A New Age For Discovery

Title: A New Age for Discovery

Text: Psalm 111:2-6

Thesis: This is a good “time” to live into a New Age of Discovery.

Introduction

Last Sunday I mentioned that, from an old Earth perspective, we are living in the geological period that began 542 million years ago:

• 542 million years ago: The Palezoic Era began. It is what they call ancient life.

• 252 million years ago: The Mesozoic Era began (Age of Reptiles). It is termed middle life.

• 66 million years ago: The Cenozoic Era began (Age of Mammals). It is called the era of new life…. We are living in the era of new life.

The current era has been happening for 66 million years but it is still referred to as the era of new life.

Though I have some curiosity about the history of Earth… it is the geologists, archeologists, anthropologists and sociologists who are interested in poking around in back then. Most of us think of anything thought to be 66 million years old as anything but new. Our interests lie in the latest… the newest. I am currently irked that soon after I got a Galaxy Note 3… they came out with a Galaxy Note 4. I don’t want a dinosaur Note 3… I want the latest Note… the Note 4.

In that God created mankind in his image, i.e., to be intelligent and creative, we have been veritable whirling dervishes. Along the way we’ve come up with new stuff like the zipper, can opener, disposable diapers, behind the ear hearing aids, stereos, internet, multi-socket power plug, PCs, Play Stations 1 – 4, the flash drive… I just bought a 128 Gig, Turbo 3.0 which works three times faster than the 2.0, smart phones, Twitter, 3-D copiers, Kindle and Nook, Hybrid cars… did I mention Tupperware? (Nothing I have just mentioned is thought of in terms of being new!) But true to form… once we’ve experienced the latest we are looking for the next new thing.

It hasn’t all been good. Meanwhile in recent years we have even managed to create an entirely new rock called plastiglomerate which will likely become part of Earth’s geological record and might well survive as future fossil fuels. Plastiglomerates are being found along sea shores and consist of sand, shells, pebbles, basalt, coral, wood and plastic all melted together forming a rock-plastic hybrid. I don’t know if you are aware that in the Pacific Ocean there are two massive garbage patches of debris… mostly plastics that are not breaking down but are breaking up into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic.

Futurists say we will live in a cashless culture. Everything will be wireless and everything will be stored in the Cloud. There will be no more TV schedules… only primary demand services. Lap tops will take the form of e-paper. We will all be given phone numbers at birth and that will be our identity and contact number for life. Physicals will be DNA scans and there will be increasing robotic procedures. Artificial Intelligent robots will be tutoring children. Things like watches and handwritten letters and paper maps and remote controls will all go by the wayside. A new age of discovery lies before us.

Because we are so intelligent and creative and are constantly amazing ourselves with the latest discovery or technological advancement or pharmaceutical drug or scientific breakthrough… we have become pretty much anthropocentric in our outlook on life. We are so enamored with ourselves and what we can do that we no longer notice what God has done, is doing and going to do. We no longer need God. In fact, if we can envision it, we can likely do it.

Psalm 111 is something of a call to remind ourselves that we are God-people despite whatever our culture may indicate.

While we are living in an age of creativity and discovery technologically, Psalm 111 calls us to shift our attention from ourselves to God and the activity of God.

II. A New Age of Discovery, Psalm 111:2-6

“How amazing are the deeds of the Lord!” 111:2a

To discover something is the act of finding or learning something for the first time… something not previously known or realized. To rediscover something is to go back to see again or anew.

Some of us may never have given much thought to what God has done and is doing. Some of us haven’t given God’s activity much thought for some time. So this may be thought of as an exercise in discovery and/or rediscovery.

One of the ways we can sink our teeth into the activity of God is to ponder what God has done.

A. Ponder God’s Deeds, 111:2-3

“All who delight in him should ponder them. Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails.” 111:2-3