The Greatness of God

The Greatness of God

Psalm 145.3 Great is the LORDand most worthy of praise;

    His greatness no one can fathom.

4 One generation commends Your works to another;

    they tell of Your mighty acts. (And of who can that be said?)

5 They speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty—

    and I will meditate on Your wonderful works.

6 They tell of the power of Your awesome works—

    and I will proclaim Your great deeds.

7 They celebrate Your abundant goodness

    and joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

8 The LORD is gracious and compassionate,

    slow to anger and rich in love.

9 The LORD is good to all;

    He has compassion on all He has made.

10 All your works praise You,  O LORD;

    Your faithful people extol You.

11 They tell of the glory of Your kingdom

    and speak of Your might,

12 so that all people may know of Your mighty acts

    and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom.

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

    and Your dominion endures through all generations.

We are talking about the greatness of God this morning. I am at a severe disadvantage because  am sharing about a subject we cannot get to the depths of, just as the Psalm we just read told us. This message is more in awe and praise than it is instructional and didactic. 

There is immeasurably more and exceedingly abundantly above than can be said and than what I am able to share on this subject.

Here's is what we know...

1. God is Great v.3

 Gadowl in Hebrew

meaning...

large (in magnitude and extent), in number

in intensity, loud (in sound)

older (in age)

in importance

There is no part of God's Greatness that is not worthy of our great praise.

So great that David opens this Psalm with the statement that he is going to praise the LORD every day and forever and ever because of His greatness.

God is great!

Psalm 47:9 The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted.

Psalm 66:3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies cringe before You."

Psalm 71:19 Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens, You who have done great things. Who is like You, O God?

Psalm 76:1 For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of Asaph. A song. God is renowned in Judah; in Israel His name is great.

Psalm 82:1 God presides in the great assembly; He renders judgment among the “gods”:

Psalm 86:10 For You are great and do marvelous deeds; You alone are God.

Psalm 89:7 In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; He is more awesome than all who surround Him.

Psalm 95:3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.

Psalm 96:4 For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods.

Psalm 104:1 Praise the LORD, O my soul. LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty.

Psalm 135:5 I know that the LORD is great, that our LORD is greater than all gods.

2. The Greatness of Our God is Unfathomable.

We won't be able to get to the depths of it this morning or ever!

a search for something, investigation,  enquiry

God's ways, His thoughts are higher than the heavens, beyond our finding out.

God's Greatness is deep, deeper than we can ever get to, unfathomable.

He is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Nothing is too difficult for Him.

They cut down an old oak tree next to my daughter's house. My granddaughter and I looked at it. I was half tempted to go into the yard and count the rings. I told her that the tree was older than me. The average life span of the common oaks around here is 200 years! Yes you could very well be looking at oak trees planted when Abraham Lincoln was President! Amazing. In the West the red oaks can live up to 400 years! So some of them may have been around in the 16th Century! They were there before our country was founded! Almighty God created these trees. There is nothing that has been made that wasn't made by Him! How great is our God!

Psalm 147.5  Great is our LORD and mighty in power;

    His understanding has no limit.              

So we see His greatness in creation. 

By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations, by it He set the heavens in place; (Proverbs 3.19)

His Greatness is way beyond what we can see in the heavens and on earth. 

So much more than just the physical universe is the spiritual realm. There are the angels, God's messengers. There is His Spirit. There is Heaven itself and the New Jerusalem He is preparing for us.

There is the knowledge and wisdom of God.

There is His Word which stands eternal in the heavens!

3. The Greatness of God Spreads Across Generations.

Chuck Berry Rock and Roll great died last week. Remembered but gone.

The stories we are listening to of God's Greatness span 6,000 years.

He is the Maker of heaven and earth,

    the sea, and everything in them—

    he remains faithful forever. Psalm 145.6

One generation tells of His mighty acts to another. God's interaction with each generation since Adam.  He is deeply involved in the affairs of human beings. History is His Story. To those who commit their lives to God they get to have interaction with Him all day long.

Each generation gets to witness His mighty acts.

Think of the amazing spread of the Gospel! 

Ignorant and unlearned men who had been with Jesus.

Acts 4.13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Men who had been with Jesus.

It wasn't that they were unwise, on the contrary they were very wise, wiser than those they stood before. It was that they had no formal education. They were men who had been with Jesus and were now filled with His Spirit.

Those unschooled men carried out the desires of Jesus and our Father in Heaven and over the past 2,000 years the Gospel has gone out around the world. 

God continues to work that way today.

4. God's Works Are Great.

The things recorded in the Bible.

The works of God in History.

The works He is doing today.

Good things, wonder filled things.

Missionaries from other countries.

James Jeong on the flight down to Haiti.

Taiwanese couple I met in Queens whose son is a missionary in Nepal but moving here to Brooklyn to evangelizing the Russian Jews.

Doctor Rosemarie coming from Spain to Haiti this September.

Interview with Casandra

5. God's Heart Is Great! vs.5-6

5 They speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty—

    and I will meditate on Your wonderful works.

6 They tell of the power of Your awesome works—

    and I will proclaim Your great deeds.

 Wonderful=extraorinary

Awesome= fear, revere, be afraid

Good 

Righteous=justice

Compassion= love deeply, have tender affection, mercy

Love

"When you cannot trace God's Hand, you can trustHis heart."- Spurgeon

Psalm 33.4 For the Word of the LORD is right and true;

                      He is faithful in all He does.

5 The LORD loves righteousness and justice;

    the earth is full of His unfailing love.

God is great! His Greatness is unfathomable. His Greatness spreads across all generations. Let us praise Him everyday and forever!