The Supremacy of God's Glory
THE SUPREMACY OF GOD’S GLORY – Psalm 19:1-6
Preached by Pastor Phil Layton on 12/3/2006 at Gold Country Baptist Church
Intro: This morning you have already been given a sermon before you came to church. It is a sermon you may not have paid much attention to, in fact it’s a sermon that you receive every day but most of us don’t give it much or enough attention or appreciation. It’s a message, a declaration, a revelation about God and His glory and it is going on 24 / 7 everywhere. According to Psalm 19, which is the passage we’re going to look at today, the preacher is the sky. He preaches a bigger and more beautiful picture and makes a more powerful statement about his subject than human words can, and the message the sky proclaims is continuous, it’s clear, it’s complete, and it cries out to all about the greatness of creation and the supreme glory of the Creator. The creation of this world and the sun and our universe gives overwhelming and unmistakable testimony of a glorious God.
READ PSALM 19:1-6
Today we are going to study verses 1-6 together, then next week verses 7-12
The title of an old book is “Around the World in 80 Days.” Well, this year, in 80 days Jeff Williams went around the world about 1000 times. In fact, this year, he has physically traveled around earth 2000-3000 times. Any guesses what he does for a living?
Jeff is a NASA astronaut who at the end of September returned from 6 months in outer space, orbiting our planet. Every hour in orbit he sees a sunrise and a sunset and within the next hour he has gone all the way around the globe. Jeff has flown on numerous space shuttle missions, he is one of the few Americans who actually does the space walk, and he also happens to be a born again Christian who I’ve met in person and heard him at one of our seminary banquets share some of his experiences. He is a good friend with my former pastor Phil Johnson, and in fact in April he called Phil from the International Space Station, which Phil jokingly said was the longest long distance call he ever received.
Jeff has flown farther and faster and seen more of our world from outer space than just about anyone, and has a unique and fascinating perspective on our passage that few have.
When Jeff was up in orbit one of the last times he did a 7-hour space walk, and while he was out there he circled the earth over 4 times (I think every hour and a half), floating in space with nothing to stand on, and he literally had the vast universe of stars and galaxies under his feet, with a view of them with no obstruction or peripheral lights from planet earth, he saw them in a way none of us have ever seen them. He said “words cannot describe the majesty and the grandeur of it” and you can see some pictures and videos but he says “they don’t do justice to the incredible size and beauty of God’s creation.”
Jeff has said that Psalm 19 is one of his favorite passages of scripture, and especially verse 1 was the one that continually ran through his mind and riveted his meditation while he was out there. He talks about looking at the earth from miles up there and reading the Bible verses that talk about the earth, and looking at the dazzling heavens while he reads our passage “the heavens declare the glory of God, the expanse shows the work of his hands.”
If we could only spend 1 minute with Jeff out there, I believe we would have a whole new appreciation for God’s perspective of our world when He inspired passages like this and Job 26 which says: "He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds, Yet the clouds are not broken under it. He covers the face of His throne, And spreads His cloud over it. He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness.
… v. 13 By His Spirit He adorned the heavens [many of us adorned Christmas trees recently, this phrase makes me think of God adorning the galaxies] ... Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?”" (Job 26:7-14, NKJV)
Senator John Glenn, when he was I believe close to 70 years old, returned to space in 1998, traveling on the Discovery Space Shuttle, said: “I don’t think you can be up here and look out the window as I did the first day and see the Earth from this vantage point, to look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God.”
One of the few astronauts to walk the moon and the first to ride the moon buggy, was James Irwin in July, 1971. His trip into space was so moving that he later became a Christian evangelist. This is what he wrote of viewing earth from his space ship: “The earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got further and further away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.”
Today, we want to not just appreciate the creation of God, but to glorify the God of creation, and the witness He has left us in both the world and in His written Word.
- Why is God’s glory so important? (v. 1)
This message is titled the Supremacy of God’s glory, which is to say it is supreme, it is must be at the center – a summary statement of verse 1 would be:
God’s glory is the most important thing in the universe
It’s very important in the original language. The Hebrew poetry in verse 1 has a powerful device (chiasm) the ancient Jews would use to draw a lot of attention to the phrase “the glory of God” – in written English, we might put in italics, or make it bold font, or all capital letters – this would be like all of those combined, all of the attention, all the focus is on THE GLORY OF GOD / HIS HANDIWORK.
