A favorite image for God in several of the psalms is that of a thunderstorm. God’s power is violent and turbulent as a tornado. The thunderstorm represents God as a physical manifestation of His mighty power. Using natural phenomena to evoke an experience of the divine is not unusual in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Psalm 29 is a hymn to God. Verses 3 to 9 present God’s manifestation in the thunderstorm.
The voice of the Lord is over the waters; The God of glory thunders;
The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The “voice of the Lord”, occurs seven times in this Psalm. This number symbolizes fullness and completeness. The voice of the Lord is a synonym for mighty thunder. What majesty lies in His voice!! What fearsome power! With that voice…God, is able to control all of His creation.
Armed with thunder and lightening the Lord controls the most humble of his creatures to the most powerful. He controls the universe
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth,
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”
In Psalm 97: 1-5, the storm imagery again appears. God’s power is life-giving as well as controlling the destructive powers of the universe.
The Lord reigns;
Let the earth rejoice;
Let the multitude of isles be glad! Clouds and darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. A fire goes before Him,
And burns up His enemies round about. His lightning’s light the world;
The earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness,
And all the peoples see His glory.
God is exalted as King and Protector. The natural elements of nature extol his mighty powers. He is not only the personification of the powers of the universe but his great majesty is combined with the divine qualities of righteousness and justice. What is man’s power compared this almighty and powerful God!
In this psalm the writer refers to God as taking him from the womb and keeping him safe on his mother’s breast. God is pictured as the midwife who delivers David, the writer, as well as the nation of Israel. He brought them into new life with His deliverance.
God did the delivery but now has He forgotten them and David?
But You are He who took Me out of the womb;
You made me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth.
From My mother’s womb
You have been My God. Be not far from Me,
For trouble is near;
For there is none to help.
We call this psalm a hymn of lament. David is afraid, and he complains to God; not only for himself but for the people. God has “birthed” them both….. and now there is nothing but fear and sorrow. However, though the psalmist complains and laments he finally comes to the point where he recognizes that God will care for His own.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever!
God is the giver of life as the one who makes the wombs fertile and aids in the birthing process.
He made fertile the wombs of Sarah, the mother of Isaac, and Hannah the mother of Samuel. Then the prophet, Isaiah (66:6-9) building on this tradition applies a midwife image to God. “Shall I open the womb and not deliver?” Says the Lord; shall I, the one who delivers, shut the womb? “
Although the images may seem strange to us, yet God is still in the birthing process. Mankind still endures the birth pangs of being born in faith.
Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus? (John 3:3-6)
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.”
Therefore, God, himself, will midwife humans into a spiritual life.
Do you believe that God has known you and been with you since conception?
Take heart….. He has known you from birth and continues to hold you close.
Of all the animal images applied to God in the Bible, none surpasses that of the eagle. Since ancient times, this majestic bird has been recognized as a symbol of strength, speed, ferocity and power. The eagle has been designated by our country as our national symbol of strength.
Interestingly, of the 27 times that the word eagle appears in the Hebrew Scriptures, only twice does it refer to the actual bird; all other occurrences are a fitting image to be applied to God.
Read Exodus, chapter 19 versus 1-6 (also Psalm 91: 1-16). The context in which the symbol of the eagle is used for God is important. First, there is the image of Egypt, the enslaving, nation, itself enslaved to its own pride. What fates befell Israel and Egypt are in contrast. Egypt is weighed down with pride and drowned in the sea, while Israel was borne up out of bondage on the wings of God.
Second, the image of eagles’ wings has multiple implications. To the strength, speed and ferocity of the eagle are added the qualities of protection and education. The comparison of God to an eagle is parental. Both mothers and fathers train their little hatchlings to fly by example. They rouse the young ones to flight by flapping their wings. When the young are aloft, the parent birds fly under the eaglets, ever ready to catch them if they falter and fall.
So thus those first Hebrew slaves, recently freed after 400 years , immature in their thinking, not having a real relationship with God, are being protected by the Father as an eagle protects her young.
These people however, must not remain nestlings forever. Now rescued and protected by God they are charged with embracing adulthood, for God told them, “If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all peoples.”
