Psalm 97:3-4

Psalm 97:3-4

The earth sees and trembles

At first sight these verses put us in mind of a fire-breathing dragon sweeping away all that stands in its way and causing terror and panic wherever it goes. Our God is not quite like that although there are good reasons for many to fear His wrath! Lightning bolts are mentioned in verse 4, giving us a clue as to the power of the Lord God and the striking force of His anger. Just as the sun, moon and stars speak of His love and faithfulness, so thunder and lightning and storms are the natural symbols of God’s judgements. “Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before Him, and around Him a tempest rages.” Psalm 50:3. “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Deuteronomy 4:24.

This same God uses fire as an analogy for His future judgements, the following verses sound like they should come from the Book of Revelation! “For a fire will be kindled by my wrath, one that burns down to the realm of the dead below. It will devour the earth and its harvest and set afire the foundations of the mountains.”Deuteronomy 32:22. 

“See the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; His lips are full of wrath, and His tongue is a consuming fire.” Isaiah 30:27

Our principal conception of the Lord is that He is a God of love and faithfulness, quite rightly. However, we must always keep Him in balance, time and again we have read of His righteousness and justice, He cannot and will not condone deliberate sin. Humanity has ben given endless opportunities to repent and turn to Him, but the majority do not and will not. The earth sees and trembles and so should we.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psalm 4:1 Smear campaigns

Psalm 4:1    Smear campaigns   The background to this Psalm is so familiar; David is being slandered and maligned by his detractors.  It seems that some calamity has befallen the nation and the king is getting the blame! Lies are being told, a smear campaign has begun, and the reputation of the Sovereign is under threat.  As usual, if something goes wrong, culpability is laid at the feet of the one in charge.  David, quite rightly, turns to the Lord his God and prays for relief and for mercy. The Satan is a master of such campaigns and his emissaries gleefully turn on Christians in leadership positions although the whispering campaign can affect all of us. The whispering starts in our own heads, but it can also come from the lips of our detractors. It goes something like this: - You’re the reason it went wrong You messed up again You should have seen it coming Surely you know better You are not worthy You don’t know what you’re doing Someone else ought to be in c
Read more
Psalm4:8        I will lie down and sleep                Th ere are times, in the life of all believers, when we no longer have control of situations. We can do nothing more. We have given our all, we have tried every possible solution and now it is out of our hands. As someone has wisely said, “It is time to let go and let God.” If we truly trust Him, if our faith will allow us, we can turn our backs on our enemies. We can block our ears to the threats. We can ignore the lies and the deceit and say,  “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone Lord, make me dwell in safety.” I should imagine that the devil, having sent a hurricane our way is not amused, when we settle in our beds in the midst of it all and drift off into a peaceful sleep! But that is our right and privilege once we let the Lord God Almighty take control. These spiritual attacks are like whirlwinds, they blow with terrifying intensity and threaten to turn us upside down; the disciples witnessed one of thes
Read more

Psalm 74:16

Psalm 74:16 God established the sun and the moon “ In  the beginning   God created   the heavens   and the earth.   2  Now the earth was formless   and empty,   darkness was over the surface of the deep,   and the Spirit of God   was hovering over the waters. 3  And God said,   “Let there be light,” and there was light.   4  God saw that the light was good,   and he separated the light from the darkness.   5  God called   the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.”   And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” These, so familiar, words from Genesis 1 remind us of who is in charge! There would be no light without God. There would be no day or night without God. There would be no earth without God. And there would have been no living things unless God had created order out of chaos. The sun, moon and stars would not be fixed in their orbits without God and you and I would not exist unless He ordered our conception. It is because we see God as glorious, righteous
Read more