This is really what the first half of the psalm is all about, the supremacy or greatness of God’s glory, and the verbs in verse 1 are in the present continual tense, the sky is continually declaring or telling or showing or displaying the glory of God. The rest of the verses really are a part of, or illustrations of, the summary statement of verse 1.
I like John Piper’s first line of the book The Supremacy of God in Preaching:
“People are starving for the glory of God. Most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives. The majesty of God is an unknown cure. There are far more popular prescriptions on the market, but the benefit of any other remedy is brief and shallow. Preaching that does not have the aroma of God’s greatness may entertain for a season, but it will not touch the hidden cry of the soul” [for God’s glory], p. 9.
And as verse 1 of our Psalm draws our attention to, one of the major ways the majesty and glory of God is displayed, is above us every day. That doesn’t mean everyone pays attention to it or praises God for it, but God’s majesty and splendor is on display nevertheless.
Both terms “heavens” and “firmament” are used in the first few verses of Genesis 1, and the terms here are clear references to creation.
Gen 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
v. 6 “Then God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters …”
The majesty of God’s creation is a picture of the majesty of the Creator-God.
“his handiwork” – God’s fingerprints are all over the universe
Spurgeon writes: “It is not merely glory that the heavens declare, but the "glory of God," for they deliver to us such unanswerable arguments for a conscious, intelligent, planning, controlling, and presiding Creator, that no unprejudiced person can remain unconvinced by them … Yet for all this, to what avail is the loudest declaration to a deaf man, or the clearest showing to one spiritually blind? God the Holy Ghost must illuminate us, or all the suns in the milky way never will.” (Treasury of David, 1:270)
“Glory” means heaviness, or weight – when used of God it often has idea of dazzling blinding light, splendor, or a manifestation of his attributes. Creation is designed to give God glory. The way the universe glorifies God should cause us to want to glorify God.
Isaiah 43:7 says God’s glory is the reason we were created.
How important is the glory of God?
Just to show you how important Glorifying God is, let me give you a few Biblical examples:
Herod (Acts 12:21-23)
"On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died."
Rom. 3:23 “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”
Rev. 14:7 says the eternal gospel which an angel will preach in the end times is “Fear God and give him glory”
IT IS A SERIOUS THING NOT TO GLORIFY GOD
- When is God’s glory displayed? (v. 2)
Both morning and evening, every day and every night
“Pours forth speech” – literally, the idea is gushing like a spring or fountain of water
Night in particular speaks of God’s glory in the many stars that dazzle us
There’s another important Psalm written about the heavens on a starry night.
READ PSALM 8:1-4, 8
As one writer said, “The vastness of space declares the magnitude of our God. The energy of a thousand suns is but a token of His divine energy. The perfect timing of planetary movements declares His precision. And yet, the multifaceted declaration of the heavens only begins to show the great glory of God.” (KJV Bible Commentary)
The glory of the stars gives us a hint that the glory of their creator must be even greater. The brightness of the sun is a hint of the splendor of God’s Sun, Jesus Christ. The size of the universe doesn’t make a statement about us, it’s about a God who’s even more immense and more dazzling.
Are you dazzled by God? Or is your attention mesmerized by fleshly pursuits? Are you consumed with so many lesser things in life, other than God? Have you grown immune to God’s constant reminders and revelation in His world all around us? The sad fact is that we think we will find happiness in these smaller things, when the only true happiness is found in our dazzling and glorious Supreme God who alone can supremely satisfy.
Steven Curtis Chapman:
“Sometimes it feels like I’m playin’ Gameboy in the middle of the Grand Canyon
I’m eatin’ candy sittin’ at a gourmet feast
Splashin in a puddle when I could be swimming in the ocean
What is wrong with me? Wake up and see the glory”
Then he quotes C.S. Lewis: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
We are designed to find true satisfaction, true joy, infinite joy, as Lewis said it, only in God and God alone, when His glory is at the center of all things, when we delight in Him and His supremacy and greatness. As the slogan of Desiring God ministries says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” God has so much more for us than the mud pies of worldly pursuits, and the trivial and temporary things here on earth that we put so much importance on. We are made for His glory, and we have reminders in the natural world everyday that speak of God’s glory.
