FBC Daily Devotional – August 23, 2021

Well, good morning here. We are off to a start of a new week and trust your week. It's off to a good one. And so today in Psalm 97. There's one of our passages to read for the day in our Bible reading plan.

The the psalm begins with a statement that may seem like. It's a dream it says the Lord reigns. The Lord reigns. Now I'm sure you're theologically astute enough to affirm that that the Lord does reign.

But when you look at our world and you look at all the chaos that's going on in the world all over the world here in our own country and the.

The.

Created crisis related to the pandemic to The situation in Afghanistan and in the Middle East and all of these different things. And then you look at the the problems of You know climate related problems with the fires out west and so on and so forth.

He's all this chaos and Catastrophe going on in our world. And then to read this opening statement in Psalm 97. It says the Lord reigns. It can give us pause and certainly the skeptic would read that and Say yeah, right.

That that.

There's obviously God is not in control of anything. The Lord isn't reigning at all. But you need to continue on reading in that psalm because if you look at the Evidences or expressions of his reigning.

It doesn't look like it doesn't look like the Garden of Eden. It doesn't look like paradise. Listen to what it says as you continue. It says a fire goes before him and burns up his enemies roundabout his lightnings light the world the earth sees and trembles.

The Mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. Does that sound like? Paradise. Hmm. Fire going before him burning up his enemies. Lightnings lightning the world earth trembling mountains melting like wax.

It sounds like earthquakes and volcanoes and You know weather related chaos. It sounds like it sounds like a lot of conflict. Burns up his enemies before him and so forth. So when you read that in the context of the Lord reigning.

Doesn't that help to put some of what you hear on the news into perspective? The Lord reigns therefore. The White House is a mess. The Lord reigns. Therefore the situation in Afghanistan is horrific. The Lord reigns therefore the drought in the West is out of control as Are the fires and so forth.

The Lord reigns. Therefore Mount Etna is Beginning to show signs of eruption. The Lord reigns. Therefore the world is in a state of seeming chaos. That's not a contradiction. The fact of the matter is the Lord uses all of those things in his sovereign Rule and reign to accomplish his divine purposes.

I mean, let's stop and think about it for just a moment. Why in the world should the United States of America? Expect to be a land of Eden. I mean consider how many millions of human beings we have slaughtered in this nation.

Under the aegis of the the freedom of choice a woman's right to choose what to do with her body and so she becomes pregnant after she has chosen, you know, To behave in certain ways that resulted in pregnancy.

She decides she wants to Kill that child inside her womb. She has perfect freedom to do so. She can go down to the local abortion clinic and she can take Exterminate the life and lawmakers and courts have upheld that right and consequently millions of Human lives have been snuffed out and that's just one example of the of the ways in which we as a nation have snubbed our nose at.

God's.

God's law at God's revealed will at God's desire and.

So.

Why should we expect him to bless us with prosperity and peace and comfort? Why shouldn't we expect the God who reigns to allow various forms of Chaos to come to our shores So that we reap what we have sown as a nation.

I don't say that with any sense of glee or any sense of you know, nana Nana Nana or any sense of satisfaction. I say that with a heavy heart. That you know, God is not going to wink at evil forever. The God who reigns Deals with it.

His lightning goes forth and as verse 5 says his fire goes before him. And he burns up his enemies. Because he reigns these things happen and that's a sobering way to start the start the new week and If it gets you off it gets you gets you thinking in a bummer way, then I'm sorry for that.

But I don't want you to think that way. I want you to instead. I Want you instead to think about the the fact that the chaos is not chaos. All of the despair is not reason to despair it is all reason to look up and.

To.

Glorify our God who reigns and is accomplishing his purposes even even when those Even when those sovereign purposes are painful for so many human beings to deal with They are because he wants us to turn from sin and turn to him our God reigns.

Let's worship him and praise him that in the chaos he's in control. And so father we do. Thank you and praise you today that you do reign and Though from a strictly human standpoint if we leave you out of the picture May seem like you don't may seem like chaos reigns.

We thank you that even as we see in this brief psalm That chaos is under your control. Now Lord made that truth Encourage us today to trust you all the more and this we pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right.

Well again, I hope you have a good start to your day. And I hope that just the realizing that our God is in control Gets your off to a good beginning of this week. God bless you. Have a good day.