Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 2-009 Sunday 06 Jan 2002

Reading: PSALM 94 – RISE UP, O LORD

(From ‘Encounter with God’ Bible Reading Notes)

Imagine you are a Christian in a war-torn country, living in constant fear of your life. Then make this prayer your own.

Not many of us who go blithely off to church this morning can have any idea of what the writer of this psalm was going through. The land he lived in was prey to rebel forces of untold barbarity who were looting, pillaging and murdering his compatriots in an orgy of violence. Little wonder then that he is calling upon the God of justice to deal with them with the punishment that is their due (v 1). The cry is more for vindication than for vengeance: let God be seen to be righteous, and let the evildoers know that justice will catch up with them. We remember that some of our fellow Christians are living under such regimes right now, so let us pray for them.

Of course the language could be figurative, as some believe, in which case we can apply it nearer to home. Do we feel incensed (sufficiently?) at the forces of godlessness or secularism on our doorsteps? Does it drive us to prayer and to take positive action? Moaning does no good at all.

Notice that the writer, for all his anger and justifiable frustration, takes time to appeal to the wrongdoers to learn wisdom (v 8). He prefers their conversion to their punishment, and he gives engaging testimony to God’s supportive grace (v 18). Meanwhile, in the confidence that the Lord will not let him down (note the ‘never’ v 14), he can reflect that even trials like these are nothing but the blessing of God’s good discipline from which he can benefit (v 12; see also Prov 3:11,12; Heb 12:5-8). As a last resort, he always has the Lord as a fortress in whom he can take shelter (v 22), as you do, too.

Memorise verse 19 and take it with you through the day. If it has not been your own experience, pray that it may become so.

– Bishop John B Taylor

Copyright Scripture Union, 2002

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