1 The Lord–how fearful is his name!
How wide is his command!
Nature, with all her moving frame,
Rests on his mighty hand.
2 Immortal glory forms his throne,
And light his awful robe;
While with a smile, or with a frown,
He manages the globe.
3 A word of his almighty breath
Can swell or sink the seas;
Build the vast empires of the earth,
Or break them, as he please.
4 On angels, with unveiled face,
His glory beams above;
On men he looks with softest grace,
And takes his title, Love.
Our hymn this morning speaks of God’s omnipotence. God is all powerful. Do we really understand what that means?
Spurgeon reminds us to look to the Lords “who will not only do something, but will do everything.” That’s what all powerful means.
“The Lord–how fearful is his name!
How wide is his command!
Nature, with all her moving frame,
Rests on his mighty hand.”
The Bible says in Isaiah 12:1-6:
1 You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. 2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. 5 “Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. 6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa 12:1-6 ESV)
Our focal passage of Isaiah 12:4 teaches us:
4 And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.
We take for granted many of the deeds the Lords has done for us. We accept them as our own skill and our own wisdom.
Too many times we are like the student who turns in the paper that was written by someone else. We take all the credit, but the true author remains unknown.
I was thinking about this yesterday morning while I was reading the book of 2 Chronicles. Time after time, God bless the people of Israel. And time after time, they became arrogant of their own accomplishments.
Take Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26:15
15 He made skillfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was wondrously helped until he became strong. 16 But when he became strong, he grew arrogant, and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the LORD his God by going into the LORD’s sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar. (2Ch 26:15-16 CSB)
We, as a nation, have the same problem! We won WWI and WWII by our men, machines, and our technology. This success has made us the one world superpower. What have we done since then? We have moved farther away from our God and closer to worshiping our own accomplishments.
We forget the God that is described in verse three of our hymn:
“A word of his almighty breath
Can swell or sink the seas;
Build the vast empires of the earth,
Or break them, as he please.”
When we see our success, we must return to Isaiah 12: 4-5:
4 And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.
And verse 5
5 “Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. (Isaiah 12: 4-5, ESV
Do you sing praises to God for your success?
Do celebrate what God has given you because “he has done gloriously”?
Do you make it know to all the Earth?
We talk about witnessing about Jesus. We talk about sharing the gospel. Isn’t this what we should be doing naturally? Isn’t this just an outgrowth of recognizing what God has done in our lives?
First of all we must consider what God has done.
You can sing praise for what has done gloriously for you unless you have recognized it.
So, first consider what he has done.
The Bible said that ” while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8 ESV)
He died in our place because we were condemned to die because of that sin. When we came to a place of accepting this free gift, we were given this gift freely.
He died gloriously for you and for me. He died to pay my penalty for my sin.
Therefore,
“All the glory belongs to Jesus
All the praise belongs to Him
All that I am or ever hope to be
All the glory belongs to Him.”
So this morning, as you go about your week—Consider what he done for you. Consider what you have given him credit for.
Repent and then:
“Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. (Isa 12: 4 ESV)
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Photo by andreas kretschmer on Unsplash