Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. - Psalm 77:13-14
This is our Fighter Verse this week and I would like to help explain how this verse helps us to fight the fight of faith. There are four basic assertions these verses make. Let me list them.
The first thing we are told is that God’s way is holy. Holy is a word that describes the way God is completely separate from us. God is separate from sin, he is utterly pure. This assertion draws attention to the ways of God and not necessarily the being of God. The Psalmist is saying that God has his own ways of doing things, which alerts us to the fact that the way man approaches life and the way God does are often at odds. This verse helps us to fight by setting our expectations right, allowing us to take comfort in the very different ways God operates from the way we would.
Second, God is uniquely great. God’s holy ways make him completely unique to false gods, which are merely extensions of man’s wisdom and power.
Third, God demonstrates his uniqueness above man and the gods by working wonders.
Fourth, the wonders that God has made are meant to be perceived and responded to when we are told that he has “made known your might among the peoples.”
I want to bring us to verse 19 where we read something more about the ways of God: “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters”. Speaking of God’s mighty wonders, verse 19 is Exhibit A. Undoubtedly the writer has the crossing of the Red Sea in mind. If you are wondering how God’s ways truly are different from man’s look no further than the Israelites trying to escape Pharaoh from Egyptian captivity. God finally leads them out and if you were to MapQuest their route, the most direct way would be not to take you through the sea. In fact, they had to go out of their way to get there. Now if it were up to me and my duty was to get a few million people, including women and children, safely to their destination I would avoid the sea even if it was the most direct path.
This is one of many key ways God and I differ. His way is Holy and my way is not. I can only imagine the crisis of faith the Israelites had when arriving at the shores of the massive body of water with nothing but the clothes on their back. Thankfully they didn’t have the latest iPhones because they would surely have had their Google Maps open and openly wondering, “Moses, why are we going this way?” It is because God’s way is Holy, and our collective way is not.
We can fight the fight of faith with this verse because it assures us that we will certainly be at odds with the ways of God. Expect this. The verse also reminds us that God is always accomplishing a million things more through his ways even if we cannot see them.
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