GOD IS PRAISEWORTHY

Hugo McCord

The excellencies of the one true and living God are so many it is impossible for a creature of the Creator fully to describe them. Job’s friend Zophar challenged him:

Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens--what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave--what can you know? (Job 11:7-8, NIV).

Job’s young friend Elihu exclaimed, “How great is God--beyond our understanding” (Job 36:26, NIV). And the apostle Paul put God in a class to himself:

O the depth of the riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways untraceable” (Romans 11:33, FHV).

Yet, notwithstanding God’s manifold superiority, he has revealed enough about himself that his creatures can “know” the “only true God” (John 17:3, FHV).

David’s heart overflowed in admiration for the “God of my praise” (Psalm 109:1, FHV). “Though I declare and speak of” God’s “deeds, they cannot be numbered” (Psalm 40:5, FHV). Among other reasons why God is praiseworthy, these five are outstanding: (I) his creation; (II) his Book; (III) his Son; (IV) his character; and (V) his love of beauty.

I. HIS CREATION

The existence of the universe points every perceptive person back to God’s “unseen things--his eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20, FHV). Little children as well as aged men and women thrill at David’s words:

The heavens tell of God’s glory, and the skies proclaim the works of his hands. Every day pours forth information, and every night breathes out knowledge. There is no speech and there are no words; their voice is not heard. Yet their sound goes forth in all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

In the heavens he has made a dwelling place for the sun, which is like a bridegroom emerging joyously from his bedroom, like an athlete running his race. At the horizon the sun rises, and circles to the west. There is no hiding place from its heat (Psalm 19:1-6, FHV).

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) was deeply moved by David’s words. They were his inspiration causing him to write his beautiful poem, “The Creation”:

The spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame,

Their great Original proclaim.

The unwearied sun, from day to day,

Does his Creator’s power display,

And publishes to every land

The work of an Almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,

The moon takes up the wondrous tale,

And nightly to the listening earth

Repeats the story of her birth;

Whilst all the stars that round her burn,

And all the planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in solemn silence all

Move round the dark terrestrial ball;

What though no real voice or sound

Amidst their radiant orbs be found;

In reason’s ear they all rejoice,

And utter forth a glorious voice,

Forever singing as they shine,

“The hand that made us is divine.”

A beginning realization of the power of the Almighty God comes when we are told that our planet weighs 6 sextillion, 592 quintillion tons. If a ton equals 2000 pounds, and a sextillion is 1 plus 21 zeroes, and a quintillion is 1 plus 18 zeroes, I can only imagine the weight of our planet. Then, when I add the weight of the 8 other planets in our solar system, I cannot imagine the power of the Almighty!

Moreover, no one knows the size of our solar system, let alone the space involved in other star systems. If the sun (our nearest star) is 93 million miles from the earth, a scientific (?) guess is that the universe extends 20 billion light years “from border to border” (Wayne Jackson, FIRM FOUNDATION, August, 1993, p. 9). But my little mind cannot comprehend the miles making up 1 light-year (the distance that light travels in 1 year at the speed of 186,000 miles per second).

One astronomer, considering the enormous distances and the movements of the celestial bodies, bows his “head in reverence to the power that brought this universe into being and safely guides its individual members” (Dr. Arthur Harding, ASTRONOMY [New York: Garden City Publishing Co., 1940], p. 386, quoted by Wayne Jackson).

Isaiah thought that “the power that brought this universe into being” is praiseworthy:

Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing (40:26, NRSV).

II. HIS BOOK

The home of Sir Walter Scott, outside Edinburgh, Scotland, is a tourists’ attraction. Himself the author of several books, his library is immense. One day, while he lay ill on his bed, he asked a son to read to him. “From what book, father?,” asked the son, as he looked at the shelves of books. Sir Walter replied, “There is only one!” Immediately the son comforted his father as he read a portion of the Scriptures to him.

I do not know who wrote the following eulogy:

Many years ago I entered the wonderful temple of God’s revelation. I entered the portico of Genesis and walked down through the Old Testament Art Gallery where, hanging on the wall, were pictures of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, and Daniel.