Yes, Israel, as a people were chosen and protected by God. Through these very people, “stiffed necked” and disobedient, the promised Messiah came. He came first to the house of Israel and then to the whole world. But God will keep His promises.
He also holds us as an eagle protecting its young. When we can no longer count on our own strength to manage our lives……..God is there. Teaching us, protecting us and nurturing us. He is the God of power and strength.
What is a verb anyway? A verb is a word that “denotes an action, an occurrence or a state of being”. Of course God is all of this and more. However, when Moses is confronted by the burning bush and God commands him to go to Egypt to free his people, Moses asks……… “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” (Exodus 3:13)
In Hebrew God tells Moses His name……..”ehyeh asher ehyeh”. In the present tense this means…”I AM”… but also in the future tense is translated, “I will be”. In fact, the three Hebrew words could be translated in a variety of ways “I am who I am;” “I will be who I will be;” or “I cause to be what I cause to be.” These variations preserve the mysterious nature of God. This means that God’s name is not only a noun such as “Father” but also a verb.
So when Moses receives an answer to his question…………it really is no answer at all!! Is God toying with Moses, teasing him? Or does “I will be who I will be” indicate annoyance, even anger on part of God toward Moses who dares to ask such a question?
NO! The mystery of God cannot be captured in a name. For Moses and for us that knowledge is a good beginning for relating to God.
So now the name that is not a name also reveals God’s sovereignty. God is maintaining: the manner of my being is as I will it, not to be caught in one image or only in one name. But I will be present now, I was present in the past, and I will be in your future.
Therefore, God promises His presence at all times. So God’s name remains a mystery. Really beyond our understanding.
God’s name should always be held in reverence. Do you sometimes take His name in vain such as “OMG”? I cringe whenever I hear well meaning people use that expression without understanding. Always remember.
In looking at the various descriptions of God as protector,shepherd, husband etc, we are confronted with more questions that we are given answers. Not every question of man has an answer. As I have written before…… God simply doesn’t owe us any answers. The Jewish mind is willing to accept that. Since God is so much wiser than we are, why should we question?
However, when I get to heaven I would like to know why God created man in His image and then hundreds of years later simply wiped him out and then start the process all over again. The flood really didn’t accomplish what seemed to be the question of evil! Although Noah and his small family survived, the rest of mankind was annihilated. These survivors were not sinless and within a few generations the evil started again……remember the tower of Babel?
But then again, God has always given man choices. Most often we make the wrong choice.
When Noah and family were finally able to leave their little houseboat, God made a new beginning with man. It is marked by a relationship to God known as covenant.
God establishes a covenant not only with Noah and all his descendants but also all other creatures. Never again will a flood destroy all life on earth. God has neither abandoned nor forgotten his creation. “God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were in the ark and God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided”. (Gen.8:1)
The sign of this covenant with Noah and all creation is the rainbow. A rainbow, is a natural phenomenon that has shape of a weapon (the bow of a bow and arrow). It becomes a sign that God has put away this form of punishment for mankind. He will never again allow the waters of chaos to destroy the whole earth. The bow in the sky becomes both a pledge and a reminder that He is bound to all mortal creatures. God continues healing the wounds of sin that are still with us.
Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
“While the earth remains,
Seed time and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:21-22)
God continues to renew that covenant with mankind. Notice, however, the first line of verse 22…. “As long as the earth remains.” Does this mean that at some point our earth as we know it, will no longer exist? Will this also destroy the covenant that God had made with mankind?
The book of Revelation (chapter 21:1) tells us that there will be a ”new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”
Therefore, I believe, He also will establish a new covenant or will renew the covenant for those who have accepted and put their faith in God’s Messiah …first to Israel and then to those of us who have also chosen that very Messiah for ourselves.
God has bonded himself with all of creation. His rainbow is a sign of that bond.
Look for a rainbow in your own life……….it’s there!
Most of you remember the story of Jacob wrestling with God….or perhaps God’s angel. In Genesis 32: 22-30, we find Jacob on his way home to Canaan after being gone for 14 years or more. He now has acquired two wives, a couple of concubines, 11 sons, and a daughter. He is a rich man…cattle, goats, sheep and lots of shepherds to help.
