When the mountains crumbled…
When the Mountains Crumbled…
Author~Suzanne Matthews
A current song, Shoulders by King & Country, begins by paraphrasing the first two verse of Psalm 121:
I look up to the mountains.
Does my strength come from the mountains?
No.
My strength comes from God,
Who made heaven and earth – and the mountains.
Recently Psalm 121, called The Traveler’s Prayer, became soul food for me. I read eight simple verses so many times that I couldn’t help but memorize the words. My heart was fed and God showed me how to pray.
I have a friend, really an extended family member, who was in the Nepal earthquake, missing for almost a week. This is not her story – that is for her to tell. These observations are mine from halfway across the world in our city, as family and friends gathered together to seek information, find her, rescue her. We met for days around a big table I labeled ‘command central’, where the Bible lay open to Psalm 121.
I look up to the mountains…
I thought about the mountains. Not just any mountains, the largest in the world. People travel to Nepal for the mountains, to revere mountain majesty, to achieve a life challenge. My friend was in those mountains. On April 25, just hours before the first earthquake, she left Kathmandu and was traveling the perilous Aranaki Highway toward Tibet when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit.
The mountains rained destruction. Help did not come from the mountains; the mountains gave way to over thirty-five aftershocks, deadly landslides and tremors that went on for days.
When the news at home looked grim, God reminded me that He created Mount Everest. He spoke and every speck of dirt, every cliff, every summit was formed in the Himalayan mountain range. God was our Help, not the mountains.
He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber…
Riveted to the television, I saw avalanches, and mudslides, entire roads falling away. I later learned she lived on the side of a quaking mountain for four days. Once, running for her life from deadly falling mountain debris, her foot slipped. Arms she felt, but never saw or identified, picked her up so she was not crushed by the crowd as she ran to safety.
The mountains crumbled, but God protected her. Her foot slipped, but God picked her up. The home team slumbered out of pure exhaustion, but God never did.
What happened to me was that I gained hope; God was there just as He was here. Prayer fed my soul so that I could encourage her children. God is blessed when we pray His Word back to Him. He is His Word. He delights in proving His Word is truth.
He stood and shook the earth;
he looked and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed –
but he marches on forever. Habakkuk 3: 6
PRAYER
Dear God,
This journey of life catches us off guard. We are blindsided by mountains looming before us. We are fearful our feet will slip out from under us. We are exhausted. Help us. Teach us that our first line of defense is your Word. In your Name we pray. Amen.
Reflection:
Where do you turn when you are in a dire circumstance? What can you begin to do today to insure God’s Word will be your first line of defense?
It is almost summer – we all are traveling. How will you make Psalm 121, The Traveler’s Prayer, personal to your family vacation?
Treasure Hunt:
And God said… Genesis 1: 3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26
as for God… Psalm 18: 30
but the word of our God… Isaiah 40: 8
Faith in Action:
God’s Word applies to every situation in life. There is nothing it does not cover. When we pray God’s Word back to the One Who is The Word, our words become His and His Word becomes planted in our hearts. We become rooted in God’s Word rather than rooted in our circumstance.
Suzanne Matthews~Author
One day I am an artist and another day I am an author. One thing all days… I love the Word of God! I cut my spiritual teeth teaching the Bible Study Fellowship Evening Women’s class in Huntsville. After 14 years, God called me to write, and a few years ago I retired from the Huntsville Museum of Art as the Director of Advancement to finish writing Crossings: Life Lessons from the Book of Joshua. That study cemented my advocacy for small group study, and I am busy writing my second study to be completed spring of 2014. I married the love of my life, Ben, and we have four grown children and I am “Zannie” to five grandchildren. We worship at Saint Andrew’s Anglican Church in Madison. You can keep up with me through my blog at Coffee, Tea and Thee .
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