Hostage to Lesser Glory

There's this cabin in West Virginia where we go sometimes when we can get away as a family.

And this cabin happens to face west and has this view across the Shenandoah River Valley.

And that makes for some really interesting experiences.

One of our favorite things to do is to watch sunsets.

And especially in the summer, the sun sets directly out from our cabin.

And so when it's time for sunset, every evening, no matter what we're doing, we will drop everything and go out on the deck and almost hold our breaths and watch as the sun slowly sets behind the Allegheny Mountains.

And a lot of times we love to count it down until we can no longer see the sun.

So that's a little liturgy that we enjoy when we're out there.

But for me personally, as much as I love sunsets, by far my most favorite sort of natural experience out there is when we get to see a thunderstorm.

Because we're looking west, a lot of times storms will start way far away and distant.

And then they sweep across the valley floor toward us.

And they can get bigger and bigger and bigger until these dark purple clouds are literally blotting out the sky.

And they can be as beautiful as they are terrifying.

You see these dark or even black clouds above.

And then these white translucent curtains of rain that are sweeping across the trees and the hills, enveloping everything in their path.

And then you begin to hear the distant rolls of thunder that get louder and louder and louder.

And then the wind starts blowing and howling and it starts thrashing the trees.

And then you begin to see streaks of lightning.

And sometimes you can see streaks of lightning firing down all across the valley.

They look like streaks of fire.

And so sometimes we'll turn off all the lights and we'll sit in the window and we'll just watch these storms come until they're literally shaking the cabin that we're in.

And there's something awe-inspiring about seeing a thunderstorm like that.

There's something, a kind of glory, a kind of a sense of awe and majesty that you experience when you see a storm like that up close.

And so it's no wonder that in Psalm 29 when David is looking for a metaphor to try to capture the glory of God in an image,

he chooses the image of this ferocious thunderstorm.

And that's the image that we see here in this psalm.

And this psalm is really all about God's glory.

And when we talk about God's glory, we're talking about God's majesty, God's awe-inspiring beauty,

God's nature, which is beautiful but also terrifying and fearsome and uncontrollable.

And this theme of God's glory is extremely relevant for us, particularly at this cultural moment.

It's something that I think we need to be reminded of.

It may, in fact, arguably be the most important theme for us to grasp that there is.

And if we understand God's glory and if we understand something about what it means to worship a God of this kind of glory,

it will help us make sense of our lives.

It will help us make sense of our hearts.

It will help us make sense of the circumstances in which we find ourselves right now.

And so we're going to look at Psalm 29, which tells us at least two things about glory.

So let's pray, and then we will get started.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

And this week in particular, we thank you for using David so long ago to pen these words.

And we pray that you would, through the power of your spirit, open these words up to us,

that they would cease to simply be ink on paper,

and that they would become something that is alive and dynamic and spirit-filled.

And that through these written words, we would come to see your living word, Jesus Christ, face-to-face.

And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.

So Psalm 29 tells us two things about glory.

And the first is this, and I'm going to borrow a phrase from Paul Tripp when he preached a sermon on this,

which I really love this phrasing.

He says that in this psalm, we see that we are hardwired for glory,

that human beings are hardwired for glory.

We are, in other words, glory-seeking creatures.

There's a reason why we love experiences like sunsets or like thunderstorms.

There's a reason why we crave these things.

And there's a reason why we're compelled to stop what we're doing and watch when something like this is happening.

And it's because there is a kind of glory in these experiences.

They give us a sense of awe.

They give us a sense of something much bigger and more powerful than ourselves.

They give us a sense of majesty.

And it seems that human beings, we have something deep down that craves these experiences of awe and majesty.

I think it's the reason that we love live music.

As much as we love music, there's something about going to a concert.

And I bet if you took a minute, you could probably think back to the best concert you've ever been to.

And probably if you think back to why that concert was great, there was a sense of glory in it.

There was a sense of awe and majesty in it.

There's a reason why so many people love sports and love to go see sports live whenever we can.

When you see a player make an unexpectedly amazing play,

or when an underdog team makes an unexpected surprise come from behind victory,

these are experiences of glory.

And something inside us comes alive when we get to witness something like that happen.

But it can also happen in smaller things like an unforgettable meal.

Think of maybe the best food you've ever eaten, the best meal experience you've ever had.

There's a kind of glory in that.

Or getting to see and hold a newborn baby for the first time.

That's an amazing, awe-filled experience.

Hiking and finally reaching the peak of a very tall mountain.

