Now Psalm 145 is the only psalm in all of the book of Psalms that is called A Song of David.
Other psalms are called A Prayer of David or Of David. There are a lot of psalms written by
David and have his name on it, but there's only one that says A Psalm of David. It is also one of
the nine acrostic psalms. Now an acrostic psalm is one where you have the letters of the
alphabet, the Hebrew alphabet, and each verse (we have it divided into verses) starts with a new
Hebrew letter. So alef is your first letter and bet is your second letter. So each verse starts with
those letters. It's an acrostic psalm. But this psalm in particular is talking about how awesome
God is. The power of awe is what we're going to look at today as we read this particular passage.
You know, I think that people who just got saved have a little bit up on us when it comes to this
power of awe. Because everything is just new. It's like putting on spiritual glasses and seeing the
world for the first time in this new way. They go, “Whoa, that is so cool. Oh, wow, there's God
again.” Whereas some of us who've been Christians for a long time, we kind of get used to the
holy things. Sometimes we take the holy things for granted. The prayer, the healing that happens
in a person's life, or the miracle that takes place over here. It sometimes can become
commonplace in our thinking. It's especially important for you as a young person not to allow the
awesomeness of God to become commonplace. Any of us can do it. But if you grow up in the
church, sometimes you feel like oh, well, this is just common, and we lose this awesome power
that comes with the awe of seeing God.
That's what we're going to see today in this passage. I'm actually going to read all twenty-one
verses while you stand, if you would please. It says at the beginning of this psalm, Psalm 145 – A
Song of Praise, but it's a Psalm of David. Verse 1 starts with alef. We won't go through the
whole Hebrew alphabet here. But verse 1 says – I will extol you, my God and King, and bless
your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation
shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious
splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the
might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame
of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and
merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy
is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints
shall bless you! They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make
known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
[The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.] The Lord upholds all who are
falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them
their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The
Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on
him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears
their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and
ever.
Amen. You may be seated.
The awesomeness of God. It's interesting when we talk about being awestruck of God, it's not
just having a feeling that's tied into ourself, “Oh, I just feel good today.” It's somehow this
feeling that we have, this awesome feeling that we have when we get in contact with God in a
very specific way. Particularly when we see God's glory.
We're going to see the word glory mentioned several times in this passage. This word glory is
who God is. It's magnifying His knowledge or His presence, omnipresence, magnifying His
sovereignty, His love, and His care. When those are magnified and we see those things
magnified, we are just drawn to this sense of awe.
Now I believe that if we get in contact with the awe of God's glory, two things in particular will
happen to us. One is we will become more tender. And secondly, we will become more bold.
Tender and bold in our lives when we experience the awe of God.
But it's tied very closely into His glory. Let's look at verse 5 where it says there – On the glorious
splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. There is a sense I'm
going to ruminate on this, I'm going to ponder this, I'm going to consider this. And what I'm
doing is I'm thinking about the glorious splendor of your majesty. Just how amazing that is to
think about how glorious God is. To just meditate on it. He says down in verse 11 these words –
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the
children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. The word glory
is mentioned several times here. The idea is that when we get in contact with God's glory, we say
“wow” or “awe.” We are in awe of that.
There are two Hebrew words for glory in particular that I want to look at today. One is the word
kabod. That's the word used here. It has that idea of being heavy. So it's the weight of the
presence of God. It's just so weighty. It's so much weight that you just feel like [sigh] I feel
overwhelmed. When I just experience the weight of God's glory, I feel so overwhelmed by it. I
just [sigh], I say, “Wow, this is amazing.”
Maybe you've heard the name Ichabod in the Bible. Ichabod means “the glory has departed.” It
comes from a story of Eli the priest who had two sons that he didn't discipline the Bible says
(didn’t discipline well) and so they rebelled against the Lord. They took the armies into battle
and they lost the battle, and the ark of the covenant was taken away from Judah into captivity.
When the news came back to Eli, he was so upset by it, he just fell off the wall, broke his neck
and he died. These two boys’ names were Hophni and Phinehas. Now Phinehas’ wife, when she
heard the news or on this day when this happened, she went into labor and gave birth to a little
boy and they called his name Ichabod (“the glory has departed”).
