I often wonder why human beings assume that the human
brain can understand the nature of God. Can the brain
of a horse understand the nature of humanity? The
Greek philosopher, Xenophanes, was surely correct when
he observed, "If horses had Gods, they would look like
horses."

So I do not confuse that nature of God with the
language of worship. It is the language of worship
that the psalmist is articulating. That is a language
of human wish and human desire. It is love language,
excessive, poetic, yearning. One does not literalize
the language of worship or the language of love. One
of the deepest human desires that we human beings have
is to know that we are not alone in this vast and
frightening universe. We yearn to believe that there
is one who is not subject to our weaknesses, who is
with us as our protector. If that is the reality on
which you base your life, however, you cannot escape
passive dependency. If there is no protective power
then we shake like a bowl full of Jell-o. Therefore,
we pray as if all depends on God and we live as if all
depends on us.

That is where worship leads us because we finally
realize that we live in God and God lives in us. I
commend this pathway to you.

John Shelby Spong