I’m thankful for memorizing Bible passages in grade school. Some passages were about doctrine, others for devotion, but I don’t recall memorizing passages about the mystery of God. Today I’m meditating on Psalm 18, a psalm David wrote after he was rescued from imminent death.
“In my distress I called upon the Lord… From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through the clouds. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice….” That’s Psalm 18:6-13, but the cosmic scene goes on for more verses. Read it.
Did that really happen? The Bible has other stories of God appearing in terror, like His descent upon Mount Sinai (Exodus 19). Did David see all that with his physical eyes or did he “see” through faith that the cosmic God had come to save him? I think the latter, the “eyes of faith.” Commentator Hans Joachim Kraus: “An event that is supraindividual, penetrating into the most remote dimensions, is called upon to illustrate the secret and the wonder of the work of God” (quoted by Dr. Timothy Saleska, Psalms 1-50, Concordia Commentary p. 343).
Memorizing Bible passages tempted us to imagine we comprehend God, but passages like Psalm 18 open my little mind to “the secret and wonder of the work of God.” Here’s another: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:12-19). God spoke and David was rescued from death. God speaks through His Son and we are saved for life. Do you “see” it?
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