6 In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into
his ears.
7 The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the
mountains shook;
they trembled because he was
angry.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his
mouth,
burning coals blazed out of
it.
9 He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his
feet.
10 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the
wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the
sky.
12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of
lightning.
13 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High
resounded.[d]
14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning
he routed them.
Psalm 18 6-14, NIV
When King David finally emerged from his persecution and trials
- at least the trials of the moment (and he had a few) - he wrote the above poem
which we eventually called Psalm 18. It's really long, full of gratitude and
celebration, giving the victory and every positive event which led to it, and his
eventual crowning as King, to God alone. The image we see in these verses is of
a loving, monstrously powerful God rising from His throne and crashing to Earth
on the back of warrior angels (side note: any artist representation of cherubim
being cute little baby angels are way off-target). God fights for us, routes our
enemies and as we see in Jesus, He actually leaves heaven to rescue us.
As we saw yesterday, children look to their parents or guardians
for assurance during frightening times. We do the same, and if we are a parent,
or have people looking to us for strength, where do we look; how do we stay
strong?
Remember this image of the Creator of Everything smashing
out of the sky racing to save the day. This is not some man in a white eye mask
trotting towards us on a horse. This is Everything in Existence coalescing and
charging full tilt to save us.
Right now we're in the early stages of this worldwide,
self-imposed exile of every human on the planet. Day Four in the Keohane Household,
if you're curious (we're not sick, we simply don't want to be). This might end on
April 7th which is the date schools plan to re-open, or it might be
June 8th, my birthday, because April 7th arrives and
things have not cleared up yet and people in the united States have begun to
learn what a bidet is.
When the metaphorical dust settles, and it will, the world will
be different in many ways, but this time of fear will be over. Then, will come
the time to mourn in some cases, but also to celebrate, as David does with this
psalm. War never has a truly happy ending, because there are always casualties.
The happy part is simply that it has ended.
Like we agreed yesterday, keep your eyes fixed to the hill
and God with us, but also, and so
importantly, remember He will someday come down
like a fierce protector to end this. It will happen, and that will be our hope.
Between now and then, believe me, some amazing and wonderful things will also
happen. We just have to wait and see what they are.
Lord, thank you for the chance to be here now, today, and
for Your love so fierce and eternal you would, and did, come crashing down to
earth to rescue us. Come soon, if it's your will. Regardless, give us peace to
see that day as eventual and certain. Amen.
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