Although highly allergic to cats, I love the two we have, but sometimes wonder if it’s worth the trouble. This past Saturday night, one of the cats, named Misty, was up crying much of the night, waking us up regularly. Eventually, I realized she must have been upset about her litter. The store was out of the “usual,” so I tried to get away with a replacement, even though I know how finicky cats are. Sure enough, once I changed it to what I had left of the usual stuff (kept in reserve in case of finicky cat trouble), she stopped complaining.
Why am I telling you this? Because what happened next reminded me that God is concerned about even the most minor details of our lives, and about every living creature He has made. Sunday morning my reading schedule began with Psalm 8, which includes this:
“You have given [man] dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.”- Psalm 8:6-8
Misty, an indoor cat who may feel like she’s trapped in the ark.
Under the mandate given in Genesis, mankind is supposed to take care of whatever God has given us – the earth and everything in it. My study Bible helpfully noted that this includes pets, which reminded me of Misty’s crying! I thought maybe our cats were worth the trouble after all, but God wasn’t finished making the point.
Also on my reading schedule was Genesis 7, which includes: “And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.” – Genesis 7:24
During the flood, Noah and his family were flooded in the ark for 150 days with two of each kind of animal (but seven of each kind of clean animal, because provision was made not only for the survival of Noah’s family, but also provision for continued worship of God). After the 150 days, they had to wait months longer for the waters to recede and the land to dry before coming out of the ark. Noah’s family took care of an ark full of animals for more than 150 days. They probably lost a lot of sleep! As for me, I only have two cats and get to leave the house. I also have allergy medicine to make it more tolerable.
Looking back at Psalm 8, the last verse declares: “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
This Lord is the same one who brought Noah, his family, and those animals through the flood. He also cares about my family and even my pets. In seemingly small acts like taking care of pets God has given us, we can declare the majesty of God’s name! In whatever influence we have, big or small, God wants us to participate faithfully in the work started at creation, with the authority He has given us.
In addition to perhaps cats, what else might we be allergic to? Sin is not just a list of things we shouldn’t do, but it is our allergy to God’s dominion over the world and the way we each should have dominion over it and under him. We’re too often allergic to loving this world the way he did on the cross, yet we claim to hope for a world where that sacrificial love governs 100% of all actions.
Our Lord wants nothing more than to greet us in Paradise and say “‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’”[1] He literally died to make such a greeting possible. Therefore, consider what creatures or people our Sovereign God has delegated to each of us. What tasks or roles? Jobs or ministries? Do some of those things irritate and annoy us, as if we were allergic?
In aggregate, the church’s role is to have dominion over His entire creation, but not in the way the world would, exploiting everything for our own benefit and casting aside what doesn’t seem useful, but as a servant would. Like a God who abhors all our sin as if He were allergic but decided to cover our sin with His own precious blood. The same blood that covers us so that, like a compassionate Father, our Lord can gently say on a Sunday morning after a bad night of interrupted sleep:
“Be thankful you aren’t stuck in an ark for 150 days with thousands of animals.”
According to James Boice (see first post in the series), if you asked people to honestly describe their needs, they might describe one as: “We…have wills, and because we have wills, we want to achieve something. We want our lives to make a difference. To do that we need power.”[1] This is a second need of us all, according to James Boice. In Isaiah 9:6, Jesus, the Christ of Christmas, is described as our Mighty God, who Boice says “will empower us for life’s tasks” – those tasks He points us to in His wisdom.
The word Mighty probably calls to mind miraculous events, military victory, or superhero-like powers. But ultimately, His greatest objectives for us – to love Him and to love our neighbor – are what He uses His might to accomplish. When our Wonderful Counselor (see last post in series) gives wisdom to make a choice in life, He actually wants us to act on that choice because He knows how it will turn out – for our ultimate good – but what if we don’t agree with the choice, or don’t have the willpower to make it?
