The God Who Reigns Above All (Psalm 97)

Introduction

Have you ever thought about the immensity of the universe?

Have you ever thought of the immensity of our planet?

The earths circumference is 24, 901 miles. We have the perfect mixture of gasses to keep and sustain life. It is perfectly positioned from the sun for this life to happen and continue.

The earth is made up of 36,794,240,000 acres. It is massive but in comparison to other planets in our solar system it is tiny. And those planets are tiny in comparison to the rest of the universe.

The known universe is 93 billion light years across and just one light year is 63,000 astronomical units. One astronomical unit is 92,955,887 miles. This makes one light year to be 5,856,220,881,000 (5 trillion) miles. Therefore the known universe is 544,628,541,933,000 (544 trillion) miles across.

These are numbers so vast that we cannot comprehend them. They are huge and beyond our thoughts.

Let me put this into perspective.

Imagine a smooth glass surface. Shrink the sun from 865,000 miles in diameter to two feet and place it on the surface. Using this scale, Earth would be 220 paces out from the sun, and would be the size of a pea. Mars, the size of a pinhead, would be 108 paces beyond Earth. But to reach Neptune, you'd need to step off another 6,130 paces from Mars. By now you would be five miles from the sun--but there still wouldn't be room on the glass surface for Pluto! And you would have to pace off 6,720 miles beyond Pluto to reach the nearest star. Yet, this glass model represents only a tiny fraction of the universe.

It is immense and so vast that we are in utter shock to its size, yet God is above it all and it all is here because of His power and creating. He made it all. He sustains it all. He made it to be as it is for a reason and He is still running this show.

That is why I titled this message from Psalm 97 “The God Who Reigns Above All.”

He reigns above everything and when we read the text we see all that he reigns above and how we should respond to that.

Psalm 97 ESV

1 The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! 2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. 4 His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory. 7 All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods! 8 Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O Lord. 9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. 10 O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. 11 Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. 12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!

We see first that....

He Is Exalted Above all People (vv. 1-6)

The Lord Reigns. Rejoice He reigns.

All are to be glad of this because He reigns and sustains all things.

He is surrounded by dark and ominous clouds. He is encased in darkness so thick we cannot perceive. This is not an evil darkness but one of intrigue and power beyond our comprehension.

We do not fully understand the providence, protective care and power, of God but we do know He rests on Righteousness and justice.

He is perfect and powerful and right to judge. He controls the devastation of the wicked and adversaries. He lights up the earth with Lightning and causes all to tremble.

Mountains collapse and melt before Him. All people see His glory through His mighty works of creation and in creation.

We all see His power in storms and other natural disasters, as we call them. Everyone sees the amazing beauty of the sunrise and sunsets. We all breathe air that is just perfectly set so we can breathe.

His power is seen and known and it makes us tremble at times because it is scary.

A tornado bearing down on us is frightening. Being in a hurricane is frightening, an earthquake, tsunami, or any other powerful act of nature. All of these are frightening and nothing compared to Him who is above it all.

This section is alluding back to when God descended to Sinai to give Moses the Law.

He was cloaked in darkness because to look upon His holiness is death to all unholy people.

He was ominous in that descension and lightnings flashed people were afraid. And after the law was given and Moses descended to find the camp worshiping a false god, God devastated the adversaries.

He is powerful and majestic at the same time.

Much like the scene in Band of Brothers in the battle of the Bulge. They are being shelled like crazy on a regular basis. In one scene Sergeant Lipton is in a fox hole after running through his men yelling for the men to find cover. He is laying there watching this amazing display of power and begins thinking of the fourth of July.

He is watching it and laughing because it was the most awesome and terrifying display of power he had ever seen. He was impressed by its display above anything he had ever seen before and that made him laugh and relish in this terrifying time.

But that power is nothing compared to the power God has over all things.

That power is the power of man and creation. It is like a god of destruction that destroys all things.

Even though it is that way God is above that and reigns from His throne.

It is because of His power that the heavens declare that all worshippers of false gods are put to shame because...

No god Compares to God (vv. 7-9)

Just as God put to shame those who were worshipping the golden calf, He puts all false gods and those who worship them to shame now.

Anyone who thinks they can attain to something because they are great, will fall.

No god, regardless of what that god is will ever get you what you desire because that god is useless unless that God is the Lord God.

This is because He is exalted above all gods. He is above all the earth. He is the one true God and as such only He can cause you to rightly rejoice.

Like Elijah with the priests of Baal. He had a challenge for them and whichever one was able to get their god to rain fire on the sacrifice was the worshippers of the true God. Elijah mocked them and their false god because he could not hear. He said maybe he is asleep or using the toilet, but the point was, Baal is not God and he cannot do anything.

Or the time the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant and placed it before their god Dagon. In the morning Dagon was on his face before the Ark. They stood him back up. Look at that THEY stood him up, not himself but they did.

