Study 26 “The Mystery of God” Part 1

Psalm 11.1-7

I came of age at the end of the age of mystery. As a child, I heard the stories my Dad and his generation told about mysterious events they had experienced in their youth. In the days before space travel, computers, the Internet, and the Information Age, some things dwelt in the realm of mystery. No longer!

Science has destroyed all the mystery of life. Everything has been reduced to the sum of biological or physical processes. Now, we have a factual explanation for all of the seemingly unexplainable, anomalous happenings we witness. Only the uncivilized and uneducated look at nature as the realm of mystery. Even God has been explained as a function of human genes. The Lord and all we think we know of him are nothing but a biological urge.

When the original "King Kong" and "Tarzan" movies were made, many believed in the possibility of a South Seas island where gigantic behemoths dwelt. An ape-man who was Lord of the Jungle was for many not myth, but a matter of reality. The radio broadcast of H. G. Wells "War of the Worlds" caused widespread panic in America. My Dad told the story of some country cousins who, when they first saw the contrails of high-flying B-17 bombers, thought the Second Return of Jesus was happening. In a state of panic, they raced into town as fast as their mule and wagon would carry them. Today, we do not even pause any longer to watch the Space Shuttle lift off.

So, has life been swept clean of myth and mystery by the broom of science? Are we all so scientifically astute that we are embarrassed to speak of a God who dwells in the heavens? Indeed, has the mystery of God become so absurdly simplistic to our cosmopolitan minds that we no longer are comfortable with such concepts? Are we so comfortable with our down-to-earth, guy-next-door kind God, that we demand to worship in a kind of "homey family-room" and not the majestic Temple of God?

The Psalms have the capacity to restore a sense of divine wonder. "The Lord is in his holy Temple! The Lord’s Throne is in Heaven!" One form of the Hebrew word for throne is used to describe the full-moon. I remember as a child seeing the rising of the full moon in the summer. With the right atmospheric conditions (which I did not know about then and do not understand now), the moon would appear on the horizon almost as large as the earth itself. Such is the beauty and majesty of the Lord’s throne.

Isaiah, in his vision in the Temple (Isa. 6), saw "the Lord sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up." The scene in the heavenly Temple, as the prophet described it, was detailed in terms of otherworldly mystery. Fiery beings (seraphim means being of fire) floated eerily around the throne of God. As they soared through heaven’s atomosphere, they sang out to one another, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts! The earth is filled with his glory!"

Heaven and earth are full of God’s presence. Modern astronomers can give clear, concise, scientific explanations for the atomic storms that produce the sun’s heat, light, and energy. Yet, we as believers know that the sun burns and glows only because God exists. The solar firestorms will one day cease and the glory of the Lord will light the universe (Rev. 21.23). What a great mystery!

The whole of Psalm 11 revolves around verse 4: "The Lord is in his holy Temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven. For David, the ultimate reality was not the earth upon which he lived, but the eternal reality of heaven itself. So, when David was threatened, he flew not as a bird to the hills, but in confidence to the throne room of heaven. Explain that with scientific data.