I just want to be careful in my life. I don't want to be in a place where the glory has departed. I
always want to be in that place of awe where I'm connected to the glory of God. Kabod, heavy,
the weighty presence of God. Wow, what an amazing thing.
Now there's another word used for glory in the Bible. That’s the word shekinah. It's also used in
reference to the ark of the covenant because the shekinah glory is the brilliance of God's glory,
whereas kabod is the weight of God's glory. We need both of those. The brilliance is this bright
light of God's glory. And so with the ark of the covenant, the cloud would come down, the very
presence of God in the midst of the people that they would enjoy and appreciate. And then when
they were to be led to go to the next place, the cloud would lift and they would follow that cloud.
If it was at night, there was a pillar of fire. The shekinah glory of God, the brilliance of His glory.
I wonder if the people may have sometimes taken that for granted. That they were in the very
presence of God, experiencing the kabod or the shekinah glory of God.
Another story where we see the glory of God is the one where Moses went up on the mountain to
get the Ten Commandments. Remember he came back down from the mountain and the Bible
says that his face was so brilliant and bright that people couldn't look at him directly. So he put a
veil over his face. Just the shekinah glory. When you've been with the Lord, there's this brilliant
presence about you that's so attractive.
It's interesting that Paul describes this and tells us a little more of the story than we see in the Old
Testament. I want to read this passage to you in 2 Corinthians 3. He’s going to compare the old
covenant (that is with Moses and the Ten Commandments and the stone and so on) with the new
covenant and the Holy Spirit and the power of God in the present age, and how there's glory in
both of them. Let's just see what he says. Now if the ministry of death (he's talking about the law,
which condemns us), carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could
not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end (in other words,
it was fading; the glory that was on Moses’ face was fading away, but the people couldn’t look at
it), will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? That’s where we are today,
experiencing the glory of God in an even greater way than Moses did. For if there was glory in
the ministry of condemnation (the old law), the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in
glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the
glory that surpasses it. So the glory that was present in the Old Testament with the ark of the
covenant and Moses’ brilliant face, all of that glory that we saw was nothing compared to the
great glory that we see today in the brilliance of God as we connect with Him. That’s what he’s
saying here.
And then he says this. Very interesting. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory
(that is, the law), much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope, we
are very bold. So this is part of this boldness we see. When we understand the glory of God, we
just want to tell people. Because we can see life differently. “Did you see it?” we want to say,
“Don't miss it.” There's a boldness about us. Not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face
so the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. In other
words, it was fading and he didn't want people to see that it was fading.
Oh, it reminds me about how sometimes the glory of the Lord is fading in our faces and we put
on a mask sometimes. Don't we? Someone says, “How are you doing on a scale of one to ten?”
You say, “Well, my problems? I would say my problems are like a one or a two.” When really, if
we ask them and we think about it a little bit more, our problems are really at maybe about an
eight or a nine. But sometimes we put on a mask that makes people think we have more glory
than we actually have. We're actually needy people, much in need of the presence and glory of
God.
Moses would put on this veil so people wouldn't see that it was diminishing. What an interesting
part of the story.
Do you know that one out of twelve men are colorblind? One out of two hundred women are
colorblind. Which means when they look at things, they can maybe sometimes say that that's a
particular color, but they're generally looking at grays and browns and different parts of that. But
there's a new technology out today where you can put on glasses and you can actually see color.
And there are a number of videos on YouTube where they're showing what happens when
someone sees color for the first time. I was just so amazed. I looked at many of them this week. I
was just crying. Because many of the people are seeing color for the first time and they're crying.
They just feel overwhelmed.
It reminds me of this kabod, this awesome weighty presence of the glory of God. You just, “I
don't know what to do with this. This is so amazing.”
I want to show you a video of a twelve-year old boy who sees color for the first time. As I'm
seeing this, I'm just reminded of how when a person becomes a Christian and they see the
spiritual world for the first time, there's this overwhelming sense of God's glory. Watch this.
[Start of Video]
[Dad] I want you to point each one and tell me what color they are. Okay?
[Boy] Dark green, blue, brown, blue, and that one is kind of hard to tell us like a dark green.
[Dad] Okay, dark green. Okay. Well try your gift out, buddy. And we'll see how this works. I
know we all said a prayer. Look at the camera. Those look pretty cool. Do I look any different?
