Sunday, 3 August 2025

I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High. – Psalm 9:2

Today's Scripture Reading (August 3, 2025): Psalm 9 & 10

I first saw the Rock Opera Jesus Christ, Superstar, when I was fourteen. It was a Sunday afternoon, and Rhonda, a friend of mine, and I planned to see the movie after church, which is what we did. I fell in love with the Rock Opera that afternoon. It is a love affair that has stuck with me over the past five decades. Many of the songs I still know, and the lyrics are ingrained in my memory.

Early in the Opera, the priests Annas and Caiaphas hold a meeting about what to do with this Jesus. Annas and Caiaphas seem to have differing opinions as to what to do next. Annas believed Jesus could be left to his own devices, commenting that "He's just another scripture thumping hack from Galilee;" to which Caiaphas replies, "The difference is they call him King, the difference frightens me" (Then We Are Decided, Jesus Christ, Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice)! Later, I discovered that this song was added to the movie and was absent from the original concept album. It was added to fill in some of the questions about why the religious establishment decided to go against Jesus. The song, entitled "Then We Are Decided," finds those words at the end of the song, first spoken as a question by Caiaphas, and then as a statement by Annas, sung in a bit of a tone that spoke of the conspiracy that had been born between the two men, "Then we are decided." Regardless of the cost, they would throw their considerable influence behind a plan to kill this "hack from Galilee." They had agreed on and decided upon this course of action. It was a decision that would shape the story from this moment forward.

The same is true for us. What we decide shapes our stories. We have more control over our stories than we think we have. I have conversations with people every week who seem to believe that life simply happens to them, or that some group of people has made the decision for us. But that is only true if we fail to decide the direction and goals of our lives. We are still the captains of our own existence. We get to make the decisions. In the story of Jesus, Caiaphas and Annas may have thought they were making the decisions for Jesus, but as Jesus would tell Pilate later in the Opera; "Everything is fixed, and you can't change it" (Trial Before Pilate, Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice). The decision had been made, both by God before this journey began, and by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before; "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42).

As David opens his Psalm, he speaks of the decision that he has made. David has decided to be glad and rejoice in God, regardless of the situation. He has decided to sing praises to God. His attitude seems to be that the reader can choose whatever they want, but this is what he would do. We have the ability to do the same. We can take control and decide whether to give praise to God or whine about what life has given us. We can determine which way our lives are going to go. However, if we don't, someone else will decide for us. And they will be the ones who will direct our path and decide which way we will go.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 11 & 12

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