The New Revu\ised Standard Bible, Psalm 107 verse 21 says "some went down to the sea
in ships...doing business on the mighty waters, " I can't seem to draw away from that thought.
Having lived on the shores of the Bay of Fundy with its world famous tides for practically all of my life, I guess might be the reason I find this portion of the psalm so intriguing. Yesterday while driving from the center of the city to our home out on the coast, I couldn't help noticing that there were at least seven very large crude carriers (VLCC) better known as super tankers waiting to be off loaded at the deep water terminal of the local oil refinery's deep water facility. Apparently there is or was a problem with an oil leak (or so the rumour goes) at the off load facility and I presume the costs would be phenomenal to have this many ships full of crude oil held up. That is certainly an example of "doing business on mighty waters." Sometimes these problems are unforeseen and therefore nothing was done to prevent it from happening, but it will cost big time as a result. Life can be like that, yo are going along, seemingly everything is going fine in your life,then all of a sudden something goes wrong and it just seems to snowball. Everything it seems goes wrong...what do they call it? Murphy's Law? Anything that can go wrong will go wrong? Something like that. And we throw up our hands in defeat. Look again at what took place in this picture that the psalmist paints for us. And also as we look into these words of the story teller here you will notice that all that befalls us is not from the devil because maybe it is a test from God or maybe its just life. Verse 25: "For He commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea, They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths;" ...Look at how these mariners responded..."their courage melted away in their calamity; they reeled and staggered like drunkards, and they were at their wits' end." Have you ever been to wits' end corner? A place where you did not know which way to go? Life can deal you some big storms, but the answer once again...let it ring out "Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out from their distress, He made the storm be still; and the waves of the sea were hushed."
Sometimes the church faces some fierce trials, unfortunately most we make for ourselves, and that is when we need to cry out to the LORD as a body of believers instead of just sitting idly by and murmuring about it...let's pray. Verse 32 tells what we should do..."Let them extol Him in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders."
And so be it...amen, amen!