However, he must meet with his estranged brother, Esau, whom he cheated out of his birthright, or inheritance. Didn’t God tell his mother, that the older would serve the younger? That’s Jacob. He was the younger one. Now he is nervous and upset. He is a cheat, he also got cheated (He wanted Rachael but was given Leah first) and now God has more teaching to do.
Jacob sends his family ahead and prepares to spend the night by himself, perhaps to make plans as to how to preserve his family if, indeed, Esau decides to take revenge and kill him. However, later that night a “man” (God’s angel perhaps) wrestles with Jacob. Jacob prevails although he is injured in the process. He throws his hip out of joint. This story is simple in its telling but there remains many questions as to who the “man” is; why would Jacob need to wrestle him; why did Jacob win the fight? Surely God could have defeated him.
We might not know the answers to those questions but here are some things we do know. Jacob’s story is a retelling of the nation of Israel and the continual wrestling with God. God changes the name of Jacob to Israel and in doing so effects the history of the people that will come from his linage.
If Jacob had not won the wrestling match his name would not have changed. He asked the “man” for a blessing…..which he received in the form of a change of his name.
We are left with a story in which God is bound to this man. Jacob has wrestled and won…….God’s blessing carries with it a covenant of protection. God would be with these people. They were “bound” and would face the future together.
We sometimes “wrestle” with God. It’s our daily struggles in life. God is testing us in many ways by allowing us to challenge His care for us. He sometimes wounds us, just as Jacob was wounded but also blessed.
Can you see yourself in this story?
When have you ever wrestled with God? Have you been both wounded and blessed?
How do we describe the indescribable? How do you imagine God?
My grandmother told me that if I said a swear word…my jaw would freeze closed forever. Well, I noticed that occasionally when someone would say the d…..word nothing happened to their jaw!! One day I hid myself in the closet and said that dreadful word…..guess what? Nothing happened to my jaw. This made me realize that my grandmother’s image of God was not the same as the “real” God.
God is a mystery. As mere humans we will never understand the inscrutable mystery of God; his being or his nature. And yet the only way we have of speaking about God is through human language. God is always more than words can describe. Even the language found in the Bible, is a human expression.
God has many names or metaphors in Scripture. He is a shepherd, a rock, a husband, a father etc. All Biblical images of God are a lens through which we gain some new insight of God. No one lens or image is God. Rather it is a view of God, an angle of vision on God.
The Bible tells us that no one has ever seen God ……yet we have “seen” him in Jesus. He chose to expose himself to the world of his creation in order to draw us near to him.
However, before the Messiah came, God revealed himself through images and word pictures. These images give us humans some understanding of his character. God is known by his attributes.
In this next series of short Abidelines, I will focus on some of the attributes of God as revealed in Scripture.
Hopefully this brief study will reveal more of God’s character and the great love that our Creator shows to all humanity.
God is always more than anything that can be said about him. He transcends all languages, and ideologies. God is beyond all genders, metaphors, and sacred texts. God defies all forms of packaging. This realization develops a healthy sense of wonder about God.
There are so many prayers of praise in the Old Testament that I could spend a year writing about them. My favorites are those found in Psalms. What a glorious book of prayers!
Praising the Lord isn’t always easy for us. We suffer, our families suffer, the world suffers………but that is nothing new. Jesus reminds us……”These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me, ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
In Hebrew the book of Psalms is not called psalms or even prayers, but Praises (Tehillim). This means that in some way, all one hundred and fifty psalms, whether supplication, lament, confession of sin, etc. are meant ultimately for praise. Confessing sins can contribute to praise. We are renewing what God already knows about us. We are rather pitiful after all.
Praise is, first, a statement of faith in God. Biblical prayer is a dialogue where both parties are important. However, God always comes first. Did you know that Alleluia means Praise God?
Here are some tips for more meaningful prayer by using your Bible as a guide.
Pay attention to the vocabulary of prayer ……..such as call, cry out, sigh, praise, extol, recount, giving thanks, supplication etc. See what you learn about the experience of prayer in the passage you are reading.
Look for context……where is the prayer located in the biblical book. How is prayer impacting the people who are praying. Why are they praying and what event is prompting their prayer. They might have similar problems as you do.
