The Waves Thereof Arise

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Fri, 28/02/2025 - 00:00

The seas of Out Skerries, an archipelago off Shetland, are wild and rough, and the receiving cliffs and rock formations are suitably dramatic. Dark and jagged, tall and strong, they withstand the sea’s constant pummelling and pounding. Well might David write in Psalm 89:8-10:

O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? Or to thy faithfulness round about thee? Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm (AV).

Of course, the North Sea is reducing those cliffs, slowly, though not quietly, gradually washing them away to nothing. Yet there is a power in heaven which is greater even than the ocean, a majesty more brilliant than Poseidon's.

And our times are in his hands.

My times be in thine hands. Deliver thou me from the hands of mine enemies; and from them that pursue me. Psalm 31:15 (Wycliffe's translation)