The Splendor of the Lord
1 Kings 8:22-30
“O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below – you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way”
I Kings 8:23
It is a life giving and life renewing joy to see the splendor of the Lord, and to know the awesomeness of God. Our God is an awesome God who loves us, who has put us in the midst of the Garden of Eden and who wants only in return that we choose to follow Him and to proclaim Him to all.
Introduction…
I am drawn to the pure and simple words of Solomon, standing before the alter of the Lord and spreading out his hands toward heaven (can you see him – I can) and saying…
“O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth below – you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way”.
(I Kings 8: 23)
In the beautiful prayer of Solomon we find Solomon doing as we should be doing throughout our lives. He gives glory to God. His personal experiences of the truth of God’s awesomeness and of God’s promises come a larger praise from deep within his soul. He asks God for grace and favor.
When we see for ourselves the beauty of God’s creation and the awesome nature of His being we thrill at the gift of life and the promises of God’s love and grace bring to be thankful to Him, expect His continued mercies and to choose Him above all others to the guide our desires, the ground of our hopes and the root of our living.
I. We are living in contentious times, and the self focus and the contentiousness of our times is beginning to seep into all of us – in one way or another. I’m led to stand and speak almost in a whisper – a soft and gentle proclamation of the glory and beauty of God. There is too much “combativeness” in our world today. There is too much “strong headed opinion-ation” in all of us. Not just me, not just you – all of us.
• Left vs. Right
• Blue states and red states.
• Conservatives & Liberals.
• Pro Obama and Anti Obama.
• Church goers and unchurched.
• Black and white.
• This and that; that and this.
I have a strong sense that God is calling us to stand back and take off the warrior’s battle dress uniform. I have a sense that God is calling us to peacefulness, an acceptance, - we may not agree with others – but we can learn to live and let live.
• A sense of respect – while we may see it differently we can respect another’s perspective.
• Why, some of my best friends have totally different slants on politics, race, religion that I do –
• A sense of not needing to demonize those who see life differently than we do or with whom we have a disagreement.
• A sense of “let’s just agree to disagree”
• A sense that we could stop and stand in the Garden of Eden that God has created for us and placed us in the middle of maybe we could enjoy life a little more and maybe we would even stop arguing and nit picking and fault finding and choosing sides so much.
• When we’re all so busy looking for things to disagree about, looking to “save” those who aren’t like us and therefore obviously in need of being “saved” that sometimes we don’t stop to smell the roses…
o Or see the glory of the sunrise,
o Or feel the passion of a beautiful red ball of flame dipping down into the horizon,
o Or hear the sound of pileated woodpecker as he calls from the tops of the trees in the shroud of the forest,
o Or drink in any one of the other unending miracles of this beautiful world as it unfolds daily in front of our eyes.
II. There is so much beauty in the world. God has put us in the midst of the Garden of Eden, why aren’t enjoying the lushness more?
• Have you looked around lately?
• This is my Father’s World – come on let’s sing a verse of it. “This is my Father’s World…”
This is my Father’s world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.
2. This is my Father’s world,
the birds their carols raise,
the morning light, the lily white,
declare their maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
he shines in all that’s fair;
in the rustling grass I hear him pass;
he speaks to me everywhere.
3. This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!
• The beauty of the chicory and the Joe Pye weed and the Queen’s Anne Lace – and let’s not forget the Black Eyed Susans – this is the beautiful land of the pleasant living – you know.
• The sound of the sparrow, the cackle of the crow, the shrill of the hawk.
• Like Solomon, let’s lift up our arms and see the beauty of the Lord’s creation all around us? Like Solomon, let’s take a deep breath and breathe in the fresh air and the beauty of the day.
• Like Solomon, let’s listen with our ears and hear the cicada and the crickets and the tree frogs and the birds as they sing their beautiful songs.
• Solomon was known for being wise wasn’t he? Isn’t it the Wisdom of Solomon? When we look around with eyes wide open, when we listen with ears tuned in and when we see with our hearts what a beautiful and wonderful world we are renewing the life within us and re-creating even as we become more a part of the beautiful world God has blessed us with.
