Recapturing the Wander
For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David.
1 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
In his book recapturing Wonder, author Mike Cosper talks about Susanna Clarkes fairytale, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norvell. She tells the story of the rediscovery of magivin their land. IMagic remained a part of folklore like King arthur, but no one has actually rpacticed it in hears. Nonetheless there were men who called themselves magicians. They did so in spite of the fact that “not one of these magicians ever cast the smallest spell, nor by magic caused one leave to tremble upon a tree, made one mot of dust to alter its course or change a single hair upon anyones head. But with this one minsor reservation they enjoyed a reputation as some of the wisest and most magical gentleman in Yorkshire.
They spent their days in lengthy arguments about theoretical magic, debating the sue of this spell over that, nitpicking the details of magics history.. And once amonth reading “long, dul papers” to one another. Then Mr. Norrel showed up. He case a spell that made all the statues in Yorkshire cathedral come to life: shouting, singing, telling stories about the deaths of the men and womens whose image they bore. The magicians of Yorkshirer were speechless. The world was far different than they had believed.
Cosper says, “I found myself identifying with the magicians of Yorkshire. My life as a Christian had left me with a certain amount of fluencey with faith: I could keep up in conversation about theology , history of the Bible… worship church liturgy. But as i read Clarkes book, I couldnt help but feel the gap between knowing and know how. At times I
The bible feels like a dead text and prayer seems to bounce off an answerless wall. We end up like those magicians
…We live in the “secular age.” The culture of anxiety. The age of nacisissm. The age of disenchantment and apathy. How do you find peace and joy and purpose in such an age? By recalibrating our life with God. By knowing the God of the Bible, his greatness and his peace…
Cosper says the practical magic that’s missing isn’t just the dramatic– healing the sick or raising the dead. Rather, it’s the more quiet and invisible magic of how anxious souls find wholeness and broken people find healing. We might be fluent in language of faith, but unable to pray, overwhelmed by fear and anxiety, and victim to the compulsive, distracting habits that fill our age.
We need to recalibrate and regain our wander of God, and I hope our time in the psalms will help us. Retune our hearts to the beauty of God. Give us time to just rest. And recapture the wonder of knowing him.
A great medicine for the soul is the psalms. There are many different kinds of literature in the Bible. We have studied Romans which is an epistle, a letter with air tight logic and rhetoric. The psalms and poetry. They call for reflection. They are theological, so they call for reflection on who God is and what has done.
This is a psalm of praise. It praises God.
“This psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be, celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who he is and what he has done, and relating us and our world to him; all with a masterly economy of words, and in a spirit of mingled joy and awe. It brings to light the unexpectedness of God’s ways in the roles he has assigned to the strong and the weak, the spectacular and the obscure, the multitudinous and the few, but it begins and ends with God himself, and its overriding theme is “how excellent is thy name.” Derek Kidner, Psalms vol 1.
If you are used to the do’s and don’ts. Just stop and consider the greatness of God. Serve him in awe and wonder.
Majestic. Powerful, noble. Mighty.
Psalm 93:4, more majestic, mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightiers than the waves of the sea.
Exodus 15:11 Who is like you, O Lord, among the God’s? Who is like yuo, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wanders.
I remember going to the Grand Canyon in college. I had been on a lot of hikes and outdoors. But to look at the size of the grandcanyon. Length and breadth. I felt so small. Where did it come from? Someone made that, and whoever they are, they are amazing. God made it.
Not just powerful. Not just noble. Awe inspiring. Respectful.
The nobility of his name. Yes, your majesty. There is a clear element of respect. You see what he has done, and you are humbled to be in his presence.
- God’s Cosmic Majesty
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
God has set his glory in creation.
The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
Ps 19:1–4.
Consider the moon and stars. The moon's mean diameter is 2,159.2 miles. compared to Earth, the moon is less than a third the width of our home planet, according to NASA. The moon's equatorial circumference is 6,783.5 miles (10,917 km). approximately 238,855 miles (384,400 km) away on average. Surface area: 14.6 million square miles (38 million square km). Mass: 16.2 x 10^22 lbs. 2,288 miles per hour. And there is is meekly accompanying the earth on its travels.
