Psalm 44:8
Boasting in the Greatness of God
Introduction
There is a wonderful song in our hymnal that I would like for you to find and read with me. It is Hymn #122, All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name. As we read use your imagination as you picture the angels falling prostrate or all the redeemed from every age singing a great song of praise.
"All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall;
bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all…
Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race, Ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail him who saves you by his grace, and crown him Lord of all…
Let every kindred, every tribe, On this terrestrial ball,
To him all majesty ascribe, and crown him Lord of all
O that with yonder sacred throng we at his feet may fall!
We’ll join the everlasting song, and crown him Lord of all;
We’ll join the everlasting song, and crown him Lord of all!"
There is nothing so healthy and beneficial to the child of God than spending time praising God our Father. Whether you’re living in the valley this morning or you’ve been experiencing the mountaintops, nothing is so great an exercise as praising the Lord God! You can praise Him when you feel good, you can praise Him when you’re sick. You can praise Him when you’re rich, you can praise Him when you’re broke. You can rejoice in Him when you’re happy, you can rejoice when you’re sad. The Apostle Paul said, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice." The psalmist said, " Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness."
Rejoice! Give praise to His holy name! "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof." Oh, Brother Kevin! You just don’t know what I’m going through! You just don’t understand my circumstances! If you only knew! Well let me tell you brothers and sisters that it doesn’t matter what’s going on in your life, good or bad, you’ve got reason to praise the Lord and rejoice in the great God and King we serve! It’s not that you can’t praise Him; it’s not that you don’t have reason to rejoice – you just need to be reminded of some reasons to praise Him!
Every so often I receive an email that many of you have seen. It says…
· GOD is like FORD ... He’s got a better idea.
· GOD is like COKE ... He’s the real thing.
· GOD is like HALLMARK CARDS ... He cares enough to send His very best.
· GOD is like TIDE ... He gets the stains out that others leave behind.
· GOD is like GENERAL ELECTRIC ... He brings good things to life.
· GOD is like SEARS ... He has everything.
· GOD is like ALKA-SELTZER ... Try Him, you’ll like him.
· GOD is like SCOTCH TAPE ... You can’t see him, but you know He’s there.
· GOD is like DELTA ... He’s ready when you are.
· GOD is like ALLSTATE ... You’re in good hands with Him.
· GOD is like PAN AM... He makes the going great.
· GOD is like BAYER ASPRIN...He works wonders.
· GOD is like VO5 HAIR SPRAY...He holds through all kinds of weather.
Listen, I’m thankful that God is like all of that and even more. In fact, truth be told, God isn’t like any of those things – He greatly outstrips them all! Oh that we might…
"be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
Unto Him be glory in the church, unto Him be glory in our homes, and unto Him be glory in our lives!
Psalm 44:8 says,
"In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name forever. Selah."
Now the psalmist said that they, God’s people, boasted of Him all the day long. This is an interesting statement considering where it is located. The seven verses before it tell of how they were reminded of all the good things God had done for them – they had great reason to boast of God. But the verses after it express doubt and sorrow because they felt as though God had forsaken them. God had not in fact forsaken them, but was allowing them to suffer the consequences of their own actions and attitudes about Him.
It’s not any of those things I want to draw your attention to this morning though, but rather, it is the fact that God is worthy of your praise – He is a God who deserves it, He is worthy, and we ought to be a people who spend our days boasting of His greatness! Who is God that we should boast of Him? Setting aside all we know to be true about God, I went through and looked at all the places in the Bible that say, God is…. Listen to the Scriptures:
· God is love
· God is greater than our heart
· God is light
· God is the God of peace
· God is one
· God is not a people respecter
· God is true
· God is the God of the living
· God is greatly to be feared
And the one I want you to think about for just a few moments is the last one…
God is Greater Than Man
In Job 33:12, one of Job’s friends said to him,
"Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man."
Job’s friends may not have given him much comfort in those days of suffering, but this much they knew – that God was greater than man. He wouldn’t be much of a God if He weren’t would He? The pagan gods are no greater than man because they are gods made of wicked man’s imaginations. They are gods created to meet the perceived needs of self. They are in fact not gods at all, for God said, "…there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."
God is greater than man in His plan of salvation.
God’s plan is so much better than man’s!
· God’s plan is "by grace through faith!"
· God’s plan is that "whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved!"
· God’s plan is "whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life!"
· God’s plan is eternal.
· God’s plan gives you hope.
· God’s plan gives you peace.
· God’s plan brings rest to the weary soul.
Oh that’s much better than the sorry plans of man!
· Man’s plan is that we try to live by the Word of God.
· Man’s plan is that we try to be holy and righteous in every way.
· Man’s plan is that we be good and kind and benevolent.
· Man’s plan is self-centered, it is performance driven, and it is do, do, do, and then do some more.
· Man’s plan has no assurance.
· Man’s plan has no security.
· Man’s plan is not everlasting and eternal.
· Man’s plan is not safe.
· Man’s plan is not easy, and man’s plan will not get you to heaven, because the very best of your efforts at getting to heaven fall short of the glory of God.
You’ve sinned, and your sin is offensive to God, and the only remedy ever offered in all of creation that God will accept is His own, and that is by coming to Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father (no man can be saved) but by me." The greatest slap in the face of God is for a man to live his life hoping and believing that when he stands before God in heaven that God will let him in because of what he did or how much he gave or how special he was to some church or even the world. That is the ultimate display of pride and arrogance and God won’t stand for it!
