ELECTION REFLECTION
PURSUING POWER: THE DIVINE DIMENSION
A ‘NON-PC’ REFORMED CHRISTIAN COMMENT

'The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The LORD laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct. Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken' 
(Psalm 37: 12-15).

Introduction
The conflict between good and evil is the theme of human history. It is difficult to say in the ongoing cycle of events whether peace punctuates conflict or whether conflict punctuates peace. Here David focuses on the reality of war, at the same time introducing a divine dimension. We learn that one day the miserable and cruel cycle will be broken. This much is clear, generals and politicians do not have the last word however much power and control they appear to have.

1.  GOD'S LAUGHTER
'The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The LORD laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming' (vs. 12-13). Yes, the world is full of bullies and tyrants. Power-hungry monsters litter the pages of history. Empire builders have constantly trampled on powerless nations to satisfy their appetite for domination. Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, William the Conqueror, Napoleon, Hitler - the list continues. People are often persecuted because they are different in race, colour and culture. It happens in school playgrounds where bullies have the first opportunity to prove themselves. A kind of 'herd instinct' grips a tyrant who is driven to make everybody else conform. Sometimes, the motivation is political and economic. Other times, it is simply religious. In this psalm, David is probably thinking of the sufferings of Israel at the hands of their enemies although the underlying idea of oppression includes less religious conflicts. Israel suffered because they were different from the pagan nations surrounding them who 'ganged up' against God and His people. Similarly, Christians have been, and are being, persecuted. And why?  Because they are 'nonconformists' (see Jn. 15: 18-20; Rom. 12: 1-2).  

As David continues with the grisly story, he suddenly becomes humorous. While the wicked 'plot' and 'gnash', God is laughing - with a humour very different from that often attributed to Him! While He is never insensitive to human suffering, God is highly amused at the oppressors of mankind who conspire to ruin others. They foolishly imagine they will always triumph without ever being on 'the receiving end'! So God laughs at these tyrants and their cruel collaborators. This is no isolated example of God's humour. Another psalm asks, 'Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?' Their rages and plots are ultimately futile because 'He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath, and distress them in his deep displeasure' (Ps. 2: 1-5). Yes, while the cruel butcher of others laughs in triumph, there is more triumphant laughter in heaven! Indeed, we have a saying: 'He who laughs last, laughs longest'. Never will this be more true than in the case of Almighty God! David explains why: 'For [God] sees that his day is coming'. The days of the tyrant are numbered. The day of judgement, of final reckoning, is coming.

2.  GOD'S WILL
'The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct' (v. 14). David now describes the end-result of all the plottings and gnashings. Malevolence ends up in belligerence; evil design becomes evil deed. How often, we hang our heads and - like David often did - ask "Why, why, why?" Is God not in control after all? And is He not good as well as almighty?  In the midst of mystery, we cannot suggest that God is the cause of evil even when we must affirm that He is the sovereign ruler of all things. In short, God does not WILL evil. At the same time, He does not merely PERMIT it as if powerless to do otherwise. So truth demands the following solution: God WILLS TO PERMIT evil in the pursuit of His amazing, unfathomable and incomprehensible purposes.

When the suffering saints of the Church in Rome faced the cruel persecutions of the Emperor Nero, they too asked 'why'?  So Paul told them that 'All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose'. Because God is the sovereign, predestinating God, He is our true and ultimate refuge: 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' ... 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us' (Rom. 8: 28, 31, 35, 37). In a very deep sense, there is 'no gain without pain' in both human life and the life of faith. Perhaps Paul's best interpreter is the American poet James Russell Lowell (1819-91), opponent of slavery and other injustices:

Careless seems the great avenger,
History's pages but record,
One death-grapple in the darkness
'Twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth for ever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne -
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own. 

More familiar are the words of the hymn writer William Cowper (1731-1800):

	God moves in a mysterious way		His purposes will ripen fast,
   	   His wonders to perform;			   Unfolding every hour;
	He plants His footsteps in the sea,		The bud may have a bitter taste,
   	   And rides upon the storm.		   But sweet will be the flower.

	Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,		Blind unbelief is sure to err,
   	   But trust Him for His grace;		   And scan His work in vain;
	Behind a frowning providence		God is His own interpreter,
  	   He hides a smiling face.			   And He will make it plain.

3.  GOD'S VENGEANCE
'Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken' (v. 15). Yes, while a day of final judgement is coming, sometimes God's judgements occur in this life. They are warnings to others while time for repentance remains. Oliver Cromwell learned this from his Huntingdon schoolmaster's book The Theatre of God's Judgements; history and providence taught tyrants like Charles I to beware. Indeed, these are lessons for all of us. David's point now is that often the schemes of violent oppressors sometimes rebound on themselves. It was Daniel's enemies who were destroyed by the very lions intended for him (see Daniel 6). David's persecutor King Saul fell by his own sword (1 Sam. 31: 4). The jealous Haman was hanged on the very gallows planned for Mordecai in the days of Esther (see Esther 7).

History records other examples where 'the bows' of tyrants were 'broken'. When Roman Catholic King Philip II of Spain launched his mighty Armada against Protestant Queen Elizabeth I in 1588, the very wind which blew his galleons towards these shores became the gale which smashed these vessels to pieces on the rocky coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Then there are the Huguenots. The very monarchy of France which oppressed its loyal Protestant subjects for nearly three centuries perished in the Revolution of 1789. Did not Napoleon's grand armée perish in the Russian winter of 1812? And did not Hitler repeat the mistake in 1941? More recently, did not atheistic Communism collapse in 1989? While conflicts last, God's judgements will be evident: '"Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord' (Rom. 12: 19). All governments based on lies, corruption and oppression - be they eastern or western, black or white, Republican or Democrat, Tory or Labour, Gentile or Jewish, atheistic or nominally-Christian, will be judged. While God will humble the secular, selfish and sodomized society of the 'wild West', He will also destroy proud Islam with its own arrogant blasphemies and brutal barbarities.

Let us be sure to be on the 'winning side' - God's side. Better to be a victim of human tyranny than divine condemnation. Better to be among the 'just' than among the 'wicked'. Better to lay down the arms of our sinful rebellion before God and enjoy His eternal pardon and blessing through our Lord Jesus Christ, than be ruined forever by His wrath!

Dr Alan C. Clifford
Pastor, Norwich Reformed Church
www.nrchurch.co.nr
(5 November 2008)