I entered the Music Room of the Psalms where the Spirit swept the keyboard of nature, and brought forth the dirge-like wail of the weeping prophet, Jeremiah, and the grand, impassioned strains of Isaiah, until it seemed that every reed and harp in God’s organ of nature responded to the tuneful touch of David, the sweet singer of Israel.

I entered the chapel of Ecclesiastes where the voice of the preacher was heard, and passed into the conservatory of Sharon where the lily of the valley’s sweet-scented spices filled and perfumed my life. I entered the business room of the Proverbs and passed into the observatory room of the prophets where I saw many telescopes of various sizes, some pointing to far off events, but all concentrated on the Morning Star, which was soon to rise over the moon-lit hills of Judea, for our salvation.

I entered the audience room of the King of kings, and caught a vision from the standpoint of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then I entered the Acts of the Apostles where the Holy Spirit was doing his office work in forming the early church. I passed into the correspondence room, where sat Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John penning their epistles. I got a vision of the King seated upon his throne in all his glory, and I cried:

All hail the power of Jesus’ name!

Let angels prostrate fall.

Bring forth the royal diadem

And crown Him Lord of all.

Henry VanDyke entitled the following eulogy “My Bible”:

Born in the East, and clothed in oriental form and imagery, the Bible walks the ways of the world with familiar feet, and enters land after land to find its own everywhere. It has learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart of a man. It comes into the palace to tell the monarch that he is a servant of the Most High, and into a cottage to tell a peasant that he is a child of God. Children listen to its stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as a parable of life.

It has a word of peace for the time of peril, a word of comfort for the day of calamity, a day of light for the hour of darkness. Its oracles are repeated in the assembly of the people, and its counsels are whispered in the ears of the lonely. The wise and the proud tremble at its warnings, but to the wounded and penitent it has a mother’s voice.

The wilderness and the solitary place have been made glad by it, and fires of the hearth have lighted the reading of its well-worn pages. It has woven itself into our deepest affections and colored our fondest dreams, so that love and friendship, sympathy and devotion, memory and hope, put on the beautiful garments of its treasured speech, breathing frankincense and myrrh.

Above the cradle and beside the grave its great words come to us uncalled. They fill our prayers with power larger than we know, and the beauty of them lingers in our ears long after the sermons they have adorned have been forgotten. They return to us swiftly and quietly, like birds flying from far away, like springs of water breaking forth from the mountain beside a long forgotten path. They grow richer, as pearls do when worn near the heart. No man is poor or desolate who has this treasure for his own.

When the landscape darkens and when the trembling pilgrim comes to the valley named the shadow, he is not afraid to enter. He takes the rod and staff of Scripture in his hand, and says to friend and comrade, “Goodbye, we shall meet again,” and comforted by that support he goes toward the lonely pass as one who climbs through the darkness into light.

On January 8, 1995, Dayton Keesee wrote an article entitled “Jehovah’s Journalists”:

Two years ago Tanya Barr, a Russian Professor of Journalism at Rostov University, asked me to speak to her journalism class. She specified no subject and made no limitations for my selected topic. I lifted before the class a copy of the New Testament, stating that I wanted to talk to them about some ancient journalists, who wrote news that was so good and effective that the writers and the reported news were still known and being reprinted 1900 years later!

It was interesting to watch their journalistic faces as I shared with them the writing by a man named Matthew about a unique birth in Bethlehem, the reported lineage that was traced back 2500 years (Matthew 1), the amazing conception story given by Dr. Luke that occurred without any earthly father (Luke 1), and John’s coverage, reporting that this babe was God, that all things were made through Him and He became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1).

Further accounts by these amazing journalists were given, such as Peter’s report of being an eye witness concerning that babe’s death and resurrection from the dead at age 33 (Acts 2), and Paul’s coverage of the hero aspect of that babe’s death--dying for others--really for all--to re-unite God and man (Romans 5:6-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14f).

