November 30, 2016
Wednesday, November 30th, 2016
Psalm 124; Isaiah 54:1-10; Matthew 24:23-35
By Jerry Erickson
If any of you have ever written one of these Advent devotionals, you have probably experienced my dilemma. I have read through each of the three scriptures several times, but still thought to myself: “What am I going to write?” Then I read again the passage from Isaiah 54 and just like that, verse 10 jumped out at me. I knew there was a hymn we have sung that mentioned “mountains may crumble”. I couldn’t think of the name of the hymn, and neither could my wife, Laurie. What do we do then? Google it. The first 10 – 15 responses were all the various versions of Isaiah 54:10. Then all of a sudden this comes up: The Covenant Hymnal: A Worshipbook, page 416….”Great Hills may Tremble”. Yes, this is the one! We have a Covenant Hymnal at home, so I looked it up and sure enough, #416, there it was! The words to this hymn reflect so much of Isaiah 54:10 that I close by writing several of the verses from the pen of Lina Sandell:
GREAT HILLS MAY TREMBLE
VS 1 Great Hills may tremble and mountains may crumble,
God’s loving kindness is ever secure;
peace he will give to the contrite and humble:
so says the Lord–his promise is sure.
VS 4 Teach us, O Lord, your commandments to ponder,
help us to heed them wherever we roam,
waiting the day you shall call us up yonder,
trusting your promise to carry us home.