World Powers

Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-149 Sunday 02 Sep 2001

Reading: PSALM 76 – GOD WILL JUDGE ALL WORLD POWERS

(From ‘Encounter with God’ Bible Reading Notes)

Think of a national or international situation in which God’s power has been evident. Praise him.

Imagine a huge, powerful army surrounding your city, intending to attack and destroy. Everyone in the city is terrified, fearing the worst. The army attacks, and, against all the odds, is soundly defeated. Everyone knows that the city could not have been saved without the help of God. That is the context in which this psalm was written. God had delivered them from their enemy, and now the people are full of praise. Jerusalem was God’s stronghold, and weapons are useless against him. No one can defeat a city if God is protecting it.

Then we are given a broader perspective. Yes, God is the protector of Jerusalem, but he is much more than that. Many who raised their hands against him learned how ineffective they were against such a majestic God. He is the one who can control and judge great world powers, who protects the oppressed and stops the oppressor. He strikes fear into the hearts of evil rulers, and they hold back, in awe of God. The nations around Israel bring tribute to ‘the One to be feared’, whose power and greatness they affirm.

Perhaps, like me, you find it difficult to believe that this can be true in our world today. In 1989, I sat in Manila listening to the BBC World Service, and heard the incredible news that the Berlin Wall was being broken down. I was deeply moved. I had prayed for this for years, but, had not really believed it could happen. Sometimes we have to make a choice to believe, even in the face of what seems to be evidence against it, that God is the judge of all the nations, and he acts decisively in his time.

Pray for God to bring justice for the oppressed in a nation about which you are concerned — and believe that he can!

– Rosemary Linton

Copyright Scripture Union, 2001