Greetings Redeemer family,
This week we continue our Summer series in the wisdom literature of Proverbs, as Pastor Mike teaches on how we are commanded to pray for our nation.
Having grown up in the DC area, I confess that I often get cynical when people start mixing God and politics. Walk the aisles of Christian bookstores and you’ll see a divide over politics all across evangelicalism. On one hand you’ll find books (and Bibles!) commending America as a distinctively Christian nation that must return to the faith of her fathers. On the other hand you’ll find books whose covers scream “God is NOT a Republican!”, then whisper “or a Democrat.” This past year I saw a book rather awkwardly and nonsensically titled “Jesus for President.”
In my cynicism, it is tempting to simply disengage. I think of how young our 230-year-old nation is, and the empires that rise and fall across the millennia, and decide our American experiment will one day meet the same fate. I tell myself that God is primarily concerned with saving individual souls, not with modern nation-states and titles and power. I mentally file debates of church and state alongside passing cultural fads like Crystal Pepsi, New Coke or Adkins diets.
Yet it is impossible to live a life shaped by God’s Word and simultaneously live removed from the events in His World. Even as God proclaims Himself as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He establishes the nations of the world in accordance with His perfect plan. Life in His Kingdom is a call not towards passivity, but invested engagement. Our call to worship this week from Psalm 47 picks up on these themes:
Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.
How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth!
God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.
For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.
The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.
Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.
We respond to this summons from the Psalmist with hymns of worship to our great King:
O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing God’s power and God’s love;
our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.
Mortals, join the happy chorus,
Which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning over us,
Brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward
In the triumph song of life.
The difficulty of living as God’s people in a secular state is not a new problem, nor is it unique to our modern, American context. Instead, it is a question as old as the Church Herself. The evidence is seen even in our oldest creeds, that “Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate.” The issues of church and state have a particular bearing on our church’s tradition. Two of our denomination’s founding documents are the Westminster Confession of Faith and its Catechisms. That Assembly was appointed by the Parliament to restructure the Church of England, all amidst a civil war between the Parliament and King Charles I. It is very appropriate, then, that we consider the wisdom of our fathers in the faith as we discuss how to pray for our country this Sunday. The following confession of faith is taken from Chapter 23 in the Westminster Confession, as updated for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s Modern English Study Version:
1. God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, has ordained civil authorities to be, under Him, over the people for His own glory and the public good. For this purpose He has armed them with the power of the sword for the defense and encouragement of those who are good, and for the punishment of those who do evil.
4. It is the duty of people to pray for those in authority, to honor them, to pay them taxes or other revenue, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority for the sake of conscience. Neither unbelief nor difference in religion makes void the just and legal authority of officeholders nor frees the people—church authorities included—from their due obedience to them…
Following our Confession of Sin, we are reminded through the book of Isaiah of God’s promised protection for His people. This is probably what concerns me most immediately when political discussions arise: so often they are dominated by the language of fear. I remember one year I temped in an office and everyone declared that if a certain candidate won the election, their organization would no longer exist. November came, that candidate did win, and five years later that organization is still going. Of course, we ought to pursue wisdom and have sober minds about the costs of certain policies, but our hope is not ultimately in houses of government, presidential programs, or armies of men. Our hope is in the Lord God who calls us by name and promises to never leave us.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you,
And the waves will not
overcome you.
Do not fear,
for I have redeemed you,
I have called you by name,
you are Mine.
Chorus: For I am the Lord your God
(I am the Lord your God),
I am the Lord your God
I am the Holy One of Israel
Your Savior
I am the Lord (do not fear)
During our offertory, we will sing a simple song by Fernando Ortega about the call to worship God in all of life’s circumstances. My prayer is that this simple refrain would frame not only our time in the Word this Sunday, but our everyday coming and going throughout this next week.
When the morning falls on the farthest hill
I will sing His name, I will praise Him still.
When dark trials come and my heart is filled
With the weight of doubt, I will praise Him still.
For the Lord, our God
He is strong to save
From the arms of death,
From the deepest grave.
And He gave us life in His perfect will,
And by His good grace
I will praise Him still.
Resting my hope in the King of Kings,
Tim Sharpe
