When you read the Psalms… I mean read them casually, not academically, not like we pastors often present Scripture. We easily go off intellectually, far from daily life… No, when you read the Psalms in your comfortable chair, no hurry, what is this passage saying to me? you notice that many psalms begin their reflections in the world of nature. For example, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” begins Psalm 19, but the psalmist moves to personal, spiritual meditation. “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:1, 7).
Today is day two of being slammed with a winter storm. I’d like to shovel, but Diane won’t let me… and she’s right. Anyway, the wind is blowing snow over everything; shoveling would be useless. And it’s cold, 17 degrees. Our neighbor’s furnace went out. How many space heaters can we round up? Here’s my snowy spiritual Minute: Nature shows us how vulnerable we are. Science and technology have done a great job of making our lives far more comfortable than our ancestors ever experienced, but with that comes a false sense of our invulnerability. When we forget our weakness before nature, we act like atheists, forgetting our assigned place in the cosmic scheme of things. Only “the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple,” us.
For the psalmists, things on earth and things in the heavens were rungs on the ladder of spiritual thought that led up to the great Creator. What they saw and experienced in the physical world lifted them to higher thoughts. Apropos to today, the Lord, “sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?” But the psalmist turns to the mercy of the Creator, spring will come. “He sends out his word and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel” (Psalm 147:15-18). “Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins,” including presumptuous thoughts before our Creator (Psalm 19:13). Good day to curl up with a psalm!
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