Sermonstudio

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye wastes away from grief,
my soul and body also.
For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my misery,
and my bones waste away.
I am the scorn of all my adversaries,
a horror to my neighbors,
an object of dread to my acquaintances;
those who see me in the street flee from me.
I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel.
For I hear the whispering of many --
terror all around! --
as they scheme together against me,
as they plot to take my life.
But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, "You are my God."
My times are in your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your steadfast love.

Alternate Image
The Singer has been watching the evening news. A war is shown;
children graphically caught by the eye of the camera are burned
with napalm; street people stare vacantly at the camera;
politicians are arguing about money to be spent on a stealth
bomber or AIDS research; a mental patient has gone

on a shooting spree in a mall; tidal waves have destroyed a
Caribbean island, leaving its inhabitants homeless; American and
Soviet leaders stalk away from a summit conference; a middle
eastern terrorist group kidnaps more hostages .... The Singer
watches and cries. Her neighbors pound on the walls complaining
about the decibel level of her television. Her friends begin to
snicker while she complains about world and neighborhood
conditions on the phone. She thinks her family has plotted to
have her committed to a psych ward as a paranoid schizophrenic.
Her gaze turns to her Bible. All times are similar. All eras have
their sorrows and joys. The only certain thing is God's
providential care in the midst of all. The Singer smiles through
her tears and caresses her dog-eared Bible. The covenant endures.

Reflection
"Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean that they're not
out to get you," reads the poster. "All the world is crazy except
me and thee and sometimes I wonder about thee," says the Quaker.
"Life is hard and then you die," speaks the movie character. It
isn't paranoid, crazy or pessimistic to know that most of the
world believes in a false god. Any student of history knows it is
primarily a record of human failure with war following war and
one act of inhumanity followed by another. Sometimes it gets to
us. At those times it is good for us to consider interpretive
history; history from the standpoint of faith in a sovereign
loving God -- biblical history. Then those bad, evil and corrupt
acts fall into perspective. Even those things have a part to play
in God's plan of salvation. Then we know that in all things God
works for good, and those who love God know it.