Growing our picture of God

Psalm 135

¹ Praise the Lord!
Praise the name of the Lord!
Praise him, you who serve the Lord,
² you who serve in the house of the Lord,
in the courts of the house of our God.

³ Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;
celebrate his lovely name with music.
⁴ For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,
Israel for his own special treasure.

⁵ I know the greatness of the Lord—
that our Lord is greater than any other god.
⁶ The Lord does whatever pleases him
throughout all heaven and earth,
and on the seas and in their depths.
⁷ He causes the clouds to rise over the whole earth.
He sends the lightning with the rain
and releases the wind from his storehouses.

⁸ He destroyed the firstborn in each Egyptian home,
both people and animals.
⁹ He performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt
against Pharaoh and all his people.
¹⁰ He struck down great nations
and slaughtered mighty kings—
¹¹ Sihon king of the Amorites,
Og king of Bashan,
and all the kings of Canaan.
¹² He gave their land as an inheritance,
a special possession to his people Israel.

¹³ Your name, O Lord, endures forever;
your fame, O Lord, is known to every generation.
¹⁴ For the Lord will give justice to his people
and have compassion on his servants.

¹⁵ The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold,
shaped by human hands.
¹⁶ They have mouths but cannot speak,
and eyes but cannot see.
¹⁷ They have ears but cannot hear,
and mouths but cannot breathe.
¹⁸ And those who make idols are just like them,
as are all who trust in them.

¹⁹ O Israel, praise the Lord!
O priests—descendants of Aaron—praise the Lord!
²⁰ O Levites, praise the Lord!
All you who fear the Lord, praise the Lord!
²¹ The Lord be praised from Zion,
for he lives here in Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!

This is why we sing, why we read the Psalms – to be reminded of God’s goodness and what He has done. Most of us need help to fully remember the extent of God’s character and to remind us of all He has done. Most of us don’t write beautiful poems or essays that are rich in images and ideas. The focus on writing in plain English means, for most of us, our writing has gotten very plain. Not everyone spends any time writing anything other than functional stuff – shopping lists, birthday cards etc plus what is needed for our jobs.

So we need help from people who have these skills – who can write poetry or beautiful prose – writing that paints a picture of God that helps fill out the picture we have in our heads. We need to get a bigger picture of who God is. If we have a picture of a small God then our faith doesn’t grow and our confidence in that God to be with us and to be interested in who we are is too small. The bigger our picture grows the more we can see how God can help us live life well.

Dear Lord, thank you for providing us with the bible – so we have writing that helps us understand who you are. Thank you for giving us the music of the church which adds to the words that help us understand who you are. Please continue to give those who can put these pictures together in words help to write well and share the big images of who you are. Help each of us to want to grow our understanding of who you are. Amen

Written by Therese Manning