If you have your Bible, please open it to Psalm Chapter 145. A man and his ten-year-old son were on a fishing trip miles away from home. At the boy’s insistence, they decided to attend the Sunday worship service at a small rural church. The father forgot to bring any cash, so he reached in his pocket and gave his son a dime to drop into the offering plate as it passed. As they walked back to their car after the service, the father complained, “the service was too long,” he lamented. “The sermon was boring, and the singing was off key!” Finally, the boy said, “Dad, I thought it was pretty good for a dime!”
Today is the second of a four-part series on old hymnals. Last week, we looked at God`s Amazing Grace and what grace is and how grace affects us. This week, we will look at another famous hymn... How Great Thou Art. This is without a doubt my favorite hymn. Often, we get caught up in our church roles and jobs that we tend to accidentally look over and forget why we have church. We tend to get so caught up in our church responsibilities and events that we do not do one of the most important things of all... praise God. Now do not get me wrong, those things are important. It is important that people serve. The Bible makes that clear, but serving should never come before your relationship with God or your praise for God. Burnout comes when you let other things in the church take priority over praising God and building your relationship with God. One of the many reasons that I love the hymnal How Great Thou Art is because of the chorus that says:
“Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!”
When was the last time that you put everything aside and just praised and worshipped and focused on God? When was the last time that you did not focus on what you are going through or what responsibilities you have in the church or things you need to get done and just focused on praising God because of how great He is? Now, when I say worship and praise Him, I do not mean just merely sitting or standing there reading lyrics and moping through the song. That is not praise or worship. That song says:
“Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
When is the last time you sang from your soul to God? When was the last time that you poured your heart out to God? That is praise and worship. We serve a God worthy of our praise and worship. In Psalm 145, we see 5 reasons why God is worthy of our praise.
God is Great
READ PSALM 145:1-7
God is worthy of our praise because God is great. Hence the name of the hymn How Great Thou Art. We serve a God that is great. Everything else we talk about today falls under the fact that God deserves our worship and praise because of how great He truly is. Verse 3 says:
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and His greatness is unsearchable.
His greatness is unsearchable meaning that His greatness is past what the human mind can fully comprehend or describe. God is greater than anything we could ever truly describe or understand. Back when I was taking classes at Southern Union, 2 of the electives that I chose to take was a Survey of the Old Testament and then I took a Survey of the New Testament. Both times I took the class with the same professor named Bob Harvey or as we called him, Pastor Bob. Pastor Bob is also a pastor at a church in Auburn so me and him have stayed in touch since then. One day in class, he was telling us this story that happened to him. He was in his church office and hanging on the wall was his master's degree that he got from a seminary. Someone came in and was asking questions about God and Pastor Bob kept giving him the same answer to every question. His answer was “I do not know.” He said that the man looked up at his degree and looked kind of confused when seeing his master's degree in theology. Pastor Bob said something to him that has stuck with me ever since he told the story. He looked at that man and said:
“Would not it bother you more if I knew everything about God? Because if I knew everything about God then that would mean that either I am as big as God or, God is as little as me.”
God is so much greater than what we can explain or understand and to be honest with you, I do not want to know everything about God. I do not. How can you be in awe of something that you completely understand? You cannot. Take a pen for example. I completely understand and just everything about a pen and it means nothing to me. It is just an ordinary pen with no significance. There is nothing to be in awe about. I never want to completely understand God, because I never want to lose the awe that I have for Him.
God is far greater that we can understand. I mean look at some of the things that God has done. For starters, He created everything in the universe. Humans, animals, reptiles, planets, stars, galaxies, and the list goes on and on and on. Not only that, but He did it effortlessly. Think about the human body and how amazing it is and how perfectly crafted it was by God. Verse 1 of How Great Thou Art says this:
“O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow’r thru-out the universe displayed!”
God`s greatness is displayed all throughout the universe. It is displayed in how we are the perfect distance away from the sun. Any closer we burn and any further we freeze. That is no accident. It was not from some big bang. It was not from accident; it was from a perfect and great God who knew what He was doing. God is worthy of our praise because God is great.