God, unlike Lucy in the Peanuts comics, will not tell us to kick the football, then pull it away at the last second, leaving us on our back. To those who trust Him, He will provide the ability to make a loving difference in the world. As Mighty God, He puts His own resources and power behind His recommended wisdom to produce the desired effect of loving, godly living.
Put another way: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,” as written in 2 Peter 1:3. He does not empower us to do just anything, or to do whatever we decide; He will empower us to “life and godliness.” In wisdom, He knows this is what is ultimately worthwhile, and His power creates a new desire and a new influence in us, molding our wills that want to make a difference but may not know how. His power also works in others to provide what we need, or works to put in our path someone who needs us.
The gift of Jesus as Mighty God meets one of our deepest needs: “To achieve something worthwhile! Jesus is the Mighty God who enables us to do that. We accomplish worthwhile things through his power.” (Boice)
Do you want to achieve worthwhile things this Christmas and in 2023? Our Mighty God wants to enable us to love Him and love others. Seek the wisdom of Christ and become empowered by Him to love as you have never loved before.
As someone who collected comics years ago, I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. The decades of characters and stories created in the comics combine with modern special effects to create the ultimate “popcorn” events. Thor: Ragnarok, released in 2017, was one I really looked forward to since I had read the original Ragnarok story line that culminated in The Mighty Thor issue #353 in March 1985.
(Caution: Mild movie spoilers follow!!!) The movie’s conclusion is significantly different than the comic version, with a twist that the heroes decide victory lies in not fighting the “Big Bad” of Surtur, a massive fire demon. However, after realizing this, they must convince the Hulk to follow the plan, resulting in one of the funniest exchanges in any of the MCU movies:
Thor: Hulk, no! Just for once in your life, don’t smash! Hulk (in sullen voice): But big monster!
You can watch the 1 1/2 minute scene here:
Hulk logic is simple. Big monster is here. Hulk must smash big monster. That’s the plan.
In Part 1, Jesus was pictured in Psalm 2:4 as being enthroned in heaven, laughing in derision at the rulers of the world who sought to break free from His “bonds” and “cords”. This description of Jesus is a reassuring reminder to us that no worldly kingdom is a threat to Him, and we can trust in His protection. The post ended with a question of whether we also laugh as Jesus does? Do we hold our (and His) enemies in derision?
Peter Smash! Here we began with a Marvel movie scene, because in a way, Thor convincing Hulk that fighting fire with fire wasn’t the answer is like Jesus’ rebuking of Peter for fighting back against the mob that arrested Jesus, and soon delivered Him to be crucified. In John 18:1-11, Judas leads a “band of soldiers and some officers” to arrest Jesus, and Peter (possibly thinking “Big Monster!”) drew his sword and cut off the right ear of one of the high priest’s servants, named Malchus. Jesus says “Peter, no! For once in your life, don’t smash”, or as more accurately rendered in the ESV: “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
Matthew’s account (26:52-54) adds: “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?’”
Jesus knows that He can beat any “Big Bad” the world has to offer at any time with an “appeal to my Father”. In Psalm 2:5-9, right after He laughs, the Psalmist writes:
“Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.’ I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
But rescuing His people must come first, and until then final judgment is delayed. Jesus knew when Psalm 2 was written that He would eventually judge all the nations, but He also knew what sort of death He would die to accomplish salvation for His people. Jesus does not laugh because His enemies can be taken lightly – He is fully aware of the evil of the world. His enemies cause real pain and suffering on earth, and He takes each offense personally. But if He decided to spend all of history laughing in heaven, we would all be without hope. Fortunately, He lived among us, and suffered terribly as a servant, knowing “that he had come from God and was going back to God”[1]
At the time of Judas’ betrayal, Jesus had told His disciples multiple times, citing Old Testament prophecy, that His plan required being rejected, suffering, and dying, then rising again[2], but when the mob came for Jesus, Peter didn’t make the connection. He did not understand the plan, but later he would. We are not alone when we don’t understand God’s will for us. The twelve disciples were constantly out of step with Jesus. When asked to do something against our natural impulse we sometimes drop our shoulders, and our voice becomes sullen like Hulk’s.
