Dear Readers and Listeners, Friends in Jesus Christ,
Our watchword for today is taken from Psalm 44 verse 26, “Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love,” (NRSVB). The heading of Psalm 44 informs us that it is a reflective and didactic poem composed by the sons of Korah; they were a musical family serving as temple musicians. The psalm tells of the stories that have been told of God’s mighty deeds that he performed through the ages on behalf of the children of Israel. One generation after the other heard these narratives told to them and they witnessed, also in their lives, how God came to deliver Israel. A time has now come where Israel is sitting in darkness and despair; however, Israel has not forgotten her God. They continue to call and wait in anticipation for his intervention. God knows the inclinations of the hearts of men and He will rise up at the appointed time and will deliver those who call on his name, because of his loving-kindness.
We can identify with the poets of this psalm in these times that we are living in. We are calling on the name of the Lord and are looking out for his help and deliverance. We are suffering from a deadly situation and are wondering why the time of our waiting is seemingly endless. We are getting despondent, for we are not seeing our hope being realized. Our hopes and prayers are for the deadly disease to be diminished and ultimately to be conquered. With our human understanding we cannot comprehend why there continues to be such suffering and pain in the world. God assures us that He is with us in our pain and suffering. He is working at bringing about a good outcome for the world and her children, despite this calamity that we are enduring. The Apostle Paul quotes from this psalm in Romans 8 verse 37 to 38, “Even as it is written, ‘For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter’. Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us,” (Amplified Bible). God does not bring strife, it is people who cause strife and who deal treacherously with one another. As children of God, brothers and sister of Jesus Christ, we are tasked to witness and proclaim God’s love and his promises, in and despite of desperate times. We are tasked to bear up and carry our cross in suffering, for it is part and parcel of life, of human life on earth. God gives those who trust in him the assurance of his love and his power to conquer the things that disrupt harmony and peaceful co-existence. Even in the harshest of times, when we look beyond what our eyes can see, we can behold God sustaining us and growing our faith. He is our hope and our salvation. He sent his Son to dwell among the people and they did not realize that God’s Son was in their midst.
“For, in fact, the Kingdom of God is among you,” Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 17 verse 21, (NRSVB). Jesus spoke healing to ten lepers who called on him for help and they were immediately healed. As it was the tradition of that time, Jesus ordered them to go and present themselves to the rabbis and the priests, so that they could be declared as cleansed from their disease and able to return to worship in the temple. The ten lepers were on their way to present themselves, when one of them, on seeing that he was healed, turned around and fell to the ground and could not stop thanking Jesus for his healing. Interestingly, this man was not a Jew who worshipped in the temple in Jerusalem, but a Samaritan who worshipped in Samaria. Jesus comforted the man and said that his faith in God restored him to health.
Father, we ask that you will open our eyes to see your Kingdom around us, Amen.