The media outlets committed to reporting "news," right and left wing protagonists alike, spin webs of flimsy theory about whom, why, and long-range effects of the Paris attack. How should New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Nairobi, and Rio de Janeiro respond? The media seems to agree that ISIS is evil, but Islam is a peaceful religion. A current stirring inches below the surface of the flooding torrent of words suggests that if Israel would "pipe down" the flaming jets of terrorism would cool down. Christians have a hard time inserting an end note.
Major broadcast news outlets (that one can watch without cable connections) note the attack with minute-long segments supported with video images and a mild "Tsk, Tsk." We then return to the kind of empty chatter that sets human intelligence into the terrifying darkness of "Who Cares Indifference." (Do five or six people really need to speak at once, effectively obliterating a rare nugget of importance?) Average half hours break down to one or two minutes of "hard" news, two or three minutes of gore-filled car-train wreckage, 15-18 minutes of introducing pet grooming techniques, sharing the latest laundry room tips, or demonstrating a convenience gadget imported from China. The remaining 10-12 minutes of television half hour news are an advertising maven’s paradise. Everything is for sale and on sale! The screaming offers create deafness and denseness.
In a college chapel, somewhere around 1963, David Wilkerson was the morning preacher. The small-in-stature Wilkerson was an unlikely prophet who emerged from his pulpit in a remote village in rural Pennsylvania. Within months Wilkerson was an international religious figure and founder of Teen Challenge, a ministry now on every continent. A sweeping statement David Wilkerson made in the course of his sermon put me on high alert. The predictive prophecy was, "The addictions, violence, and their aftermath in Bedford Stuyvesant will come to every town, village, and hamlet of North America in my lifetime! Get ready! It’s coming!" And it did!
Anyone who could, including churches, moved out of cities where the malignancy of drugs and the resulting fallout germinated. In the church we named the flight "progress" and "God’s blessing," when stately houses of worship and prayer were sold for pennies on the dollar and cavernous spiritual voids were filled with the liars, exploiters, cheap "users" and deceivers dispatched from hell. Governments developed ineffective slogans like, "Just Say No!" politicians spent tax dollars on "Enterprise Zones," and bureaucrats designed "Job Corp," all desperate attempts at doing something to reverse the ruinous flood predicted by David Wilkerson years before the fact and propelled forward by a church that fled to greener, pastoral-like settings.
Wow, that is a too-long introduction to the redemptive truth by which I choose to live today! In reading the Psalms this week I have noticed how frequently the ancient song writers used "shield" and military metaphors for the Lord’s salvation and deliverance. For instance, Psalm 28 uses "shield," "strength," and "fortress."
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
The LORD is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Save your people and bless your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them forever. – Psalm 28:6-9 (NIV)
The media may ignore the church, but the people of God ought to be the ones who know and announce to the world that apart from HIM, there is no safety, no security, no soothing balm for those who live in danger. The people of God know that ax dollars and tactical strategies cannot protect anyone from evil men. King Saul chased his successor through the hills of Israel with hateful jealousy. If the Lord had not been David’s shield, had the Lord not been his fortress of salvation, if the Lord had slumbered while an evil prowled about with icy murder flowing through his veins, David would have never ascended to Israel’s throne.
Today radical hate mongers behead women and children, blow up buildings filled with innocent civilians or carry lethal packages of death in backpacks with the intent of disrupting communities living in peace. The people of God must put their trust in no one but their SHIELD. To find peace in uncertain times one must affirm his FORTRESS OF SALVATION.
While the media grinds away, pulverizing endless opinions and observations about the people and powers of hard-to-define enemies, we join the Psalmist in proclaiming:
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
An old song comes to mind this morning, one which became rooted in the structural foundations of eternal truth during my boyhood. The Vernon Charlesworth poem was set to music by Ira Sankey a century ago.
A Shelter in the time of storm;
Secure whatever ill betide,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
Refrain
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
A weary land, a weary land;
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
A shade by day, defense by night,
A Shelter in the time of storm;
No fears alarm, no foes afright,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
Refrain
The raging storms may round us beat,
A Shelter in the time of storm
We’ll never leave our safe retreat,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
Refrain
O Rock divine, O Refuge dear,
A Shelter in the time of storm;
Be Thou our Helper ever near,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
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