He gives cities for dwelling places

November 17, 2008, 16th at home

Yesterday we went to the famous Seoul Tower that is perched on the “mountain” in the center of the city. From there, we could see the size of this home for 14 million people.

Even with the broadness of this city, I’m amazed at the amount of open space with trees or other vegetation. I’m also amazed at the apartments rising up like stalagmites from the floor of a cave, some more than fifty stories high. How else could this many people be accommodated?

As I stood in that tower and looked at the city of millions, I thought that God knows each heart of each person living here. He knows their joys and sorrows, and knows their needs and wants. He even how many hairs are on the heads of each one. Besides that omniscience, He is the supplier of all needs, the giver of all good things.

I also thought how the task of managing a city like this must be an enormous challenge. Even the subway alone, with 400 stations and miles of track operates like clockwork, yet officials and security seem invisible. How do they do it? Our granddaughter says bus and taxi service is good and reliable too, and that medical services are excellent. We see restaurants everywhere and many shops. The city prospers, or at least that is the general impression.

This morning’s Scripture is about Israel yet I cannot help thinking about the people here is this large city. Psalm 107:4 says, “They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; they found no city to dwell in.”

The passage is about the predicaments human beings get themselves into, their cries to God for help, His pardon and deliverance, and their subsequent praise to Him. It is a description of Israel’s history, yet also gives a general picture of what happens in the lives of God’s people everywhere and during any period of history.

What would this be like if these millions of souls had no city? How would they manage if they were “wandering in the wilderness” without a “city to dwell in”? I cannot fathom that, yet as I read through Psalm 107, I thought that the same God who continually delivered His people in Old Testament days is still able to take care of His people today, and not only His people but anyone who will cry out to Him.

Size is not an issue for Almighty God. He is bigger than all human predicaments. The enormity of this city is nothing to Him; He governs a universe and all creation. The view from that tower is incredibly impressive, yet it reminded me that my God is taking care of all of that and more. As the psalmist says, whenever we “cry out to the LORD in our troubles, He delivers us out of our distresses. He leads us forth by the right way that we might go to a city for a dwelling place.”

The psalm ends with words that also echo how I feel about our adventures so far, “Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.”