Tag: divine intervention

A Psalm of Lament For the Government of the United States of America

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Pastor Tim's PonderingsLeave a comment

Many, if not most, people fail to acknowledge their grief, and therefore fail to lament their significant changes and losses in life.

What’s more, many, if not most, Christians do the same thing because they focus too much upon triumphalism to the exclusion of dealing with suffering. “Just get over it!” is the mantra to themselves and others.

But that is not a biblical approach to change and loss. 62 out of the 150 Psalms in the Old Testament are laments; some are communal, and others are individual expressions of grief.

Even God laments. We must never forget that a major role of God in our own loss is that the Lord grieves and laments along with us.

Keep in mind that grief can attach itself to any significant change or loss; it is the normal emotional, spiritual, physical, and relational reaction to that loss.

Lament is an intentional process of letting go of relationships and dreams, and living into a new identity after the loss or change.

Please know that everyone’s grief is personal; there is no one-size-fits-all. Thus, the following psalm of lament is my own. It is not meant to be a dig on someone else who rejoices in what I happen to lament. It’s just simply my own sadness over the state of affairs in my beloved nation…

O Lord, I’ll get right down to it: Help!

          I have always taken my refuge in You.

Rescue us, the American people;

          free us from the injustice and unrighteousness rampant in our government.

Be a strong rock to which the oppressed may rely upon;

be a place where I may always go.

You, O God, have saved us many times in the past,

          and Your divine providence has guided us, despite our past and many sins.

My God, free the innocent and the poor from the hands of wicked persons,
         from the grasp of the cruel and unjust President of the United States.

For decades, members of both political parties agreed to safely regulate business;

they’ve decided to provide a social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights.

Ideally, the U.S. government has sought to protect every American,

by access to education, healthcare, transportation, communication, employment, and resources.

And elected officials thought primarily of the common good,

so that every American could work hard and prosper.

But what is happening today in the United States,

is the same thing which occurred so long ago in ancient times.

We are in similar situations when the Old Testament prophets called out greed,

          injustice, and abuse in Israel and Judah.

Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel…  

They [the rich and powerful] hate the one who reproves in the gate,
    and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.
Therefore because you trample on the poor
    and take from them levies of grain,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
    but you shall not live in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
    but you shall not drink their wine.
For I know how many are your transgressions
    and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe
    and push aside the needy in the gate.

Hate evil and love good,
    and establish justice in the gate. (Amos 5:1, 10-12, 15a, NRSV)

Perhaps because so few persons even read the prophetic books anymore,

our ignorance has allowed evil means and ways to take over the government.

We are in a nation and in a world full of oligarchs,

who care only for their exorbitant wealth, abuse of power, and self-interest.

As for me, I will not amble down the path of injustice,

          but walk the path of light and life.

I will embrace truth and harmony,

          unlike so many Republican politicians and their lackeys.

They say one thing and then do another;

          lies and corruption are on their lips.

If we say we are in harmony with him [God] yet walk a path of darkness,
we are living a lie and not following the truth…
If we say that we have no broken ways,
we are lying to ourselves,
and the truth is not alive in us.

(1 John 1:6, 8, First Nations Version)

I must, I will, view our problems differently,

because You are my hope, O Almighty Lord.

You have been my confidence ever since I was young;
          I depended on You through many hard times.

My songs of praise constantly speak about You,

for You are my strong refuge,

the Rock I have built my life upon.

Therefore, my mouth is filled with your praise,

and with your glory all day long.

I make my appeal to You, merciful God;

          I ask for divine intervention and deliverance,

          from the ignorant and sinister machinations of the U.S. President.

Do not reject us forever, O Lord,

or abandon us whenever we are too weak to carry on.

My political (and spiritual) enemies talk about me behind my back,

and plot their evil schemes to silence the truth.

They say, “God is not with him and his nonsense;

          put him in his place because no one will help him.”

O God, be close to me, and to all who love the truth;

          O Lord, come quickly to my aid.

Let those who traffic in lies come to a shameful end;

          let them be covered with disgrace and humiliation.

As for me, I will always have hope,

          because You are the God of all hope.

I vow to testify when Your righteousness wins the Day;

          I will never cease to praise Your sacred way of life.

Even when I am old and my mind is no longer clear,

          do not abandon me, O God.

Let me continue to tell the people of this age

what Your divine strength has accomplished,

to someday tell about how Your power delivered us from evil leadership.

Your righteousness and justice reaches to the heavens, O God;

You have done great things.

O Lord, who is like You?

          saving the poor from injustice,

          and delivering the oppressed from evil.

We, indeed, are enduring many terrible troubles;

          yet You, God, are expert at restoration, right relations, and harmonious ways.

