He Holds the Pillars
Exodus 34:6 · 1 Thessalonians 5:24 (NIV)
On Tuesday, October 20, Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona became the country's 64th national park. President Trump signed the legislation making the change, as ABC News reported. The Pour Over, a Christian news digest, shared the story this morning.
The park covers about 12,000 acres in the homeland of the Chiricahua Apache. It is known as the Land of Standing-Up Rocks and the Wonderland of Rocks. The National Park Service explains that a volcanic eruption roughly 27 million years ago left ash and debris that hardened into rock. Over time, fractures and erosion shaped the towering pillars we see today.
Something violent began that landscape. Time and weather shaped it. The pillars are still standing.
Psalm 74 belongs to the collection associated with Asaph, a worship leader in King David's time. It mourns a terrible day. "They burned your sanctuary to the ground" (Psalm 74:7). Then comes a painfully honest line in the psalm. "We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be" (Psalm 74:9).
The singer does not stop there. "But God is my King from long ago; he brings salvation on the earth" (Psalm 74:12). He remembers what GOD has always done. "The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon" (Psalm 74:16). He prays for the most vulnerable. "Do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever" (Psalm 74:19). The very next psalm opens, "We praise you, God, we praise you, for your Name is near" (Psalm 75:1). Then we hear GOD speak of HIS just rule. "When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm" (Psalm 75:3).
Those standing rocks give me a picture to carry into the psalm. Its promise reaches beyond any landscape: GOD holds the pillars of the whole earth while everything quakes.
GOD also tells us what HE is like. Israel had turned away and worshiped a golden calf. Afterward GOD passed in front of Moses on the mountain and proclaimed HIS own name. "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6).
Slow to anger. GOD said it about HIMSELF first. HE said it to people who had just given HIM every reason to be angry.
James, a leader of the early church in Jerusalem, asked the same of believers. "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires" (James 1:19-20). James described a life shaped by GOD's own patience.
Anger can feel like an eruption. Proverbs, the Bible's book of wise sayings, puts it plainly. "Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end" (Proverbs 29:11). Calm in the end. That can begin with listening before we answer, and making room for a gentler response.
The apostle Paul wrote to new believers in the Greek city of Thessalonica. He prayed for them. "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Then he told them who would finish the work. "The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
He will do it. Paul placed the finishing in GOD's hands. The steadiness we need comes from the One who is steady.
A bishop named Irenaeus led the church in Lyon, in what is now France, around AD 180. In Against Heresies IV.1.2, he argued that JESUS taught HIS followers to know the one true GOD and Father. He challenged teachings that separated the Creator from the Father JESUS revealed. The One who holds creation is the One we are invited to call Father.
Some readers feel the ground shaking this week. It may be a diagnosis, a job, a strained relationship, or a loud and anxious season. GOD holds the pillars. HE is slow to anger with us. And HE is faithful to make us holy through and through.
It leaves me thinking about what stays standing in me when the ground shakes.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.
🙏 To the one who feels the ground shaking, GOD holds its pillars firm.
🙏 To the one whose anger erupted this week, GOD is slow to anger and abounding in love.
🙏 To the one asking how long, HE is your King from long ago.
🙏 To the one who fears you will never be whole, the One who calls you is faithful, and HE will do it.
Grace and Peace.