Thoughts for the Day

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side
—let Israel now say—
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when our enemies attacked us,
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
then over us would have gone
the raging waters.

Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Bible)

Thoughts

The basses in the choir were lagging behind, sounding like the voices of doom as they plodded along in the anthem. The rehearsal got steadily worse, until I stopped it to point out, with a smile, that it felt like they were wearing cement boots...plod...plod...plod, and asked them if they could wear slippers instead! After some laughter we tried again and amazingly the anthem began to come together in a rather lovely way.

Of course choirs, an indeed any group activity have to have someone in charge else nothing corporate would get done. Just imagine, in an orchestra the flutes could take off at a spirited pace, leaving the double bassess behind, or the drums could establish a steady beat which everyone else tried to ignore. Without a conductor things could get pretty untidy.

For the ancient Israelites Psalm 124 (a psalm of Ascent) has no doubt that it was God who was in charge when unexpectedly they survived an attack by enemies, and indeed it ends with a reminder that this God was Yahweh 'who made heaven and earth'. So why is it that we Christians who also believe in God (Yahweh) often ascribe all our successes to ourselves? The word "I" is so frequently upon our lips - "I achieved this" we brag, or "I sorted out this mess" we declare, even though when we started and things looked difficult we made frantic prayers to God for help?

If God is in charge of our lives, how often do we listen to Him, and give Him the credit for His involvement?

Heavenly Father,
we firmly believe that You care for us,
and that You have our good at heart,
yet when things go wrong we often blame You,
and when things go well we do not thank You.
Similarly we often forget to involve You in our plans,
and wonder why we make a muddle of our life.
Help us to remember to involve You in all we do,
from the beginning, and not at the last moment,
so that Your will may be done.
Amen.