Loving God 301, Part 7: Expressing Awe and Wonder – Psalm 104

Me at the Pantheon (wha???)
Me at the Pantheon (wha???)

What do we say when the beauty and goodness of life takes our breath away?

We’ve all had the experience of such awe and wonder that we are reduced to stunned silence. We reach for our cameras to capture it our phones to record it. We may later turn to painting or sculpture or music to try to pass some measure of the moment on to others. But still some part of us longs for words – as though the experience is not fully real until we can articulate its impact.

As we grow closer to God, such moments become more frequent and stirring.  And thus the need for language becomes more essential. (The more we can place an experience into words the more we attach ourselves to it and the more it endures in memory – the more it becomes a part of us.)

Thankfully the psalms are filled with articulations of such moments, with the language of awe and wonder.

In this sermon we look at Psalm 104 and the virtuous cycle that occurs when our experience of wonder leads us to describe it in terms of other such moments.  As we do, each experience is intensified.  And yet, we are also humbled by them and granted some abiding peace. In our moment of awe we become more human and able to live humanely in the world God has granted to us.  (I also make a rather passionate case for why we should all be traveling to Italy more often!)  😉

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