The Wonderful Works of God
Psalm 111,
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.
4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;
the Lord is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the inheritance of the nations.
7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy;
8 they are established forever and ever,
to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption to his people;
he has commanded his covenant forever.
Holy and awesome is his name!
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!
My family and I have noticed an abundance of large spiders around, and occasionally, to our horror, inside our house recently.
There’s a reason for this… apparently, August and September mark “peak spider season” in Minnesota, as adult spiders reach their full size after feeding all summer, and as the morning dew makes their webs more visible to us…
In 1723, the great theologian Jonathan Edwards wrote about this in his treatise “Of Insects and Spiders.” In this short letter, Edwards marvels at the wise design of God the Creator as he considers the complex behaviors of the “flying spiders” common in New England. As he considers the complex design of their webs, how they can seemingly support themselves in mid-air… He says,
“We hence see the exuberant goodness of the Creator, who hath not only provided for all the necessities [of spiders], but also for the pleasure and recreation of all sorts of creatures, and even the insects and those that are most despicable.”
Whereas Edwards studied spiders with delight and saw them as an opportunity to praise God, my only thought when I see a spider is to kill it as fast as humanly possible…
The point is: The wonderful works of God are all around us if we have eyes to see. And that’s what this sermon is about.
Psalm 111 is about the wonderful works of God. More specifically, the big question from our text this morning is: What makes God’s works so great?
In this sermon, I want to answer that question by showing you three truths about the works of God.
God’s works demand our praise.
God’s works reveal his character.
God’s works teach us to fear him.
1. God’s works demand our praise.
Look with me again at verse 1 of our psalm:
“Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.”
The psalmist resolves to praise God with his whole heart and publicly. And right off the bat, this first verse convicted me as I prepared this past week. How often do I praise the Lord with half of my heart, and not my whole heart? Have I ever truly praised God with my whole heart?
These were convicting questions for me this week. It made Psalm 86:11 come alive for me… as the Psalmist prays, “unite my heart to fear your name.”So that I may praise you not with half my heart, but with my whole heart.
Oh, to have a congregation, this whole church filled with whole-hearted worshipers, so captivated by God’s glory… so in awe of his wonderful works, that they are moved to praise him with their entire being. That’s what the psalmist envisions for us here.
I can remember when my wife and I came to Cities Church for the first time. We were captivated by this building. When I walked in, I could not help but say, “Wow!” The huge wooden beams holding up the towering ceilings. The beautiful stone steeple. And the colorful stained-glass windows. Look around for a second! This place was designed and built by man. That’s amazing!
This building is truly a wonderful work of art, a feat of human engineering, and we rightly admire its beauty. How much more should we admire the wonderful works of God?!
Get this: The man who designed this building… God made him. God designed him and gave him every breath of his life… And that is true of each and every one of us in this room.
By a miracle of God’s hand, our hearts are beating with blood, our lungs are filled with air, and this earth is still rotating around the sun! Hebrews 1 says that Jesus Christ “upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Meaning, if Jesus were to snap his fingers, you and I would cease to exist in an instant.
Every breath we take, and every moment we continue to exist is due solely to the mercy of God.
Whether we consider that, or the intricate machinery inside every cell in our bodies to the vast reaches of the Milky Way galaxy and billions of galaxies beyond ours.
God’s wonderful works are all around us in creation and give us countless reasons to praise him! So be an admirer of God’s works in creation…
Thank God for the breath you just took!
Like Edwards, consider the complex web of the spider… God made that!
Consider how the honey bee gets nectar from the flower… God designed that!
Consider the beauty of the night sky… and marvel at the Creator of it all.
The theme of our whole lives should be verse 2…
“Great are the works of the LORD,
studied by all who delight in them.”
The works of Yahweh are to be studied. Literally, the Hebrew word ‘darash’ means “to seek out.”
We are to study, to diligently seek out the works of the LORD anddelight in them. We should be awe-struck admirers of God’s works in creation, and we should be eager students of God’s word.
The Bible is the works of God written. The works of God written for us. God wrote a book. And we ought to read it, and study it with delight, and meditate on it all the day!
At a chosen time each day,
Read the Bible while you may,
Do not start until you pray,
Ask, “What does this passage say?”
Look for Him who is the Way,
Find a lesson for today,
Pray once more, and go your way.
May we be a people that eagerly studies and delights in the works of God in nature and in Scripture for his works demand our praise.
Look with me at verses 3-6
“Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.
4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;
the Lord is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the inheritance of the nations.”
This brings us to part two.
2. God’s works reveal His character.
This is a basic point. What you do reveals who you are. Your works reveal your character. The character of a good student is revealed by their long hours of study. The character of a good parent is revealed by the love and attention they give to their children.
And likewise,the righteous character of God is revealed by the splendor and majesty of his work. And we must press on to know the character of God through his works. Why? Why is that important?
Well, we cannot truly love what we don’t know.
Am I a good husband to my wife if I know literally nothing about her? If I make no effort to learn about her, her hobbies, her interests…?
So too with God!
We cannot love God very well if we know nothing about him! And make no effort to learn about him!
And if the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart then we must press on to know God’s character.
And we see God’s character on display in these verses.
Particularly, on the heels of Psalm 110: I believe these verses are celebrating the Greater Exodus, the Greater Provision, and the Greater Conquest of the Melchizedekian Priest-King who is David’s Lord.
Verse 4 says that God’s works reveal that he is gracious and merciful.
This refers to the Exodus… Where God reveals his glory to Moses and says,
“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…”
And we know that God’s righteousness, grace, and mercy is seen most clearly in the greater Exodus of the cross of Christ. The Israelites were delivered from the tyranny of Pharoah and we as New Covenant Christians are delivered from the tyranny of sin and Satan.
Verse 5 tells us that God provides food for those who fear him, which calls to mind the manna he provided for his people in the Wilderness.
And God’s provision is seen more clearly in the greater manna, Jesus himself who says,
“I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Lastly, verse 6:
“He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the inheritance of the nations.”
This, of course, refers to the conquest of the promised land under Joshua.
We see God’s power in our greater Joshua. Jesus is the greater Joshua… the conquering Warrior-King of Psalm 110, leading his people to a new Promised Land in the New Heavens and the New Earth.
We must know that God’s perfect grace, mercy, provision, and power is sufficient to meet all of our needs…
If you are broken over sin… if you have failed… rest in God’s mercy and grace today.
If you are anxious about your life… are you not of more value than a sparrow? Trust the God who provides!
If you see chaos in the world around you, remember God’s power. That right now he is ruling and reigning over all nations for his glorious purposes!
God’s works demand our praise; they reveal his character, and point three…
3. God’s works teach us to fear Him.
Look at verses 7-8, and notice how God’s works and God’s words are put in parallel here,
“The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy;
8 they are established forever and ever,
to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.”
God is trustworthy, and so everything he says (his precepts, his words) are trustworthy. In other words, you can stake your life upon God’s words!
And verse 8 says that because God’s word is trustworthy, we are to obey him faithfully and uprightly.
The psalmist continues in verses 9-10,
“He sent redemption to his people;
he has commanded his covenant forever.
Holy and awesome is his name!”
From the very beginning, after humanity fell into sin, God has promised redemption… And the whole story of the Bible, through God’s covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David… all culminate in Jesus Christ and the New Covenant.
“God sent his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Those who reject Christ will be separated from God forever. But those who receive Christ are given the right to become children of God. Forgiven of all their sin, and given new hearts to obey God with joy. This is beautifully prophesied in Jeremiah 32:40, which says,
“I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.”
In the new covenant, God puts the fear of him in our hearts, so that we do not turn away from him! What a promise! Has God done that in your life? Do you fear God? What does it mean to fear God?
Proverbs 3 says that to fear the LORD is to turn away from evil.
Psalm 112:1 says that the blessed man fears the Lord and greatly delights in his commandments.
But I think our church’s mission statement also helps us here: Cities Church exists to make joyful disciples of Jesus who remember his realness in all of life.
I think that’s a good definition of the fear of the Lord. To fear the Lord is to remember his realness in all of life. Do you remember God’s realness in all of life? Has God put the fear of him in your heart?
Do his wonderful works cause you to marvel in awe at him? When you hear the good news of the gospel, does your soul cry out, “Holy and awesome is his name!”?
If that is not true of you this morning, ask God to change your heart. Ask him to put the fear of the LORD in your heart today.
Because, as verse 10 says,
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;”
This is crucial for us to get. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom… Not one helpful tip … Not one thing to tack on to the Christian life… but the beginning of wisdom… the foundation of the good life.
Meaning, if you are not basing your life upon the reality of who God is as your Creator, and what he has done as our Redeemer, then you are a fool! If God is not the central reality of your life, then whatever you are building in your life is a straw-house doomed to fail.
Jesus says,
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
Or as Psalm 111 puts it,
“Those who practice [the fear of the LORD] have a good understanding.”
So as we close here, I want us all to reflect on this question: Where do I need to grow in practicing the fear of the LORD? In your home, in church, at work, at school. What would it look like for you to remember the realness of Jesus in all of life?
God’s works are indeed wonderful.
They demand our praise.
They reveal his character.
And they teach us to fear him.
His praise endures forever!
Let’s pray.
