Fire and Rain
"God protects us from death and keeps us steady. Our God, you tested us, just as silver is tested. You trapped us in a net and gave us heavy burdens. You sent war chariots to crush our skulls. We traveled through fire and through floods but you brought us to a land of plenty” (Psalm 66 8-12). This is really a mixed bag here, isn't it? Praising God for God’s protection and care; and then acknowledging God’s hand in the Psalmist’s troubles. God appears to send the writer through fire and rain - and the case can be made that God is the fire and the rain. Is God the curse or the cure? Or both?