Daily Devotional for Monday, January 29

God’s Power

“Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the heavens moved and shook, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it,” 2 Samuel 22:8, 9.

When I was very small, long before seatbelt laws, I was riding in the front seat of my grandfather’s old car. As we rode together, I looked over at him and asked, “Grandpa, have you ever died?” He told me he had not. I told him that I had not either, and that I was going to wait until the Lord came back. He told me he would do the same and wait with me. My four-year-old mind was grappling that day with heady concepts: death, mortality and the return of Jesus. I did not understand those things fully, but I knew they were important and I was trying to understand them.

I think sometimes that is the way we are as adults, even as we try to wrestle with the concept of God and His power. Second Samuel 22 is a psalm of thanksgiving. It wrestles with many concepts, one of which is the power of God. His power is displayed through actions such as earthquakes, storms and volcanoes. This passage speaks of God as having nostrils and a face. It speaks of Him bowing the heavens and riding on cherubs. As David described the power and majesty of God, he used the images he had at his disposal. We know that God is Spirit and does not have actual facial features, but with the language we have, we describe His might and His excellency.

When my grandfather died, I remembered his promise at his funeral, wishing that he had been able to keep it. But I had a better promise, rooted in God’s power of resurrection, that one day I would see my grandfather again.

REFLECTION
Imperfect and incomplete as our thoughts of God are, He is perfect and complete. We can rest in Him, even if we cannot fully understand Him.

Jason Rutherford