Indescribable

Before worship yesterday morning, our pianist quietly played one of my all-time favorite hymns, “How Great Thou Art.” I recalled the words and couldn’t help but worship right then:

“O Lord my God,
When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed . . .”

People were still wandering into the sanctuary, greeting one another, finding their seats . . . but for me, the service had begun. That song truly does draw my soul to sing as it so beautifully proclaims God’s creative, awesome, eternal majesty. How great You are, O Lord! How great You are!

Later, during the offering, the pianist continued her worship theme, playing and singing Chris Tomlin’s modern hymn, “Indescribable”:

“From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty . . .
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God.”

My mind pondered the parallels between the two songs, written more than a century apart, proclaiming the same incredible Truth. And then I remembered Psalm 8:3-4:

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?”

It seems people have been drawn throughout time to worship God, the Creator of all, through the works of His hands. All that we see and consider in nature reveals the true nature of our almighty God. The heavens, especially, declare His unfathomable greatness! Our God’s huge! Yet He creates tiny, delicate flowers that sometimes go unseen—just because He wants to—and He counts the hairs on our heads and makes no two snowflakes the same! As we think about this, we have to sing, to praise, to pray, to fall on our knees and proclaim His glory with adoration, wonder, and inexpressible awe.

I’ve heard of a star registry, where people can apply (and pay) to have stars named for themselves or those they love. But God’s already named them! They are His Creation; He holds them in His hands! He’s so big.

Others believe that if they are very, very good and follow all the rules, someday, God will give them planets or solar systems of their own to rule over just as He does. But God already rules over them all! There is only one God—and He can manage ev-er-y-thing!

We don’t exist to make great names for ourselves—to claim stars or planets or people or things. We exist to glorify and proclaim God’s incomprehensively majestic name! And yet, we’re so very small. To think that our little voices, among all the other little voices that ever have or ever will exist, matter to the God who hangs the stars in the sky without even burning His fingers on that which would vaporize us in an instant from light years away. . . He invites us to sing, to live lives that bring glory to His worthy name.

He loves us each so much! That’s indescribable.