WHILE YOU SLEEP

Psalm 33:4-9

⁴ For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
⁵ He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

⁶ By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;^[a]
He lays up the deep in storehouses.

⁸ Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
⁹ For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.

“You’re the Word of God the Father—from before the world began

Every star and every planet—has been fashioned by you hand.

All creation holds together—by the power of Your voice

Let the skies declare Your glory—let the land and seas rejoice!

You’re the author of creation—You’re the Lord of every man

And Your cry of love rings out across the lands.”

S. Townsend and K. Getty

This is the first stanza of the opening hymn sung in the church where I worshiped this last Sunday.  It is a statement of a basic affirmation of our creed.  Very simply put, we live in a creation.  A creation has a creator and the Psalmist informs us He has done this by “the Word of the Lord.”  This statement is not unique and it warrants our interest.

When we read this in Psalm 33:6, we are struck with the likeness of John 1:3. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.   But there is some difference.  John is writing of the Personal and Eternal Logos while the Psalmist, as it is plain from Psalm 33:7 and 9 is writing about the Revelatory Word.  This word here in the Psalm is charged with the Almightiness of God.  God’s infinite power is overwhelming.  “Every star and every planet” in our so immense universe came into being from nothing by “the breath of His mouth.” 

What did the Hubbell telescope see at the farthest reaches of its space journey?  That which was communicated by its cameras was “some more”.  And there is no reason to suppose that the farther it goes it will tell of anything different than just “some more.”  This infinity is staggering.  But the Psalmist looks at this vastness, sees it and all that is in it, as the result of God’s making.  But he does not stop there.  He was so bold and specific as to tell us that He also sustains His creation, “He commanded and it stood fast.”

Paul, referencing this in Colossians 1:17, speaking of the Redeemer as Creator, completes his description by telling his readers, “in Him all things consist.”  As He created, even so He maintains. 

When we are told the creation came by the Word of God, we are to understand that His creation is the object of His communications.  Of whatever else the Word of God is, it is God’s self-communication. As He is Spirit He must reveal Himself.  This He has done by His Word.  Psalm 33:4 points the reader to the righteousness of God in the declarative Word.  The truth in it is the standard for understanding “His work.”

Psalm 19, as a statement of the responsibility and culpability of mankind to know God and glorify Him, gives a plain statement of the creation as the Handiwork of God.  It “declares”, “utters speech”, it has a “voice” and the “words to the end of the world.”  But with this clarity it is still only by the spoken or declarative will of God that His saving Grace is known.  His word is both in creation and to creation.  Verses 13-15 are a sure indicator of God’s personal concern.

The Word informs us of God’s omnipotence and of His will to communicate with His creation and it also directs us to the rationality of the creation.  The Scriptures are so replete with the orderliness of creation that it is difficult to point to any one statement, but Proverbs 8 is always there to assure us that creation cannot be separated from God’s Wisdom.

When we read in Romans 8:20 of the “futility” of creation it comes out of the purpose of God to punish man for his willful rebellion.  This futility is limited in scope and duration because God’s creation as the object of His Word has rationality created in it.  In the depth of the reaches of space, scientists studying the information returned from the Hubble telescope have found a mystery they cannot explain.  When all indications are that the universe should be on a schedule to implode, there is something that restrains this apparent coming destruction.  They do not understand it.  They do not know the origin of it.  They do not understand how it exerts its effect.  So they call it “dark energy.”

From Job 38 through 41, God questions Job with questions that at that time there were no answers to.  Many of those things that were not known are now common knowledge, but as God spoke to Job of His ordinance for the seas, “this far you may come, but no farther.”  There is “dark energy.”  And we do know what “dark energy” is.  It is God’s word, Psalm 33:9.

CYMBALS, HARPS, AND DRUMS

This Psalm furnishes the first instance of musical instruments used in public worship.  This is not the first mention of musical instruments.  That is in Genesis 4:21.  There we are told of their inventor, a certain Jubal who was in the line of Cain.  This early invention tells us these two facts.

A.  Music was a part of mankind’s experience very early in history. 

B.  The use of musical instruments was an early part of that experience.

Calvin writes on this passage, “Although the invention of the harp, and of similar instruments of music may minister to our pleasure, rather than to our necessity, still it is not to be thought altogether superfluous; much less does it deserve, in itself to be condemned.”  Calvin, Genesis, pg. 218.

