MONDAY 8th
Psalm 89
NIV (v13) – ‘Your arm is endowed with power; your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.’
ESV (v13) – ‘You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.’
A few days before I was preparing this devotion, I had been thinking about the whole concept that God is Spirit and yet we read so often through Scripture of him possessing what we would consider as bodily parts. Today’s text is one of them using the words arm and hand. How do we reconcile this? The simple answer is that God through the inspiration of Scripture shows himself to us in ways that we as human beings can understand, he is a powerful, living God, who acts in many ways toward that which he has created, and the easiest way for us to understand it is for God to use human concepts. We know that God speaks, for this was the way in which he created the universe, ‘God said, ‘Let there be . . . and there was’ We know that he hears, that is why we come to him in prayer, we know that he can see, for we are told that the ‘eyes of the Lord roam the earth’, and in our text today we see that his arm is endowed with power, his hand is strong and his right hand is exalted. (v15 mentions the face of God)
Although God is Spirit the way in which he has revealed himself to us is comforting and helpful, for as a result we know that God is interested in us, men, and women whom he created in his own image. He is concerned about you; he cares for you and me and as a result he expresses himself in ways for us to be able to understand and embrace.
Isn’t it comforting to know that God watches over you and me, to know that he is listening out to hear us when we cry out to him, and that his arm is strong enough to save us and to deliver us, he is always standing (that gives the imagery of legs and feet!) ready to stoop down, (that speaks of a back and knees that will bend) to pick us up into his everlasting arms. What an amazing God, Spirit yes, but with the ability to be all that he needs to be to reach out to all he has created, to reach out and save, to reach out and deliver. This is our God, contrastingly, the gods of this world have eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear, hands but cannot pick up, arms but cannot save, . . .’