v 9 You rule the oceans. You subdue their storm-tossed waves
You crushed the great sea monster. You scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. The heavens are
.yours, and the earth is yours; everything in the world is yours—you created it all.
This is a very long Psalm and I have been somewhat selective in getting you to read only vv1-18. It appears to be a triumphant celebration of God’s faithfulness right down to verse 37, including such statements as
‘ I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep my promise to him.
No, I will not break my covenant, I will not take back a single word I said. ‘
But then a shadow creeps over the writer in verse 38. He had begun his song with the assurance that everything belonged to God as the Creator of everything – that is what you were reading about in the early verses of the Psalm, and of course, ‘God is Good’ would have been his repeated chorus and mind-set. Then a harsher reality dawns on him – things have gone wrong, badly wrong. So we find a new theme screaming at us in verse 38.
‘But now you have rejected him and cast him off. You are angry with your anointed king. You have renounced your covenant with him; you have thrown his crown in the dust. ‘
I have similar feelings when I reflect on how humanity – God’s keepers of Creation – has neglected its obligations, robbing and despoiling what is God’s beautiful earth. Does God look at our generation with horror? Might He, might He even remove the crown of ‘Glory and Honour’ that we reflected on in Psalm 8 yesterday and throw it in the dust?
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