Psalm Meditation 650
First Sunday of Advent
December 2, 2012

Psalm 114
1 When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became God's sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
5 Why is it, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.
(NRSV)

Attitude makes a lot of difference in perception. To watch the sea and river disappear from their usual spots and to watch mountains and hills rock and sway like leaping animals would be pretty scary in normal circumstances. It would be reason to be afraid for one’s life in normal circumstances. These do not seem to be normal circumstances for the psalmist. When seen from a vantage point of rejoicing and trust in the presence of God, this whole scene is a party rather than a cataclysmic event.

From one side of an event it is a great tragedy while the other side sees it as a cause for celebration. At any sporting event the fans of the losing team will see this as a terrible thing while the fans of the winners will be celebrating the outcome. In the next meeting the result may be the opposite, but for now the winners rejoice and the losers bemoan their fate. For the psalmist, God is great beyond measure and the response of the earth is to tremble and leap in celebration of the greatness of God.

There certainly are psalms in which the reaction to events is terror as the waters roll and the earth shakes. In this instance the psalmist sees rolling, jumping and trembling as a good thing, a rejoicing in the presence of God. When we are able to see God as a present partner in our lives we can more easily find ways to rejoice in a given situation. It is not the situation itself that leads us to rejoice, it is the presence of God in the situation that makes it possible to find something good in the midst of any and all parts of our lives.

November 26, 2012