Great Are You Lord

Aug 3, 2022

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)

Psalm 19 is a beautiful piece of poetry. If you’re anything like me, you probably can find yourselves wondering sometimes what exactly does the Bible mean when it says “blank?” Well, to help with that, I often read something called a Parallel Bible. Half of the page is either NIV (New International Version) or ESV (English Standard Version), while the other half is The Message. The Message is a translation of the Bible that is all about explaining the scriptures in ways we can understand. So let’s read Psalm 19 together, but through The Message author's perspective, Eugene Peterson.

God’s glory is on tour in the skies,

God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.

Madame Day holds classes every morning,

Professor Night lectures each evening.

Their words aren’t heard,

Their voices aren’t recorded,

But their silence fills the earth:

Unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.

- Psalm 19:1-4 (MSG)

Wow - Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded, but their silence fills the earth. Can we just take a moment right now, and just listen to the beauty that is silence.

The song Great Are You Lord has been one of my favorite songs from the moment I heard it. It’s a song of pure joy for what’s to come. A world in which the Giver of life and love receives ultimate praise from all of creation. It’s a song that gives us a glimpse of the sounds of Heaven through the melody of four words.

It’s a song that reminds you and I to look around us and see God everywhere.

Over the pandemic, I picked up surfing. With gyms and the world closed, I took to nature for my physical activity. I also figured, as a born and raised San Diego boy, I should probably try to catch some waves so I can say to those who ask, “Yeah, I surf,” and then hope they don’t ask any follow up questions. At the beginning, I would go at the start of my day. 5AM wake up call, hit the surf, roll into the office by 8 having showered and feeling like a million bucks. Over time, my musician creative mind took over and nights continued to be late, so surf sessions got pushed to sunset waves. After my first evening surf session, I took my board and just sat at the edge of the shore at La Jolla, just a few hundred feet away from where I proposed to my wife, actually. And I would listen. I would close my eyes and smile as I heard the sounds of birds, water, nature, creation. There is really nothing like the sound of the ocean for a troubled and weary mind. In the same way that songs help our moods when we are sad, hurt, or just need a general hype up, I also believe that the sounds of creation can begin to align the tuning of our hearts song to the song that Heaven is singing all around us.

I think we could all use a dose of heavenly silence in our lives to remind us of what the heavenly song actually sounds like.

So back to the Psalms… Psalm 19 is a blueprint to how God wants to be worshiped, by creation doing what it was created to do. The silence is actually the sound of something being what it was created to be. Creation living out the unspoken truth. The truth that a great God created you, and that Creator is deserving of our lives living out, and singing out the phrase, Great Are You Lord.

Take a moment today to be with creation. Maybe it’s just sitting in your yard for a moment at the end of your work day before you turn on Netflix. Maybe it’s walking to the beach, if you're one of the blessed who are within walking distance from God’s greatest masterpiece. Or maybe it’s just sitting in your car before you go inside from work, holding out your hands, closing your eyes, and listening.