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Knowing God - Ps. 131, 138-139, 143-145
Knowing God - Ps. 131, 138-139, 143-145
Our reading today includes the reading of 6 Psalms: 131, 138-139, 143-145. From my own experience, reading six Psalms at one setting has a tendency to end up being an exercise in reading words but also ends up not changing us. We are simply overwhelmed with concepts and thoughts. The 'data' concerning God and His being gets read but not digested. Of course, to accomplish our goal of reading through the Old Testament in one year will require us to read rather large sections at one setting.
We need to let these concepts enter into our hearts and change our very understanding of God. He is a God that is near and not far off. He is a God that is in some ways understandable, and yet in many others ways is unfathomable. His works are recited and yet we cannot begin to understand all that He does in any given day to uphold the universe in which we live. We speak of His great knowledge and then turn around and debate among ourselves what 'He does or doesn't know'. We read of His righteousness and how He will not tolerate or live with evil and evildoers, yet we excuse ourselves concerning our misguided acts. We read of His great loving-kindness, and then many consider themselves beyond hope of being forgiven. We are instructed to give thanks for all of His benefits, and yet we go away and enjoy the blessings of His world without thought of Him, or worse, thinking that somehow we are 'owed' these things and that it is unfair if we don't receive them. We hear of His presence, His being everywhere at all times, and yet often act as if He doesn't see, hear, or know what we are doing.
"This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3). Such knowing God is more than the gathering of great statements concerning His character. I started to make a list of what I learned about God from today's reading but realized that I have done this before, many times, and yet such thoughts are short-lived in my memory. It is easy to arise from such list-making and continue my life as it was.
We need to read these Psalms. We need to take them apart and understand each thought. We need to list and categorize the attributes of God. Yet they need to be memorized and engrafted into our thinking so that we live, move, and have our very being in God. How much do you think about God during any given day? Hugh DeLong
