Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem
On the side of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, there is a small Olive Grove. It has the expected stone press for extracting olive oil, and has a little wall around it, giving it an isolated sense of peacefulness. But what is remarkable about this little grove is that the olive trees within are really, really OLD. The main trunks are about four feet in diameter, and as gnarly as a trunk can be and still stand upright. No one knows exactly how old they are, but you can bet the caretaker of the grove is going to tell you that the trees are AT LEAST 2000 years old, and that the name of the garden is "Gethsemane". That may or not be true, but it sure seemed awesome that those very trees may have been witness to the Agonized Night of Prayer and subsequent arrest of Jesus of Nazareth. With the thousands of real artifacts exhumed every year that prove the Bible, and the incredible longevity of the olive tree, they could very well be the same trees. Either way, it was a lovely place.
Today's Psalm does not start out in a "lovely place" though. It starts out with an agonized "WHY?". The whole first stanza is devoted to castigating the wicked. They have not changed much in 25 centuries:
1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?
Why do you boast all day long,
you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
2 You who practice deceit,
your tongue plots destruction;
it is like a sharpened razor.
3 You love evil rather than good,
falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
4 You love every harmful word,
you deceitful tongue!
Could the description of the wicked be any more explicit? The eternal question, which appears again and again in Psalms, is "Why?". Why do the wicked prosper? Why do good people suffer? Why do I struggle to be heard? Why do my prayers seem unanswered?
The next stanza tells of God's actions towards these evil ones. It is three-fold. God will:
1. Bring them down
2. Snatch them up
and
3. Uproot them.
A gardener knows that this is how one gets rid of a tree that is not bearing fruit. Cut it down, drag it off, and grind out the stump. Then he can plant something fruitful in its place.
5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
6 The righteous will see and fear;
they will laugh at you, saying,
7 “Here now is the man
who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth
and grew strong by destroying others!”
Finally, the third stanza vindicates the righteous:
8 But I am like an olive tree
flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing love
for ever and ever.
9 For what you have done I will always praise you
in the presence of your faithful people.
And I will hope in your name,
for your name is good.
Yep...the more I read God's Word, the more I believe that those Olive Trees really ARE 2000 years old. What a beautiful picture of the Faithfulness and Justice of God!
Come and Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
God Bless America!
Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.
This Symbol Represents Christians in The Middle East, who desperately need our Prayers.
Hallelujah and Amen
ML/LTOS