Declaring the Mighty Acts of God as Praise (Psalm 145:4)

"One generation will commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts" -  Psalm 145:4

The greatness of God is not something for us to keep to ourselves. It is far too vast to contain within our own experience and memory alone - it must be proclaimed.

The capacity to perceive and enjoy the greatness of God is a grace of God Himself, but it is ultimately for the growing of His fame and for the furthering of the vision of the glory of God. The picture that David gives us in this verse is that of parents showcasing the greatness of God to their children. It is that of grandparents speaking of the goodness of God to their grandchildren. It is the intergenerational dialogue of joy and awe in families, in churches, at work, with other Christians and with non-Christians.

The means resulting in the communication of God's glory and greatness is the proclamation of His mighty works. The commendation of the works and acts of God is an incredibly helpful and repeatedly commanded way of honouring and displaying the nature of God to others and to ourselves. To intentionally remember and keep track of the proofs and evidences of the greatness of His generosity, perfect timing, perfect knowledge, or perfect patience helps us maintain and store up nuggets of sustenance for our own joy and awe in the Lord.

Part of the way we will notice maturity in your own heart is by growing to perceive the hand of the Lord in all things. This will clear and expand our vision of the greatness of God in all His majesty for all to see and enjoy. Let's not shy away from declaring or commending what we know are the works and mighty acts of God to the people that the Lord brings to us every day - so that we might, "Every day... bless... and praise your name forever and ever" (Psalm 145:2)

The All-Surpassing Greatness of God (Psalm 145:3)

"Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable" -  Psalm 145:3
 

At this point, after stating his desire and his longing to extol and praise the Lord, David begins to articulate and explain what pulls his heart to such strong affection and worship of God.

 

The first characteristic of God that David mentions, is His greatness. The greatness of God which encompasses all of his attributes is the very reason why God is worthy of praise. His greatness is the characteristic that defines all of His other attributes and what separates His love from our love, His justice from our justice, His willingness from our willingness, His generosity from our generosity. His greatness is His perfection. It is the greatness of God in all of who He is that makes Him worthy and deserving of our devotion and adoration.

 

Everything about God should be seen and understood as superlative and infinitely more perfect and encompassing - especially as it relates to our own traces of such characteristics. The Lord is to be praised in accordance with His nature. The greatness and ultimate perfection and greatness deserves and requires nothing less than the greatest honour and devotion.

 

Ultimately, the outer fringes of God's never-ending and infinite holiness are too vast and effectively too great for us to completely see and understand. On one hand, they can be so clearly perceived and we can be so genuinely amazed by God's holiness and perfection in every way, but at the same time we must keep in mind that the glimpse of God that we can see is at best partial, blurry, and imperfectly informed. It is a glimpse of the truth nonetheless.

 

Do you see that the greatness with which you see God, and the way you stand in awe of Him will directly impact the way you worship and praise Him? David's desire to bless and praise the name of the Lord forever is attached to his desire to maintain a healthy and appropriate view of God's awesome greatness. We must understand that part of the maturing process of a Christian involves maturing in our eyes to see Him clearer each day, accompanied by growing awe. We must never be satisfied with the boundary that we think we see of God's greatness, that boundary does not exist, it is never really there. Without a growing understanding of God's greatness, our worship will plateau and plummet. 

Recounting the Story of Our Move

Well, we are here, we made it!

 

It's been a very busy week and I would have really liked to post something earlier on, but I guess one week is not too bad. The whole experience of packing, moving, and getting here was an adventure in and of itself, and it deserves it's own post. I will write something, hopefully tomorrow, about our first few days here.

 

It all started with the pickup of the truck. We had booked our 17' foot truck (we went for the bigger of the two options we were considering: the 14' and the 17') well in advance over a month ago. We had heard and read stories about people not getting what they had asked for or not getting what they wanted in time so we called and confirmed our order early in the week to make sure we were going to be able to get our 17' truck at 8:30AM so we could start loading ASAP. The lady was very kind and assured us that everything was okay and sent an e-mail confirmation about our order, the pickup location, and the pickup time.

 

Courtney and I went to pick up the truck at 8:20AM on Thursday morning (this was last week...) and after waiting about half an hour in line (I don't mind having to wait in lines too much) we finally got to talk to the rental rep who informed us that they did not have a truck for us. Again, he was also very polite and told us that they only had the 14' if we wanted to switch to that one instead. The customer that had the truck we booked was supposed to return it by 11:30AM that morning. The thing was that we didn't know for sure if they were going to return it in time. He tried calling the customer but no one picked up, he checked all the locations in the area to see if there was a 17' truck in the area that we could borrow - nothing. They only had ONE 20' truck at a different location and that was it. I was already not feeling super excited about having to drive what seemed to me like a HUGE 17-foot truck for 9 hours on the interstate, the idea of having to get a bigger one and having to pay more for gas wasn't too appealing. He did say that we would get a deal on the gas though. We decided that we were going to wait until 11:30 and see whether our truck came in or not. By the time we left, my mom and brothers were already at our place waiting for us so we could start loading. Courtney's parents were on their way.

 

The morning came and went and we got a call at around noon saying that the truck never came but that they did have a 20' that had arrived at their facility that we could take. We needed a truck so we decided to go for it. After another 45 minutes in line and a bit of a stressful morning, we had a truck, got a discount, and we were ready to start loading! It took a couple of hours but we JUST managed to fit all of our stuff into the bigger truck and had everything piled pretty much to the top - it would not have fit on the 17-footer!

 

We spent that night in New Hamburg and got up early the next morning to start driving. My parents and brother met us in the morning and we started the caravan to Kentucky. Departure time - 3:30AM.

 

The truck ended up being quite fun and easy to drive and we made it to the border with no problems. It was the shortest crossing time we'd had so we were just hoping that the inspection and the actual crossing was going to go well. And it did... except for the fact that I wasn't able to open the lock we decided to put in the truck that morning. I didn't have the code for it and even after frantically texting Courtney's dad for it, we still weren't able to open. We as in myself and the other 3 border-patrol officers. In the end they ended up cutting the lock, were very polite and kind, and let us go through no problem!

 

After a few stops to get gas, some coffees, and a quick lunch stop, we finally got to what would be our new apartment at around 3:30PM (12 hours later - a record long drive!). By then, we are all quite tired and the idea of unloading things was not too appealing. However, we knew that it wouldn't be as nice not to have a bed to sleep in, and we would have to go buy another lock for the truck if we didn't unload before it got dark. We ended up giving the unloading a go and with the help of our neighbors (about 5 of them) we were completely unloaded in an hour!

 

Our next-door neighbours are a married couple from Indiana and they were moving in when we got here. He is starting his M.Div. as well at Southern and they had one little guy who is turning 1 this month. It was great to see and meet our neighbours the first day and get a sense of how nice the community around here was going to be.

 

After talking to our neighbours about their move too, we found out that they had the exact same problem with the truck as us. They ordered a certain size for a certain time, and when they got there it wasn't available. They ended up going with the bigger truck, and much like us, they wouldn't have been able to fit their stuff if they had gotten the truck they wanted, when they wanted it. The way the trucks ended up working out reminded us again of the Lord's sovereignty and favour in our move. Also the fact that although both Thursday and Friday were supposed to be rain-days in Mississauga and Louisville, and we didn't get rained on at all, really encouraged us and gave more reason to thank God for a safe and smooth trip :).