Do you indeed decree what is right, you mighty lords?
Do you judge the children of men uprightly?
No, in your hearts you devise wrongs.
Your hands deal out violence on earth. (vs. 1-2)
Do you not know? Did you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in. Who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Isaiah 40
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things and by Him all things hold together. Colossians 1
It was good to wake up today, before I turned on the news or had my morning Starbucks, to remember my God is sovereign. The campaign for the presidency is thick with innuendo and accusation. Parsing it out gives me a headache...not to speak of what it does to my digestion. The air in the Middle East is heavy with smoke as the United States flag is ripped down and replaced with an ominous black one. Our dying ambassador was dragged through the streets of Libya because the three men who had only pistols to protect him from machine gun fire lay dead on the embassy grounds, unsung heroes buried in the rubble of a 9/11 anniversary attack. Then there is Israel. Ready with guns and gas masks in Jerusalem. Really. A pastor from Israel, who had recently been to Jerusalem, spoke at our church Sunday. He'd seen with his own eyes that everyone in that city carried gas masks as they went about their daily lives. Missiles were in place to launch. Set at ready.
Not far-fetched to think we might ask the same questions David did: "Do you leaders judge world affairs correctly? Do you even care about what is happening to the people on this earth?"
The answer: No. At least as David saw it. Not when the wicked are in power. Made me wonder, though, if the wicked know they are wicked. Some seem to feel America is evil and they are good. If I had grown up in another country, how would I feel about world events? So is there some common ground we can all say is evil? Infanticide? Genocide? Ethnic cleansing? The war of a despot for power? Hitler? Idi Amin? Pol Pot? Did they know, any more than Pharoah did in Exodus, that their "hearts devised wrongs and hands dealt out violence on the earth"?
I will leave the judgments of motives to God because I don't know hearts like He does. What I do know and take great comfort in is that He sees time in one continual expanse from beginning to end. God isn't surprised by the events I read about when I open the paper in the morning and sip my coffee while reading the daunting headlines. He is Lord over everything. Whether we know it or not - really, whether we like it or not. Thrones, rulers, and dominions can't come and go unless He ordains it to be so. And He is also sovereign over me. My little life. In the scheme of things, I matter, too. My God has a dream for me that He intends to help me bring into reality before I go to live with Him forever. I must start there. With my own life today - right now. No fretting about the larger scale trudging of earth and its rulers toward God's grander plan for time. But, instead, giving myself over to His sovereign plan for me.
God holds everything together. Christ was before - the Alpha - all things. He knows how the puzzle pieces fit together because He can look at the picture on the top of the box. I want to fit just so. Proudly display His glory by being a part of God's final design for mankind - and for me.
Do you judge the children of men uprightly?
No, in your hearts you devise wrongs.
Your hands deal out violence on earth. (vs. 1-2)
Do you not know? Did you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in. Who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Isaiah 40
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things and by Him all things hold together. Colossians 1
It was good to wake up today, before I turned on the news or had my morning Starbucks, to remember my God is sovereign. The campaign for the presidency is thick with innuendo and accusation. Parsing it out gives me a headache...not to speak of what it does to my digestion. The air in the Middle East is heavy with smoke as the United States flag is ripped down and replaced with an ominous black one. Our dying ambassador was dragged through the streets of Libya because the three men who had only pistols to protect him from machine gun fire lay dead on the embassy grounds, unsung heroes buried in the rubble of a 9/11 anniversary attack. Then there is Israel. Ready with guns and gas masks in Jerusalem. Really. A pastor from Israel, who had recently been to Jerusalem, spoke at our church Sunday. He'd seen with his own eyes that everyone in that city carried gas masks as they went about their daily lives. Missiles were in place to launch. Set at ready.
Not far-fetched to think we might ask the same questions David did: "Do you leaders judge world affairs correctly? Do you even care about what is happening to the people on this earth?"
The answer: No. At least as David saw it. Not when the wicked are in power. Made me wonder, though, if the wicked know they are wicked. Some seem to feel America is evil and they are good. If I had grown up in another country, how would I feel about world events? So is there some common ground we can all say is evil? Infanticide? Genocide? Ethnic cleansing? The war of a despot for power? Hitler? Idi Amin? Pol Pot? Did they know, any more than Pharoah did in Exodus, that their "hearts devised wrongs and hands dealt out violence on the earth"?
I will leave the judgments of motives to God because I don't know hearts like He does. What I do know and take great comfort in is that He sees time in one continual expanse from beginning to end. God isn't surprised by the events I read about when I open the paper in the morning and sip my coffee while reading the daunting headlines. He is Lord over everything. Whether we know it or not - really, whether we like it or not. Thrones, rulers, and dominions can't come and go unless He ordains it to be so. And He is also sovereign over me. My little life. In the scheme of things, I matter, too. My God has a dream for me that He intends to help me bring into reality before I go to live with Him forever. I must start there. With my own life today - right now. No fretting about the larger scale trudging of earth and its rulers toward God's grander plan for time. But, instead, giving myself over to His sovereign plan for me.
God holds everything together. Christ was before - the Alpha - all things. He knows how the puzzle pieces fit together because He can look at the picture on the top of the box. I want to fit just so. Proudly display His glory by being a part of God's final design for mankind - and for me.
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