Nature of God
God Himself is Judge; A Psalm of Asaph
The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. 3Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest. 4He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: 5“Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!” 6The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah (Psalm 50:1-6)
My Prime Video account has communicated with my Amazon account I think. What other reason is there for the surge in World War II movies in my "Recommended" films? I buy a book on that war about three times a year, adding to my library annually. It's interesting to note the tone of early war movies (the old black and white) as opposed to those being made later, like "Saving Private Ryan," which translated into "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific."
Early war films are fairly straight-forward and sanitized. A battle may not reveal wounds in these movies or the chaos of battle. Battles appear decisive and follow their strategic plan. War movies of today show the complete and total devastation that is war, from a charge that gets put into retreat due to the severity of the stance of the enemy to the chaos that ensues as a leaderless unit reshapes and re-forms in the middle of battle.
The psalm today is revealing of the nature of God. God uses several names to start out the psalm - The Mighty One (El), God (Elohim), and LORD (Yahweh). We get an image of a rising sun and a setting sun over his temple set on Zion, the mount that served as the fortress and high point for the temple, so God is in His full glory. Then we see a vision of violence in a devouring fire, "a mighty tempest." In all the chaos (as it appears) and devastation, God calls us to judgement.
The Psalm of Asaph is "out of order" according to the notes. His psalms are in "book three" of the psalms, and we are in "book two." We are, however, reading a psalm of judgement from God just before David's famous confession, Psalm 51, in which he seeks mercy for the sins of his infamous indiscretion with Bathsheba. We know this fiery God of judgement does forgive David, who remains as king and is referred to as a "man after God's own heart." Maybe when we say we need to fear God, it is a sobering reminder of the true nature of the God of judgement, whose mercy and grace are there for us to save us from the wrath we see in the early verses of the psalm. It ends in verse 23 revealing the sacrificial nature of the God.
23The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”
God himself gave the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. For this, we are grateful.
Pray with me: Gracious Father, we know we are to both fear and love you in the same way we fear and love our earthly fathers. We know you are our creator and watch over us daily and for that we give thanks. Forgive us when we sin, and we ask that you remove the sin from our account as far at the east is from the west. In Christ's name, Amen.