Friday, July 31: Psalm 52- Handling evil in the world.

Sadly it seems like every day there is an evil perpetrated in our world. Earlier this summer 9 people at a Bible study were gunned down in cold blood in Charleston, SC. Jos, Nigeria had 2 bombings earlier this month. Wars, genocides, organizations committed to violent advance like ISIS and Boko Haran and others exist. It can be depressing to read the daily news.

We may see more of this due to the global information available today, but evil has existed since the earliest days of humanity. And every one of us has to come up with ways to handle evil.

Today’s Psalm is in part David’s way of handling evil. The backstory is that David fleeing Saul stops at the priests for supplies (see 1Sam 21). All the priest knows is that David, the king’s right hand man, made a request, so he filled it. Word got back to the king that the priest aided David, so the king sent men to the priest to get David. By the time they got there David was gone, so they murdered the priest and his family for aiding a fugitive… EVIL!  Innocent people, innocent religious people were killed in cold blood.

And so in today’s prayer David processes this evil holding onto God’s ultimate judgment. The fact that God will judge everyone in the end does not answer all questions or put salve on all wounds, but it can bring a measure of peace following an evil outbreak.

In an earthly sense one may ‘get away with it’ but from an eternal perspective, no one will ‘get away with it.’ David sings: Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. … “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!” (5, 7)

At the same time David professes his ongoing love for and trust in the Lord, his God, and this carries him. And I will hope in your name, for your name is good (9b).

I still ruminate much about why there is so much evil in our world and how from an earthly perspective it can seem so unfair. But at the same time I hold onto the truth that God is good and God will execute justice in His time. And for that I wait; more importantly, it drives me to my knees in surrender and praise of the Lord, MY God.

Praise God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, before whom all humanity, every person, will stand and give an account of their life lived. Secrets will be revealed. Thanks be to the Lord for the blood of Jesus which covers my sins. Praise be to Jesus, my Lord, my God and my Savior. Amen.