We turn in the Word of God to 1 Timothy 6, and then Psalm 104. Let's stand together. 1 Timothy 6, one of the many places in the New Testament where the light and glory of God, and here shining in the face of Jesus Christ, is set before us. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called, and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. And now from Psalm 104, the first four verses. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, You are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, who makes the clouds His chariot, who walks on the wings of the wind, who makes His angels' spirits, His ministers, a flame of fire. Grass withers, the flower fades, but this word of God endures forever. So some of you may have been wondering after we had finished preaching of the word through the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Galatian churches, what's next after that? And I can give you a little heads up. With the Lord's help, we studied together. from Psalm 104 for the next four weeks, and then a few occasional sermons, and then the Lord willing, and by His help and grace, turn to the Gospel of Luke. And then in coming years, if some of you want long-term thoughts about preaching, not exactly sure of the order, but books like Romans and Hebrews and Revelation are things that I am thinking and praying over. Psalm 104. It is a companion psalm to Psalm 103 that we just prayed through and sang from. Psalm 103 is a psalm of David, and it seems that Psalm 104 is the same. It follows in the same patterns and is dealing with some of the same themes. Psalm 103, if we were to move through it quickly, Psalm of praise and blessing. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And you'll notice that Psalm 104 begins with, Bless the Lord, O my soul. Psalm 103 ends with, Bless the Lord, O my soul. Psalm 104 ends with, Bless the Lord, O my soul. There's a link between the two. It tells us already what the genre, the genre of these psalms is clear. They're praise psalms of a particular type. They're psalms that are both meditations, and exuberant praises at the same time. The psalmist, when he says, bless the Lord, O my soul, he's speaking to himself and he's instructing himself on how to respond to God. We'll get into that in a moment. Psalm 103. Going back to the previous psalm, we don't have time to go through it, but you can think of it as a set of steps that rise higher and higher in the contemplation of God, beginning with His benefits, then His essential character and glory, and then Psalm 103, verse 19, the Lord has established His throne in heaven, His kingdom rules over all. And from there, the king, turns, as it were, at the end of Psalm 103, to the entirety of the cosmos, and he says, Bless the Lord, you His angels. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts. Bless the Lord, you ministers of His who do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul." And the worship leader, God's ordained king, now Jesus Christ holding that place and office in the light and glory of the new covenant, is saying to the entirety of the cosmos, bless the Lord. Psalm 104, in a sense, is like Putting a ladder on top of a ladder. Psalm 103 verse 19, the Lord has established His throne in heaven, His kingdom rules over all. Or another way to put it is like a magnifying glass on that theme at the end of Psalm 103. The kingship of God over the entirety of the realm which is His creation. And Psalm 104, we'll see in the coming weeks, has many grand themes about not only creation and providence, but also redemption, even the new creation. And I'll go to the end of the psalm and give you a hint of that. There's this, I will sing to the Lord as long as I will live, verse 33, and then later in verse 35, may sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. There's a longing for the purification, the redemption, the making of all things new that is in this psalm as well. Not only creation in providence, it has a strong theme of redemption and new creation. It's about praise. It's about blessing the Lord. And it's about singing. Verse 33, I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. It's a universal call. Like Psalm 103, you look to the end. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord. That's a universal call to praise. It is explosive praise to the Creator, King of the universe. It is a call to sing, to sing exuberantly, to be captivated by the glory of God. And I want to focus for a moment on that, because really at the heart, both of these Psalms, with Psalm 104 now as we zero in, is about that. It's about blessing the Lord. It's about singing. What makes people sing? What makes people sing? What makes you sing? How's that for a more personal question? What makes you break forth into exuberant declarations or ascriptions of God's majesty in song? Well, I already answered the question. It should be the majesty of God himself. Music is very emotional. It reaches our emotions. That's why it's so powerful. I was reading this week about a song, a little obscure songwriter in North Carolina, who probably you've heard this news, who wrote a song, appears in his backyard, and put a video up on YouTube, and now has, I don't know, hundreds of millions of views. What's interesting, listen to the song and watch people's reactions to it, the deep emotions that are expressed and received in music somehow cause music to strike a deep chord in us. Christian singing is different in a sense. The deep emotions that are in us are not from music, but rather they are expressed in praise and music as we have seen something of the glory of God. That's what this psalm is about. It's an inspired writer who has been captivated by that glory. By the great truths of the gospel, this in turn has moved deep emotions and fuels exuberant