The Perfect Storm

    Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The other night I watched The Perfect Storm for the first time.  I don't watch hardly any live TV anymore; however, I do still watch way too much Netflix.  The thing I love about Netflix is it gives me the chance to watch older classic movies that I didn't watch when they first came out.  I can remember all the buzz of a certain movie when it came out, but I wasn't going to spend the money to go to the movie theater to see it.  Then by the time it was released, I would have forgotten about it.  So now, as I see those titles pop up on Netflix, I try to watch them to see what I "missed out" on at the time.  The Perfect Storm was one of those movies that I remember hearing a lot about but had never seen it.  So the other night when I saw it one Netflix, I watched it.  It was a pretty good movie and actually quite impressive filming of the giant waves.
    So as I was reading Psalm 93 today, those images of giant waves throwing around the boats and even the giant ships like toys came flooding back to my mind (pun intended).  Especially after living in Duluth and seeing how big those giant ships really are, those images are even more real.  And yet, listen to the good news that psalm 93 is telling us.

"The floods have lifted up, O Lord, 

 the floods have lifted up their voice; 

the floods lift up their roaring.  

Mightier than the thunders of many waters,

mightier than the waves of the sea, 

the Lord on high is mighty!"  

    As I think about those giant, crashing waves, thrashing those boats and ships around so easily, it is  pretty good picture of the floods lifting up their voice and roaring.  I know it was a movie and just special effects, but it was trying to capture what really happens to those ships during a real hurricane.  Those waves have a lot of power behind them.  The movie is dedicated to the thousands (I don't remember the exact number) of men and women who have lost their life out at sea.  Most of those lives where taken by the power of the waves, the roaring of the waters, and the floods of the storms raising their voices.  It is a scary threat to all those who work on the sea and even more for their families praying they make it home safely.  This is the dark force, or the mighty part of the world that this Psalmist chose to contrast with the power and might of God.  Those powerful waves, the constant threat of death in those waters are compared to the one and only God and Lord.  

    Even mightier than these roaring waters, stronger than the most powerful wave, is the one and only God of the universe.  He is mightier than the waves of the sea.  Even the giant wave at the end of The Perfect Storm that is so tall it stands the boat straight up and down before it comes crashing down on them and causing the boat to sink (spoiler alert if you haven't seen the movie).  Even mightier than the tsunami that cased so much damage in Thailand years ago, is our God.  This psalmist chose one of the most powerful forces of our earth - water - and says even it cannot begin to compare with the mightiness of our God.  This is good news and a great reminder for us that our God is bigger than the world.  He is stronger than anything that can harm us; even the roaring waters of the fiercest storm.  He is the creator of all and He is in control of all things.  And since He is every lasting, we can put out trust in Him and His decrees.  Thanks be to the one and only God who is ALL-powerful and ALL-mighty!