Enthroned over the flood (Joy in the Journey)

Have you ever seen a sign that warns you a certain footpath is liable to flooding? It’s a great candidate as a sign to write over your life: the onrushing waters of chaos, the riptides of panic and alarm, the swirling currents of temptations, the overwhelming waves of desolation. Not just in the parlance of a pandemic but simply life in a fallen world where sin still exercises a malign reign.

Psalm 29 has words that are not just suited for such times but establish a framework for all our days, whatever they contain: “The LORD sits enthroned over the flood” (v.10). He is unfazed by it; more, he is sovereign over it. The waters cannot overflow the boundaries he sets for them (Jer. 5:22), not in creation, nor in your soul.

Talk of the flood is perhaps a reminder of the cataclysm of judgement and salvation that came to pass in the days of Noah. The LORD was enthroned then, too. The violence of a humanity drowning in sin would not be determinative for the future of God’s world. He acted to judge and to save, in a rescue that arcs forward to its true realisation in the Saviour who was submerged under the waters of death so that we might know “the pledge of a clear conscience towards God” (1 Peter 3:21).

The earlier part of the Psalm proclaims, even celebrates, the voice of the LORD in the terrifying storm that sweeps in from the sea and makes landfall, devastating the forests. There is the most peculiar combination of terror and calm in knowing that the clashing cymbals of the storm are the declared might of the LORD. There is no higher reality.

But it is also more than that. The God who speaks through the storm is the same Lord who can, therefore, speak to the storm, to still it for the sake of his distressed disciples (Mk. 4:35-41). A stilling so powerful that their fear of the raging wind is translated into a reverent fear of the Saviour that is deeper still and far more acute. In life’s storms and in its stillness, Jesus is Lord.

How are we to respond to such might? The psalm tells us that “In his [heavenly] temple all cry, 'Glory!'” And in the temple being built with living stones, our highest calling is to join that chorus of acclamation. Where worship and wonder replace fear and alarm; where the breath-taking sight can hush the hurtling heart into being still and knowing that he is God. Majesty - worship such majesty.

When we reach the end of all our journeying, when our boat is safely harboured and the storms past, our joy will be complete as we take our place among the heavenly choir, extolling the one who is radiant with uncreated, unmediated glory. The one who gives strength to his people through all their days, who blessed and blesses them with peace.

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Like a river glorious

Is God’s perfect peace,

Over all victorious,

In its bright increase;

Perfect, yet it floweth

Fuller every day,

Perfect, yet it groweth

Deeper all the way.

    Stayed upon Jehovah

    Hearts are fully blest,

    Finding, as He promised,

    Perfect peace and rest.

Hidden in the hollow

Of His blessed hand,

Never foe can follow,

Never traitor stand;

We may trust Him fully,

All for us to do;

They who trust Him wholly

Find Him wholly true.

(Frances Ridley Havergal, 1836-79)