God is Merciful
READ PSALM 145:8-9
God is worthy of our praise because God is merciful. God is merciful because God is great. Mercy can be defined as giving forgiveness or withholding punishment. God is merciful because God gives us forgiveness and He withholds our punishment. Last week, we looked at what we truly deserve... hell. We sin and because we sin, hell is what we deserve, and hell is our punishment. Thankfully, our God is merciful. He withholds our punishment even though we have already committed the crime. That is a God of mercy. Listen folks, He does not automatically withhold that punishment. The Bible tells us that only true born-again believers will enter the gates of Heaven. Not everyone will enter. Romans 10:11-13 says this:
For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Those who believe in Jesus will not be put to shame. Meaning, those who believe in Jesus will not receive what they deserve for their sin... hell. Those are the ones that God will have mercy on. Those who believe in Jesus Christ and live their accordingly. I say that because the book of James tells us that:
“Faith without works is dead.”
Works do not cause salvation, but salvation causes works. So, in order to receive God`s mercy, you must first receive God`s Son. In order to have your punishment withheld, you must believe in Jesus Christ. That is God`s requirement. Look at the third verse of How Great Thou Art:
“And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in –
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin!”
We said that mercy was giving forgiveness or withholding punishment. I serve a God that does both. He forgives us and through His forgiveness, our punishment is withheld. The third verse of How Great Thou Art lays out how we got that forgiveness. God sent His only Son to die on the cross so through Him, we may have forgiveness. Jesus died for us so that we could have God`s mercy. He willingly laid down His life and suffered and died for us so that we may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That is a God that is great and merciful. Now tell me folks, what could we have done to deserve that? Nothing. There is nothing we could ever do or say to deserve the Son of God to die for us. That is the amazing grace of God. That is the amazing love of God. Earlier we sang Victory in Jesus where the chorus says:
“Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me 'ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.”
Through Jesus and Jesus alone we have victory. He plunged us to that victory through His death on the cross. He did it out of love. God is merciful even when it seems like everything in your life is going wrong. I love the song that says:
“And even when I don't see it, You're working
Even when I don't feel it, You're working
You never stop, You never stop working”
God is great and God is merciful even when everything seems to be going wrong or the opposite of what you hoped for. God has a plan far greater than anything we can understand. God is merciful.
God is Powerful
READ PSALM 145:10-12
God is worthy of our praise because God is powerful. God is powerful because God is great. I am glad that we serve a God that is powerful. Have you ever stopped to think about how truly powerful God is? He makes a way when there does not seem to be a way. He parted the Red Sea for Moses. He crumbled the Walls of Jericho for Joshua. He calmed the raging seas. He walked on water. He healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind. He made the paralyzed walk. He turned the water into wine and most of all, He gave Himself up to die for us on a cross so that we could eternal life with Him. 2 Timothy 1:10 says this:
“And which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
That is power. Jesus completely defeated death, hell, and the grave. He did it by dying on that cross on Mt. Calvary and then rising from the dead 3 days later. Folks, only someone with power could do that. Nobody here today could have done that. Only God could. That is true power. 1st Chronicles 29:11-13 says this:
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise Your glorious name.”
God is powerful and everything is His. It says that everything in the heavens and on earth is His. That is so because He created everything. He created everything in the entire universe in just 6 days. He also made you. He knows your name. He knows the amount of hair on your head. Think about how amazing that is. The current world population is 7.9 billion people. That is a lot of people and that is just right now. There have been billions and billions of people that have come before us and there is no telling will come after us and yet God still knows our name and He hears each and every one of us. Do y`all realize how amazing that is? That God loves us enough to know exactly who we are, what we need, and how much hair we have. The fourth verse of How Great Thou Art says this:
“When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!”
Not only is Jesus so powerful that He defeated death, hell, and the grave, but He also plans to come back and take us Home. When I say us, I mean true born again Christians. Jesus will one day come back to Earth and He will take every Christian and the Christians that have already passed before then and He will take them back to Heaven with Him. That is power. The Bible says that after the tribulation, Jesus will set up His millennial reign here on Earth that will last 1,000 years. That is power. God is powerful. We serve a God that is powerful and can do far more than we could ever imagine.
God is Eternal
READ PSALM 145:13
God is worthy of our praise because God is eternal. God is eternal because God is great. God is eternally great. Are you glad that we serve a God that is eternal. Revelation 22:13 says this:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
In the Bible, we have the Old Testament and the New Testament. There is a time difference of 400 years between the ending of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. This time period is often referred to as the Intertestamental Period. During this period, the Greeks took over everything before the Romans came on the scene. This era is known as the Hellenistic Era. The spreading of Greek influence. This Greek influence reached all the way to Israel and the surrounding areas and because of the Greek influence, the New Testament was written in Greek. Y`all did not know y`all was getting a history lesson today, did you? Unlike the English alphabet that has 26 letters, the Greek alphabet only has 24 letters. The first letter in the Greek alphabet is Alpha and the last letter is Omega. Now, look at Revelation 22:13 again.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Jesus says He is the beginning and also the end. He says that three different times in three different ways all with the same message... He was there at the beginning of time, and He will be there at the end of time. If Jesus was there at the beginning and will be there at the end, that also means that He is here in the time between those. Over 35 times in the Bible God promises to be with us. I said it last week and the week before, but if God promises to do something, He is going to do it. He delivers on His promises. Proverbs 3:5-8 says this:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh to your bones.”
