Psalm 108:4-5 - Overlooking the Overcast

Dedicated to my friends who had an overcast day on January 7.

Yesterday was a gray, gloomy day. The entire sky was overcast, dimming even the midday sunlight.

Once, on a similarly overcast day I took one of my first air flights, taking off from my parents' home in Western North Carolina. Overcast skies are a frequent weather condition in the Smoky Mountains in winter.

It was a Piedmont Airlines turboprop--not the smoothest flight to take me back to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I just assumed that we would be flying in a fog-like atmosphere for a while. But as soon as we were above the cloud cover, I looked out the window. Cotton candy clouds were ablaze with sunlight, a dazzling contrast to the gloominess on the runway we had just left.

Some days, more than overcast skies are oppressive. Unraveled relationships. Repeated failures. Daily drudgery. Cultural turmoil. Incessant pain. Incurable disease. Any number of things can dim our view of life and reality.

Yet Moses wrote,
"Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it." (Deuteronomy 10:14, New American Standard, 1995)

And David said of God,
"Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, And Your truth reaches to the skies. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth." (Psalm 108:4–5, NASB95)

Great God of heaven, We struggle at times to gain perspective. Lift us up above circumstance, above clouds, to glimpse your glory... the glory that we'll see more fully when we see You face to face. In the name of Jesus who revealed Your glory on earth,* Amen.

*John 1:14