God who is Creator is also my Helper
1. Psalm 121:1-2 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Here is a pauper turned psalmist because in the midst of grueling horror he sees a glorious hope. He may have been battered and bruised, injured and isolated, even stripped and savaged. At times like these, we too, perhaps not to this extent or perhaps worse, are most in need of divine comfort and solace. In deep distress and heavy with hurt, all he could do was to lift the lids of his eyes up to his Redeemer. When all we have is God, God is all we need. A thousand years later, a Teacher would say these words to the despair - “Seek ye first His kingdom and righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt.6:33).” No, this is not random.
Scripture is never sudden but always relevant. The inter-relatable nature of Scripture connects a kingdom charge (Matt. 6:33) to our earthly craving (Ps. 121:1-2). The trauma of suffering which we experience in life no matter how great, grander still is our Savior to rescue those who cry out His name. The fallen condition of man is only so that the Creator could pick him back up. He is with us always and in His Son never will we part. Never will He forsake. He remains in us if we remain in Him. Even in death we enter not into finality because on His cross new life is given.
That man on the cross teaches us to purpose our ambition towards a higher cause. He points us to a greater goal and promises to reward those who set their minds on the sovereign terrains of His kingdom. On earth and in this world, sin has slapped us with a sentence destined us for doom. Jesus who is Messiah restores us with grace. Grace that saves the righteous and silence the wicked. Grace to strengthen, to weather storms, to grow in His love.
Though the psalmist sees not his Maker but the character of a delightful Creator is ever in display in His Creation. Love formed the heavens. Love shaped the earth. Love carved a lifeless mannequin out of dirt and then breathed life to give spiritual oxygen to sustain every pulse of man, his heart beating to the rhythm of the Father’s heart. Psalm 121 gives us a behind-the-scene perspective of the person behind the Creator. It reveals the voice behind each Word that when spoken brought everything into existence. The psalmist testifies the Creator’s attentiveness and protectiveness. Shall we also acknowledge His unfailing faithfulness as seen in His only begotten Son – the promised Seed – the source of blessing in God’s perfect plan (Gen. 3:15)
Psalm 121 brings life to the theology of Creation as it relates to our daily clash with life’s realities. Indeed, Creation is not a one-time event. It’s an event for a lifetime. God continues to work in our lives. Understanding how we are made in His image brings pieces of the puzzle together to understand why a good and perfect Worker could produce a masterpiece to be deformed into a monarchy of bitterness, agony and grief we call suffering. In His image we once bore the reflection of a perfect resemblance only to be shattered when a pursuit to disregard an authoritative order and by a mere whisper of persuasive deception of a much smaller creature. It was a battle between minds – the serpent’s and ours. His was as twisted as its physique. A puppet of Satan permitted only to inflict harm as destructive and lethal as death itself. Try not be astonished. Yes, only death, because the Lord is still the Sovereign King. Death has a conqueror. Eternal life is the victory. And so our mind as opposed to the serpent’s, is still made in the very intelligence of One who thinks and works unceasingly for the glory of His own divine ego.
My mind He gave to have but not own. My thoughts are my own but my conscience He visits. In desolation God claimed the psalmist’s mind and filled it with exultation. Creation is unique but we are not too distinctive beyond the Creator’s reach. He sent His Son to bridge us with Him and to show how much He loves us when He had us in mind even before we are conceived. Hence Psalm 121 is one of many examples that brings all things back to the sanctuary of the Lord’s Creation.
God has prepared us in advance to do good works
2. Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Several centuries ago, a Japanese emperor commissioned an artist to paint a bird. A number of months passed, then several years, and still no painting was brought to the palace. Finally the emperor became so exasperated that he went to the artist's home to demand an explanation. Instead of making excuses, the artist placed a blank canvas on the easel. In less than an hour, he completed a painting that was to become a brilliant masterpiece. When the emperor asked the reason for the delay, the artist showed him armloads of drawings of feathers, wings, heads, and feet. Then he explained that all of this research and study had been necessary before he could complete the painting. (Our Daily Bread)
The above story gives a connection to the Ephesians passage tying the idea of a careful and precise Creator who’s every stroke of His brush produced every fiber of our being. We have been prepared in advance as part of God’s glorious handiwork. Jeremiah 1:5 – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appoint you as a prophet to the nations.”
The Ephesians letter remind readers that we are created beings by a living Creator. Paul who wrote Ephesians would know better than anybody else about Creation because of his superb training with Gamaliel. Yet his passion would lead him to take the low path of persecuting Christians only to be met by Christ Himself on the road to Damascus. From there Paul ascended to a higher path. He went through a complete transformation. Acts 9:18 tells of how Ananias baptized Paul and this momentous event was Paul’s great moment of a new birth.
To say that God prepared him in advance to do good works in Christ Jesus was a sobering confession by Paul. The doctrine of soteriology could not be more clearly illustrated in the life of Paul. God can certainly use anyone, including those who was once His enemy but in repentance receives full pardon and become an effective instrument to bring people back to God.
Creation therefore is a divine act that continues to manifest in the lives of Christians who are called to be incarnate people. People who have died with Christ and are now living in Him and are commissioned to bring the good news of salvation into the world. Christians who are truly bearers of light are to position themselves not under the bushel of shame or beneath a bowl of disgrace. We have been freed by the power of resurrection and should be put on a stand and give light to everyone in the house (Matt. 5:15).
The theology of creation affirms the reason for our existence. Many asks during their lifetime the question of why they are bought into the world when all they face is suffering. When we examine Scripture and to see from a spiritual perspective of why God puts us on earth only after He furnished it with goodness and how He gave His Son to be in creation to re-create us for His own glory, we can then live with courage, hope and conviction that everything we do and face in life will not be in vain. He is the Vine and we are branches. If we remain in Him and He in us, we will bear much fruit (John 15:5)
As Christ Himself is the handiwork of His Father so are we a masterpiece of Christ’s perfection. Creation speaks of God’s desire to demonstrate His absolute love for us absolutely. Just as Paul who has tasted God’s love, it was enough for him though he had not already obtained or have already become perfect and Paul said, “I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was lad hold of by Christ Jesus (Phil.3:12).”
God gives strength and wisdom for us to impact the world
3. Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
The voice of the prophet continues to echo into the ears of 21st century folks. We are a generation of technologically wired and socially connected beings. Yet our wisdom remains contained within the construct of our own intelligence. Biblical theology focuses on the understanding of each doctrine that the biblical authors and their original hearers or readers possessed (Chaney). Isaiah gets it and he wants us to also dig it. Theological sarcasm (Do you not know? Have you not heard?) is like the loud sound of a bell tower to awaken the tarry of this world of its Master.
Today’s ears are tuned to the rhythm of contemporariness, short attention spanned tendencies and crises that shapes individualism. It is therefore much more so important that churches root their weekly homilies in uncovering what the Bible has to say to our problems today as a timeless God would say to our hearts today. Unfortunately sermons have drifted farther and farther from what Scripture has to say and into the realms of what “Christians” want to hear.
Biblical Theology reels us back to the spirit and truth-ness of our worship. It reattaches and recalibrates our understanding from the appetite of pleasantries to a craving for Biblical integrity. That’s the greatest strength of Biblical Theology. However, greater yet is the pursuit of God’s unfathomable wisdom (Is. 40:28). Isaiah exhorts us to develop knowing, improve learning, and establish believing. The Lord who created the ends of the earth is an everlasting God. His dominion has no beginning and no end – Alpha and Omega is our great Sovereign Lord. He will not grow tired or weary …Let us neither grow lazy and sloppy with what God meant for us when He made us and gave us life. So I say to my younger brothers and sisters:
Application Dialog with Church:
You are a generation shadowed by another before you. Their struggles drove them to provide, protect and in many ways made you a priority in all they do. All these have shaped you into your mortal identity (personality) and formed your moral tendency (character).
Then you discovered Christianity during an era where religion has broken away from tradition and all of a sudden God has become something more like a chore (when/where to go to church, meetings, etc.), a prescription (pray when you’re in trouble) and a fad (style of worship, music, vocabulary, etc.).
You determine how wide, how long, how high and how deep your relationship and commitment to God is. You didn’t purpose God to be that way but culture has made the Christian faith so patronizing in its commercialization (e.g. Christmas), industrialism (e.g. Merchandise) and institutionalism (Accreditation). So is that all Christianity is amounted to?
Alistair Begg (Pastor and author) said – “The Christian faith engages our minds – something we have to keep reminding ourselves of so we don’t allow our minds to fossilize and we continue to be sharpened and make progress.”
My younger brothers and sisters – You have been trained theologically more than over half of all of us in this hall. You have been lectured doctrinally from an abundant of greater resources than over half of all of us during the week before we even come to worship each Sunday. In fact you have been offered more answers to biblical inquiries more than many of us who aren’t able to read, who do not have the intellectual aptitude and share not the social competencies that you do.
My point is are your spiritual eyes opened to the spiritual crop that is waiting for you to harvest?
God is your helper. You are His handiwork. You have been prepared to do good works by a God who is not tired or weary. You are the life of RCAC. You are the life of God’s Church. Studies show you belong to a generation that thrives in creativity, eccentricity (original and independent), entrepreneurial (turning hobby into an enterprise) and global (socially connected and aware). Will your growing portfolio be used for the glory of His kingdom? Will paupers in your midst become psalmists because of the hope they find in you? Will RCAC have a future beyond the 25 years that we’ve just celebrated?
Creation is not a onetime event. It’s an event for a lifetime. Live yours for Christ.
