God's Good Creation
Belgic Confession • Sermon • Submitted
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Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the Lord!
For he commanded and they were created.
And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!
Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
Beasts and all livestock,
creeping things and flying birds!
Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
Young men and maidens together,
old men and children!
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven.
He has raised up a horn for his people,
praise for all his saints,
for the people of Israel who are near to him.
Praise the Lord!
Scripture: Psalm 148:1-14
Belgic Confession Lesson: Article 12
Sermon Title: God’s Good Creation
As we have been going through the Belgic Confession, everything we have confessed to this point has come from the truth that our God is. He exists—he always has and always will. Nothing can bring an end to him, and nothing created him. Essentially, everything we believe extends from that premise. That God is, that God can speak and choose to reveal himself. What it means for God to exist in Trinity, what it means for not only the Father to be God but also Jesus and the Spirit also. Article 12 though introduces a slight shift in the Confession’s direction. The foundation has been laid, and now we are looking at what has God done.
The first acts of God that are told to us in Scripture are of course “The Creation of All Things.” We confessed a short section in the article, “Even now God also sustains and governs [all things], according to his eternal providence and by his infinite power.” When we get to Article 13 that deals with God’s providence much more in depth. I don’t plan to speak much this afternoon on what God continues to do, but rather I will try to limit our scope to his creating work in the beginning, if that’s possible.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as I have sat in the pew listening to Pastor Gary read and preach through the book of Revelation, the thread of praise to the Lord is humbling. Thinking of how John has reacted to what was revealed to him—we find him falling to the ground “as though dead.” We think of the descriptions of what he saw—gems and precious stones and priceless minerals. We cannot begin to fathom the creatures he sees made up of different animals, or what do the angels look like and who are the elders. You think of the battles, the seas, the plagues being brought from heaven to earth. Yet none of this should compare to the Lamb on the throne! Back in chapter 19 I remember the image of John falling at the feet of the angel giving him a message, and the angel says, “Do not do it! Worship God!” He was warned not to praise the creature, a fellow servant—particularly when God is so near.
A First Response of Praise
We read Psalm 148, and our NIV translation uses the word “praise” 12 times. We heard it peppering those opening verses. The heavens, the heights above, angels, heavenly hosts, sun, moon, shining stars, highest heavens, waters above the skies—all of them were to praise the Lord. We get this picture from the psalmist speaking to all that is above, all that is out there, which in his day was untouchable. Reading through those verses, it might feel like a command or an encouragement for them to persevere in their praise. But back in ancient days, the planets and the things in the heavens, in the sky, they were worshiped. So, we are reading a reminder or a corrective lens for the believer—don’t worship those things; those things have to worship God too.
Verses 5 and 6 sum up this opening stanza well, “Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away.” John is on one end of the spectrum in that he was drawn up into the heavenly realm, seeing a vision for the future, and was led to praise. The psalmist here brings us back to the beginning. Back when all of creation came into being by the words God spoke—all there can be and all there should be is praise for the Creator.
I wonder if Adam and Eve sang to God? We are told in Genesis 4 verse 21 that Jubal, who was a seventh generation from Adam and Eve, a great-great-great-great-great-grandson, he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. So, music came about in time, but did our first parents do that in the Garden—maybe not with instrument, but maybe with voice?
Whether they did or not, however, I imagine that in the heavens, there was praise from the angels. Article 12 heads in this direction that we might not have expected—this description of angels. In the Bible, we have appearances by angels in both the Old and New Testaments, but we do not read much else about them. But what can we confess about angels? They do exist, they were created as well—created good to be messengers and servants of God’s people. But some of them fell, those that have fallen, are enemies of God, their mission and desire is to deceive and spoil the church. The angels that have remained good by the grace of God though do praise him.
As we think about the work involved in creation we can attest that God existed beforehand. God commanded things to come into existence. God deserved praise unending for who he is and for his work. Yet he instilled in his creation the allowance and freedom to not praise him. Creation was created not corrupt or corrupted but corruptible. That is how sin entered into things—because creatures somehow came to this realization that they did not have to follow God, they did not have to give him the praise that he deserved. They chose to act in accordance with this knowledge. What that does not do is it does not change God’s worthiness or his deserving of praise, because we understand that the initial purpose of all things was to praise him.
