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Psalm 93
 
! Introduction
The conversation in the coffee shop and throughout the region over the past several weeks has been the flooding of the Red River and its tributaries.
Many of you have been significantly impacted by this flood and all of us have been very aware of it.
Whenever I listen to the forecast now, I always become concerned when I hear that the wind is going to be strong because I know that means some of you will be staying put and it also presents a potential threat to your homes.
I know that some of you have felt isolated and even abandoned because of the isolation.
I know that whenever you need to leave your homes, you are very aware of the danger which the waters pose and if you have to go by boat, it can be a scary thing.
We have talked about “How high it will go?”
“Will the dikes hold?” “How long will it last?” and many other questions.
Anyone involved in programs in the school or church has been wondering if we can or should go on with planned activities.
While all of these thoughts were floating around in the community and in my mind, it was interesting when one day about a week ago in my devotions, I just happened to come to Psalm 93.
Here is what it says.
The context of the Psalm is difficult to determine because there is no title to this Psalm, but the central verse, verse 3, seems to suggest some kind of a context, one that seems very appropriate to our situation.
Yet, as I read commentaries, I was not sure what this imagery was referring to.
Some suggested that it refers to the primordial waters which existed in the early days of creation.
Several suggested that the sea is an emblem of the Gentile world in opposition to God’s people.
The commentary by Keil and Delitsch suggested that this is about the “future time when Christ will come and God will establish His eternal kingdom.”
I would not want to suggest a context and I don’t think a specific context is intended.
The words of the Psalm, both in the turmoil presented in the central verse and in the truths about God which appear in the rest of the Psalm are appropriate to our situation today.
So let us think about what God’s Word may have to say to us from this Psalm today.
!
I.                   Turmoil
We will begin our examination at the center of the passage with verse 3 where we read, “The seas have lifted up, O Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.”
The central word in this passage, in NIV, is “seas,” but the Hebrew word is actually “river” and many translations use the word “floods.”
These words invite us to think about the different stories in the Bible in which violent waves and rivers and floods were involved in the story.
We may think about the action of water when God first created the world.
Can you imagine the rushing of water which occurred when God said “Let the water under the sky be gathered in one place, and let dry ground appear?”
Obviously think of the great flood in the days of Noah.
What devastation that caused!
We may think of the crossing of the Red Sea by Israel, recorded in Exodus 14.
What would it have been like when the strong east wind parted the waters and created the dry ground for Israel to pass through?
Can we imagine the great turmoil when the waters returned and drowned Pharaoh and all the Egyptian army?
A Psalm which speaks of the mighty turmoil of waves and wind is found in Psalm 107:23-27, where we read, “Others went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters.
24 They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep.
25 For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves.
26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunken men; they were at their wits’ end.”
The sea as an image of unknown evil and great turmoil is implied in Revelation 21:1 where we read that “there was no longer any sea.”
It seems that for Israel the sea was a place of turmoil and struggle and trouble.
It was not possible to tame it.
Although sometimes God redeemed people from it, it always represented a picture of difficulty for them.
These are the pictures which Biblical understanding brings to us when we read Psalm 93:3 and also as we stand on the shores of our own Red Sea.
The current flood waters have caused isolation and displacement.
They have caused people to feel abandoned because everything else goes on as normal.
They have put people into situations of danger on the icy waters.
They continue to torment with all the thoughts of future difficulties – “How long will it stay?”
“Will we be able to seed this year?”
All those who are surrounded know that after the waters recede there will be significant, difficult and discouraging clean up.
On top of that, for those who are facing the second or third flood, the memory of past floods and all their difficulties come back as a painful memory.
The turmoil presented in Psalm 93:3 is very real to us indeed.
But we should not limit this picture to the current flooding.
While we are in turmoil over this difficulty, there are many other difficulties which may also feel like an overwhelming flood.
I think of the family of the little girl from Ontario who has been missing for quite a while.
