God Promises

Day three hundred fifty-six

There are days when you realize that you really don't know much; yesterday was one of those days for me.  I was being taught quite a bit and by the end of the day I had to reflect on how much I really didn't know.  It was a humbling experience and one that I am grateful for.  I wasn't upset that I didn't know much, rather I was very happy that the Lord found it important to teach me.  I am worth His time and I am important to Him.  I thanked Him for all the effort that He puts into teaching me, this is a never ending job I am afraid, but He is up to it.  I love Him for it and I wanted Him to know that.  

Psalm 12

This Psalm begins with a plea that is fitting still today: "Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men." (v 1).  The problem isn't that wicked people are wicked, the problem is that righteous people are failing; the faithful are dwindling.  We see this same problem in society today.  We seem to be heading towards the description in verse 8: "The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted."

Some thoughts on this:

Prior to 1965, television shows portrayed businessmen as good guys twice as often as bad guys, as Michael Medved shows in Hollywood vs America.  In the 1970s, this ratio was reversed; two villains for every good guy. Today, big business has become television's favorite villain.  Medved quotes an exhaustive analysis of prime time television by the sociologists Richter, Richter, and Rothman which concludes, "By 1980 a majority of the CEO's portrayed on prime time committed felonies."  Respectable businessmen were by then committing 40 percent of the murders on prime time television, and 44 percent of vice crimes like drug trafficking and pimping. (Michael Medved, Hollywood vs America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values (New York, Harper Collins, 1993).

Notice the date in the source, 1993.  Where do you think we stand in 2011?  From what I have seen, the 40-44% of businessmen committing crimes on television seems low.  What does that say about our society?  Why is this acceptable?

Erma Bombeck once said, "We live in a strange society where we make documentaries of serial killers, movie idols out of organized crime members, authors out of political crooks, and role models out of criminals who beat the system. ... I don’t know when crime went from being news to entertainment, but somehow it’s made the transition." 

Sadly, her statement is true.  So what are we to do about it?

Psalm 12 goes on in verse 5 to say that God will act. The call for help in verse 1 is answered in verse 5 with God saying, "Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise, I will protect them." 

This is key to this psalm, God promises to take care of the righteous.  He promises to protect them.  He gives His word.  What is the value of His word? It was precious to David and it should be precious to us too. Psalm 12:6 notes that the Lord's words are flawless like refined silver. He is the truth, and He brings the truth. He becomes the protector of the needy. If He says He is going to act, you can believe that it will happen.

This is what I took away from this psalm: When we feel overwhelmed by wickedness in the world we need to search God's word (the scriptures) and cling to God’s promises.  Men might fail us, but God will not!