(upbeat music)
- Welcome to JV Drive Time Devotions,
our look at Psalm 93 today.
Let me start with a question.
What do you picture when you picture God?
What picture comes to your mind?
Maybe nothing for some of us,
maybe a Bible for some people.
For some people, it's a picture you've seen
maybe from some movie or TV,
this very ancient person,
long beard, long robe, sandals,
doesn't probably understand modern things
like nuclear physics or computers or lasers,
just as sort of a grandfatherly type
who's there when you need him.
Or maybe your picture, I know a lot of people,
their picture, it's clouds and light,
sort of hard to grasp or to understand, but big.
Or maybe your picture is a father who loves you,
a father who's waiting to put his arms around you in love.
Well, Psalm 93 takes these pictures,
some of them false and some of them are real.
As we walk through these, you recognize, I'm sure.
Psalm 93 takes these pictures to a new and wonderful place,
to a greater place.
It's a Psalm that pictures the majesty
and the might of God.
God is great and God is powerful.
It's only five verses long.
It's seventh in the list of the 10 shortest Psalms.
So let me start by reading the whole Psalm
and then we'll go back and look at it little by little.
Psalm 93, "The Lord reigns.
"He is robed in majesty.
"The Lord is robed in majesty and is armed with strength.
"The world is firmly established.
"It cannot be moved.
"Your throne was established long ago.
"You are from all eternity.
"The seas have lifted up, O Lord.
"The seas have lifted up their voice.
"The seas have lifted up their pounding waves.
"Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
"mightier than the breakers of the sea,
"the Lord on high is mighty.
"Your statutes stand firm.
"Holiness adorns your house for endless days, O Lord."
And that is Psalm 93.
And it's a Psalm that reminds us
that your circumstances are not your only reality.
They're not your most important reality.
Because your most important reality
is the reality that will last.
What is your most important reality?
It's in the first three words of this Psalm.
The Lord reigns.
We all know what virtual reality glasses are.
You put them on and something false appears to be real.
You appear to be in a battle in a game
that you're not really in,
or in a place that you're not really in.
A long time before there was virtual reality,
there's something called spiritual reality.
And it's entirely different.
Spiritual reality makes something real appear to be real.
In our world sometimes,
we can start to miss the truth that the Lord reigns.
It looks to us like he does not.
But when you put on the spiritual reality glasses
of Psalm 93, you see the truth
that through all eternity, the Lord reigns.
They make something real appear.
This Psalm makes something real appear to be real.
He sees the Lord robed in majesty.
He hears the Lord, mightier than the waves.
Psalm 93 encourages you and I to find motivation
in how great God truly is.
In fact, all other motivations will eventually fail you.
I mean, we get motivated by success.
We get motivated by what other people think about us.
We get motivated by all kinds of things in this life.
We even get motivated by love.
But there's an even greater motivation,
and that is God's greatness.
Because through God's greatness,
he can bring a love into my life
that's different than the love that this world offers.
So my question is, the Lord reigns,
how are you gonna see and sense that reality today?
That's what I want to focus in on in today's devotion.
He talks about three things in this short Psalm,
how you and I can see and sense the reality of who God is.
First, he says, God's throne is established.
And verse two, your throne was established long ago.
You are from all eternity.
God's might and God's majesty that this Psalm talks about
means that God is in control.
You can believe, you can see that God is in control today.
Now, you and I, think of all the ways
that we try to feel in control
when the world is spinning out of control.
I mean, things like a pandemic happen,
and we go to the store and buy toilet paper.
Why do we do that?
Because we want to feel in control.
'Cause we want to feel like I got this.
But much better than that is to recognize,
God, you've got this.
To admit I'm not in control,
and to rest and trust in the truth that God is in control.
And then go buy the toilet paper 'cause you might need it.
But you don't do it in anxiety any longer.
You do it in rest and trust that God is in control.
So what I want to do right now, as we walk through this Psalm,
is to do what this Psalm does, to see it and to hear it.
So right now, in your mind's eye,
don't close your eyes if you're driving down the road.
But if you're not, you might want to close your eyes
and visualize God on his throne.
