"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep." (Psalm 107:23-24)
What are the works of the Lord, and the wonders in the deep, which are seen in the great waters? The answer is given in the next verses: "For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves thereof." (Psalm 107:25)
The mighty power of God is seen by those who go to sea. God rules in the sea. When Jonah sought to flee from the presence of the Lord, and took a ship bound for Tarshish, "The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken." (Jonah 1:4)
But as soon as Jonah was out of the boat "the sea ceased from her raging." (Jonah 1:15) "He rules the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, He stills them." (Psalm 89:9)
An example of this is seen in the stilling of the tempest by Christ on the sea of Galilee. "He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." (Mark 4:39)
The word here rendered "peace" is the same that a mother would use in quieting a boisterous child: "Hush; quiet," she will say; and just as with a restless infant did Jesus deal with the tempestuous sea. For Jesus was Immanuel, "God with us," (Matthew 1:23) and: "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." (Psalm 93:4)
There is nothing more awful than the sea when lashed to fury by a violent wind. The destruction that it can work is beyond all description. The strongest works of man are unable to resist its force. No other created thing can equal the sea in power and grandeur; yet it is to God no more than the tiniest infant. See how strikingly this is set forth by the Lord in His instruction to Job: "Who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth, as if it had issued out of the womb; When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, And prescribed for it my decree, and set bars and doors, And said, Thus far shall you come, but no further; and here shall your proud waves be stayed." (Job 38:8-11,RV)
The sea with all the might of its proud waves, is to the Lord only as a newly-born infant in swaddling bands. And this God is the God of our salvation. Nor only do the wonders of God in the deep show "the power of God unto salvation of those who believe," (Romans 1:16) but they are cited as encouragement to those who labor for the salvation of others. Read: "I, even I, am He that comforts you; who are you, that you are afraid of man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; And have forgotten the Lord your Maker, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundation of the earth; and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy. ... I am the Lord your God, which stirred up the sea, that the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is His name. And I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered youin the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, You are my people." (Isaiah 51:12-13,15-16)
The God who can stir up the sea, so that it will roar, and then still it again with a whisper, is the God who put His Word in the mouths of those who will be ambassadors for Christ. Nay, more, the very word that can do this, is the word which He puts into the mouths of those who will yield themselves to Him, to obey and speak only His Word, and no words of their own.
In God's dealing with the sea we have still further encouragement as "laborers together with God." (1 Corinthians 3:9) "[God has] placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it." (Jeremiah 5:23)
Yet this same sand is unstable and shifting. He who builds on it is sure to come to destruction. "And everyone that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:26-27)
"A rope of sand" is an expression for weakness; yet this same sand serves in the hands of God to restrain the raging sea, and keep it in bounds. So although man is weakness itself, and worse than useless to build upon, the word which God puts in his mouth will build a new heavens and a new earth. "God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." (1 Corinthians 1:27)
Faith in God will manufacture strength out of weakness. "Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." (Hebrews 11:33-34)
The sea itself, which rages so furiously, is but water, which is unstable and weak. The strength that it exhibits is the strength of God. "Trust in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength" (Isaiah 26:4)--Present Truth, September 15, 1898.