Burning the lawn
This week's goodness comes from Psalm 92:4-7:
You may think I'm on an "evildoers" theme this month. Wrong! Verses that mention evildoers are pretty common. Evildoers themselves are even pretty common. The psalmist mentions that they spring up like grass. If you're like me, your lawn doesn't have much grass on it, but if you try planting something useful instead, grass does its best to choke it out. Grass springs up like evildoers, in that case, trying to steal your tasty vegetables.
So what the psalmist is saying is that there are a ton of evildoers. They are everywhere, and they become successful so easily. In a "just" world, the amount of evil in someone's life would correspond directly to how miserable it is. More evil == more misery. All of the chronic illness, bad circumstances, machines running Microsoft Windows, poverty, rejection, and theft would happen to evil people only. Their spouses would be ugly, or they would be forever alone. Their kids would be idiots, if they managed to breed at all. Everything in their lives would conspire to illustrate how God's universe neatly rejects those who do evil. Life would be a self-cleaning oven.
Good people would have good luck. They'd have happy families, fancy cars, fat bank accounts, servants, and adoring fans. People would value their opinions. They'd be in perfect health. God's universe would be in perfect tune with their desires, as an illustration of how pleased God was with how very good they were. Bad things would never happen to good people, and good things would never happen to bad people.
People get frustrated when the world doesn't work like that. Why does the backstabber get the promotion at work? Why does the lazy guy get to keep his job during layoffs? Why does the loser get the chicks? Why do crooks get rich, while honest men struggle to feed their families? Why do the good die young? Why do people listen to celebrities? People get angry and bitter about this stuff, as if the universe was supposed to work perfectly. They forget that we live in a fallen world of our own design, and that our view is only a tiny sliver of what's really there.
Senseless people and fools don't realize that the evildoers who are doing well now may not be like that forever. It is not a sign of God's approval. It is not evidence that what they do is not sin, or that God's ideal world depends on you getting taxed half to death. The sort of "No fair" attitude most of us have is actually something that's given as an example of something only idiots and boneheads think. Nice.
The world is a weird and broken place. If you've ever seen a ghetto housing complex when it is first built, and then see it again, ten years later, when it smells of urine and has holes in the walls, you know how far things can fall from their original designs when left to human nature. The difference between the world God originally created for us and what we've done to it, is pretty huge. It is foolish to pretend they're the same thing, or that we'll be in this place forever.
Look for what God has done, if you want to be cheery. His work today is still perfect. When he intervenes, outside of what man comes up with for himself, it is beautiful and uncorrupted. Look at his revelation in your life, and the miracles you've seen and heard about. Those are new and perfect. The world is not.
For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD;
I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
How great are your works, LORD,
how profound your thoughts!
Senseless people do not know,
fools do not understand,
that though the wicked spring up like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be destroyed forever.
You may think I'm on an "evildoers" theme this month. Wrong! Verses that mention evildoers are pretty common. Evildoers themselves are even pretty common. The psalmist mentions that they spring up like grass. If you're like me, your lawn doesn't have much grass on it, but if you try planting something useful instead, grass does its best to choke it out. Grass springs up like evildoers, in that case, trying to steal your tasty vegetables.
So what the psalmist is saying is that there are a ton of evildoers. They are everywhere, and they become successful so easily. In a "just" world, the amount of evil in someone's life would correspond directly to how miserable it is. More evil == more misery. All of the chronic illness, bad circumstances, machines running Microsoft Windows, poverty, rejection, and theft would happen to evil people only. Their spouses would be ugly, or they would be forever alone. Their kids would be idiots, if they managed to breed at all. Everything in their lives would conspire to illustrate how God's universe neatly rejects those who do evil. Life would be a self-cleaning oven.
Good people would have good luck. They'd have happy families, fancy cars, fat bank accounts, servants, and adoring fans. People would value their opinions. They'd be in perfect health. God's universe would be in perfect tune with their desires, as an illustration of how pleased God was with how very good they were. Bad things would never happen to good people, and good things would never happen to bad people.
People get frustrated when the world doesn't work like that. Why does the backstabber get the promotion at work? Why does the lazy guy get to keep his job during layoffs? Why does the loser get the chicks? Why do crooks get rich, while honest men struggle to feed their families? Why do the good die young? Why do people listen to celebrities? People get angry and bitter about this stuff, as if the universe was supposed to work perfectly. They forget that we live in a fallen world of our own design, and that our view is only a tiny sliver of what's really there.
Senseless people and fools don't realize that the evildoers who are doing well now may not be like that forever. It is not a sign of God's approval. It is not evidence that what they do is not sin, or that God's ideal world depends on you getting taxed half to death. The sort of "No fair" attitude most of us have is actually something that's given as an example of something only idiots and boneheads think. Nice.
The world is a weird and broken place. If you've ever seen a ghetto housing complex when it is first built, and then see it again, ten years later, when it smells of urine and has holes in the walls, you know how far things can fall from their original designs when left to human nature. The difference between the world God originally created for us and what we've done to it, is pretty huge. It is foolish to pretend they're the same thing, or that we'll be in this place forever.
Look for what God has done, if you want to be cheery. His work today is still perfect. When he intervenes, outside of what man comes up with for himself, it is beautiful and uncorrupted. Look at his revelation in your life, and the miracles you've seen and heard about. Those are new and perfect. The world is not.
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