Write it down………or highlight in your Bible. Use the names of God or God’s attributes that are mentioned in the prayer. Names such as Lord, Rock, Shield, Shepherd. Attributes such as Loving kindness,Mercy, Almighty. Learn to use these names to make your prayer meaningful to you. Bibles shouldn’t be neat and clean. Use them and mark them. Your kids will know that you have been studying!
Reflect…….. How would you “translate” these attributes and images in your own words?
Look…….. Biblical commentaries are sometimes helpful. These might give you some historical background of the people who are praying. You might not think that this matters but you will feel better looking at their life compared to yours.
Shifts in mood of the prayer……..especially from the beginning of the prayer to the end. Such as from lament to praise or from supplication to trust.
Look for similarities or differences in prayer…… Hannah’s praise (1 Samuel 2:1) compared with Mary’s praise in Luke 1:46-55. Look in the Psalms to see how David submits his prayers to God and the circumstances he faces.
Write out your prayer……… This is where a prayer journal is handy. You might simply reflect on a Biblical passage and what it means to you. Writing out your thoughts might seem tedious but take it from me…this helps to organize your thoughts and focus your prayer.
Hope some of these suggestions will make your prayer life of praise more meaningful.
David is explaining in the famous 23rd Psalm one of the great attributes of the Father….that of a Shepherd. The metaphor of God being a Shepherd is used throughout Scripture and Jesus himself uses the term when describing the lost sheep in Matthew (18:12-14). God loves and protects his sheep.
In this beautiful song, David is singing/praying about the great love of the Father for his “sheep”. That’s us!
In all its simplicity, Psalm 23 appeals to everyone and it has been read and prayed in all kinds of circumstances in life, whether joyful or sorrowful. It speaks to all, even those have never seen with their own eyes a flock in its pasture, or a shepherd tending sheep.
The image of a shepherd was familiar in the rural world of the Ancient Middle East, and the shepherd imagery in biblical narratives is used from the time of Abraham to that of Jesus. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob owned their own flocks and Joseph, Moses, David and prophet Amos were shepherds. Yet, when it comes to shepherding, there is no one, scripture says, quite like God (Ps. 80:2, Ezek. 34:11-16). God is the only shepherd who provides secure guidance to “green pastures” “still waters” and “right paths.” Under such guidance, we find restoration of soul, comfort, and deliverance from fear.
The image of God as a Shepherd is so eloquent that we easily miss another one used by the psalmist: God is also a wonderful Host. The scenery soon shifts from green pastures, streams of water, and darkest valleys with potential dangers to the comfort of a home and the profusion of God’s table. Whether with God the divine Shepherd or God the divine Host, we are in good hands at all times and, to be sure, we “shall not want.”
In what circumstances of life, joyful or sorrowful did Psalm 23 speak best to you?
Please excuse my skipping around in these prayer examples. When one catches my eye I like to explore the prayer in its context and see what comes.
In my last example I focused on poor Jeremiah. He protested to God through all of his suffering. Now if you read this prayer he is complaining that God has “enticed” him to speak to a rebellious people who really aren’t listening to him. He isn’t one bit happy.
O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded;
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
I am in derision daily;
Everyone mocks me.
He isn’t going to submit to God easily. You must read these verses to understand that poor Jeremiah isn’t pleased that God has chosen him. “You, (God) have overpowered me……I have become a laughingstock.” His mission is causing him problems…..like being thrown in a dungeon and left to die!!(Jer. 38:6) Who would like to carry out a mission that requires one to cry out “violence and destruction” all the time? No wonder this will cause him to suffer mockery and opposition from his countrymen.
Yet if Jeremiah speaks his heart to God, it is because he still trusts that God is the only one who can bring healing and comfort. The good news is that Jeremiah, despite ongoing suffering and inner turmoil, doesn’t give up. He will indeed keep on delivering God’s oracles and will show great courage to keep hope alive among the people (Jer.27-33).
Are we willing to be ridiculed for our beliefs? As long as we are proclaiming the truth of the Bible then we should expect being labeled as bigots and judgmental.
Just remember.
We didn’t write the Book! We only try to live by its standards.
AbideLines 