GOD'S TIMELY WORD

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Rescue me, Lord, from evildoers; protect me from the violent, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.

Keep me safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent, who devise ways to trip my feet. The arrogant have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path.

I say to the Lord, “You are my God.” Hear, Lord, my cry for mercy. Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, You shield my head in the day of battle. Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord; do not let their plans succeed.

Those who surround me proudly rear their heads; may the mischief of their lips engulf them. May burning coals fall on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. May slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down the violent.

I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name, and the upright will live in your presence.

Psalm 140

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Last week was one that will be not be forgotten anytime soon in the city of Boston or anywhere else for that matter. An act of unspeakable evil took the lives of three people and critically injured countless others when improvised bombs placed in pressure cookers were detonated near crowds of people near the Boston Marathon finish line. And as the manhunt ensued, a MIT police officer was gunned down by the two terror suspects while sitting in his squad car and another Boston transit officer was critically wounded during an exchange of gunfire with the terrorists. When it all ended during a tense day Friday, one of the terrorists was dead and the other apprehended. Finally, the people of Boston could rest easy and try and return to some sense of normal following an experience that is hard to make sense of.

In times like this, I think we all want to receive something that helps us deal with the evil that we have witnessed as being alive and well in our world. Thanks be to God that He always provides us a timely word in these circumstances.

One such word is in the 140th Psalm. Look at these words from King David, one who was dealing with evil doings himself:

Rescue me, Lord, from evildoers; protect me from the violent, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.

Keep me safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent, who devise ways to trip my feet. The arrogant have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path.

I say to the Lord, “You are my God.” Hear, Lord, my cry for mercy. Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, You shield my head in the day of battle. Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord; do not let their plans succeed.

Those who surround me proudly rear their heads; may the mischief of their lips engulf them. May burning coals fall on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. May slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down the violent.

I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name, and the upright will live in your presence.

Consider the following key points in this timely word of God as we consider the evil that has happened and ponder any evil that will be propagated in the future:

1. We need to pray to God for rescue from evildoers.

“Rescue me, Lord, from evildoers; protect me from the violent, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day.”

Most of the time, we are reactive in situations involving evil. We pray after evil acts occur. We should instead be proactive as David was. He asked God upfront to rescue Him from those who would devise evil plans. We should do likewise, knowing that God listens to and answers prayers.

2. We should hold God as our sole source of safety in life.

“Keep me safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent.”

Who is more powerful and able than God? It seems like a no brainer and yet we seem to want to place our security reliance in other places like alarm systems and security guards and even bodyguards in some instances. None of them can do for us what God can do. For no matter what worldly safety processes you seek to institute, there are going to be countless times when you are outside of the care they can provide you. Only God is with you always and only God has a true heart for you that loves you dearly. See Him as your Great Protector today and always.

3. We should be praying against those who would consider doing evil.

“Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord; do not let their plans succeed.”

Just as we don’t pray proactively for God’s rescue from evil, we don’t pray against the evildoers and their wicked schemes. How many of us were praying against terrorism in our nation before Boston? Probably as many as there were praying before September 11th, 2001 or any other major terror attack we have witnessed in our lifetimes.

Friends, we need to be praying against the evil scheming happening in our world today and we need to do so confident that God can and will thwart the efforts of those who would want to do us harm.

4. We need to understand that judgment will fall on the evil doer.

May burning coals fall on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. May slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down the violent.

We have seen it over and over again in the scriptures. God doesn’t allow evil to go unpunished and He is perfectly fair and just in the judgments He dispenses. No one really gets away with things, no matter how we might think so from a worldly perspective. God hates sin and despises sinful behavior. Rest assured that a form of discipline will always come from the Father in response to the evil sins committed here on earth.

5. We need to know that justice will prevail.

“I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name, and the upright will live in your presence.”

The Boston Marathon terror attack is over but God has not yet finished meting out His justice. His judgment still is a work in progress but we need to see how He already has moved powerfully to bring two evil men to justice. Think about how things progressed last week and how we went from not knowing who might have done the act, to having pictures of the two terrorists, to finding out where they were, and then engaging them, killing one and arresting the other. All within a matter of days.

Now it would be easy to heap all our accolades on the FBI and other law enforcement officials who worked tirelessly to try and solve the case but leave God out of the equation and you’re eliminating the One who led the men and women to success. Not that we shouldn’t be grateful to those who played key roles in finding the terrorists and getting them off the streets but we would be completely remiss in not seeing that they were all instruments of the Lord’s judgment.

We should be praising God first and then those He used in that order. I’m not sure that happened enough in the wake of the Boston terror event.

Friends, as we deal with the aftermath of this horrific attack, let us turn our attention to God and His timely word as found in the Holy Bible. For with His words and a strong, dedicated prayer life, we can go on and live in bold confidence, knowing and trusting that He is always with us, guiding, protecting, saving, and loving us, despite the evil that exists in the world.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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