RTW 2023

You, O God, are my king from ages past,    bringing salvation to the earth.You split the sea by your strength    and smashed the heads of the sea monsters.You crushed the heads of Leviathan    and let the desert animals eat him.You caused the springs and streams to gush forth,    and you dried up rivers that never run dry.Both day and night belong to you;    you made the starlight and the sun.You set the boundaries of the earth,    and you made both summer and winter.

Psalm 74:12-17

The Psalms often begin with the Psalmist crying out to God, in lament, and often end with praising God and expressing trust in Him despite the circumstances.

But as for me, it is good to be near to God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.  
Psalm 73:28 (NIV)

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Just as God hovered over the waters and brought beauty and form from chaos during creation, He is still present over us and in the waters with us, bringing together broken pieces of our trials and confusion to create beauty and meaning in our lives.

• “This powerful imagery of ‘mighty waters’ was borrowed from ancient Near Eastern creation myths, in many of which a primal mass of chaotic waters (often depicted as a many-headed monster of the deep; see Psalm 74:13-15 and its note; see also “Ancient Creation Narratives” on p. 5 and “The Enuma Elish and the Biblical Concept of Creation” on p. 188) had to be subdued by the creator-god before he could fashion the world and/or rule over the earth. Even after the chaotic waters had been subdued when the present world was created, they remained a constant threat to the security and well-being of the world. Hence they were linked to anything in human experience that endangered or disrupted the precarious order of life. Since in Canaanite mythology Sea and Death were two great enemies of Baal (“lord” of earth), imagery drawn from both realms was used by Old Testament poets, sometimes side by side, to depict threats and distress.” The Archaeological Study Bible, p. 823, The Zondervan Corporation, c. 2005
• https://www.amazon.com/NIV-Archaeological-Study-Bible-Hardcover/dp/031092605X
• The Sea and the Abyss https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/the-sea-and-the-abyss

Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:6-7 (NIV)

Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. Psalm 77:19 (NIV)

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Allow God to hover over our lives and our circumstances, and to provide and work and intervene in a way that only He can!

But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore—the LORD above is mightier than these!
Psalm 93:4