Waters

Today my heart strings were pulled as I watched water pouring over Japan. A short video with no sound caused tears to well up. So much destruction in so little time. Seeing videos of ships being tossed like toys made me think of a verse that says God sets the boundaries for the waters and tells them to go no more. In looking it up, I came across the following verses:

"If he holds back the waters, there is drought. If he lets them loose, they devastate the land." Job 12:15

"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name... the voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic." Psalm 29:2-4

"He gathers the waters of the seas into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the world revere Him." Psalm 33:6-8

"The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure... The seas have lifted up, Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea- the Lord on high is mighty." Psalm 93

"Who shut up the sea behind doors, when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garments and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, 'This far you may come and no further, here is where your proud waves halt?" Job 38:8-11

I was struck that these verses and so many others are so closely tied to God's sovereignty. He is in control. The waters are a huge proof of it. He sets up the boundaries for the waters. He tells their proud waves that they can come no further. Every once in a while we see Him open the floodgates, move the boundary lines and allow the waters out of their place. When His voice thunders, His creation obeys. The result: 60,000 people lost their homes, 5,000 people lost their lives.  His creation tells us two things: He is powerful and He is God. Our response should be fear and worship. If He can cover half a nation in water at the sound of His voice, surely He is God and He must be worshiped as such. 

I'm struck by the ease of the deep's obedience. The oceans obey Him, so why don't we? God gives us a reasoning mind in order to look at creation in it's raw destructive power and see Him, and yet we use our reasoning mind to deny Him, rebuke Him, excuse ourselves, and shake our fist in His face. All He asks is that we worship Him as God and thank Him, yet we so often do neither. So today I see the waters, I see the hand that moved them, and I worship the Creator in fear and trembling.