Devotion • June 27
Today's Scripture
Psalm 147:12–20
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.
He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat.
He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.
He hurls down hail like crumbs — who can stand before his cold?
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 ordinances to Israel.
He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the Lord! (NRSV)
Reflection
The psalmist here lists the many ways God favors God’s people. God bars the gates, protects the children, and provides peace and prosperity. God clearly loves and provides for God’s own. God expresses God’s power through God’s word and has command over the elements, controlling snow and ice, and then melting that ice and causing the water to flow with the power of God's word. What are we to make of this description of God?
The truth is that the power of God is beyond human understanding, and the writer of this psalm is doing his best to describe the awesome power of God. Awesome is a word whose meaning has been devalued in our modern usage, now commonly used to mean excellent or extremely good. Originally, however, it meant to be filled with reverential fear, wonder, and respect.
Reverence, fear, wonder, and respect. As I read this psalm, I was drawn to this meaning of the awesome power of God. We encounter few things in our daily lives that are truly awesome. I think that we are being called to reflect on the awesome nature of God, to revere God, to fear God’s power, to wonder at the way God provides for us, and to respect God’s ways.
Through Christ, we have inherited the promises God gave originally to the people of Israel, and we are blessed to enjoy God’s favor and are called to share God’s love with the world. Praise the Lord indeed!
Prayer
Heavenly Father, allow us to be awed by your love and provision for us. Thank you for your grace. Help us to share the awesomeness of your love with the world. Amen.
Written by Juli Crabtree, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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