Have you ever wondered why it says to not lean on your own understanding? Often times, if we leaned on our understanding in the difficult moments of life, we would not believe that God is there. We would not. We would be more focused on our current situation than God and we begin to ask the question “Why me?” If we trust in God with all of our heart, the question goes from “Why me?” to “Lord what are you trying to show me?” God is eternal. God is always there. He promised us that all throughout the Bible in both testaments. In the good times, God is there. In the bad times, God is there. I love the song that says:
“For the God on the mountain
Is still God in the valley
When things go wrong
He'll make them right
And the God of the good times
Is still God in the bad times
The God of the day
Is still God in the night”
Psalm 145:13 tells us that God`s kingdom and God`s reign is one that is everlasting and will endure throughout all generations. We serve a God that is eternal. He is eternally great. He is eternally merciful. He is eternally powerful. This leads us to the last point.
God is Kind
READ PSALM 145:14-20
God is worthy of our praise because God is kind. God is kind because God is great. God is eternally kind. When you look at verses 1, 3, and 4, it demonstrates this. Verse 1 talks about God`s creation. God is kind for creating the universe because without the universe being created, we would not be here. We are Baptist so we must skip a verse so, we will skip verse 2. Verse 3 talks about God sending Jesus to die for us. God is kind for giving up His only son to save all of humanity. Verse 4 talks about Christ returning to take us home. God is kind for coming back for us even when we killed His son. So, in those verses, we have the message that God created everything, God saved everything, and God is coming back for everything and because of that message, my soul will sing how great my God is.
“Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!”
We can sing from our soul about the greatness of God because God is kind and God is love. He demonstrated both of those on the cross. He did it for me and He did it for you. He did it for all of us. No matter what you have done or said, God still loves you and Jesus still died to save you. Proverbs 21:21 says this:
“Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness
will find life, righteousness, and honor.”
Righteousness can be described as being right in the eyes of God. So, those who pursue being right in the eyes of God and pursue kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor. So, in order to pursue kindness and in order to pursue being right in the eyes of God, you must pursue God. God is kindness. Earlier we looked at Proverbs Chapter 3 where it said:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.”
You cannot lean on your own understanding and be right in the eyes of God at the same time. You cannot. You must trust and have faith in God if you want to be right in His eyes. When you are right in His eyes and when you are kind like Him, then you will find life, righteousness, and honor. Titus 3:4-7 says this:
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
God chose to save us because of His goodness, love, and kindness. If God would have waited until we did something worthy of Him saving us, Jesus would never come to die for us. He did it not because of our works, but because of His own mercy. Earlier we defined mercy as giving forgiveness or withholding punishment. God is kind because God gives us forgiveness and He withholds our punishment. The God that we serve is a kind God. Sometimes, life may not seem like it. There may be times where life seems unfair, hard, or unbearable, but God has a plan for it all and as long as God still sits on the throne, He is still good, and He is still kind even when nothing in life seems to make sense.
Let us quickly look at verse 21.
READ PSALM 145:21
David spends the first 20 verses of Psalm Chapter 145 listing out why the God that we serve is so great. He ends this chapter with the same way that he started it... by saying that he will continually use his mouth to praise God. The chorus of How Great Thou Art says:
“Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!”
Earlier, I asked y`all 2 questions. When is the last time you sang from your soul to God? When was the last time that you poured your heart out to God? The invitation today is going to be different. They are not going to come up and sing a few verses of a hymn like we normally do. For the invitation today, we are going to play How Great Thou Art. A hymnal that most of y`all know by heart. If you do not, the lyrics are on page 10 in your hymnal or, I believe they will be on the screen behind me. During this invitation time, I am going to ask all of you to stand and worship God with me. Spend the next 5 minutes doing nothing but praising God for how great He is. Do not focus on or be distracted by whatever you may be going through in life right now. Just focus on God and praise Him. If you want to shout, then shout. If you want to clap, then clap. Do not hold anything back. As the song plays, pour out your heart to God and sing from your soul and praise and worship Him.
