THERE ARE so many times when I meditate on God’s word that he shows me something that changes my mind for the rest of my life. Sometimes it is an abrupt about-face that leaves me letting go of a wrong belief to receive what is true. But most often it is an addition to the journey that gives me an awareness of something that will always be with me, a facet of wisdom and knowledge that will now influence everything I see and experience.
THIS MORNING, it was the description of God as, “The Mighty One, God Yahweh,” who “speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.”[1]
I GET that beginning this song with “The Mighty One” sets the stage, so to speak, for all that follows. Every prop, every scene, and every act, is what it is because Yahweh God is the Mighty One, the One and Only. Whatever we are told about him is supreme because of who he is. Period. No exceptions. No challengers. Utterly unstoppable in being himself and doing his will.
TO THEN picture Yahweh God as the Mighty One who “SUMMONS” the whole world of humanity, and discover that the meaning of “summons” is, “to authoritatively communicate a demand for the presence or participation of”[2], tells me that every day of our lives, everything we see from God’s glorious creation, every time we notice the sun, or the moon, or the stars, or the mountains, or the oceans, or the trees, or the creatures of land, sea, and air, we are seeing and hearing a summons that has the authority of Yahweh God behind it.
SINCE, THEN, Almighty God is summoning us with authority, and he is doing this all day long, around the whole planet, following the journey of the sun from every minute degree of rising to setting, what is the summons? Is it the encouraging summons of Yahweh Father God calling his beloved children to delight in him for our good and his glory, or is it the terrifying summons of the Judge of the whole earth who sees the sinful things man is doing and is calling us to account? After all, the Almighty God, Yahweh, is both Father and Judge.
AT THIS POINT, answering that question would cheat us out of a viewpoint in the trail that has something to offer if we will stop and consider this view before seeing what is next. And this viewpoint makes us look directly into the eyes, and heart, and mind, of Almighty God Yahweh and let it sink in that he is the reason we stand at attention to his summons.
YES, THAT IS IT! Almighty God, Yahweh, Jesus Christ, the Holy One, is all the reason we need to acknowledge the summons of the Triune and stand quietly before the Father and the Son in anticipation of what they have chosen to say every day of our lives.
AND THE ONLY thing that matters here is whether we are summoned to them as their beloved children or their despised enemies.
AFTER ALL, if we come before the Almighty Triune God as his enemy, with a stubborn, stiff-necked, and rebellious heart to remain so, all the glory and goodness he has revealed through his word and his creation is an indictment on us that we are without excuse.[3] However they judge us will be terrifyingly just.
AT THE SAME TIME, if we come before the Triune God as his beloved children, and the awareness of his summons through his word and creation causes us to feel the fear and trembling they are due,[4] and fills us with the reverence and awe that belong to them alone,[5] whatever they must say to us will be agapè-hesed-love telling us the truth. Whether affirmations of our growth in righteousness, or condemnations of our sins and transgressions, God’s summons will be love and kindness bringing us home to the heart of our Savior.
I ANTICIPATE that this journey through Psalm 50 will speak in
so many ways of the glory of the God who summons us that I can rest today in
the viewpoint Yahweh God has drawn me into, and I can enjoy the blessing and
satisfaction of knowing that I know him better today than I have ever known him
before. And that, while knowing I will be further along the trail tomorrow!
© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K
1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles,
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
No comments:
Post a Comment