Psalm 114 ~ who turns

Pre-Communion Prayer: "Just say the word, Lord, & I shall be healed"

Psalm 114

1 When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.

3 The sea looked and fled;
Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.

5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?

7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water.

The people of Judah, or Judea, expected the Messiah to be like Moses. Just like today, we pray and expect God to give us what we want. A little bit like Abraham deciding to take God's will into his own terms, and Ishmael was born. Abraham believed he was right to act for God, he'd been promised and it seemed nothing was happening in Abraham's time schedule. Or horribly, like Judas, who decided what he wanted was best - why - all kinds of reasons, jealousy, anxiety over the repeat attempts to take Jesus, wanting to be with the powerful winner, realizing he'd been caught stealing from the disciples and Jesus, greed - any reason. Or just plain thinking that morality was up to Judas to determine. Judas put his own needs and desires first.

The people of Judea expected Jesus to be their magic 8 ball. Give us what we want or we'll crucify you. Or depending on the century... we'll find another god. I'm seeing this in my son's college age friends. Sometimes it is called humanism. Or realism - you decide what is meaningful to you.

It is not uncommon, even among the people who believe fervently. Moses threw a temper tantrum between God's instructions, his own danger, stress of responsibility & the continual thunderous threats of the children of Israel for water. Moses was the one caught between a rock and hard place.

Who turns; who has the will to bend in man's perpetual struggle for his own plans in this life - a life that is over so quickly? God or man. Read the Old Testament, even the villains struggling only for themselves alone accomplish God's will. Prayer can sometimes be a struggle for man speaking with God- struggling to accomplish man's will. God gave us His Son. God's will is going to be accomplished. His purpose for you will be complete. God answers prayer, but even Paul had to let God's will prevail in Paul's life. The prayer of Jabez was willingly granted. David was anointed of God, but he struggled with God's will and his own will. Jesus understood man's desires, and he gave us this parable:

Luke 18:1-818:1
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Jacob/Israel struggled with God. We all do. Jacob learned something David learned. Something Job learned. Something Paul learned.

Psalm 8:1-4
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

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