How Great is Our God
This excerpt from Psalm 36 is a beautiful set of lines that express the love and righteousness of God, professing how great and expansive it is. It’s heartwarming, uplifting... and may be, to be completely honest, something we might gloss over.
“Yes, I know God is good and loving,” the entertainment-seeking part of our mind says, “Where’s the drama?” To many of us, the sentiments of the passage are, however well-written and poetically inspiring, all stuff we learned in Sunday School. However attached we are to the word of God, you have to admit it’s nothing we haven’t heard before.
To top it all off, it’s also not something we’re always able to take at face value; there are times when it’s difficult to feel God’s love for us, when it’s hard to see that God is good. We’ve all had those times, felt those feelings, and oftentimes still do even now. It’s a real struggle, especially in the utter chaos and global destruction that is the 2020s. How do we trust in a God of love when the world around us is so loveless? How do we trust that it’s true when our lived experience begs to differ?
These are all questions that have been asked many times, and answered many times, by many different people. There’s little I can say to add to it. So instead, to give us some fresh air, to allow the gentleness and mercy of Jesus to settle in (and get away with it without our distraction-craving subconscious dragging us away), I’d like to invite us to just sit with this passage for a moment.
We’re not here to answer anything, or to explain why we believe, just to contemplate on what we believe. It doesn’t have to be long, it doesn’t have to inspire any particularly deep emotions (though be my guest if you want it to be either), and most importantly, don’t let it be uncomfortable. We’ve probably all done a lot of thinking on these things by now, so let this be as simple of an activity as you want. Think about how great our God is, and how much They love us.
Completely, no matter what we do.
Fully, truly, and genuinely.
Always has, always will, now and forever.
Despite everything that’s going on here on Earth, in our lives, in our hearts, in our minds.
Such that reaches to the Heavens, like the highest of mountains, like the deepest of oceans, priceless and abundant.
All for us.
And nothing will or can change it. Amen.
Levi Miller