Saturday, March 23, 2019
The Creating of the Nations
**a reflection given in a time of prayer the morning of Saturday, March 16th (which I'm just now getting around to recording here)**
On Psalms 46: 1-7
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
I never noticed this before, but, in prayer this morning, I was given to see that this is not simply an image of God's power, meant to invoke an emotional response of fear or awe. That was how I’ve always read those first three verses in the past….
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Selah
Given as a flash of insight that I would not have had without the Spirit’s presence in prayer this morning, one might say I remembered that this imagery does evoke a powerful response, but it is also a reference to creation. The Spirit was upon the face of the waters... God separated the waters from the earth...and it was good.
In other words, if “the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,” then we are facing a return to primordial chaos and disorder. David is invoking the imagery of creation by juxtaposing its well known story against the ever-present threat and possibility of the dissolution of God’s created order. It's as if, David is saying, “even if the creational order comes unhinged, even if it looks like God has withdrawn his Spirit 'from upon the face of the waters…'"…
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
It was in the presence of the Spirit this morning when and where I was gifted with an imagination for how the scriptures testify to the presence and creative work of the Spirit. The Psalm is retelling the creation story and embodying or re-membering it in the life, history, and very existence of Israel.
"God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah"
This new imagination for God’s creative order through the presence and work of the Spirit (verses 1-3) with a special creative role for the world given to Israel (verses 4 and 5) moved me to begin asking questions I wouldn’t have otherwise asked. Without the Spirit’s piercing this morning in prayer, I was in the past simply confused by verses 6 and 7. My level of confusion was such that I wasn’t even able to articulate a coherent question about it.
This morning, however, in a place of awestruck wonder, I was led to ask: if God's story of creation is what sets the context and meaning of the Psalm, and if Israel is included in this creative act, then why is the "raging" and "tottering" of "the nations" associated here with "the earth melts"? The powerfully evocative imagery here suggests to me that, just as the nation or people of Israel is an extension, or even the first knowable sign, of God's creative act in and for the world, the world's political comings and goings also participate in God's good creative project.
The seemingly or hopefully solid foundations of nations that actually appear immersed in waters of chaos ("though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea...the earth melts") are not outside the creative realm and power of the spirit of God present and at work.
Trump might impulsively hit “tweet” on a stupidity that leads to nuclear world war, but “The Lord of hosts is with us.” Injustice might reign in the streets of our nation through bribes and bloodstains that aren’t easily cleansed, but “the God of Jacob is our fortress.” This Psalm, then, and the way it testifies to the presence and work of God, gives me an imagination for what it means to trust that God is at work when it looks like he’s abandoned ship to the circus that is our world.
I don’t need to MYSELF “rage like the waters of the sea.” I don’t need to join in the chorus of call outs against scapegoats to restore justice. Nor even against real perpetrators, perhaps. That is indeed to join myself to the imperial mountain that Jesus says is cast into the sea with a mere mustard seed of faith.
I don’t need to MYSELF come unhinged from myself. My screaming to the heavens until I lose my voice because injustice muzzles the voices of the voiceless is like chaff in the wind. The works of the flesh yield the rotten fruit of primordial, chaotic death. “Rage, rage against the dying of the night” isn’t a scriptural reference.
For “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved…” Stay the course. As Proverbs 3: 3-8 reminds me, steadfast love and faithfulness are tied to creative fruitfulness. Glorious beauty!
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good success
in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.
On Psalms 46: 1-7
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
I never noticed this before, but, in prayer this morning, I was given to see that this is not simply an image of God's power, meant to invoke an emotional response of fear or awe. That was how I’ve always read those first three verses in the past….
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Selah
Given as a flash of insight that I would not have had without the Spirit’s presence in prayer this morning, one might say I remembered that this imagery does evoke a powerful response, but it is also a reference to creation. The Spirit was upon the face of the waters... God separated the waters from the earth...and it was good.
In other words, if “the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,” then we are facing a return to primordial chaos and disorder. David is invoking the imagery of creation by juxtaposing its well known story against the ever-present threat and possibility of the dissolution of God’s created order. It's as if, David is saying, “even if the creational order comes unhinged, even if it looks like God has withdrawn his Spirit 'from upon the face of the waters…'"…
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
It was in the presence of the Spirit this morning when and where I was gifted with an imagination for how the scriptures testify to the presence and creative work of the Spirit. The Psalm is retelling the creation story and embodying or re-membering it in the life, history, and very existence of Israel.
"God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah"
This new imagination for God’s creative order through the presence and work of the Spirit (verses 1-3) with a special creative role for the world given to Israel (verses 4 and 5) moved me to begin asking questions I wouldn’t have otherwise asked. Without the Spirit’s piercing this morning in prayer, I was in the past simply confused by verses 6 and 7. My level of confusion was such that I wasn’t even able to articulate a coherent question about it.
This morning, however, in a place of awestruck wonder, I was led to ask: if God's story of creation is what sets the context and meaning of the Psalm, and if Israel is included in this creative act, then why is the "raging" and "tottering" of "the nations" associated here with "the earth melts"? The powerfully evocative imagery here suggests to me that, just as the nation or people of Israel is an extension, or even the first knowable sign, of God's creative act in and for the world, the world's political comings and goings also participate in God's good creative project.
The seemingly or hopefully solid foundations of nations that actually appear immersed in waters of chaos ("though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea...the earth melts") are not outside the creative realm and power of the spirit of God present and at work.
Trump might impulsively hit “tweet” on a stupidity that leads to nuclear world war, but “The Lord of hosts is with us.” Injustice might reign in the streets of our nation through bribes and bloodstains that aren’t easily cleansed, but “the God of Jacob is our fortress.” This Psalm, then, and the way it testifies to the presence and work of God, gives me an imagination for what it means to trust that God is at work when it looks like he’s abandoned ship to the circus that is our world.
I don’t need to MYSELF “rage like the waters of the sea.” I don’t need to join in the chorus of call outs against scapegoats to restore justice. Nor even against real perpetrators, perhaps. That is indeed to join myself to the imperial mountain that Jesus says is cast into the sea with a mere mustard seed of faith.
I don’t need to MYSELF come unhinged from myself. My screaming to the heavens until I lose my voice because injustice muzzles the voices of the voiceless is like chaff in the wind. The works of the flesh yield the rotten fruit of primordial, chaotic death. “Rage, rage against the dying of the night” isn’t a scriptural reference.
For “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved…” Stay the course. As Proverbs 3: 3-8 reminds me, steadfast love and faithfulness are tied to creative fruitfulness. Glorious beauty!
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good success
in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.
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