The Majesty of God

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1-9 ESV).

Those of you who know me very well also know that I thoroughly enjoy my visits to the mountains. Typically that has been restricted more to the Smoky Mountains, although I have been to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado several times. I have also seen the Great Alaskan Range. In each case, whether at 5,000 feet above sea level, or 12,000 feet above sea level, I am awestruck. To think God set these grand vistas in place is boggling. The picture I’ve chosen today is of the Grand Tetons. This range is on our list for the visit to Wyoming and Yellowstone. As I have experienced in the past, with mouth agape, I am sure I will only be able to marvel before the majesty of God who carved these mountains with no more than his penknife. That is one of the reactions possible standing before the display of the power and majesty of our God. And, it should cause such motionless awe. We ought to be struck silent by such an experience. But there is another kind of silence before majesty. It is the silence of blindness. In this picture it would be easy to get lost in the beauty of the reflection of the mountains in the clear blue stream. However, this would be a great tragedy. To settle for a mere reflection when the real thing is right before us is almost incomprehensible. Yet we do this altogether too often in our lives. We become so microscopic that we miss the majesty of our God. I have heard the story of three mountain climbers trudging to the top of a 24,000 foot ridge with clouds below them and the gigantic peaks of Mt. Everest around them. They report they were so weary from the climb they could not speak. A photograph of that moment had a caption that read: “Oblivious of majesty around them, weary climbers trudge the steep slopes above the Buttress.” This is the great and tragic silence of so many believers today as they endure what they have come to believe is “drudgery of worship”. They have fallen prey to the silence of blindness before the majesty of a Grand Tetons’ God. Oh, of course, it’s easier to blame this behavior on the style of worship. Some have taken to changing the style of corporate worship in an effort to better lead people to feel God. My experience is that until you go looking for God, nothing will help you see Him. The journey is often so difficult that our focus becomes the next step. Look up and behold His majesty!