Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 60 verses 1 through 3:
O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses;
you have been angry; oh, restore us.
2 You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open;
repair its breaches, for it totters.
3 You have made your people see hard things.
In the book of Isaiah the LORD is called "the repairer of the breach and the restorer of the streets to dwell in."
Yes! And before that the LORD might well be called the wrecking ball, the earth shatterer, and the bull in the China closet.
God is not interested in equilibrium, so long as equilibrium means prevarication, lies, cover-up, and all other manner of failures to look on ourselves and others with integrity. Sooner or later, the wrecking ball has its way with us. Jobs are lost, marriages fall into dire straights, nest eggs are thrown out, and somebody has to hit bottom.
Tara's proud gates are toppled;
What remains is a sad, tottering fence standing sentry
The neighbors whisper, cry, laugh, and scorn
All is lost
But then the Prophet speaks of what he hears:
A note of grace in the jackal's howl.
John Donne wrote, "Batter my heart, three person'd God." A battering ram is a strange metaphor for God. But it is indeed a good metaphor for the One who will stop at nothing to break down our defenses and finally get at us.
The term we have for this is "tough love", which when it comes from God is more tender than we can ever imagine.
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