Wednesday,
July 1, 2021
How great is the Lord, how deserving of praise, in the
city of our God, which sits on his holy mountain! It is high and magnificent; the whole
earth rejoices to see it! Mount Zion,
the holy mountain, is the city of the great King! God himself is in Jerusalem’s towers, revealing
himself as its defender. The
kings of the earth joined forces and advanced against the city. But when they saw it, they were stunned;
they were terrified and ran away. They
were gripped with terror and writhed in pain like a woman in labor. You destroyed them like the mighty ships
of Tarshish shattered by a powerful east wind. We had heard of the city’s glory, but
now we have seen it ourselves—the city of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. It is the city of our God; he will make it
safe forever. Interlude
O God, we meditate on your unfailing love as we
worship in your Temple. As
your name deserves, O God, you will be praised to the ends of the earth. Your strong right hand is filled with
victory. Let the people on
Mount Zion rejoice. Let all the towns of
Judah be glad because of your justice. Go,
inspect the city of Jerusalem. Walk
around and count the many towers. Take
note of the fortified walls, and tour all the citadels, that you may describe
them to future generations. For
that is what God is like. He is our God
forever and ever, and he will guide us until we die. Psalm 48:1-14
Throughout Scripture we find the principle of free
will, the right God has placed within each soul to decide the
course our life will take. The desire
for the exercise of this freedom is self-evident. If you need a chapter and verse proof text,
note what Joshua said to the Israelites on the eve of entering into the
Promised Land:
…choose today whom you will serve. Joshua 24:15b
The nation of former slaves was at least hundreds
of thousands strong, perhaps, according to some scholars, several million. Joshua offered that challenge of life’s most
important question, what God will you serve?
On a personal level, to find the answer within my
heart and soul for that question, I had to ask another question, who is
God (JHWH, Jesus)…what is he like?
The answer to both questions is nestled into
today’s text; you cannot see Him, but you can begin to understand what he is
like. God is like the towers and walls
of the citadel, Jerusalem, God’s own city.
Those walls and towers are protection for the people within, and an impenetrable
fortress to those who would even think to assail her. But, before this metaphor of walls describing
God is carried too far, leaving us to imagine God as an impassable monolith,
just standing as another idol, lifeless, vast, but unthinking, move beyond the
comparison and look at the evidence – personal evidence. God entered time and space from above and
outside time and space. The Creator
entered His own creation and became flesh, blood, and bone…and it was too much
for us to live in His presence. The
creation crucified our Creator. So he
rose from the grave and offers us a second chance.
What is God like?
He is all the vast power of the universe and beyond. As the genius of Michelangelo was more than
his paintings or sculptures, the creation is always so much less than the
Creator. This is why the Psalmist began
his musical ode to the God of Jerusalem’s towers with extolling the worthiness
of God to receive praise and honor.
For You Today
Our Creator is beyond comprehension, but not beyond inviting
us into His presence. Like Joshua’s challenge to the Israelites as they took
the next step in their journey to choose today the God you will serve,
that offer to come inside the walls of Mount Zion with our hearts, souls, and eternal
lives still stands before each of us. We
recognize what God is like. But with
that understanding God leaves us choice of whether we will serve him with all
our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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