THE MOST HIGH GOD – Part 1

“Let them know that You, whose name is the Lord -- that You alone are the Most High over all the earth.”  (Psalm 83:18 NIV)

Mountains have always been God-places. A mountain, if you think about it, is where heaven and earth come closest to each other. And there is something transcendent about a mountain. A mountain is a place of vision. In ancient times the remoteness and inaccessibility of mountains gave them an aura of mystery and power. Still today they produce a sense of wonder and awe that there is a higher reality. We are mountain climbers. We are mountain seekers.

Height is always suggestive to us of transcendence and power and vision. We venerate height. In the ancient world, altars were generally built on "high places," where sacrifices would be offered by high priests. Even today we speak of high ideals and high achievements, and politicians run for high office. People of greater height actually make higher salaries than shorter people. When someone becomes pretentious, we tell him to get off his high horse. We use drugs to give us a sense of temporary transcendence, give them names like "ecstasy," and say they make us "high." When we become addicted, we seek the help of a higher power.

Great heights inspire us, but they also humble us. They speak to us of our own smallness. No matter how hard we try, human beings are unable to refrain from worship. [Dostoevsky  wrote,] "The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great."

-- John Ortberg in “Faith & Doubt” 

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