From the sacred temple

God, who lives in his sacred Temple,
cares for orphans and protects widows.
He gives the lonely a home to live in
and leads prisoners out into happy freedom,
but rebels will have to live in a desolate land.  (verses 5,6)

Read Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35

‘As long as I’m OK, the rest of the world doesn’t really matter’, he told me. ‘I’ve worked hard to get where I am in my job and my life. I’ve got a good home, take care of my family, live a reasonable life.’

‘Sometimes’, he continued, ‘I see out of the comer of my eye the needy people of the world. You know, the homeless, the unemployed, single people, the crooks in jail. But, really, if you stop to think about it, it’s mostly their own fault that they are where they are. They can get on if they really want to. Anyway, social security and welfare groups do a pretty good job looking after them . . . and out of my taxes, what’s more! So I reckon I do enough for them.’

‘God . . . in his sacred Temple.’ God might have remained there like that. Aloof and remote. Attending to the loftier matters of heaven, with the unfortunates of the world maybe catching the edge of his awareness.

But no. God leaves his sacred Temple, his safe haven. God struggles, lives, bleeds and dies with hurting humanity. He gets involved with people, all people.

That includes me, doesn’t it . . . me in my sacred temple? Dam!

Lord God, open my eyes, ears and heart to the needs of the needy, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

by Bob Kempe, in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1998)

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