We humans ask questions. Some are fundamental. Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going? Do I have a purpose? Others are circumstantial. What will I do as a vocation? Where will I live? Whom will I marry?
Yet, the fount of all these questions is the one that ought to be our main pursuit to answer: Who is God? It is no mere rhetorical or abstract query. The implications are far reaching into every aspect of our lives. It is also staring us in the face at our deaths. And it speaks to what there is after death.
Human attempts to answer the question are many and varied. Some choose the nebulous of a higher power or “something out there”. Others simply refuse to seek an answer. Still others would look inward, thinking to find God within themselves. And yet since the beginning of time, there have been those who have found the answer in the God who has revealed Himself in creation and in the Scriptures.
I could point you to numerous, excellent summaries of answers. Chapter 2 of the Westminster Confession of Faith would be a good place to start. And yet, all human summaries are limited. Our language is insufficient, so we must use the words God has condescended to give us in the Scriptures. But even those words are enough to fill our hearts and minds with worthy and profitable contemplation for ages.
Just as an exercise, I turned in my Bible to the opening words, asking myself what does this tell me about God. In a mere thirty-one verses, I learn:
- God is eternal - v.1
- God exists of and from himself; He is not created (the technical term is aseity) - v.1
- God is the creator of all things, which also speaks of His sovereignty and power - v.1
- God is involved in this created world in a caring manner; that is what the language of the Spirit of God hovering over the war is conveying - v.2
- God speaks - vv. 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28
- God evaluates - vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31
- God names - vv. 5, 8, 10
- God blesses - vv. 22, 28
- God commands - vv. 22, 28
- God provides - vv. 29-30
- God images Himself in humankind, both male and female - vv. 26-27
- God is relational; the reference to the Spirit in v. 2 and the plural “us” in v. 26 points to this, even if indirectly
In one chapter, twelve statements that give some answer to the question, Who is God? Each one, a person could spend their whole life considering and never fully plumb the depths. And they barely scratch the surface. Saint, when we gather each Lord’s Day, we speak to and address many questions. But at the heart of our worship, we are reminding ourselves of the answers to that question and seeking even greater understanding so that those answers would enliven and direct our worship.
