Knowing God – Week 9:
Chapter 8: The Majesty of God
majesty
Webster
sovereign power, authority, or dignity
used in addressing or referring to reigning sovereigns (royal bearing)
Hebrew
Wonderful (paw-law')
to be marvelous, be wonderful, be surpassing, be extraordinary, separate by distinguishing action
Psalm 139: 14
Glory (kaw-bode')
glory, honor, glorious, abundance
Isaiah 40: 5
Personal yet majestic
Natural Inclinations
Packer, “We are modern people, and modern people, though they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have as a rule small thoughts of God”
Desire for Wisdom (Genesis 3: 6 – 8)
Transcendence
Control/Power (Matthew 11: 25 – 26)
Authority/Knowledge (John 14: 15, 21)
Packer, “His own name for himself is El Shaddai, ‘God Almighty’, and all his actions illustrate the omnipotence which this name proclaims.”
Immanence
Presence (Genesis 2: 7)
Packer, “…a living Person, thinking, feeling, active, approving of good, disapproving of evil, interested in his creatures all the time.”
? When we stress that God is personal, what must we be sure we do not communicate?
Balance
Irrationlist (transcendence) – God infinitely far removed from creation.
Rationalist (immanence) – God is identical to the creation.
Balance (control, authority, presence) – Exodus 19: 9
Our worship – entering the presence of God – should be like preparation for Christ’s judgment as a transcendent King
NO Limits
Psalm 139
Packer, “…look at Psalm 139, where the psalmist meditates on the infinite and unlimited nature of God’s presence, and knowledge, and power, in relation to people. We are always in God’s presence…”
? How does this psalm highlight God’s…?
Presence
7 – 10, 15 – 16, 18
Calvin
“David speaks of God having known him when he was yet a shapeless mass (substance yet unformed – embryo/fetus)…the whole method of his formation was well known to God…And thus our admiration is directed to the providence of God in gradually giving shape and beauty to a confused mass”
Knowledge
1 – 6, 13, 23 – 24 (19 – 22)
Calvin, “he voluntarily lays bare his innermost heart for inspection, as one convinced of the impossibility of deceiving God.”
Power (Romans 11: 33)
11 – 18
the incomparable one
Isaiah 40
Packer, “Here God speaks to people whose mood is the mood of many Christians today – despondent, cowed, secretly despairing…people who have ceased to believe that the cause of Christ can ever prosper again.”
? How do these comparisons reveal God’s majesty? How do these comparisons affect you personally?
Behold Your God (13 – 14, 18)
Tasks (1-2, 12)
Matthew Henry, “The scope of these verses is to show what a great and glorious being the Lord Jehovah is, who is Israel’s God and Savior.”
Nations (15 – 17)
Matthew Henry, “they add nothing to his perfection and all-sufficiency”
World (3-5, 22)
John Wesley, “For the benefit of the earth and of mankind, that all parts might partake of its comfortable influences.”
Great Ones (6-8, 23-24)
John Wesley, “representing the vast difference between the nature, and word, and work of men and of God… God's word is like himself, immutable and irresistible”
Stars (26)
Our response to majesty
Right thoughts about God
Isaiah 40: 25
Packer, “We think of God as too much like we are”
Right thoughts about ourselves
Isaiah 40: 27
Packer, “If you have been resigning yourself to the thought that God has left you high and dry, seek grace to be ashamed of yourself. Such unbelieving pessimism deeply dishonors our great God and Savior.
Eagerness to believe in God’s majesty
Isaiah 40: 28
Packer, “How slow we are to believe in God as God, sovereign, all-seeing and almighty!”
Heidelberg Catechism
Question 34. Why do we call Jesus Christ "our Lord"?
Answer: Because he hath redeemed us, both soul and body, from all our sins, not with silver or gold, but with his precious blood, and has delivered us from all the power of the devil; and thus has made us his own property
? How should God’s majesty affect your worship? your moral decisions? your prayer life?
open discussion
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