Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.

-- R. Burns Epistle to a Young Friend

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Sustained



Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. – Psalm 55:22


The last few days have been very intense.  My break on the 4th was 12 hours of labor in the yard and garden.  I probably put in 30 hours at work on Friday and Saturday.  Monday was a long day but not quite as bad.  Yesterday started out normally and went downhill fast -- perhaps that’s why “cast your burden on the LORD” caught me.    

This Psalm, though, isn’t about the grind and pressures of daily life but about betrayal, as the writer laments:  For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him.  But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.  We used to take sweet counsel together; within God's house we walked in the throng.”  This prefigures the betrayal of Judas, and though the Lord was not surprised by His disciple’s perfidy, it was no doubt still painful.  Nothing hurts like unfaithfulness and disloyalty. 

Quisling, Benedict Arnold, Judas – these were the names of men but they have come to be synonyms for “traitor”.  Everything about Benedict Arnold, the fact that he was a talented officer who contributed significantly to the crucial victory at Saratoga and captured Fort Ticonderoga, is dismissed because of his defection.   Faithlessness buries everything else in an unmarked grave. 

A few weeks ago, I sat and listened to someone who had had a little too much to drink.  He was talking about friends and family members who had let him down.  His spirit is slowly being poisoned by disappointment in the people he thought he could trust.   To look at him and listen to him most of the time a person might be reminded of John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, or some other classic tough guy.  He is a man of honor, one to be counted on.  It would never occur to him not to do what he said he would do much less deliberately deceive and play on another’s confidence as was done to him.

Treason is diabolical.  The father of lies is the original traitor, and here lies sin’s bitterest root.  Conversely, [e]very good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.   God cannot deceive us or betray us.  He cannot fail us and remains faithful even when we fail Him.  He can be trusted in every situation and circumstance.  There is no pit into which we are cast where He will not be with us.  He asks only that we believe that simple truth. 

4 comments:

robinstarfish said...

I love that "Overwhelmed" is immediately followed by "Sustained".

Discerning the Father of Lights from the Father of Lies is tough sometimes. Until you realize that one beguiles and the other blinds.

I still get tricked all the time.

Rick said...

I think I know who has been munching my baby grape vines. I thought it was rabbits and deer -- we gets lots of those in the back 0.forty. So I've been spraying that critter repellant. It's gots stinky egg stuff in it. And it does stink when you put it down.
Not to dogs.
Or at least not to my one ex-faithful companion. He loves the stuff.
I stayed mad at him for all of 5 minutes.
Anyway, the continuing saga continues. Everyone's out to get me vines.
Hope you're ok.

mushroom said...

Yes, the father of lies can appear as an angel of light. It will seem like such a good idea at the time.

I never get any nectarines. The Japanese beetles hit just as the nectarines are developing and swarm them because the skin is so thin. I have to fight them off my grapes, apples, and blackberries, too, but mostly just the leaves.

Rick said...

Yes, the beetles got my 2nd year cherry trees again this year. They barely got their leaves out and they hit. Never got a chance to do a thing to prevent them. That happened last spring too.