high and nigh

Usually when I read, “Your faithfulness is great to the clouds” in Psalm 57:10, my mind pictures the immense vastness of God’s steadfast love.  After all, the sky is limitless, infinite. Is God’s faithfulness limited?  The sky’s vastness says an adamant, “No.”

However, unlike the vast reaches of the sky, the clouds actually form a layer above the earth separating us from that infinite sky.  In that way the clouds shelter and protect.   Like the steadfastness and faithfulness of God, they are near and full and present to bring us moisture and shade and beauty.  And they put a “here and now” perspective on God’s faithfulness.  Not only is He infinite, but He is intimate and in the present moment.  The clouds drift away, and other clouds roll in.  The faithfulness of God to meet us in this present moment is our daily experience. 

God’s faithfulness in the past is proof of His faithfulness covering me now.  But the faithfulness of eternity, of the infinite stretch of time, is what I have to take on faith.  I know God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  God covered me and protected me yesterday, and He is doing so now.  Therefore, I know He will never leave me or forsake me.

God, like the heavens is both vast and high and at the same time near and nigh.  He is all in all.  “He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever… He chose David his servant… to shepherd his people…with upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.”  Psalm 78:69-72 

God is power and tenderness all rolled into one supremely lovely entity.  Today when we look up, may we consider how God in all His infiniteness deigns to draw near to His creation and protect us like a mother chick protecting her hens.

Love, Liz