Wow. Below is a truly a powerful reflection from Discipleship Ministries on Psalm 79. I feel it is helpful especially in light of everything that happened this week. The needless violence and death at the school in Denver, Colorado and the killing of Charlie Kirk bring forth feelings of such sadness and despair. But, as is sung out in the Psalm here and in this reflection, even though sadness and hurt happen in this world, we have a God who CAN and ALWAYS DOES help us. Although "help us" are 2 small, seemingly trivial words, they are a beautiful prayer.
I invite you to take time to read this reflection for a truly thought-provoking, meaningful, and hopeful message:
"If it’s been a while since your congregation engaged with the psalms for an extended time, they may now be ready for the joyful, happy psalms. However, that’s not what this week... presents us. Far from victorious or jubilant, the first half of Psalm 79 reads like a list of social media headlines and nightly news reports, viscerally true reports of the chaos we humans create for ourselves and the worry that we will never find our way out of the harm we’ve done to ourselves. We have enough of this in our daily life. Can’t scripture give us a bit of a break, a quiet respite from the chaos surrounding us?
But keep reading. The complaints and the laments lead us to the simplest but often most meaningful prayer: Help us. This is the difference between the media and the Psalms. More often than not, social media, twenty-four-hour news, and current events podcasts tell us what’s going wrong. And we need that information when it comes from trusted sources. But the Psalms show us how to tell the truth about the world in the context of the truth about God. And the truth about God is that God shows up for us.
We can learn a lot from Psalm 79 about how to address the difficulties of our world in worship. We must tell the truth about the pain, suffering, and dysfunction in our communities, our nation, and the world. Worship is not an escape from the world but a place where we are edified and equipped to live as the people of God in the world. We must not stop at telling the truth about our world, because God’s truth has and will set us free from the chaos and pain that surrounds us.... Our hope and perseverance to continue in the face of all the world throws at us comes not from our strength or our faith in human leaders, but in our belief that God hears our cries, knows our pain, and actively loves and helps us through it all."
In this reflection, the author talks about how we cannot view worship as an escape from the realities of the world. We have to accept them. We have to face them. We have to tell the truth about them. We need to work to right the wrongs. Even more than just a civic act that we have the shared responsibility as citizens to perform, this is our duty and our calling as Christians. Rest assured! Worship provides us with the faith, hope, and love that are needed to go about solving the problems we encounter in our world.
Peace is not an impossible dream, family. We can reach it. Will it take work? Yes. Are there going to be hard things that we face along the way, some horrible as this past week's events showed us? Yes. But, we can take heart. We have a God who hears our cry, gives us guidance in helping our human family in Christ, and who always will be there with us, as He always has been. All we need to do is ask, just as verse 9 says: "Help us," please God!
79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins, for your name's sake.
In Christ's Name, Amen! Joey
