If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! (Psalm 139:8 ESV)When God thought of how to formulate the lives of His crowning achievements in creation (humanity), He did not see it fit to create a pain-free, struggle-emptied, or heart-safe place. The place that our God created is called Earth. It is dry. It is barren. It is filled with emptiness. It is not safe. It does not bring life. It will not bring life. It cannot bring life.
God's formulation of earth was not originally like this. God's creation flowed from who He is. He is good.
Do your best to picture the second most unbelievable act of God in all of time:
First, there was blackness.
Then there was light.
Then there was sky.
Then there was water.
Then there was earth.
When there was nothing.
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:9-10 ESV)It was good.
Our God created good. Because our human representative, Adam, shook his fist in the face of his God, our earth is fallen. It is corrupt. It aches. It coughs. It bleeds. Our earth dies.
We feel this. We can't get through a month, week, or even many days without being shaken by the shockwaves of a world whose desire is to be reconciled to its King. Its Maker. Its God.
We long for Him. We want to be made whole. We're tired of not having the answers. That day is coming.
One thing I know: when I ascend to the heavens in times of ecstatic worship and enjoyment in God who loves and saves me, He is there. He inhabits the praises of His people. Those times are precious and quite worthy of appreciation.
But there is one other thing I know: when I descend into the depths, when I make my bed in Sheol, when I traverse what feels like the Valley of Death, He is with me. He reminds me that it is the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He scrapes the mud to which I so tightly hold as I search for joy apart from Him, and He replaces it with His hand. He doesn't mind that He gets dirty. He's died for me. What's a dirty hand to Him?
He loves me.
He walks with me. He leads me through the darkest of times. I know that there will be times when I feel further from Him than could be possible. But He is there. He is near.
When I die, when I permanently make my bed in Sheol, I will be with Him. There will be nothing to hide. Nothing to fear. I will be fully known.
Even in death, He is my only hope.
.DSN.
Thanks, David. It's a very basic, but powerful, thing to be reminded that God is present and still sovereign even when we're laid low. The fact that it's basic doesn't make it easy, though, does it?
ReplyDeleteI'll speak for myself, but oftentimes the simplicity of the truth makes it harder to digest, because sovereignty is so clearly at the core of who God is and how He works, so there's no negotiating with a "maybe it's true, maybe it's not."
DeleteThough it's hard at times, I can't imagine it being any other way. If He wasn't everywhere, leading me through the hardest of times, I really would and could rightly lose all hope, because there would be nothing else, if there's not Him.
I love have you end it. There is no where else we can go. Jesus is the only path that we can take. And once we're his, he's never letting go.
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