May 16

Psalm 135
I’ve heard it said that we know more about what is outside the atmosphere of the earth than we know about what lies beneath the surface of our oceans. It has been easier to build crafts that can enter a vacuum than to build crafts that can take us to the depths where the weight of water pops ordinary vessels like a pimple. We have all probably seen TV shows of the excursions of people who have gone to the depths to find and explore the wreckage of the Titanic, or to explore the depths of the Marianas Trench the deepest spot in the oceans seven miles below the surface. In order to accomplish these feats we have had to engineer special submarines that cannot be crushed at those depths. To exit those special vehicles in a wet suit would immediately crush the human body. We cannot do as we please.
Contrast that with space. We can hurl ourselves to the moon and come back safely. During the ride, we can jump outside the vehicle in a special space suit and make repairs. It is almost as if we could do as we please in space. Is it not interesting that we can figure out how to live in deep space, but not how to live in the depths of the sea. Yet that is an illusion. In space we have a limited amount of time before we must return. In space we are one careless mistake away from death. We really don’t do what we please, but we have a little more liberty than the depths of the sea.
Often times portions of Psalms are repeated in other Psalms. We find this Psalm to be very similar to Psalm 115. However, I noted one difference. Psalm 115:3 says, “But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.” Psalm 135:5–6 says, “For I know that the LORD is great, And our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places.” He knows what kind of life exists in the heat vents of the Marianas Trench. He knows the vacuum of space. He does what He pleases in either case. He created the water whose weight crushes the people in the depths of the sea. He created the vacuum that sucks the life of man in space. Neither extreme has any effect upon Him for He is life. He does not possess it as if someone or something could ever take it away. He is life itself. He needs neither oxygen, pressure or lack of pressure. He lives independently of all things, because He is life! Take away oxygen, water, pressure, food and we die, but He does not! Without those things He still does as He pleases.
So what difference does that make to me? This God who does as He pleases has declared that those who trust in His Son are His special treasure! He simultaneously judges His people and has compassion upon them. There is nothing in this life that threatens me that threatens Him. He designs all things that come into my life to cause me to look to Him and understand who He is. When I see what I presume to be bad in my life, I can rest assured that he is doing it to draw me to Himself, and that is good! He does what He pleases under pressure and in a vacuum. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john