Amos in 35 Minutes

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; 
my soul thirsts for you; 
my flesh faints for you, 
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, 
beholding your power and glory. 
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

And it’s really that first sentence that captures it all. That first sentence is a declaration: “O God, you are my God.” God is called my God — which means God is God to the psalmist and to us, not theoretically, not because we were raised a certain way, not because it’s advantageous to us in society, but because we have seen him be God. We’ve come to know him, or be known by him. We’ve tasted God’s steadfast love. We’ve been drenched in God’s mercy. There is a true sense, because of what God has done in our lives, that we can say God is my God.

And then there is another true sense, because of who God is, that he is everyone’s God whether they say it or not. God is God. He is the creator of everyone and everything, and he is the God of everyone and everything, whether or not anyone or anything knows it. . . .