July 15th

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Psalm 136, 146-150

I'd like to highlight a couple things from two sermons by John Piper about two of these psalms - specifically 147:10-11 and 148:5

Psalm 148:5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created.

In He Commanded and They Were Created, Piper describes the absolute power of God shown through the act of creation...
If you ever start to doubt the Word of God think on this: God can issue a command that is so powerful that if nothing is there to obey, the word itself brings forth its own obedience through creation out of nothing.

How incredible is that? Absolute power that is truly beyond human comprehension.

He concludes by saying...
The foundation of all redemptive history is that God the Father, through the agency of his eternal Son, created out of nothing all that is not God by his word of command, and by that same word he upholds all things so that the emergence of every new being is his peculiar creation. Therefore, God owns everything that exists. We and all our so-called possessions are his to do with as he pleases. What pleases him is the achievement of his ultimate purpose to fill the earth with his glory. Therefore, the all encompassing life-goal of every creature should be to display the value of God's glory. But since we are helpless and absolutely dependent on God for everything, the only way this can be done is by becoming like little children who are not anxious for anything, but entrust their souls to the faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19).


Psalm 147:10-11 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

In The Pleasure of God in Those Who Hope in His Love, Piper gives an excellent illustration to show how it is possible to fear God and hope in Him at the same time - normally two very opposite responses.

Suppose you were exploring an unknown glacier in the north of Greenland in the dead of winter. Just as you reach a sheer cliff with a spectacular view of miles and miles of jagged ice and snow mountains, a terrible storm breaks in. The wind is so strong that the fear rises that it might blow you and your party right over the cliff. But in the midst of it you discover a cleft in the ice where you can hide. Here you feel secure, but the awesome might of the storm rages on and you watch it with a kind of trembling pleasure as it surges out across the distant glaciers.

At first there was the fear that this terrible storm and awesome terrain might claim your life. But then you found a refuge and gained the hope that you would be safe. But not everything in the feeling called fear vanished. Only the life-threatening part. There remained the trembling, the awe, the wonder, the feeling that you would never want to tangle with such a storm or be the adversary of such a power.

And so it is with God.

And God delights in those who experience this fear and this hope because our fear reflects the greatness of his power and our hope reflects the bounty of his grace. God delights in those responses which mirror his magnificence.....

The beauty of the gospel is that in one simple demand ("Put your hope in the love of God!") we hear good news and God gets the glory. And that is why God takes pleasure in those who hope in his love—because in this simple act of hope his grace is glorified and sinners are saved.

And why does God not delight in horses or the legs of man? It's not that He doesn't delight in the things He has created (He does!), but He is displeased with those who put their hope in their horses and legs, who put their hope in themselves and their own abilities or strengths. Because then those things get the glory, not God. And we are lost, not saved.

We need to put our hope in the aweinspiring power and love of God, not in ourselves or anything we think we can achieve on our own.

And that is the key - we think we can achieve it on our own. When in reality, with God as the Creator and Sustainer of all things, without His word and will continually speaking our very breath into being we would simply cease to be. Our every breath, every movement, every thought, every strength, our everything - is completely dependant on Creator God. We only fool ourselves when we think we can do anything on our own strength.

Tomorrow's passage: Isaiah 18-23