FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
HOW TO PROCESS POLITICAL PAIN…Psalm 37
Not every Christian is as upset with our current national leadership as I am. I get that.
Some Christians just aren’t very concerned or overburdened or frustrated as others about what’s going on in America. Or if they were frustrated, they just turned off the news, tuned out the headlines, put their heads down, and resolved to just take care of their family, do their work, serve in their church, and live their lives in an attempt not to be overcome by the suffocating avalanche of bad news.
But…there are many of us who find it very difficult to just move on.
Feelings such as discouragement, frustration and anger, deep anger…yes, even dispiriting pain come and go in waves. And those words don’t even contain the revulsion and disdain that some of us harbor toward those who have gained power and who are in the news every day flaunting their power over we who feel powerless and see the dismantling of an imperfect but strong country into a weak one; from a country with a history of international leadership to one of increasing irrelevance and shame. I know some of you simply don’t feel that way. But many Christians struggle deeply with the world in which we must now live and our children and grandchildren will be raised.
It’s not merely that we feel out of power, it’s that we see that those who we love deeply will have to live in a completely post-Christian world, fighting every day to maintain their identity as Christians, and maybe giving up that identity just to survive.
This feeling is not new to God’s people!
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With perspective from reading history and God’s Word…
…it turns out that much of what we are facing in the U.S. today is simply a different chapter in Satan’s play book to destroy people and thwart God’s Kingdom plans. History reveals account after account, story over incredibly sad story of strong nations ripped apart, committing suicide by foolish and evil practices or being invaded by a combination of internal weakness and external aggression.
Fact: When Rome was being sacked by barbarians, people just couldn’t believe that “The Eternal City” was coming apart and would soon be no more. Their PTS lasted for generations.
I think many people are having similar thoughts about America.
Fact: God’s Holy Justice on evil is not only visited on people at the end of the age, as the Book of Revelation teaches. His judgment sometimes comes when evil is judged in real time history. Check out Isaiah 1-7. Isaiah 3:1-6 shows the sobering reality that sometimes, well, really many times, God uses bad leadership to direct nations into self-destruction as a means of bringing judgement on them.
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Into this real-world situation, Psalm 37 gives God’s people some of the very best direction to deal with just the kind of situation we’re facing in the U.S. today. This is probably King David’s finest statement on how a godly person, how Christ-followers, can process the pain of political insanity.
David first addresses our feelings where he rightly assesses that in the face of evil and injustice, we tend to:
- Fret and wring our hands – v1,7
- Are envious of evil people in power – v1b – I mean, evil people are getting ahead without any push back! (“I might as well join them!”)
- We are consumed with anger – v8
Why are these our responses? Well, it seems obvious, because we:
- See their wicked plots against good people – v12,35
- Can’t miss their violence and strong-arm tactics – v14,35
- Realize they would, in reality, like to kill and eliminate us – v32
- Their fiscal policies are selfish and shortsighted and destructive – v21
Yet God, through David, counsels us to respond to all of this:
- By not fretting – v1
- By trusting in God, Yahweh, the God who has made a covenant of Grace with us – v3
- By delighting and focusing on God Himself – v4
- By committing our way to Him each day – v5
- By letting Him exonerate us in His time – v6
- By resting in the Lord – v7
- By waiting patiently for Him to act – v7
- By ceasing from anger and forsaking wrath because anger only motives us to do evil in response to evil – v8
So, what’s the big picture here?
- Evil people will eventually wither away – v2,20,22
- They will be cut off – v9
- Their arms will be broken – v17
- God’s faithful followers will win: “inherit the land” conveys the idea that, in New Testament thinking, one day Jesus will return as King and the entire earth will be His…check out Matthew 5:3,5 and Revelation 19:11-16.
- The Righteous will delight in abundant prosperity -v 19
- The Lord laughs at the wicked because He sees with acute clarity what unrepentant people will experience. It’s not pretty – v13
- We, God’s people, will be sustained – v17
- The Lord sees all that’s taking place on earth and that comforts us when we think no one who can do anything about these events sees what’s going on – v18
So true greatness awaits God’s people who deal with immoral leadership and decadent societies but who follow Him in righteousness:
- We accept living simply – v16
- We seek to be gracious and giving to those who need help – v21
- We believe and are comforted by the reality that our steps are ordained by God as we obey Him – v22
- We know that if we fall, He will pick us up and sustain us – v24-26
- We depart from evil and seek to do good – v27-28
- We utter wisdom and speak justice because we focus on God’s just law in Scripture, not people’s idea of what is justice – v30
- We wait for His ultimate justice – v34
Hey, check out the incredible summation of David’s great perspective on the control of society by evil people:
Psalm 37:35-40 ESV
35 I have seen a wicked, ruthless man,
spreading himself like a green laurel tree.
36 But he passed away, and behold, he was no more;
though I sought him, he could not be found.
37 Mark the blameless and behold the upright,
for there is a future for the man of peace.
38 But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;
the future of the wicked shall be cut off.
39 The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.
40 The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
Alright…this helps! My emotions are calmed right now. But when I flick on the news channel briefly, I’ll be kicked back into shaking my head in unbelief at the policies and actions of people (men and women), with whom I categorically disagree.
So I’ll come back to Psalm 37 again, and again, and again. And again.
God’s Word will comfort and direct me. And you. If we’ll go there.
In the Grace of Jesus, who is coming, you take it to heart!
Pete Alwinson
