Sermon: 14 June 2020 (Holy Trinity Sunday Celebrated) - Psalm 8, “How Majestic is Your Name!”
““ O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is your name
In all the earth ….”
Psalm 8:1
Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
Its Holy Trinity Sunday, a Sunday where we celebrate the awesomeness of God. We recount in the Athanasian Creed a detailed look at what we mean by having one God in three Persons. It’s a great mystery of the faith that can never be fully explained or comprehended, but, as God has revealed it to us, we can talk about it.
And the fact is, we have a great and awesome God. The Psalmist in our reading is talking about just that. He’s pausing and considering for a moment just how great God is. “How majestic is Your Name,” is a statement that celebrates the wonder of the day. It’s a statement that, in a sense, lays back and looks up at the skies and begins to think about how far away those stars must be. It considers the earth itself and all that fills it. It considers one’s self and how much concern God has for even me, in the midst of this magnificent creation. “O Lord, how majestic is Your Name!”
A God of Great Glory
We have a God of great glory. He is above all else. Everything else we encounter in our lives is “created” by Him. But He alone stands “uncreated.” He always is and always will be. Nothing else comes near to Him.
Our God is concerned with our needs. As our text points out, He protects us from the enemy, He created the vastness of the universe, He orders all things. Because of Him, our lives are always secure. We can sit back, consider our situation and offer Him our thanks and praise.
It was Satan who thought himself better than God, more powerful than God. He is the enemy who challenges us each day, tempting us to follow him. And it is God Who comes to us as well, defeating Satan, calling us to life with Him. We need not fear but can remain confident in God.
That defeat of Satan came at a great price. It was God who chose to enter into our world, to take on human flesh and be the sacrifice for our sin. He alone could and would do it. Apart from that we would be lost for eternity, deserving nothing but the grave and hell. And yet, our great and mighty God, chose to take our sin upon Himself and pay for it in full, that all who look to Him with repentant hearts would be saved.
A God of Great Grace
That’s the great God we have. When judgement was appropriate and just, God chose mercy. There in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3:15, as God was pronouncing judgement on Adam, Eve and Satan, God announced mercy. While Satan would wound a Savior God would provide, that same Savior would crush Satan’s power. Rather than total judgement from God, there was an announcement of grace.
And that’s what we find in Christ, our Lord. He is the One, though wounded as we hear about in Isaiah 53 and lived out in His sufferings in the Gospels, Who crushed Satan’s power. Being the worthy sacrifice for our sin and paying in full the price demanded by God we have forgiveness and life.
Because of Jesus’ victory over the power of sin, death, and the devil, we now have life through faith in Jesus, trusting His forgiveness and promise of life eternal. And for whom is this promise true? For all who call upon His Name.
And remember how Peter asked about how many times we are to forgive? Peter had thought seven times was very generous, but Jesus answered him, not seven time but seventy-seven time (or some translations say seventy times seven times). Peter’s thinking was too small. His idea of generosity, though greater than the expectation of the time, was vastly smaller than God’s.
Here we find the enormity of God’s grace. On that cross, Jesus paid the price for all the sins of all time. Not one was left unforgiven. Jesus comments to Peter on forgiveness reflect how He deals with us. He knows our sinful condition and yet offers us full and complete forgiveness. When we fall to Satan’s temptations and repent of that, there is forgiveness. When we are weak and give in to our own sinful desires, there is forgiveness.
God desires a repentant heart. He will not withhold forgiveness. He will welcome us back. That’s a God of great grace and with that assurance of grace comes great hope.
A God of Great Hope
Jesus victory became apparent in the resurrection. Here He announced that death was defeated and that He was victorious. Because He has risen we are assured of bodily resurrection thorough faith in Him.
Our world promises hope. It tells us that if we work harder, we will gain many things. If we eat the right foods, act the right way, follow all the best practices we will be fine. And while we may find some truth in these things, we always find them lacking. The satisfaction in them is only temporary at best. All these promises fail at some point.
And, yes, no matter what, the grave is always staring us down. We may find vaccinations to avoid disease. We may cure all kinds of ailments. But at best the fix is always temporary. Death, the final penalty for sin, awaits.
But our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has great hope for each of us. Just as Jeremiah delivered hope for an exiled Israel, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) so also, He declares that to each of us.
In Christ we have a hope and a future. Sins paid for in full, heaven’s gates stand open wide for us. We have no fear of entering in for we are no longer lacking. We bear Christ’s righteousness, the righteousness He placed upon us at our Baptism. That righteousness is perfect and holy in every way, making us worthy to enter in, to worship and serve Him daily and to have the blessings of His presence. What a joy that will be!
Yes, our God is magnificent and awesome in every way. He has great glory and offers great grace and hope to us. There is none like Him. There is no one else to whom we need turn. Along with the Psalmist we simply marvel as we live in His promises, “O Lord, how majestic is Your name.”