Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem
Just a few weeks ago, we commemorated the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. It is hard to believe that 78 years have gone by since that "Day That Will Live in Infamy". The ranks of those who remember that day are getting thinner, as people age, share their stories, and pass on. Soon it will only be remembered in History Books, and we all KNOW what can happen when the revisionists and "politically correct" get their hands on those!
The same can be said of Holocaust Survivors. Thirty-five years ago, I knew many Survivors, held their hands, and sang to them in Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew. One man (his name was Baruch, which means "blessed") passed away before my eyes as I sang "Raisins and Almonds" to him. A few years later, as I entered the first gallery in Yad Vashem (the room that had the exhibit about Jewish Life in Europe before the Nazis), that very song was playing softly on the sound system. It was devastating to me as I remembered Baruch. And I was only in the first room of the huge museum. It got more and more devastating as I walked through to the end.
The worst part about this exhibit was the exposition of the fact that, before the Nazis, Jewish People in Western Europe were pretty much assimilated into the general population. The was antisemitism, of course, and there were neighborhoods where Jewish People were in the majority, but people mostly mingled in going about their daily business. In big, modern, cosmopolitan cities like Paris, most people thought that they were quite enlightened and liberal, and all that Medieval stuff was behind them. That is why such horrors as the rounding up of Jews in Paris came as such a surprise to them. Recent best-sellers try to tell this story from a modern perspective, but most of us can't fathom the trust and compliance that led to peoples' doom.
Three best-sellers I recently read have all these elements. Sarah's Key, The Nightingale, and The Orphan's Tale, all start out with this "modern" version of trust and confidence that "People are basically good", "Our government will protect us," and "that won't happen to us". And yet ALL three of these books show the horrible result of Betrayal by friends, neighbors, teachers, leaders, and worst of all, family members. And then the authors of all three books work very hard to describe the suffering that follows. Perhaps the proliferation of Holocaust novels is the result of the thinning ranks of eyewitnesses. In any case, it should not fade away into the past. And, the important lesson is that ANYONE is capable of profound betrayal, even those we love.
That, of course, is the theme of Today's Psalm. David is the victim of a powerful conspiracy led by a former "friend". The city is in turmoil and there is danger everywhere.David longs for a quiet place where he can be safe, but there is none. If an enemy had done this, he could bear it, but commentary will tell you that David was on the run from his own son Absalom.
And yet, David trusts in God.
This Psalm, written on the run somewhere, was later arranged for the Music Director with stringed instruments. David's anguish becomes public. He is not giving us a Song that was written in a pleasant recording studio with all the equipment on hand. This is REAL.
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