Is It Safe?

The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he! The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the LORD our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he! (Psalm 99:1-5 ESV). May I begin today with a bit of a rant? I hope you will not be offended, but I really don’t like child-safety caps on my prescription bottles! I understand the wisdom of making them safer for the sake of curious children who may decide to open one of the bottles and think the medicine is candy and gobble a handful down, but really? There are many days when I just don’t want the hassle of getting into my prescription by “squeezing gently at the arrows, pushing down, and turning counter-clockwise.” Just let me pop the top get a pill and slug it down with some water please! Oh sure, I know you can request the pharmacy put your prescriptions in snap-top bottles, but my experience has been that after you sign all the releases of liability and file it in the computer, you still only get the easy open bottles about half the time. I guess it is safer, but… Thinking about that brought me to our reading today. Isn’t it strange how my mind works? I was also reminded of a line in C. S. Lewis’ fanciful tale The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan, King of Narnia, is expected to arrive at any moment. Fearful of this initial encounter Lucy hesitantly asks, “Is he safe?” Mr. Beaver declares in the oft-quoted line: “‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” Aslan, the Christ-like king, is both fearsome and good; he is terrible and merciful, powerful and just. God, in Psalm 99, is declared in the same descriptions. Peering through the window of this psalm, we catch a glimpse of the paradoxical nature of God. He is fearsome and good. In these first five verses, we encounter the ferocious, the awesome, and the holy character of God. To see him as he is a breath-catching, knee-shaking, earth-jolting experience! How can we stand in his presence? Well, than answer is simple - we can’t. The psalmist warns, humanity trembles as he sits enthroned on angels. He is the Lord our God. His name produces praise. The Lord is King over all the earth and his reign is exalted over all people. His justice is swift; he is holy, and he is feared. For this, we worship at his footstool. Holy and great is the Mighty King! So, what can we do in the face of the approaching King? There is the good news. We stand in the presence of the indwelling Christ. Through his gift of grace and atoning work, we have nothing to fear. That makes it safe indeed!