worship. As a matter of fact, it's impossible for this psalmist not to praise and to praise the creator king of all the earth, the creator of the ends of the earth, to use Isaiah's phrase, who never faints or grows weary, and that's what we'll study. The exuberant, emotional, verbal, musical we'll see later in the coming weeks. Praise of God, the creator king of the entire cosmos. That's the theme of this song. We're going to study the first four verses this morning and we'll study the following. First the opening declaration, then the opening picture, And then we'll look at four lessons that we can learn. An opening declaration and an opening picture. First, again, a few opening comments on Psalm 104. Bless the Lord, O my soul. What does that mean? Same command I said a moment ago that starts and ends, beginning and ending of Psalm 103 and Psalm 104. And when you think of the word blessing, you might think of what is one of the primary meanings of the word, which is gift. And you might think the Lord blesses us. Now, how could I bless the Lord? What does that mean? It's true that blessing can be a gift and grant that God gives to us. And again, think of that. I receive something. Something is bestowed on me. But there's a second meaning of this word in Hebrew, this word barak, and it's to praise. And it's to use words to declare the honor and glory of another. to ascribe to another praise and honor, to bless another. And again, I will keep talking about this. In this psalm, it is musical praise. I will sing to the Lord as long as I will live. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being, verse 33. It is the command, bless the Lord, O my soul. The command is to ascribe verbal praise and adoration to God. He is the object, bless the Lord, Yahweh, I am who I am, the personal name of God, the covenant God of the Old Testament. Secondly, and we're gonna get, again, into the broader themes of this psalm, it is the Lord, particularly in this psalm, in reference to His works of creation and providence, but also redemption we'll see in the coming weeks, but especially the Creator King. And it views the Lord in His throne room and His heavenly glory. That's the central picture, especially in the first four verses. It is a direct vision, the entirety of the psalm, of the king on his throne. Again, that's the emphasis today, that's what we'll study today, the king on his throne, but also the entirety of his realm under that throne. And if you can think of, and we'll go back to Isaiah 66, the Lord says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. The vision, the picture in the poetry of Psalm 104 is the king on his throne and then the entirety of the realm of creation under him. And I was thinking to myself that you could kind of think of this psalm with two images that maybe you've seen. How many of you have heard of the pale blue dot image? Maybe one or two of you. Not a lot of people nodding. But 1990, Voyager 1, the space probe, deep in the universe, just before the cameras turned off, turned around and took a picture of Earth from I don't know how many millions of miles away. It's just a tiny blue dot in an incomparably great expanse. And it reminds us of the smallness but also the uniqueness of the earth. There's a sense in which the psalm begins with that perspective, the grandeur and glory of the heavens. And then there's a second picture that I think of when I think of this psalm, the realm. You can think of another picture of the Earth from space, which is the close-up view of the world itself. It's the close-up view of the globe, where you can see countries and rivers and oceans and clouds and the detail of it and the uniqueness of the Earth in the cosmos. Those two pictures, perhaps, are a good way to divide the psalm. We're going to be studying the throne and the idea of the throne of God from Psalm 11. I want to trace this throne idea through the Psalms. The throne of God is mentioned again and again and again. Psalm 11, the Lord sits on his throne. We read that he sits on his throne. He is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men. So he's on his throne and he's looking down on heaven. It's the same language, for example, as the Lord at the Tower of Babel. He's looking down from His throne. Throne language, Psalm 45. I'll just give you a few examples of this enduring Old Testament picture of the Lord on His throne. Psalm 45 and verse 6. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. The throne of God is this enduring picture of His glory and His rule. God reigns over the nations. Psalm 47 verse 8, God sits on His holy throne. Psalm 93, we have the same picture again. The Lord is on His holy throne. We have more pictures of the same. Isaiah chapter 6. They see the vision of the Lord on his throne, train of his robe filled the temple. And the angelic, remember this, the angelic attendants who cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord God Almighty. It's a throne room picture. Daniel chapter 7, Daniel sees the Ancient of Days on the throne. Revelation chapter 4, John sees the Lord on his throne and then the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb of God, comes and he takes the scroll and the Father and the Son rule together from the throne of heaven. Again, heaven is my throne, says the Lord, earth is my footstool. The praise in the psalm is directed to God in light of this particular reality that He He reigns as Creator-King from His throne in heaven over all things on the earth, and that this reign is glorious. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And perhaps the key phrase is the second half of verse 1. Like so many of the Psalms, here's the big idea of the Psalm. O Lord my God, You are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. Very great. The immense greatness and glory of God here. His honor and His majesty, the weight of His glory, communicated to us over the realms of all the earth. Now, a couple more things about Psalm 104 and its opening statement. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Lord, You are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. This Lord who is great and clothed with honor and majesty is depicted, as I said earlier, over the realm of creation. Now, how does the psalm describe that realm? It actually does so in a profoundly interesting way. It does so by reference to the seven days of the creation week. Matter of fact, if you read Psalm 104 very carefully, you'll see that the realms and created things of the created order are here all through this psalm. Verse 2, there's light. Verse 3, there's the waters of the expanse or the firmament. Verses 6 through 9, there's the division of water and dry land. Verses 12 through 14, there's vegetation. There's inhabitants of the realms. There's the sun and the moon in verse 9. There's the birds and the sea creatures in verse 12 and 17 and 25. In verse 11 and 14 and 18, there's animals and man. The entirety of God's creation and direct allusion to the work of creation is the pattern of the entire psalm. More than that, the entire creation week there seems to be even an allusion to God's enjoyment of His own works. If you look later in the psalm, verse 31, May the Lord rejoice in his works. Sixth day of creation, Genesis 1 and verse 31. What does God do? He surveys his creation, all that he has done and behold, it was very good. And then he rested this Sabbath day, rejoicing in his works. The king clothed with honor and majesty, very great, ruling over the entirety of the created order that he made by the word of his power in the space of six days and all very good. The whole picture here is God over his creation, God in the heavens over the earth. And already here we have some things that we can learn. God communicates His glory in these things. We're going to see that more clearly in the coming weeks, but in broad strokes, two instructions already from the psalm. I think that it is important that if you are not interested in God's created works, that you would repent. If you have no interest in learning about the world God has made, the Bible would tell you, you have no interest in seeing His glory. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained. That's the psalmist, that's David in Psalm 8. What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you visit him. Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God, the son is like a bridegroom from his chamber. We read about Solomon who he gave all his Proverbs, but he also had a penetrating knowledge of the natural world through the wisdom God gave him by the Holy Spirit. How does God describe himself again and again? The Lord who made the heavens and the earth. The Lord who made the heavens and the earth. Our help is in the name of the Lord, you heard this morning, the maker of heaven and earth. Jonah wakes up from his sleep on the ship. Who are you? I'm a Hebrew, and I serve the Lord who made the sea and the dry land. Heaven's the earth, rather, the sea and the dry land. It's an impoverished Christian who fails to be interested in the natural order of things. And I could give you many theologians that are examples. Think of Jonathan Edwards, who, I've probably said this to you before, he's not only a famous theologian, he wrote a treatise on spiders. Did you know that about Jonathan Edwards? Think of another theologian, Charles Hodge, who manned the weather station at Princeton. Watched the clouds go by, the rising and the setting of the sun, and had a keen eye for the things that God had made. John Murray, who when he was traveling from Los Angeles to Alberta, Canada, the Canadian Rockies, stopped with Lawrence Ayers in a grove of redwood trees. First grove he saw, he stopped, he got out of the car, he said, stop the car, get out of the car, he looked up, he was amazed. This great theologian, Lawrence Ayers writes, every time we got to another grove of redwood trees, he would say, stop the car, and he would get out and look at the redwood trees. And Lawrence Ayers, who was driving him, says, I started to realize that I'd been driving through these groves all my life, and here John Murray, with his one good eye, because he had a glass eye, in one trip had seen more of the glory of God and the things that he had made than I had ever noticed. Don't be disinterested. God is our creator. You should also stir up worship. Not just for the things that he has made. I want you to remember this. Oh Lord my God, here's the conclusion of the psalmist as it were after his meditation. You are very great. And he lifts his eyes from the works of God. How manifold are your works, O Lord, he'll say later. In wisdom you have made them all. And he sees in the works of God the wisdom and the power and the glory and the infinity of God. It stirs up worship. The key is, bless the Lord, O my soul. I will sing to my God. This is what the creation should do. Now the picture. The principle is, oh Lord my God, you are very great, you are clothed with honor and majesty. How does the psalmist now communicate that truth? I said earlier he does it in two ways. One, to describe the throne of God, and two, to describe the realm over which God rules. This morning we look at the throne of God in verses two through four. Children, Have you ever dreamed of being a king? Have you ever dreamed, children, of being a king or a queen? Royalty. And if you did, you probably thought about things that kings and queens have, don't you? You think about thrones and maybe carriages and processions and crowns and scepters and attendants. Robes, clothing. If you watched the coronation of King Charles just a couple