But we have hope. Years later, Peter would write about his progress from his early impulsive days in 1 Peter 1:13-15:
“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.”
The “passions of Peter’s former ignorance”, may include the time Peter cried “big monster!” and cut off someone’s ear. None of us are immune from the same Hulk logic when threatened. But it might also be said that Jesus looked at Peter in derision when he did this[3]. But for the grace of God, there go I.
Peter writes of the implications of understanding Christ’s mission on the cross, that Christ’s followers are part of the plan, as active participants in the mission. He calls the church to be holy, set apart for God’s purposes, to pursue the mission of the church, most succinctly spelled out at the end of Matthew’s gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (28:19-20). In this kingdom, the two most important commandments are: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”, and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[4]
To answer to the question at the end of Part 1, the prescriptive truth that is like Proverbs 14:21[5] is love. Love defines how subjects in the kingdom of the One who laughs should behave. A love more thoroughly defined in 1 Corinthians 13 as patient and kind, and not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude[6]. Or, as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:1: “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.” Paul adds in Rom 12:14 – “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”
Jesus laughing in heaven is only a comfort to us if He is our King, and if He is our King, we seek to follow the laws of His kingdom. The laughter of Jesus is not a model for us, but is a source of comfort and strength if we are His. In contrast, the nations, kings and rulers of this world refuse the “bonds” and “cords” of the Lord, which are these laws of love. They make up their own system of “righteousness” by laws, and therefore “the Lord holds them in derision.” Their earthly rules and systems cannot measure up to His righteousness and are at best narratives and at worst tyrannies.
Love When Bad Things Happen Jesus’ laughing is precisely what enables us not to hold people in derision, and to not mock and laugh at them. It is a key to achieving the “Us for Them” ethic described in an earlier post. Jesus laughing tells us that there is no monster scary enough to make His plan to love the wrong answer. Whatever your circumstance, “Love God”, “Love your neighbor” and “Love your enemies” apply to it.
To illustrate this, consider Jesus’ prophetic speech in Mark 13:5-23 from the framework of descriptive vs. prescriptive truth. I paraphrase and categorize some of the points below:
Descriptive
Prescriptive
Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’
See that no one leads you astray
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, and nation will rise against nation
Do not be alarmed
Earthquakes and famines in various locations
Be on your guard
You will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake
Bear witness before them and do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say
Brother will deliver brother over to death and you will be hated by all
Endure
False christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders
Be on guard
To Jesus, none of the things in the descriptive column are new information. All were included in the plan. The actions He recommends are not new information either. The “Prescriptive” column means keep doing what you were doing before these bad things happened – Love God, love your neighbor. Even if your neighbor is “bad”.
False christs and prophets will cry “But big monster!” and offer to save us. But the true Christ calmly says “be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand”. (Mark 13:23). The false prophet takes the descriptive of evil in the world and creates their own false prescriptive. They recommend an incomplete and inaccurate narrative as an ultimate solution. Their own Babel which God must “come down” from heaven to even see (Genesis 11:5). The true Christ comes down from heaven and demonstrates how to create a true ladder all the way back to heaven, offering forgiveness to all, even those who refuse to accept it or practice love. He will be thoroughly and eternally glorified by manifesting His kingdom as the only eternal kingdom, ruled by love.
God doesn’t turn our Muerte into Morty by having us laugh at him and beat him up with a stroller (although that might be fun). He doesn’t tell us to Smash! Every time we try to follow the plans of the world to fight the battles of God’s kingdom, we are testifying that the world’s kingdoms are greater than His. Our rage will be futile and our plotting will be in vain.
