When I think
of God, I wonder how I can even consider His vastness, His greatness?
How can I begin
to put into feeble words who He is?
How can I
say anything that is new that David and the other psalmists have never written?
Then I realize
God did not ask me to write something new about Him; He asked me to write about
Him.
Each person
knows just a part of God. No one can ever say everything about Him,
But we each
can speak about His attributes and character He revealed to us.
To do this
out loud, publicly, requires courage and transparency.
To do this
requires the Spirit of God to lead us into and through this psalm.
I can hear through
history David singing, “Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the
earth,”
And my heart
sings and soars.
I recall his
singing “The rivers clap their hands and the earth sings for joy,”
And my soul
spirals with joy.
Then I sit
and I recall who God has been for me and who His Word says He is,
And I fall
to my knees crying, “Holy is the Lord God almighty!”
I cannot bear
to be in His presence while standing
But must lay
prostrate before Him, my great God almighty.
His breath
blows my way;
I feel its
heat and know I am unworthy to even feel it pass.
God’s eyes look
upon me and I am undone to my soul;
His
righteousness is purer than even the cleanest white I can imagine.
At this
point, I hear Isaiah cry out his psalm, “I am a man of unclean lips.”
Yet here I
lay in His presence proclaiming my King, the Lord Almighty!
His voice
calls out, thunder tears the skies, and torrents rain down from His heavens,
Yet still I live
to behold His greatness and tell of His mercies.
His commands
boom forth and nature instantly obeys; He is Creator and Master.
With this,
how can I still try to deny Him and go my own way?
His hands stretched
out and stars, planets, and moon became fixed in place.
And I
deigned to think I could choose my place in this world?
The
gentleness of His nail-scarred hands surprises me by His touch of my tear-stained
face.
How could I
ever have doubted His love?
His heart beats
louder than any cacophonous drum calling each person to come.
My heart
beats as reverb; it can do nothing else.
Though fear
breaks out in my heart and mind upon hearing its beat,
His “Peace,
be still” calms my soul and beckons to me.
Then in my
fear and the courage I can muster,
I raise my
eyes to dare look at this great King.
What I see
and recognize in an instant
Are the
tears flowing down His face.
The sorrow
and pain, I study, reveals
God sees
what I’ve done and knows how I feel.
He
recognizes the pain I brought on myself
Also seeing
what others did when I couldn’t seek help.
His
understanding is fathomless, nothing hidden from Him;
Yet love,
mercy, forgiveness flows o’er me and then,
My breath catches,
heart skips, I feel
Fresh
breezes, washed cleaned, and redeemed.
Renamed as
God’s child; Remade like new.
History is
wiped away and I must tell you.
Lord God Almighty
is more than we’ve heard;
He’s greater
than what pen spoke and louder than said words.
He’s
boundless, magnificent, more powerful than we think.
God is Creator,
Protector, Redeemer, and King.
He’s always
present, always loving, transcendent above all things.
He is love
defined, descended, then raised upon a tree.
God’s
unstoppable, undefeatable, risen ever to reign.
He’s the
King of the beginning, middle, end through eternity
King of
kings? He’s more than that.
He
transcends thought, space, and time.
God’s
undefinable, victorious, my Savior divine.
I may not
sing like angels or write psalms like David,
But I know
always forever, My Lord, My King, My Jesus is mine!
-Gail Suratt
Davis