You are the One who comforts the afflicted,

and the One who afflicts the comfortable.

Because of your faithful and steadfast love, O God,

          I will give thanks to You as long as I live.

As long as I have a mouth to speak,

          I will tell about your righteousness all day long.

Evil will not prevail;

          ungodly leadership shall not endure.

May Your divine and loving ways come to this country, O God,

          and may your moral will be done,

          on this earth, as it is always done in Your heaven. Amen.

Divine Intervention (Isaiah 1:24-31)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem, by David Roberts (1796-1964)

So now, listen to what the Lord Almighty, Israel’s powerful God, is saying: “I will take revenge on you, my enemies, and you will cause me no more trouble. I will take action against you. I will purify you the way metal is refined, and will remove all your impurity. I will give you rulers and advisers like those you had long ago. Then Jerusalem will be called the righteous, faithful city.”

Because the Lord is righteous, he will save Jerusalem and everyone there who repents. But he will crush everyone who sins and rebels against him; he will kill everyone who forsakes him.

You will be sorry that you ever worshiped trees and planted sacred gardens. You will wither like a dying oak, like a garden that no one waters. Just as straw is set on fire by a spark, so powerful people will be destroyed by their own evil deeds, and no one will be able to stop the destruction. (Good News Translation)

Judgment does not mean that you need to leave a part of yourself behind in order to be accepted or belong. Judgment isn’t about stuffing down emotions and denying certain thoughts about things because you were told to.

Rather, judgment – divine judgment – is for those leaders, and the persons who support such leaders, who tell people they have to live a particular way, be a certain way, and think in the same way the leaders say you have to think.

Isaiah’s prophecy is first and foremost directed toward leaders – political leaders and religious leaders. Indeed, the nation of Israel had gone down a path of worship that God never condoned nor wanted.

And the Lord put the primary blame squarely upon rulers who led their people in unacceptable ways by telling them things that God never wanted. As a result, the nation as a whole, lived unjustly and unrighteously.

God was determined to do something about the situation of bad leadership: Replace the rulers and advisers. Get rid of them, just like a metallurgist gets rid of impure and worthless dross.

A lot of things in life rise and fall because of leadership. The character and competence of a leader is of upmost importance. God raises up particular people to lead. So, leaders and rulers are expected to fulfill their mandated duty with all diligence and decorum.

The city of Jerusalem fell to the invading Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. All of the Old Testament prophetic books are related to that seminal event in one way or another.

Jerusalem’s destruction, according to the prophets, had a direct relationship to the failure of political kings and religious priests to lead the people according to God’s law. And that failure was specifically tied to the lack of religious piety and leadership performance amongst the rulers of the land.

Indeed, individuals are responsible for their own thoughts and words and actions. Yet, at the same time, the leaders of a city and a nation are also responsible for whether they are leading the people into ways of justice and equity, or injustice and prejudice.

People in responsible positions of authority are to take ownership of the sort of culture they develop. And when people, as a whole, have rude and irresponsible words and actions, such behavior isn’t only on individuals – it’s on the leaders, as well.

God will hold everyone accountable – especially leaders = for what they have done, and not done, to foster a just and right society.

In the time of the prophets, the majority of those in authority led the people into a degenerate state. It had become so bad that divine judgment would intervene in order to burn out the evil, and remove the worthless dross of incompetent and inconsiderate leadership.

Only through the wholesale replacement of rulers and advisers could restoration and regeneration ever take place.

Fortunately, the Lord is a God of justice, mercy, and grace. The Lord is a redeeming God. And the theme of redemption runs throughout the Book of Isaiah. Yet, for a nation to be redeemed, it will require an elimination of rebellious evil.

The wrath of God exists precisely because of the love of God. Since the Lord has a steadfast, committed, and covenantal love for the people, God will render judgment, purging hate and injustice from the land.

When God decrees something, no one can stop it. And when God decrees destruction upon the material things which promote illegitimate worship and public injustice, you can be absolutely sure that it’s going to happen.

No one, no city, and no nation is truly autonomous, in the sense that they can do whatever the heck they want to do, regardless of whether it is right or just, or not. There is no person and no government who is free to indulge in their own selfish agenda.

We have a purpose and a mandate as people on this earth, to care for this world – the people and the environments we inhabit.

All of the ways in which individuals, groups, and governments cheapen and degrade human dignity and environmental worth, puts everyone at risk of survival and a good life on this planet.

Unjust and dysfunctional systems and structures must be purged of their impurities. And that means, in many cases, a new order of things must occur.

If we cannot learn to play well with one another, then playtime will be over; and God will call us back into the house and make us sit in the corner for a long time – or worse.

Whenever leadership fails to be neighborliness, then we have a huge problem.

