For the past 3 or 4 days I’ve been reading from the Book of Psalms after my workouts, and before ending the recording. If I remember I’ve gone through Psalm 23, Psalm 91, and Psalm 27.
Today, I didn’t really have a Psalm in mind, and just went for the first one I found fit as soon as I opened my Bible. I was led to Psalm 64, and I believe it speaks to me and a good majority of us.
Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy.
Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers,
who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,
shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear.
They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly,
thinking, “Who can see them?” They search out injustice,
saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.”
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube recently, and you’d think that I’d have some sort of grasp on controlling my ‘intake’; both in terms of quality and quantity. For the latter, I’m thankful that iOS keeps me in check by giving me weekly usage reports… and it’s been telling me I’m averaging, oh, 8-9 hours a day. Not sure if that’s accurate, or how that’s recorded and calculated, but I’ll take its word. If it were so, well, that’ll mean that I’ve not only been watching more, but more… well, ‘junk’ content – ‘junk’ in the same way we say ‘junk food’ – worse than being neutral in terms of nutrient content, it drains us of health.
Well, okay. It’s not all junk. I’ve been watching a lot of Mark Wiens lately and just listening to him talk about how good food from around the world tastes is pretty therapeutic, if not entertaining. I also highly recommend listening to the likes of Simon Whistler (Biographics for learning more about history), Dagogo Altraide, and Shirvan Neftchi (ColdFusion & CaspianReport, for geopolitics) to sort of broaden your own worldview… But the thing is, every now and then, I find myself listening to more, well, ‘creepy’ content; Started off with unsolved mysteries, but now, well, I’ve also been watching more – well, how do I put it – ‘dark side’ videos e.g. ‘The dark side of social media’, insights as to what’s really going on in China, atrocities of criminals (individuals and organizations); stuff that really just has me thinking that this world, this reality we’re in is a really messed up, twisted, fallen place to be in.
And it’s not just in YouTube but I see it in Twitter as well. The algorithm seems to be primed so I get familiar content based on my likes, follows, tweets and retweets, and it appears I’m seeing a lot of conspiracy theory type content on my feed – affirming that even (or especially) at the ‘top’, people are messed up, twisted, and fallen. The fact that you can go from seeing all of this on Twitter to the seemingly ‘beautiful’ world on Facebook – with all the posts of your contacts and a couple of sponsored posts here and there of how they’ve eaten this, or been here or there, and how they’re happy – well, it just tells me with a cynical mindset that states: We’re in a really messed up, twisted, fallen reality, we ourselves are messed up, twisted, and fallen, and the solution that most of us have figured out is to close our eyes to this reality, and show the world that we’re… coping.
Take note, I haven’t even stepped out of the house yet – But it appears I don’t have to go out to know that this reality is hitting closer to home. Yes, thanks to technology, not only do we have front-row seats to the world imploding, but we are also so connected to each other that we are able to communicate with people near and far with more ease than we could have imagined decades ago; and the communications we tell each other (those we trust and those who trust us, anyway); well, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies.
Someone’s had to go to the hospital because of pain in the head that couldn’t be addressed with over-the-counter relief. Someone else isn’t experiencing physical, but mental discomfort. Someone’s being forced to go against personal belief because the rest of the family is so fixated on their religious affiliation. Someone’s overwhelmed with an upcoming opportunity, and someone else is overwhelmed because of the sudden end of an opportunity.
You see a lot of bad stuff happening around the world, and among people you know personally… and for some reason we still have the energy to bring bad stuff to ourselves. We have our own habits that we couldn’t seem to shake, our own mindsets established over time that still persist in sabotaging our progress, self-defeating declarations that we unconsciously speak.
Messed up, twisted, and fallen. There’s never been a time when the dread of the enemy has been more visible. The secret plots of the wicked on high seem to be coming to fruition, as the throng of evildoers increases in number – and more and more are swayed through their tongues like swords, their bitter words like arrows – spoken to more and more unsuspecting victims at the right time. And it’s not as if any of it is done in careful consideration – it’s all done in impunity.