I then held up these 1900 year old documents and asked the class: 1. Do YOU ever hope to write a story that will last 2000 years? 2. Then a thought question: Why do you think these ancient stories and words by these journalists are still read all over the world today? 3. Does the claim in the story to unite God and man help you understand its popularity, explaining why it is called “Good News”?

After their answers and discussion, we read Matthew 24:35 and Hebrews 13:20 to see the writers’ answer--affirming that though heaven and earth pass away, these words will not pass away because Jesus empowered these truths with His blood as an eternal covenant!

III. HIS SON

Napoleon Bonaparte said,

I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man.... Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love; and, at this hour, millions would die for him (apud James D. Bales, REASONS FOR OUR FAITH [Searcy, Arkansas: Harding College Bookstore, n.d.], VIII, 7).

With hardly an exception, both believers and unbelievers unite in paeans of praise and in warm admiration for Jesus. Keeping youthful desires under control, Jesus as a lad was religious. Though he knew that he was the Son of God, he subjected himself as a youth to his earthly parents. Though he knew he would be a preacher, yet he learned hard physical work. Though not a husband, yet he respected wives and mothers. Though not a father, yet he loved little children. Authoritative, yet he was meek and lowly. Unschooled, yet he was the Master Teacher. Tired and hungry, yet consumed with soul-winning, he forgot his own needs.

Obsessed for justice, he refused to embarrass a sinful penitent and instead rebuked her persecutors. Free from race prejudice, he was a friend to the hated Samaritans. Free from the love of money, owning not a pillow, he was content to be rich in good works. Free from worldly ambition, he rejected attempts to make him an earthly king. Free from selfishness, he worked early and late, going about doing good. Free from self-righteousness, he was a friend of sinners. Having respect for things sacred, he forcibly removed commercialism and thievery from the temple.

Detesting hypocrisy, he exposed self-righteousness among his contemporary religionists. An acid tongue he had for duplicity, but toward penitence, he was gentle and easy to approach. Loving the unfortunate, even at the expense of popularity, he helped those in need. Moved with compassion, he fed multitudes of hungry people. Grieved at death, and weeping, he comforted the broken-hearted.

Born in a stable to humble parents, never did he get above his station. He washed feet, and plain people were comfortable in his presence. He had no quirks, no one-sided views on any subject. Devout exceedingly, yet he was no ascetic. His overall perspective was other-worldly, yet he concentrated on his work in this world. He was a balanced, a whole person. Perfectly he was able to combine piety and philanthropy.

Never hesitant, never making a mistake, he was in charge of every situation. Completely self-possessed, yet free of self-sufficiency, he obtained strength to help in time of need through daily private devotionals with his Father. Making the Father’s will his will, unveeringly he denied himself to bless humanity. Loving his enemies, free from resentment, he excused his murderers and prayed for their forgiveness. Loving his neighbor more than he loved himself, he won the benediction of his Father and the gratitude of sinners.

If Jesus had not claimed deity, his character would have claimed it for him. No mere human has approached the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus. Eyewitnesses said they beheld his glory, the glory as of the only one of his nature, full of grace and truth. If he was not divine, his character remains forever inexplicable.

A contradiction ensues if one ascribes goodness to Jesus and withholds deity. A good man does not deceive. Jesus claimed deity and so convinced myriads that they committed their all to his leadership. If he is not divine, he is not a blessing. The world’s greatest hoax he becomes, and the world’s meanest man. Ingratiating himself, promising life abundant here and beyond the grave, yet unable to carry through, this man was a malevolent weakling. If he were sane, which is practically unquestioned, then if not God he was not good.

If the story of Jesus could be fictional, then how the gospel writers came to conspire on that fiction, and where they obtained their idea, are likewise unexplainable. Their invention of such a person is unimaginable and becomes itself a miracle.

Charles Ross Weede is the author of “The Perfect Example”:

Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three;

One lived and died for self; one lived and died for you and me.

The Greek died on a throne; the Jew on a cross;

One’s life a triumph seemed; the other but a loss.

