Stormy Seas vs a Red Wave

Tom Hovsepian

I suspect many of you, like me, were hoping for a political solution to bring some order to the chaos of the last two years. As much as I hoped, prayed and worked to see this happen through this recent election, deep down there was that nagging reality of the many past hopes I've placed in the efforts of man that have quite often ended in disappointment. This in NO WAY is a concession to abandon involvement in the political realm. I've seen far too many recent examples of positive results. It is more a reminder of where I'm to anchor my hope. Yesterday I felt directed to read the very short, Psalm 117.    Praise the Lord, all nations; Laud Him, all peoples. For His lovingkindness is great toward us, And the Truth of the Lord is everlasting.

The invitation to "Praise the Lord" is easily understood, but the next one is interesting and poignant.     "Laud Him, all nations." The Hebrew word "Laud" actually means: to be CALMED, STILLED, SOOTHED. It is used twice in the scriptures to describe God, "who stills the roaring of the seas." Ps. 89:9; 65:7. The Psalmist then gives us HOW the churning seas you may be experiencing this morning could veritably be calmed.

 "FOR His lovingkindness of the Lord is GREAT toward us." The Hebrew word the Psalmist uses for "great" here can mean: PREVAILS, to make firm, to bind up anything broken. Webster's dictionary defines "prevail" this way: to win out, to succeed, to produce or achieve the desired end. The stormy seas we may be experiencing this morning can be soothed, calmed, stilled by the assurance that God's love, expressed to us in His kindness, will assuredly PREVAIL and WIN OUT as He achieves HIS desired end. Incidentally, I just looked out my picture window and saw a beautiful DOUBLE rainbow.

How appropriate, for David said in Ps.29, "The LORD sat as King at the flood. The Lord sits as King forever." This double rainbow being a reminder to us that just as Noah and his family safely rode the waves of the flood, He promises in these "days of Noah" to do no different for all of us.