Unmovable from that throne.
The greatness of that throne.
The eternity of that throne.
I'm not gonna tell you what he looks like
because God is spirit,
and no one knows exactly what he looks like.
He is greater.
But as you see the might and majesty on that throne
in your mind's eye, recognize that the Lord reigns.
And then hear it.
Just hear the sounds of praise
that are washing towards that throne.
And hear the confident and loving voice of power
that comes from God whenever he speaks from that throne.
He is the God of the universe.
So see it and hear it, sense it right now.
God's throne is established.
Second, God's statutes stand firm.
In verse five, your statutes stand firm.
God's might and majesty means
that God's word can be trusted.
You can trust God's word today.
Now there will be many times
when doubt attacks our trust in God's word.
Does he really love me?
Has he really saved me?
Is heaven truly my hope or just something I've made up?
And I want to remind you, when those doubts come,
you're not trusting in a principle as you read the Bible.
You're trusting in a person.
And he is majestic.
And he is mighty.
He will do it.
All the things that we trust in through daily life,
the chairs that we sit in, the cars we drive,
and even the word of some of the people that we talk to,
they are not majestic and mighty like God is.
So right now, God's statutes stand firm.
You can trust his word.
See it right now.
God's word is a light.
It's a light for my path.
It's like the small flashlight on a dark night that I need,
but it's also like the huge on the shore
where the boats are coming in and it's dark.
And it looks like there's no way
that people are gonna be able to see the rocks.
It is the huge lighthouse that makes sure that I can see.
It is the light that I need.
See those things right now.
God's a light for you.
Lighting your way one step at a time,
lighting the shoreline
where all the dangers might be in the rocks.
And then hear it.
God's word whispers to you in love.
Hear his whisper to you right now.
God's word thunders in power sometimes.
Hear that thundering power
that you might need in your life.
And in this one, you might even taste it.
'Cause you know the Bible talks
about God's word being like bread.
Taste the bread that you can eat and not gain any weight.
God's word is like honey.
It is sweet on my lips.
Just sense the sweetness of God's word to you right now.
Stand on it like you're standing on a rock.
God's statutes stand firm.
And then third thing he talks about in these verses,
when we talk about God's might and majesty,
is the truth that God's holiness adorns his house.
Verse, the last part of verse five.
Holiness adorns your house for endless days.
God's might and God's majesty
means that God's character is perfect.
And you can praise God for his perfection today.
There is a lot that is unholy in this world.
You can rest in the holiness of God.
That holiness will adorn his house for endless days.
That holiness is the beauty that's in his house
for all eternity, the holiness of who he is.
If we're honest, as we talk about unholiness,
there's a lot that's unholy on our own hearts.
You can rest in the holiness of God,
that he is at work to bring his character into your heart.
So right now, see it.
Like crystal clear air in the mountains, God's holiness.
There's not a hint of haze or of smog.
You can see for hundreds and hundreds
as hundreds of miles.
That's God's holiness.
And hear it.
It's like something we've never heard.
A perfect concert from an orchestra.
Not one note, even a tiny bit late.
Not one single pitch, even a tiny bit off key.
If it was to be able to be played that way,
that music would drill into your heart with perfection.
And God's holiness drills its way into our hearts.
Can you hear the perfection of God's holiness?
What do you picture when you picture God?
He's not a feeble old man.
And he's not just clouds and light
that I can't get my arms around.
And he's even more than a father.
As much as he is our father who puts his arms around us,
he's also the God of might and majesty.
He's the God we can trust in.
Jude, chapter one, verses 24 and 25,
says to him who is able to keep you from falling
and to present you before his glorious presence
without fault and with great glory
to the only God our savior be glory, majesty, power,
and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord
before all ages, now and forevermore.
Let's pray together.
And Father, we want to just take a moment
to praise you for who you are.
You are the God of might and majesty,
your power and your strength and your glory
and your splendor.
We cannot take it all in,
but you've made our hearts to begin to take it in.
So let us take in right now as much of it as we can.
And let that set the tone for our heart today,
for our life today.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
(upbeat music)