And that moment when you reach the top and you look out and you see the view laid out before you,

there's a sense of glory in that.

There's a sense of glory and awe and majesty in sexual intimacy and in romance.

That thrill, that thrill when you first start to fall in love,

the way your heart speeds up.

There's a sense of glory in that.

Even something like graduation, or if you're in sales, making a huge sale,

or getting a promotion, or finishing a really hard, long project that you've been working on

when you finally finish it.

In all of these experiences, we get to taste and get a little glimpse of glory.

And these are what we might consider lesser glories.

These are lesser glories.

And lesser glories in life are meant to point us to the ultimate glory, which is God's glory.

That's why we have these experiences and why we crave these experiences.

Psalm 19 tells us that God created this world to declare his glory.

Isaiah 43 tells us that God created his people to declare his glory.

Ephesians 3 verse 20 says that all glory belongs to God.

Ephesians 3:20

So the entire purpose of existence, the reason that you and I are even here,

is to proclaim God's glory.

God's glory to make known.

To make known God's excellence.

So that when people look at this world, or when people look at us,

they would say, isn't God amazing?

And that's why we're here.

And so when we see a beautiful sunset, or a raging storm,

when we get to hold a newborn child,

these experiences are meant to lead us to ascribe glory to God.

They're meant to lead us to say, isn't God amazing?

Isn't God creative?

Isn't God powerful?

Isn't God gracious?

So we're hardwired for glory because that's the reason that we're here.

That's why God made us and why God made the world.

But there's a problem.

There's a problem with all of this.

And we see this problem right here in verse 2 of this psalm.

It says, David writes,

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.

And you say, well, what's the problem with that?

That sounds exactly right.

The problem is this.

Why would David have to tell us to do that?

Why would David have to tell us to ascribe glory to the Lord?

To ascribe to the Lord the glory that he is owed?

Why would that be something that's necessary to say?

And the reason, and this leads us to the second point,

the reason is that instead of being people who live for God's glory,

which is why we're here,

we have become hostages to lesser glories.

Our hearts have been hijacked, so to speak.

And now every human being is born into a hostage situation.

We are held hostage to lesser glories.

Now, I want to explain what I mean by this.

The God of the Bible, his covenant name is Yahweh.

So anytime in scripture you see a capital L-O-R-D,

the Lord in all caps,

what that's actually referring to in the Hebrew is Yahweh.

So this is God's covenant name, his personal name.

So the God of the Bible, Yahweh,

was utterly unique in the ancient Near East

in that he revealed himself as the one true God

who is over all people.

He's not geographically limited.

He's over all people.

And he is over all of the natural phenomena of the world.

So as verse 10 says,

the Lord, Yahweh, sits enthroned over the flood.

He's the God who sits enthroned over the storm.

He's the God who sits enthroned over the sun

and the moon and the stars.

And that's very important

because if you look at other ancient Near Eastern religions,

these natural phenomena,

things like floods or the sun or the moon

or thunderstorms or the ocean or even childbirth,

people worshiped these phenomena as deities themselves.

People took these lesser glories

and they said,

well, here's a place,

here's something that gives me a sense of awe

and majesty and glory.

There must be something worth worshiping here.

And so religions grew up around the worship

of these various awe-inspiring, glory-filled events

like sunsets or thunderstorms.

But God from the very beginning,

when he revealed himself,

revealed himself as being the God

who is above all of these things,

the God of the storm,

the God of the sun or over the sun.

And the point that I want to make

is that that's not just something

that we see in ancient times

and in ancient religions,

the worship of these lesser glories.

It's actually something

that is a part of human nature

and something that we see in ancient times,

but we also see it every bit as much

in modern times.

So all human beings,

in one way or another,

have come to worship lesser glories.

We've actually been taken hostage

by lesser glories.

Instead of glorifying God over all things,

we worship the things that God has made,

the things that are a part of this world.

So some people get fixated on entertainment

and having the next best experience

they can possibly have.

Some people get fixated on food and drink,

and it's all about pursuing the pleasure

of food and drink.

Some people get fixated on sports.

They don't just like sports or enjoy sports,

but they become obsessed with sports,

and then it becomes a part of their sense of identity

and worth and value.

Some people get overly fixated

on sexual gratification

and novel sexual experiences

because there's that rush

that comes with the novelty.

Some people get fixated on being beautiful

or on being attractive

or on gaining the affirmation of other people.

That's where they feel a sense of glory and worth.

Some people get fixated on success.

Some people get fixated on comfort and safety.

