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Psalm 66:5-7Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind!  He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot – come, let us rejoice in him.  He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations – let not the rebellious rise up against him.

I can identify very closely with the Psalmist who wrote this Psalm (66), and the one that follows it (67).  (Psalms 65 & 68 are both attributed to David, and it is possible that these intervening ones are his as well – they certainly reflect the godly king’s viewpoint and the way it contrasts with the ‘ungodly’ man – cf Psalm 1.)

I can feel how important it is to him that we, his creatures, openly recognise the God who has revealed himself as the Creator of all things, who has revealed himself clearly through his ‘perfect’ [flawless] Word (Psalm 19), and who eternally remains the Sovereign Ruler over all that he has created.  Although David convincingly foresaw that this same God would eventually reveal himself so manifestly through his descendant, his Promised Messiah/King (Psalm 110), we have actually been granted to see God’s most ‘awesome deed’ of all: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:6).  So we have no excuse if we refuse to identify with what the Psalmist writes in today’s verses.

This is why I feel so sad/angry every time modern man ignores the one true God, and attributes – very unscientifically – creation to an inexplicable, impersonal ‘Big Bang’, and the development of humankind to random evolutionary processes that are neither proven nor provable.  When, so often these days, we so unashamedly replace our personal, powerful, passionate, patient Creator with the non-descript, meaningless term ‘mother-nature’, my blood boils, I find it distressingly sad to think that there is a Day coming when everyone will be faced with the fact that ‘mother-nature’ turns out to be the personal judge who will call to account all who have denied the evidence he has so graciously given for his sending One to save us from eternal death, and we have refused to consider and believe the evidence!  

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil”  (John 3:17-19); “For [God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.  He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead”  (Acts 17:31); “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20).  O that the Holy Spirit would help us to be more committed to, and effective in, making God’s awesome Rescue Plan known to others. 

– Bruce Christian