Witness to the Cross Note that the presence of false prophets, national rivalry, and natural disaster provide an opportune backdrop for proclaiming the superior kingdom of God in Christ, where none of these things will occur! We testify to the imagined utopias of the world – which are all at best narratives and at worst tyrannies – that the real utopia is one where people love so much that they are willing to die for specific others, not one where the “Pax Romana” is illusory and pointing that out is a crime. Jesus even died for the tax collector Zacchaeus, described by his Jewish peers as a traitor and cheat, a representative of a secular enemy power. Everyone He died for was once His enemy, and His sacrifice enables a paradigm shift from “Us vs Them” to “Us for Them”.
In our ability to do this, we all lie somewhere between the impulsive Hulk, the Peter of Matthew 26, the Peter of his New Testament letters, and Jesus’ obedience on the cross. We each are a narrative of our own “intricate matrix of beliefs, at different levels of truth and of conviction on every possible topic.” We all cry “But big monster!” at different things, at different times, and for different reasons, but Jesus guarantees our destination is holiness when we follow Him. Jesus cares about His people more than he cares about all the kingdoms of the world, and “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:10.
But His blessing is not granted under all types of persecution. Persecution is not evidence of righteousness, but a result of it. Christians are not blessed when persecuted for unrighteousness, which sadly they often are. They are blessed when persecution comes from testifying to, and striving to live, a righteousness that is unachievable by any earthly kingdom. Jesus did this on the cross, and we do it by bearing the cross He assigns us. When we do this, His kingdom comes, because his will is being done on earth as it is in heaven.[7] Logically, earthly kingdoms do not like this.
Therefore, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:12-14)
Don’t accept the cross anyone other than Christ assigns to you – it may crush you. The specific work God assigns for you is enough and comes with His power. Our cross will not kill our soul; it will enable us to truly live.
For the last enemy to be defeated is Muerte. Which means death[8].
Next post: a “minor’ prophet finds peace
Post Script To close out the discussion of Psalm 2, the last verses (10-12) describe the Psalmist pleading with the kings and rulers:
“Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
Finally, as Paul urges us in 1 Timothy 2:1-2, we should pray for our rulers to God, who is sovereign over the nations: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”
[1] See John 13:3, and a previous post about this idea. [2] Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22 and elsewhere [3] As in Matthew 16:23, where Jesus refers to Peter as Satan for saying suffering was not necessary for our Lord. [4] From Matthew 22:37 and 39 [5]“Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor” [6] 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 [7] Adapted from Matthew 6:10 [8] 1 Corinthians 15:26
From yesterday’s post, you’ll know I am reading King’s X: The Oral History, a book chronicling the history of the rock band King’s X, by Greg Prato. Yesterday, I dove into one of their more bizarre and unknown songs, but today is about the band’s biggest hit. “It’s Love” got to “#6 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock charts and #1 on the FM Radio Airplay charts. It was our highest-ranking single, ever,”[1] according to Ty Tabor, the band’s guitarist and sometimes lead singer, who wrote the song.
I knew both Christianity and King’s X by reputation before becoming a true fan of either, but both were growing at the same time in me during college. Having heard of King’s X but never actually heard their music, I once saw one of their CDs in a friend’s dorm room. My friend said it was his roommate’s but that he wasn’t much of a fan. Before leaving I picked up the CD and looked at it. The album, called “Faith, Hope, Love” had a cool cover, and included the song “It’s Love.”
Album cover of “Faith Hope Love” by King’s X
Later, the memory of that album cover made the triad of faith, hope, and love jump out at me whenever I saw it in the Bible, including 1 Corinthians 13:13, which says: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” This triad is all over the place and there are many verses explaining the relationships between them. Seeing these references also made me come back to the band and give them a listen. The rest, as they say, is history.
Before getting into “It’s Love”, you can find the lyrics here, or listen to the song here. I promise it’s an easier one to listen to than “Six Broken Soldiers” and also that this post will be shorter than yesterdays.
Overall, the message is fairly simple: Ty says he doesn’t know everything, but the thing he wants to share from his experience is that love is the most important thing in life. Love both keeps the world from falling apart (“holding back the weather”), but also eventually love is what requires a loving God to bring about a plan to fix what’s wrong with the world (“the same will let it go”).
