Sermon Outline: He’s Great, and Greatly to be Praised!

The phrase “greatly to be praised” was reverberating in my mind so I went to my OnLine Bible study program {1} and ran a search for that phrase in the King James Version. The first surprise I had was that I expected a dozen or so occurrences, but only found four, viz., 1 Chronicles (1 Ch.) 16:25, Psalm (Ps.) 48:1, 96:4, and 145:3. The other thing I discovered was that three of the four were associated with “Great is the Lord” with the other (Ps. 98:4) associated with “The Lord is great.” Ps. 98:4 is derived from 1 Ch. 16:25. It says essentially the same thing so my message would use a composite text of 1 Ch. 16:25, Ps. 48:1 and 145:3 with the flow of thought that He is great, and greatly to be praised for the following.

I. His Majesty 1 Ch. 16:25 For great is YHWH, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods.

To begin with, we do not have to read very far to see why God is great. Verses 23b to 24 state, “…shew forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvelous works among all nations.” Salvation, alone, is reason enough to “exceedingly” praise Him!

For the second half of the phrase, viz., greatly to be praised, great could mean “exceedingly” {2}. Years back when I first came to Christ I thought dancing in the Spirit was overdoing it, but God changed my mind as I continued to study His Word.

I have heard a number of unsaved people complain about serving a God you have to fear. What they do not realize though is that they, undoubtedly, fear man (people). I invite any unsaved person that thinks he or she does not fear men {3} to move to a place like Eritrea and stand up for what they think their rights are.

Trusting completely in the one true God means to obey Him above people. The word “gods” in verse 25 is elohim. While elohim, to my understanding one of a number of Hebrew words that are always plural, is used in some passages to refer to the one true God (so indicated with context and the associated verb being singular), here it can mean either idols or men (note Ps. 82:6).

So while we are to respect and obey authority, there will be times a true disciple will just respect authority and not obey it when that authority contradicts God’s rules.

II. His Mercies Ps. 48:1  Great is YHWH, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

Permit me to start with the mountain first, for I must think of “Mount” Calvary (Golgotha) where Christ was brutally crucified for all of us. I look at it as that before we enter the city of our God we must be redeemed unto Him by Christ.

The Psalm says “mountain of His holiness.” The only way to be holy before God is through the all atoning work of Christ.

Upon surrendering to Christ we are washed by His blood and given His life. We then become citizens of the “city of our God.” While we then have part in the New Jerusalem, I also must think of the Church, the Body of Christ. This is that city set upon a hill (Calvary again) as mentioned in Matthew 5:14, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.”

We return daily to the mountain of His holiness for cleansing, and also empowerment. Thank God for His wonderful provision in Christ. This is, indeed, merciful. This is also part of our ongoing growth in Christ.

III. His Magnificence Ps.145:3 Great is YHWH, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

One really knows the truth of this when they fully surrender to Christ. It is seen in His written Word. Portions of my first year in Christ still come into my mind when I started reading the Holy Bible and passages that once seemed mysterious and boring came to life.

Another place a true disciple finds God unsearchable is in everyday life. Your eyes are opened and you see God moving in various realms. And, it is so awesome when He moves by providence–things happen that you had no control over but accomplished some purpose that God had in your life or someone else’s.

Yes, God is great and greatly to be praised! Joy in the Lord, saints!

Notes:

{1} The embedded link leads to North American downloads. Other locations may download from here http://www.onlinebible.org/.

{2} From an electronic version of James Strong’s “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance”

{3} Used in the traditional sense meaning all people. I despise being “politically correct” and Triond gives me the freedom to be that way.

God willing the links for the audio to this message will be posted at http://www.sapphirestreams.com/life/audioM.html#M211 within four weeks of the publication of this article.

Scripture in this article and many of my other articles, unless otherwise noted, is from the King James Version with modification, changing “The LORD” to YHWH as indicated in the Hebrew. Spelling changes were also made to bring it up to our time.