“9 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying,`My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ (Isa 46:9-10 NKJ)”

God is worthy of our praise because God is powerful. Isaiah constantly contrasts the very real power of God with the fake power of the idols that the people worshiped. They had eyes but they could not see and they had ears but they could not hear. God, by contrast, has real power. Whatever He decides to do He does.

An interesting feature of our own religious climate is that people find it off-putting to think that God should be worshiped for His power, or for any of His other virtues. It’s described as arrogant or narcissistic. Yet the propensity of the human soul to be drawn to that which is greater than itself, to praise power and greatness, is obvious and undeniable. We praise an athlete for winning a game or a politician for winning an election. Nations desire a strong leader; children desire parents to keep them safe and provide for them. Atheists wax rhapsodic at the wonder of the universe that they believe produced them. People take trips to the ocean or the Grand Canyon not to be impressed with a sense of their own importance, but to be drawn into a sense of transcendence, the wonder and awe of that which is greater than themselves. We praise an author for his great book, a musician for her beautiful music, an actor for his brilliant performance. The same person who would scoff at praising God might scream and swoon at a rock concert.

Yet behind all of these things is the God who made them all, and He made us to worship. No man can choose to not worship, since we were created for it; he only chooses what the object of his worship will be- either God or the things that God has made. As great as all of the things in creation are, how much greater, how much more beautiful, how much more wise must be He who created them? If we are struck by the awe and grandeur of the night sky with its vast multitude of stars, what is our reaction to the person who spoke those stars into existence? If we are highly impressed with a scientist who can unravel the very fabric of the matter and energy around us, what do we think of the God that made the scientist’s brain, and made the fabric of the universe as a puzzle to be unlocked by that brain?

He achieves everything He sets out to achieve. There is no force in the universe which can deny Him whatever He wants. He never makes a mistake, never halts from indecision, never finds Himself unable to do what He intended to do. The vast majority of the time, He accomplishes all these things through the laws of nature and history which He created, but this should only increase our awe at His great power, that He has the power and wisdom to set up rules and principles that would govern such a vast undertaking as our universe to accomplish everything He sets out to accomplish. He intervenes in the laws of nature and history, not because He needs to but because He desires to reveal Himself in some special way to those that He has made.

He is very worthy of our worship, and we fulfill our highest purpose when we worship Him.
To Be Continued…