Our world suffering divine devastation of all the things we know and love may not be far behind. And, quite frankly, it will be our own damn fault – and not somebody else’s.

However, in the prophetic biblical tradition, devastation and destruction never have the last word. There is always hope – a confident expectation that good, right, and just forms of social, economic, and religious communities will function yet again.

There are good leaders waiting in the wings. It’s just that no one yet sees or knows them. But God will raise them up at the proper time, to accomplish good purposes in communities, churches, families, and governments everywhere.

A divine intervention will make the last be first, and the first be last.

May it be so, for the blessing of the world, and to the glory and praise of God. Amen.

A Time of Woe (Isaiah 5:15-24)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The Prophet Isaiah, by Raphael, 1512

So people will be brought low
    and everyone humbled,
    the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
    and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
    lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
    and wickedness as with cart ropes,
to those who say, “Let God hurry;
    let him hasten his work
    so we may see it.
The plan of the Holy One of Israel—
    let it approach, let it come into view,
    so we may know it.”

Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and clever in their own sight.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
    and champions at mixing drinks,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
    but deny justice to the innocent.
Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
    and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay
    and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty
    and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel. (New International Version)

I’m willing to bet that you, like me, have had to contend with some rather annoying and obnoxious people from time to time in your life.

It’s the person whose head is so big, they can barely walk in and out of a room. And when they talk, it’s usually about themselves, the great things they’ve done, and what they think – not framed as opinions but as the truth.

Since this sort of person rarely listens to anyone, they have no clue about the real needs of people in front of them. Their self-inflated importance is to the degree that they don’t ask and are not curious; yet they demand of others. They see no problem with double-standards. It’s okay for them to bribe, even steal from another. But if you cross the self-important person, look out, because they’ll hunt you down like an animal.

Yes, such people exist. And there are typically some deep psychological reasons why they are so arrogant and difficult to be around. Yet the best thing to know about them is that the true Sovereign of the universe, God, is the rightful judge who will handle them.

If you see a path of destruction on the ground, you know a tornado has touched down and done its damage. And if you observe a bunch of people devastated and demoralized, you know that the haughty and self-important person has been through and laid waste to people’s lives.

The Lord almighty is not okay with such people moving about and hurting others with impunity; the wicked will have to contend with the One who knows what’s going on.

God looks and sees – and pronounces appropriate woes (curses) upon those who feign righteousness and holiness, yet in reality do anything but.

You can easily tell what God abhors by what sorts of behavior receives a disapproving woe upon it. God condemns self-indulgence and self-absorption. This shows itself in how one drinks and does business. The sheer accumulation of land, resources, and strong drink – without any sort of regard to one’s neighbor – is a foolish use of wealth.

The self-absorbed and self-important person becomes desensitized to the needs of others. They also become insensitive to God’s concerns and workings in the world. To disregard the poor and needy is to disregard God. Such injustice, resulting from only caring about oneself, is why the Lord levels divine woes upon them.

Actions and inactions both have consequences. Acting selfishly through wanton accumulation is an equal inaction against the community. As a result of so much economic disparity and carelessness in society, God displaces and deports the ones who arrogantly and smugly believed they are secure.

There is accountability in this world, even though it may not sometimes seem like it. There are ethical requirements and moral imperatives. The social laws contained in the covenant code between God and Israel were expected to be honored. So, when they were continually and habitually ignored, the Lord held the people accountable.

The selfishly proud and arrogant, who acquire all they can and become masters of small worlds, will eventually face ruin by means of divine judgment. It’s as if persons had so loaded their backpacks with sin, that it became heavy to the point of self-crushing.

Divine intervention is either a very good thing, or a very bad thing, depending upon who you are. People are expected to be self-aware enough to know the difference between right and wrong, bad and good, just and unjust. To not know this is to be self-addicted and unable to make proper discernments and decisions.

If you are reading or listening to this, you are likely a person who is concerned enough to care for others and is not lost in yourself. Yet, you likely have to contend with a few persons who are only in this life for themselves. So, watch out and do your best to avoid people who do the following:

  • Manipulate through deceptive language. There are some people in positions of authority or power who intentionally obscure, cover up, and confuse things. If you never know how things stand and are doing, then beware.
  • Independent without accountability. There is no interdependent relationships, and only obedience when it suits them. The constant caginess, and lack of vulnerability, is a warning. If you feel like you’re being micro-managed without much ability to ask specific questions and get straight answers, then look out.
  • Distort how things really are. I’m talking about gaslighting. Gaslighting is the attempt by another to accept the gaslighter’s view of reality as your own. And in the gaslighter’s quest, it seems to you as if there is continually chaos and you are off kilter. If you question it to them, then you will most likely be accused of having a problem. It’s not you. So, skedaddle the first chance you get.

