I recently landed on Psalm 36, and it is beautiful.

“Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; your save humans and animals alike, O Lord.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”

I love the artistic brush the psalmist paints these words with, illustrating God’s high, wide, long, and deep love. From the heavens to the mountains to the seas and on to all of the animals. God’s love is faithful and his judgments are true. There is a mystery to this big Creator of ours, an unspeakable majesty that we cannot quite put words to. God allows us to feast on the abundance of his house, and take shelter under the shadow of his wings. With him is the fountain of life, and in his light, we see light. … IN HIS LIGHT WE SEE LIGHT. I could chew on that last sentence for a very long time. These are magical, mystical, marvelous words. Our God does not look like Gandalf. He, our creator, sustainer, and giver-of-life, made the cosmos, the galaxies, the stars, and the nebulas. He formed all of the realms, dimensions, and planets. He separated the waters and formed the seas and all of the creatures that swim, and crawl, and fly and walk. He is light, and in his light we see light.

After Job’s friends pontificate for 25+ chapters explaining God’s purposes to Job, Job spends a couple of chapters justifying his righteousness before his friends and God, “Why God, what did I do to deserve this?” Quite startlingly, in chapters 38 and 39, God shows up; and forcefully answers Job “Out of the whirlwind”… blowing his hair and beard back… “Gird up your loins like a man and “I” will question “you” … Where were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the earth? … Who laid its cornerstone? … Who shut the sea with doors? …. Where is the dwelling of light, for surely you must know since you are so wise in years? …. Have you entered the storehouses of snow?… Will the wild ox serve you? … Did you give the horse its might?”… It comes to a breathtaking climax in Job 40.2-4: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Anyone who argues with God must respond… And then, Job answers the Lord in the best way possible: “I lay my hand on my mouth.”

In this moment, Job realizes how big God is, and how small he is. How grand are God’s purposes, and how minute are his. Awe hit him like a hurricane, and stupefied, he could only cover his mouth. He realized the notions he had of his own righteousness and what he thought was due him, were nothing in comparison to the quantum intentions of the God of all creation, whose purposes are higher and wider than we can think or imagine. I don’t know about you. But lately, I have been covering my mouth, a lot.

We may believe that we know the mind of God, or have a right to, or have served God so long that we can be certain of what our Creator is thinking. But God is mystery. With God is the fountain of Life and in his brilliant light we see more brilliant light. His love reaches to the heavens and his faithfulness to the clouds. May the glory of this beautiful psalm sink into your soul and marrow. His love reaches to the heavens. God’s love for you — for all of us. Reaches all the way to the heavens. The heavens.

That’s a love that surpasses all of our understanding. We cannot define it, or control it, or specify where it goes, or who it goes to. It just keeps going…. and nothing can separate anyone from it, not even their own selves.