Monday,
June 5, 2023
Long ago I heard for
the first time a preacher say these words:
If you’ve never trembled in the presence of Almighty God, it’s
because you’ve never really stood in the presence of Almighty God. He was making the point that we misunderstand
a lot of things. And sometimes we miss
God, because we don’t know Him very well.
We hear about something marvellous being discovered – a cure for this
disease, or that syndrome, or a new invention like driverless cars, or
pilotless planes – and we mis-label a move of God for human inspiration. We praise the Nobel laureates instead of
marveling over Heaven’s gift.
Psalm 29 is
attributed to King David. It’s not hard
to understand why; as a boy David spent many nights alone in the desert
wilderness keeping watch over sheep. To
this boy, ordained to be the anointed king of Israel, the resounding crackling
of lightning bolts were not merely storms, but the sacred voice of JHWH, the burst
of almighty God’s love for His creation.
David heard THE Voice.
There are plenty of
Biblical references concerning the presence of God, and how we are to enter boldly,
to come closer,
to dwell-in
that presence. Those are welcoming
sounds – words of invitation to be near and experience God’s lovingkindness and
majesty. That is good, and it is right
for us to receive those words as true; God means to provoke us to respond. He wants His family to enter the house, and
drink-deeply of His goodness.
But, somewhere,
deep-down, within the center of our existential soul, there must be fear; not
the kind of fear you might have facing a hungry lion in the wilderness, without
a weapon or a place to hide. Rather it
is the awe of a majestic voice that thunders loud enough to split the cedars of
Lebanon…trees that have withstood hundreds of years of storms and
earthquakes. This voice can make a
mountain jump like a cat that’s been startled from behind. His voice can strip a forest bare in an
instant. The power of God is limitless
and unstoppable. Scripture tells us that
God’s power to rearrange, end, or begin life is without boundary. He is God; his voice is final! Apostle John was given a glimpse of that
voice, and the finality of how it will preside over that great and final day of
the Lord:
And a mighty shout
came from the throne in the Temple, saying, “It is finished!” Revelation 16:17
For You Today
There is a day of
reckoning approaching. We’ve been
advised in Scripture not to set a date, but rather to be prepared to meet that day. If, as my preacher friend once said, you have
never stood and trembled before a holy God, there will come a day
when you will. Better to stand there now
in humble prayer, pledging your commitment to Him, and tremble as his
thundering voice and loving arms embrace you. The alternative is to stand before him later to
receive judgment.
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper explore
some of these: Joy & Judgment
The Voice of God
Title Image: via Pixabay.com Images without citation are in
public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