As the psalmist wrote this psalm, it likely wasn’t his thought that his human command would any more or less direct these heavenly beings to worship their Creator. But rather we see that our praise is able to join with theirs. Our songs, our proclamations, our trusting in the promises of God join with these heavenly beings, with the other creatures of the universe, and all of it is directed towards the one true God who created everything. The first response that we boys and girls, men and women, can give to our Creator is a response of worship and praise.
God is a Creator of details
That God deserves a first response of praise is our opening point this afternoon. The second is that God is a Creator of details. I have on my computer screen a picture that my wife took of a place we visited in the Bruce Peninsula in southern Ontario this past fall. I wanted to bring it in for everyone to see, but there wasn’t a way to really do it justice so I’ll try to describe it. It was a windy and brisk day with a few clouds in the sky when we were there. We had hiked out to this lake shore, where all you can see in front of you is water, and it’s choppy. But at the base of the rocks we were standing on, the water becomes this beautiful turquoise blue that is crystal clear. It is only made white by the crashing of the waves. To get to the lakeshore, you walk through a forest, and as I said it was fall, so all these trees, growing out of rocks, are different shades of green and yellow and you can see the different types of trees in the picture by their leaves.
Now the chill in the air I know because I was there; you can’t assume that by just looking at the picture, but everything else is visible to our eyes. As I look at and think about that picture, I am struck with wonder that God created all the details of that location. He created it out of nothing. That spot on the Bruce Peninsula looking into the vast Georgian Bay is a speck in terms of the whole world, yet God created the whole world with the same precise attention to detail.
The psalmist brings his view to the created things of the world in verses 7 through 12. “Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,” so we are brought into the waters. “Lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding,” those things are in the sky, but they affect the earth in a touchable way—they can praise God. “Mountains and hills, fruit trees and cedars,” the land was formed by God in a detailed way with the vegetation. “Wild animals and cattle, small creatures and flying birds,” every living thing in sky and on earth, that walks and roams and slithers on the ground—praise can originate from all of it. “Kings of the earth and all nations, princes, rulers, young men and maidens, old men and children,” everyone, regardless of age or status or class—give praise to God.
If you look at Article 12 again there’s this beautiful summary in the second section: “God has given all creatures their being, form, and appearance and their various functions for serving their Creator.” You think of all the things the psalmist listed off in those verses, and we could add details that are close to us to that list. What I’m getting at is that God has made each and every thing and every one that exists around us. That we look different, that the property we live and work on is unique, that there can be differences between Corsica and Harrison and Mitchell and Sioux Falls and Minneapolis, Minnesota and South Holland, Illinois is of the intention of God for his glory. Each of us have a function for serving him.
Again we hear the Confession echo, God did “what seemed good to him” and created everything “from nothing by the Word,” [that is Jesus]. There were no blueprints, no models, God knew what would work, he knew what he wanted, and he has done it. Everything we see when we look out into nature, he is the source that is responsible for making it. God is a Creator of details.
The Praise Receiver
Our third and final point as we move to the end of Psalm 148 is that we have a Praise Receiver. “His name alone is exalted; his splendor is above [all].” Then we get to verse 14, “He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise for all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart.” The NIV has a footnote for that word “horn,” which says we can understand that as a “strong one, that is, king.”
The praise that creatures can give to their Creator are not just going to some generic God, but they are going to the one who has been raised up for the creatures, for the people Israel, for the church that God loves. Brothers and sisters, we have a divine king. From the days of creation to the days following the ascension of Jesus through to when Christ will come again, there is a king on the throne of heaven and he rules for his people. He is the one who receives our praise. Why we sing, why we confess our allegiance through creeds is not primarily for us to say we know what this all means and we feel good and part of something bigger when we say them. No, these are actions of praise, of adoration and they are to be primarily directed towards God. The one who receives them is the King of Kings, he is our Savior—it is Jesus.
Consider that for a moment, we are in relationship with this king, each one of us who professes salvation in him alone. Isn’t that incredible? That you and I, despite all of our sins, despite our daily failures, despite the fact that we have greatly distorted the good that God originally intended, have value and worth before our God. We, completely by the grace and mercy and love of God, can be described as the people close to his heart.
This is what we can cling to in times of loneliness. This is what is true when we feel insignificant, when we feel faraway from God—the one who created us is our King, and he has drawn you close to himself. For that, we continue to praise him. Even though our praise is imperfect, even though it doesn’t do it justice. We praise him because he is, he is exalted, and he loves you and me. Amen.