Daily Devotionals
2021
Friday, December 3
Sohye Kim
Psalm 115 reminds me how BIG our God is. Our God is in the heavens. He does all he pleases. He is the first and the last. He declares what is to come. I wonder what this absolute power, knowledge, and reign stirs up in your heart. Do you experience it as profoundly good? Does it make you feel wary? We humans have a complicated relationship with a BIG other. The more we experience earthly examples of big people wielding power and knowledge as they please—whether in politics, in churches, at work, or in families—the more God’s everlasting power feels intimidating or even dangerous.
At the same time, I see a longing for a BIG other deep in our human hearts. I see it in babies who need their caregivers to be big and capable in order to grow up feeling secure. I see it in adults who, despite our appearance of self-sufficiency, experience breakthrough growth when we can let go of our illusion of bigness and rest in the presence of someone much bigger. It is perhaps no surprise that we start to assign undeserved bigness to idols when we distance ourselves from God’s BIGness. The passage shows how much we toil to sustain these idols—we get hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. Isn’t it an irony of the human heart that we become wary of God’s absolute power, only to assign it to those who will keep us toiling until death? Is it because we would rather be in relationship with idols who we think we can please through our own effort?
As I reflect on how our BIG God made himself small and came in our midst, I pray that I would learn to rest deeply in how beautifully BIG our God is and receive with open hands the profound goodness that is in Him.
Sohye lives in Newton and has been attending Park Street Church for 20 months. She is a psychologist and neurodevelopment researcher who loves seeing how God’s truths manifest in his creation and is often in awe when she sees images of our loving triune God in how we were made to grow and live. Sohye is passionate about authentic relationships that allow people to grow together.