Do I really?
[Boy] Your hair looks different.
[Dad] Really? Okay. Well, let's look at the balloons and see…
[Boy] Oh my gosh.
[Dad] Look at me. Are they different? Are they really? Is it way different? Tell me about it,
buddy. So it looks different?
[Mom] Do you know what these colors are now?
[Boy] That’s red.
[Dad/Mom] Yes. Yes. How did you know?
[Boy] That’s yellow.
[Dad] That’s yellow. Yes. Oh my gosh. Completely non-scripted. My family will know that.
[Boy] Purple.
[Dad] That’s purple.
[Boy] Orange.
[Dad] Yes.
[Boy] Green.
[Dad] Yes, Zack. You can see them. You can see them.
[Mom] Leave them on. Leave them on. Is it freaking you out?
[End of Video]
I just cried when I watched these. For someone to see the world a different way than they've seen
it all their life is just so stunning to me.
If you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I want you to know there's a
whole other world waiting. There's a whole different way to view the world. And when you put
on those spiritual glasses and you actually see what God has done for you and what He is doing
in our world today, you go, “Whoa, this is so cool. This is so different. This is so interesting.
This is awe.” The power of awe. We all need that in our lives. It changes who we are. It grows
us.
In the passage as David is writing this psalm, this song, he lists many things about the glory of
God that are part of this awe. Seeing life for the first time maybe, or in David's case he's seen it
so much but he's drawing his attention forever and ever, he says.
Let's go back and look at verse 6 down at the bottom. They shall speak of the might of your
awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. Verse 14 – The Lord upholds all who are
falling and raises up all who are bowed down. That is awesome. The eyes of all look to you, and
you give them their food in due season. That's remarkable. You open your hand; you satisfy the
desire of every living thing. That's amazing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all
his works. Wow. The Lord is near to all who calls on him, to all who call on him in truth. He
fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord
preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. He’s just listing all these things
that draw us into this awesome sense of God's glory. Because when we see the glory of God and
the power of God, we see it all demonstrated, we go, “Wow, this is awesome.”
Now some people miss this whole thing. They make a mistake in their lives. Paul describes this
glory in Romans 1. He says they make a mistake because they start looking at the things God
made instead of God Himself, and they start finding glory in the things God made instead of God
Himself. So they miss the glory of God because they're distracted by the glory of the things He's
made. Let's just look at the passage.
He says – For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from his workmanship, so that men are
without excuse. What he's saying here is that even a person who's never heard about Jesus can
look out and see that there's a Creator out there. His workmanship is clearly seen and there's no
excuse to deny the existence of God Himself. We call that general revelation. It goes to
everybody. General revelation. But then there's specific revelation. When you get to know Jesus
Christ it's very specific and you understand who He is and what He's done for us. Without
excuse.
Verse 21 – For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to
him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. Although they
claimed to be wise, they became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for
images of mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. They got more focused on the
creation. If you just think about all the things God provides for you and me – I am so grateful for
this, and I'm so grateful for that relationship, and that thing I have, and that other thing I have –
when we start focusing on the things, we miss the awesomeness of God. We miss the fact that
God is the one who gave us those things for our own lives. We need to go past the creation, past
the provision to the very presence of God.
And exchange the glory of immortal gods for images of mortal man and birds and animals and
reptiles. Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the
creature rather than the Creator. We've got to get back to worshiping the Creator. In fact, God
has given us a discipline or an activity that we can do that increases the awe in our lives. It is
called worship. When we come to worship the Lord corporately, it's a great experience we have
because we sing together and we just enjoy that worship. But that's only the practice sessions for
during the week. I hope you're taking this home, and you're singing the songs at home, and
you're looking out at creation, and you're saying, “Yes, there's a God behind this creation,” and
you're worshiping God and enjoying Him. Because it's in that awe worship experience that you
get this power that comes from that. It just does something to us.
When I think about Isaiah in Isaiah 6 who had a vision, he's before the throne of God and the
angels are there. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, and the glory shown around, it says.
And what does he do? He falls to the ground and he says – “I am a man of unclean lips.” I think
when we come into the very presence of God and we see His glory, we're drawn to our own
vocabulary. We're drawn to the way we use our mouths. I don't know, was he swearing? Was he
mean to people? Was he just saying I'm unclean and my lips are part of that? I don't know what
he's saying. But an angel comes and brings a coal and touches his lips.
