“How long, O Lord?”...the Wayfarer 2/28/14

“How long, O Lord?”
 2/28/14

“How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? For ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

(Psalm 13:1)

Today, as the news continues to vex my very soul despite the fact that I am well aware of the outcome of the battle I was drawn into from birth, I find myself drawn to the book of Psalms, and four short chapters that I have read and reread many times in these past few weeks, and find my bible falling open to regularly these past few days in particular.

I have already addressed the opening question in a previous dissertation, but address it once again from the perspective of that very vexation that troubles my cogitation this morning.

I will not keep them in the order given, but will address them in an order respective of that question asked in the opening verse.

“Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in his thoughts.

His ways are grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies he puffeth at them.

He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

He croucheth and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.

He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

Arise O Lord; O God lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.

Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand; the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

Break thou the arm of the wicked and evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.”

(Psalm 10:1-18)

I intentionally give the whole of this Psalm, because of its clarity without the embellishment of any remark I may make regarding it.

It opens with the question of “Why?”,  a question found on the hearts and minds of all who readily recognize the description of current “leadership” that is in power throughout the world, to especially include the place of my own habitation.

I could devise no better description of the events and agenda pursued in my own nation over the past few years, and continuing to be pursued to a coming crescendo as the plans made by that “leadership” coming to fruition more each day, leaving more and more of the wails and bereavement unanswered with aught but lies and deceit, catching the poor and needy within the net that has been cast to keep them poor and needy dependent upon the crumbs tossed from the table of those in power and those they make rich through their robbery of the poor they claim to care so much about.

Their arrogance and vanity have led to the denial of all that is moral, all that is good, and all that fall within the bounds of acceptability by God, and to those who truly believe in and honor Him.

The prayers of many of this people, who still believe in both God and His Son have become that same cry and wish given from the 14^th verse through the end of that Psalm.

Their prayer is echoed still more loudly in the words of that 13^th Psalm with which I chose to open:

“How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? For ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and hear me, O Lord my God, lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

(Psalm 13:1-6)

“How long?” is the opening question found here, and, that is being asked by those same children of our Lord crying to Him for Godly leadership, to bring about the true hope and change needed within our nation, to counteract the false hope and miserable change to the ways of the ungodly that has been given in its place.

The 12^th Psalm is yet another prayer echoed by those of those children paying attention to the persecution and would be eradication of Christianity and all of the precepts it contains by those in power through the trickery and deception of a people starving for the help that had been promised, only to be given more trickery and deceit in place of that help.

Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fall from among the children of men.

They speak vanity every one with his neighbor: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.

The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:

Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?

For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord: I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted.”

(Psalm 12:1-8)

The exaltation of the wicked begins to wane, all praise to God for it!

 It is that very exaltation of those bringing their evil and corrupt and vile ideology that has created so much of the misery being experienced throughout the world, and again in the place of my own habitation.

All people deserve the leadership they are either wise enough to choose by holding them to the light for exposure to God’s judgment of them before choosing them, or the leadership chosen through the foolish attention paid to the lofty speeches and plans proposed that leave out the will and power of our God.

It is not until that people, any people, recognize evil for what it is, and spurn it in favor of what God wants of that nation and people that God’s blessing and favor may be given to that nation and people.

It is not until the false doctrines and teaching of men is rejected in favor of the commandments of our God and the teachings of our Lord Jesus, that any real progress may be made in alleviating the needs of the poor and bring them back to the productivity and blessing intended for them.

“In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird on your mountain?

For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrows upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his the children of men.

The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness: his countenance doth behold the upright.”

(Psalm 11)

“In the Lord put I my trust!”

This is the call to put our trust where it belongs, in the promises given by God, and those prophecies given through his Son that evil cannot and will not triumph.

It is also in these teachings we find the admonition to endure until the things we bemoan and abjure are no longer able to exist when they are removed forever from among us by none other than the Son of God Himself who made those promises!

Help is coming. Hope and change will occur. It is up to us to endure and reject and repulse the wicked among us to the best of our poor ability to do so until the arrival of that help!

This will only occur if we remember the prerequisite for that help and remember to:

“Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

That repentance must come from the depth of the soul offering it with a heart broken because of our own failures and inadequacies in the eyes of our God, and the foolishness of a mind corrupted by the physical world that may only further corrupt that heart if allowed to do so, and with a contrite spirit, in recognition of the inability to achieve any rejuvenation or purity of that heart and soul without the intercession of a savior who paid a dear price for the salvation being sought.

The battle between the wicked, and their goals and ideology and the Godly who cling proudly to Him without fear of the reprisal of those wicked must continue to be fought until that promised return.

It is a battle that determines the eventual eternal residence of all the reachable and teachable.

Who is doing the reaching and teaching?

What is being sought to reach for, and taught to be longed for and given.

Yes, help is on the way. Yes, God is still in heaven and hears our cry. And yes, He expects far more effort than is given to assure that Help will be accepted on His arrival!

I close in prayer once more with those prayers already offered through the scriptures already quoted, still and yet only your servant, and the servant of my Lord who chose to take this sinner and accept me as a sinner saved by grace through my faith in him, then chose to make me a soldier, and keeps me within the ranks of those standing in defense of both the nation He has blessed so long, and more importantly standing in defense of that faith, on a battlefield direly in need of more soldiers willing to serve as the strength of the enemy attempts to overcome, despite the predetermined outcome of the ongoing, but eventually ending war being fought daily until that promise of help is delivered.

2 Timothy 1:12 King James Version (KJV)

¹² For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Amen and Amen
the Wayfarer