And I feel as if the reason for all of this chaos running rampant and blatant… it all began in our hearts.
For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep.
But God shoots his arrow at them; they are wounded suddenly.
They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them;
all who see them will wag their heads.
Then all mankind fears; they tell what God has brought about
and ponder what he has done.
We don’t need to analyze too much, nor do we need to look too far to see the root cause of the problem. The problem of all problems is sin – that is, separation from God. But now that I think about it, that isn’t the complete picture of this, problem of all problems; We asked for it. I’m being led to recall what was discussed Eve and the serpent where it all began:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3:1-6
I bring this all up only to say, that sin isn’t just separation from God – No, that was apparently a result of sin; No, I feel as if sin can be summarized into this statement – ‘I will be like God’; A statement that has us believing ourselves, and not believing in God.
Throughout the Old Testament we see both the folly of our believing in ourselves, and the tragedy of our not believing in God. And not only do we see its great impact upon us in large-scale events (e.g. entire kingdoms physically vanquished), but also the long-rooted effects – minds and spirits broken, tribes and nations torn apart. And now that I think about it, I shouldn’t be surprised at the apparent escalation of things like this happening these days; to my understanding Daniel did prophesy that with the increase of knowledge, it is inevitable that iniquity also increases exponentially.
The world has trying to be like God all this time, believing in themselves apart from God, and intentionally, actively erasing His grace and glory.
Speaking of YouTube, I did watch a couple videos today that more or less contributed to the train of thought behind what I have to share.
A video by China Insights tells us about how our brothers and sisters in that side of the world are coping with what appears to be an economic crisis. Those of the younger generation, particularly those who are having greater trouble in finding a job, and a good-paying one at that – they’ve resorted to applying for work… in their own homes. They’d offer to take care of their parents in return for a ‘salary’. Others would go as far as to depend on the scratch-card lottery for earning… and still others would run to religion.
‘The number of Temple visits has increased by 310% compared to last year and about half of the visitors are young visitors born in the 1990s and 2000s.’ The video reveals that not just job-seekers but students go to the temples, if not seeking divine favor for work, they look for relief from the high standards in academics. But what got my attention was when the narrator mentioned this for our consideration: ‘Some analysts say that this phenomenon not only indicates the employment crisis but also proves the failure of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brainwashing of atheism over the years.’
Xie Tian, Professor of Aiken School of Business in the University of South Carolina, shares: ‘People originally thought that after such a long period of brainwashing and atheistic education by the CCP, young people’s faith and belief in divinity and Buddhism, and then reverence for the higher realms, might be weaker. But I think this just shows that people’s heartfelt insistence on righteousness and goodwill toward the divine hasn’t been completely wiped out even under the CCP’s suppession.’
Another video by a channel I recently subscribed to, Virtual Carbon, investigates how children online are being lured into predatory Discord channels all in the name of Internet Spirituality. The narrator also shares on how binaural frequencies are not only being used for good, but especially for evil. I won’t get into the details of it, but if you’re interested, look up ‘The Dark Side of Internet Spirituality’ on YouTube.
I bring it up because I thought something he said was worth remembering: ‘A looming theme over this video and my research has been that people get dragged into these negative spaces mainly because they’re going through a dark time in their lives. The truth is that we all have to go through our own dark times. It’s important to know who you can trust and keep those people close, because your mental (sic) is the most important thing. Stay focused and don’t get dragged into things for the sake of salvation because sometimes the darkest shadows are casted by the brightest of lights.’
Sin has brought us to great suffering as a result of our trying in vain to suppress God, and our lying to ourselves, or listening to the lies of others, for salvation apart from God.
What’s worse is that not only did we bring this upon ourselves, we also couldn’t do anything about it. We were warned in the Garden, that if we eat of the fruit, we will surely die – and oh, what a death that was, manifesting from the Fall to today – spanning over millennia and countless generations! This world is messed up because of the death of order; It’s twisted because of the death of common sense, and it’s fallen because of the death of courage.
