Lord, when I study the works of your hands, and your mighty deeds throughout history, I am aware of how small I really am, and I am full of reverential fear. And this fear is the beginning of real wisdom, the wisdom of knowing you! Amen!
START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 111
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OBSERVE:
Psalm 111 is an acrostic Psalm. Each 7-9 syllable phrase begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This was likely a mnemonic device that aided the worshiper in memorization.
This is a Psalm of praise that celebrates God as creator of all his works, extols God for his character, celebrates the covenantal nature of God, gives thanks for God’s provision, extols the principles of his law, and exhorts the congregation to fear the Lord.
In its breadth, this brief Psalm connects the various threads of the Biblical story — creation, liberation from bondage, the giving of the Law, and the wisdom tradition.
Not only does the Psalmist extol the nature of God as honorable, majestic, righteous, gracious and merciful, but summons the people to study and delight in the works of the Lord. The works of God are mentioned five times in the Psalm, suggesting that those who seek to know and worship God properly may do so through what God has accomplished.
This is what the congregation is encouraged to study and meditate upon — that God has manifested himself through creation, through his provision of food for all creatures, through his redemption of his people (which includes giving them the heritage of the nations), the giving of the law (precepts), and the making and keeping of covenant promises.
The Psalmist declares:
The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.
All those who do his work have a good understanding.
This carefully defines the scope of the Lord’s work. Fear, or reverential worship and awe, begins with the meditation on God’s many layers of work. From meditating on the nature and work of God comes wisdom and good understanding.
APPLY:
What if there were a course we could take that would give us a knowledge of God, or at least give us a beginning with “God 101”? And what if that course could begin to show us what real wisdom and understanding are, and how we should live our lives?
The truth is, such a “course” exists. The “course” is found in the faith and teaching of the best of Judeo-Christian tradition; and its textbook is the Bible and creation itself.
The Psalmist doesn’t see the false dichotomy that we modern people see between “natural science” and theology. He declares:
Yahweh’s works are great,
pondered by all those who delight in them.
The works of the Lord include creation itself.
By the same token, God’s works also are manifested by his great deeds in salvation history — calling his people, making covenant with us, redeeming us.
If we truly want to gain knowledge of God, the scope of this “course” is comprehensive — everything we study can lead us to God. Provided, that is, that we begin with “first things first”:
The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.
All those who do his work have a good understanding.
Fear and love of God are not mutually exclusive, by the way. To fear the Lord is to understand his majesty, transcendence and holiness, and our complete weakness and dependence upon him. To love the Lord is to understand that this majestic, transcendent and holy God has condescended to care for us, even to the point of emptying himself and taking the form of a human being and humbling himself to death on the cross!
This is a love that should make us tremble!
RESPOND:
From time to time, I drag my lawn chair outside, and sit staring at the stars. When the season is right, I can catch glimpses of the Perseid or Geminid meteor showers.
As I gaze into the sky, see stars and constellations twinkling above me, with light travelling from vast distances, I am likely seeing light from thousands and thousands of years ago!
When I consider the works of God’s hands in creation and in salvation history revealed throughout Scripture, I can say:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Lord, when I study the works of your hands, and your mighty deeds throughout history, I am aware of how small I really am, and I am full of reverential fear. And this fear is the beginning of real wisdom, the wisdom of knowing you! Amen!
PHOTOS:
"Perseid Meteor Detail" by Demetri Mouratis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.
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