/With my voice, to Yahweh I cry out; with my voice, to Yahweh I make
supplication. I pour out, to His face, my complaint; my distress, to His
face, I declare. When it was overwhelming to me, to my spirit; and You,
Yourself knew my path. In the pathway, this one, I walk; they hid a trap
for me. Look on the right hand and see; and there is not one for me who
regards. There is no escape for me; there is no one caring for my soul.
I cried out to You , Yahweh: I said You–my refuge; my allotment in the
land of the living. Pay attention to my cry; for I am humbled, greatly.
Rescue me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I. Release
from prison, my soul to give thanks to Your name; around me will
congregate the righteous; for You will do good to me. /
Seeing is not always what we think it is. For our eyes can play tricks
on us. I learned this the first time I played 3-card-monty as a tourist
in NYC. It surely *looked* like a sure thing from my viewpoint. The
dealer showed me the queen, and I didn't take my eyes off of that card
as he moved it quickly around the table. But in no time, my $20 and I
were soon parted. I could not believe my eyes when what I was sure was
the queen turned out to be a jack. I trusted my eyes, yet they betrayed me!
Young David must have felt the same way when he wrote psalm 142. His
eyes saw God's king, Saul, his father-in-law, and father of his best
friend Jonathan. From David's view, he had every reason to feel safe in
Saul's household. But King Saul sought young David's life, and chased
him down into a cave. Now David's eyes saw no hope whatsoever. He was
stuck with no visible escape, and outside was a trap waiting for him.
His eyes saw no support for his just cause. His eyes revealed betrayal!
Yet David was learning what the man-born-blind learned from Jesus...that
we walk not by sight, but by faith! David had faith that God could
rescue him and the Lord did indeed! The blind man believed in Jesus the
Son of Man who healed him, and he received rescue from his sins as well!
For it really doesn't matter so much what your eye-balls can see or not
see, in the long run. What matters most is that you see with the eyes of
faith, and that your faith recognizes your Savior Jesus where He is!
But sadly we are too often like the Pharisees, refusing to walk by
faith. We consider a circumstance by what we see with earthly eyes, and
misjudge it accordingly. We trust our own view-point, and fail to
consider God's perspective. How quick we are to mistrust God Who sees
all, in favor of our limited perspective, forgetting that we see here as
through a glass, darkly. Yet we make decisions about our time, our
talents & our treasures disregarding God's point of view, in favor of
our own ways.
We do better to consider that the pathways we would choose are filled
with all kinds of traps God would prefer us to avoid. That's why He
teaches us in the Lord's Prayer that it is He who leads us away from
temptations, and delivers us from evil. God alone knows the straight &
narrow path for us, each step prepared in advance for us to walk in. He
directs us away from the temptations of the devil, from those in the
world, and even from what our own sinful nature desires from our flesh.
And once we are directed away from transgressing the curb of the
straight & narrow path into the territory of trespassing, then we are
placed by God on the path of faith, with eyes that now can see Jesus
where He is. We can no longer see Him where he was, since He has
ascended into heaven. But the eyes of faith see Jesus where He speaks
and acts today, no less than He once did for that man-born-blind whom He
healed with a toast–"Here's mud in your eye!".
Your eyes of faith see Jesus speaking to you in the pulpit today. Not
that I am Jesus, far from it, but that He has chosen to use my voice-box
to proclaim His gospel love to you this day. He says that He does not
leave you in your sins, but declares "you are forgiven" and made worthy
of eternal life by Jesus' death on the +! Your eyes of faith see Jesus
hand washing those sins away at the baptismal font, taken all the way to
the + where He bore them and their punishment in full for your sake.
Your eyes of faith also see Him where He is hidden today. You recognize
His body given for you with the bread of the Lord's Supper. You discern
His blood shed for you in the cup of your salvation in Holy Communion.
What your eyeballs see as only bread & wine, your eyes of faith regard
as the body & blood of Christ Jesus for your forgiveness. Where there is
forgiveness, there is life & salvation So rely not on your eyes, which
may deceive you. Trust in Jesus Who saves you by grace thru faith.
John C. Drosendahl, Pastor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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