“Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise” says the LORD. “I will protect them from those who malign them.”
~ Psalm 12:5
Hi James and Ellen,
A major news caption today is ‘France On Fire’. Do you know why France is on fire? There are fires burning in France today because of the abject helplessness and dismal hopelessness that has been experienced for years by a communal faction of disenfranchised young guys. This societal slice of frustrated, fuming young guys is now being manifested through burning cars, torching buildings and inflaming mayhem. Not being underpinned with sound moral and ethical life values can be an underlining cause for a specific demographic to go berserk. Fomenting an out of control chaos through organically driven disorder and disharmony is a way for evil to control. Being underpinned with principled and honorable life values can be an underscoring motive for a specific demographic to maintain positive reasoning. Creating a calm oasis through self-controlled stability and accord is a way for good to influence. Lives of guys, gals and kids are continually being caught between the strong, magnetic pull to do evil and the subtle, unobtrusive tug to do good. How would you like to be growing up as kids in a country or with a people group of guys and gals where violence is the norm and where victims are the majority? Several coups took place during the first years that your grandmaa, grandpaa, Aunt Lynn and dad lived in Bolivia. A coup is a political overthrow. A coup happens without the support of an election and the populace. A coup may result in guys and gals being killed. A coup is a shortcut for a guy – or gal, to a perceived status of having position, prestige and power over the guys and gals who live in his or her country. When your grandpaa heard the news that a coup was taking place in Bolivia, your grandpaa would hunker down in the house where he, your grandmaa, Aunt Lynn and dad were living. Not long after your grandmaa, grandpaa, Aunt Lynn and dad arrived in Bolivia, a disliked political candidate made plans to fly into the airport that was located in Santa Cruz. Your grandmaa, grandpaa, Aunt Lynn and dad lived in Santa Cruz when they arrived in Bolivia so that your grandpaa and grandmaa could join two other couples, four single gals and two single guys on a church planting team that was part of the South America Mission field missionary team. About the time when this detested political candidate was to land at the airport that was located in Santa Cruz, two of the guys who were on the church planting team decided to go to the airport to see what would happen. As the two guys were waiting for the guy’s plane to arrive, a vehicle showed up with signs and flags and with several guys in it who obviously were very supportive of this unpopular, loathed political candidate. There were guys with guns in the large crowd that was milling around waiting for the plane to arrive with this hated, reviled politician in it. When some of the guys who had guns saw the guys who were visibly pro supporters of their unpopular political foe, they began to shoot towards the guys. The news media that was at the airport reported onsite what was taking place as shots were being heard. When the wife of one of the two guys who had gone to the Santa Cruz airport to . . . heard over the radio what was taking place at the airport, the gal contacted your grandmaa to have her tell your grandpaa to immediately get ready to leave Santa Cruz as . . . when your grandpaa got home from the church service that he had gone to, your grandpaa found your grandmaa very anxious about what to do next. Your grandpaa’s decision was to just hunker down and wait until . . . the two South America Mission field team missionary guys – Brandon and Todd, came real close to being hit by flying bullets as they foolishly and unwisely were hanging out close to the airport that was located in Santa Cruz while guys were shooting off their guns.
David in Psalm 12 communicates that he really needed help to live in a world that seemed to be filled with unfaithful, lying guys. The psalm song that David scribed is called a sheminith. A sheminith is a song that has been written for a harp that has been tuned to the eighth octave. A sheminith is to be sung only by guys. When David concluded that there were no more godly or faithful guys around, David asked God for help. David was really upset with always hearing lies and deceitful flattering. David asked God to dramatically answer his sheminith prayer song by cutting the lips off of any guy who used his lips to flatter and the tongue of any guy who used his tongue to boast. David recounts in his sheminith prayer song the answer that he received from God. Verse 5 says, ““Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise” says the LORD. “I will protect them from those who malign them.””
Something else that made the major news today was a visit to Newark High School in Newark, Delaware by a Christ-follower athlete. It took just two complaints from a dad and/or ma of Newark High School students to have the guy – who is a Christ-follower, who was talking to their kids about doing what is right by living noble, decent lives, for the Newark High School principal to fall all over himself to apologize and admit how wrong that it was for a Christ-follower athlete to be let into his high school to . . . your grandpaa wonders what this same principal does when a guy or a gal asks for time to present an alternative lifestyle option. When David saw how freely that God was allowing wicked guys to strut around to do whatever vile thing that they wanted to do, David’s sheminith’s prayer song to God was for His protection and for Him to give shelter to his fellow specially chosen guys and gals from any atrocious, lewd lifestyle. What are your lives like in front of self-absorbed and arrogant kids who you are visually seeing and verbally hearing who are only thinking about themselves and who have no desire to know Jesus?
Psalm 12 (646)