The Sun. a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium – at the center of our solar system. It’s about 93 million miles and its light will burn you and blind you. Its gravity holds the entire solar system together. Hottest temp is twenty seven million degrees fahrenheit. 4.4 x10^30 lbs. There are 100 billion stars in the milky way galaxy. We dont know how many galaxies there are.
A possible galaxy that exists some 13.5 billion light-years from Earth has broken the record for farthest astronomical object ever seen, now dubbed HD1, between a time of total darkness — about 14 billion years ago the universe was a blank slate devoid of any stars or galaxies — and one of just-burgeoning lights as clumps of dust and gas were growing into their cosmic destinies.
You have set your glory in the heavens.
They are the work of your fingers. What have you done with your fingers this week. Fingers are for fine motor skills not heavy lifting. Typed. Moved paper. He created the light years of the universe and the stars that fill them.
Do you ever consider the work of God’s fingers? Take time to do that as you walk. Look up at the sky and clouds and consider he has made it all and blows the wind where it needs to go. He made the trees, and each different for its own purpose- the giant sturdy oaks that are strong and great for furniture, support structures, the pine trees that are fast growing and mass produced for lumber, live oaks and teak that are water and rot resistant for ships. He made them all different. Consider the fish in the sea that all look so different. Seahorses that look ornamental and not practical. Sharks, whales, shrimp. Its the work of his hands and each has a distinctive purpose.
Adoration is ardent and intimate. Oh Lord,
20 Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; Romans 1:20.
Covenantal. How do we know there is a God? Because he has revealed himself. Here the psalmist calls on Yahweh. This is the name God gave to Moses when he appeared to him. He revealed himself to Moses. He called out from the burning bush. He gave Moses his name. When you know someone's name you can call them. You can relate with them. God wanted his people to call on him.
Someone tells you there name and you can relate with them. When you meet someone you exchange names. People who dont tell you their name don’t want to be known.
Perfect symmetry of the psalm. Reflection and admiration of God’s majesty begins and ends the psalm.
- God’s Personal Majesty
The Hebrew poetry brings the center of the psalm out. V1 and verse 9 have an interrogative particle, ha– how majestic is your name. That frames the beginning and end of the psalm. That particle is also on v4. What is man? He is marveling at creation and central to his wonder is the place God has given to man. Why would God do this???
He is crowned with glory and honor. Just as the sun and moon and earth proclaim God’s glory so do people. And in fact, in Genesis 1 the apex of creation is humanity. They are the last thing God creates. Makes them in his image. Gives an account specific to them. I am crowned with honor and glory. Don’t listen to what the enemy says. Know God’s purpose and design for you.
All this greatness of God, what am I that you care for me? What is Adam. In Genesis God made Adam out of the adamah, the earth. He is thinking of all people, of himself. It is a wonder of wonders. What am I that you care for me?
Remember just before me and my friend got to the grand canyon we listened to a message of election and God’s calling. We were dead in our sins and God called. He drew us out of the depths and put a new heart in us. He gave light to our blind eyes and opened our ears. How undeserving!
Paths in the sea show that the chaos has been tamed.
He marvels at God’s greatness and that God would care for people. But he is also amazed at what God does for people. He creates them with glory and honor. He makes them rulers over his creation.
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
First, just think about this. God created a good world. He then allows people to have a charge over that.
How many of you create something and then entrust it to others. Kids dont even let other kids play with their legos. Build a house and dont want anyone to mess it up. Not putting you in charge of my stuff. Dad got a motorcycle when I was seventeen. He took me outside, showed it to me, and then said, dont ever touch my motorcycle. God is not like that. He entrusts it to his people. He made if for us.
The psalmist is marveling at the fact that God has put man in charge of all the animals, flocks, herds. He is marveling at taking care of sheep and cattle! God created people to have dominion. One of the things you see in Genesis is in v26
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
God explicitly calls them to have dominion over everything on earth. And they are to image God. God is a God who works. He is working in the world, in Genesis 1 God creates out of nothing, and he begins to bring light, order and goodness to the world. People are to continue doing this. Dominion in his image. WE are to bring light order and goodness to all we do. We are to do that to his creation, animals and people. He lets us rule over his creation.