Miriam and the women, after the Red Sea crossing, played upon “timbrels” in triumph, Exodus 15:20-21.  As this was before the Mosaic organization of worship, it is difficult to make it a part of the legal system of worship replaced in the New Testament Church.  It looks as it if is a spontaneous act of worship more akin to Psalm 150.

The Union Seminary professor, James Luther Mays, in his commentary on Psalm 33, writes “In the call to praise (v.v. 1-3), the vocabulary for worship with music is nearly exhausted.  This is the first reference to the use of instruments in the canonical order of psalms, and so it has been a textual occasion in traditional commentary for a discussion of propriety and validity of the use of instruments in worship.  In the history of culture, music was originally a sacred performance.  In our time, the problem of deciding whether certain kinds of music created outside the religious sphere are appropriate for worship often vexes those who plan liturgy.  For the Psalmist and his world, it was praise that gave rise to music and formed it and controlled it.  Where that can authentically be the case, music of all kinds is the most exquisite and complete form of praise.  For those who are right with the Lord, a hymn of praise is “seemly”.  There is an implicit theology of music here, it must be authentically to the praise of the lord and offered by those who are right with the Lord.  The why and the who are crucial.”  Psalms Interpretation, Mays, pg. 149.

Calvin’s statement about the use of musical instruments for Believers is excellent and worth reading.  He writes on Psalm 33:2, “It is evident that the Psalmist here expresses the vehement and ardent affection which the faithful ought to have in praising God, when he enjoins musical instruments to be employed for this purpose.  He would have nothing omitted by believers which tends to animate the mind and feelings of men in singing God’s praises.”  Psalms Vol. I, pg. 539.

Still Calvin has a New Testament justification for his denial of musical instruments, “the simplicity which God recommends to us by the Apostle is far more pleasing to Him.  Paul allows us to bless God in the public assembly of the saints only in a known tongue, (I Cor. XIV 16).”  Psalms Vol. I, pg. 539.

In searching the Scriptures I have found there is a threefold criteria for worship music that includes words and tunes.

1.      That which has been stated above.  It must be worship music, Psalm 66:1-4; 47:1, 5-6.

2.      God must be worshipped with understanding, Psalm 47:7.

3.      God must be worshipped in His true character, Psalm 47:8-9.

The songs of God’s church are to be no different from her confessed theology.  When heresy is sung, it is heresy with entertainment value.

THE JOY OF THE SINGING SAINT

Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones;
Praise is becoming to the upright.

The Psalms, which are the prayers, testimonies and songs of the elect, are replete with theology proper.  This song is a striking illustration of this fact.

In Psalm 33:1 the hearers are addressed as “righteous” and described as “upright.” Calvin states, “Here the inspired writer addresses believers or the righteous by his name.”  Calvin, Psalms, pg 537.

But an Old Testament scholar and great 19^th century teacher at Princeton Seminary finds a difficulty with this.  He writes on the same passage, “In Jehovah, ie in the knowledge and possession of him, with particular reference to the covenant relation between him and His peculiar people, who are here called the ‘righteous’ and the ‘upright’, by way of eminence…not because they were actually so, but because they ought to have been so.”  Psalms, Alexander, pg 141.

The understanding of Alexander is that of many Reformed scholars on their opinion of “righteousness” in the Psalms.  This is a problem for Calvin which is to be mentioned later.

It seems as if this ignores two points that are important to our understanding of the Psalms.

First is those described as “blessed” in Psalms.  This person is the inhabitant of the Psalms.  He, and only he, is the person who is known of God.  The man in Psalm 1, the “blessed” is the same as the “righteous” in Psalm 33.

Secondly, we have the answer given us as a certain fact to be used in any problem such as this.  Paul writing to the Romans in chapter 2:28-29 gives the answer as to who the “righteous” are.  It is the ones who have “circumcision of the heart.”

²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹ but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

This difficulty confronts us again in Psalm 44:17-22.  The Psalmist, after a descriptive complaint and plea to God to withdraw His judgment and give Israel’s armies victory, states the justification for his complaint that he is innocent of the failings and grievous faults that brought God’s judgment on Israel.

Even the casual reader of Israel’s history and the prophets’ scathing admonishment of Israel for their sins, and particularly idolatry, have to wonder at this which looks to be irresponsible dissembling.

So at this point Calvin has his ever interesting and learned opinion.  “’All this has come upon us’; as they have already attributed to God all the afflictions which they endured, if they should say they were undeservedly afflicted, it would be the same thing as to accuse God of injustice.”  Calvin, Psalms Vol. V, pg 163.

