Midweek Musing- February 4, 2026

Some lines in Scripture show up so often they start to feel like background music. By that I mean they’re so familiar that we don’t always hear them anymore. And yet, every now and then, a familiar line catches you in the ribs and won’t let go.

That’s what happened to me this week.

I was reading a few excerpts from a book published posthumously by Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann entitled God of All Promises: A Poetic Pilgrimage through Genesis. As I read, one particular passage stopped me in my tracks—not because it was flashy or clever, but because it took a phrase I’ve heard my whole life, a phrase I thought I understood, and made it strange again in the best possible way.

That excerpt sent me down a little rabbit trail of study. And the deeper I went, the more meaningful the words became. Before long, what I thought I understood turned into something I wanted to sit with and struggle with… and share.

It all starts with Moses’ classic confession about God’s very nature and character from Exodus 34.

“The Lord, the Lord,a God merciful and gracious,slow to anger,and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”(Exod. 34:6–7)

We translate it as “slow to anger,” which is true… but as Brueggemann points out, it’s also a little flat. The Hebrew creates an image that is unforgettable. Literally, the phrase is “long of nostrils.”

In other words, a God with a long nose.

And to my surprise, this expression was often used in ancient cultures. As I studied further, what I discovered is that this image meant someone (in this case God) is not short-fused.

Friends, God doesn’t flare up and scorch the earth at the first provocation. God takes a long breath. God’s anger—real as it may be—has time to cool before it ever becomes destruction.

And that’s where this prayer/poem hit me. Once I understood the phrase beneath the phrase, it wasn’t just beautiful writing. It became a window into the heart of God—and maybe an invitation into a different way of being human.

I want to share Brueggemann’s prayer in full today, because it not only tells the truth about God—it tells the truth about us.

A Prayer: You with the Long Nose

Walter Brueggemann

Among the best-loved and most-often-reiteratedrecitals concerning you is first on the lips of Moses:

“The Lord, the Lord,a God merciful and gracious,slow to anger,and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exod. 34:6–7)

This often-repeated formula witnesses your eagersolidarity with us and with your entire creation.

Among the reassuring terms of your recital is thephrase “slow to anger.”

The phrase is a flat, uninspired translation of a compellingphrase in Hebrew,a phrase declaring you, our well-beloved God,to have long nostrils,a long nose.

Your long nose requires you to inhale and exhale atgreat length to renew your breath.

You are, sometimes, the God who breathes the fireof anger and indignation,and we can imagine a flow of fire from your nose.

Except that your nostrils are long;the fire cools,the anger subsides;the indignation wanes.

By the time your flame of rage reaches outside your nose,it has cooled.

It has cooled so that you can recover your balance.It has cooled enough for you to reassert your long-running resolve to bea God who practices steadfast love and faithfulness.

We are glad for your long nose;We are glad for your cooling nostrils;We are grateful that the rage and indignation do not last,not for long,not through the night,not into the next day.

We are thankful that we know you at your best,free from anger beyond a short temper,patient even with our recurring waywardness.

The myths are filled with tales concerning gods whomanipulate and goddesses who deceive;But you are not like that;

You are not underhanded or secretive in your governance;You are your own true self every time;You are a reliable presence in our common life.

You move among us with equilibrium and great resolve on our behalf.And we are on the receiving end of the breath of life you give.

In our inhaling we become capable of generous fidelity.

Your long nose of fire is but a mere footnote to yourlong life-giving commitment to the world that you love.

It turns out that we—not unlike you—are capable offorgiveness when we have cooled from our indignation.

Move in and through our anger, cooling us enoughto participate in your life-giving breath.

We are grateful that we may be alongside you as we cool enough to care in generative ways.

Move us past our hot noses to do the good work cooled noses make possible.Amen.

I don’t know about you, but that image is both comforting and convicting.

Comforting, because it reminds me that God’s deepest instinct toward us is not rage—rather, it is always in the direction of mercy. God does not have a quick-trigger temper, but a steadfast love. Our Creator does not have a divine “gotcha,” but a divine long breath.

And yet, this understanding is also convicting, because it tells the truth about how much damage we do when we live “hot.”

Most of our worst moments come from what today I want to call hot-nose living:

Reacting before we breathe.Speaking before we listen.Assuming the worst before we’ve even asked a question.

Hot noses burn bridges. Hot noses turn neighbors into enemies. Hot noses make it nearly impossible to do the patient, steady work that love requires.

But cooled noses?

Cooled noses can apologize.Cooled noses can ask, “Help me understand.”Cooled noses can tell the truth without tearing someone apart.Cooled noses can pursue justice without losing their souls.

So today, I’m praying for the long breath of God to become the long breath in us.

May God cool what is too hot in us.May God soften what is too hard in us.May God slow what is too reactive in us.May God teach us the holy power of a pause—and do so long enough for love to lead.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Alleluia. Amen.

Grace and peace,