Читать книгу Reflections on the Psalms - Steven Croft - Страница 22

In the Lord have I taken refuge;how then can you say to me‘Flee like a bird to the hills…’

‘The Lord tries the righteous as well as the wicked’ (v.6)

What a mess the world is in! Day after day brings news of violence. We live among people whose morals are appalling. People commit crimes and get away with it. How on earth can those of us who want to follow the Lord survive it? This psalm hints at three possibilities.

We could create a pure Christian community. We would cut ourselves off from encountering anyone who doesn’t share our faith. We would read nothing but the Bible, watch nothing but Songs of Praise, and abandon the godless internet altogether. It is the equivalent of attempting to ‘flee like a bird to the hills’ (v.1).

Or we could confront power with power. It would mean arming ourselves for war. We would take on tyrants and vanquish them in the name of the God we worship, getting rid of the evil they inflict once and for all. It is our equivalent of bending the bows and fitting the arrows (v.2). Both of these approaches have been tried over the course of Christian history.

Alternatively, we can take refuge in God. It would involve trusting that the Lord knows what he is doing, and is ultimately God of ‘the righteous as well as the wicked’ (v.6). It means we would need to engage fully with the mess of the world, but seek to do the ‘righteous deeds’ that God loves (v.8). This is the one the psalmist urges us to choose.

Reflection by Peter Graystone

Refrain:

The Lord’s throne is in heaven.

Prayer:

God of heaven,

when the foundations are shaken

and there is no escape,

test us, but not to destruction,

look on the face of your anointed

and heal us in Jesus Christ your Son.