Psalm 36:5-10 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 36:5-10 on biblegateway.com
Verse 5Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Verse 6Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.
Verse 7How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Verse 8They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
Verse 9For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
Verse 10O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart!
Devotion
I remember the first time I encountered a body of water I couldn't see across. It was Lake Superior. My father pointed this fact out to me, and I remember standing and squinting into the distance, unable to glimpse the other side. Growing up in Wisconsin, I was familiar with lakes — ones I could boat or even swim across. Not so with Superior. It was big and unnerving and wonderful, all at once. It just kept on going into the horizon.
The psalmist can't find images enough to encompass God's steadfast love. High as the heavens, into the clouds, great as mountains, deep as the sea it goes. Like a feast that just keeps going, a river that keeps coming, life that keeps flowing, and light that's really illuminating.
Look up: See the vastness of God's love for you, or at least as much as you can take in. It keeps going — big and unnerving and wonderful — further than you or I can see.
Prayer
Continue your steadfast love to those who know you, O Lord, and make me one of them. At least as far as I can see into your horizon. Amen.