One led vast armies forth; the other walked alone;

One shed a whole world’s blood; the other gave His own.

One won the world in life and lost it all in death;

The other lost His life to win the whole world’s faith.

Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three;

One died in Babylon; and one on Calvary.

One gained all for self; and one Himself he gave.

One conquered every throne; the other every grave.

The one made himself God; the God made Himself less;

The one lived but to blast, the other but to bless.

When died the Greek, forever fell his throne of swords;

But Jesus died to live forever Lord of lords.

Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three;

The Greek made all men slaves; the Jew made all men free.

One built a throne on blood; the other on love.

The one was born of earth; the other from above.

One won all this earth, to lose all earth and heaven.

The other gave up all, that all to Him be given.

The Greek forever died; the Jew forever lives.

He loses all who gets, and wins all things who gives.

Gary Colvin wrote “Who is Jesus?”:

Jesus never wrote a book or held a political office. He never traveled more than one hundred miles from his place of birth. He had little education and his family was poor. Most of his adult life was spent as a village carpenter. He was executed as a criminal before his thirty-fifth birthday. Yet Jesus is the best known, most influential, most respected man who ever lived. With only three years of public teaching he changed the world forever. Who is Jesus?

Jesus is the co-Creator of the universe, and “all things were made through him” (John 1:3). “He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29), “and there is salvation in no other name under heaven” (Acts 4:12). He is “the resurrection and the life ... and whoever lives and believes in” him “will never die” (John 11:25-26). “He is the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), and on the last, great day he “will judge the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5).

No other human has ever made such claims for himself. After twenty centuries of intense scrutiny more people believe in Jesus than ever before. The number continues to grow. He is indeed the Savior of the World!

IV. HIS CHARACTER

God’s loving heart wants every soul he has created to return to the “Father of spirits” for a happy eternity (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Hebrew 12:9). “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15), but not the death of sinners. “As certainly as I am alive (hay ani),” God said through Ezekiel,

I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel? (33:11, NRSV).

God’s righteousness and justice (“a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right,” Deuteronomy 32:4, KJV) prohibit universal salvation. He “will not leave the guilty unpunished” (Nahum 1:3, NIV). Sometimes, against his desire, God has been forced to kill evil people (Leviticus 10:1-2; Numbers 16:27-33; 2 Samuel 6:7; 2 Kings 2:23-24; Acts 5:5, 10).

Moreover, there is a real hell (geenna, Matthew 5:22) of “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his agents” (Matthew 25:41, FHV). Some creatures know more than their Creator about how to operate the world. Some educated (?) preachers are bold to challenge the only Being whose “understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5). On their own they repudiate Jesus’ eleven warnings about hell (Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 25:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5). “O man, who are you to argue with God?” (Romans 9:20, FHV).

Into the place of torment it is against the will of God that anyone should go. He “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4, FHV). He does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NRSV).

The instinct called “TLC” (Tender Loving Care) which God has implanted in mothers, is not as deep as God’s care:

Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you (Isaiah 49:15, NRS).

The Creator has done all that love can do to keep everybody out of torment: “God so loved the world,” yes, “the whole world” (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2), that he did far more than any earthly father would have done to save sinners. No earthly father could have said “No” to a Son who “always” did “the things that” were “pleasing to” his Father (John 8:29), a Son who “kneeled down” (Luke 22:41) and “fell on his face” (Matthew 26:39), a Son who in “agony” prayed “more earnestly,” so that “his sweat” on a cool midnight in April was like “great drops of blood falling on the ground” (Luke 22:44), a Son who begged that “if it is possible, let this cup [of death] pass away” (Matthew 26:39).

But no earthly father could or can see “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 47:10). The far-seeing heavenly Father, “the only wise God” (Romans 16:27), whose throne is built on “righteousness and judgment” (Psalm 89:14), could not ignore, by-pass, close his eyes to, the sins of the world.

