Comfort for All

Tradition and Wisdom
Teaching and Learning:
Living as God's People

Psalm 37:10-17

The Message

 ^10-11 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;
      you'll stare at his once famous place and—nothing!
   Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,
      relishing a huge bonanza.

 ^12-13 Bad guys have it in for the good guys,
      obsessed with doing them in.
   But God isn't losing any sleep; to him
      they're a joke with no punch line.

 ^14-15 Bullies brandish their swords,
      pull back on their bows with a flourish.
   They're out to beat up on the harmless,
      or mug that nice man out walking his dog.
   A banana peel lands them flat on their faces—
      slapstick figures in a moral circus.

 ^16-17 Less is more and more is less.
      One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,
   For the wicked are moral weaklings
      but the righteous are God-strong.

For Reflection
Me thinks that there are at least three kinds of wicked in this world.  Those whose innocence is proved by their ignorance, ie. the hapless,  those who for selfishness, fear, jealousy, or envy calculate intentional acts of lawlessness, and the truly evil--the demons.  The first two seem to me to be correctable or redeemed in human courts.  The latter are in God's jurisdiction.

Of whom does Isiah speak?  Perhaps he addresses them all.  At times we forget that judgment is God's.  The conflict between good and evil is God's fight.  In the grand scheme of things, it seems, our role is to hold confidence in the Lord, maintain righteous lives and not be seduced by the terror of the wicked and the evil.  Humans may lose battles, but, God will win the war.

We face the world in red clown noses and possess the God-centered strength and confidence to carry that burden.

Pray
for the hapless and the selfish that they may find their salvation in the Lord.  Pray for confidence in the victorious Kingdom of God.