Psalm 114:7

Psalm 114:7

Tremble, earth

Verse 6 of this Psalm asks the question “Why?” This is the never-ending quest of the unbeliever, who longs to know why but refuses to attribute the unexplained to the Lord God. People will always continue to ask the same question and they will never be satisfied with their own answers or those that “experts” provide. As we saw, the question is not why but who? And here we have the answer, “Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob …..”  

There is an unbridgeable dividing line between the majority of the world who will spend lifetimes looking for answers without being prepared to acknowledge the presence and handiwork of God, and those who simply trust in Him. The dividing line is so distinct that many Christians find it hard to cross it! When you do cross over you can see why the rest of the earth should be taking the advice of the psalmist, “Tremble, earth.” There is nothing on our planet that is subject to chance or that has evolved over billions of years, all is God-made and working according to design and purpose of a Creator’s master plan. But to know this, you have to cross over to the position of trust and dependency, and few are willing to do this. Modern education argues against it. Man’s thirst for knowledge argues against it. Human pride and unwillingness to be dependent, argues against it. The relegation of faith to the realms of superstition and simple-mindedness, argues against it. In the eyes of many, to attribute life and all creation to the works and control of a deity has echoes of ancient cultish fantasies, and only the truly deluded could embrace such ideas; that’s what our modern culture tells us. 

For the minority who choose to believe in YAHWEH and who submit to His authority, today’s verse is our warning to the rest, “Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob …..”

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