Some people very overtly pursue

and try to build their own glory in the world.

And there have been entire cultures

that were built around personal glory

and seeking glory for yourself and your family.

The Bible would call all of these kinds of glory

lesser glories, right?

And so when we have these experiences

that are meant to point us to God's glory,

what we find is that our hearts instead

want to hold onto and worship

and ascribe glory to the experiences themselves.

And this is exactly what Paul's talking about

in Romans chapter one,

where he says our deepest problem,

and he's talking about all human beings,

our deepest problem as human beings

is that we have, as he says,

exchanged the glory of the immortal God

for created things.

We've made this exchange

where we worship and glorify the things

that God made over God himself.

As C.S. Lewis famously wrote in The Weight of Glory,

we are half-hearted creatures,

fooling around with drink and sex and ambition

when infinite joy is offered us,

like an ignorant child who wants to go on

making mud pies in a slum

because he cannot imagine what is meant

by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

So the problem is not that we have too much desire.

The problem is that we're half-hearted.

We're too easily pleased.

We've settled for lesser glories

and we've forsaken the source

and the maker of all things glorious,

God himself,

the one to whom all glory should be ascribed.

And there are at least three major problems with this

that might help make sense of life a little bit more.

The first problem when we make this exchange

is that we're never going to be satisfied

by the lesser glories of this world.

We're never going to be satisfied

by the lesser glories of this world.

You can have the most amazing experience,

the most amazing concert,

the most amazing new relationship with somebody,

the most amazing sexual experience,

the most amazing food and drink,

the most amazing vacation adventure.

You can have these amazing experiences,

but very often once the experience is over,

they leave us feeling not a sense of completeness

and wholeness,

but rather a sense of emptiness,

a sense of longing.

When you have a mountaintop experience,

often on the other side of that,

there can be a kind of mild to moderate depression

that sets in.

And that can be really hard to deal with.

A lot of times research shows us

that what we'll do after an experience like that

is to try to bring back the memories

and reminisce about the experience

to try to prolong that emotional high

as much as we can.

But almost invariably,

they leave us with a sense of emptiness

because they're not meant to satisfy us completely.

So that's the first problem.

They'll never really satisfy

the deepest parts of ourselves,

these lesser glories.

The second problem that's kind of related to that

is that sometimes we can actually become addicted

to lesser glories.

Heroin, people recovering from heroin addiction

will often talk about that first high.

And that first high,

when they first used heroin,

that becomes the standard.

And every time they use heroin after that,

it's never as good.

And so people will talk about spending all of their time,

all of their money,

all of their energy,

everything chasing that high,

chasing,

trying to get back to that first high.

And they'll chase it all the way into the grave.

Now that's a more extreme example,

but the same kind of thing

can happen in many different areas of life.

We're always chasing after the dopamine rush

of a new purchase or the next great meal

or a new sexual encounter

or a bigger sale or a more important job.

And it can easily become this never ending chase

where we're always going after the next thing,

but it's never satisfying us.

And this can, for some people,

become quite addictive.

The third problem

is I think the most significant

and the one we need to pay attention to.

Life will only ever make sense

if you realize that all of this

is actually about God's glory.

Your life will only ever really make sense

once you realize that all of this exists

and you exist for God's glory.

If you are like most people

and you assume that life is all about us being happy,

the pursuit of happiness,

and it's all about us being satisfied,

and being fulfilled,

then how do you make sense of something

like a global pandemic?

If you believe in God,

but you think God's primary role

is to make sure that we're happy,

to make sure that we're satisfied,

to make sure that we have what we need.

This is what the sociologist Christian Smith found

when he researched religious belief in America,

that a lot of people,

including a lot of Christians,

think that that's God's primary role in our lives

is just to kind of make sure we have what we need

and that we're happy at work.

If you believe that about life

and if you believe that about God,

how do you make sense of something like a global pandemic?

How do you make sense of economic collapse?

Right?

It's going to be hard to make sense of these things.

But if you believe the words of Isaiah 42, 8,

where God says,

I am the Lord,

I am Yahweh,

that is my name,

my glory,

I give to no other.

If you believe those words

and if you recognize

that God will relentlessly do

whatever is necessary

to strip away

the things that compete for him,

compete with him for glory,

that he will relentlessly do

whatever is necessary

to strip those competitors away.

And you realize

that God is doing this

out of love for his people.

You realize that

that God desires his people

to thrive and flourish.

But the thing that we most need

for our lives to flourish

is for our lives

to be centered around God's glory.

