Heavenly Father, we bow our heads in reverent fear and trembling in Your awesome presence. We dare to ask You rhetorical questions, though, as we then stand and look on in amazement....
When a missionary went out from his home -- to a people of strange, tongue-contorting (to him) language for forty years to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and gained much "treasure in Heaven", Who sustained Him and met his needs?
When the lady linguist spent twenty years or more of her life learning the foreign language and its nuances; customs, culture, and legends of a particular people group in the middle of a remote jungle, Who was her Personal Company to uphold her in her loneliness and through the frustarations, challenges and obstacles of relating to the people, learning, gathering, assimilating and documenting it all so that in turn, she could translate Your Word into said people group's language? Oh, and have it all make sense to them? Who was He, Who sustained her to see Your "project" through to the end so these dear people could read Your precious word in their own mother tongue?!
Father, here's another question.
Who was it who kept the circuit riding preacher-teacher and his wife, safely on the road for forty years? Oh, and the one "major" accident where he got out of his car and although addlepated, climbed back up the ravine he had accidently driven into, despite his sustained broken back? Who healed that back over the ensuing weeks so he could get behind the wheel again and continue bringing Your word to Your people, helping to build them up in their "most holy faith"?
Who was He, Father, who comforted that couple who had just lost their precious little, firstborn child to leukemia, or brain tumor or drowning or miscarriage or stillbirth? Who's love surrounded and comforted them; Who kept them strong in faith - ever cleaving to You?
These rhetorical questions could go on and on. However, like the psalmist, we'd like to say, Father, we
"tremble...at the presence of the LORD" (verse 7).
WE tremble, Oh God of Jacob, of that missionary, of that linguist, preacher-teacher and of the bereaved couples; we tremble in Your presence, giving thanksgiving for being with us, walking with us, and bringing us through the valley of the shadow of death. We know He was You and that You are with us still.
Thank-You in Jesus' most precious name and by His enduring grace we praise.
~ERC April 2021~
Based on Psalm 114:1-8 (ESV).
Sing, To You, O God, I Lift Up My Soul, with Bob Hurd.
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