#20 Thursday Talk Story July 2, 2009 “Hope”
“Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.” Psalm 72: 1-2
Scott Johnson had no hope in God. He had no hope at all, so he took a gun and killed three teens up north last summer to vent his anger and despair. He said, “I have no hope. I have no future…It’s just been buildin’ up, buildin’ up, building up…when a man loses everything he is free to do anything.” (Northwestern A7,March 18, 2009)
Psalm 72 is a prayer for the King. The Hebrew says it is “By Solomon.” The poet prays that God will give the King the ability to rule with God’s justice. The King was to be the channel of God’s justice and mercy to others. He prayed God to empower him to rule like God. The King ruled his life and people best with hope in God. The King and all human governments exist to do God’s will by ruling their people by justice and mercy. When we put our trust and hope in God’s Word and see that Word enacted by government we feel hope grow in our hearts. But when rulers ignore what is right and just, the people can see their hope fade away.
Hope comes from hearing and believing God’s Word to us. Easter, for example gives hope to Christians as we believe the Good News that Jesus was raised from the dead. When we read the Gospel where Jesus says, “Trust in God always, trust also in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house, if it were not so I would have told you for I go there on purpose to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself.” (John 14) we are offered hope.
As Peter puts it “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (I Peter 1: 3ff. NRSV)
So as we hear and believe God’s Word to us in Scripture, we can always have hope no matter what losses we experience in life. Tragically, Scott Johnson didn’t hear and believe God’s Word yet. If he had heard and believed he could have had hope in the face of his losses. Perhaps if he believed God’s Word he could have ruled his own life with greater righteousness and mercy. Perhaps if he had faith in God’s justice he could have ruled his own life with greater godly fear and reverence for all life.
