International
01 November 07
Psalm 107 vs. 10-16
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
11for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12So he bowed their hearts down with hard labour;
they fell down, with none to help.
13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
14He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
and burst their bonds apart.
15 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
16For he shatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron.
Whoever is wise let him attend to these things;
Let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD (vs. 43)
One of the reasons that I’m passionate about sport is the freedom that I experience when I’m playing. I know that I’m not alone in this because so many players have shared my sentiments when I tell them that for the moments when I’m playing and focused on the game, everything else fades into the background. It doesn’t matter whether I’m having a bad day, what I’ve got coming up tomorrow, all that I am thinking about is the here and now of the game – and that’s wonderfully freeing.
We said in the last email that these verses claim that those who reject God’s words and his ‘counsel’, far from being free, are in fact enslaved – ‘prisoners in affliction and irons’. The reality is however, that we don’t really think this is the case, we like to think that without God we’re free. The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the church in Galatia ‘Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods’ (Gal 4:8). In ancient society many people would make gods out of the world around them. So there was the god of the harvest, and the god of beauty, the god of money and the god of fertility. Their religion would say that if they did enough and were ‘pleasing’ to this or that god then they would be blessed but if not then they would be cursed. Their desires to please these gods would rule people’s lives as they constantly sought to do ‘enough’ to gain the favour of these false masters often by offering expensive sacrifices and by devoted acts of service. Very soon the life of an individual and the society around them would be completely orientated around these ‘gods’ – the people would be genuinely enslaved to them.
With our Western mindsets we may think this primitive and foolish, but are we any different? In 2000 years the culture may have changed but human nature hasn’t altered. Bob Dylan once wrote in a song ‘You gotta serve somebody, yeah you gotta serve somebody’ and today there are the same false-gods under different appearances. Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty, but how many women today orientate their whole lives and self-worth around the latest look and fashion even to the point of self-harm? Or consider the man who is so driven to become rich and get that job promotion, that he works all hours that he can – sacrificing his family and marriage along the way because ‘I’ve got to put in the hours’ – how free is he really? And what about us in sport? Has sport, or success, or making the team, or popularity within the club become our master, has it become our god?
Paul writes later on in Galatians ‘For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery’. Christ offers us what our false-gods can never deliver, undeserved acceptance and unconditional love. Ironically this is what we want from our masters but we’re looking in the wrong place! Anyone who looks to the death of Jesus receives the spirit of freedom by which we cry “father!” because we have perfect intimacy with the God of all love a God who doesn’t demand anything from us – but gives us it all freely. So don’t go back to slavery, but cry to the Lord to set you free from your gods and thank God for his steadfast love.
Pete
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