Read: Psalm 83

Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind.
-Psalm 83:13

It must have been tough to be an Israelite back in the day. I mean, who wasn’t out to get you? And while it’s sad to witness the paranoia that seems to define life today as a modern Israeli, the millennia are but nanoseconds in the span of God’s time…and the more things change, the more they seem the same from a biblical perspective. Suffice it to say that this isn’t the world I would choose to live in, but as a male of northern European ancestry in 21st Century America, I constantly remind myself of how privileged I have been. It’s that awareness that makes it hard for me to relate to the feelings of retribution of the psalmist. As a student of history, if not the bible, I am nevertheless also reminded that those of us fortunate enough to live in this country are ultimately no less likely to avoid the fates of Midian, Sisera, and Jabin (never mind the Roman Empire) if we fail to cover our own faces with shame when we seek out God’s name.

Lord, keep me mindful when I fret over my enemies that “you alone are the Most High over all the earth,” and that as a supplicant it is I rather than you that is more likely to “turn a deaf ear” and “stand aloof.” Amen.
-Michael Boss