FLACK FROM THE FLOCK

Congregations do weird things sometimes, just ask any pastor.   To that end, you’ve probably heard the statement made by many a shepherd at one point or another:  “Ministering would be so nice if it just wasn’t for the people.”

Over the years of attending houses of worship in more than one faith, I never recall being in one that actually “split over the color of the carpet”, but I have heard about such, and probably you have too.  Unfortunately, the psychology of mob mentality does exist, and when it rears its ugly head in a group of parishioners it can be disastrous to the Kingdom of God. 

The problem is that the good they think they’re trying to do by accomplishing the collective agenda will come back and bite them.  When they rebel against those that are in authority over them, they lose the protection that’s been afforded them in the first place. 

Sometimes, in His infinite wisdom, God will allow us to do foolish things, to be the schoolmaster that prevents further stupidity in the future—but sadly, that does not negate the painful lessons learned in the process.  When you do it God’s way, you have peace—when you think you know better than leadership, strife will be your reality.

In the 58^th Psalm, David asks God to thwart any success his enemies might otherwise enjoy.  He asks for their sustenance to be interrupted, their weapons to become useless, and for death to come upon them before the appointed time.  The psalmist intimates that the greatest treat lies with the once-oppressed that see God exact His vengeance on the former enemies of His children.

Vindication, with its own structure, can bring the greatest peace of all, because it tells the vindicated that the effort—in spite of the bruising—was worth it. 

b(Les)sings

Psalm 58

King James Version (KJV)

 ¹Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
 ²Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
 ³The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
 ⁴Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
 ⁵Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
 ⁶Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
 ⁷Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
 ⁸As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
 ⁹Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
 ¹⁰The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
 ¹¹So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.