“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.” (Psalms 24:1-2 NIV).
I never fully understood what this meant when it says that God founded the world on the seas and established it on the waters. Until two years ago, that is…
My wife and I were escaping Canadian winters on the beautiful island of Guadeloupe. We hadn’t rented a car, so the only way to get to the local mall for some groceries was by foot. Our trip to the mall was totally uneventful. Not so our return trip…
Some time while we were doing our shopping, it began to rain. No, that makes it sound like a few gentle drops of water falling from the sky. This was no such rain. Rather, it was as if the heavens split open and began pouring down water from universe-sized buckets!
My wife and I walked around the mall for awhile, but when the rain dwindled down to a light sprinkle, we figured it was over and ventured out. We hadn’t gone far, however, when the heavens opened a second time, and this time the celestial buckets were even bigger than even! Within the space of two seconds we were drenched to the bone. The rain jackets we were wearing might as well have been fish nets!
We briefly thought of ducking under a bus stop, but most of the rest of the mall’s patrons had already done that, and besides, it didn’t look much dryer in there anyway. We decided to take our chances on the fact that the downpour couldn’t last forever…
And it didn’t. It did however, last until we reached our apartment! And besides the water coming at us from above, it was rush hour, and every time a car passed by, it drenched us with waves of water from the mini rivers that had once been roadways. We had so much water in our shoes that we considered taking them off! We figured we would be just as dry… or wet, as the case was… and lots more comfortable!
Never did a shower feels so good, and fortunately, there was a washing machine in the apartment we had rented to take care of our dripping clothes and jackets; and there was a balcony to dry our shoes!
Normally such adventure might have made me cranky; but for whatever reason, this one did not. It was, after all, a real adventure! No harm was done, and we could feel our Heavenly Father with us every slosh of the way. He established the world on the waters. He called the dry land out of the seas. And that day He brought that water back up onto the dry land, and boy did it get our attention!
Psalm 24 goes on to say, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.” (Psalms 24: 3-6 NIV).
My wife and I could laughingly say that not just our hands were clean, but our entire bodies! But what about our hearts? A simple rain storm, no matter how monsterous it was, couldn’t clean those. Fortunately for us, Jesus took that job upon Himself. When we accept Him into our hearts, we can truly say our hearts are clean, and then we know we will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God! That, friends, is most certainly the generation of those who seek God!
Anyone want to come for a walk with us in the rain? Come on! It could be fun! We will get drenched from the top as well as from the cars along the road! No one can hurt us!
And when we have pure hearts, cleansed by the blood of Jesus, no one can hurt us either: “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?…Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns?…Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:31, 33-34a, 35-37)
In His love,
Rob Chaffart
(To access the entire “The Sling for God” devotional series, please click here.)