Years ago, I heard story that at the creation God sent out two angels each with a bag of rocks to be strewn about the entire world.  However, when one angel flew over Israel the bag broke.  Perhaps its that prevalence of rocks in the middle east, which led the writers of the Old Testament to call God “Rock” at least a dozen times.

In Psalm 28, God is the Rock who can hear. “To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me.”  In Deut. 32, God is the Rock whose work is perfect.  God is faithful and without evil, just and upright.  He’s the Rock of salvation and the Rock who gave birth to his people.  When everything else is crumbling under our feet or an avalanche is crashing down on us, God is the “solid Rock on which I stand,” the Rock of refuge who sits us high above the crumbling crashing times of our life.

Therefore, Psalm 95 begins, “Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”  The challenge for us is, what is the noise we make when the road is crumbling, and the mountains are tumbling.  Ultimately, as Paul tells us in I Cor. 10, this Rock is Christ, who was crucified on the stony hill and split open the rock tomb that we might follow him in our new life.