My Help Is… ?

SAT., JAN. 22, 1994, 6:17 AM
FARM, STUDY

You have made a commitment, of sorts, o son, to seek a Teaching each Saturday or Sunday morning that relates in some way to the sermon topic or the Scripture readings for this week. I have been reasonably faithful in meeting this request… more faithful, in fact, than you have been in actually utilizing these in your forum. I realize that this is easier when the group is only you and Dorothy, but… let’s get on with this one.

In this 124th Psalm David is recalling some incident in which I, as Almighty God, Who had chosen a people and had chosen him to be their regal leader, saved them from some possible destruction. The Psalm affirms that without this help from the Lord God this people would have been swallowed up by an enemy. You have never been in such a situation. You were just a teenager when World War II developed, so your perceptions were not fully adult. But you remember no great personal fear that your country would be invaded or that you would be subdued by an enemy.

Yet you can imagine that there were some adult Americans at that time who doubted the power of your military, and did call on the “name of the Lord” to deliver them and their country. When the victory was celebrated (an event you don’t remember, as such) there certainly were many who offered prayers of thanks to Me, some with real conviction that it was I Who brought the victory. But is your nation a chosen people?

The reality of “chosenness” has nothing to do with present boundaries of countries or national identities.

My original chosen people, in your tradition, were the Jews. They continue as a chosen remnant, but this has no relationship with Israel. There are some ancient sacred places in that special geographic area, but I see them only as a worshipping people, not as a domineering or beleaguered nation. My prime chosen people today are Christians, but, again, this doesn’t mean I protect the U.S.A. Oh, there is much commitment to Me here, but also the more dominant feeling that either I don’t exist or that My help is insufficient or undependable. “The Lord helps those who help themselves.”

Hear the ending of David’s affirmation again: My help is in the name of the Lord Who made heaven and earth. I made it all. I created this planet Earth as a special place for human life… incarnated spirit. I created the whole ecosystem so that it would appear that humans are to dominate. Yet this is fundamentally a spiritual challenge to live in harmony rather than in dominance. I have caused or allowed the creation of a vast panorama of humans, some who have this sense of connectedness with all of life, as a part of their relationship with Me, which is more deep-felt than by most Christians.

Am I obliged to save your profligate, consuming society? What I too often hear, “between the lines” is “Lord, save our economy so that we can all drive fine cars and enjoy other luxuries.” I care not a whit about your economy except as a means of providing sustenance to many servants of Mine, called and “uncalled.” It is one that encourages selfishness and a compulsion to dominate the environment, and these are not pleasing to Me.