DAvid was a king, he had a palace, he had a trophy case with Goliaths sword and other victories, he brought the nation to new heights. He was also a shepherd. Yet he is marveling over the fact that God put him in charge of livestock. Do you ever marvel that God put you in charge of your dog, your cat, fish, and other things. If you are dried up and burnt out at work, reflect on the wonder of what God has given you to do.
I heard recently that bad things happen when good people aren’t willing to step up. Isn’t that true.
It is amazing. God created that animal. In all its glory. He has entrusted it to you. Its life and well being.Consider your work. What happens if you dont do your job well. Others suffer. Pain increased because people were negligent. What a privilege. Want to make a difference in the world. Do your job. Want to do your job well, then recognize the significance. Dont trivialize it. Do you see the wonder of it? Are you amazed at what God allows you to do?
God has entrusted your kids to you. Isnt that an amazing thing, or does it feel like drudgery. He entrusted you with clients. They might drive you crazy. Entrusted you with animals.
Rightly seeing God’s majesty leads to seeing his grace. Seeing his grace leads to gratitude, contentment, and joy.
Invert who God is, invert his role and work, and your attitude reverts.
You invert the human and divine, you put a weight on humanity that it cannot hold. It will crush you. It is unsustainable.
Theological/Divine inversion results in a regression of gratitude
Ungratefulness is the result of divine inversion. When you take God off his thrown, and you fail to see his greatness and majesty, power, brilliance. And you put yourself in his place, where you know better, better than him and everyone else. You think God is an idiot because he did you wrong. This is what happened with Job. He questioned God, and God came to him in a whirlwind and questioned him about the creation of the world.
This is typically the height of pride. God is not good enough for you. You look on him with disapproval. When you look on God with disapproval you probably very easily look on others with disapproval. May be at a place where you have few friends and most of your relationships are broken. You removed God, inserted yourself and that inversion is destroying you. You have little gratitude, appreciation, wonder, love. Nothing is ever good enough for you. If you want to be restored in your soul, become human again, express gratefulness and have optimism. Begin to consider the greatness of God.
Search for optimism, joy, gratefulness. Everyone knows it is important. Reading a business book on entrepreneurs and talks about the strategic importance of optimism. Businesses want to hire gratefulness, leads to longevity. Be grateful– your life could be so much worse. Be grateful– or your fired. Seeing God’s majesty is the key to being the kind of people we want to be around, and the kind of people we all want to be. Atheism doesnt get you there. Many atheist expressed the complete hopelessness their worldview ultimately holds.
Jesus. He is The Son of Man. God gave mankind dominion, one of their chief callings was to walk with him. They failed. Sin came into the world and it fell apart. The world needed to be restored. As humanity was entrusted with God’s commands, they were entrused with his promises. If they were righteous then blessing would come. SAcrifices could not restore to complete righteousness. A person would need to bring restoration. And this is why Jesus came as a man. He came as one under the law because only one under the law could obey the law and fulfill the law. God came in flesh to redeem his people. He thought of you. He cared for you. Wonder of wonders.
He left his throne in heaven above to come live under the law and curse, and save us from what. We can marvel at God glory and grace declared through creation, and we marvel at his grace expresses particularly in the gospel.
We serve God not because we have to, not because he will send us to hell, but because we see his beauty, grandeur, we see his power and nobility. Wow! He invites us to serve him. His greatness.
Mighty and great king, and not a grumpy neighbor.
Majestic and not just a hall monitor who delights to get others in trouble.
Take time to wonder. Take leisure to consider the moon and stars. Consider the greatness of the world, and the greatness of the one who created it. Put down your phone and shows. Parents, teach your kids to do that, verbally and by example. Study God’s creation. Look with fresh eyes on his work in the world. Pray for him to reveal himself, search for him, and pray to capture the wonder of who you are and who God is.
Commit. Repent of anger, disenchantment. Serve God in awe and joy.
Commit to ministry and service to others. Share that joy.