months ago, you would have noticed that there were royal robes. Those robes communicated something. All of those things are here present in the psalm, and they are used to illustrate this honor, majesty, glory, and wisdom of God, and the glory of his throne room and his rule, that he has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom reigns over all. Look at some of them in the text. First of all, the robes of the king. You are clothed with honor and majesty, who cover yourself with light as with a garment." The clothing of God here, the royal robes of the Creator King, are described. From the ancient to the present day, there's a saying, what? The clothes make the man? They communicate something about you. If you have dirty clothes, Fine clothes, uniforms, communicate something. Or you think even about how clothes communicate what somebody is doing. If you were a judge, if you knew a judge, and you knew the judge at the beach, and you knew the judge in his chambers, and you knew the judge at a wedding, probably wearing three different things. Clothing is, it communicates, and it's to be appropriate to both the person and their office. It says something. It's a way of signaling something. In our day, surely should signal more modesty. We're slowly becoming an unclothed nation. Clothing, however, here is signaling glory. And the clothing is light. The honor and majesty of God are placed in parallel with light itself. You are clothed with light as with a garment. Honor and majesty, this elevated status and supreme authority is pictured as the brilliance of a robe of light itself, shining outwards with power and light, brilliant and piercing. Second aspect of the king on the throne. the throne room of the king. Where is it? Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain. God stretches out the heavens like a curtain. Every king has a place of rule. Years ago when I was a boy, I was in the Netherlands and I was in the throne room of the Netherlands and I saw the throne of the queen at the time. Now it's the throne of king Wilhelm. And what is a throne? It symbolizes rule and power. It's the place from which that rule formally emanates and is exercised and goes outwards. It's the symbol of power. It's interesting that we still see these things today. They're enduring across humanity in the ages. It's the particular place of rule. It's symbolic. And the blueprint of the throne room of God is here. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters. And if you go back to the creation week, what we have here is an allusion to is the heavens themselves and then the firmament or the expanse, the outer edge of the atmosphere is the best we can describe. That the things above and beyond, the expanse above, that that is a fitting picture of the throne room of God. As I said earlier, that picture of the pale blue dot, just gives some sense of the vastness of the cosmos. I've mentioned the James Webb Space Telescope. I still follow it. Every week new things are found. Dimensions beyond our wildest imagination. The heavens filled with galaxies and things that we don't understand so far beyond. And to the edges that we can see now, it keeps going. Heaven has been stretched out like the curtain around the throne of God, the beams of His chambers in the waters above the clouds, and He sits in the heavens. Heaven is His throne. The earth is His footstool. Again, Isaiah 66. And so far now, we have a King robed in light. His throne room is from the upper atmosphere, the farthest reaches of the universe. And do you remember what Solomon said when he prayed at the dedication of the temple? that even the heaven of heavens could not contain the glory of God, much less this temple we had built. That this is just a picture of infinite essential glory. Third aspect, the chariot. It makes the chariots as clouds who walks on the wings of the wind. A few years ago, I was driving down 101 past the airport And apparently a president was in town because I heard this thundering sound of a sizable chariot, Air Force One. I looked out the window and it was coming off the end of the runway and going into the heavens. It's an impressive sight if you've ever seen it. It's an impressive sound. It's an impressive sight. What does it project? Power. The power of the United States of America. In the ancient days, the king's chariot and his whole procession, nothing new under the sun, all of his attendants, his security and his attendants and helpers, the king and his procession, the king and his chariot is the rolling symbol of the rule of the king, the majesty of the king. The chariot of the creator king here is the storm clouds, and he walks on the wind, I love the description of the Lord that Moses gives in Deuteronomy 33. Deuteronomy 33 says this about the Lord. There is no one like the God of Jeshua and the God of Israel, who rides the heavens to help you. And His excellency is on the clouds. Clouds are His charity. He walks on the wings of the wind. He rides, plants his footsteps in the sea, the language of William Cooper's hymn, he rides upon the storm. The hurricanes are under his feet. They convey him, as it were, as his servants. Fourth aspect, the attendance of the creator king, who makes his angels spirits as ministers of flame of fire, and here is his retinue. Again, as in Psalm 103, bless the Lord, you his angels. Here we have angels again. Messengers of God, holy beings created to reflect His glory, to do His will. The messengers of God, ministers, the trusted attendants of the King. They are pictured as flames of fire reflecting the glory of the King. And here you have an unparalleled, unmatched, poetic manifestation and description of the glory of God. You have God himself, his robe is light, his throne, beams are chambers of that throne laid in the heavens, the heaven of heavens itself, the expanse of the throne room. You have the king who rides on the clouds. You have the angels that attend him. And no earthly king or president can begin to match. Air Force One and all the other jets that the powerful people of this world use can go up to 39,000 feet. Stuck in the atmosphere, maybe 40, 42. This king's chamber begins at the top and reaches to the expanse of the universe. He's glorious, utterly separate, distinct, operating on a scale that's beyond our imagination or comprehension. The Bible here presents the unmatched sovereignty, unbounded power of the living God. He made something in the expanse of the universe by which He's communicating His glory. This is why the psalmist says at the beginning, Oh Lord, my God, You are very great, clothed with honor and majesty. And that's why He's worshiping. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Sing praise to God while I have my being. Praise the Lord! And in a few lines of poetry, we are brought face to face, face to face with the God of glory. And surely, if you have some sense of that glory, life can never be the same. Men do one of two things, they run from it or they worship. Let's learn some things from the picture. Implications. First of all, the psalm is teaching this, that the Lord on the throne, the whole psalm, is the creator of all known reality, all creation. In the big picture, the pattern of this psalm echoes the days of creation. God the Father, we'll see more in a moment about the glory of Christ, is the creator. He's the one who does the manifold works. He's the one who who made them all, verse 24. There's a strong creation. He's the one who rejoices in his works, verse 31. They exist for him. The psalm is saying what is so beautifully summarized in our Westminster Shorter Catechism, a summary of biblical teaching. that God made all things out of nothing by the word of his power in the space of six days and all very good. And he made it and he reigns over it now. And I submit to you there's another implication of this psalm, which means that if you get creation wrong, you get God wrong. The doctrine of creation is to be prized by the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. God reveals his glory, even his invisible attributes, his eternal power and Godhead, through the things that he has made, Paul says to the Romans in Romans 1. Which is why I'm actually not of the view why the debate over the interpretation of Genesis 1 is irrelevant to the Church. I think it's relevant and important, critically important. This revelation of God's glorious Creator King is so clear in the Scriptures and clear without the Scriptures. What I mean by that, Romans 1 tells us, that it by itself is sufficient that no man, woman, boy, or girl who ever lived is without excuse. All should be worshipers. There is a God. Creation bears witness. Second, the God Himself. Who is He? A God of majestic glory and power who surpasses all things. I said a moment ago, Air Force One is a big chariot, probably one of the biggest ones in history. Again, the psalmist is saying that's nothing. Nothing. Look at the language again. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain. He makes the clouds His chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind, makes His angel spirits, surrounded by those ministers who are flames of fire. The sum, the communication is He alone is the supreme ruler of all creation, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of glory, the incomparable One. He reigns, the Lord has established his throne in heaven, his kingdom rules over all. Here's the picture of the king over his realm. And it is these grand thoughts and this grand presentation of God, all sovereign and glorious, that made theologians like Abraham Kuyper say, so God, as he reigns over his creation, there is not one square inch over which he does not cry, mine. Or R.C. Sproul, so there is not one maverick molecule in the universe. Nothing out of order. No out-of-control galaxies. No uncontrolled temperatures, by the way. No random asteroids. No surprise cancer cells. No independent powers. No rogue wars. No random stock market changes. Nothing, anywhere, in any place, at any time, outside of the rule and reign of the one who is clothed with honor and majesty and sits on the throne. absolutely sovereign. Where does that bring you and me? Humility, submission, and trust. Third thing, this psalm helps you see the glory of Jesus Christ. How do you do that? By meditating on God's work of creation. Genesis 1 has this refrain, and God said, and God said, and God said, and God said, let there be light. How does the New Testament, do the New Testament writers so many times introduce Jesus Christ? In John chapter one, as the eternal word, the agent of creation. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. By him all things were made. Colossians chapter one. Through the agency of Jesus Christ, Paul writes to the Colossians, all things were made. Hebrews chapter 1, through whom he made the worlds. Sometimes we focus rightly on the humanity of Jesus Christ. He's the second Adam. He's the suffering servant. He's the one in our place. But how about the deity and glory of Christ the Creator King? He's both. He's the one who is high and lifted up. This is the description of His throne room, His honor, His majesty, His light, His glory, His angels, His chariot. Why do the New Testament writers continually connect Jesus Christ to this act of creation? So that we would know that he's truly God, but also so that you would read the story of his sinless life, of his incarnation actually, his sinless life, his substance-sharing death, his resurrection, and his present reign through the lens of some of this imagery right here. As a matter of fact, if you survey this imagery and