Psalm 27
“I believe that I shall see the goodness of
the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be
strong, and
let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.”
(Psalm 27:13-14)
Faith has little impact apart from hope. To believe is to trust beyond yourself, to
look for and have expectation of a better outcome. That sounds great in church on Sunday
morning, but what about when breaking news rocks your world as extremists storm
a school in Pakistan and kill 148 people, mostly children, or when a plane on
final approach to the airport suddenly crashes into a neighborhood, killing
three on the plane and a mother and two young children in a house caught up in
the burning wreckage? These are but two
stories that shook our world and region this week.
Though the specific circumstances of the Psalmist’s plight are
unknown in our text today, he seems intent on making hope his focus. Disappointment, most likely didn’t vanish as
a result, but he chose hope in the midst of his circumstances. Martin Luther King expressed this truth when
he wrote, “We must accept
finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” The circumstances of our lives and world often
seem beyond our control, but the words of the Psalmist speak hope to an often
hope-less world...let your heart take
courage; wait for the Lord.
Prayer: In the chaotic,
sometimes out of control world around me, Lord, may I take courage in the
infinite hope found in the manger of Bethlehem.
Amen.
Jim
Abernathy
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