Psalm 73:21–28: After his bitter thoughts that the wicked would always triumph, his feeling that following God was an empty exercise, and then a reawakening that God has “set [the wicked] on slippery ground,” the psalmist realizes that when “my heart was embittered,/ and my conscience stabbed with pain” (21) he “was a dolt and knew nothing.” (22)
Rather than having been abandoned by God and thinking the wicked would ultimately triumph, he realizes that “I was always with You,/ You grasped my right hand.” (23) Moreover, God was not only present, he was active in the psalmist’s life: “You guided me with Your counsel,/ toward glory You took me,” (24) as the poet asks rhetorically, “Whom else do I have in the heavens,/ and beside You whom would I want upon earth?” (25) The psalm ends on a wonderfully intimate note: “God’s closeness is good to me,/ I make the Master the Lord my shelter.” (28)
Christians who believe they are standing and fighting alone against all the forces of “tolerance” in the culture wars and especially for those who feel “our side has lost,” would do well to read and reflect on this psalm. From our vantage point it certainly seems that all has been lost and for the opponents, “haughtiness is their necklace” (6) and “they mock and speak with malice.” (8)
But like the psalmist we need to realize that our responsibility is to walk alongside God, fully conscious that he is our guide and our shelter. Yes, we may be mocked and even oppressed, and it certainly seems like the other side is triumphant, but our ever-faithful God is still nearby and our duty is to let him guide us.
Proverbs 30: After 29 chapters of proverbs by anonymous authors, collected in seemingly random order, we encounter the “sayings of Agur son of Jakeh—an inspired utterance.” (1) Moreover, we know to whom Agur is speaking: a certain Ithiel.
Agur opens his discourse admitting his discouragement (“I am weary God”) and asserting that he lacks understanding and wisdom because he has not “attained knowledge of the Holy One.” (3) Nor can he (or we) because “Who has gone up to heaven and come down?” (4) And then, for Christians, a provocative verse indeed: “What is [God’s] name, and what is the name of his son?” as he asks sarcastically, “Surely you know!” (4) Which we do now.
It is with complete humility that “two things I ask of you, Lord;/ do not refuse me before I die:” (7) These are, “Keep falsehood and lies far from me;/ give me neither poverty nor riches,/ but give me only my daily bread.” (8) Now we are talking serious wisdom: praying to God for our daily bread, a theme echoed in the Lord’s prayer.
And Agur provides the reason for his desire to hew to the middle road:
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God. (9)
The remainder of this chapter is a marvelous inventory of the “threes and fours” of creation: Agur’s insights all leading up to the famous line, “If you play the fool and exalt yourself,/ or if you plan evil,/clap your hand over your mouth! ” (32) Notice once again that it is our words, our speech, that does the damage. Of course in that era speech was the main means of communication. Today we have so many more media in which to play the fool. And we see it around us every day. But the thrust of the verse is clear: it is our responsibility to not play the fool; we cannot claim to be the victim of circumstances or blame our circumstance on the acts of others.
2 Corinthians 10:7–18: Paul discourses on the issue of appearances versus actions, asserting the Corinthians are judging him (and others) solely by appearances (7) and that while he may appear weak in person [“he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” (10)] and strong in his letters there is no inconsistency: “people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.” (11)
With this assertion, Paul goes on (somewhat humorously, I think) to tell us that comparisons are pointless, especially when we boast about our personal qualities: “When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” (12) Which is not to say we should never boast. Paul makes it clear there is one sphere where his boasting is quite acceptable: “[we] will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you.” (13) Also, we do not “go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others.” (15) Paul concludes this section about the perils of self-aggrandizement by telling us there is one safe source of commendation: “For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.” (17)
The question, therefore, to reflect on is, in what ways am I commended by the Lord?
Speak Your Mind