Who is like God?

“Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high?”  (Psalms 113:5, KJV) 

Forgive me for what may seem like a standard move for a pastor to make in a short Seattle summer, but I’ll make it nonetheless.  This blog is mainly to say, a Seattle summer cannot compare with our God.  At best, a Seattle summer is meant to direct our hearts, like an arrow pointed heavenward, towards the pleasures of our God.  Let me risk a Jonathan Edwards quotation with you.

When the true beauty and amiableness of holiness or true moral good that is in divine things is discovered to the soul, it opens a new world to its views. This shows the glory of all the perfections of God, and of everything appertaining to the divine Being. For…the beauty of all arises from God’s moral perfection.  This shows the glory of all God’s works, both of creation and providence. (From “Religious Affections”)

I would invite you to notice two things there in the quote.  (1) The beauty of the Pacific Northwest is underwritten by our God.  He underwrites the majesty of the mountains, the crystal-blue of the waters, the grandeur of the skies, the immensity of the old-growth forests, the gentleness of the soaring eagles, and the playfulness of the many sea creatures.  These all bear witness to Him, just as we are intended to.  And (2), the glory of earth is meant to be a window to the glory of heaven, vis-à-vis, the glory of God.  As the words of the song go, “You created nothing that can give me more pleasure than You.”   Creation is therefore meant to be a huge invitation to draw closer to our God.  Many of us know this so well that our bodies respond naturally in worship of God when we are surrounded by the natural glory.  For us, the natural “naturally” reveals the supernatural.  But we live in a world that insists on saying, if you get rain, thank the clouds for it.  God is not considered.  And many of us have trained ourselves to not notice the invisible, which is a choice fraught with dire consequence.  

 The Bible says if we forget that God underwrites creation, the rocks themselves will begin to sing out about Him (Luke 19:40).  So we can rest assured that the value of God will not be forgotten.  For this reason, perhaps more than any other I’ve heard, we should care well for the earth.  But worshippers of God very naturally do care for the earth, for they do not forget it is pure invitation to the joy of beholding Him that one day, we will know fully, if we seek Him now.