Psalm Meditation 763
Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
February 1, 2015

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)

When a champion rises for us, we jump and shout with joy and ‘they’ run away in fear. So it is when the God of Israel rises to lead the people out of Egypt. Rivers and seas are symbols of chaos, violence, the uncontrollable forces of our lives. The chaos and lack of control disappear in the presence of God, since the one who created them now stands with us against them.

The mountains and hills, like God, provide places of security and refuge; those places join all those of us who rejoice in the presence of God. It is hard to skip without smiling, once you master the skill, and it seems to bring a smile to the faces of those around you as they catch a glimpse of the rejoicing that seems to be a part of the process of skipping.

Find a reason, an excuse, a way to join in the rejoicing that God is with us, standing against the forces of violence and chaos in our stead. For some of us it will be more difficult than for others as those forces are more present and active around us. A glimmer of hope, the hint of a smile, a short skip down an empty hall can serve to remind us that, though things seem to be heavy and dark we are in the presence of God.

January 26, 2015
LCM