The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The LORD has clothed and girded Himself with strength;
Indeed, the world is firmly established,
It will not be moved.
Psalm 93:1 NASB
Have you ever wondered about the bigness - the majesty - of God? Since I was a child, I have been absolutely intrigued by the wonder of God’s creation. I suppose that is why I love sitting outside in the hot tub and watching for shooting stars. I suppose that is why I was drawn to skydive and to snow ski and to scuba dive. When I take myself out of my normal every day existence and see the world from a different point of view I cannot help but stand in awe of the grandeur of Who God is to me!
I see a meteor zoom across the sky at night and I cannot help but wonder where it came from and where it is headed and how fast it is traveling! I jump out of a perfectly good airplane on purpose and laugh all the way to the ground beneath the canopy of a parachute out of sheer joy of how amazingly wonderful God is to me! I glide down a 12,000 foot mountain and cannot help but feel the grandness of freedom in God’s bigness! I dive beneath the ocean and discover an whole new world that gives me the sense of flying!
I enjoy meditating on such things. As I meditated upon some of the most wondrous things I could contemplate in this life: a dark evening sky made bright by one small shooting star; the way I felt when I first saw Melinda and was swept away by her beauty; the way it feels to meet someone you have looked up to and longed to meet for a very long time; like the way it must feel for a blind man, once healed, to see the faces of those he has only heard before; to hold my sons and daughters for the very first time; to hold my grandchildren and to take them on grand adventures in the forest…I guess I’m just a big child because I feel a sense of wonder and adventure even in my old age…and I enjoy creating a sense of wonder for others to enjoy.
I always meditate on the lives of my children around their birthdays. My oldest son, Israel, celebrates his birthday on July 22. I will never forget how precious it was to hold my very first child for the very first time. What an awesome and overwhelming feeling that was. All of these things fill my heart with wonder and really do take my breath away. Yet each one really does pale in comparison to knowing God. To know that my God - the God of the universe - desires an intimate relationship with me really leaves me feeling inadequate to describe how I feel. Almighty God is alive in me. What glory! What majesty! What a blessing!
"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all.” 1 Chronicles 29:11 NASB
We talk about the grandeur and majesty of God in terms of how massive and immense He is, but the greater majesty can be found in our relationship with the One Who clothes Himself with majesty. Relationship is everything…so isn’t relationship with our Maker worth everything to us? In the most simple of terms, God uses that sense of wonder to draw me into an ever-deepening relationship with Himself…and that fills me with even more wonder!
Here are the lyrics to a song I received many years ago that expresses what I am trying to say today:
I Glory In the Wonder and the Majesty
WORDS & MUSIC
Dennis Jernigan
July 24, 1991
Verse
You move across the strings of my heart
Like the darkest evening sky pierced by a shooting star
You move across the strings of my heart
Like when meeting face to face a King
You’ve known just from afar
Your majesty is awesome and piercing to my heart
I glory in the wonder and the majesty of Who You are
Chorus
Your majesty and glory I proclaim
The wonder and the power in Jesus’ name
In glory and in wonder I proclaim
The majesty and glory of Your name
Your majesty is awesome
In wonder I proclaim
I glory in the wonder and the majesty in Jesus’ name
Verse
To feel your presence takes my breath away
Like to hold your child the first time
And not quite know what to say
To feel your presence takes my breath away
Like a man blind from his birth who finally sees his father’s face
Your majesty is awesome and full of love and grace
I glory in the wonder and the majesty of Your embrace
It’s all about relationship. I believe God gave us all a sense of wonder - wondering about how things work…how the planets stay in orbit…how vast the universe is…how to know when you’re in love…how to live life as an adventure rather than a drudgery. The answer to all our wonderings can be summed up in one name. Jesus. He is the answer to the things that fill our hearts with wonder and the things that take our breath away. He is worth the twists and turns of life to know…and He wastes nothing. Doesn’t that fill your heart with a sense of wonder?!
Philippians 3:7-14 in the NASB says, 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained [it] or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of [it] yet; but one thing [I do:] forgetting what [lies] behind and reaching forward to what [lies] ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:7-14 NASB
Let’s keep pressing on toward the goal of knowing Jesus even more intimately. It is worth everything it costs…even times of sorrow and suffering make knowing Jesus worth knowing. Just lean into the heart of Jesus today and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Just meditate on the wonder and grandeur of Who He is…and do not be afraid to let a little child-like wonder lead the way…
Dennis Jernigan
To listen to a podcast on this subject and to hear the song from today’s message, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/i-glory-in-the-wonder-and-the-majesty/
Picture courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/09/10/22/30/fantasy-3668208_1280.jpg