What are you hiding from me, God?
Why the cleft rock? Why your backside only?
The trauma of the world leads me
To fear the hidden parts of you--
Fear that perhaps there’s a sliver of a cuff of you
That would disappoint, a despair
From which I’d never recover.
My guilt suspects you of evil,
Yet my guilt is the reason
I must be shielded from your glory
Lest I perish--
A glory that forgives my guilt and in forgiving becomes
More glorious still.
I repent of my fear
And welcome your hand that covers me--
As Jesus’ death has done--
And sets me in this rock to see as much of your glory as I
can take.
Basking in Your compassion and grace,
I will live in your presence
Pardoned by Jesus’ death in my place
Now, from this crevice
Soon, face to face.
Based on Ligon Duncan’s sermon on Exodus 34:5-8
