What is God Like? – Part 4
Merriam Webster defies majesty as 1) “sovereign power, authority, or dignity”; and 2) “royal bearing or aspect”. Living in Colorado I can look at the Rocky Mountains and call them majestic. Having also seen, up close and personal, the European Alps, the Rockies don’t seem quite as majestic, by comparison.
Majesty is also a term applied to Kings and Queens – persons of royalty, whether or not they actually exercise complete sovereignty over their subjects.
In scripture, majesty is used to express the thought of the greatness of God. We are told that the Lord reigns, clothed in majesty from His eternal throne (Psalm 93:1-2). We are told twice in the book of Hebrews that Christ now sits at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (Heb 1:3, 8:1). The word majesty, when applied to God, is always a declaration of His greatness and an invitation to worship (Psalm 48:1, Psalm 95:3,6).
“Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.” (Psalm 48:1)
“For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. . . .Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;” (Psalm 95:3,6)
“Today, vast stress is laid on the thought that God is personal, but this truth is so stated as to leave the impression that God is a person of the same sort we are – weak, inadequate, ineffective, a little pathetic. But this is not the God of the Bible! Our personal life is a finite thing: it is limited in every direction, in space, in time, in knowledge, in power. But God is not so limited. He is eternal, infinite and almighty. He has us in His hands, we never have Him in ours. Like us, He is personal, but unlike us, he is great. In all its constant stress on the reality of God’s personal concern for His people, and on the gentleness, tenderness, sympathy, patience and yearning compassion that he shows toward them, the Bible never lets us lose sight of His majesty and unlimited dominion over all of His creatures.” – J.I. Packer
So how do we maintain great thoughts of the majesty of God? First, we need to remove from out thoughts of God limits that would make Him small. How can we do that? Psalm 139 gives us a starting point. We can listen to and meditate on the words of the Psalmist as he describes God’s unlimited wisdom (vv. 1-4), and His presence (vv. 5-10), and His power (vv. 13-14). We can read of God’s revelation of Himself to Job in Job 38-41.
We can also compare God to that we might consider great. Listen to the prophet Isaiah as he comforts the nation of Israel in exile.
The Nations
“Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.” – (Isaiah 40:15, 17)
We mortals might tremble before the nations, but the nations are nothing to God!
The World
“He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” – (Isaiah 40:22)
The world dwarfs us, but God dwarfs the world!
The world’s great ones.
“He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.” – (Isaiah 40:23-24)
The world’s greatest men are but dust in the wind to the Almighty God.
Now look at the stars.
“Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” – (Isaiah 40:26)
This is our God!
Reader, when God is mentioned, what are your thoughts of Him? Do you think of a “small” God, who exists mainly to serve us, or are they BIG thoughts of the majestic God of the Bible!
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To be continued. . .
The Battle Cry 