8 December 2016

 Psalm 146:5 – 10

The verses in today’s scripture are truly full of hope. Funny, though, to me the most hopeful line in the whole passage is the last part of verse nine, “but He frustrates the ways of the wicked.”

This political season has uncovered negativity and prejudices, hate speech and rhetoric that have left me cold and depressed. Our brothers and sisters at home and abroad are afraid of what will come next, and many of our countrymen have been emboldened to use this election to claim their superiority over those who now fear.

In Psalm 146, we are assured….God is the Creator, and He remains faithful forever.  Forever is a long time. There have been many seasons like the one we are going through now. Sex abuse and usury scandals in churches, the Chinese famine in the 1950s and 60s, the forced extinction of wildlife,  the episodes of fanatical terrorism that have erupted without warning, the Khmer Rouge regime,  the two world wars,  the plague, the Holodomor, the Crusades…so many seasons of radical fear, but our God has been with us and with all of His children through it all.

What is the answer to radical fear? Radical HOPE. Our political forefathers knew this…and the American Revolution was won. Our spiritual forefathers knew this…and the church was reformed. Our German brothers and sisters knew this…and the wall came down. Gutenberg knew this…and the printing press was invented. Even the Roman Empire came to know this…and the Pax Romana birthed a new way. Scientists and artists knew this…and the Renaissance invited a new shaping of our world. Our Creator God knew this…and Jesus came among us. The embodiment of Hope.

The oppressed, the hungry, the blind, the foreigner, the fatherless, the widow…their hope, MY HOPE, is in nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. The ways of the wicked have been, are, and will be frustrated.

The Lord reigns forever. Praise the Lord.