The Unknown Faces of God

Last week I wrote about the unknown unknowns and encouraged all of us to open up the boxes which we have constructed for our ideas of God and how they are constrained by the walls of those boxes.  Over the weekend, Lorna and I attended a workshop with John Bell, the well-known hymn writer, on the psalms.  This was offered by the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto.  John did a wonderful job of mining the treasure that is contained in the psalms which, in my experience, has been unexplored to a great extent in our churches. 

This week I want to share a small part of that treasure revealed by John and continue on my exploration of the unknown, or at least lesser-known, images of God contained in the psalms.  The session of the workshop I want to share with you was entitled appropriately ‘The Faces of God in the Psalms’.  John introduced this by telling a story - he is a wonderful storyteller - which illustrated the idea that the sign that we know someone well is that we have many pictures of them.  He initially illustrated this point by drawing on a biblical source outside the psalms – the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin.  These appear as companion parables in the Gospel of Luke chapter 15.  The figure of the Good Shepherd who leaves the flock and searches for the lost sheep is male and can easily be seen as the masculine face of God.  This is juxtaposed with the woman who searches for her lost coin is the female homemaker and therefore presents a female aspect of God who cares for any of the lost children.  It concludes, “I tell you, there is joy in the presence of angels of God over one sinner who repents.” 

Turning to psalms, John explored some of the other images of God which are there if you have eyes to see.  Here are some of the ones we explored:

Psalm 2 v 04 “The one who sits enthroned in heaven laughs, the Lord derides those who conspire against him, then angrily he rebukes them.”   God is pictured as a judge – not something surprizing to us.

Psalm 17 v 08 “Guard me like the apple of your eye; shield me in the shadow of your wings.”   God is pictured as a bird – less familiar to us.

Psalm 22 v 09 “You are the one who brought me from my mother's womb, who laid me on my mother's breast. To your care I was entrusted at birth; from my mother's womb you have been my God.”  God as the midwife – which is always a woman’s role in the bible bringing new life to birth in God’s people.

Psalm 31 v 11 “You have turned my laments into dancing; you have stripped off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.”    God is the one who turns our sorrow into joy.

Psalm 38 v 2-3 “Your arrows have rained down on me, and your hand on me has been heavy. Your indignation has left no part of my body unscathed; because of my sin there is no health in my whole frame.”  God is the disciplinarian. 

Psalm 41 v 2-3 “The Lord never leaves those who care for the helpless to the will of their enemies. On their sick-beds, the Lord nurses them, transforming every illness to health.”  God is the disciplinarian. 

Psalm 23 v 01 “The Lord is my shepherd; I lack for nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me to water where I may rest.”  The last example which ends where I started with the best-known psalm and the well-known image of God as the Shepherd. 

I will close with a quote John gave us from Allan Boesak, the great anti-apartheid crusader, “God is sometimes a lion, sometimes a lamb, but never a chameleon.”   May you be blessed to encounter many faces of God on your journey.