The Mountains of God

Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God. (Ps. 36:6)

Psalm 36, 121:1, and 125:2

What Is God Saying?

This is a song in praise of God's unfailing love. It stands like a mountain range from whose presence we derive strength (read Ps. 121: 1) and protection (read Ps. 125:2). The song shows the contrast between selfish delusion and God’s steadfast love. There they are, the mountains of God, towering over a man who "plots mischief on his bed" (vs. 4) and "flatters himself into thinking that his indulgences cannot be found out and hated" (vs. 2). So it is that both Psalm 36 and 37 are meant to lead us beyond all fretting, anxiety, and worry; beyond the wickedness of godless people; and beyond our limitations until we come to trust the mercy and faithfulness of God.

How Does This Apply To Us?

Let us lift our eyes to the hills and put our trust in God. Plagued by the fickleness of human nature, our own and others, we look to God's steadfast love. Lost in the lowlands of conflicting ideas and stumbling through the wilderness of human opinions, we get our direction by looking to the mountains of God's wisdom. So we are directed into the way of everlasting truth.

Pray With Me

Like the mountains You created, O God, so is Your righteousness—changeless, everlasting, strong, and majestic. Human ideals can be fleeting and elusive. Some are no sooner born than abandoned, but Your truth is "the same yesterday and today and forever." Whatever burdens are wearing me out, whatever temptations are grinding me down, I have something to which I can turn that never changes and never fails—Your mountains and Your righteousness. They are silent and eloquent evidence that You are still there.

I have known mountainous fears, resistance, and anxieties. They do not stand up to Your righteousness and love. Let Your righteousness as a mountain inspire and direct me. As the mountains lift weary hearts, they give guidance to wandering feet. As they inspire, so they direct. As they direct, so they challenge. Let Your righteousness be to me as the mountains of God so that I may be directed into the way of everlasting truth.

In His name, whose righteousness is my everlasting and solitary hope. Amen.

Moving On In The Life of Prayer

Something must have moved the Psalmist to say and to pray, "I will lift my eyes to the hills." When we pray, we turn to One who is greater than the mountains, but in their majesty, they are reminders that God is there, waiting to bless. "His righteousness is like the mountains of God." Look to Him. He was there yesterday. He will be there tomorrow. He is "the same yesterday and today and forever." Pray in that confidence. Live by that truth.