Tuesday 9 July 2013

The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. – Psalm 33:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 9, 2013): Psalm 33

It is interesting that Robert Downey Jr. has now signed up to don the armor of Iron Man at least a couple of more times. All of this after what looked like his retirement scene at the end of Iron Man 3. But writers have a tendency to be able to resurrect their dead money making heroes. When I saw “The Wrath of Khan” for the first time and watched the touching death scene of Spock, heard for the first time the now often repeated phrase that “logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few – or the one” - I really thought that we had seen the last of iconic Star Trek character. So I was amazed when I heard the projected title for Star Trek III was “The Search for Spock.” I mean, didn’t we all know exactly where Spock was. He was dead and out into space – or toward what was supposed to be a dead planet. But the writers of the Star Trek series couldn’t just allow Spock to die. He was too important to the franchise. And as intriguing as it might have been to watch Leonard Nimoy play through the Death of Spock – the franchise needed Spock alive and well – and willing to be part of stories beyond the depictions of the original series. All of this gives me hope that Batman too will emerge from retirement to take up the cowl one more time.

The Psalmist would seem to carry the same idea of to the concept of history. God would play the part of the writer of the movie, and it is his will that would be done. But this concept of God carries with it some interesting baggage. We have to admit that if God is the author of history, then he gets exactly what wants. Of course, this is exactly what Rob Bell tries to say in his book “Love Wins” – that we serve an all powerful God that gets exactly what it is that he wants, and since the Bible says that he wants all people to be saved, how can that not be true?

The Christian community passed on Bell’s conception of God preferring something else. And there is a good reason for it. God seems to have limited his own power and his own desire when it comes to us. It is part of the idea of free will – God gives to us the freedom to choose whatever path we want in life – not just the one that he knows is best for us. But the Psalmist would probably be quick to also say that while we have a choice over all of our lives – God holds all of the rest of the cards, which makes him a hard one to win against.

If we date this Psalm from the early years of the exile, then it really becomes a Psalm of hope. Life as the people had known it may have changed because of the life choices the nation had made, but God was still in control and still getting what it was that he wants. He had thwarted their plans in an attempt to move them toward his perfect will without interfering with their imperfect will. And if he had thwarted their plans, he could also thwart the plans of their captors and return them to their home – after all, if God is truly the writer of history, why would we assume anything but that he will get what he wants.   


Tomorrow’s, Scripture Reading: Psalm 43

No comments:

Post a Comment