Daily Bread

O Lord my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all who pursue me, and deliver me,
Lest they rend me like a lion and tear me in pieces
while there is no one to help me.
Give judgement for me
according to my righteousness, O Lord,
and according to the innocence that is in me.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but establish the righteous;
for you test the mind and heart, O righteous God.
God is my shield that is over me;
he saves the true of heart.

I wonder, if I was being oppressed and at risk of being murdered, whether I could appeal to God based on the status or quality of my own heart? Probably not! Yet this is the appeal of the writer of Psalm 7 — to be delivered from their enemies based on their righteousness and 'trueness of heart'.

The writer understood that somehow justice and the consequences of sin go together, and if God is good then God will surely uphold justice where the unrighteous will be punished and the righteous vindicated.

As I sit and write this, I must admit I'm in a pensive (if not melancholy) mood. Today, Helen and I toured the British Museum in London which is a museum dedicated to the history of humanity, and three predominant themes emerged — violence, creativity, and hope.

For many who went before us, life was horrendously violent, difficult, and painful, yet humans continually found the capacity to be so wonderfully creative with art, sculpture, building, and writing. And alongside this, and perhaps to cope with the dichotomy between pain and creativity, they had the enduring hope of something beyond themselves — a spiritual realm, an afterlife, and a 'god'.

Little has changed over the millennia. Today, our precious lives are also painfully short and terribly fragile. So many of us live under dire circumstances — illness, poverty, loss of livelihood, war, violence, and the fear of losing loved ones — and yet, we are all so wonderfully creative. Our world is filled with billions upon billions of expressions of literature, art, and music. We too live with the dichotomy between violence and creativity and we try to find meaning and purpose, hoping that somehow justice will prevail — that there is something beyond ourselves and that there is more to life.

The writers of the Psalms give voice to these deeper truths about humanity and this is why they are so helpful in worship. We, as Christians, have chosen to place our hope in God through Jesus Christ — that through the violence and the creativity of our existence, there will come a time when justice will prevail and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

Holy God
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
my trust is in you alone.
Thank you that my salvation does not depend
on my own righteousness but on the righteousness
of your Son, my saviour, Jesus Christ.
Give me strength in adversity,
and may my creativity only ever be used
for that which is good, true, and holy.
Now and forever.