"God in Perspective"
Knowing who God is helps us relate to him
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. David McMaster
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Text: Psalm 95:1-11
In the somewhat popular 1999 film, Notting Hill, William Thacker (Hugh Grant), an owner of a very small “Travel Book Shop” meets up with the world's most famous movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts). Their first date involved Anna accompanying William to his sister's birthday party at a friend's house. It was an average-y small London home and William's family were quite average-y people. One by one as the guests arrived, they exhibited shock and excitement as they realized William was with the great Anna Scott. The last guest, a not-so-great investment advisor, who was oblivious to the world, came in and had no idea who Anna was. Upon introduction, he said, “Hello Anna,” shook her hand, carried on as if she was a nobody. A little later, in the midst of group snickering, he asked her what she did and she replied that she was an actress. He went on, quite inappropriately, about his own amateur acting exploits, and what a shame the wages were so low for actors. “I mean, how much did you get for your last job,” he asked, “it's ridiculous.” “Oh about, 20 million,” she replied, at which point his drink went all over the place and, to howls of laughter, the light finally went on, “Anna! Anna Scott!”
It can happen to the best of us. Many, perhaps, have been in situations in which we haven't known who someone was, or have made some unwitting faux-pas around someone of substance. I would like us to ponder for a few moments how we should relate to another person. I am not thinking here of how we should relate to a superstar, or how we should relate to some VIP, nor am I thinking of any other human being; I am thinking about how we should relate to the person of God. I have noticed, in more recent times, that many Christians have been relating to God in terms much more familiar than perhaps was the case in years gone by. Many, it seems, relate to God as a good buddy, a friend, or even as someone barely tolerable. I compare that to the past in which there seemed to be more mystery, fascination, awe, and reverence. So I want us to ponder, who is God? And, how should we relate to him? Perhaps we can draw some thoughts out of one of the psalms today as we answer this question.
I
The first seven verses of Psalm 95 are a hymn of thanksgiving that may have been used in great festivals in the Jerusalem temple. In these verses, the psalmist gives us three great images of God that may help us put God in perspective. The first of these is God as creator.
When we think of creations, often we think of things that human beings create or make. Many human creations have been heralded as great discoveries. But one could ask if they are really the creations we think they are. Are they really the intentional work of masterful hands forming and shaping something out of nothing, breathing life into something that was not there before?
Think, for instance, of the creation of Dr. John Pemberton. Dr. Pemberton lived in the era after the Civil War when medicine often derived from anecdotes and formulas tried and tested only in the laboratory of a caring mother's home. Dr. Pemberton set out to create a medicine to alleviate the common headache and to cure drunkenness! He wanted to develop a formula that could do this without the aid of alcohol, a liquid used in many medicines of the day. So he set out to experiment with certain extracts of fruits and nuts and leaves for taste, along with a combination of caffeine and cocaine for analgesic purposes. After much trial and error he finally arrived at his long desired creation. Just add water and drink - headaches would be cured in minutes.
In the summer of 1886, John Pemberton sold his first headache serum to Jacob's pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia and, by the time of his death, he had only gained a couple of thousand dollars from the creation of this dark brown miracle medicine.
That's where chance stepped in, as is so often the case with human creations. It seems that a customer came into Jacob's pharmacy one morning with a terrible headache. The clerk, who was rather new on the job, thought of Dr. Pembertons' serum and went to the back to mix some up. By mistake, however, he added carbonated water instead of pure water. The clerk's mistake is still in the ingredients today. The cocaine has long since been taken out of the mix, as for the rest, we buy the serum often but most of us know Dr. Pemberton's work by its newer name…Coca Cola.
How often are human creations merely accidental discoveries? How many are not intentional creations at all? Think of them:
• Post-It notes: a failure in an experimental glue.
• Electricity: a weather experiment turned lightening strike.
• Penicillin: rotting mould turned miracle cure.
Human “creations!” In comparison, God's creation was intentional. It was direct. It was true creation ex nihilo; the work of a true artist who sits down to shape something with his hands, yet uses no clay to start. God breathed into nothingness the something that became the entire universe. In Psalm 95, we receive a clarion call to worship. We are challenged to see God for whom he really is; the great Creator. In verse five the psalmist writes, “The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.” The apostle Paul wrote, “For in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers - all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Here is a God who is above our very imagining.
II
The second image that the psalmist gives us is one of an exalted, sovereign Lord. In verses three and four he states, “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.”
