Daily Lesson for September 19, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 62 verses 10 through 13:

10 Those of high degree are but a fleeting breath, *

even those of low estate cannot be trusted.

11 On the scales they are lighter than a breath, *

all of them together.

12 Put no trust in extortion;

in robbery take no empty pride; *

though wealth increase, set not your heart upon it.

13 God has spoken once, twice have I heard it, *

that power belongs to God.

And 1 Kings chapter 21 verses 20 through 22:

20 Ahab said to Elijah, ‘Have you found me, O my enemy?’ He answered, ‘I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord,21I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; 22and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin.

Here is a little poem I sometimes think of when might sets itself up as right and the strong overpower the weak:

"The little front wave ran onto the shore

And frothed there wildly elated

'I am the tide,' the little front wave said,

'And the waves before me are dated.'"

The counsel of Scripture reminds us again and again that though the wicked and unjust may have their day in the sun, their time too will run out. The little front wave may think he is king of the world, but the tide ebbs and flows and will one day turn.  We are all dust and to dust we shall return. 

I keep coming back to the funeral of King Louis XIV, who called himself "the Great" and once declared, "I am the State."  Yet at his funeral, Bishop Massilon snuffed out the candle above his coffin and said, "In the end, only God is great."

That's something for kings and princes and paupers alike to bear in mind -- always.