Frankly I think a lot of us miss out almost everyday on the amazing ministry God has provided in the skies. They are shouting about God, every sunrise, every sunset, every magnificent scene that is beyond any artwork man can create, every dazzling starlit night – is shouting about the greatness and grandeur and glory of God!
Do we think high and lofty thoughts about God? Do we have a big God?
The kids have it right when they sing “My God is so big so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.” But too many of us adults live like our God is so small, so weak and not Sovereign, I’m not sure I know what to do.” We would never say it out loud, but we act like it. When it comes to the glory of God in creation and in His revelation are we so caught up in our own little world and pursuits that we are missing the whole purpose of the universe and why we’re here?
I am planning to do a series next year on the attributes and character and God, because I believe there is nothing more important for us than to have lofty and high thoughts of God, that we would be amazed and in awe of Him, and the more deeply we truly know Him, the more deeply and truly we will worship.
- Whom is God’s glory proclaimed to? (v. 3-4)
v. 3 “There is no speech” seems to contradict v. 2 “their speech goes out to all the earth”
It could be that the language of the skies is inaudible speech, it’s visual rather than verbal. The NKJV probably has the sense right: “There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard” - This was the way Luther and Calvin translated it, and it also fits with verse 4 which says the message has gone out to all the world, to the ends of the earth
Barnes: “There is no nation, there are no men, whatever may be their language, to whom the heavens do not speak, declaring the greatness and glory of God. The language which they speak is universal; and however various the languages spoken by men, however impossible it may be for them to understand each other, yet all can understand the language of the heavens, proclaiming the perfections of the Great Creator. That is a universal language which does not need to be expressed in the forms of human speech, but which conveys great truths alike to all mankind.”
No matter what language someone speaks, he or she can understand natural revelation.
SEE ROMANS 1:18-23
- Where is God’s Glory best illustrated? (v. 4-6)
Barnes: The sun is particularly mentioned, doubtless, as being the most prominent object among the heavenly bodies, as illustrating in an eminent manner the glory of God. The sense of the whole passage is, that the heavens in general proclaim the glory of God, and that this is shown in a particular and special manner by the light, the splendor, and the journeyings of the sun.
Gerard Wilson (Psalms, p. 364), says huppa “is perhaps to be connected with the ‘canopy’ under which the Jewish rite of marriage is performed even today. The event has been popularized in theater and motion picture productions of Fiddler on the Roof … the heavens displays the glory of God like a bridegroom, who, dressed in his greatest finery and beaming with the joy of the occasion, leaves his ‘pavilion’ (huppah). The public nature of such an occasion would involve the whole village population in the celebration, emphasizing the impossibility of missing the event – or, by parallel, the revelation of God. Not to be present at such an occasion would require studied indifference or active enmity toward the family of the bridegroom. God, in his creation of the heavens and the sun, is making himself known to all on just such a scale of joy and glory.
- What should be our response to God’s glory in creation?
1. The next time something from nature or creation amazes you or take your breath away, praise God and give Him glory.
The great indictment in Romans 1, is that they were not thankful and did not give God glory. There is enough reason to thank God, every time there is a sunrise, every day that we are able to breathe God’s air, and see some of His country out here.
I have been trying to practice and apply this, every time I see the stars or the colors of the leaves, or the mountains, or the sunset, or when I get the mail at night and stars are out
2. Be dazzled by God. Think much about the immensity of this universe and how our planet is just an infinitesimal speck in our solar system, and our solar system is a microscopic fraction a series of galaxies, and those galaxies all put together are relatively tiny or invisible in relation to the rest of the known universe, and we don’t even have a clue how massive everything is and how far it goes.
But as you think of it, think of how little we are yet how big that makes God.
3. Glorify God in all you do. (I Cor. 10:31)