Psalm 80:1
Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth
Those of you who are as old as I am might remember 'The West Wing' - a TV series from 20 years ago about a fictional President of the United States and his staff team. One of the things I loved about it was the way we
saw the President 'behind the scenes' in his domestic life. One minute he is in the Oval Office, on the phone to another world leader, exerting all his power and influence as the head of a great superpower. The next minute, he's eating chilli at home with his teenage daughter. Sometimes it's hard for his daughter to understand his exalted position - to her, he's just 'Dad'. Both scenes are a
true and accurate reflection of who he is, all the time, even though they seem so different.
Yesterday we were reminded that God is our shepherd. But in fact, that's only half of verse 1! Here in the second half we have another description of him. It might seem very different from the comforting, personal, gentle picture of a shepherd, but both pictures are 100% true of God, all of the time.
Here we see that God is the one 'enthroned between the
cherubim'. That is, he is the holy and exalted God who is continually worshipped by heavenly beings who we struggle to even imagine. He is both right with us, to lead and protect AND exalted and glorious, deserving of all praise and worship, so awesome and holy that we sinners ought not to be able to come anywhere near him.
Perhaps it is because we find this so hard to imagine that
back in Exodus, God commanded Moses to make the ark of the covenant, to be kept in the tabernacle (and later, in the temple) as a picture of both God's presence and his inaccessibility to sinners. The ark was covered in gold, and
had golden cherubim attached to its top with their wings outstretched. The ark was kept behind a curtain, accessible only to the High Priest under very particular circumstances. Between these wings was the place where God symbolically dwelled - right in the middle of his people, yet unapproachably holy.
The fact that God is our shepherd is wonderfully comforting, but we should never think that he is ONLY that. He is, always, also the one who dwells in unapproachable light and holiness, awesome ruler over all things. Mighty, righteous, majestic and good beyond anything we can properly imagine. Enthroned between the cherubim. Let's worship him for that today.
