Monday, Monday

Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me;

Fight against those who fight against me. 

Take hold of buckler and shield

And rise up for my help.

- Psalm 35:1-2

Wow! What a day!

I've gotta say, I think today was the definition of a Monday. In fact, I don't really know why I'm staying up to write this post. I oughta just go to bed and start over tomorrow.

Without going into detail, it had some of everything. Time pressure. Unexpected obstacles. Meetings that ran longer than they were supposed to. Rescheduled meetings. Misunderstandings. Personality conflicts. Abrasive emails. And on and on.

There was a time today when I lifted up a prayer of exasperation. I just wanted to God to resolve it all and make my day easier. Is it worth it? Why, God, would you put me through a day like this? 

And then I went to the Psalms.

Now, that's a good thing to do when we pray. The Psalms have about every range of human emotion, and they are all expressed to God - which is the right place to go with our joys, sorrows, triumphs and frustrations. So that's where I went. Looking for just the right prayer of desperation, crying out to God for relief.

As you can see at the top, I did not find support for my whining. I found perspective.

Psalm 35 is just one of many Psalms where King David prayed to the LORD for help. For rescue from his enemies. For relief.

But unlike me, there were actually people trying to kill him. He had enemies trying to overthrow his reign on the the throne God had established. There were people attacking his character and good name. Real trouble.

Me? I had a bad day. Stress. Woe is me.

Now don't get me wrong, I believe the Psalms are there to give us the words to pray on days like this. No, nobody at my office is really my enemy. Nobody is trying to kill me, or even get me fired. I work with great people and I enjoy them all. 

But I do have enemies and they are out in force on days like this.

Satan.

My flesh.

The forces of evil.

They're trying to tear me down. They're trying to tear you down. And they would love for us to end a day lie this feeling defeated.

So we pray. We go to the Scriptures for the words to pray to a real God who is really there and has really revealed himself.

And he comes to our rescue. And that makes Monday not quite so, well....Monday-ish.

The mark of evil

You, LORD, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked,

who freely strut about when what is vile is honored by the human race.

- Psalm 12:7-8

I came across this verse in my reading Sunday. It falls at the end of a Psalm where the writer is praying about his frustration with the wickedness he sees around him. What struck me about the verse was this:

It is call for YHWH to protect the needy. Like so much of the Scriptures, it emphasizes the importance of being on the side of the poor and the oppressed, while calling on God to protect them. But then, who do they need the protection from?

The wicked. And who are the wicked?

According to this passage and others like Romans 1:32, the wicked are those who honor what is vile. The mark of wickedness is a lack of understanding of what is good and what is evil. When a person or world system gets mixed up and can't recognize the difference, that's when there's real trouble.

There are so many issues today where God's standard for good and evil is being replaced by the logic of man. When it comes to those things, I think Psalm 12 would give us this warning: Be absolutely sure that you are not honoring what is vile. That you are not calling evil good and vice versa.

Feed the poor. Proclaim the good news to the lost. Love the unloveable. Love your enemy. These are all marks of good.

But…

Ignore the fact that the lost have something to be rescued from. Ignore that repentance is necessary. Treat all points of view as equally valid. I would be careful there. Because the mark of evil - honoring wheat is vile - is lurking.