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Morning Meditation for the Season after Pentecost
November 25, 2024
Reading: Psalm 93
1 The Lord is King;
he has put on splendid apparel;
the Lord has put on his apparel
and girded himself with strength.
2 He has made the whole world so sure
that it cannot be moved;
3 Ever since the world began, your throne has been established;
you are from everlasting.
4 The waters have lifted up, O Lord,
the waters have lifted up their voice;
the waters have lifted up their pounding waves.
5 Mightier than the sound of many waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea,
mightier is the Lord who dwells on high.
6 Your testimonies are very sure,
and holiness adorns your house, O Lord,
for ever and for evermore.
Meditation by Glenn Beamer
In the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico is the Valles Caldera. The caldera appears as a massive concave expanse. Geologists estimate the caldera to be 1.6 million years old. Scores of volcanoes erupted over thousands of years and created it.
Psalm 93 conjures images of a mighty ocean pounding upon shores relentlessly and endlessly and then makes clear that the relentless and massive force of the sea lies subordinate to God’s eternal kingdom. Likewise, one can imagine the tremendous energy and force of multiple volcanoes spewing hot lava and exploding the earth, and yet those tremendous forces were less mighty than God’s.
Although the caldera was an expansive exploding cauldron one and a half million years ago, today it evokes an overwhelming reflection of God’s peace. The caldera presents a blend rock, pinion trees, and brush stretching out for 15 miles. Even thunder and snowstorms in the distance can contrast with the stillness of where one stands. In contrast to a pounding sea or an erupting volcano, Valles Caldera sunsets bring to mind God’s gentle hands upon the earth.
God’s kingdom is everlasting, unknowable, and certainly unpredictable. The pounding and roaring sea depicted in Psalm 93 may persist forever, but like the volcanoes in New Mexico a million years ago, the sea may transform into nature unimagined. It is not ours to predict let alone know the path God chooses or the time in which God chooses it.
Prayer
Our Father, who art is heaven,
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil,
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
Forever and ever. Amen.
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