Friday, September 16, 2022

 

Friday, September 16, 2022


Psalm 38

Habakkuk 3:18-19

Ephesians 3:14-21


God, the LORD, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.


“Power” is one of those words that theoretically should be morally neutral, but in practise works like a loaded term. Perhaps it is because of how we see power being wielded by our fellow humans. A poor definition, true in the material sense, but demonstrably false in the spiritual sense, would say something about how “power” is the ability to have other people do what you say. A “powerful” man could be considered a man who can order other men to march into war, for example.


God's power works completely differently – hence the reason that the earlier definition is not only “poor” but completely untrue. God's power, as perceived by Habakkuk, is the power to punish evil: God brings calamity upon those who gloat as they hunt out the poor who were in hiding. Upon hearing this kind of power, his bones go rotten and he begins to tremble as he walks. But when Habakkuk considers that God's power is also manifested in salvation, he picks up his feet and begins to skip along the mountainside.


David also experienced something like this. (When comparing today's Psalm with David's biography, it seems likely that he was the one who wrote this Psalm.) God's power as displayed to David was in God's power to forgive. David was having a rotten old time of things, but as soon as he turned back to his God, he received forgiveness and healing.


Paul has another aspect of God's power to teach us. Three times in seven verses Paul uses this word. He wants God to give us the power to be strengthened in our inner being. He also wants us to be given God's power to comprehend the enormity of all that God is (which is, admittedly, more than a lifetime's pursuit). Finally, we are given a blessing of God's power “to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” It seems, therefore, we can describe two broad aspects of “power” as it truly is, as it comes from God: firstly, that it is very, very big. There is lots of it, and it can do anything. Secondly, there seems to be a fundamental, unifying purpose that God is looking to achieve whenever He wields His mighty power: “that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are being rooted and grounded in love.” God's power moves all things to Jesus, to the atoning sacrifice that brings us home, and the eternal feast we now celebrate in God's presence. We can use this power, too: whenever we forget our own interests for the sake of loving someone else, God is working His power, through us. Whenever we turn back to God, looking for forgiveness and loving rest, God is working His power, through us. God's power is, by definition, the power to love.



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