Blessings in Disguise

You, O God, have tested us;

You have tried us as silver is tried.

You brought us into the net;

You laid a crushing burden on our backs.

You let men ride over our heads.

We went through fire and through water;

But You brought us out to abundance.

—Psalm 66:10-12

“You…You…You…You…You…You." The psalmist sees God in every ordeal. Temptations, trials, strictures, crushing burdens, people riding roughshod over us, fire and rain—all these crises are mediated through God's hands.

Here lies an enigma: Though others afflict us, or we afflict ourselves, God takes responsibility for all that befalls us. Scripture affirms it. I cannot explain it. I can only state it.

One of the most startling statements in the Bible occurs on an occasion in which Satan, having done his worst to torment Job, appears a second time before God, who takes the blame for all that happened to Job: "You incited me to act against (Job)" (Job 2:3).

If all events are random the world becomes a very scary place, but if goodness and love order all that happens to us here, we can assume there's a reason for it all.

We may not know the reason, indeed we cannot, but, despite our troubles we can trust God's love. The result is tranquility and a satisfying quality of life the biblical writers call "blessedness"—a sense of spiritual well-being that transcends our best efforts to explain it, a point the psalm makes as well: "You bring us out (of suffering) to abundance"[1] (66:12). It's the word David uses in his Shepherd Psalm: "My cup overflows" (Psalm 23:5).

Good when He gives, supremely good;
Nor less when He denies:
Afflictions, from His sovereign hand,
Are blessings in disguise. —author unknown

David Roper3.1.17

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[1] The Hebrew word means "saturation"—complete satisfaction.

Don't Feed the Trolls

Psalm 64

They hold fast to their evil purpose;

they talk of laying snares secretly,

thinking, “Who can see them?” —Psalm 64:5

 usernames in order to defame and vilify. Surely you've encountered them on Twitter, Facebook, Anyone who uses the internet to communicate has encountered trolls—nasty, profane, cowards that hide behind anonymous accounts and fakeInstagram, Snapchat and other social media.

Trolls, according to Nordic mythology, were wicked, slow-witted dwarves that hid under bridges, harassing travelers, impeding their progress, and exacting a heavy toll from those that passed by. David, in this psalm, is thinking of something similar—assailants that hide in the shadows, “who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear,” thinking, "who can see (us)." (63:3-6).

But God sees and in time they will be "brought to ruin,” dispatched by their own weapons, “their tongues turned against them” (64:7,8). “What we sow we reap," Paul said with quiet confidence (Galatians 6:5). Evil has within itself the seeds of its own destruction.

So let 'em be. Don't engage with them. To interact with them merely serves their purposes and emboldens them. Ignore them.[1] "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up,” Jesus said. “Let them alone." (Matthew 15:13,14 and Hosea 4:17).

David Roper

2,27.17

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[1] Parents, teachers, coaches, school administrators and others charged with caring for young people, however, should never ignore bullies.

"Hey, Soul!"

"My soul is silent before God" (62:1).

"My soul, be silent before God" (62:5).

The verses are similar, but different. In the first verse David says something about his soul; in the second he says something to his soul. The phrase, "is silent" addresses a decision, a settled state of mind. "Be silent" is self-talk, David stirring his soul to remember that decision.

David speaks first of his determination to live in “silence,”—quiet submission to God's will. This is our calling as well, the thing for which we were created. You and I will never be at peace until we've settled this issue: "Not my will but yours be done." This is our first and highest calling as God's children and the source of our deepest pleasure. “I delight to do your will,” the psalmist said (Psalm 40:8). "It's chocolate," the fair Caroline says.

But "the air gets thick in Narnia," so we must "re-up" all through the day, "Hey soul!" We must say again and again, "Be silent (submissive) before the Lord."

That's because God's will is sometimes hard. He asks us to do difficult and dangerous things because they're the right things to do. He calls us to endure hardship without complaining, to love awkward people, to heed the voice inside us that says, "You mustn't," to take steps we'd rather not take. So we must preach to our souls all day long: "Hey soul, listen up. Be silent: Do what Jesus is asking you to do."

We must always ask for God's help, of course, for "our hope is in Him alone" (63:5). When we ask for His help He delivers it, for God never asks us to do anything that He will not or cannot do.

David Roper

2.25.17