LET THE WORLD STAND IN AWE OF THE LORD

Proclamation:

“Let all the earth fear The Lord; let all the people of the world revere Him.  For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm.”  Psalm 33:8-9 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  The human author is unknown but most Bible scholars believe that it was written by King David because it begins with wording which is very similar to that of the last verse of psalm 32.  The psalm begins by encouraging believers to praise The Lord and providing directions as to how it should be done. (Psalm 33:1-3)  The psalmist addresses the sovereignty of The Lord God in creation, (Psalm 33:4-9) then he addresses His sovereignty and power over humanity. (Psalm 33:10-19) 

Application:

We are encouraged to fear The Lord God, to hold Him in reverential awe, and to praise Him for who He is and for all that He has done.  He is omnipotent, He spoke and created something out of nothing.  Even the forces of nature obey His will.  He sees all and is omniscient. (Psalm 33:18)  We are also encouraged to wait on The Lord God as He is our protector. (Psalm 33:20)  In times of trouble we should pray that He will have mercy on us while we continue to trust in Him. (Psalm 33:22)

OH LORD HOW EXCELLENT IS YOUR NAME

Proclamation:

“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!  You have set Your glory in the heavens.”  Psalm 8:1 (NIV)  The King James version of The Bible for this verse reads: “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!  Who hast set Thy glory above the heavens.”

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by King David.  In this psalm David reflects upon the greatness of God and puts his thoughts into a song.  He considers the things which God has made, the heavens, the moon, and the stars, and then he wonders why God even gives a thought to man. (Psalm 8:3-4)  God created man and gave him the honor of having dominion over the things which He created and placed on earth. (Psalm 8:5-8)  As he continues to reflect on the awesomeness of God, David ends this psalm the way that he began it, “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth.” (Psalm 8:9)

Application:

Man has struggled for a long time trying to “figure out” how the earth, and life upon the earth, came to exist.  Man cannot explain the stars in this galaxy or the other galaxies which he can see.  The problem is that man refuses to believe in God.  As logical as he is about most things, in this regard he is totally illogical.  Patterns do not just randomly repeat themselves, where there is a design, there must have been a designer.  The pattern of our solar system and others, with planets revolving around a sun, is repeated on a grander scale with galaxies.  It is also repeated on a microscopic scale with atoms having electrons revolving around a nucleus.  As David pondered the planets and the stars, he reflected on the awesomeness of God.  If we think about these things, we should also be impressed with the awesomeness of our God.  The fact that we began our life as one cell, a zygote, which was formed by the union of two cells, a sperm and an ovum which is a miracle in itself, which then grew into a mass of cells with differentiation and specialization that made us a functioning human being.  We should all praise God for our very existence, and for giving us the capacity to even think about the planets and the stars.  Without the breath of life that we received from Him we would be nothing but the dust of the earth with dominion over nothing. (Genesis 2:7 and Ecclesiastes 3:20)  Our God is an awesome God, praise His holy and righteous name.  Oh Lord, how excellent is Thy name!

Created To Do Good Works For God's Glory

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

These divinely inspired words were written by the Apostle Paul to the believers in The Church at Ephesus.  Paul told them that they were created by The Lord God, to do the good works which He had planned and prepared in advance for them to do.

It is not always easy to do that which we know is the right thing to do.  Our human flesh nature and our spiritual nature are frequently at war as we decide what to do.  We can come up with plenty of excuses for not doing that which we know that we should do.  It is possible that we were created for such a time as this, to do the right thing. (Esther 4:14)  "Sometimes God will call you to do a work – a work that He has planned for you to do (Ephesians 2:10). You may not want to do it. You may feel that you are not smart enough, talented enough, strong enough, or bold enough. You may even argue with God like Moses did (Exodus 3-4). You may laugh at God like Sarah did (Genesis 18:12). But if you obey God and depend on Him to work through you, amazing things will happen. People will be blessed. You will be blessed.  You may never know the people who are changed by your obedience (to God) to speak a word, to lend a hand, or to give a hug. You may never know the lives that are impacted by your obedience to do what God has called you to do. But know this. There will be abundant fruit with your name on it – if you choose to obey." (Sharon Jaynes, author of When Saying "Yes" To God Seems Too Hard)