then you look at the imagery surrounding the mission of Jesus Christ, it's exactly the same. You are to learn about him from the imagery, the flashes of glory, angels attend his birth. Remember when he told Peter to go fishing and fish had a coin in his mouth. The king of creation. When he said to the wind and the waves, peace be still, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? When he fed the 5,000, and think about this, where did that come from? He made the creator of heaven and earth. bread and fish to feed the multitudes. Oh Lord my God, you are very great. He's the Word who became flesh. Everything follows after this question of identity. This glory and this psalm is in our Savior Jesus Christ. Think about His incarnation. He's the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. He's almighty God. He's the infinite who became finite. And then think about his mighty works as you think about the power of the cross and the power of the resurrection. But run especially when you think about the throne of God and the rule of Jesus Christ. How about his ascension? Do you remember what happened at his ascension? You think about this? He had said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go make disciples of the nations. And then a short while later, he ascended into heaven. And what did we read? And a cloud received him out of their sight. his chariots, the clouds. And then where did he go? He went to heaven. Heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. And what happened when he got to heaven? Revelation 4, he's surrounded by the choirs of holy angels, 10,000 times 10,000. Worthy is the lamp. And then this song, worthy are you, O Lord, for by your will all things exist and were created. and the signs of the angels, and the glory crowd, and the heavenly realm, and the throne of God, and the rule of God, all belong to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is with the garment. And you see that, for example, at the Transfiguration. Blazing in brightness and glory, and in the vision of the Revelation, His face shining like the sun in full strength. And what we just read in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 16, it is the very language of the light and glory of God. He who alone is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light. That's Jesus Christ. In Revelation 14 and 15, as the judge of all the earth, He rides the heavenly cloud to send His judgments. His second coming. What does Jesus say? He says in the Gospel of Mark, and again Paul says to the Thessalonians, that there's elements of His coming. What are they? He will come again on the clouds, from glory, with His holy angels. Clouds, light, glory, angels, the King, the King of glory, Jesus Christ, your Savior right now, in that heavenly realm. He will come on the clouds, John says, and every eye will see him. And then how about our own exaltation? When the Apostle Paul describes that second coming of Jesus Christ, he says what? He will come on the clouds. We will meet him in the clouds. And begin something of the sharing and the glory of the exaltation that belongs to those who follow him. And if you keep reading your Bible, we will sit on thrones with Him. And we will be those who, John 17, experience the glory designed to communicate this glory to you. It's the realm over which He rules in a carefully calibrated display of His own glory. The heavens declare the glory of God, not generally, but specifically, made together with the Word Again, Calvin, the word being the spectacles through which we see the glory of God to communicate who your Savior is. If you don't see, it's back to the being a student of creation. If you're not a student of creation, what will the result be? You'll have an impoverished view of Jesus Christ. Because all the ways that he has made to communicate his glory, you don't see. The New Testament introduces and magnifies Jesus Christ and his salvation with these images. So how can you use them? Meditation? Start thinking. Clouds are his chariots. He's the Son of Righteousness who rises with healing in his wings. He's surrounded by the holy angels. He himself dwells in unapproachable light. Jesus Christ himself is the light of the glory of God shining in the world. Meditate on these things and then worship. This meditation is essential fuel for worship. Two marks of unbelief is to reject the rule of God and the salvation of God. Isaiah 51 verse 13 tells us to reject the rule of God and the salvation of God, the creative power of God and His salvation. Romans 1 tells us that the unbeliever does what? He sees all this, he suppresses the truth and unrighteousness. Two essential marks of true faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ. are to read and praise him for all his works. Creator, Redeemer, King. The worship of heaven, said it a moment ago, Revelation 4 and 5, go home and read it. Redemption, creation, and glory. What should this make you do? Go home and talk to yourself. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And then, I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord. It should make you repentant, awed, worshiper of the triune God. Let us pray. Lord our God, we ask that as we see something of your reign, beauty and glory, by your word and even in the things that you have made, in your unified revelation of yourself, We pray, oh God, that we would not dishonor you by offering half-hearted lives in worship, but that we instead would honor you for proclaiming that you are very great, clothed with honor, majesty, and wisdom now and forever. We're thankful for our Savior, the word who became flesh and dwelt among us. In his name, we ask for forgiveness and mercy. Indeed, for Jesus' sake, amen. and go with God's blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. Amen.