July 28, 2007
Awesome!
READ: Psalm 47
The Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. —Psalm 47:2
It’s an often-used word, and we hear it in the most unusual contexts. It’s the word awesome.
My 9-year-old grandson Josh and I were playing with a radio-controlled racecar set on the living room floor. Several times he would say, “Awesome!”
On another occasion, as my wife and I were leaving a restaurant, the manager, who was standing by the door, asked, “How was everything, folks?” “Fine,” I replied. “Awesome!” he said.
These two occasions set me to thinking: While it’s fun to play with my grandson and to enjoy a meal at a restaurant, are these experiences really awesome? So I consulted Mr. Webster’s unabridged dictionary. The primary definition lists awesome as “deeply reverent,” “dreadful,” “awful.” I remembered the time that I stood on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. That was truly an awesome experience.
Then I thought of a more awe-inspiring reality still. It’s knowing the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe. No wonder the psalmist wrote, “The LORD Most High is awesome” (Ps. 47:2).
The next time we hear the word awesome, may it remind us of our great God, who truly is awesome!
Filling earth and sky,
Everywhere Thy wonders open
To our searching eye. —Peterson
© 1965 John W. Peterson Music Co.
