Originally posted: 11/24/2020
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, You are very great… (104:1).
My oldest grandchild is almost twelve. She has a passion for the truths of God and His Word. We share a lot of time together, as she lives only two houses away, is home-schooled and two days a week is with me doing schoolwork. I am blessed and grateful for all the time and deep conversations the Lord has provided for us together.
She is particularly perplexed by people who believe in the theory of evolution. It is after all, a theory and not a fact; for there can be no observation of what they say occurred over billions of years. It makes no sense to the discriminating mind of my twelve-year-old granddaughter, with the complexities of design and the intelligence of human beings, to have faith in billions of chance mutations; believing they have evolved into a world perfectly suited for life.
Oh, if only secular scientists had the brains of my granddaughter. She knows what is logical to believe: that One Who Is Creator and all-powerful, One Who Is Very Great, is the answer.
Consider Him Who Is Very Great
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Splendor and Majesty.
- Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, You are very great;
You are clothed with splendor and majesty, (104:1).
- Bless the Lord, O my soul!
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Creation of the Heavens.
- Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak,
Stretching out heaven like a tent curtain, (104:2).
- Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak,
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Creation of the Earth.
- He established the earth upon its foundations,
So that it will not totter forever and ever, (104:5).
- He established the earth upon its foundations,
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Authority over His Creation.
- You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
The waters were standing above the mountains.
7 At Your rebuke they fled,
At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away, (104:6-7).
- You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Design for His Creation.
- He sends forth springs in the valleys;
They flow between the mountains…
14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the labor of man… (104:10, 14a).
- He sends forth springs in the valleys;
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Providential Care.
- So that he may bring forth food from the earth,
15 And wine which makes man’s heart glad,
So that he may make his face glisten with oil,
And food which sustains man’s heart, (104:14b-15).
- So that he may bring forth food from the earth,
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Works of Wisdom.
- O Lord, how many are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all, (104:24).
- O Lord, how many are Your works!
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Goodness.
- They all wait for You
To give them their food in due season.
- 28 You give to them, they gather it up;
You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good, (104:27-28).
- They all wait for You
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Power over Life and Death.
- You hide Your face, they are dismayed;
You take away their spirit, they expire
And return to their dust, (104:29).
- You hide Your face, they are dismayed;
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Spirit.
- You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the ground, (104:30).
- You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Enduring Glory.
- Let the glory of the Lord endure forever;
Let the Lord be glad in His works, (104:31).
- Let the glory of the Lord endure forever;
- He Is Very Great, manifested in His Terrifying Preeminence.
- He looks at the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the mountains, and they smoke, (104:32).
- He looks at the earth, and it trembles;
How do we respond to Him Who Is Very Great?
I can’t help but believe, if we really ponder Him, if we really consider Him Who Is Very Great, our first response would be fear. And I don’t mean the Biblical, holy, reverent fear. I mean fear, like terrorizing fear. He Is Very Great, really beyond our comprehension.
I know a few atheists who say they are content with their own understanding of how this world came to be, believing cellular microbes got life started, convinced it can be duplicated in a chemistry lab. But how can something that supposedly happened billions of years ago be duplicated? Even a twelve-year-old knows that is preposterous.
And when we truly consider Him Who Is Very Great, wouldn’t we be foolish not to be frightened? That’s actually how I got saved… I was “frightened” when I heard His words from Revelation 3:15-16, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”
It was a terrifying reality to consider myself being spit out of His mouth; and by His grace, I responded and trusted Christ for my salvation and was brought into relationship with Him Who Is Very Great.
Today, I pray that you too have come to understand that He Is Very Great, far above us in His Splendor and Majesty, His Creation and Authority, His Providential Care and Goodness, His Wisdom and Works, His Power and Glory, and His Terrifying Preeminence; and I pray that that you have come to know Him Who Is Very Great through His amazing Love and Grace.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him,” (John 3:16-17).
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast, (Ephesians 2:8-9).
And when we are saved by His amazing Grace, when we think about the fact that we are saved from the wrath of Holy God and have been chosen to live with Him Who Is Very Great for all of eternity, won’t every bit of our lives and every desire forever be changed?
Let us aspire to sing praises to Him Who Is Very Great as long as we have breath.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being, (104:33).
Let us commit to fix our thoughts on Him Who Is Very Great. As we do, we will bring Him pleasure, and we will know the joy of communion with Him.
Let my meditation be pleasing to Him;
As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord, (104:34).
Let us refuse to tolerate any compromise or complacency in our obedience. Sometimes it may mean cutting off relationships with others, and sometimes it may mean cutting off our fleshly desires that war against the spirit.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth
And let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord! (104:35).
Oh, may our entire lives be set apart to bless Him Who Is Very Great with all that we are, in our worship, our praise and our obedience. And as we think about all the blessings He has so richly lavished on us in Christ, how can we not?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (Ephesians 1:3).