But there’s one line in the song I didn’t really get until reading about it recently: “There’s a ship on the ocean, and I can’t decide if I like it.”
There Ty is, enjoying good company, the beach, and the ocean, but he wasn’t sure about the ship on the ocean. There’s an ambivalence about the ship, and a suggestion that maybe it’s an exception to the overall message of “love,” but I couldn’t figure out more than that. I wasn’t alone in not getting it.
In the book, Ty says his brother didn’t understand the line, so he explained: “my point was, man’s progress is wonderful and everything, but when the ship turns over and poisons all the fish, that’s not so wonderful. So, it was me contemplating all that we do and all that I’m happy with about it, but how much destruction it causes. It’s yet again one of those socially conscious songs. I just had to say it.”[2] It was almost that Ty was struggling with whether love applied when someone does something that “poisons all the fish.” In tricky, real-life situations, does love still rule? Ty doesn’t seem sure.
Contemplating What is Crooked Yesterday I quoted Romans about Paul’s inner conflict, but later in the same chapter, Paul wrote: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” (Romans 7:21). This idea that even our best efforts at goodness in this world are tainted is not a new one. Solomon referred to something similar twice in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, in 1:15 – “What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.” And also in 7:13 – “Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?”
What Paul and Solomon are getting at is that there are things in this world, including us, that will remain crooked and unfixed until God’s plan is completed in eternity. The Bible tells us that all of creation is cursed by God because of our sin. Some things are wrong because God has made them so. Until a person establishes this in their own heart and mind, they will chase the wind of worldly utopia until they become hopelessly ambivalent, or continue on, highly motivated but frustrated and angry. The phrase “under the sun” comes up 28 times in the book of Ecclesiastes (by my quick count) and refers generally to the actions of mankind done without consideration of God’s wisdom or eternal consequences. Everything done “under the sun” is lacking, and none of it can provide the satisfaction and meaning true wisdom can deliver.
It’s Still Love Since “under the sun”, even good things come with a cost, what do we do? We can’t be ambivalent to those costs to the point of not caring, but we also can’t be so committed to removing these costs that our efforts become another cost. The world is broken, but also people are broken, and how we treat them matters.
Despite any ambivalence about the ship on the ocean, it’s still “love that holds it all together.” Therefore, the priority is always to focus on obedience and thankfulness to God, who tells us to love, not on utopian alternatives to God that tell us something is more important than loving every one of our fellow humans. The proverbial ship on the ocean and its problems are seen by God and are part of His plan. He cares about our conflicts and paradoxes, but still tells us to have faith, hope, and love.
However, rejection of love means prioritizing our own, temporary, interests and decide who we should love and who we should hate based on that. One side will defend the necessity of the ship – and more ships – at all costs, because it’s good for the economy. They can make money and enjoy what little time on earth they have. The other side will condemn those who poison the fish, or might possibly poison fish in the future, because this earth is all they have, and they want to protect it. “Under the sun” there is no nuance or ambivalence about the ship, but our opinion of the ship determines everything, including whether we can enjoy the beach and the ocean that we do have.
The answer lies not in some abstract move to the center politically, but in knowing that there is more than what exists “under the sun.” Regardless of the conflicts inherent in living with broken people in a broken world, faith in God to save us, hope in His provision of a perfect future, and the priority of love for God and others, is always the right answer. We can be a little ambivalent about the ship on the ocean, but we should have no ambivalence about love, nor about its partners, faith and hope. We should pursue them with everything God has gifted us with and give Him the glory. We can’t fix all the world’s problems, but we can show the world the character of its Creator and show it the way to a better world.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Always.
[1] Prato, Greg. King’s X: The Oral History (2019). P. 105. [2] Prato, Greg. King’s X: The Oral History (2019). P. 95.