But friends… let us praise the Lord. For in the fullness of time, God sent His Son – And take note, Jesus Christ did not just die for our sin; No, friends, Christ BECAME our sin. There’s no other way to address sin – nothing in creation can cover it, no words can be spoken to justify it – No, sin has to be taken away. The burning coal that touched the Prophet Isaiah’s lips took his sins away. In the same manner, Christ TOOK our sin, and He took our sin fully by BECOMING sin. He became sin that separated from God, resulting in death, death manifesting in fear. The crucified Christ became messed up, twisted and fallen in our place.
And how do we know that all sin was addressed? Well, the complete verse in 2 Corinthians 5:21 mentions that Christ became sin that we would become His righteousness! Imagine, we have been so infected by sin that our entire beings were soaked in it, and that it took Christ BECOMING sin to take sin away from us – as such, if Christ BECAME our sin, so we have been brought so close to Him, and we have been reconciled so much to God, that we are not only seen to possess Christ’s righteousness; In the same manner that Christ became our sin, so we also BECAME His righteousness!
And if sin led to death, so righteousness brought us to eternal life! The righteousness we have in Christ reconciled us to God now and forever, and because we have been reconciled to God, we have been reconciled to Life, and because Christ lives forever, so we live forever, this eternal life manifesting in perfect love that casts out all fear! Therefore, because of the risen Christ, we have Life beyond this messed up, twisted and fallen reality… and because of the ascended Christ, we have the Spirit of Power, Love, and Sound Judgment!
It is His righteousness, His Life alive in us that endures, for the world to see God’s goodness that more and more would be led to repentance and saved. It is Christ that endures, no matter how the enemy of our souls would try to suppress us, distract us, or overwhelm us.. and it is Christ – no more, no less – it is Christ who shines the brightest, piercing through even the darkest of nights and the blackest of shadows, for all of us to see!
Truly and indeed, it’s only because of Christ that we are able to end the Psalm, just as the Psalmist did:
Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him!
Let all the upright in heart exult!
I’m going through the verses the ESV directs us to, from that final verse of Psalm 64. So far, it’s been pretty interesting.
Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Psalms 32:11
In any circumstance, let us be glad. Let us rejoice and shout for joy – for it is through Christ alone that we have been proclaimed righteous, and also ‘upright in heart’. This tells me that we’ve been justified from the outside (proclaimed righteous), and sanctified from the inside (made upright in heart)… and it is by this justification and sanctification that we have been fully and absolutely reconciled and brought to be ‘in the Lord’.
The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent one mocks at them,
saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.’
Job 22:19-20
Though we will continue to see sin rampant in this world, and though we ourselves are still exist in this messed up, twisted, and fallen reality, I’m given a reminder through this verse – Righteousness not only means we have we been fully and absolutely reconciled to God, brought ‘in the Lord’, but we have also been completely cut off from sin, absolutely saved and rescued from consuming fire; If we’ve been brought in the Lord, we’ve been brought out of darkness into His everlasting light!
I say again, it is Christ that endures, no matter how the enemy of our souls would try to suppress us, distract us, or overwhelm us.. and it is Christ – no more, no less – it is Christ who shines the brightest, piercing through even the darkest of nights and the blackest of shadows, for all of us to see. No matter how we see the world so messed up, no matter how twisted things seem around us, and no matter how fallen we find ourselves personally – let us remember that all of it fades before our Savior, who has made us righteous as He is righteous – we will always be with Him, and we will always have Life.
To be honest, I didn’t think I’d spend this much time making this article. It wasn’t supposed to be this long. But I guess I had a lot of things in my mind, and I needed to let it all out this way. If anyone does read this and come this far, I’d like to thank God for them, but more than anything, I pray that these words wouldn’t just stay this way, but they would be life – not only for me, as I write it, but again, for anyone else who reads it.
Let us end with words from another Psalm:
God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered;
and those who hate him shall flee before him!
As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away;
as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God!
But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God;
they shall be jubilant with joy!
Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts;
his name is the LORD; exult before him!
Psalms 68:1-4
Until the next post, God bless you.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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