Psalm 97:1-5. After a reminder that God reigns and all the earth should rejoice in that, we are treated to a short description of God. The psalmist describes God as surrounded by clouds and thick darkness, but righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before God, burning all his adversaries, his lightnings lighten the world, and the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before him, "before the Lord of all the earth."

The Lord is good - he is the source of goodness and the only truly good thing, so we should all be very, very glad that he reigns over the universe! I would say "how much worse would it be for us if some not-good power reigned over the universe?", but that would be impossible - nothing that was not all-good could be the eternal, could be the singular God of all, could be the Creator. Existence - "to be" - is the very essence of "goodness," which is why God defines himself as "I am" - he is "to be" and "being" is good.

So yes, all the earth should rejoice in the goodness of our Lord, but then we hear that "Clouds and thick darkness are around about him." Why is he surrounded by clouds and thick darkness? Doesn't he want us all of his creation to see him and rejoice in him? He does, but we have put the clouds and thick darkness between us and him by our sin. We fell, and our fall created a cloudiness of mind; a barrier between us and God; a break in the perfect union we had with him. Sin can be and is forgiven through Christ, but the damage remains, at least for the time being.

Once we fell we all became sinners - we all fell victim to temptation, and thus our minds remain clouded - so God, to us, remains surrounded by clouds and thick darkness. Occasionally his lightnings break through in our lives and we see and tremble - it is so scary when the self-created "order" of our disordered selves is disrupted by Truth - but that is how he gets through to us.

God's adversaries are those who keep this temptation and sin going, who keep turning to it themselves or leading others on the wrong paths, thus keeping themselves and others separated from him. He will burn them with fire, but remember, our sins are consumed in the fire of Jesus' love and Passion. That is how the damage from the fall will finally be rectified.

Jesus came to light a fire upon the earth, and he wished that it was already burning. So being burned with God's fire might be painful, but it is not bad, in fact it is very good - it is the key to salvation!