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THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR "I
Am God” Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma July 6, 2008; No. 3418 (Printed copies in a
four-message booklet can be sent monthly without charge. Request from:
Reformed Witness Hour, |
prca.org
Dear radio friends,
How often is the thought of God before our
minds? How often, in our busy lives, do we take time out to contemplate God?
It is God who controls the affairs of this
world. Nothing happens in the nations by chance. It is God who controls all of
creation—the moving of the earth, the vast domain of outer space. It is
God who controls our individual lives, to the smallest details, so that not a
hair can fall from our head without the will of God.
Man is so small in the sight of God. All the
nations together are as a drop on the edge of the bucket. Isaiah tells us in
chapter 40 that if all men together were weighed in the balance they would be
lighter than the dust. In comparison to God, man is less than dust.
Yet, how much time does man take to think about
God? We can become so consumed in our lives and with our own trivial pursuits
that the thought of God is far from us. All things—our lives, creation,
the history of this world, even redemption in Jesus Christ—center in and
revolve around God’s glory. Certainly, much more time must be spent by us
beholding our God.
And that is the emphasis of the passage that we are going to consider today. Look with me at
Psalm 46:8-11:
“Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath
made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the
end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth
the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted
among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The
Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” “Be
still and know that I am God…I will be exalted in the earth.”
We bow before these words of the almighty God
who is an all-consuming fire. We humble ourselves before the thought of God, who
holds the power of life and death in His hand. But God’s people also
rejoice when they hear these words because they are uttered from the mouth of
the God who saves them in Christ Jesus. Our God is the God of our salvation. He
is powerful against our enemies. He saves His church. With fear and trembling,
yet with joy and gladness, we contemplate our God today.
At the outset in these verses we are commanded
to come before God. “Come, behold,” the psalmist writes in verse 8.
That is what we are going to do today, too, radio listeners. We are not going
to hold back for fear, or for whatever other reason we may not want to enter
into God’s presence. We are going to come before the mighty God of heaven
and earth to behold His works. And we will issue forth that call to everyone
who will hear. “Come,” God commands us. We
heed that command and come and behold. And when we behold, we do not simply
look at those works of God in a disinterested and complacent manner, in a
rather detached sort of way. We are going to enter into God’s presence
and contemplate and analyze and meditate upon His works.
God, Jehovah, is calling for our attention. Is
there anyone listening now who dares to ignore Him? Is there anyone who dares
to disobey God’s command: “Come and behold My
works, O man”? On bended knee in God’s presence we timidly look
about.
Where are these works God wants us to
contemplate? Wrong question. When we gaze about us,
where are those things that are not the work of God’s hands? All
things are creatures of His hands. Look at the world of nature—the
universe, the earth, the oceans, the mountains—all the works of
God’s hands. All things bright and beautiful; all
creatures great and small—all the works of God’s hands.
There is not one thing that exists except by the hand of God.
Look at our own selves, as the psalmist does in
Psalm 139:14-16.
There he writes: “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when
I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect;
and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were
fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” All creatures, including
you and me, are the works of God’s hands.
God is great. That we are led
to see. He is Creator. We are the creatures of His hands. What now? Do
not stop your contemplation so quickly. This same God governs and guides all
the creatures of His hand. Not a hair can fall from our head without His
sovereign will. Not a bird can fall from the sky, Jesus Himself tells us in His
sermon on the mount. Nothing happens in this world, or in our lives, by chance.
We ascribe nothing at all to luck. God leads, God
guides all creatures—even man himself—to the fulfillment of His own
sovereign good-pleasure.
True, God stands infinitely above His creation
as God. But that does not mean that God removes Himself from creation. He rules
all creatures by His hand. Everything that takes place here God providentially
guides and controls to the accomplishment of what He desires.
But there is something that we ought to focus
our attention on even more. The particular works that God desires us to behold,
first of all, are these: “behold…what desolations he has made in
the earth.” What the psalmist wishes us to behold is the terrible power of God.
