“When Israel went out from Egypt,
The house of Jacob from people of strange language,
Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.
The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
Why is it, O sea, that you flee?
Or Jordan, that you turn back?
Or mountains that you skip like rams? Or hills, like lambs?
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
who turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water.” Psalm 114
Do you remember a time when you sensed God’s presence? Today a friend told me a story of a crisis moment many years ago when she became aware of God’s comforting presence. Or I remember setting out on the Virginia AT with much trepidation and with my heart skipping a beat or two in anticipation of the challenge of what God might teach me. Perhaps you have your own story. But if not, we all share the story of Jesus crucified and risen—God’s living presence for us.
What strikes me about this psalm is the poet remembering the story of God’s presence in his people’s past: taking them out of slavery in Egypt, crossing the parted sea waters, being given water to drink from a rock in the dry wilderness, giving them the commandments to form them into God’s own people. Yet the poet was probably remembering this at a hard time in his life. This psalm was probably sung when the people had returned from another captivity…this time from Babylon. This time they had returned to a situation where the signs of God’s presence—the Davidic monarchy, the temple, even their possession of the land— was no longer there in the same way. Do I hear wistfulness in the poet’s remembering a time when the “hills skipped” and wondering why it wasn’t happening in the same way again?
I am grateful to the Sons of Korah’s setting of this psalm. At first I thought it was too somber for the words. But now I hear in it the remembering, the wistfulness, and the hoping in a future that hasn’t arrived yet. After the singing of the psalm it continues with a musical reflection. I invite us to use this listening time to remember what God has done in our lives and to listen with hope for God’s presence now and in our future.
I won’t be posting this next week while I am away for a clergy training event. When I post again on May 9, the reflection will be from Psalm 115.
Suggestions:
1. Take this verse with you and ponder its meaning for you throughout the day. What do you notice? What do you wonder? What story in the bible or what experience remind you of God’s presence.
2. Comment with a photo of your own that is a window of this psalm’s meaning for you.
The next post will be on Psalm 115:1.
Starting January 1, 2016, for 150 days I am posting a daily psalm verse with a photo that is a visual meditation on the text for me. Each day a verse from the next psalm is chosen until all 150 psalms have been featured. To participate you may subscribe to my blog at https://elainedent.net or “friend” me on Facebook and watch for the daily links to blog posts. Disclaimer: I am not a photographer and most of the photos are from a cell phone or small camera while hiking the Appalachian Trail or the C&O Canal/Great Allegheny Passage Trail.
Marti Bert says
I will miss your posts this week. Enjoy your conference.