“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it. The world, and those who live in it” (v.1).
Do you ever find yourself questioning this statement? That everyone, and everything, all the goings-on in this perplexing world belong to God? That’s it – perplexing! The guns and bombs, the wheelers and dealers, the cheaters and liars sometimes seem so prolific; and schemers and murderers often gain the title of ‘winners’ and such things confuse us, and sometimes would have us believe that these impostors are not just that. And we forget that they’re not the ‘real deal’.
Will evil last? With all its intrigue, the world of schemes and devious dreams will pass away. They will, indeed, give way to “those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false and do not swear deceitfully” (v.4).
Blessing awaits those who devote their time., talent and energies to participating in God’s good business. The challenges are many, but the equipment from God does arrive “on time,” even when the time seems too late to help a struggling poor woman or a father’s sick son, or a starving widow, or a straying fellow, or any of those who suffer hell on earth, while we wait for them to “receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of their salvation” (v5).
Don’t give up. I write even as we have once again entered the liturgical season of Advent. Hope is our watchword. Amid the unnerving occurrences in this dying world, the signs of renewal hide in plain sight. Things are getting better even as the situation seems to worsen. While the earth dies, we witness renewal as we await the promise of the faithful one who declares ‘I am making everything new’. We sense the condemnation of wrongdoing even as the International Criminal Court would excise the exercise of crimes against humanity, while at the same time it faces innate impotence to cut out the cancerous habits. The desire is there, yes, to call us to right living. But who can enable it? Is that fateful inability a call to dependence on the power that can and will, and has already started turning bad into good?
Don’t give up. Don’t be fooled. The ungodly world will pass away and give way to the world that is the Lord’s, where people care for the earth and God’s very own property, dirtying their hands to keep them clean, pouring out dirty scheming plots to cleanse their hearts. This is all about God undoing the messes and stresses that malign us and mess up the “earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it. The world, and those who live in it”