How Firm a Foundation

The article for this week is based on the lectionary reading of
selected verses from Psalm 104.

Psalm 104 is a wonderful praise of the creative activity of God. It lays out the wonderful majesty of God in his creating the world, the heavens, and all the creatures in the heavens and under the heavens. Much harks back to Genesis and creation, so taking a look at the first work of creation is helpful to understand the psalm.

In the first creation story, we usually hear the first line translated thusly, "God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void." My Old Testament professor and teacher of Hebrew, Dr. W.E. Power at Southern Methodist University, used to say that a better way of translating this passage is to say, "When God began creating the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void." Making the first phrase a participle emphasizes that the main thought is the second phrase, that is, the earth is without form and void. The Hebrews' view of the world is that of a watery void with a bottomless abyss, and a howling wind (in Hebrew, a Ruah, pronounced Ru-ack) blew over the abyss. This is a hellish picture of void and chaos. Out of this chaos the Lord brings order by his acts of creation.

In creating light the Lord brings life upon the face of the deep. In creating land, there is a solid foundation upon which he forms his creatures. The Hebrews thought of land as a thick slab held up by pillars which were sunk deep into the abyss, holding up the land out of the waters. How interesting it is to realize that this is in no way some unsophisticated ancient view, but rather close to what science now understands to be the case: i.e., that the land masses, and the seas as well, actually both float on a sea of molten lava and magma, and that the earth's core is still tremendously hot, occasionally bubbling up with volcanoes and hot springs, such as in Yellowstone. We have in no sense done away with the abyss that threatens to swallow us up; it is only changed from water to molten rock.

To the Hebrew mind, the abyss was something to be feared, but God sank the pillars on which the land is based, and there is nothing to fear, for God keeps the chaos at bay. The pillars are on solid rock. God has set the boundaries for the seas, and contained them, and this is celebrated both in creation and in the psalm. Nothing can threaten God's creation except with God's permission or direct purpose, such as the flood He brought upon the earth. Everything works according to God's purposes and plans.

In extrapolating the meaning for the Christian, we can take the abyss and the keeping of chaos at bay by using the solid rock as a metaphor for Jesus. He is the one on whom we depend, for life, for eternal life, for salvation from sin and despair. As we say "yes" to Jesus, we also help keep chaos at arm's length, and participate with God in the orderly creation of the universe. Perhaps the most creative thing we do is to produce children and train them to be lovers of God. This redeems the world and prepares our children for entering the kingdom of God. It turns the trend toward destruction and chaos around and heads people back in the right direction toward God. "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word! What more can he say than to you he hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?"

We have a firm foundation in Jesus Christ. God will keep the chaos from harming us, for He is in charge. Never doubt that He can and will bring order out of the chaos of our emotional and spiritual lives as well. We are creatures who are created to love God and to appreciate all of the wonder and beauty with which He surrounds us in this amazing world of ours. Read the psalm with joy and appreciate the glory of God. Know that God sets the boundaries for our existence, and we are safe in his loving arms, safe as we build upon the sure foundation, Jesus Christ.

Blessings,

Terry