it was frightening, powerful and daunting. Maybe he was hiding from it.
-But the great storm made David think about God.
The storm is powerful. God is powerful.
The storm covers the land. God covers the land.
One feels humble before the storm. One feels puny before God.
Yet they are still safe. David concludes that the people of the Lord will be safe even in a great storm. The Lord will save His people and bless them.
The storm induces a sense of wonder in David with the result that David has an increased admiration for and a sense of security in God.
4. So how can you do to recapture your sense of wonder…
a. Go somewhere new (break your routine)
Go home a different way. Go somewhere new –check the Internet. Do something that places you out in nature.
b. Go somewhere bigger than you. Some place that even scares/overwhelms you a little.
Jump on the glass on the Skytower. Go caving in the Waikato. Walk at Muriwai cliffs. Hit the surf at Piha. Look up at Kauris in the Waitakere’s.
c. Take along a fresh pair of eyes (if an old place).
Child?
Don’t assume, e.g. Blenheim
d. Take time to gaze. Just take time.
I tend to think “that’s nice” and rush off. Don’t wait. God speaks in the silence.
What might this tell you about God?
i) Hebrew: How is God like this?
Shield, rock, king, shepherd, judge, refuge, fortress, avenger, creator, deliverer, healer, protector, provider, redeemer –God is like, e.g. rock.
ii) Greek –How is God is greater?
His omnipotence – he can do anything. His omniscience – he knows everything. His omnipresence – he is everywhere.
f. Turn those thoughts into words: Pray
C. Personal story
Every time in Christchurch –Lyttleton. Two strato-volcanoes –flooded.
What beauty! Like God.
What power! God is greater!
How long ago? God was there!
What an amazing sight! God has seen many more because he is always there!
I can trust in Him.
That’s my personal experience.
What’s yours? Where will you go? What will you do? Make some plans and go do it this week!
[Read together]
Psalm 29:1-11
(1) Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
(2) Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendour of His holiness.
(3) The voice of the Lord is over the waters of the Tasman Sea; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters of the Manukau and Waitemata harbours.
(4) The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.
(5) The voice of the Lord breaks the Kauris; the Lord breaks in pieces the kauri and the totara of Northland.
(6) He makes the Waitakere’s skip like a calf, Mt Eden and One Tree Hill leap like a young wild ox.
(7) The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning.
(8) The voice of the Lord shakes the Coromandel; the Lord rips through the paddocks and fields of the Waikato.
(9) The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple –here at PBC -all cry, “Glory!”
(10) The Lord sits enthroned over the floods; the Lord is enthroned as King forever.
(11) The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.
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