Page 32 - Psalms Ebook

The fourth observation is that God loves to use superlatives. But what is
a superlative? It means the best; the absolute best. I call the figures of
speech in Psalms, “El Shaddai figures”. Why do I use El Shaddai?
You see, El Shaddai is a title of God, and it is the title that means the
“God who is more than enough”. That is my abundant provider. He is
more than enough. When you read some of these figures, you say, oh
my, that is an El Shaddai figure. That is more than enough. More than I
could ask or hope for.

Now, some of these figures are so tremendous that I fell into the trap of
loving the pictures. It’s easy to do but not at all profitable. Those
pictures are wonderful, but I want to rave about Jesus, and I want to
rave over the Lord, and those pictures are only wonderful because they
illustrate the Lord Himself. You know, when I first began thinking about
this, I thought what a wonderful revelation of God we get through these
strong figures. The more I thought about it the more I realized how dull I
must be to need such dynamic images to awaken my dead heart. Do I
need pictures that graphic to get the point across? And the answer is,
yes, my soul is that numb. If God did not use these big pictures I
probably would not pay proper attention. Let me give one illustration of
that. Psalm 46:1,

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

You know, God could have said, “God is our refuge,” and that should
have been enough, but we probably would not get it. So He said, “God
is our refuge and strength.” That should have been enough, but He
said, “In trouble.” “God is our refuge and strength in trouble.” That
should have been enough to know He is our refuge and strength in
trouble, but then He says, “My help in trouble.” And then He says, “My
present help in trouble.” I still don’t get it so He says, “Very present
help in trouble.” You see how God does that?

In other words, He wants us to get it so much that He adds modifier after
modifier. He is your refuge and your strength and your help in trouble,
your present help in trouble, your very present help in trouble. You
see, He just gives you the superlatives in order to show how wonderful
He is: Better than life. Whiter than snow. Sweeter than honey.
High as the heavens. More than the sands. Lighter than breath or
air or vanity. Now please turn to your Bible and look at Psalm 63:3,

“Because Your loving kindness is better than life.”