Let snow fall on Zalmon,
O mighty mountain, mountain of Bashan;
O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!
Why do you look with envy, O many-peaked mountain,
at the mount that God desired for his abode,
yes, where the LORD will dwell forever?
—Psalm 68:14-16
Mount Zalmon is located in a chain of perennially snow-capped mountains between Lebanon and Syria with peaks that rise over 9,000 feet. In Canaanite mythology it was Baal's abode.
Yet mighty Zalmon, a massive eminence, looks at little Mount Zion (2,300 feet) with "envy" for God has chosen it, as his dwelling place forever. And…
It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it… (Isaiah 2:2).
I’m reminded here of Peter’s words: “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that he may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:5).
So then, I say: I don’t have to be an mighty, “many-peaked” mountain to matter. I can be a little hill.
David Roper
6.22.22
