Dynamic Tension

Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. -- Psalm 46:8

The Forty-sixth Psalm is one of my favorites, both reassuring and challenging, and this verse goes along with our theme of the last couple of days.  God really is in control.  He protects and shields His people.  The ever-flowing river of the Spirit brings joy to the City of God, which is the Body of Christ, and to us individually as sanctuaries in whom He abides.  We may be frightened by war and upheaval, disaster and desolation, but these things are in His hand as well.  He can make wars cease in a moment, break the bow and shatter the spear.

As Christians we have to live with a sort of dynamic tension, and, like the Charles Atlas-endorsed variety, it makes us stronger.  The trouble is that we are human and liable to move to an extreme.  We should live in a vigilant peace.  But peace can slough off into complacency and vigilance can metastasize into fear and panic. 

This may sound disturbing or controversial, but it seems reasonable to me.  If the Church fails and falls, if Christianity is driven out and defeated, it ought be forgotten and abandoned because that would mean it is wrong.  If the Cross and the Blood are not of God then as Paul said, we Christians are fools and of all men the most miserable.  We are not defeated when we are persecuted, martyred, or driven underground.  We must often, in the long spiraling course of history, be the oppressed and harassed minority, a bloodied and battered remnant that lies below the surface like the root of a fallen oak, from which will sprout a thicket to once again seed the earth with truth.   

God is running this show, or He is not.  The fate of humanity depended on Christ’s obedience to the Cross and the reality of His death, burial, and resurrection.  It is finished.  I don’t need to live in a Constitutional Republic with a free market economy or in a fag-free Falwellian theocracy for the Church to be triumphant.  I would prefer a libertarian central government and a Christian-based community morality at the local level.  I’ll work toward that where I can, but God is still in control if the three branches of the federal government collude to create Chicago-on-the-Potomac, declare all Christians enemies of the state, institute a fully fascist economy, and ban assault study Bibles -- especially the ones with high-capacity concordances.    

Taken as a whole, this is what Psalm 46 tells me, “Be still, and know that I am God.  I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth!” (v.10)  

God is not going to be defeated by a bunch of self-satisfied human slugs, con men, perverts, and petty crooks.  Nor will He be defeated by a bloody, backward, antichrist religion that can be sustained only through fear and oppression.  The mockers and the doubters, the scoffers and skeptics will pass like fog in heat.  Christ remains, and Christ will remain.   

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah   (Psalm 46:6-7).

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:6-11)