I have been reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to Ellyn lately. We just read the chapter where the children meet Aslan for the first time. Lewis writes:
“People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now.”
This brought to mind a quote in one of the commentaries on the first few verses of Psalm 136.
“It would be no use if Yahweh were inherently good but not committed to us; it would be frightening if Yahweh were supreme God and supreme Lord but not committed to us. But Yahweh’s being good and supreme God, supreme Lord, is something to confess.” (Goldingay, Psalms 90-150, 596.)
The paradoxes abound: the Loving Lord, the King who Cares*, the Lion who is a Lamb.
*I borrow this phrase from one of my professors, John Feinberg (No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God.)