Rider in the Sky

"Ghost Riders in the Sky" was what first came to mind when I read those puzzling verses in the 68th Psalm.  But, somehow it just did not seem like the right fit.   From the very beginning it struck me as an unusual, if not creative, way to speak of God.  The first time was in the 4th verse where the Word says, "Sing to God, sing praises to His name; lift up a song to Him who rides upon the clouds..."  And then much later in the 33rd verse the writer wrote of the Lord with the words, "O rider in the heavens, the ancient heavens..."  Puzzling.  At least for me.

 

What finally shed some light was a footnote which offered an alternative translation for the 4th verse.  The alternative read, "casts up a highway for Him who rides through the desert."  While it is hard for this preacher with little Hebrew language training to figure how such different images could come from the same words, it caused me to do what I should have done from the beginning and that was to read the larger context of those two verses.  When it finally dawned on me that the larger passage was about God delivering the Hebrews from Egypt, the "rider upon the clouds" image clicked. 

 

By now everyone has surely raced ahead of me to the 13th chapter of Exodus where it says, "The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way..."  (Exodus 13:21)  The rider in the heavens and in the clouds was indeed the Lord.  I like Biblical images.  They make us think a bit more than we planned.  This image opens doors to our minds and imagination in such a way that we might even find ourselves looking up to watch the clouds more closely.  And, who knows what or Who we might see when we start looking?