God S Wonderful Wisdom and Works

January 22, 2017

ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON

GOD’S WONDERFUL WISDOM AND WORKS

MINISTRY INVOCATION

“O God: We give thanks to You for the manifold blessings to us. You did not have to bless us but You did. We shall remain eternally grateful. Amen.”

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND

To praise the LORD is to honor the LORD and show our love and thankfulness toward God for who God is and how God thinks and acts especially toward His creation and uspersonally. Our soul connects us with God and for Christians our soul connects usdirectly with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

THE APPLIED FULL GOSPEL DISTINCTIVE

We believe in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost for all believers and that the Holy Ghost verifies and validates the Believer as part of the Body of Christ.

TEXT:

Background Scripture –

Key Verse –

Lesson Scripture –Psalms 104:1-4 & 24-30

Psalm 104:1–4 (NKJV)

Praise to the Sovereign Lord For His Creation and Providence

1Bless the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, You are very great:

You are clothed with honor and majesty,

2Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment,

Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain.

3He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters,

Who makes the clouds His chariot,

Who walks on the wings of the wind,

4Who makes His angels spirits,

His ministers a flame of fire.

Psalm 104:24–30 (NKJV)

24O Lord, how manifold are Your works!

In wisdom You have made them all.

The earth is full of Your possessions—

25This great and wide sea,

In which are innumerable teeming things,

Living things both small and great.

26There the ships sail about;

There is that Leviathan

Which You have made to play there.

27These all wait for You,

That You may give them their food in due season.

28What You give them they gather in;

You open Your hand, they are filled with good.

29You hide Your face, they are troubled;

You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

30You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;

And You renew the face of the earth.

COMMENTARY

Verses 1, 2. Clothed as in Job 11:10; Is. 51:9; Ps. 93:1. This expression, shows that there is here described, not the eternal glory of God’s being nor the light that is inaccessible as God’s dwelling, but the royal splendor and majestic glory that are reflected in the created universe. The heavens as a tent-curtain stretched out.

Verse 3. The contradictory expressions, in which it is said that the upper rooms are framed with beams, and that the latter consist, of water, serve at once to show the error of any sensuous conception, and to represent the exaltation and immaterial nature of the heavenly King.

Verse 4. The double accusative makes the true translation doubtful. According to the common construction we must render: He makes His messengers winds and can then put angels in the place of messengers. As there is no occasion to mention angels as heavenly ministers, in connection with the forces of nature, we are justified in approving the other construction, which is also admissible.

Verse 24.—O Lord, how manifold are thy works! It breaks the continuity of his description but not unpleasingly. In wisdom hast thou made them all The earth is full of thy riches; or possessions. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof” (Ps. 24:1). Creation gives the right of ownership.

Verse 25.—So is this great and wide sea; rather, yonder sea too (is thy work), so great and wide-stretching. Wherein are things creeping (rather, moving things) innumerable. The abundant life of the sea, even in its depths, is the admiration of all naturalists. Tens of thousands of microscopic shells have been brought to light by the dredger’s labors almost everywhere. Both small and great beasts. Microscopic shell-fish on the one hand; seals, walruses, sharks, whales, on the other.

Verse 26.—There go the ships. These may seem out of place among the works of God. But are they not his, in a certain sense? Did he not contemplate them when he made the sea, and make it to some extent for them? And did he not give men wisdom to invent and perfect them? There is that leviathan. “Leviathan” is here probably the whale, which may in early times have frequented the Mediterranean. Which thou hast made to play therein; or, to play with him.

Verse 27.—These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. As cattle have “grass,” and lions “meat,” from God, so every kind of animal receives from the same source its proper food.

Verse 28.—That thou givest them they gather; literally, thou givest to them; they gather. Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good; or, “are satisfied with good” (Kay, Revised Version).

Verse 29.—Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled. If God withdraws tile light of his countenance from any living thing, instantly it feels the loss. It is “troubled,” cast down, confounded. Thou takest away their breath, they die. As the living things have life from God, so they have death from him. Not one of them perishes but he knows it, and causes it or allows it. And return to their dust. Return, i.e., to the dead matter out of which they were created.

Verse 30.—Thou sendest forth thy spirit, or, thy breath. As God “breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7), so it is an effluence from him that gives life to every living thing. They are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.