Hear the word of the Lord from Psalm 145:
All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your faithful shall bless you.
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
and tell of your power,
to make known to all people your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
All of God’s works, even the rocks, trees and hills, will praise him. I believe that even the waters will lift their voices in praise of God as they move to do his will. Meditate on this beautiful passage from Hannah Hurnard’s Hind’s Feet on High Places:
At the foot of the cliffs they found themselves standing in cool shadows with a light spray sometimes splashing their faces, and there the Shepherd bade them stand and look up. There stood Much-Afraid, a tiny figure at the foot of the mighty cliffs, looking up at the great, never-ending rush of waters as they cast themselves down from the High Places. . . . As she listened, Much-Afraid realized that she was hearing the full majestic harmonies, the whole orchestra as it were, playing the original of the theme song which all the little streamlets had sung far below in the Valley of Humiliation. Now it was uttered by thousands upon thousands of voices, but with grander harmonies that anything heard down in the valleys, yet still the same song.
From the heights we leap and go
To the valley down below,
Always answering to the call,
To the lowest place of all.
“Much-Afraid,” said the Shepherd’s voice in her ear, “what do you think of this fall of great waters in their abandonment of self-giving?”
She trembled a little as she answered. “I think they are beautiful and terrible beyond anything which I ever saw before.”
“Why terrible?” he asked.
“It is the leap which they have to make, the awful height from which they must cast themselves down to the depths beneath, there to be broken on the rocks. I can hardly bear to watch it”
“Look closer,” he said again. “Let your eye follow just one part of the water from the moment when it leaps over the edge until it reaches the bottom.”
Much-Afraid did so, and then almost gasped with wonder. Once over the edge, the waters were like winged things, alive with joy, so utterly abandoned to the ecstasy of giving themselves that she could almost have supposed that she was looking at a host of angels floating down on rainbow wings, singing with rapture as they went.
She gazed, then said, “It looks as though they think it is the loveliest movement in all the world, as though to cast oneself down is to abandon oneself to ecstasy and joy indescribable.”
“Yes,” answered the Shepherd in a voice vibrant with joy and thanksgiving, “I am glad that you have noticed that, Much Afraid. . . . Does the joy of the waters seem to end when they break on the rock below?”
Again Much-Afraid looked where he pointed, and noticed that the lower the water fell, the lighter it seemed to grow, as though it really were lighting down on wings. On reaching the rocks below, all the waters flowed together in a glorious host, forming an exuberant, rushing torrent which swirled triumphantly around and over the rocks.
Laughing and shouting at the top of their voices, they hurried still lower and lower, down through the meadows to the next precipice and the next glorious crisis of their self-giving. From there they would again cast themselves down to the valleys far below. Far from suffering from the rocks, it seemed as though every obstacle in the bed of the torrent was looked upon as another object to be overcome and another lovely opportunity to find a way over or around it. Everywhere there was the sound of water, laughing, exulting, shouting in jubilation.
Even when the water reaches the sea, its task, its joy is not complete. There the mighty Son lifts the waters up from the depths to heavenly heights, where they soon begin again their joyful descent.
How is it with us? Is the call to go lower too much for us? Is the faith to soar over the abyss too terrifying? Is the demand to flow side by side with the other waters too limiting? How many rocks and limbs cross our path before we lose the joy of serving the purposes of God?
The waters have the power to reshape our world, yet:
The power is not in the drop of water, but in the stream.
The power is not in the still pool, but in the moving current.
Both power and joy are found in submission, in obedience, in love for the sending and love for the sender.
May God help us laugh, exult, and shout at the goodness of serving the purposes of our Creator, and in our finding God’s creative power in our lives.
Blessings,
Ron
Psalm 145:10-13 – NRSV
Hind’s Feet on High Places, 146-148.
