The Air We Breathe
.
Psalm 33:1-20
1. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. 2. Praise the Lord with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! 3. Sing to him a new song, play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 4. For the word of the Lord is upright; and all his work is done in faithfulness. 5. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 6. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. 7. He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses. 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 9. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth. 10. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nought; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11. The counsel of the Lord stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. 12. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! 13. The Lord looks down from heaven, he sees all the sons of men; 14. from where he sits enthroned he looks forth on all the inhabitants of the earth, 15. he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds. 16. A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 17. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save. 18. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, 19. that he may deliver their soul from death, and keep them alive in famine. 20. Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield.
Interesting occurrence this morning: I was reading in Isaiah—Chapter 33, in fact. When I typed in the scripture to pull up for my post, I typed in Psalm 33. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Schaivo case and the Lundsford girl—how could one not, with all the media coverage. And this past weekend the 2nd anniversary of our invasion of Iraq. There’s more, of course. There always is. So much pain, agony, suffering, death, despair. That’s what I was reading about in Isaiah. And yet there I did see hope and salvation—for the righteous and the good and the faithful.
It’s hard not to judge many of the “players” in each of those scenarios. It’s difficult not to say one person is wrong and another right, since we are not in the midst of it all. How do I come to terms with the Couey guy—this habitual criminal, and sex offender? Isn’t he sick? Hasn’t he been ignored, worse—let down by “the system?” How does my heart not break for that little girl’s father? When you come right down to it—how in the world do you get out of bed and go out into a world that is home to killers and criminals and sinners?
One way. Only one way. We remember who made the oceans, and placed the stars in the sky. We recall the creation story and we look back on our own lives and see all the times we were redeemed. We look to the heavens and renew our faith in a God who loves us and wants good for us, a God who fashioned us of his own breath and placed within us a speck of Himself—a soul. Isaiah talks about all the awful things that will befall the people who have not obeyed God. It predicts disaster and suffering. Isaiah is sharing what God has revealed to him about what happens when we don’t live as children of God.
Psalm 33 uplifts, encourages, and reminds us how to live in this world. It directs our eyes to heaven – and our hearts to God. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. If I didn’t believe that with every fiber of my being, I literally couldn’t go out into the world some days. My job would be insignificant. My work at church would be fruitless. My life would be meaningless. But because of my God, and the gift of His Son, the opposite is true. Those of us who are saved, must minister to this fallen world. We are compelled to declare the good news of the Risen Lord. We have no choice! We are unable to be silent! After all, God speaks to us every moment of every day—through the clouds and the rain, the sun and the stars, the air we breathe.
I hope today you’ll feel God’s love and power coursing through you with every breath you take. And that you’ll exhale that love back into your world.
Mary
