The past year has filled me with anxieties.  I am not a person who likes conflict and division.  After watching the news, or reading facebook, or just talking to some of my sisters and brothers at church, I feel anxious. Sometimes I turn pessimistic about the world and the church. As the psalmist states, “the floods have lifted up, the floods lift up their roaring.”  Floods and flood imagery are used as a symbol of distress in the Bible.  So the psalmist is saying that he sees a flood coming and hears the mighty roaring of rushing waters around him. Yet, above the threat and noise of the flood, the psalmist sees a vision of the “King, robed in majesty… and girded with strength.” The psalmist takes comfort in the fact that no matter how threatening things seem, no matter how loud the noise, the one who rules the water is in charge. The psalmist reminds himself that the Lord’s “decrees are very sure.”