If you realize that,

then your life is going to start

to make a little more sense.

Then you're going to start

to be able to make sense

not only of the good things

that we would immediately recognize

as blessings,

but you will also begin

to rethink the hardships in your life.

Because you'll realize

that God's ultimate aim

is his glory shining through us.

And there's a lot of different ways

that God can bring that about

in our lives.

So we're hardwired for God's glory,

but our hearts have been hijacked.

And so now we are held hostage

to these lesser glories.

Instead of pointing us

to God's glory,

they've become gods themselves

in our hearts.

And so the last question we'll ask is,

what hope is there for us?

If you look at verse 11,

the last line of the psalm,

it says,

may the Lord bless his people with peace.

Now, if you've read the psalm,

that should be an odd verse

to encounter for you.

It's kind of an odd ending to the psalm.

Because David has just described

this God who is this ferocious,

terrifying thunderstorm,

a God who describes this God

with flashes of lightning

lighting up the sky with fire

and wind tearing up trees

by their roots

and thunder so terrifying

that it causes deer

to go into,

to prematurely give birth

to their young.

And so this is very clearly

a storm of destruction.

And so the question is,

how do you calm a storm like this

and make peace possible?

How do you bring a blessing of peace

out of a storm this fierce?

One day, years later,

after David wrote this psalm,

Jesus was with his disciples

and they were on a fishing boat

in the Sea of Galilee.

And the Sea of Galilee is known

for very ferocious storms

coming up out of nowhere.

And one such storm came

while they were out fishing

while Jesus was sleeping in the boat.

And so the storm comes up,

Jesus is asleep,

the disciples are terrified,

they think they're gonna die,

so they shake Jesus awake

and they say, save us, save us,

we're all gonna die.

And so Jesus rises up

and he simply says to the storm,

peace, be still.

And the storm ceases

and all is peaceful.

And you realize when you read this account

that only the God

who sits enthroned above the storm,

the God who sits enthroned

above all of that chaos

would have the power

to do that kind of thing.

And this is why Jesus Christ came,

to calm the storm,

to calm the storm

and bring God's blessing

to his people,

God's blessing of peace.

But the storm that Jesus

really came to bring peace to

is not the storm on the Sea of Galilee,

it's the storm of the wrath of God.

And so the true storm

that Jesus came for

is the storm that manifests itself

at Calvary

as Jesus hangs on the cross.

Scripture tells us

that when Jesus was crucified,

darkness fell across the land.

The earth shook.

The storm of God's wrath

was being poured out

on God's Son

instead of human beings.

On that day,

Jesus received

what we deserved.

Jesus took upon himself

all of the wrath

that was meant for us,

for all of the ways

that we have exchanged

God's glory

for these lesser glories.

And then three days later

when Jesus rose again,

he came to his disciples

and what did he say to them?

Peace be with you.

The storm has been calmed.

The storm has been,

the storm has abated.

And I am here

to fulfill this prayer.

The blessing of God's peace

is now upon you.

And so the gospel is this.

The gospel is really,

here's how we see it

playing out in this psalm.

You are hardwired for glory.

You're hardwired for God's glory.

But all of us begin our lives

as hostages

to lesser glories.

And you will never be satisfied.

And your life

will never really make sense

until you realize

that about yourself

and the reason that you're here.

And so Jesus Christ came

to calm the storm

of God's wrath

in order to bring

everlasting peace

and to set us free.

And when His glory,

when the glory of Jesus Christ,

when that starts to become

the center of your life,

what you realize is that

even the greatest experiences

you have,

it doesn't diminish

those experiences,

but it shows you

what they're for.

And so even the greatest

experiences we have,

the most beautiful sunsets,

or the best food,

those things begin to do

what God intended,

which is they begin

to point us,

to point our hearts,

to the ultimate source

of glory,

God Himself.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank You

for Your Word

and we thank You

for Your glory.

And we pray that

whatever sits

at the center of our lives,

whatever lesser glories

sit at the center

of our lives,

we pray that those

would be displaced

through the glory

of the cross.

And we believe

that that would not

diminish our enjoyment

of this world,

but that it would

magnify it,

that it would enhance it,

because it would show us

what all of the joy

and all of the glory

in this world is for,

Lord,

and that our hearts,

Lord,

as we live our lives

and have these

great experiences

that You bless us with,

that our hearts

would naturally

turn toward You

and that we would

ascribe all of that glory

to Your name

where it belongs.

And we pray this

in Your Son's holy name.

in your life through

and have each

Speark

andoso

and