Psalm 10

     Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord of all.  I went back to field work church in Highland, Illinois this morning and it was good to be back.  I got a lot of heartfelt welcomes and it was good to see familiar faces again.  I was even chased down after service by two ladies requesting I start Adult Bible class next Sunday.  I had planned on doing it anyway, but was kind of thrown off by their eagerness for it.  However, that is a great thing when God's people thirst for His Word, so I will be more than happy to be leading them through it again.
     I have a lot of reading to do yet tonight so I will post my devotion for Psalm 10.  I will be hopefully preaching at least two or three times this quarter so I will be posting those sermons on here as well.  Blessings on your week this week as you take the Word of God you hopefully heard this morning into the world with you as you go about your life.

Psalm 10 verses 17-18

       I was in seventh grade when the World Trade Centers were attacked. I can remember I was in the hall way at school before classes had begun for the day. We always messed around out in the hall way until the bell would ring and we had to go to class. A bunch of the kids were talking about a plane flying into a building. I knew there was a small air port in Anita, a town seven miles from Adair. I just thought some small private plane flown by a local had left from Anita and flown into a house or a barn or some building around our county. I had no idea the full reality of what they were actually talking about. I am not sure they really knew the entire complexity of the news they had heard and were retelling. I do not remember what the class was, but I remember going into Mrs. Elgin’s room at the end of the hall. She had a T.V. that had cable in her room. She had the T.V. on and some of the footage was already being aired. We watched a little bit of it and I quickly realized this was no small plane flying into a farm building in Iowa. I went home that day and watched hours of footage of the planes flying into the buildings, the people scrambling, and then that unforgettable scene of the middle of the day going pitch black as the buildings came down and the dust cloud covered everything in a mile radius. I heard a new word that day that I am not sure I had ever heard before. The news anchors and reports kept using the term “terrorists”. I had to ask mom what that term meant and I think she described it as people who want to cause terror or fear. I had a hard time believing that there were really people in this world whose entire life goal was just to cause terror and fear. Now, twelve years later, I do not even bat an eye at the word terrorists or the idea that this type of people actually exist. It is just common everyday language anymore.
       Terrorists have existed long before Al Qaeda and the Muslims came along. The enemies King David is describing in this psalm fit the definition of terrorists. He describes them as having stealthy eyes watching the helpless, lurking in ambush, setting traps, and constantly being a threat. These wicked and evil enemies are causing terror and fear to the poor, the helpless, the fatherless, and the afflicted. That is why King David asks the Lord to do justice in verse 17. He is asking God to bring judgment day so that all of these wicked men who think there is no god, will be judged and condemned. He specifically asks that these men of the earth may strike terror no more. He wants all terrorists who have dedicated their lives to causing terror and fear to be judged and condemned. It’s the same prayer we pray every time we say the Lord’s Prayer. By saying, “Thy kingdom come”, we are asking for Christ to come back, to end the reign and rule of sin, and for all peoples to be judged. We can ask this because we know we are saved from judgment day by the blood of Christ. Because we have our Savior who died for us, marked us with His name in our baptism, and covered us with His righteousness, we do not fear judgment day but ask that it come. We ask that all the wicked and evil be judged and done away with so we do not have to live in terror anymore. However, until that day comes, we live in the security of Christ’s love, protection, and salvation. We know even if terrorists do attack us and end our life here on this earth, we already have our eternal life in Christ. We do not have to live in fear or terror because we have His reassuring promises of eternal life. Praise be to our God who is our strength and refuge, our protection and assurance, and our life.