If you expect to enter heaven then you’ll have to humble yourself before God, recognizing that you’re a sinner and that you need a Savior and that the Savior’s name is Jesus. You’ve got to confess your sin to God and repent of it, turn away from it, calling on Jesus to save you. That’s the only way, that’s the only plan, and it’s your only hope!
God is greater than man in his power.
We read in the Bible about the God who spoke the universe into existence. He spoke the waters into existence. Oceans cover more than 70% of the earth’s surface…The size and power of it awes us, and rightly so. Few men can stand at the ocean’s edge and not feel something of greatness swell inside them as they watch the waves come rolling in one after the other. We’ve all seen the destructive nature of hurricanes. Tidal waves can reach heights of 150 feet and travel as fast as 450 miles per hour. In 1946, an earthquake in the north Pacific triggered a tidal wave that, four and a half hours later, killed 178 people in Honolulu, Hawaii – 2,000 miles away. It is said that even average waves the width of a freighter carry ten times more power than is needed to drive the ship. If we could somehow harness the energy potential between the differing temperatures of the upper levels of the sea and it’s freezing depths, we could supply all the world’s current energy needs.
And yet Psalm 18:15 says that at a mere blast from the nostrils of God the deep valleys of the sea lie exposed. We may think the oceans vast, but Psalm 33:7 says that He can gather it all into little jars and keep it in His storehouses. Psalm 89:9 tells us that he calms the raging sea with a single word, and though the waves may roll and roar, they cannot cross the boundaries that He has set for them. The oceans, as powerful and awesome as they may seem to us, can only hint at the power of God.
The Bible describes man’s greatest strength or power as nothing compared to even the weakness of God. Our greatest minds are ignorant compared to His wisdom. Doctors go to school for years and years to learn how to heal the human body, and then they practice by trial and error in our greatest hospitals, but God in His infinite power can but speak the word and heal the sick, give sight to the blind, make the lame to walk, and cause the dead to come up out of the grave!
God is greater than man in His mercy.
Psalm 57:10 says,
"For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds."
I don’t have to tell you that God’s mercy is greater than ours. Mercy is when you don’t get what you do deserve. God’s mercy is…
· When you don’t get hell when you deserved it.
· When God doesn’t expose all your dirt.
· When God doesn’t abandon you when you won’t walk with Him.
· When God doesn’t let you starve when you refuse to feed on His word.
· When God doesn’t hurt you the way you hurt Him.
What kind of mercy does man have? When man is wronged he seeks justice. When you’ve been wronged you want someone to pay. When you’ve been hurt you want someone else to hurt. When you’ve been cheated you think wicked thoughts. When you see someone in need you turn the other way. When others demand our time we can be hateful. When others require more help than is comfortable for us we act intolerable.
Have you ever wondered what would happen to you if God treated you the way you treat others? God is so merciful! His mercy endures forever! It is not a fleeting thing. It is not here one moment and gone the next. God’s mercy is the same today as it was yesterday and how it will be tomorrow. Psalm 103:8 says,
"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
Verse 17 says, "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting…"
How great is God’s mercy? It is so great that He takes our sins and completely removes them, makes it possible for us to have an eternal, abundant, intimate relationship with His Son Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:4 says,
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ…and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
Listen, you want something to boast about? Don’t boast that you can live a clean and moral life. Don’t boast that you can live above sin or that you have learned to discipline your life so that you have become some spiritual giant. Those things may or may not be true – but the only thing you have to boast about is God’s abundant mercy toward you! You wouldn’t even be here today without God’s mercy in your life. You deserved His judgment, but you got His mercy. You deserved His chastisement, but you got mercy. You deserved a devil’s hell, but God in His rich and abundant supply of mercy gave you the forgiveness of sins, the assurance of a new life in Him, and all the blessings that go along with being a child of the King!
How many times have we failed God? How often have we had opportunities to speak up for Him, only to remain silent? We know what the Bible teaches, yet we do what we want to do and rationalize our behavior. We judge and condemn others, but we wait expectantly for God to overlook our sin and bless our lives as though we had done nothing wrong. Oh how great is the mercy of God! It is so much greater than man’s!
Conclusion
I want to tell you today that you’ve got great reason to boast of God! He is greater than man! He is greater than you are! He is greater than I am or will ever hope to be. He is great in His salvation. He is greater than man in His power, in His wisdom, in His mercy, in His grace, in His love, and in His holiness.
· God is completely independent – we are so dependent
· God is unchanging – we are so wavering
· God is infinite, He has no limitations – we are utterly finite and limited in every way
· God is truth – our lives are lived one lie after another
Just when I think I am getting close to understanding the Bible or I think I am finally digging into the meat of God’s Word, I find out that I’m still just scratching the surface. I think about getting out in the middle of Lake Texoma in a hundred foot of water and trying to fish the bottom with the biggest diving plug I’ve got and I’m still just breaking the surface! What other God is like our God? There are no other gods!
Do you know God’s salvation? Has His mighty power been at work in your life? Do you experience His mercy day by day? When was the last time you boasted of God’s greatness? When was the last time words of praise, bragging on the Lord’s working in your life flowed from your lips? Our world doesn’t need to hear about the problems in our church. It doesn’t care to hear about what’s wrong with everything "out there." Your friends and coworkers don’t need more complaining and bitterness and anger. They don’t need griping and bellyaching, there’s enough of that already. What the world needs to hear about is the goodness and the greatness of God, and they need not only to hear it, but they need to see it demonstrated in your life as well. Let us commit ourselves to being a people who boast in the greatness of God all through the day!