• I’ve started noticing the Obituaries a lot more lately. I don’t know if is a sign of aging or if it’s unusual or what but after never even noticing the obits for most of my life all of a sudden I’m looking at them. I even find myself reading the obituaries of strangers – people I never met, never heard of, don’t know anything about. I notice their histories, their families, children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces. I look and see what they were passionate about in life, that which someone thinks helps to define them, after their passing. And each time, somehow God is reminding me to be grateful for being alive, to drink in the beauty of each new day and to count it as an unfathomable joy to be above ground.
• “What a Wonderful World” Can you hear it with me?
I see trees of green…….. red roses too
I see em bloom….. for me and for you
And I think to myself…. what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue….. clouds of white
Bright blessed days….dark sacred nights
And I think to myself …..what a wonderful world.
The colors of a rainbow…..so pretty ..in the sky
Are also on the faces…..of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands…..sayin.. how do you do
They’re really sayin……i love you.
I hear babies cry…… I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more…..than I’ll never know
And I think to myself …..what a wonderful world
(instrumental break)
The colors of a rainbow…..so pretty ..in the sky
Are there on the faces…..of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands…..sayin.. how do you do
They’re really sayin…*spoken*(I ….love….you).
I hear babies cry…… I watch them grow
*spoken*(you know their gonna learn
A whole lot more than I’ll never know)
And I think to myself …..what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself …….what a wonderful world.
(Bob Thiele and George David Weiss)
We are living in a beautiful world and it’s important as people of faith that we realize that, that we remind one another of it and that we let the beauty and power of God’s beautiful world to fill our souls, and lift our spirits and guide our steps.
III. Third, I believe that the wisdom of Solomon’s words today are telling us to know and to proclaim that not only is our God an awesome God but we choose Him as Lord of our lives, keeper of our hearts, hope of our souls.
Our God is an awesome God. His power is beyond words.
His love is unending.
His creation stretches out way beyond what we can see, even beyond what we can imagine or know in our limited understandings and fleeting wisdom.
He has created a universe that is beyond anything we can even know. Astronomers tell us there are 200 billion galaxies and we haven’t even scratched the surface.
Our God is an awesome God – he made the endless creation of the skies and the land and the seas, he formed life out of dust, man out of nothing. He put the stars in the skies, the fish in the sea and the birds in the air. All this and yet His eye is on the sparrow. Yes, God is an awesome God.
All this and our God has time for me. He knows me. He knew me before I was formed in the womb of my mother. And He loves! Imagine that.
Surely we should tell everyone we know.
Surely we , like Solomon should proclaim how awesome God is.
Surely others should be invited into the same miracle of knowing and sharing in God’s awesomeness as we are.
And out of all of this it should be noted that God wants us to accept Him. He wants us to love Him. He wants us to embrace Him.
We all have to make choices.
We all to decide – for ourselves – no one can choose or decide for us.
Do you know and love the awesome God of creation of the scriptures, and will you be one of His or not?
The decision is yours.
That’s the final point that Solomon was making that day.
That’s the final point Jesus was bring His disciples to alongside the Sea of Galilee.
Closing …
Our God is an awesome God – and I will choose to follow Him. The splendor of the Lord is all around us.
Awesome God Lyrics
Artist(Band):Michael W. Smith
When He rolls up His sleeves
He ain’t just puttin’ on the ritz
(our God is an awesome God)
There is thunder in His footsteps
And lightning in His fist
(our God is an awesome God)
Well, the Lord wasn’t joking
When He kicked ‘em out of Eden
It wasn’t for no reason that He shed his blood
His return is very close and so you better be believing
that our God is an awesome God
REFRAIN
Our God(our God) is an awesome God
He reigns(He reigns) from heaven above
With wisdom(with wisdom) pow’r and love
our God is an awesome God
And when the sky was starless in the void of the night
(our God is an awesome God)
He spoke into the darkness and created the light
(our God is an awesome God)
Judgment and wrath he poured out on Sodom
Mercy and grace He gave us at the cross
I hope that we have not too quickly forgotten that
our God is an awesome God
Refrain x3
Our God is an awesome God
Our God is an awesome God
(Our God is an awesome God)
(Our God is an awesome God)
This is why I wanted to talk about the Splendor of the Lord, the awesomeness of God today instead of anything else. This all I want to note – Our God is an awesome God who loves us, who has put us in the midst of the Garden of Eden and who wants only in return that we choose to follow Him and to proclaim Him to all.
O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below – you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way”
I Kings 8:23