Psalm 47:2,
“For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great
King over all the earth.” That we, together with all men, might be
sensitive to that fact: Our God is an all-consuming fire, arrayed in dignity
and awful might. His majesty shines forth and His glory burns brightly. Oh that men would truly come and behold that God. Perhaps then
they would serve Him as they ought, that is, acceptably, with reverence and
godly fear.
God is terrible in His works. That means that
His works excite extreme alarm and intense fear. Is this not true when we
contemplate the desolations God has made on the earth? Desolations are great and
horrible catastrophes in creation. When God unleashes His power in creation,
men cringe and quail before Him. When we stand before the fury of the winds of
a hurricane or of a tornado, as we have seen in this past season, man flees for
refuge and fears for his life. When we see a wall of water sweeping through our
towns or through our fields, we are filled with alarm and implore the mercy of
that great God who controls these things. When God sends a tsunami or an
earthquake, then He sends desolation in the earth.
Behold…what desolations God has made in the earth, the psalmist says in verse 8 of
Psalm 46.
These are His works. Do
not deny it. Do not rob God of His power. God sends desolations. If there is
anything that proves it in the Bible, the ten plagues upon
The wise man, Solomon, who writes the Proverbs, said in
Proverbs 21:1,
“The king’s heart is in the hand of the
Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it
whithersoever he will.” No doubt the men of
But even as God sends war, God also sends peace.
Nor may this side of God’s power be ignored by us as we behold our God.
We read in verse 9: “He maketh wars to cease
unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth
the chariot in the fire.” The bow, the spear, the chariot were all
weapons of war used in the days of
Let us not look at them through the eyes of
unbelief, as so many do. Unbelief manifests itself in so many different ways
when they, unbelievers, behold God’s works. There are those who will
refuse to come and behold. They dwell in darkness and refuse even to consider
that all things take place by God’s hands. This world develops by chance,
they say, and everything in it, by natural laws. There is no God in all of
this. Others, who feign belief in God, are nevertheless just as lost in the
darkness of unbelief. God does not sovereignly
control all things, they would contend. Certainly the desolations we see in the
earth do not come from God. And more, certainly the wars that are the result of
the hatred of one nation against another are not controlled by God or sent by
God. The bad things of this world could not be under God’s control
because God is a God of love. He would not send these things.
Then who is in control of them? And who does
send them? Satan? Oh, that wicked Satan. Only he would
do such horrible things, men say. But under whose control is Satan? God does
not have control of Satan, his every action? Do the things that Satan does
stand outside God’s control? If they do, then Satan must be God too. He
must also have power, power equal to that of God. He must be God too, and not a
creature of God’s hand.
But Satan is an angel, a fallen angel. The
angels, too, were created by God. Satan cannot be a second God, who stands
alongside of our God and does what he wants to do apart from the will of his
Creator. Our God is Creator, and Satan is but a creature under the
Creator’s control. It must be that Satan does these horrible things only
by God’s permission, then? But why then would not God keep Satan from
doing them. If God is in control of Satan and does not approve of what Satan is
doing, why would God not simply stop Satan?
The fact is: God sends such desolations in the
earth. And He does it because God is God alone. He is in control of everything.
Otherwise He is not God.
When we are called today to come before Jehovah
God and behold His works, then we are called to look at these things through
the eyes of faith. Come and believe. Believe that these things that take place
in this world do not take place by chance. Believe God is in control. He rules
over all creatures. Nothing escapes His will. Stand before God, all men, and
believe. Worship this God with reverence and godly fear.
The conclusion we come to in this Psalm is: The
God whom we serve is God alone. And if He is the refuge of those who believe on
Him, then what reason have we to fear what happens to us in this life? This God
is for us and not against us. And if He is for us, therefore, nothing in this
whole world can be against us.
We believe in this God because He is the God of
our salvation. He has delivered us from all the punishment of sin in the blood
of Jesus Christ. He has made us into His very own children. We are members of
His family. He loves us. He cares for us, as the psalmist said, as the apple of
His eye. We have no need to fear for our safety or our welfare. Not even when
God sends desolations in this earth. God, who controls all things, will care
for us.
