Psalm Meditation 872
First Sunday in Lent
March 5, 2017

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)

The presence of God can be scary and comforting at the same time. It is scary when we find ourselves in the presence of such overwhelming authority. This is the ability to both unsettle and calm the mountains, hills, and rivers. On a family picnic, we were being bothered by a large bee. In an attempt to shoo the bee away, dad made contact with a backhand swat that sent the bee careening off into space. It was a memorable show of authority between dad and bee.

It is comforting when we realize that everything included in God’s presence is involved in loving us. Dad was not confronting the bee to show off to us. He was protecting us. When rivers roll and mountains and hills skip and jump, God is with us. The events of the psalm are not acts of protection. The psalmist sees them as acts of awe as the waters run from God’s presence and the mountains and hills tremble at the approach of God. The psalmist sees the presence of God as an act of love as people enter this new land.

God is with us. Sometimes we feel judged by that presence and other times we feel comforted. I am convinced that the presence of God is always a loving presence. For God both acts of judgment and acts of comfort are acts of loving presence.

February 27, 2017
LCM