Day 6: Over the surging sea
You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them (Psalm 89:9).
Heavenly Father, faithful God, Who is like You, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty, and Your faithfulness surrounds You (Psalm 89:8).
You promised Your people long ago, When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you... (Isaiah 43:2). And for them, You did the impossible: By the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood up like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea (Exodus 15:8).
O Father, You show us that no force of nature or anything else can prevail against Your might, Your power, Your great faithfulness. You were clear about the hardships Your people would encounter, but You were equally clear about Your presence, Your protection and Your deliverance:
They will pass through the sea of trouble; the surging sea will be subdued and all the depths of the Nile will dry up. Assyria’s pride will be brought down and Egypt’s scepter will pass away (Zechariah 10:11).
Your promises still stand—You have assured us that You will surely be with us always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Yet, like Your ancient people, and like the disciples, (Matthew 8:24-25), we are afraid when the waters rise, when they roar and foam around us—when the mountains quake with their surging (Psalm 46:3).
But You, O Lord, rule over the surging sea (Psalm 89:9)—it is You, who in the first place, “shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb... [who] fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place... [who] said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’" (Job 38:8,10-11).
O God our refuge, our strength, calm our fearful, anxious hearts even in all life's surging and roaring around us. Teach us to be still and know that You are God (Psalm 46:1,10).
Teach us to know that You are the Supreme Authority, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps (Psalm 135:6 - ESV). You are the God who declares, "I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it" (Jeremiah 5:22).
Let us rest in the assurance that The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters… The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever. The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace (Psalm 29:3, 10-11).
When our hearts fail, and we whisper in our distress, "The seas have lifted up, Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves", still our hearts with the reminder, Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea—the Lord on high is mighty (Psalm 93:4).
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