Do you come into the presence of that God and
are you looking at Him? Then, do not just behold, but listen to what God tells
us: “I will be exalted among the heathen, I will
be exalted in the earth.” God is speaking here. Do you hear Him? Are you
listening as well as seeing? “I will be exalted in the earth, even among
the heathen I will be exalted,” God says. To be exalted
means to be raised to a higher level of honor and glory than all else.
It is to be elevated above others; held in high esteem and honor; praised;
revered; worshiped.
Well, we know that God is exalted among His
people. We hold our God in highest esteem and praise and honor Him. But we
believe in Him. How is it that God will be exalted in the whole earth? And how
is it, especially, true among the heathen of this world? The heathen of this
world hate God. They would never honor or worship Him. Everywhere he turns, the
wicked unbeliever attempts to rob God of His glory and to serve anything and
anyone but God. How, in light of all of this, will God be exalted in the earth?
How will He be exalted among the heathen? It seems that He is put down by the
heathen more than He is exalted. In fact, it seems that the cause of the
Well, let us not be deceived by outward
appearances. God is in control, remember. God is directing the affairs
of this earth. God even directs the wicked in its attacks on the church. And in
that sense of the word, God already is exalted. God has placed upon His holy
throne Jesus Christ. And Christ has accomplished God’s purpose in the
salvation unto Himself a people. Through that death of Jesus Christ, and
through His resulting resurrection and ascension, He has been exalted to
God’s right hand. And Christ sits at that right hand of God and rules in
the heavens on God’s behalf. It may appear as if the earth is filled with
contempt for God and Christ. But we remember that the earth is the
Lord’s. And Christ rules over all the earth. God is exalted in the very
person of His Son who even now rules in the heavens. He sits upon His throne and though man, the psalmist says in
Psalm 2,
attempts to break his bands off
him, attempts to escape from the rule of that God, and even actually thinks
that he has done this, nevertheless, God reigns, and His Son reigns on His holy
hill.
God sits in the heavens and laughs at
unbelieving man because He is, right now, exalted in the earth. But God will be
exalted, too. And not only does God say this in order to assure us of the truth
that even now
He is exalted now, but this phrase of this
passage has a future connotation to it too. There will come a day when every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that God is God and that Jesus
Christ, His anointed Son, is Lord. There will come a day when God will be
exalted in all of the earth and among the heathen as well. Even the heathen
will bow before this God and confess “He is Creator. He is sovereign
Ruler over all.” That day will come in judgment, when Christ returns to
usher in the new heavens and the new earth.
No, the wicked will not be included in that
kingdom, but, nevertheless, the wicked, ungodly, unbelieving people of this
world will be subdued. God will place His foot upon their neck, and they will
be forced to confess that God is God.
Have we listened to God now? Did we hear what He
has declared about Himself? Have we come, for a few moments today, and beheld
who God is and what desolations He makes in the earth? Good. This is how we
should respond: “Be still, and know that I am God.” What do we
know? What is the knowledge of our faith? God is God. Do you believe that? Do
you stand in awe before Him? Do you fear and tremble? Well, we should. We are
either on His side or not. And if we are on His side, then we know this: We
will never be moved. Because, you see, this God is the God of Jacob. And the
God of Jacob, that is, His church, is our refuge. To Him we can flee for
protection from our enemies. To Him we can flee when the troubles of our life
overwhelm us. The Lord of hosts is with us. He is our shield and our defense.
We serve a great, big, wonderful God, always victorious, always watching over
us.
And now we know that God is God. Then be still—sh-h-h. Be quiet. Do not say anything. Stop your busyness, harness your wandering thoughts, drain your thoughts of anything but God and His power. Be still. Put your troubles aside. Come, behold. God is an awesome God!
Let us pray.
Father in heaven, we stand before Thy Word that
teaches us who Thou art. We stand in awe before Thee. And we give praise unto
Thy great and glorious name. Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word. And we thank
Thee that we can contemplate also for a few moments in this day Thy power and
Thy greatness. Teach us to be still and know that Thou art God. We pray this
for Christ’s sake, Amen.