The Majesty of God

We are easily distracted, especially in our modern, noisy, technologically driven age. There is always another beep, another light, another notification fighting for our attention. Why are we so easily distracted?

Thomas a Kempis, author of The imitation of Christ, once wrote: “I confess truly that I am accustomed to be very much distracted; for oftentimes I am not there, where I am bodily standing or sitting, but am rather there where my thoughts carry me. There I am, where my thought is; and there, oftentimes, is my thought, where that is which I love.” Our distractions say a lot about where our hearts are – what we truly love, desire and delight in.

Have you ever been distracted by God? When was the last time your thoughts spontaneously wandered into the garden of God’s glory and majesty? Think about it for a moment. God’s majesty – with the entire country in lockdown because of Covid-19 you may not be able to gaze upon the majesty of the mountains or the oceans, but you can still meditate upon the majesty of God.

Who is like our God? In Deut. 33:26 Moses declares: “There is none like God… who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty.” All that God does is majestic: “Full of splendour and majesty is his work” (Ps. 111:3). All that God says is majestic: “the voice of the Lord is full of majesty” (Ps. 29:4). All that God is, is majestic: “O LORD my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendour and majesty” (Ps. 104:1).

The Lord Jesus Christ gave his disciples a glimpse of that majesty on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9). Such was the majesty of the transfigured Jesus Christ that even talkative Peter struggled for words. Before such majesty every knee will one day bow.

What is majesty? I believe Novatian, the early church writer, summed it up best: “The mind of man cannot fittingly conceive how great is God and how majestic His nature… What can you say about Him that is worthy of Him – He who is more sublime than all sublimity, loftier than all loftiness, more profound than all profundity, brighter than all light, more brilliant than all brilliance, more splendid than all splendour, mightier than all might, more powerful than all power, more beautiful than all beauty, truer than all truth, stronger than all strength, greater than all majesty, more potent than all potency, richer than all riches, kinder than all kindness, better than all goodness, more just than all justice, and more merciful than all mercy? Every kind of virtue must of necessity be less than He who is the God and Author of them all. Nothing really can be compared to Him, for He is above everything that can be said of Him.”

Take up the challenge of Psalm 145:5 over these next 21 days: “On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.”
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Because of Christ,
Pastor Pieter

Next: The God who knows