How Great Is Our God: 5 Days Toward a Worship-Led Life by Chris TomlinExemplo

Day 4: The Earth Is Filled With His Glory

Have you ever thought about the relationship between nature and the worship-led life? I love nature. Our soul knows a deep connection with creation because it continually points to God’s glory. Nature has a way of resizing us, a gentle way of reminding us that we are not as great as we think we are.

Here’s what I’ve learned about the worship of God and the place of creation: God created a very good world, but as good as creation is, creation is not God. In fact, creation does not reveal God. Only God can reveal Himself. Paul put it well in his letter to the Romans:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20

Creation points to God, but it does not reveal Him. Creation is filled with the glory of God, but even the glory of God is not God. God is not in His creation. Rather, God is completely other than His creation. In fact, in Genesis 1, as we read the story of creation, God never says creation is holy. The first thing God deems holy is time itself—the seventh day, a holy day set apart to rest and to respond in worship to the God of all creation. We do not “find” God in nature. We find God’s glory in nature, which is meant to point us to God. If we miss this seemingly small distinction, we will wind up in the place Paul described later in chapter 1 of Romans:

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Romans 1:25

Translation: Enjoy nature. Worship God.

The worship-led life begins, middles, and ends in the exalted, holy, otherness of God and God alone. Get this clear in your mind: Enjoy nature. Worship God. Let’s take it a step further.

In Isaiah 6, the prophet shared with us his vision of worship. In his vision he saw the Lord, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Isaiah said there were angelic beings called seraphim flying above God. We don’t know how many of them there were, but each had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces. With two wings they covered their feet. And with the other two wings they were flying. And the Scripture says they were calling out to each other these words:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6:3

I once put those exact words to song so the Church could sing it:

We stand and lift up our hands
For the joy of the Lord is our strength We bow down and worship Him now How great, how awesome is He.
And together we sing
Holy is the Lord, God Almighty
The earth is filled with His glory

While many people loved the song, I don’t think it even came close to doing justice to Isaiah’s vision. I mean, this is what the Bible says happened in response to the crying out of the seraphim:

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:4

In other words, this was not a sweet new song playing on your local K-LOVE affiliate.

I want us to notice what the seraphim were saying and what they were not saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

God is not in the same category as the earth. God is not even remotely part of His creation. As I’ve said, God is completely other than His creation. This is part of what it means when we say God is holy. It means God is completely other. Now that we have that clear, yes, the whole earth is full of His glory.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty = Worship God!

SING WITH ME

Queue up the song “Holy Is the Lord” and sing it with me. Sing particularly loud on the chorus and even louder on the bridge.

HOW GREAT?

How does creation lift your soul to fathom the greatness and glory of God? How might you grow in your awareness of the whole of creation worshipping God—mountains bowing down, seas roaring, trees of the field clapping their hands? What might it look like for you to join creation’s song of praise?