You know that idea of the cosmic watchmaker, who wound up the universe and walked away? I don’t buy it. This verse illustrates why, describing how God’s voice engages with creation in an intimate, ongoing way. It’s not just His word (spoken long ago) that’s living and active, it’s His voice, His expression in real time. This expression is still colliding with creation, still making things happen.
His voice initiates birth. I remember being 41 weeks pregnant, pouring over my midwifery textbook, desperate to understand the mechanism that triggers labor. I read about all kinds of techniques from different cultures that induce labor a certain percentage of the time. But we don’t necessarily know why they work. We don’t have a medical answer. We’re still asking, “Does the mother send the initial signal, or is it the baby?” I love that The Bible offers another answer. It’s both of them, responding to God’s voice.
What about this next picture? When it says God’s voice strips the forest bare, is it describing His voice as the wind that lays a crunchy carpet of red and gold and burnt orange every autumn? I’m not sure. But the forests David was familiar with were mostly evergreen. There were a few trees that lost their leaves, but very few. The forest would never be stripped bare by this annual process.
So why are these two graphic depictions of life and loss placed side by side? Both in giving birth and in experiencing loss, parts of us are laid bare. We’re exposed in ways we wouldn’t choose, but can’t avoid. And both make room for new growth, although they do it in seemingly opposite ways.
But here’s the thing that hit me when I was looking at this passage:
“…in His temple, everything says, ‘Glory!'”
After months of writing about what God’s voice is and does, the question I’ll carry with me is, “what am I saying?” I talk about being His temple. I say I believe it. But does everything in me say “Glory!” Do I say “Glory” when there’s new life and when I’m stripped bare? Am I as quick to glorify the God who takes away as I am to bless the God who gives?
The truth is, it’s hard to say, “Glory!”, when I want to shout, “Not fair!” or cry, “Where are you?”
But in His temple, everything is in agreement. Everything says glory.
What’s your life saying?
If you missed any of the posts in this series on God’s voice, you can find them all here:
God Sandwich, Uncertainty bread
Why Are We Playing Fetch in a Minefield?
A Majestic Voice and an Open Door
Why Does God Break what’s Working to Heal what’s Broken?