We get a wonderful insight into the extent of the psalmist's thoughts when we understand the popular religion of his day. The religion of Israel's neighbours was polytheistic. They believed not in one God but in many gods; not in one all powerful deity but in many with more limited powers. They had gods and goddesses of sun, moon, earth, river, fertility, and a host of other deities. Probably the best known of these to Christians and Jews is Ba'al, the Canaanite god of storms and fertility. Most of these gods were thought to live in the heavens and in order to draw nearer to them, when it came time to worship, Israel's neighbours would get up as high as they could. They would worship on mountains or build temples that reached into the sky (Babel). “High places” were important for Israel's neighbours and we can read often in our Old Testaments about how the Lord, who was a jealous God, deplored the things that went on in the high places. It is interesting in verse four the psalmist writes, “The heights of the mountains are the Lord's.”
But there was one more god in the religion of Israel's neighbours. The very name of this god brought fear into the hearts of men and women. He was thought of in a way that former generations thought of the Grim Reaper. In my native Irish lore it was the banshee, the ghost of death. In Israel, his name was Mot, or Death, and he was associated with the underworld. The underworld was where Israel's neighbours thought the souls of the departed went. Mot was ruler of the underworld. He lived in the dark, murky realm and sometimes reached up to drag even living beings down into what they called the “land of no return” (like Korah). Quite often low places, deep valleys, would be associated with the underworld, death, and Mot; scary places! Isn't it interesting that the psalmist tells us in verse four, “In the hands of the Lord God are the depths of the earth.” Or elsewhere in Psalm 23, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no ill for you, the Lord God, are with me.” The Lord is greater than the powers of the low places.
Do you see what the psalmist was doing? He was taking a potshot at the popular religion of the day. He is exalting God who had created all things. He was saying God is a great, sovereign Lord - he is greater than all the gods and powers that polytheistic religion can think of. “In his hands,” he says, “are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.” In other words, all those places you think are under the control of the gods, both high and low, are really under the control of one … the God who created all things. The psalmist exalts God over all the imaginations of Israel's neighbours and above all things of this earth.
III
We might say that the first two images are of a transcendent, sovereign Lord. The third image conveys to us a God who is immanent, who is not so far beyond us that he thinks nothing of us. The third image teaches us that God is involved and also cares for his creation. Using the metaphor of a shepherd and his sheep, the psalmist says, “He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” (v.7).
In ancient times the shepherd was an important person among the people of Israel. The Israelites were known to be sheep-herders and herders of other animals. But it is sheep in particular that lend themselves to this image because sheep are quite helpless animals. They aren't that bright and left to themselves they can be easy prey for wild animals, or they can wander aimlessly around the countryside following each other like the blind following the blind. Sheep need direction, they need a shepherd. They need someone to provide for them, to guide them, and to protect them.
A number of times in the scriptures, the writers use this metaphor to give us light into God's character. We are likened to the sheep, God to the shepherd who feeds, guides, and protects from harm. In another psalm, he states (Ps. 23), “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his names sake.” God, you see, even though he is our creator, even though he is high and exalted above all gods, comes down from on high and cares for the little things of his creation. God spans the outer reaches of our conception of greatness and he spans the outer reaches of our conception of involvement, love and care.
IV
How, therefore, should we relate to God? With these images in mind, the psalmist says first that we should rejoice in his presence. Make a joyful noise before the Lord, come into his presence with thanksgiving in our hearts. For the Lord is a great God (vv.1-3). Generally, Christians are pretty good at that. We come in worship with our hymns of praise and thanksgiving. But then the psalmist goes on, our God is high and lifted up, the Creator, the sovereign Lord, “Come let us worship and bow down,” says the psalmist, “let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (v.6)! Perhaps, more modern approaches to God are not as good at kneeling before God.
When I was a child my father taught me to pray. I recall that on many evenings he would bring me to my bedroom at bedtime and the two of us would kneel at the bedside and pray to God. I didn't ask about it at the time, kneeling was just what one did. But when one thinks about it, kneeling is a mark of subservience. It places us under the person to whom we are speaking. It is a sign of great respect. It is a sign that, in the presence of a greater power, one knows one's position.
I understood this matter even better one night when we, as a family, were staying at my grandmother's house. It was summertime and the days were long. In the northern part of Ireland which, in terms of latitude, is level with the southern parts of Hudson's Bay, the daylight would last even until 10:40 p.m., dawn would break before 4:00 a.m. One night, when I was about six years old, I was sent to bed early as usual but couldn't sleep because of the light. I tossed and turned and thought for hours. When finally my Dad came to bed, darkness was setting in. He probably thought I was asleep but I watched this man whom I admired and thought could do anything … and just before he got into his bed, he knelt at his bedside and prayed. I got the picture - our God is a great God. Even my Dad whom I as a child thought was a giant of a man, had to kneel in an act of subservience to God. God, you see is a great God.
V
As of Wednesday, we have entered into the season of Lent. Lent is a time of introspection, a time of sacrifice, a time of putting God, and the things of God, in perspective. This Lent, may we all truly be enabled to see who God is and even now begin to usher in the time when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. “O come, let us worship and bow down,” says the psalmist, “let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker” (v.6).
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.