Silas
Beloved of All
The picture in Psalm 33:7 is meant to steady your heart. The sea in Scripture often stands for what is chaotic, powerful and uncontrollable to us. To say God gathers its waters as if into jars and puts the deep into storehouses is to say that what overwhelms you is entirely manageable to Him. He not only contains it, He stores it, sets boundaries for it, and directs it according to His purpose. The same God who set a boundary for the sea that it cannot cross, who gathered the waters at creation and parted them for Israel, still actively governs what He has made. He is not distant. He is in control of the greatest forces, and therefore also of the smaller, personal depths that feel so large to you.
That is how this verse calls you to trust Him with the challenges in your life. If the ocean is like water in a jar in His hands, then the anxieties and deep waters in your own heart are not beyond His reach or His care. His power is not random or threatening toward His people. He uses His power to bring order, security and stability because He loves what He has made.
This trust is where peace comes. Scripture speaks of two kinds of peace. First there is peace with God, which comes only through the blood of Jesus shed for the forgiveness of sins. When you are no longer at war with God but reconciled through Christ, the inner war begins to end. Then there is the peace of God in daily life. That peace is promised to the one whose mind is stayed on Him, because that person is trusting in Him. Jesus said, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. It is a peace that passes all human understanding and guards the heart and mind in Christ, and the world cannot understand it.
You enter that rest when you truly believe two things, that God is in control and that God loves you. If both are true, then you can rest. Why worry when the One who holds the seas in storehouses also holds your life. When your mind turns toward Him and stays on Him, His peace begins to fill your heart. When your mind drifts to the size of the problem, anxiety returns. Keeping your mind fixed on Him, learning of Him through His Word, is the secret of that perfect, complete peace. Jesus lived saturated with the Word and showed the same authority when He rebuked the wind and said to the waves, be still, and they obeyed Him. The Word who gathered the waters at the beginning is the same Lord who calms the storm for His people now.
So bring your deep anxieties to Him honestly and ask Him to bring order to your heart and mind as He has brought order to creation. Remember His boundaries, that nothing chaotic in your life is without limit before Him. Choose to keep your thoughts stayed on Him through prayer and His Word, trusting that He is on the throne, He is wiser than you, and He is working for your good. As you sow that trust, you will reap the fruit of righteousness which is peace, and you will find that He keeps you in the very peace He has ordained for you.
That is how this verse calls you to trust Him with the challenges in your life. If the ocean is like water in a jar in His hands, then the anxieties and deep waters in your own heart are not beyond His reach or His care. His power is not random or threatening toward His people. He uses His power to bring order, security and stability because He loves what He has made.
This trust is where peace comes. Scripture speaks of two kinds of peace. First there is peace with God, which comes only through the blood of Jesus shed for the forgiveness of sins. When you are no longer at war with God but reconciled through Christ, the inner war begins to end. Then there is the peace of God in daily life. That peace is promised to the one whose mind is stayed on Him, because that person is trusting in Him. Jesus said, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. It is a peace that passes all human understanding and guards the heart and mind in Christ, and the world cannot understand it.
You enter that rest when you truly believe two things, that God is in control and that God loves you. If both are true, then you can rest. Why worry when the One who holds the seas in storehouses also holds your life. When your mind turns toward Him and stays on Him, His peace begins to fill your heart. When your mind drifts to the size of the problem, anxiety returns. Keeping your mind fixed on Him, learning of Him through His Word, is the secret of that perfect, complete peace. Jesus lived saturated with the Word and showed the same authority when He rebuked the wind and said to the waves, be still, and they obeyed Him. The Word who gathered the waters at the beginning is the same Lord who calms the storm for His people now.
So bring your deep anxieties to Him honestly and ask Him to bring order to your heart and mind as He has brought order to creation. Remember His boundaries, that nothing chaotic in your life is without limit before Him. Choose to keep your thoughts stayed on Him through prayer and His Word, trusting that He is on the throne, He is wiser than you, and He is working for your good. As you sow that trust, you will reap the fruit of righteousness which is peace, and you will find that He keeps you in the very peace He has ordained for you.
