Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. (Psalm 33:8-9)
At its core, this psalm celebrates the fact that the God of Israel is the Sovereign Lord of Creation and all history. Everything He has ordained is established and will come to pass. If He has spoken it, then His command will stand whether mankind accepts it or not. In that vein of thought, let us consider that God governs the world, primarily, in two ways. The first method is by the laws of nature that are pre-ordained and unchanging — e.g. seasons, seed time and harvest etc.
The second method is by His supervision and intervention, which is very often determined by the deeds of men whether for better or worse. For those who are not inclined to respect His authority, the laws of nature tend to conceal His sovereignty; in their limited point of view, things in nature just happen. On the other hand, when He intervenes in the affairs of men, even the wicked should take note and stand in awe.
There are elements of this world that should convince us it is foolhardy to become smug and complacent. In other words, wisdom says we should be humbled by the fact that there are forces in this world beyond our control, in spite of our best efforts to harness them. For instance, we can spend incredible amounts of time and treasure to dam up a river and boast about the greatness of our accomplishment. But in a matter of seconds, God can bring those efforts to nothing by simply shaking the ground beneath.
As was mentioned in the previous devotion, only the Word and Will of God keeps vast amounts of water from overflowing the boundaries that He has established. Were He to speak the word, mighty and immeasurable waves would overwhelm the land and destroy everything in its path. In the not so distant past, isolated tsunamis have demonstrated what could happen if God decided to manifest His power and authority over His creation in this manner. And so the point is this: the will of man must give way to the will of God. We can plan and do as we like, but in the end, only the Word of God will stand fast; only His Will remains when everything else crumbles into dust. Therefore, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.”
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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