The Baptism Of Our Lord / Epiphany 1 / OT 1
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters.
-- Psalm 29:3
Particularly in response to Isaiah 42:1-9, with which this psalm is paired in the lectionary, we hear the echo of the creation story in Genesis 1. In Genesis, the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters, and God spoke with the result of creation emerging out of the formless void of chaos. The prophet Isaiah spoke of God making all things new. The psalmist saw this "voice of the Lord" shattering all the structures and preconceptions like a violent thunderstorm that treated the mighty cedars of Lebanon like toothpicks that snapped and are tossed about in the wind. For the Israelites, who were a land-based people, the waters were the perfect symbol of chaos, and a raging flood was an image of a return to chaos. When they said, "The Lord sits enthroned over the flood, the Lord sits enthroned as king forever," they were affirming two things. First, they recognized that life was filled with interminable floods where the chaos of evil seemed to predominate. Second, no matter how threatening the chaos appeared in their life, the creator God was always more powerful. Therefore, to sing of the mighty power of God is to trust God in the midst of the chaotic tumbles of our lives and to look for signs of new creation. All chaos is an experience that upsets the boundaries of the past and opens us to the possibility of the new thing that God is creating. For Christians who believe that in Christ God is reconciling the world, we face the chaos dependent on God and hear the prayer of the psalmist, "May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!"
-- Psalm 29:3
Particularly in response to Isaiah 42:1-9, with which this psalm is paired in the lectionary, we hear the echo of the creation story in Genesis 1. In Genesis, the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters, and God spoke with the result of creation emerging out of the formless void of chaos. The prophet Isaiah spoke of God making all things new. The psalmist saw this "voice of the Lord" shattering all the structures and preconceptions like a violent thunderstorm that treated the mighty cedars of Lebanon like toothpicks that snapped and are tossed about in the wind. For the Israelites, who were a land-based people, the waters were the perfect symbol of chaos, and a raging flood was an image of a return to chaos. When they said, "The Lord sits enthroned over the flood, the Lord sits enthroned as king forever," they were affirming two things. First, they recognized that life was filled with interminable floods where the chaos of evil seemed to predominate. Second, no matter how threatening the chaos appeared in their life, the creator God was always more powerful. Therefore, to sing of the mighty power of God is to trust God in the midst of the chaotic tumbles of our lives and to look for signs of new creation. All chaos is an experience that upsets the boundaries of the past and opens us to the possibility of the new thing that God is creating. For Christians who believe that in Christ God is reconciling the world, we face the chaos dependent on God and hear the prayer of the psalmist, "May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!"
