Psalm 91: 1-16 _ Gide’s preach
One
of the most reassuring passages in the Bible is Psalm 91:9-12 which reads,
“If you make the Most High your dwelling–even the
LORD, who is my refuge–then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near
your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all
your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone.”
Is
God’s promise of protection true even today?
YES
Indonesia faced the tyrant regime
during Soeharto’s government. People are lulled by abundance of prosperous
promises and reality, without them knowing that the entire of profuseness came
from debt. They who were speaking up being arrested, detained, and then disappeared
without any trace. Even until today, many mysteries of missing person still
unsolved. Every time we found a conspirational policy, suddenly strange
phenomena, like ninja, mysterious snipers, Nyi Rara Kidul appearance, Semar
emersion burst in media, cover all the policy matters and diverted public
attention.
Finally, after 32 years of his regime,
we underwrote USD 151 billion debt in 1998. Compared to Indonesia’s budget that
year, that was Rp 88 trillion, it will take 20 years to pay off the debt
without any other expenses, at all. That made many communities raged and led by
the youths from along country they spoke up their protest. After months of
demonstration with more than thousand people murdered, looting and rape toward Chinese
ethnic, Soeharto was forced to abdicate.
Bad thing won’t last forever. God’s
protection is real. In the very hard times, His hands embrace all his believers
in comfort. His costudy toward his people is tangible. Don’t see the big thing,
look at our daily trivial life, after all that happened, can we say that his
shielding only an empty vow? No, it is real, actual, factual, and historical.
He fulfills his words in his exact moment.
True then are the words of the
Psalmist:
If
you make the Most High your dwelling–even the LORD, who is my refuge–then no
harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.
Unfortunately, history and current
experience teach us that something quite different happens at times.
NO,
THE BELIEVER IS NOT YET COMPLETELY SECURED
After 1998 reformation, we still find
corruption everywhere, nepotism is still hanging upon our country, natural
disasters happen every time until Indonesia that used to be called ‘emerald of
the equator’ now called as ‘country of thousands disaster.’ Soeharto’s power
still grips Indonesian people even after his death. Poverty, untrusted culture,
education problems, health and social problems are still becoming horror scenes
of Indonesian’s episodes of history. And forgiveness appears too far from our
justice realm.
So is the Psalmist incorrect here in
saying that “If you make the Most High
your dwelling… then no harm will befall you”?
Christians of deep faith do suffer
stroke, heart attacks, kidney failure, get cancer, leukemia, dengue, and die
from dreaded diseases. Christians of deep faith who become victims of harsh
verbal attacks get crushed in spirit. Christians who do trust in God are
acquainted with poverty, lack of food and clothing, and experience starvation.
Christians who trust God become broken in body and mind by physical and
emotional abuse, and find themselves in a hospital or die as a result of all
forms of violence or tragic accidents.
What shall we make of such an
assertion? How do we reconcile the seeming disconnection between what the
Psalmist declared and what our experience in our world today says? What do we
make of the scriptures St. Paul quoted to the churches in Rome 10 that “No one who believes in him shall be
put to shame” and “Everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord shall be saved”?
We cannot honestly say “everything is
OK” when everything does not seem to be OK. The world we live in is a world of
grief, a world of pain, a world which punishes the upright and rewards what
Jesus calls evil.
BUT
WAIT…
One time, of my fellow reverend, Mas
Totok (Raquel, should I call his name here?) told me his past story before he
chose to be a reverend. He used to be struggle with his addicted of marijuana, ecstasy,
heroin, and alcohol until he was unconscious for two days of over dosage. After
he got his consciousness back he saw her mother next to him. Gave him a meal. Her
eyes was glassy with tears that almost dropped on her cheek. But she held it.
She went to the kitchen, and silently weeping. She came, and my friend with
tears of regret his eyes, said only, “Sepurane, Buk (Sorry, Mom)” And his
mother said no word but hugged him very deeply. No punishment but forgiveness. That
was my friend’s turning back, he chose to his only way for that moment, repent his
fault and back to his childhood dream to become a reverend.
We cannot gloss over some of the evils
and pains in the world because without seeing them, we cannot take in the full
impact of the Good News of God’s Word. Good news becomes really good news when
seen in the context of the bad news. Good news is good news only because you
have heard and have become familiar with the bad news. For the believer there
can be good news in the midst of the bad news.
THE
BELIEVER CAN FEEL SECURED IN THE MIDST OF THREATS AND TRIALS
For a lot of us, when we’re in a
desolate place, when we are in life’s desert experiences, we’re likely to ask
“Where is God or what we did wrong”. How could we be led by the Holy Spirit and
be in a desolate place? It’s the “either-or” kind of thinking.
Please take note that while it was in
the desert where Jesus met the devil when he was in his magnificent temptation,
it was also in the desert where Jesus won over the devil. While Jesus was
apparently defeated when he died on the Cross, it was through his death on the
Cross that our forgiveness was secured. While the grave seemed to have sealed Christ’s
death, it ironically became the stage of his resurrection.
In all instances, notice that the
place of trial became the place of triumph. And this one truth shines brightly:
God's light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not and can never
extinguish it. To me this suggests that we must always proclaim by word and by
deed the good news in the midst of bad news; righteousness in the midst of
unrighteousness; justice in the midst of injustice.
And when we do that As Paul wrote to
the Roman believers who were in the thick of persecution in Roman 10:9, “..confess that Jesus is Lord and believe
that God raised him from death.”
This is our faith and declaration. In
the midst of trying situations, in the midst of evil in the world, Jesus is
Lord. Jesus still reigns supreme. Because of Christ’s resurrection neither pain
or death nor evil has the last word. We
can then feel secured in the midst of pain and pressures, threats and trials.
You must be familiar with this poem by
Annie Johnson Flint,
God
has not promised skies always blue,
Flower
strewn pathways all our lives through;
God
has not promised sun without rain, Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But
God has promised strength for the day,
Rest
for the labor, light for the way,
Grace
for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing
sympathy, undying love.
Thanks be to God!
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