At the same time, the mercy of the heavenly Father is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 103:17). How can perfect righteousness and unceasing mercy be in him? If he had excused Jesus from the cross, righteousness and justice would have been compromised, for “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Justice demanded a pay-back. In this case, the pay-back was the death of Jesus, a vicarious death, a pay-back for Hugo’s sins. Jesus “paid a debt he did not owe,” while “I owed a debt I could not pay.”

The substitution of Jesus for Hugo was the culmination of “the eternal purpose which” God had “purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11). Only the Father’s wisdom could devise a plan by which he could “be just” and at the same time be “the justifier of” Hugo (Romans 3:26).

Only in Jesus can one understand Psalm 89:14 where “justice” and “mercy” can be in the same person: “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face” (KJV).

Only in Jesus can one understand Psalm 85:10: “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (KJV).

V. HIS LOVE OF BEAUTY

Human beings are fascinated, not only by the existence and revolutions of the moon, but also by its beauty. The moon serves a utilitarian purpose in regulating the months and the tides, and it also serves an aesthetic purpose to earth dwellers. Up close it is neither utilitarian nor beautiful, but from a quarter of a million miles its yellow crescent or its white full-orbed splendor does something to everybody, especially to lovers. Did the moon’s Maker have something in mind for earth dwellers both practically and aesthetically?

When one turns his eyes from the moon back to the earth, and examines a rose, several questions arise. How did it arrive? Why is it so symmetrically shaped and beautifully colored and delicately perfumed? If there is no practical value, did the rose’s Maker have an appreciation for things of beauty? Did he put in humans a corresponding sense of appreciation of symmetry, of colors, and of fragrance?

If one tries to make a list of beautiful things, he becomes exhausted. Long before the apples of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia become utilitarian nourishment, that valley in blossom season is more than any artist can imagine. Also, spring time in the Rocky Mountains has something more than mining and ranching.

Furthermore, sunrise at sea is more than another earth revolution. The scientific explanation of a sunrise at sea leaves something to be desired: “the earth revolves until its tangent plane coincides once more with the solar azimuth.”

The songs of the nightingale, the fragrance of a violet, the smile of a friend, the sparkle in an eye, all have an attractiveness difficult to define, but lovely and real.

Both Plato and Aristotle engaged themselves in the discussion of beauty. Kant was gripped in deep admiration reflecting on the beauty of “the starry heavens.”

Life is real and beauty is real, and it appears that the Creator of both must be alive and aesthetic. Apparently only humans have a contemplative faculty able to appreciate beauty. “Man is the only animal that decorates” (William H. Davis, Professor of Philosophy, Auburn University).

A theist has no trouble explaining either the existence of beauty or its appreciation. But an evolutionist, yoked with a survival of the fittest doctrine, finds himself with nothing to say. Evolutionist Thomas Huxley was very honest about his difficulty:

One thing which weighs with me against pessimism and tells for a benevolent author of the universe, is my enjoyment of scenery and music. I do not see how they can have helped in the struggle for existence. They are gratuitous gifts (DARWINISM, p. 478, further documentation not available).

The scholarly and eloquent philosopher F. R. Tennant, saying that “Some men enter His Temple by the Gate Beautiful,” was not hesitant to list beauty as one of the solid pillars of theism, and that “if the theism contained in this statement is rejected, explanation does not seem to be forthcoming” (PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY [Cambridge: University Press, I, 1928; II, 1930; reprint, 1956], II, 91f).

Dennis, “the Menace,” as he looked up at some beautiful clouds, said to his little friend, “If heaven is that beautiful on the bottom, how beautiful it must be on top.”

Mrs. A. S. Bridgewater wrote “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be”:

We read of a place that’s called heaven,

It’s made for the pure and the free;

These truths in God’s word He has given,

How beautiful heaven must be.

In heaven, no drooping, nor pining,

No wishing for else where to be,

God’s light is forever there shining,

How beautiful heaven must be.

Pure waters of life there are flowing,

And all who will drink may be free;

Rare jewels of splendor are glowing,

How beautiful heaven must be.

How beautiful heaven must be,

Sweet home of the happy and free;

Fair haven of rest for the weary,

How beautiful heaven must be.