A prominent feature of the culture I live in is the demand that everyone must respect the “individualism” of everyone else. Pressure to affirm whatever anyone else wants affirmed about them has ballooned all over the news, social media, corporate policy, and even in churches. There’s an assumption built into this, which is that the sincere ability to love someone can be the result of someone else threatening us to do it. Exert enough legal, social, cultural, or even physical pressure and someone’s fundamental nature can be changed by coercion. The coal turns into a diamond.
Tomorrow is Sunday, so today we return to the Psalms of Ascent, a liturgy used in ancient Israel to prepare for worship at the annual festivals in Jerusalem. What does this have to do with the last paragraph? In Psalm 120, the first Psalm of Ascent, we read (post here) that no matter where we live, or where we come from, no matter our genealogy, we live among people with “lying lips” who can’t get along with each other. In Psalm 121, we are encouraged to find the answer outside of our current place:
“A Song of Ascents.
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”
The Psalm asks us to take our eyes off of the world around us and look upward for our hope. Not just talk about the idea of it, but to actually do it. To turn off the outside world and its circumstances and seek God’s help. It takes effort because the idea that we can solve our own problems is so powerful. The fall of Adam and Eve was driven by a curiosity that there may be a better system than the one they already had. In a literally perfect society, they wanted something else. If we aren’t intentional about avoiding this trap, it’s easy to not realize we are in it.
We’re All Messed Up I’ve written much about Tyler Joseph, the songwriter of the band twenty øne piløts, and his campaign to create music and stories that help people deal with mental illness. In an interview years ago, the interviewer criticized Tyler for calling himself “messed up.” Was Tyler being too hard on himself? This was Tyler’s response:
“I know I’m messed up. I think to myself I should be able to control myself. I look at a lamp and I decide that I’m going to stand up and not hit that lamp. Why can’t I make decisions like that about everything in life. I’m not going to get angry at my brother. I want to be the best brother. Why can’t I do what I want to do? That’s messed up. Something is broken in the way we live. It’s proof that something is not right.”
Tyler is explaining Romans 7:13-21, especially verses 15 and 21, but in a way that’s as plain as day to anyone being honest with themselves. Romans 7:15 and 21 say: “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” And “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”
What if the problem with every person individually is that they are unable, no matter how much external pressure is put on them, to treat other individuals the way they should be treated? If true, it puts the first paragraph into an entirely different light.
In this exact moment as I write this, I’m being very careful not to spill my drink on my laptop. I have no desire to do anything violent to the couch I’m sitting on but just to enjoy having a place to sit. If I stop writing to check something on my phone, I make sure I put it down gently in a spot where it won’t fall off and hit the floor. But at the same time, I know I don’t always treat people with the same respect. I know if I’m interrupted in the middle of what I think is a great thought or phrase I could get irritated and rude. Not always, but I could. I know I could be a better son, husband, father, employee, and friend. So why don’t I?
Why do we treat our furniture better than our family, even in a culture that increasingly demands with all its strength that we prioritize every individual? Because we are broken in a way that no political or economic system, no culture or tradition, can fix. One may be better or worse than another, but none of them has the power to solve the real problem that we can’t consistently love people more than we love our furniture. We have to go somewhere else to find the answer.
Therefore, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
As pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem, the Israelites were telling a story by making the effort to move. A story that the towns they leave behind – no matter where they are coming from – don’t have the answer to their most important problems. On the long journey, they travelled in large groups and slowly, sometimes by foot. They probably had constant reminders of their own inability to treat the family they traveled with better than whatever furniture or baggage they brought along for the trip. While togetherness is sometimes uncomfortable, together we must lift up our eyes and look for the answer outside of everything we know.
We’re broken and can’t fix ourselves, but “The LORD will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.” Take some time out of your week and each day to look up to the hills and seek Him. To set aside everything else. To focus on the LORD, because He alone loves us in the way we need to be loved and can help us love others the way they need to be loved. He won’t seek to break you to make you do it, but He Himself was broken to provide us a way.
This post continues a series on the Psalms of Ascent. To start at the beginning, click here, and for the next post click here
