It is a question we are asked to ponder by the Psalmist (Ps 113:5), a reminder we need in the topsy turvy nature of life that there is a constant hope for the believer; an undrying source of life and refreshing. And sometimes, at least for me I realise that the meaning easily drifts above my mind before my heart can lay a hold of it.
The backdrop of life in my country in acute uncertainty, things change and many times it seems not to make sense. To give a picture, or a sense of this, I literally do not know what currency we will be using at the end of the year, what value it will have or whether it will make sense to have savings in the bank or not. Queues appear everywhere, for basic things like fuel, mealie meal and of all things hard cash itself. Bank withdrawals for many are not enough to cover the return fare home, let alone suffice for monthly groceries and tales of gruesome crime by men wielding machetes are on the increase.
Indeed, it seems like the environment the writer wrote about in Psalms 91 when he says-the snare of the fowler and the noisome pestilence (vs 3), or when he talked about the terror that flieth by night and the arrow that flies by day(vs4). It is all too easy to consider the waves I am walking around and disqualify myself from the experience of the promises of God; after all, am I not planted in a nation and a time that seems like hard ground, concrete even?
And now when the Psalmist asks the question, “Who is like unto God?” it is easy for me to brush that aside without considering what that means for me in my day to day life. The ideas of Omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence do not sink in for the question “Why?” seems to drown out its significance. The question itself is a challenge, and a proclamation. A statement of fact that implies that where man fails, does he? Where man does not seem concerned, is he as well callous? Where man ruins, can He not again build up? Where man would kill, does He not give life?
It is a reminder then, that you I need to take daily that God is incomparable to the challenges we face-none is too big or daunting for Him to fix. In fact, to put it more accurately, God will not break a sweat fixing your problems, including restoring a nation to its purpose and place of flourishing. You and I may have sleepless nights of worry, and bouts of panic but all of it is unnecessary. Unnecessary because the question posed in this-Who is like unto God? The one who created the world and all in it with His words, who wrought out a salvation so complete and perfect in Christ that it says “Had the principalities and powers known, they would have never crucified Him?” The God who says of you, you are my beloved, who shelters His children under His wings and Has sworn that He will never leave us.
And as we are reminded of this, we ought then to find rest knowing that even in this season, provision is our portion-He will open doors for us where we will have food plenty to eat and a roof and shelter over our heads. It remains true to this day the question that Jesus asked when He said “Consider the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap but yet they have plenty to eat. Are you not of more value than they?”(Matt 6:26)
Indeed, let us be filled with awe, and wonder and let our hearts fill with joy and peace as we confront our every doubt and fear with the simple question “Who is like unto God?”