A Meditation on Recent Tragedies
This is not the normal content for this blog, but I thought that I'd put this out here for people to see. It is from an article I wrote for Saint John's in Lexington.
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In the last month, we have seen students and teachers murdered at Virginia Tech, a hostage killed at NASA, and a high school student killed in a car accident. As our nation, community, and church recovers after the atrocities that have struck us, one Psalm comes to mind as particularly appropriate. This Psalm, the 139th, teaches us not to bother our minds with unanswerable questions that lead ultimately to fear, but rather it leads us to repentance
Psalm 139:1-6 (NIV)
O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in – behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain . . . .
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
David wrestles with a difficult theme in this Psalm: God’s role in his actions and by extension, the actions of the world.
On the one hand David acknowledges his freedom and independence. He acknowledges that his thoughts and deeds belong to him: “You perceive my thoughts . . . . You are familiar with all my ways.” In other Psalms, David takes responsibility even for his sins (Psalms 51 and 39).
On the other hand, David acknowledges that all things happen by the will and with the foreknowledge of God. God orders and knows all that we do, “You perceive my thoughts . . . . You are familiar with all my ways.” In other Psalms, David gives glory to God as the one who orders the entire universe (Psalms 19 and 104).
Considering such a great mystery, David exclaims, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” In other words, David owns up to his inability to understand God’s will and how it relates to the world. Rather than explain the mysteries of which he speaks, David merely describes them. We would do well to follow David’s example.
Notice, for example, how David’s words contrast with the words so often offered by theologians in times of tragedy. Theologians often line up to make excuses for God. They say things like, “God had nothing to do with this,” or, “God has to allow such things to happen in order for us to have freewill.” What they fail to realize, however, is that God in His majesty is beyond our understanding. What this means is that God apart from how He has revealed himself is beyond our comprehension.
Martin Luther said much the same thing in his treatise On the Bondage of the Will. There, he says, “God therefore must be left to himself in his own majesty, for in this regard we have nothing to do with him, nor has he willed that we should have anything to do with him. But we have something through which he offers himself to us and which is the beauty and glory with which the psalmist celebrates him as being clothed . . . . For it is this that God as he is preached is concerned with, namely, that sin and death should be taken away and we should be saved.”[1]
This is the same sentiment offered by David in Psalm 139. Rather than explain God’s role in the universe, He merely describes it. And ultimately, this leads David to thoughts of repentance and hope. “See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Calling upon God to purify him from his sin, David has confidence that God will give him everlasting life.
And so, when such horrors meet our nation and community as they did last week, let this lead you to repentance. Do not seek to justify God. Rather, seek out how God has justified us. For, while God in His majesty is mysterious and beyond us, He has not left us bewildered. Rather, God has come to us in humility, as a suffering servant, a man who died for us. There, at the cross of Christ, we see that God is not happy with our suffering and fallen, sinful state and therefore has taken our sin upon himself so that when Christ returns, He will wipe away all our tears and put to an end all tragedy.
This is good news. Tragedies leave us with questions and fear. Many so-called theologians leave us with more questions and greater fear. Christ, however, gives us Himself, the answer, hope.
Come Lord Jesus! Amen!
[1] Luther, Martin. “On the Bondage of the Will.” Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation. E. Gordon Rupp, Philip S. Watson, eds. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969.
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In the last month, we have seen students and teachers murdered at Virginia Tech, a hostage killed at NASA, and a high school student killed in a car accident. As our nation, community, and church recovers after the atrocities that have struck us, one Psalm comes to mind as particularly appropriate. This Psalm, the 139th, teaches us not to bother our minds with unanswerable questions that lead ultimately to fear, but rather it leads us to repentance
Psalm 139:1-6 (NIV)
O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in – behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain . . . .
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
David wrestles with a difficult theme in this Psalm: God’s role in his actions and by extension, the actions of the world.
On the one hand David acknowledges his freedom and independence. He acknowledges that his thoughts and deeds belong to him: “You perceive my thoughts . . . . You are familiar with all my ways.” In other Psalms, David takes responsibility even for his sins (Psalms 51 and 39).
On the other hand, David acknowledges that all things happen by the will and with the foreknowledge of God. God orders and knows all that we do, “You perceive my thoughts . . . . You are familiar with all my ways.” In other Psalms, David gives glory to God as the one who orders the entire universe (Psalms 19 and 104).
Considering such a great mystery, David exclaims, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” In other words, David owns up to his inability to understand God’s will and how it relates to the world. Rather than explain the mysteries of which he speaks, David merely describes them. We would do well to follow David’s example.
Notice, for example, how David’s words contrast with the words so often offered by theologians in times of tragedy. Theologians often line up to make excuses for God. They say things like, “God had nothing to do with this,” or, “God has to allow such things to happen in order for us to have freewill.” What they fail to realize, however, is that God in His majesty is beyond our understanding. What this means is that God apart from how He has revealed himself is beyond our comprehension.
Martin Luther said much the same thing in his treatise On the Bondage of the Will. There, he says, “God therefore must be left to himself in his own majesty, for in this regard we have nothing to do with him, nor has he willed that we should have anything to do with him. But we have something through which he offers himself to us and which is the beauty and glory with which the psalmist celebrates him as being clothed . . . . For it is this that God as he is preached is concerned with, namely, that sin and death should be taken away and we should be saved.”[1]
This is the same sentiment offered by David in Psalm 139. Rather than explain God’s role in the universe, He merely describes it. And ultimately, this leads David to thoughts of repentance and hope. “See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Calling upon God to purify him from his sin, David has confidence that God will give him everlasting life.
And so, when such horrors meet our nation and community as they did last week, let this lead you to repentance. Do not seek to justify God. Rather, seek out how God has justified us. For, while God in His majesty is mysterious and beyond us, He has not left us bewildered. Rather, God has come to us in humility, as a suffering servant, a man who died for us. There, at the cross of Christ, we see that God is not happy with our suffering and fallen, sinful state and therefore has taken our sin upon himself so that when Christ returns, He will wipe away all our tears and put to an end all tragedy.
This is good news. Tragedies leave us with questions and fear. Many so-called theologians leave us with more questions and greater fear. Christ, however, gives us Himself, the answer, hope.
Come Lord Jesus! Amen!
[1] Luther, Martin. “On the Bondage of the Will.” Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation. E. Gordon Rupp, Philip S. Watson, eds. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969.
Labels: Psalms, Tech, Virginia, Virginia Tech
posted by Reverend Christopher Jackson at 10:28 AM
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