Psalms 47-49

Above:  Some of the Possessions of Charles Foster Kane after His Death, from Citizen Kane (1941)

A Screen Capture by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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POST XVIII OF LX

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The Book of Common Prayer (1979) includes a plan for reading the Book of Psalms in morning and evening installments for 30 days.  I am therefore blogging through the Psalms in 60 posts.

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 226

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God is in control.  Do we affirm this?  We (collectively and individually) ought to trust in God.  Do we (collectively and individually) give more than lip service to this principle?  Related to these points is another one.  Since wealth and pleasure are temporary, we should not trust in them–make idols of them.  Is this not a counter-cultural message in many, if not most, societies?  Greed and hedonism are, after all, powerful temptations.

Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich,

when his household goods increase;

for when he dies he can take none of it along;

his goods cannot follow him down.

–Psalm 49:17-18, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

That passage reminds me of another one:

Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal, but store up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust will destroy, nor thieves break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

–Matthew 6:19-21, The Revised English Bible (1989)

Shall we be honest with and about ourselves?  Each of us clings to something that is temporary as if it were permanent.  It might be tangible or intangible, but it is transitory.  It is also an idol.  The treasures, even if only psychological in nature, we lay up in this life distract us from acknowledging our complete dependence on God, in whom scripture tells us we should trust.

May we, by grace, cease this idolatry.  There is nothing inherently wrong with wealth, which one can use for positive purposes.  The issues are how one relates to it and how one utilizes it.  Does one make an idol of it?  If so, one has a spiritual problem.  For many of us, though, the idolatrous attachments might be to family heirlooms or to other possessions of little value to anyone else.  Our stuff (for lack of a more accurate word) weighs us down and distracts us from focusing on where our attention should be.  May we, by grace, abandon this idolatry and place our sentimental stuff in proper perspective.

The History Channel series Life After People, although not religious and spiritual by design, is germane to this post.  The series imagines the fate of the physical remains of human civilizations after the disappearance of the human race from the planet.  Eventually, one learns, almost evidence of humans will cease to exist.  The Pyramids of Giza and our plastic refuse (especially that great mass of it in the oceans) will last the longest.  Most of that which we imagine to be permanent will return to nature, as it should.  We are, in the long term, insignificant.  While we are here, however, we can accomplish much good and glorify God.  May we strive to do so.  May we, by grace, succeed.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 10, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM WALSHAM HOW, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF WAKEFIELD AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS SISTER, FRANCES JANE DOUGLAS(S), HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT LAURENCE OF ROME, ROMAN CATHOLIC DEACON AND MARTYR

THE FEAST OF SHERMAN BOOTH, ABOLITIONIST

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