Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you (Ps 66:3).
For many years the Church has sung of God’s greatness, but in recent years it seems that there has been an explosion of songs that extol this virtue. While we used to sing only “How Great Thou Art” and “I Sing the Mighty Power of God,” we now regularly hear “How Great is Our God,” “Our God is an Awesome God” and “Great and Mighty Is the Lord Our God.” (Those who are more conversant with contemporary Christian music will realize quickly that I am not because there are likely many newer songs even than these!)
There is nothing wrong or theologically false about these songs, and I don’t want to suggest that there is, but let us not be duped into believing that everyone who sings them is a believer in Jesus. The text that I quoted above makes it clear that just to see the awesome power of God does not always elicit a response of true worship and repentance. In fact, one English translation (NASB) says that, upon seeing His power, God’s enemies will give “feigned obedience” to Him.
When I read that phrase recently, my thoughts carried me to those many times when at a public funeral the audience would sing “Amazing Grace,” even though clearly there were plenty that did not believe in that grace or that they needed it themselves. Yet these people will be shown singing His praise fervently, as if to suggest that they really did believe it. I think that’s what the Psalmist meant by “feigned obedience.”
It is interesting that most of these songs that extol the greatness of the Creator fail to mention the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is difficult to weave the two themes together. Often when we praise His greatness it is because we are awestruck by some aspect of His creation while the theme of redemption necessarily must bring out our sinfulness and the cross as the answer. Both, though true, are tough to combine.
But this gives the pseudo-Christians an opportunity to offer their praise at a distance, without becoming uncomfortable by the mention of the cross and their sin. Perhaps these were in our Lord’s mind when He told the crowd, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 7:21).