Awesome God

The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
and burns up his adversaries all around.
His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
— Psalm 97:1-6

Where did we get the idea that God was some old man, sitting on a throne somewhere in the sky?

Yes, the old man in the sky is easy to live with.

But he's also easy to ignore. Easy to bargain with. Easy to reduce to a genie in a bottle.

The God of Psalm 97 doesn't leave you that option.

The domesticated God — approachable, grandfatherly, mildly concerned with your comfort — requires a lot of selective reading to maintain. Psalms like this one don't support it.

Neither does Isaiah 6.

Neither does Revelation 4.

Neither does the k'ruvim (cherubim) with the flaming sword in Genesis 3.

The picture Scripture actually paints is the one you just read. Clouds and thick darkness. Fire preceding him. Lightning that makes the earth tremble. Mountains melting like wax.

These are not metaphors designed to make you feel cozy — they are metaphors designed to make you feel small in the presence of something infinely beyond you.

The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD, over many waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
—Psalms 29:3-9

This God whom we serve is the ultimate definition of Awesome.

To be awe-struck is to stand in the overwhelming combination of terror and magnificence that produces involuntary reverence. Not admiration. Not appreciation. The kind of response you don't choose. The kind that happens to you.

Why do so many in Scripture fall down as dead men when they encounter the awesome presence of God? It is simply because they couldn’t stand up any longer. They didn’t lie down. They fell down.

To pray, “Show me Your glory,” is to come to terms with the very real possibility that you won’t survive the encounter.

And yet — righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. This terrifying One is also the just One.

The fire and the lightning aren't random. They're the expression of a holy character that cannot tolerate what is wrong.

Which makes the mercy more stunning. The God described in Psalm 97 is not the God you'd expect to hold anyone by the hand through a stumble. But that is exactly Who He Is.

He may stumble, but he won't fall headlong, for ADONAI [the LORD] holds him by the hand. —Psalm 37:24 (Complete Jewish Bible)

The distance between Psalm 97 and Psalm 37:24 is the whole gospel.