I think of those of you who are dealing with illness and those who are overwhelmed by disappointment and loss.
All of these should be set on the table as being described by the verses, “The seas have lifted up, O Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.”
!
II.
The Lord on High is Mighty!
But this Psalm deliberately redirects our focus away from turmoil to God.
!! A.                 The Lord Reigns
The Psalm begins with the strong affirmation that “The Lord reigns…” and speaks again of the reign of God in verse 2 when it says that “Your throne was established long ago…”
The “seas lifted up” are not the final word.
The turmoil does not reign.
Even in the midst of the most devastating situation, it is the Lord who reigns.
Spurgeon writes, “His is not the semblance, but the reality of sovereignty.”
When we look at the powerful waves caused by the south wind blowing on the massive expanse of water, we may think that all that water rules.
It sure seems to rule when it causes us to fear, to move, to work hard to protect our homes, to change plans and put everything on pause.
When we recognize that a disease has taken hold of our body, we may think that the disease reigns in our body.
Throughout the world, the philosophy of atheism seems to hold sway.
Throughout the world missionaries seem to be a minority and struggle to bring the gospel to people groups who do not respond.
For the past 50 years and more there has been work among the native groups in the Chaco and today the mission station where Frank and Marge first went when they became missionaries is still a small and struggling work being carried out today by New Tribes Mission.
My dad used to drive kids to Sunday School on Sunday afternoon in inner city Winnipeg in the 50’s and now, 50 years later, people are still trying hard to make a difference in the inner city.
Someone recently expressed disappointment that after all the years of effort and money poured into inner city Winnipeg, there still seemed to be so much darkness and struggle.
These kind of experiences cause us to wonder, “who reigns?”
Do secular governments reign?
Do the forces of darkness reign?
Does Satan reign?
I recently received an article which gave me a very encouraging perspective.
The article is written by Matthew Parris and his opening line in the article is, “As an atheist, I truly believe that Africa needs God.”
He writes, “It’s a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians, black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach the people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it.
I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate the missionaries to help, then fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith…But this doesn’t fit the facts.
Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock.
This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.”
He goes on to describe how important God is in bringing change.
Although sometimes in the turmoil we wonder if God reigns, this article reminds us that God reigns.
!! B.                 The Lord Is Robed in Majesty
Twice in verse 1 this Psalm tells us that “He is robed in majesty.”
Even as we have before us the devastation of the “pounding waves” we are invited to recognize the glory of the Lord who reigns.
I enjoy mystery stories and have read many of the stories of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
So I have interest also in the modern mystery stories which we have on TV.
I keep trying to find a good mystery show and so I have watched CSI and Law and Order and so on, but I am constantly turned away by the ugliness of evil which is often so graphically displayed on these shows.
Evil is ugly and there is so much ugliness in our world.
There is so much ugliness in the many different ways in which the “seas have lifted up their voice.”
We know that with our physical “Red Sea” there is an ugliness about the devastation which it has caused and we cannot be blind to the loss of income, the destroyed homes and trees, the displaced lives and anxiety ridden psyches.
The devastation of illness which sometimes deforms, often brings fear, creates brokenness and frequently robs of life is something we can all identify with.
But if the Lord reigns and if the Lord is robed in majesty, then we should also expect that somewhere along the line there will be beauty and not ugliness.
We should expect that, as Isaiah 61:3 says, there will be, “beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair...”
If we focus on the “pounding waves” we will be discouraged and devastated, but if we put our hope in the Lord who reigns and recognize that He is robed in majesty, we will know that beauty will come.
We have often puzzled about the legalism of the most conservative Mennonite groups and the oppression under which many of them live.
Yet I observed something very interesting about them.
A group of conservative Mennonites from Manitoba moved to Paraguay many years ago to escape government interference and forced public education.
They took their conservative views to a remote area of Paraguay in order to escape from the world.
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