Tag: Psalm 19:1-4

Overwhelmed (In a Good Way)

Staring at the computer screen, a lump formed in my throat as music filled my ears and images flashed before my eyes. Tears streamed down my face as an overwhelming sense of awe swept over me. Once the final note of the song had played, I brushed the tears away from my cheeks and tried to fathom why an awesome, all-powerful God would choose to have a relationship with a finite and sinful person like me (and really with any person at any point in history).

It all started as I was looking for a worship song to accompany the first week of a new Bible study, Jen Wilkin’s God of Creation. I didn’t anticipate ending up in a heap of tears when I clicked “play” to watch a lyric video of Hiillsong United’s “So Will I (10 Billion X),” but that’s exactly what happened. I guess the visuals helped me realize how the song brilliantly and beautifully sums up the message of Scripture.

As I read the lyrics and watched the accompanying images on the screen, the song gave me a deeper understanding of the wonder of God’s creation, sovereignty, and grace. Scattered throughout the lines are references to key points in Scripture. In a span of about ten minutes, I located numerous passages with direct correlations to the song’s lyrics. Each one tells something about the wonder of God’s creation and His redemption of humankind. Here are a few of them:

-God was there at there at the start of creation, before the beginning of time (Genesis 1:1-3)
-The vapor of His breath formed the planets (Psalm 33:6-9)
-The heavens declare His glory (Psalm 19:1-4)
-Everything God created reveals His nature and points praise back to Him: angels, the heavenly hosts, sun, moon, stars, creatures of the sea, lightning, hail, snow, clouds, wind, mountains, hills, trees, animals, birds, kings, princes, rulers, young and old, men and women (Psalm 148)
-No word God speaks is in vain, nothing He says comes back void (Isaiah 55:11)
-Rocks cry out to Him in praise (Luke 19:40)
-God chases down our hearts through all of our failure and pride (Matthew 18:10-14 & Romans 8:1-4)
-Jesus was abandoned in darkness to die (Mark 15:33-34)
-As God speaks forgiveness, our failures disappear (Psalm 103:12, Romans 6:23, 1 John 1:9)
-Jesus lost His life so that we could find ours and He left the grave behind, just as we will (1 Corinthians 15:22)
-Jesus gladly chose to surrender His position of equality with God and died to save us. He calls us to surrender our lives to others in love, just as He did (Philippians 2:4-8)
-God never leaves us behind (Matthew 18:10-14, Hebrews 13:5b)

Fixating on how, why or when God created the earth distracts us from the most basic fact laid out in Scripture—simply that He did create it. Realizing that our lives are tiny blips in the Lord’s grand scheme is both inspiring and humbling. He has always been and always will be. He knows what came before we existed and what will happen long after we’re gone. He sees the big picture that we’re incapable of grasping. He stands outside the boundaries of time and intellectual comprehension that limit us.

I’ve intentionally kept this post short so you’ll take the time look up a few of the Scriptures listed above. (If you only have time for one, read Psalm 148.) Take a moment to watch and listen to the video. Read the lyrics and enjoy the pictures that illustrate them so beautifully. Let the words of praise overwhelm you in the very best way. Although people today overuse the word “awesome,” this is one place where it’s exactly the right word to describe who God is and what He’s done for us.

Click on the link now and enjoy Hillsong United’s “So Will I (100 Billion X).” Trust me, you’re going to miss out if you skip over this part of the post. Taking a few minutes to reflect on the awesomeness of God is well worth your time.

Jen Wilkin, God of Creation: A Study of Genesis 1-11, Lifeway Press 2017 (Week 2)

Put the World Away for a Minute

Sitting on the hotel balcony, I stretched out my legs and read the passage referenced in my Bible study book:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4, NIV

Inspired by what I read, I looked up from my Bible and admired the view. The vastness of the Pacific Ocean stretched before me as the morning fog rolled out to sea. It didn’t take long to realize that I just needed to notice God’s creation all around me to draw near to Him. The soaring gulls, crashing waves, and gentle breeze were doing just what Scripture describes—declaring His glory without words.

I’d arrived at the hotel with my husband the day before feeling frazzled and depleted. Life had been overwhelming and the prospect of a few days away felt glorious. My usual quiet time regimen of reading the Bible, answering questions in a study guide and writing prayers in my journal didn’t feel like the most effective way to draw near to God that weekend. Instead, the beauty of His creation beckoned me to enjoy Him through my surroundings.

Over the next few days, I rested in the Lord’s presence. Using my five senses, the outdoors became my main connecting point with Him. I marveled at pelicans with enormous wing spans skimming along the waves and admired intricate rock formations wedged in the sand.

Muscles in my legs burned as I hiked in the hills above the ocean and discovered bright yellow blooms nestled in spiny cactus plants. My toes tingled as they dug into wet sand walking down the beach. Inhaling the salty air refreshed me with every breath. I reveled in God’s amazing capacity to create and His stunning attentiveness to the smallest details.

Being immersed in natural surroundings enabled me to enjoy time with the Lord in a different way. It also made me realize how saturated I usually am with sensory overload. The vast amount of information I typically receive and process on a normal day can easily desensitize me and impede my ability to feel God’s nearness. It was a refreshing change of pace to leave my cell phone in the hotel room and to take a break from the constant calls, texts and e-mails that vie for my attention and demand responses (not to mention social media posts, the mail in my mailbox, and the messages on my home phone.)

Sometimes we just need to pause and be in His presence without doing anything at all. We’re often so intent on being productive that we forget the value in just being still so that our minds can stop racing and our souls can catch up with us. The normal pace of life is like a swiftly moving river. Every now and then we need to swim to the shore so we can get out of the current, slow down, and catch our breath.

Driving home at the end of the weekend, a song came on that captured my experiences perfectly. Although it’s not like the worship music I usually include with my posts, Zac Brown’s“Knee Deep” has a special kind of wisdom and a catchy tune. It reminds me to pause every now and then to stop and enjoy God and His creation. My favorite lines describe what made my weekend so refreshing: “Gonna put the world away for a minute, pretend I don’t live in it, sunshine’s gonna wash my blues away.”

Is it time for you to “put the world away for a minute”? What has God created that washes your blues away? Meet Him there and let Him rejuvenate your spirit today. Start by listening to Zac Brown’s song and letting it put a smile on your face.