"The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up theirvoice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." (Psalm 93:3-4)
Here is a grandeur and majesty in the sea. Mountains represent strength, unchangeableness, but the sea, or a rushing river, represents irresistible forces. One is conscious of a power in the sea even when it is comparatively at rest; but when it rages, and its billows roar and show their contempt of puny man in the blinding spray that they spit forth, its fury is awful.
The helplessness of man and the most mighty structures that he can build,--great ships,--in the grasp of the sea, is thus vividly portrayed: "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. For He commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end." (Psalm 107:23-27)
That is the first part of the story. The rest is this: "Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He makes the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still." (Psalm 107:28-29)
This God can do, because: "The sea is His, and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land." (Psalm 95:5) "He measures all the waters in the hollow of His hand." (Psalm 95:12)
All the mighty power of the sea is borrowed from God. He both stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar, and also stills their roaring.
This is a reason why men should be humble, and should consent to be wholly guided by the Lord, to the one who talks proudly and foolishly in self-confidence, the Lord says: "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 broke up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed?" (Job 38:8-11)
Great as is the power of the sea, God's power is infinitely greater. The sea is to Him but as a new-born infant in the swaddling clothes. Just as the one would hush a boisterous child, so the Lord says to the raging sea, "Peace! be still," (Mark 4:39) and immediately it obeys Him. It recognizes His authority. It can never overstep the bounds which He sets for it.
Surely, then, man, who is so helpless when seized upon by the billows, and whose mightiest ships are tossed by its waves as mere toys, ought to fear and worship Him to whom its raging is no more than the prattling of an infant. "Do you not fear me? says the Lord; will you not tremble at my presence, which have 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 can they not pass over it?" (Jeremiah 5:22)
One would not wonder if the mighty rocks were set for the bound of the sea; we expect to see the waves break to pieces against them; but sand is the symbol of weakness and instability. It is easily moved and shifted from one place to another by the waves of the sea. Yet that very shifting sand is what God has set by a perpetual decree as the bound for the sea. Against it the waves toss themselves, but they cannot pass it, and expend their strength in a roar of baffled, helpless fury. God's word has said, "Hitherto shall you come, but no further," (Job 38:11) and they are forced to obey. What is the lesson for us? Just this: "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; That no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are you in Christ Jesus." (1 Corinthians 1:27-30)
All power is of God, and He can exert it through the most insignificant agent. He made man to be an associate with Him in government, and so He is pleased to manifest His mighty power through puny man. This is to His glory. The fact that God can stir up or still the sea is cited as a reason why we should have confidence in Him, and then He says: "I have put my words in your mouth." (Isaiah 51:16)
The word by which the heavens and the earth were made; the word which says to the sea, "Hitherto shall you come, but no further; and here shall your proud waves be stayed," (Job 38:11) is the word which He has placed in our mouth. It is marvelous, is it not? but it is true. What are we to do with this word? Keep it, and use it against the enemy. "The sword of the Spirit ... is the word of God." (Ephesians 6:17)
It was that word in the mouth of Christ, which said, "Get you hence, Satan;" (Matthew 4:10) and the devil left Him. He was as weak as any man, for He said, "I can of my own self do nothing." (John 5:30)
But the word was almighty in His mouth, and so will it be in the mouth of every one who keeps it. Then what if we are weak and as easily moved as the sand? The God who makes the sand the bound of the sea, can use even us, when the enemy comes in like a flood, to lift up a standard against him. (Isaiah 59:19) Even so, let it be.--Present Truth, October 26, 1899--Original title: Front Page--Psalm 93:3-4.