Date Published: 09/11/2009
Today is September 11, 2009, the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. As I was praying through the Psalms for the day, I started with Psalm 11 and was struck with these words in verses 2-3.
“Look, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
After eight years of “war on terror” and war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the western democracies are as threatened by radical Islam as ever. Even if terrorist acts happen somewhere else, people in the United States know that the world is unstable, the foundations are shaky at best. I have often heard this Psalm quoted with a tone of despair, as though the loss of the foundations of cultural religion leave people helpless and hopeless.
However, that is not where the Psalmist goes. Verse 4 says, “The LORD is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind.” The answer is not to give up but to look up.
Only confidence that God is in charge when everything seems to be falling apart can protect from anger, fear, hate and self-protective, counter-productive violence. When as Christians, we are able to distinguish ourselves from the society in which we live, we can offer an authentic alternative. Our personal security does not rest in military might but in God who sees and acts from his holy temple.
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