Asaph's Psalm 77: A Strange Path

Asaph's God is mysterious and powerful, but that doesn't mean he is impersonal or elusive. Asaph includes two bookends to frame a proper understanding of God's transcendence:

You with your arm redeemed your people (v 15)
and
You led your people like a flock (v 20)

Already to see this sort of gentle, patient, kind and loving immenence right next to such incomprehensible and powerful transcendence is baffling. Like Lewis said so truly of Aslan: he's not safe, but he's good. Yes, all the power of nature trembles before this fearsome God, but he is a Redeemer and he is a Shepherd.

But for me what causes the longest pause are the strange methods of this Redeeming Shepherd. Yes, he leads his people, but where does he lead them?

Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen. (v 19)

The words just used to inspire a certain level of fear--the waters were afraid, the deep trembled--are now used to show where God leads. Here I am confessing my fear of being lost at sea to you, and our Leader turns to say, "That's exactly where we're headed." He takes us directly through the sea, right through the great waters.

What might perhaps be scariest is that his footprints are unseen or unknown, as though we'll lose sense of his presence. When we're headed through the waters, there won't necessarily be any overwhelming evidence that he is with us. Much like the tone of this Psalm, we'll be left to wonder.

You know that Footprints in the Sand poem that means so much to so many people? The man sees one set of footprints and assumes God abandoned him, only to be told those are actually God's footprints and the man was being carried. Asaph's poem is a little less rosy, less likely to be found framed in the family room: God's footprints are nowhere to be found, and this walk is not on a sunset beach but straight into the crashing breakers.

Who was the first bold Israelite to cross the parted Red Sea and what was going through his mind? Imagine this fear-invoking body of water, split in two, two flowing walls towering precariously on either side. We always emphasize the dry land, and surely it was a clear and decisive miracle, but who's crazy enough to trust that the water won't come crashing down? Taking that step took some faith. This is neither safe nor sure. Why didn't God provide a boat? A bridge? A fast track around the sea?

Make no mistake: though the path is strange and his presence seems questionable, he is there and he is leading. It's just that there's no guarantee it will be a comfortable journey. Closer to the truth: it's guaranteed it will not be. Yet this still seems to come as a surprise. Our wishful thinking draws different conclusions and we tend to forget who it is we're following.

This is a God who doesn't just give his people a Promised Land, but leads them to it...through a desert...for 40 years.
A God who doesn't rush to rescue Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the furnace...but meets them in it.
A God who doesn't shut the doors of lions' dens, but shuts lions' mouths.
A God who leads his sheep even through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
A God who meets stubborn Jonah, of all places, in the belly of a fish.
A God who leads his own Son first into the desert and finally to a cross.

Why? He has plenty of unknown reasons, but one could be simply that in these our most desperate moments, our attention toward him is at last the most heightened. What has been numbed by two-car garages and white picket fences is awakened by water, desert, fire, and beast. These are then in fact the most ideal places to learn our Redeeming Shepherd.

His way is through the sea, His path through the great waters; yet His footprints are unseen.
He leads his people like a flock.

...Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior...