Waves As Praise – Psalm 93

A text – Psalm 93

93:1 The LORD is king, he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed, he is girded with strength. He has established the world; it shall never be moved;
93:2 your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.
93:3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring.
93:4 More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters, more majestic than the waves of the sea, majestic on high is the LORD!
93:5 Your decrees are very sure; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore.

A reflection:

Psalm 93 makes much of God’s majesty and strength. It praises God’s capacity to create, and to create permanent things. And then it gives 2 verses to the oceans praising their creator with their thunderous voices, the waves.

I have spent many hours on the shore, watching and listening to waves. I live as far inland as it is possible to live on this continent, a great distance from any waves except those on Lake Superior (which can be great, indeed). But I have never thought of the waves, especially thunderous ones, making their sound in praise of their creator.

This wave-sound praise is a completely new idea for me. And it is making me think about nature in quite a new way. I have been around enough hymns that say the birds are chirping praises and the rain hitting the newly turned soil is its own song of blessing, and so on. But thunderous waves and even storms (floods, our translation calls the waters) could be a stormy song of praise. Everything each `

It really argues against our desire to place God in a “Sunday box” and treat the entire rest of the week and world as unconnected to the God we are worshipping one day a week, doesn’t it? God is the God of everything: the God of big giant creations like the oceans, and the God of tiny insects like ants. It is just impossible to think big like that and then say God is just for one day each week. God is God of all, and can meet us wherever we might be, and loves us wherever and whenever we are. I am struck by the hugeness of our God.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for caring about ones as small as we are, in your vastness and timelessness.  Help us to remember that we are very small, but even so, you have work for us that only we can do. Help us to realize your power and your vastness and also accept that you love us tiny creatures.   Amen.