There are moments when the world feels uncertain.
Shrouded in clouds,
We cannot part.
In these times,
The words of Psalm 97 arrive like a clarion of truth.
Not to shield us from difficulty,
But to offer perspective,
A wholly deminder of the grand,
Unshakable foundation beneath our fleeting troubles.
Psalm 97 opens with the thunderous declaration,
The Lord reigns.
This is no passive statement.
It is a call to remember that above the noise,
Above our anxious striving,
And behind the veil of confusion,
There is One who holds all things together.
For us as the modern reader,
Especially in a world fragmented by speed and complexity,
This Psalm is both grounding and transcendent.
It is both a surrender and a rising.
Let us now journey through the sacred song,
Verse by verse,
Allowing it to shape our breath,
Our being,
And our view of the world.
Psalm 97 And burns up his enemies round about.
His lightnings light the world.
The earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
The heavens declare His righteousness,
And all the peoples see His glory.
Let all be put to shame who serve carved images,
Who boast of idols.
Worship Him,
All you gods.
Zion hears and is glad,
And the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments,
O Lord.
For you,
O Lord,
Are most high above all the earth.
You are exalted far above all gods.
You who love the Lord hate evil.
He preserves the souls of His saints.
He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
Light is sown for the righteous,
And gladness for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord,
You righteous,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
Verse 1 The Lord reigns.
Let the earth rejoice.
Let the multitude of isles be glad.
Even before fires or clouds appear in the psalm,
It begins with joy.
We are told,
God reigns,
So let the earth rejoice.
This is not a shallow cheerfulness,
But a deep spiritual posture of trust.
Joy is not the absence of hardship,
But the presence of connection.
Connection to meaning,
Connection to truth,
Connection to something larger than ourselves.
When we remember that the divine reigns,
We allow ourselves to soften.
Verse 2 Clouds and darkness surround Him.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
We often associate the divine with clarity.
But here,
We are told that clouds and darkness surround Him.
This is holy mystery.
We are not promised immediate understanding,
But we are promised a moral foundation,
Righteousness and justice.
In your life,
There may be clouds,
Confusion,
Grief or waiting.
Yet,
Beneath it all,
Lies a just and righteous purpose.
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,
But by making the darkness conscious.
Can we trust that even in the unknown,
There's something sacred at work?
Verse 3 A fire goes before Him and burns up His enemies round about.
The fire,
The fire here is not the darkness.
It is not destruction for the sake of cruelty.
The fire here is a purifying force.
It removes what stands in the way of love,
Peace and truth.
We often use the term inner critic,
The harmful narratives that we carry about ourselves.
But God's fire does not burn these up.
God's fire burns anything that no longer serves our growth,
That no longer serves our ability to connect.
Today,
Try to identify one of these internal enemies,
One of these enemy thoughts and hold it gently in awareness.
It is the defining fire of love.
Verse 4 His lightnings light the world.
The earth sees and trembles.
The majesty of God illuminates the world.
But sometimes,
Illumination is not always comfortable.
Light exposes what's hidden and the earth trembles.
When we experience a deep spiritual insight or we experience an awakening of the mind,
We often tremble.
This is not weakness.
This is the beginning of transformation.
Trembling is not a sign of failure.
It is a sign that there's something real happening inside of you.
Verse 5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
There are many things we believe to be immovable.
The mountains of our fears,
The mountains of our shame,
The mountains of our limitations.
But all these simply melt in the presence of divine love.
This verse speaks to the power of secure attachment.
When we feel deeply seen and held,
Even our most rigid defenses soften.
Even our most rigid defenses soften.
Even our most rigid defenses melt away.
In God's presence,
Let us allow those hard places to melt into openness.
Verse 6 The heavens declare his righteousness and all the peoples see his glory.
Creation itself testifies to the goodness of God.
Sometimes when words fail,
We can simply look up at the stars,
The clouds,
The wind.
Let your senses become doorways to the sacred.
Let the external world open up to you.
The mind you of an internal truth.
You are part of something beautiful.
Today,
Take 60 seconds to simply observe the sky.
Let it speak to your soul.
Verse 7 Let all be put to shame who serve carved images,
Who boast of idols.
Worship him,
All you gods.
In ancient times,
Idols were physical.
Today,
They are subtler.
Today,
Idols look like productivity,
Productivity,
Perfection,
Approval.
Anything that takes God's place in our hearts becomes an idol.
It leaves us empty.
This verse invites us back to center.
What false idols are we giving our energy to?
And are we willing to release them?
Verse 8 Zion hears and is glad.
And the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments,
O Lord.
There is joy.
There is joy when we are in alignment with divine justice.
When we see fairness,
Kindness,
Truth prevailing,
Our hearts naturally rejoice.
In your relationships,
Let your judgment prevail.
Your judgments also reflect this justice.
Compassionate,
Wise,
Firm,
Yet fair.
Rejoicing is the fruit of right relationship with ourselves,
With others,
And with God.
Verse 9 For you,
Lord,
Are most high above all the earth.
You are exalted far above all gods.
The small g,
The small gods of this world,
Control,
Success,
Image,
These fade in the presence of the Holy One.
This verse is a deep sigh,
A letting go,
A remembering that we don't have to hold it all.
You are God,
And I am not.
And that is a deep relief.
Verse 10 You who love the Lord hate evil.
He preserves the souls of his saints.
He delivers them out of the hands of the wicked.
Love is not passive.
Love includes a holy aversion to what harms.
When we align with the God of love,
We begin to resist what dehumanizes.
Within and around us.
And in doing so,
We are preserved,
Not by might,
But by grace.
Verse 11 Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart.
Light is sown,
Planted like a seed.
It grows over time.
So if you don't feel light now,
Trust the seed.
Walk uprightly and the gladness will rise.
This is a long game of healing.
Small,
Faithful steps that become a field of joy.
What seeds of light can you sow today?
Verse 12 Rejoice in the Lord,
You righteous,
And give thanks at the remembrance of his holy name.
Gratitude.
Gratitude grounds us.
To remember the name of God,
The character,
The essence,
The presence is to center in reality.
Start and end your days with remembrance.
Let thanksgiving become the rhythm of your breath.
Today,
At the end of the day,
Try to write down three moments where you glimpsed the holy.
A prayer.
Divine light.
You reign above and within.
When clouds surround me,
Let me trust the foundation of your justice.
Burn away what no longer serves.
Illuminate what needs healing.
Melt my fear like wax in your love and grow in me the seeds of gladness.
Teach me to let go of false gods and hold fast to what is true.
I rejoice in you.
I remember your name.
I am not alone.
Amen.
