Psalm Meditation 1062 Proper 25 October 25, 2020 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) Some days our relationship with God just barely fits into our ability to put it into words. The best we can do is describe the feeling we get when we are in the presence of God. The psalmist uses the partings of the Red Sea and the Jordan, the bookmark events of the Exodus, to get at the spectacularity of God’s activity. These things that are done just for us. The God who does these things for us also chooses to have a relationship with us. It is exciting enough to meet the one who can part a sea and open a river for crossing on dry land; to know that this same one came looking for a relationship with us is overwhelming. The relationship is not asking us to be adoring fans, God is asking us to be true companions on the journey we take together. We get to walk and talk and work side by side with the God who creates and cares for all that is. While we will probably keep a sense of awe as we settle in to our relationship with God, it is good to know that we are encouraged to give ourselves as wholeheartedly as we are able to that relationship. God allows us to forget that we are in the presence of the Creator of the universe so that we can settle in to a comfortable comradery together. God cares for us, provides for us, and invites us into an ever deepening relationship even as we invite others in to their own relationship with God. October 19, 2020 LCM