Then the next day the same thing happened but this time Dagon’s head and hands had been cut off. This so called god of the Philistines was not a god at all but a mere creation. Even if this god was based off of a demon like many gods of the past were, t is still a created being powerless against the one true God.

Those people were put to shame because they were worshipping a false god who can do nothing for itself much less them.

An idol and false god can be anything. It can be a spouse, job, child, money, looks, anything. None of that is above God and none of that can give you what you need most.

Tim Keller states it well when he wrote about all who place these loves in their lives as their god. He wrote:

when our expectations and hopes reach that magnitude...“the love object is God.” No lover, no human being, is qualified for that role. No one can live up to that. The inevitable result is bitter disillusionment...This cosmic disappointment and disillusionment is there in all of life, but we especially feel it in the things upon which we most set our hopes.

That is why no other “god” can fulfill you or sustain you like God can. Nothing can satisfy your hopes and life like the one true God. In Him is joy and genuine happiness. In Him is peace and comfort.

It is because He reigns above all and He is above anything we will ever encounter.

He truly is an amazing God who loves us so much that even in the immensely vast universe He knows you and me by name. He knows us from before we were born. He is our God and He knows you and your needs today.

Give them to Him and trust Him because only He can give you what you truly need. Nothing else can and everything else will be put to shame.

It is because of this that we need to...

Rejoice in His Love (vv. 10-12)

Okay you may say. That is right but what does this mean.

Well, in the text we do this by hating all that is evil.

In our turning away from all evil and loving Him by doing so, we are preserved.

We are delivered from the hand of the wicked. This deliverance may be a miraculous deliverance or just delivered from the evil surrounding us because we have set our eyes on the Lord.

As the apostle Paul told us no temptation is too much for us and God has provided the way of escape.

Job said he made a covenant with his eyes so he would not look on anything tempting.

That is hating evil. It is making God first and His ways before your eyes and life. It is giving Him place in your life every day.

It is making sure you praise Him regularly and let Him guide you.

When we do this we receive the light that is sown and the joy that knowing the Lord well brings.

Joy is found in Him because when we are seeking it elsewhere we have told God He is not good enough.

Yes, He wants us to enjoy all He has created. He wants us to have pleasure. Yet, when we make that pleasure more important than He who made the pleasurable items, we have turned away from Him and will experience grief and struggle.

But when we are always abounding in Joy in the Lord, we are delivered from the wicked because we have not fallen into their ways.

We are seeking the true joy and pleasure in the Lord.

We are allowing the Lord to guide us and deliver us because we seek to please Him.

Another aspect of this deliverance is in the sowing of the light.

God sows light seeds into all who love Him and hate evil. These seeds are in there and they will bloom at the right time if we tend them correctly. They are tended by loving the Lord and honoring Him by seeking to do what He desires of us.

That is praising Him and letting Him guide us. We pray, and read His word to learn this. We love others and care for them above ourselves.

We give God glory for all the good and seek Him in all things at all times regardless how good times are.

When we do those little light like seeds bloom and shine bright so when we are in a dark and difficult time of life, those seeds of light and joy are there to accompany us through it all.

It is because of that why we should rejoice in the Lord. He loves us and gave Christ for us and gives us strength in weakness. He is an amazing God who though He reigns above all things, knows each of us and loves us deeply.

Love Him in return as your Lord and love Him in all things and just see if there is not joy and light even in misery and darkness.

We can worship and praise Him and love Him anywhere. Whether you worship in a massive cathedral or in a pine board building out in the country, in the home, in the barn, out under a tree, over a kitchen sink, behind a desk, or as you ride the plow. Of course don’t forget the worship service in your church! (Herschel H. Hobbs, My Favorite Illustrations (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1990), 274.)

All of these places will work. The matter is whether we do it or not. I think life is far better when we are ever worshipping and praising God. I pray that you will do this today because He is above all the vast universe but He knows you exactly where you are and exactly in what you do.

Conclusion

I think we all too often forget just how mighty and powerful our God and savior is. We get to thinking He is too busy for us and we need to fix and figure things out on our own.

We start developing our own gods to help us through this whether we realize it or not.

We need to get back to resting in the shadow of the almighty God who made all things and sustains all things including us.

We need to be like this small child that D.L. Moody spoke of, “A little child gives a good illustration of faith. Let the wind blow her hat into the river, and she does not worry; she knows her mother will get her another. She lives by faith.”

She does not worry over that little incident but trusts in her mother to tend to it.

That is what we need to be like with God.

When the bills are stacking up, seek Him and trust Him to guide you.

When the illness worsens, seek Him for comfort and strength.

When the marriage is faltering, seek Him for wisdom.

When anything becomes overwhelming, seek Christ because He loves you and gave himself for you. He will give you strength because his power is made perfect in our weakness.

Give all your worries and burdens to The God Who Reigns Above All and know that He is in control.

What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged, Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness, Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden, Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge— Take it to the Lord in prayer; Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer; In His arms He’ll take and shield thee, Thou wilt find a solace there.