But any fair reading of the text in Psalm 44 finds that it is what the oppressed are claiming. They are experiencing, terrible, unexplainable, and unjust suffering.  And they are asking for relief based on their innocence.  But how can they do this? 

They are the “true Israel.”  Though they were caught up in the national sin they were not guilty of the sins which were being so severely visited.  Therefore their seemingly impious complaint.

They are those who have a “circumcised heart”.  They are not guilty.  They are righteous.

The “righteous” in Psalm 33:1 are those who are described in Psalm 1, “the blessed” and of whom Paul says in Romans 9:6.

⁶ But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,

This is the vocation that becomes us.  We are to “industriously pursue” this direction to praise God, for it is beautiful to God.

CREATION: THE BIBLICAL PURPOSE

“I believe in God the Father maker of heaven and earth.”

This statement from The Apostle’s Creed, though not an official confession, begins in the right place and states an absolute necessity.  I believe in the Creator.

For me, the single greatest requirement for understanding the Scriptures is attention to the context.  The context is single.  There is never duplicity in the context.  The second principle for me is the who, when, where.  This simple triad is ignored at the risk of a misguided understanding of both past and whole.  When this is applied to the account, the results are dramatic.

Who: Moses.  Why do I say this?  Because the Scripture says it.  Deut. 4:32, 45. 

³² “For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard.

⁴⁵ These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt

The when is determined by the author.  If Moses wrote Genesis, it was written somewhere around the 16^th century BC.

The who and when being satisfied, the where is less difficult.  It must have been written somewhere around the time Moses returned to Egypt and Israel’s exodus.  This is not the most important reason for another question has arisen—the why?.”  The ultimate value of the creation account is determined by this question.

There is an absolute certainty.  It was not written to be a scientific primer to determine the age of the earth.  However much this is debated and the dependence of Genesis 1 and 2 for evidence did not enter into the thinking of the author or the readers.  To start and end our arguments on this subject, the age of the earth, is to fail to see the true purpose of this account.  What it told those people then is just as important to us today.

There are three points made by a Modernist author.  They have some necessary information:

1.       “Every culture surrounding Israel had their origin myths, some impressively developed in epic proportions and covering most every aspect of the cosmos in great detail.  Yet they were from the standpoint of (Israel’s monotheism), hopeless polytheistic.

2.      “What very much existed…and what pressed on (Israel’s faith) from all sides and even from within were the problems of idolatry and syncretism.

3.      “For most people in the ancient world all the various regions of nature were divine.  Sun, moons and stars were gods.  There were sky gods and earth gods, gods of light and darkness, rivers and vegetation, animals and fertility…for ancient Israel’s faith a divinized nature posed a fundamental problem.”

The conclusion of this is summarized in the following statement. 

“In the light of this historical context it becomes clearer what Genesis 1 is undertaking and accomplishing:  a radical and sweeping affirmation of monotheism in opposition to polytheism, syncretism, and idolatry.”

“On each day of creation another set of idols is smashed.  These, O Israel are not your gods at all—not even the great superpowers.  They are the creations of that transcendent One who is not to be confused with any piece of furniture in the universe of creaturely habitation.  The creation is good, it is very good, but it is not God.

The Meaning Of Creation, Genesis And Modern Science, Conrad Hyers, John Knox Press, Atlanta, Ga., 1984, pgs 43, 44, 45.

A crucial look at Deut. 4:15-19 finds Moses concerned about the idolatrous opposition Israel was to encounter and their temptation to sympathize with it.

¹⁵ “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. ¹⁹ And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.”

In all the failure of Israel, beginning with the Golden Calf at Horeb and extending to the wickedness of Mannasah, idolatry was always at the root of the evil.  A sin that is so insidious, deceitful, and prevailing is a continuing danger.

In 2007 Darlene and I made a trip to Nagoya, Japan.  In our sight-seeing travel around the city, we were overwhelmed with the idolatry.  The people there worship stones, water, fish, buildings, idols and the unknown god who they had to waken with a gong.

It is just possible that we can begin debating the modern understanding of the ‘days” of Genesis 1 and forget that what they tell us is that all things are creaturely, they are good, even very good, but they are not God.

Paul’s alternative to the idolatry of the Athenians was the Creator God who had sovereign rights in His creation, and who could be known only by faith in the Gospel of the resurrected Lord.  Those final words in Acts 17:30-31 should supply us with the core principle of the everyday Gospel.

³⁰ Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Col. 1:18 So that He Himself might come to have the preeminence in everything.”