Who Is So Great as Our God?
Psalm 77:11-13
I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. [12] I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. [13] Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?
I asked myself that question this morning as I read the words of the writer Asaph. His Psalm writing is considerably different than that of King David. Every writer has their own style do doubt. But Asaph’s words are different in the way he expresses his frustrations. He prayed, he knew God heard, and yet still he was frustrated and refused to be comforted. Oh how those words stung my own soul this morning. I knew it was true of myself. As I would read the word of God each morning and sit in awe of the Spirit within in me that would cause such joy to well up within me, and then I would return to my writing of the news and immediately my mind would begin to think… God’s not going to fix this. It has literally been going on for almost a century in this community, why would I think it would change now?
But then Asaph began to repeat history to himself as he was reminded of the Israelites walking though the midst of the water that the Lord parted, the restoration of Jacob, and Joseph’s rescue of his family through his own captivity and suddenly he finds himself saying, “Who is so great a God as our God?”
Why do we doubt? Why do we live in a defeated mindset? I’ve been in fairly large crowds of people, but image being two of the two million feet walking through those waters as God brings them down on the enemy behind you, as you walk out on dry land! Imagine being the Israelites who probably thought the seventh day was going to be like the sixth as they marched around Jericho’s wall until Joshua said, now blow your horn. And the walls began to crumble and all that was left to say was “woah… did that just happen?”
We’re still serving the same God.
I’m not sure I’ve turned the page on the fleshly doubt that lives in my mind. But for certain as I read Asaph’s Psalm I thought, “Perhaps I should look for a crack in the wall. It might just be ready to come down.
I speak somewhat metaphorically but the wall within our county that has surrounded the interior of what’s happening inside the government is very real. We’ve stood on the outside as leadership has made decisions without our knowledge, cared not that our children were in harms way and expected to sit quietly and be grateful we were allowed to breath the air that they considered in their ownership. I’m not being dramatic, I assure you, it was nearly that ridiculous. This happened because good Christian people didn’t want to stir the waters.
Our current leadership is having to fight to put an elevator in a four story stone courthouse, to help handicap people access offices because 90% of the other elected officials in the building refuse to support it because it was the idea of the “other party.” Will someone please tell them that Democrats are handicapped too? A guard had to carry an inmate to the third floor courtroom because the antiquated chair lift was down… again. Are these first world problems, yes. But the gift of living in a country like the United States is that we’ve been blessed with the ability to bless our people. God made that happen when once upon a time leadership stood by His word.
My come to Jesus moment this morning on my own self doubt was the reality that I too had failed to stand on God’s Word. It’s not that I know God will bring our community out of this event unscathed. Sin always has a price, and sometimes the innocent pay it. But the point of this lesson for me was, God can! I still believe that the church is going to have to stand against this accepted norm of evil and blow the trumpet of the Lord. And then the walls will come down. Every miracle that I mentioned didn’t happen until the people reacted to God’s command. Moses had to go to Pharaoh multiple times and tell him “Let my people go.” Israel messed up God’s plan and had to wait forty years for their redemption. There was six days of marching around Jericho when nothing happened. But then it did!!
Faith is a matter of persistence. Just keep going. That’s my orders from the Lord Jesus this morning. Just keep going Shari.
