God's greatness in me

Where should we expect to see the greatness of God in evidence?

"Everywhere," you might instinctively reply. But isn't this too vague? By looking for it in a number of different areas we may see sides to it that we would otherwise overlook.

The magnificent nineteenth psalm shows the greatness of God in a variety of different settings. The third is less obvious than the first two.

The first six verses show forth God's glory in creation.

"The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork"

goes the first verse (ESV). The celestial bodies are pictured as chattering away to each other constantly about the majesty of God in creation, in "words" which we pick up only spiritually, not by our organs of hearing. Human beings may boast of their own or someone else's greatness, but the manner in which creation glorifies God is of a totally different order. You cannot hide from it any more than you can hide from the heat of the sun.

All of a sudden, from verse 7, the psalmist takes a different tack and praises the greatness of God in His law. Even when stressing the limitations of God's law, the apostle Paul claims that

"... the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good" (Romans 7:12).

This is despite the fact that God's commandments put us under a death sentence because we can never keep them perfectly! The law is

• perfect
• sure
• right
• pure
• clean
• true
• altogether righteous
• desired
• sweet.

It has many effects as well as qualities:

• reviving
• making wise
• causing rejoicing
• enlightening
• warning
• rewarding
• exposing secret thoughts
• vindicating

- though, as I say, Paul struggled to make spiritual progress precisely because nobody is entirely innocent before God's law. As the Law sheds light on our inmost being, so it gives us the opportunity to reform. Of course, we can only be reformed in God's strength, not our own.

For Christians, the whole of God's written word, not just the Law of Moses, shows forth His greatness. The wisdom writings are profound. The words of the prophets are majestic and challenging. They show forth God's grasp of history because He uses them both to make sense of the present and to foretell what is to come - often in astonishing detail. Then the crowning expression of the greatness of God is found in the gospels, where it is recorded how He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to die a cruel death and rise again to bring salvation to all who trust in Him.

The wonder of creation and God's wise and perfect written word declare His greatness in different and remarkable ways. But have we exhausted the list in Psalm 19?

No, because at the very end of the psalm comes one further verse. It is a prayer which has often been used by preachers before embarking on their sermon:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

It says in effect, "When I think and speak, may my thoughts and words be mirrors reflecting your greatness back to you". God's greatness shown in creation; God's greatness shown in His word; God's greatness shown ... through me!

You cannot show forth God's greatness if all that God and others see is your own self-promotion. His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), and in our life submitted to Him. Could someone else gain a glimpse of God's greatness through seeing your devoted life?

Wonderfully Made

There are many arguments in favour of the existence of God. Yet in a way we need look no further for evidence than the human body. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14 KJV).

Christians believe that creation was an immensely powerful and yet warmly personal act by the Creator. All of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - was fully involved and fully committed. There was a definite end point to this glorious first phase of the divine work: we are told in Genesis 2:2

“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work” (NIV).

The legacy of the original creation remains breathtaking to this very day.

At the beginning of each day I have a clear reminder of the differences in efficiency between humans created by God and artifacts created by man. Not everybody is instantly alert on waking up. Some are downright drowsy. They moan and groan and turn over, longing to snooze on. They resist getting up until the very last minute and take quite a while to get into the day. Others are morning people. They bounce out of bed, alert and ready for anything straight away. I am somewhere in between. When I wake up, I may not feel refreshed, but at least I still become quickly aware of myself and my surroundings.

With my mobile phone, however, it is quite different. I leave it switched off completely overnight. When I turn it back on in the morning, it takes ages to come into full operation again. Partly this is because its contents are encrypted for security’s sake. But basically, like any computer, it has to remind itself each and every time what it is, what its different parts are for, and how they all work together. Only then can it even begin to burst into life. You would think the computer marks a high point in human creative ingenuity. Yet compared to humans it is comically slow and stupid.

You will now understand why I smiled when I read this extract from an evangelistic booklet by John E. Davis:

Have you ever stopped and marvelled at the wonder of the human body? When was the last time you woke up and had to remind your heart to start beating or your wounds to start healing? The Bible says "… in him we live, and move, and have our being …" (Acts 17:28). Have you considered the workings of the human eye or the complexity of the human brain, which is far beyond the capabilities of any computer? The human body is truly amazing, beyond our comprehension, no wonder David in the Psalms wrote "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works”.

(Remember, this is simply a comment on the first creation! It says nothing about how, in Jesus Christ, God has a long-term programme of re-creating us spiritually following the fall from grace of our first ancestors.)

Science goes on making amazing discoveries about the human body, some of which unfortunately lead a number of scientists to think they can “play God” with the physical matter that constitutes us. This has potentially disastrous consequences.

A bit of due humility is called for here. I once asked a scientist, a committed Christian  to address a church Men’s Supper Club gathering on Creation. I fear this audience was sceptical, even hostile. But what stuck with me was the faithful scientist's parting comment.

“The most we can do,” he affirmed in his closing sentence, “is think God’s thoughts after Him.”