The living of so many today is not. A verse in the hymn "Just As I Am" (alway sung at the close of the crusade meetings of Billy Graham) admits that those coming to Christ walk toward him with "fightings within and fears without."
The inner world of so many in our day is fraught with anxiousness, fright, restlessness, and the worst, loneliness. Too many, having been nurtured by dysfunctional and spiritually rootless parents, have not been endowed with a center which assures them of who they are, nor of a God who has created them and loves them and has good plans for them. Our hearts are starving for meaning and direction, and so often not able to settle down.
The world around us does little to soothe our souls. The culture of our politics is driven by the anger of unsatisfied demands. Inequity has (we feel) lanced our lives too. Someone else is to blame for my current, inadequate lot in life. Everywhere you turn, something wrong is trumpeted. Some group unhappy. People are displaced, starving, sick. Some religion is ready to execute its god's judgment on your way of life.
Granted, painting a picture of doom should have its balancing limits. Still, people's hearts are hungry for something more. Love that lasts. Centeredness that provides a lifelong vector. Reasons for the next day that are more than simply the quest for yet another set of toys.
Peace.
Princes persecute me without cause
but my heart stands in awe of Your words.
I rejoice at Your word
like one who finds great spoil.
I hate and abhor falsehood,
but I love Your law.
Seven times a day I praise You
for Your righteous rules.
Great peace have those who love Your law;
nothing can make them stumble
I hope for Your salvation, O Lord,
and I do Your commandments.
My soul keeps Your testimonies;
I love them exceedingly.
I keep Your precepts and testimonies,
for all my ways are before You.
Throughout this extended Psalm, the writer does acknowledge that trouble has found him. People in power have made him a target, for no good reason. Surrounding are persistent expressions of what is wrong, what is false. Each day owns substantive challenges.
But there is a great peace which attends his life. He is in awe, not of his trouble nor his challenges, but of His God and at His God's stabilizing words Words which provide sufficient help to prevent stumbling over the uneven experiences of living in a tough world.
Great love for God and His word bring about a calm in the midst of a cultural and societal whirlwind. This pilgrim loves what His Lord says and does what His Lord directs. The ways of his days are before his Lord. His lips have found the habit of rhythmic praise.
Awesome...
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