I do believe that if we get a handle on the glory of God, if we can even capture a piece of that
and we're so awestruck by that, that the awe does this thing inside of us that makes us more
tender people. That we're less likely to be harsh or critical or mean. When we understand how
big God is and how grand He is, when we understand His glory, it affects us in a very practical
way. It touches our mouths and we're more careful and more tender with other people.
In the New Testament, that the Greek word for glory is the word doxa, which is revealed
greatness, where we get our word ‘doxology’ from. When Paul was on the road to Damascus to
capture more Christians, God knocked him off of his horse with this brilliant light. That was a
transformation for Saul. Just a transformation, He became… He was already a bold guy. But now
he focuses his boldness on serving the Lord. That's what the glory of the Lord does for us. When
we see the glory of the Lord and we focus on what He's done and what He's doing, we're just so
drawn into that. When we experience His greatness in such a powerful way, we're just awestruck.
We need more of that in our lives. We must pause regularly in our lives to worship the Lord,
pause regularly to experience the awe of God's glory as we look around in our lives.
This week in VBS, Linda Jeanes was in one of the groups that rotated. So all the groups rotated
into her class. One of her tasks was to identify God sightings with the kids. So the kids would
report, “Here's a God sighting. Here's where I saw God today or this week.” And if they did
identify a God sighting, they could take a sticker and put it up on the mural that they had there. A
God sighting. What a great way to experience the awe of God.
God isn't just something we experience on Sunday, but we see these God sightings in the course
of our day, in the course of our week. We open God's word and we read it and we see something
new that we never saw before regularly. We go, “Oh, that is so cool.” That we pray and we see
God answer a prayer. And when He does, we say, “God, you are so awesome.” Sometimes God
just reminds us of something in the course of the day or maybe He even works out something.
And we go, “God, you are so great.” It's those God moments, those God sightings that we need
that draw us in. Like David is being drawn into the psalm and he's saying, “I'm going to do this
forever and ever. I'm going to recognize how great and glorious God is.”
I'm going to show you another video of another man. This gentleman also sees color for the first
time. I was so taken by this particular video because this guy just can't get over it. He’s just
pondering this. Now I'm going to jump into the video about a minute after he puts the glasses on
for the first time because he was crying at first. But now just watch how he's just pondering life
with these new glasses on.
[Start of Video]
[Man] It is really different.
[Observer] Apparently, this is what it’s supposed to look like.
[Man] Serious? I’ve just got to try this.
[Woman] What color are they?
[Man] I think purple. I don't know what colors look like.
[Observer] What does it look like without it?
[Man] Just really faded. They look really faded.
[Observer] Do they still have a purple shade to them?
[Man] Oh wow. Not really.
[Observer] You’re not supposed to pull it up and down too much because you got to let them
work.
[Man] Oh my goodness. Serious? Is that what it looks like? It’s not the glasses because I just
tried them out.
[Observer] What about the greens?
[Man] Yeah, everything's really vibrant. Wow. Is that seriously what you normally see?
[End of Video]
“Is that what you normally see?” Yes, it is. When you're a Christian, you put on these spiritual
glasses and you see life in this new dimension. It is what we normally see. We see it in our lives
and we want to be drawing attention to that because we know that God is at work. When we see
that, we're just drawn into this experience of awe. It's the essence of worship is the word ‘awe’ or
‘wow.’
So David ends his psalm this way. He says – My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let
all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. Each one of us needs to take that to heart and say,
okay, boy, this week, I'm going look for God sightings. This week I'm going to focus on God's
glory because it will change me if I do. The closer we get to God, the more it changes how we
live in our lives.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, something very special happened. Even before we
were even born, God knew that we would be here. God knew about our situations, our troubles,
our challenges, He knew about our sin. And so Jesus Christ died on the cross so that we could
have forgiveness of our sins. That in itself changes the picture that we look out and see. But then
we start to live this Christian life and we enjoy the beauty of experiencing God and all of the
challenges that take place in life, we're enjoying them and we're seeing God and we're going,
“Wow. This is big.” There is power in this sense of awe. Something that we all need in our lives.
