June 25thPsalm 114
Reaching out to the mystery
This is a hymn of praise with four stanzas. The entire hymn builds toward vs. 7 and the repetition of ‘the presence of the Lord.’ The whole earth is pervaded by God’s presence and thus is subject to God’s sovereignty. The appropriate response is for the earth to tremble in fear and awe of such majesty.
There is no way of exaggerating the centrality of Presence in the Bible, or in our God-forsaken world. From the original Garden of Eden where God walked and talked with Adam and Eve to Revelation 22 - New Heaven and New Earth - where “the dwelling of God is with humanity and God will live with them,” the Bible is all about God’s plan to be with his people. That’s what God intended in creation and that’s what he will accomplish in redemption.
For Christians, Psalm 114 reminds us to rejoice and tremble in the Presence of God in Jesus Christ. Think of all the allusions to the Presence in the story of Jesus. Was it accidental that the angel told a worried Joseph that “his” son would be called “Immanuel, that is, God with us?” Or was John just writing good poetry when he said that the Word who was God became flesh and actually “dwelt among us?”
Theologian Walter Brueggemann writes, ‘It is clear that the narrative problem of the Bible is the absence of God, and the focus of God’s miraculous solution to the problem was his Presence in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.’
No wonder that the church of Jesus Christ is called “the Temple of the living God (II Cor. 6:16).” We are now that “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we] may declare the praises of him who called…. (I Peter 2:9).” Such a privilege and responsibility should make us “tremble at the Presence of the Lord….”
The great French genius, mathematician, and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, pondered deeply on humanity and our relationship to God. Is such a relationship reasonable and true to our deepest experiences? He wrote: There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because they know him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they do not know him.
All of Israel’s history from the Exodus onward, and the history of the church since Pentecost is lived in the light of such service and seeking.
PRAYER
To worship is to stand in awe under a heaven of stars,
before a flower, a leaf in sunlight, or a grain of sand.
To worship is to be silent, receptive,
before a tree astir with the wind,
or the passing shadow of a cloud.
To worship is to work with dedication and with skill;
it is to pause from work and listen. . . .
To worship is to sing with the singing beauty of the earth;
it is to listen through a storm to the still small voice within.
Worship is the mystery within us
reaching out to the Mystery beyond.
[Voices Together, 855