The bottom line of it all is that God is rejected and there are people reneging on their commitments to the Lord. You need not be such a person, and you don’t need to live in such a way that another is in complete control of your life – other than God.

Take note of what the Lord dislikes and despises, and keep away from persons who set up themselves as being akin to God.

Grant us, Lord God, a vision of your world as your love would have it:
a world where the weak are protected, and none go hungry or poor;
a world where the riches of creation are shared, and everyone can enjoy them;
a world where different races and cultures live in harmony and mutual respect;
a world where peace is built with justice, and justice is guided by love.
Give us the inspiration and courage to build it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Great Restoration (Psalm 126)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
    we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter
    and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us,
    and we rejoiced.

Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
    like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears
    reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
    bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
    carrying their sheaves. (New Revised Standard Version)

I personally think that God is amazing. The Lord not only brings restoration and wholeness to people; God also reverses people’s fortunes so that what was lost is found again. Indeed, reversal has a prominent place in today’s psalm, inviting us to recognize that God does more than compensate persons in a loss, but also brings about a complete reversal of reality.

God is the expert at restoring people’s fortunes. For a nation who was overrun by the Babylonians, sent into exile, and then had the ability to return from that exile back to Jerusalem, it very much indeed, felt like a grand restoration. The effect it had on the people was profound. The psalmist describes it like this:

It’s like waking from a dream and realizing that it’s reality.

It’s like the best party – full of celebration, singing, and laughter – that anyone has ever experienced.

It’s like being a real live miracle.

Being invaded, attacked, violated, taken away from your home and traumatized – and then living in oppression and having forced suppression in living your life the way you believe you ought to, is an awfully sad and discouraging way to exist.

But then, fortunes are restored. The grieving and lamenting give way to laughter and joy. That feeling of a 500 pound weight on your shoulders is lifted; you now feel light as a feather. And it isn’t only a personal reversal of tangible resources; it’s also a psychological turn around.

The nations frequently mock and ridicule God’s people. They look at the suffering, as if God has abandoned them – or wonder even if there is a God, at all. The thinking of other nations, is that Israel’s God is nothing but a local god who is impotent outside of Judah. Besides, he probably doesn’t care about a bunch of losers anyway, they reason.

Don’t give the other nations a reason to say,
    “Where is their God? Can’t he help them?”
Let us see you punish those people.
    Punish them for killing your servants. (Psalm 79:10, ERV)

But the God of the Bible is no limited territorial being; the Lord is sovereign over all the earth. And this God is able to effect a radical reversal of body, mind, and spirit – even to those other nations. The disrespectful mouths that once mocked are reversed to giving praise to Israel’s God and acknowledging that the Lord has done great things for the people.

This God has both the will and the ability to intervene and effect real change that completely reverses a person’s and even a nation’s life. Once someone has experienced what God can do, they forever know that God can do it again.

One of the things which personally motivates me is that the Lord has changed my life and my fortunes on many occasions – and even used me to help effect a reversal in other people’s lives, as well. So, no matter how bad things get (and sometimes they get awfully darned bad!) I have confidence and trust that a good, merciful, and loving God sees it all, knows it all, and has the power to do something about it. I may have to wait for a while – maybe even an agonizingly long time – yet I am convinced that the same God who restored the fortunes of Israel can reverse my situation, too.

And the change is so wonderfully dramatic, that it’s like a wadi in the desert, a life-giving river that emerges in the bone dry desert, bringing new growth and sustaining animal life, after the rains finally come and reverse the landscape and the environment completely.

We are, however, reminded that a great reversal and a complete restoration does not happen immediately. When the farmer plants in the Spring, it will be months before there is a harvest of crops. It takes time for the seed to germinate, break the soil, and grow into a mature plant, ready for the harvester.

Get-rich schemes rarely work in life, and never really happen in the spiritual life. Renewal, restoration, and a reversal of fortunes is not an instantaneous event, but rather a process that develops and eventually happens. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears go into any meaningful and sustainable process of change. Yet, where there is weeping, the end will be shouts of celebration and joy.

Believers can live expectantly, and fully convinced, that their suffering will eventually give way to glory. Grief and tears will not have the last word; God’s restorative and reversing grace will.

Many of you long for restoration – either for yourselves or for others you love and care about – because you recognize there needs to be a great reversal of fortunes. Advent is the season for waiting, the time for anticipation, knowing that deliverance will come in the form of a baby. And our waiting shall not be in vain.

O Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers of your people; in the multitude of your mercies look with compassion upon us and all who turn to you for help; for you are gracious, O lover of souls, and to you we give glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.