Daily Lesson for March 20, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 95 verses 4 and 5:

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

God is; and there is nowhere where God is not. This is true of time, place, and circumstance. As Paul so eloquently put it, "God is in above all, and through all, and in all and all," (Ephesians 4:6).

This is easy to know when we stand on the mountains and take in the majesty of where the heavens touch earth. The Celts called these "thin places" and they speak not only of physical location, but also of spiritual experience. Sometimes we just stand on the mountain of life and know God is!

But mostly we are more earthbound.  And sometimes we find ourselves in dark cavernous places -- what the psalmist calls "the depths".  God , the psalmist says, is here in the depths of earth too.  They too belong to God.

And so also the seas, with their white crashing wash, the ancient symbol of the chaos and uncontrollability of life.  And so too dry land, the arid and desiccated landscape known as wilderness where nothing can blossom or grow for the ground is so hard and the soil so parched. These places also belong to God, the psalmist says.

It is sometimes said that a Romantic sees God in the glory and beauty of the heavens, while the Mystic finds God in the dirt.  The Psalmist must have had a little of each inside him -- both eye of the Romantic and also the guts of the Mystic. 

God is in both the guts and the glory. God is not only with us when we feel like we are standing so high that we could reach out and touch God.  But God is also when we are so low or so dry or so submerged that we cannot see or even think on God. God still is; and God is still with us -- over and through and in it all.