It is disconcerting to read of the sublimity of God expressed in powerful displays of nature in heaven and on earth, and in the seas. Think of Mt. St. Helens erupting and covering the entire state of Washington with volcanic ash. The feeling of the sublime comes when the psalmist considers the might and power of such a display, but knows that he himself is safe within the sovereign counsel of this mighty God. But the same utterance reveals that this God also judged Pharoah and Egypt, and struck down all of that nation’s firstborn in the Exodus account. If we are to take the Scriptures as the word of God, then history is a revelation of how God has unfolded his will. And this revelation reveals God to not be neutral. No doubt he was (and is) not against individual Egyptians; but he was -- and is -- against plans and schemes that stand in the way of his purpose, which is to redeem a people for his name and glory and, in this process, redeem all of creation as well. It is a big plan. The point is that history reveals him to be one that will judge those who oppose this plan; and he does so by taking what today would be considered very impolitic and non-egalitarian actions. Horrors! A God who would destroy the firstborn of Egypt? One who would bring locusts and darkness and starvation upon a nation? What kind of God is this? Actually, this is a God that is quite in line with our expectations of how life should be in this present order of things. There are the good and the bad; there is evil; and the bad and the evil deserve judgment. It is not that the Egyptians were judged because they were Egyptians per se; that would have been unfair. The Egyptians were judged because they were unfair: they were oppressors; they enslaved a people for unreasonable servitude; they killed the male babies of Isreal to keep the Israelites from rebelling. This is wrong. This deserves a horrific (in our eyes) response. And one was delivered. If God were simply a patsy egalitarian, one who has no moral measures and has no power to enact judgment, one who simply wishes that we can all get along no matter what injustice is incurred, then life would truly be without hope. But he is not such a God. He does whatever he pleases, but what he pleases, or what pleases him, is moral and just, because he is Morality and Justice.
David Wang
Logos2Go:Psalm 135.6 Whatever the LORD pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. 7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. 8 He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both human beings and animals; 9 he sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.
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