Jesus Shows Us Our Creator

Jesus Shows Us Our Creator

Psalm 95:1–7

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. (SC, explanation of the First Article)

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 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. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. (Ps 95:1–7)

Textual Notes

V 1: leku, “Oh come,” the imperative from hlk, walk,” commanding that the hearers come and sing to the Lord.

nari‘ah, hiphil imperfect first person cohortative of rw‘, “let us make a joyful noise.” Essentially a war shout or a shout of triumph. Here and in v 2.

letsur yish‘enu, “to the rock of our salvation.” God is often referred to as a “Rock” because he is dependable and strong and endures from generation to generation. The term ysh‘, “salvation, deliverance,” is generally translated “salvation.” It is used in various forms some 353 times in the Old Testament and refers to the help that must come from outside in times of crisis. Indeed, the Rock that is our God comes to us in our crises to deliver us.

V 3: ‘al-kal-’elohim, “above all gods.” Here, ’elohim is translated as a plural, “gods”; that is, the false gods that the nations worship.

V 4: mechqere-’arets, “the depths of the earth.” The noun mechqere refers to something to be explored, the depth of something one cannot fully understand (such as the greatness of God in Ps 145:3). Here it is the deep, unexplored places of the earth; these belong to God (“in his hands”).

V 5: ‘asahu, “he made it.” This common verb, ‘sh, means “to do” or “make.” It refers to God’s acts in history and is frequently used in the Genesis creation history. In the Psalms, as here, it refers to the creative work of God (see Ps 86:9; 96:5).

V 6: bo’u, “come,” is another imperative. This is a different verb than v 1 and connotes “come in.” This may refer to the temple as a call to enter and worship the one who holds all things in his hands.

‘osenu, “our Maker.” This is a participle from the same verb discussed in v 5, ‘sh, “to do” or “to make.” Not only did he make the created world around us, but he also made us as well. We are his creation, and he is our Maker.

Sermon Outline

Jesus Shows Us Our Creator.

I. The unknowable Creator.

II. The Creator made knowable.

Sermon

There’s a story told about a child who moved into a new home in a new town, where everything was strange to him. That first night, he repeatedly called his mother into his room, and she would assure him that “God is here with you.” After several repetitions, the little boy looked at his mother and said, “I know God’s here. But sometimes, I need God with skin on.” This may be only a story, but it contains the truth that we all “need God with skin on.”

The one true God who fills all things is beyond time and is Creator of all—well, our fallen human minds cannot begin to understand him. The fact is that we time-bound, earthbound creatures cannot even begin to comprehend our Creator. During Advent, we look for the coming of “God with skin on” as he comes to us in the flesh of Immanuel, God with us. He bridges the gap between the infinite God and the finite human as

Jesus Shows Us Our Creator.

I.

Our God is above all creation because it’s he who spoke creation into existence by the power of his Word and even now holds it in his almighty hand. We confess in the Creed, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” Martin Luther explains this with these words: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.” Every Lutheran has studied those words, but do we “get” what they mean? Or do we even take the time to contemplate the majesty of our God?

The psalmist, in words we know well and sing often in our Matins service, wrote: “For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods” (v 3). Think of it this way. Most people would be honored to be invited to Buckingham Palace for an audience with the queen of England. But the fact is that none of us is likely ever to have that privilege. And yet we are invited into the presence of the one who is the great King, the King of kings: “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord. . . . Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!” (vv 1a, 2). How much greater is he than any earthly king. “In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land” (vv 4–5). How can we frail mortals ever know such a mighty God?

How can we approach the one who not only made the universe, but, in fact, who also created each one of us? We are commanded, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!” (v 6). I know when I look in the mirror, I see the reflection of one who’s sinned against God in thought, word, and deed. I see someone who not only isn’t always eager to come into God’s presence and worship, but who often runs the other way, to go the way and the where I want to go, far from where he knows I should be. The sinner in me doesn’t want to kneel before anybody. How can I come and kneel before the Lord my Maker? How can you? How can any member of this fallen race of humanity? And yet, that’s where we all need to be, because only in him is life. Apart from him, we have no good thing.

II.

Despite our sin, there is a way to enter the presence of the Creator of all, and it’s a way that is only for sinners like you and me and all our fellow human beings. That way is, in fact, a person—a person who said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). This person is the eternal Word through whom all things were created (Jn 1:3), and “he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:17). This is the only begotten Son of God, the Eternal One himself.

And yet we can know him because he became one with us. This is “God with skin on,” the Creator who binds himself to his creation. We know him as the Babe of Bethlehem, cradled in the arms of his virgin mother. We know him as the itinerant, wandering Preacher who brought Good News. We know him as the one who, though King of kings and Lord of lords, rode into Jerusalem on a colt, as we heard again this past Sunday (Mk 11:1–10, Gospel for Advent 1). We know him as the Lord of nature, whose voice stilled the raging sea and turned water into wine.

We know him as the one who has opened the kingdom of heaven to us by redeeming us with his own holy, precious blood and innocent suffering and death. We know him as our Great High Priest, who offered himself once and for all on the cross as the final sacrifice for the very world that had rebelled against him. We know him as the Lord of Life who entered the tomb—our tomb—and emerged on Easter morning destroying the power of sin, death, and hell.

Christ Jesus himself is our way to come to the Father. He is the only way, and no one comes to the Father except through him (Jn 14:6). But he is the Savior of the world who invites the entire world to come to the Father, and he does so through ways that we can see, feel, taste, hear, and smell. He calls us and seals us to himself through the water with the Word, that gracious dying and rising with him in Baptism. He calls us to his altar, where he feeds us with his own body and blood and gives us a foretaste of the marriage feast of the Lamb. He speaks to our greatest need with the most important words we will ever hear, “Your sin is forgiven.”

So we come to the Creator through Jesus. The psalm, our text, we sing in Matins as the Venite, Latin that means “Oh come!” The psalm, you see, is all about Jesus. “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” (vv 6–7). We can come, we do come, we come through Christ.