That’s awesome!” the waitress said as I ordered my meal.
“It’s that good?” I replied skeptically.
“It’s awesome!” she repeated.
The food was good. But I wouldn’t call it “awesome.”
We’ve cheapened the word awesome. We call a dessert awesome, a touchdown awesome, or a vacation awesome. But Scripture reserves the highest sense of the word for God Himself. He alone is truly awesome because He alone possesses infinite power, perfect holiness, absolute sovereignty, and eternal majesty.
In Psalm 47, the sons of Korah call the whole world to worship because “the LORD Most High is awesome.”
Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
For the LORD Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
(Psalm 47:1-2)
The Hebrew word translated “awesome” (yārēʾ) carries the idea of One who inspires reverential fear, awe, and profound respect. It is much richer than our modern use of the word to describe a pizza, a football game, or a job promotion.
What comes to your mind when you think about God?
A. W. Tozer famously observed, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
He argued that a diminished view of God leads to diminished worship. Recovering God’s awesomeness restores true reverence. Psalm 47 calls us back to that lofty view of God.
Too often, we leave God out of our daily lives until we feel an urgent need, and then we call on Him to intervene…right now! Tozer also reminds us that “God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things done.”
Charles Spurgeon, in The Treasury of David, wrote, “The Infinite is not to be trifled with. Mere magnitude should make us tremble; the Infinite Jehovah should be adored…The Lord is not only to be praised because He is gracious, but also because He is glorious.”
That is precisely the message of Psalm 47. God’s greatness demands our worship.
Sadly, we live in a materialistic age and a secular culture where we fail to see God’s greatness and majesty. R. C. Sproul once lamented, “We have lost our sense of awe.” He often taught that modern Christianity has lost sight of God’s holiness, replacing reverence with casual familiarity.
Sproul also said, “When people ask me, ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ I answer, ‘People don’t know who God is.’”
When we recover our awe of God, our praise becomes deeper, our faith stronger, and our obedience more joyful.
One of the benefits of reading the Psalms is being reminded of who God is—His nature, His character, His personality, and His awesomeness.
- Psalm 65:5 speaks of God’s “awesome deeds.”
- Psalm 66:3 declares, “How awesome are Your works.”
- Psalm 99:3 reminds us that God’s name alone is “great and awesome.”
God is awesome because He alone is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He is immutable, infinite, and sovereign.
God is awesome in His creative power, His providential care, His blessings to His people, and His ability to refine us through life’s trials.
God is awesome in His character. He is merciful, gracious, kind, loving, faithful, holy, and just.
God is awesome because of His power to help, defend, protect, avenge, and deliver.
Above all, God is awesome because of His deep love and rich mercy bestowed upon sinful humanity. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, conquer death through His resurrection, and make it possible for us to be saved and dwell with Him forever.
Because God is awesome, I will praise His mighty works, extol His virtues, sing of His greatness, and magnify His holy name.
No wonder contemporary songwriter Rich Mullins captured this truth so memorably:
Our God is an awesome God,
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power, and love,
Our God is an awesome God!
He was right.
Our God truly is awesome—not because He impresses us for a moment, but because He reigns forever as the holy, sovereign King over all the earth.
May we never lose our sense of awe.
—Ken Weliever, The Preacherman
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