Politically Incorrect: God is not Helpless

This morning, my lectionary reading calendar lead me to Psalm 29. It was so "political incorrect"...

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory of his name; worship the LORD in holy splendor. The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over mighty waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the LORD causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, "Glory!" The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever. May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace!

If it were any other year, this lectionary Psalm would have been fine for reading and studying and preaching. But I doubt if anyone would have the gut to use this Psalm this week, in the aftermath of the tsunami tragedy. The Psalmist called us to ascribe to the Lord, to give Him glory, to worship Him, to acknowledge His strength, power, and masjesty. No doubt that the Psalmist was not in the same circumstance, not wrestling with a devastating tsunami. But would that make any difference? Why is that we can only acknowledge that God "sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever" when there were no images of the oceanic destruction on CNN? So many of us scrambled to defend that "Our God is not like that!", to the point that we are willing to reduce God into a helpless weakling, who could not bear to see tragedy hits His children? I am not saying that God is sadistic, who cause all this to happen. But I wouldn't say that God is so powerless to prevent this from happen either. What we have here is a paradox of the nature of God which displayed even when Jesus was here in John 11 (the resurrection of Lazarus). On the one hand, it seems like Jesus knew what was going on and didn't prevent tragedy from happening in delaying to come to Lazarus' help. On the other hand, He was moved to tears at the loss of his friend Lazarus when he passed away. How could both actions genuinely be happening in the same event? It's a paradox which I am will have to explore further in my study for next week. But at this moment, I am accepting the paradox of God. At this moment, I will also need to remind myself that while God is compasionate, He is not a weakling either. The last verse in the Psalm should be our prayers:

May the LORD give strength to his people (to trust in Him)! May the LORD bless his people with peace (while they may not understand Him)!