The Song Of Glory Series

Sermon for 10/26/2003

The Song of Glory

Introduction:

A. I remember as a young lad in the 6th grade going down to the pond and just sitting there after a bad day… It helped to soothe me. I didn’t pray but the sounds and smells and feels and sights soothed my troubled soul

WBTU:

A. In my study for the Fishers of Men series I came across an essay written by A. J. McClane called, “The Song of the Angler.” In this essay he examines why fishermen fish.

1. People fish for each others company, for the fellowship. Able to share in a common activity. People fish for the friendships.

2. Psychologists tell us that one reason why we enjoy fishing is because it is an escape. McClane says that it is an escape to reality. The sense of freedom that we enjoy in the outdoors is, after all, a normal reaction to a more rational environment.

3. He gives all of these explanations but this is the one I want us to focus on. Fishers fish to enjoy the music and the songs. Not ones that they sing but the song that arises from nature. He illustrates this with the story of Lord Fraser. McClane says, “Lord Fraser of Lonsdale is a friend of mine. He is a skilled fly-fisherman, and when last we visited together, he caught a 35 pound salmon which was the biggest in the camp for many weeks. What’s more I have heard him spellbind a roomful of strangers with tales of his life in South Africa. What does this matter? Well, Lord Fraser is totally blind. Both of his eyes were shot out in WW1. A profoundly intellectual man, Fraser has developed his others senses to a point that most of the people who sat with him that night had no idea that he was unable to see them. I don’t know if you have every tried wading (unaided) and fly-fishing a stream while blindfolded. I cannot do it, and I would probably lack the guts if I had to do it. Lord Fraser is the chairman of the board of a powerful retail business in England. His work is demanding and he enjoys going fishing to catch fish yes, but also to enjoy the song of the angler. He enjoys hearing all of the things around him: the changing tempos of deep and shallow water, the curling smack of a rapid against a bolder, even the roll or rise of a fish. His ear for the music of angling is incredibly keen.

B. Even if you have lived in a city all of your life with concrete always under your feet, you have heard the song of creation. When we are in the country just listen to all of the sounds?

C. Even if you have lived in a city all of your life you have seen the song of the glory of the Lord.

Thesis: What kind of song does creation sing and what kind of song are we going to sing?

For instances:

1. What kind of song does creation sing?

A. The song of the glory of God.

** Psalm 19:1-6, Introduction

1. David wrote these words and he was well acquainted with God’s two books. One being the Bible the other the book of Nature. Being a shepherd he knew the song of the glory of God.

2. The book of nature has three levels, heaven, earth and the sea

B. Heavens in Israelites mind was the sun, moon, and stars.

1. The moon is 50 times smaller than the earth. It bounces off light from the sun so that we can partially see at night. Without the moon we would have no tides. Without the tides a lot of ocean life would die.

2. The stars in the sky are other suns that are billions of miles away.

2. Meteorites, comets, and asteroids.

2. Planets.

2. These things give such unanswerable arguments for an intelligent, planning, and presiding Creator, that no unprejudiced person can remain unconvinced by them.

C. Firmament, skies

The atmosphere is where we live. Without it we would die. Other planets have atmospheres but ours is the only one with enough oxygen to support life as we know it. Our atmosphere also has enough water in it to support life.

B. Day after day; night after night.

1. Days and nights are but a fountain of speech filled with God’s praise.

2. Day bids us labor, night reminds us to prepare for our last home.

C. Vs. 4

1. Every man may hear the voices of the stars.

2. Sun, moon, and stars are God’s traveling preachers. Pictorial displays of God’s glory.

3. The heavens speak by their actions and operations.

4. No men living beneath the heavens (all of us) are beyond the bounds of the preaching of God’s greatest preachers.