Day 12 - Psalm 33

I think that if I was to be 100% honest about what I thought when reading Psalm 33, I would have to say that I feel afraid. While I realize this is not the normal reaction to a psalm that praises the greatness of the Lord, to me it really brings home the power of the God that we serve. So often today it seems our faith has become apathetic to who God really is...that he did come in the form of a man and do things that were and are beyond the scope of science and technology. Think about it. Jesus simply healed people. God is simple too, in a way.

God simply does. That is what Psalm 33 is all about.

The first part of the psalm is about how God created everything with the simple sound of his voice, and about how we should worship, praise, and fear him because of this and because of his greatness.  The second part is the part that brings the fear to my heart. God is everywhere and he not only can see every physical action we do, but he knows every thought that we have too.

While I think there are a few members of PR who would volunteer to be in a Truman Show-type world, most of us would shy away from such scrutiny. We like our privacy. This is why we have fences, blinds, shades, hedges, and of course doors, all around us: to keep our private lives private. We have made our world one that is based on selective knowledge and experience. We share some things with others and some things we don't share with anyone. God however doesn't work like this. With better x-ray vision than Superman, God sees over our hedges, through our doors, and even into our hearts no matter how closed off we try to make ourselves.

For many, the greatest fear we have is the idea that, "If someone really knew me, they wouldn't like me." Sound familiar? I think this is what makes this passage so scary. The thought that God knows what we are really thinking. God knows what we really desire. God knows who we really are. This is truly frightening because we are all flawed. We are all sinners. We are all near constant disappointments and screw-ups...and then comes the amazing part:

God loves us anyway.

This staggering truth causes us to honestly stand in awe, wonder, and praise of our creator. As the psalm goes on, we find out that nations and people alike who trust in God are rewarded. But for those who don't trust him, no army is large enough, no warrior strong enough, no technology great enough to save. For over 200 years the United States of America has openly and collectively said, "In God We Trust." Now as such trust begins to fall away for some, the truth always remains the same. God is God and we are only as great as our faith in him. Be it as a nation or a neophyte, we must believe and respect God for who he simply is.

- submitted by Nolan Davis