What does it mean that God is a God of wonders?

Our title shows that God was a present reality to Asaph. He quite recognized that God had wrought great wonders in the past, as the succeeding verses of the Psalm show. Still in saying, "Thou art the God that doest wonders," he laid the stress upon the present, and that is the great test of faith. It is comparatively easy to believe that God has done great wonders in the past, and that He will do them in the future. To genuine faith God is a present reality: He is a God that is doing wonders today.

"Thou art the God that doest wonders," sums it all up. Asaph also got his eye on the wonders that God did of old, when He redeemed Israel out of Egypt and led them like a flock through the wilderness and into the promised land. We know this, and have the benefit of that knowledge, just as Asaph; but we also know what wonders He works today. What wonders does He not accomplish in the hearts and minds of His saints? — lifting them out of themselves, in their littleness and feebleness, into the greatness and strength and love which is found in Himself. It is by faith that His people are enabled to endure, and out of weakness are made strong, for Hebrews 11 tells us this plainly. Still it is God who does it, and faith on our side simply lays hold on His strength. And what wonders will He not accomplish in the days to come!

(vv. 13-15) Furthermore, he discovers that whatever affliction the people of God may be passing through on earth because of their failure, God has a way which can only be known in the sanctuary. When perplexed by the prosperity of the wicked, the soul found the answer to its difficulties in the sanctuary (Ps. 73:17). So, when puzzled by God's apparent silence while His people are in trial, he again finds an answer to his exercises in the sanctuary. There he learns that God has a settled way that governs His acts; that God is great and does wonders. In accordance with His way God makes known His strength among the peoples in order to redeem His own.

But it is in holiness God's way is, and "the knowledge of the Holy is understanding": therefore we enter into His mind as His mind enters into us. And then indeed shall we realize: "who is the mighty one (El) so great as God?" And if He be thus necessarily hidden by. His own perfection, yet is He not outside the knowledge of men everywhere: for "Thou art the Mighty One that doeth wonders: Thou hast made known Thy strength among the peoples." And here especially in Israel — through His relationship to these — He is made known, and in the grace which this declares: "with Thine arm hast Thou redeemed Thy people, the sons of Jacob and of Joseph."

Asaph then remembers God's works, indeed His "wonders of old" (v. 11). This would include creation, then God's dealings in the flood, His choosing and blessing Abraham, raising up the nation Israel, and showing His power in their deliverance from Egypt, bringing them through the wilderness into the promised land, and many other marvelous works of power and grace. Today we can add to these the wonders of the New Testament, the incarnation of the Son of God, His life of great goodness, His sacrifice of infinite value, His resurrection and ascension back to heaven.

How infinitely precious it is to meditate thus on all God's work and to speak of His deeds! (v. 12). The contemplation of all these wonderful works is more than sufficient to fill our hearts with eternal praise. For though we shall see in verse 19 God's way to be "in the sea," so far as our experience is concerned, yet in verse 13, we are beautifully assured, "Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary." Certainly only in God's presence, in the calmness of the sanctuary shall we truly learn God's way, and realize that none could possibly be so great a God as our God, the God who does wonders. If this could be said in the Old Testament, how much more in the New! Creation and its resulting blessings are marvelous indeed, but redemption by the blood of Christ and its blessings are far more wonderful still. And at the time of which the psalm speaks, God will have declared His strength among all the peoples of the earth (v. 14). With His arm he will have redeemed His peoples, the sons of Jacob and Joseph (v. 15). For though the work of redemption was accomplished at Calvary, and believers of the present time enjoy it, yet only as the millennium is introduced will Israel also partake of the blessing of redemption. Jacob is mentioned to indicate their unworthiness of the blessing, while Joseph indicates the place of blessing to which God will elevate His people.

In verses 2 to 6, it was all, "my" — my this, that and the other. In verses 10 to 20, it is all, "Thy" — "Thy years … Thy wonders … Thy work … Thy doings … Thy way … Thy strength … Thine arm … Thine arrows … Thy thunder … Thy path … Thy footsteps." What I deliverance, what blessing, what strength there is in looking at God's things, after the weakness and humiliation of looking at our own.

And now the Psalmist raises his eyes to heaven, and he says, "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God?" You would hardly believe it was the same man. His heart and mind are dwelling upon God, and instead of mourning about his own feebleness, he is rejoicing and praising God. "Thou art a God that doest wonders. Thou hast declared Thy truth among the people."

Back he can go now at once to Scripture, to those old experiences of God, now once more so available for him. "I will make mention of the works of Jah," he says: "for I remember Thy wonders of old; and I will meditate on all Thy work, and talk of Thy doings." "Jah," the contracted form of Jehovah, speaks in the most energetic, decisive way of the One who is, as if He were the only reality. And so, in a true sense, He is: for "in Him we live and move and have our being," and He governs absolutely where most his authority seems set aside. Had we eyes purged from all films, where would we find a thing which might not be a text from which to descant upon the "works of Jehovah?" and with what blessing to our own souls, as well as to the souls of others. Even the "wonders of old" are but as it were the visible signs and tokens of a manner of work which everywhere has the stamp of the same Author. Indeed that is what gives them their main charm and interest. Oh for eyes without a film! we shall have them: but do not let us be so satisfied with that assurance as to put away from us the present opportunity of learning such glorious things.

Suppose, brethren, we could walk a little bit in Asaph's footsteps, what a transformation it would produce. Suppose we fix the eye of our hearts, not on the seen things, not on the failings of our brethren and on the peculiar things they say and do, but on the God who marches through the circumstances, who works His sovereign will, who has revealed Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to let the right hand of His power be seen in a way we have never yet seen it: we should be transformed! There could not be a greater contrast than between the spirit of these early verses of the Psalm and the spirit of verse 13. He says, I will get before my soul the works of the Lord. "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God." The man begins to triumph. If I may adopt the language of Romans 7, he was previously saying, "Who is so wretched a man as I am?" Now he says, "Who is so great a God as our God?" We see here the change that was wrought in a man when he got the eye of his heart off his circumstances, and on to God. It is like Psalm 73, where Asaph went into the sanctuary and got the problems and difficulties solved. So he says here, "Thy way is the sanctuary." If we seek the presence of God, we shall understand His way. Then he tells us God's way is a redeeming way: "Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known."

This third section of the song is the Leviticus section, which emphasizes the sublime holiness of God. Who can possibly be like Him? His holiness involves His love of what is good and His hatred of evil. He acts from the purity of His sanctuary on this basis of holiness, not in any mere selfish use of superior power, but using power in perfect truth, so that He does amazing wonders.