Today’s Scripture Reading (April 19,
2016): Psalm 35
Martin
Luther King once commented, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional
love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily
defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” King’s own life and death seem to
mirror this idea. King’s death at the hands of evil men seemed at the time to
be the ultimate example of right being defeated by evil. But the defeat was
temporary. Today, King’s ideas have taken root in all areas of our society. Oh,
I know that the ultimate triumph of King’s dream still has not been realized,
but we are standing closer to that time when all people will be judged by their
character rather than the color of their skin, or the sex organs they possess,
or the religion that they follow, than we ever have before in the history of
this world. Evil has temporarily triumphed over good, but the victory is only
temporary. Good in the form of unarmed truth (and we need to let the phrase “unarmed
truth” work through our psyche) and unconditional love will stand in the end
when all of the designs of evil have already fallen. It was King’s dream, and
more and more of us are carrying that dream deep inside of our beings
As with so
many of the Psalms, we have no idea exactly what the circumstances were that
David was struggling with as he wrote these words. But the internal evidence
seems to point toward the days that he struggled with Saul. David had done what
was good. He had killed he giant Goliath when no one else in Saul’s army,
including the king, had the courage to stand against him. David had become a
popular general in the army; he had won decisive battles in defense of his
nation. Twice he had been close enough to Saul to kill him, and both times he
had stayed his hand because killing the king could never be considered to be
morally right. He had fought behind the scenes with Israel’s enemies, sabotaging
their efforts to defeat Israel. All of this was good. Yet, Saul continued to
pursue him and desired to kill him. If the time came, David knew that Saul
would not stay his own hand as David had when the opportunity presented itself
for him to kill Saul. And David bemoans the victory of evil.
But we know
the rest of the story. The day was coming when Saul would be removed from the
throne and David would be placed on it.
The day was coming when all that God had promised would become a reality. The
day was coming.
I am sure
that the day is coming for us as well. We are experiencing setbacks in the
dream, but they will be overturned. Rev. King’s dream is still present, and
still moving forward. And that day, when that
dream is realized, will be the day of ultimate peace for our society. There
is no doubt in my mind that King was right. Right, temporarily defeated, is
stronger than evil triumphant. And I want to be on the side of right, even when
it appears to be defeated. Because in the end, I know that right will win.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm
36
No comments:
Post a Comment