Search This Blog

Monday, March 4, 2013

Getting Our Priorities Straight

This is the message given in Gettysburg at the Oahe Manor service Sunday, March 3, 2013.  The Bible verses are Psalm 27.


We all have things we're afraid of. I do. We all do. Sometimes it's important things, sometimes it's silly things. One of the things I've always been afraid of is locking my keys in my car. To me, one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind is the button on the keychain that locks the car, because if I lock it with that button, then I know I must have the keys in my hand, and I cannot lock them in the car.

We have more serious fears than that, of course. I know everyone here has some health problems, or you would not be out here. If you turn on the news, you can hear about all kinds of things to be scared of. War, the economy, crime, the budget, if we watch the news we will never run out of things to worry about. It seems like worry and fear are just a natural, constant part of our lives.

What our psalm for today says, though, is that we really don't need to worry about those things. In fact, we don't need to worry about anything, because we know we have the love of God. Listen to how the psalm starts again:

"The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident."

That's a pretty powerful statement of faith. The writer of this psalm says that when someone tries to do something to him, they're the ones who will be in trouble. He says even if an army goes to war against him, he'll still be confident that nothing will happen to him.

It would be wonderful to have that much confidence. But how can we? I mean, we just talked about some of the problems in our lives and in the world. There are lots of other things we could talk about, too. And we know that our faith does not prevent bad things from happening to us. We can all think of times when bad things have happened to people who are good people, who are faithful people, who believe in God and have accepted Jesus as their Savior. Their faith did not keep bad things from happening to them. So, if we cannot trust that our faith in God will keep bad things from happening, how can we say, as the writer of the psalm did, that I don't have to be afraid because God is my salvation?

I don't think the writer of the psalm is saying that God will keep us away from trouble on earth. I think what he's saying is that if we trust God, we'll have our priorities straight. We won't worry about a lot of the stuff we worry about on earth, because we'll know what's most important. Listen to what he says next:

"One think I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."

He does not say that the one thing he asks from God is that God protect him while he's on earth. In fact, he really does not ask God to do much of anything for him. All he asks is that he be able to be with God. All he asks is that he be able to seek God, to find God, and to see the beauty of God.

The writer of the psalm knows that if he has that, he does not need to be afraid of anything else. If he has that, nobody can do anything to him, not anything important, anyway. He knows there is nothing more important than being with God. He knows there is nothing more important than being able to seek God, to find God, and to see the beauty of God. As long as God will let him do that, nothing else really matters.

It's not always easy for us to remember that. Our earthly lives are pretty important to us. There's an extent to which they should be. We've talked before about how each of us is here for a reason, how we would not be here if God did not have something for us to do. God does not want us to give up our lives as long as that's the case. To that extent, our earthly lives should be important to us.

Even so, our earthly lives are not the most important thing. We, you and I, are not the most important thing. As the writer of the psalm tells us, the most important thing is God. The most important thing is that we be with God. The most important thing is for us to find God and see the beauty of God. Our earthly lives are really only important as long as we are living them for God. And as long as we are, we don't need to worry about anything else, because God will take care of us.

If we focus on ourselves, on the news, on the things that are part of this world, we will never run out of things to worry about. Worry and fear will be a natural, constant part of our lives. If we keep our priorities straight, though, that does not have to be true. If we know what's most important, we'll know that we don't have to worry. We don't have to live our lives in fear. Instead, we'll live our lives in the presence of the beauty of God. When we do that, nothing else really matters.

No comments:

Post a Comment