May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, LORD, is in you. – Psalm 25:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 12, 2016): Psalm 25

The Kobayashi Maru. Every Star Trek fan recognizes the name. In the fictional Star Trek universe, the name symbolizes the “no win situation” that tests the new Starfleet cadets character. Of course, Captain Kirk does not believe in “no-win situations.” So he cheated and changed the parameters so that there was a way out. In Kirk’s mind, the test itself was a cheat because it did not allow for a win. How could you cheat something that was already cheating? All he felt he was doing was responding with the same integrity that the test was giving to him. But to the rest of the Star Trek Universe, Kirk cheated.

I don’t often disagree with the fictional Star Ship Captain, but here I do think that Kirk was wrong. In real life, we face no-win situations. Oh, we often deny it. When things go wrong we often believe that it is because of something that we have done, or even some sin that we have committed. It is repeatedly the question that I hear from friends during rough times. What did I do to deserve this? And sometimes we can pinpoint that something, but sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be anything that has been done wrong. Sometimes, stuff just happens.

We are really not sure exactly when this Psalm was composed. There is internal evidence that the Psalm was written late in David’s life because he mentions the sins of his youth (vs. 7) and it might have been sparked by the rebellion of Absalom. If it was Absalom’s rebellion the caused the Psalm, then the sin that sparks David’s rough time is his sin with Bathsheba. But it might have been something else that lies at the bottom of these penitential words from David.

But whatever the reason for the Psalm, David makes it clear that he is going to depend on integrity and uprightness as his protection, but it is not his own integrity and uprightness that he is referring to – it is God’s. Whether the tough time that David is experiencing is of his own making, or it is simply a case of stuff happens, David is relying on the integrity of God to protect him, secure in the knowledge that even if this is the Kobayashi Maru no-win situation, God is still in control. And with God, even a no win situation has, at least, a hope at the end of the road.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 26 & 27