(A Terminus Ad Genesis, Appendix A)
The descent into madness begins with fixation on loss.
As a response, the mind tries to fill in the empty space… in hope, but in vain.
And that actually makes it more painful, no? The most excruciating of tortures are not those with high levels of pain, nor are they necessarily the ones that are drawn out the longest and slowest; They’re the ones with some semblance of hope.
It’s the window in a prison cell, reminding the prisoner every time of where he isn’t. It’s the lack of labels on the apparatus for lethal injection, giving the condemned the smallest of hopes that someone swapped out the chemicals. I’ve also watched how, in some nations, those on death row are never informed of their execution date until the very last hour.
But I suppose I’d like to make an exception. We in the body of Christ are not sadistic, nor are we masochistic, to offer folks false hope in our prayers, or in our encouragement for them to call upon the name of the Lord. No, unlike anything else in this fallen world, we tell ourselves and others to call upon the name of the Lord, that we would be saved.
It’s never a waste of time to place our trust in the Most High. It’s not to say that we wouldn’t work, but we move, all the while waiting on the Lord and trusting that He is true to His Word: At all times, He is for us, not against us; He is with us, never leaving us; He is good, He is great, and He causes all things to work for the good.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The return to stability and thriving begins with a prayer.
As I recover from this bout of fear, loneliness, and just outright heaviness of my soul… It’s not as if the world sees all I’m going through, and lets up. No, the assaults have never stopped, the burdens have not gotten any lighter.
In my case, I’m realizing, now that I have close to nothing in my bank account, how the world can just have its way with me and all that I hold dear. And it works the other way around – the more I see the cruel world, the more I realize how powerless I am.
But… well, give praise and thanks to our God, because, see, even through all that’s going on that’s trying to tear my mind and body apart, the Lord continues to be faithful. The Lord continues to be true… Faithful and true, in that He is simply with us during all this. The world and all that is in it may turn our backs on us, or turn against us… But, again, take it in – through Christ and all He has done, we ought to keep remembering that the Creator of the universe, and all that is seen and unseen – the one true God is fully present with us, now and forever.
In His full presence, there is fullness of joy. And this joy is our strength.
Even before He lay His life down, Christ already told His disciples, and He already told all of us to take heart, because He has already overcome the world.
We were not born again to take on the world on our own. We were saved in trust, to trust in Him; And we ourselves are able to overcome the enemy by our confession of the redeeming, reconciling, forgiving blood of Christ, and consequently, our testimony.
Isn’t that true prayer? Isn’t prayer a celebration of Christ’s finished work, in that if Christ never came to save us, we wouldn’t have a line to heaven? Isn’t prayer a celebration of the blood, in that it’s the blood of Christ that reconciled us to God forever?
Isn’t prayer our confession of God’s good, gracious, mighty and wise works in our own lives, pointing to and coming from Christ’s work – His birth, death, resurrection and ascension?
Aoteru Misumi kept containing all of his emotions, with all of his might. In front of him was Taira Denki, Minister of Domestic Affairs of the Yamato nation, of the land of Japan. In Aoteru’s hands was a box, containing the severed head of his wife, freshly executed under the command of the Minister.
In this portrayal of Japan in an alternate reality, nuclear war broke out all over the world and global temperatures plummeted, to a point that it snows almost every day. Blood mingled with snow… but alas, it wasn’t just the blood of Aoteru’s wife.
In an unexpected response to Taira giving him the box, Aoteru pointed out that his wife was not alone in offending the Minister; She mentioned a ‘fatty‘, but the subordinate who brought up the issue in the first place vocally implied that this ‘fatty‘ was the Minister. No, there was also the blood leaking out of the severed head of this subordinate, soaking the snow during that moment.
Aoteru took his leave, and as he walked away, Taira asked him, ‘What are you feeling now?‘
And I built all of this up only to share Aoteru quoting Laozi, who said: ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step‘
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The return to stability and thriving begins with a prayer.
I gotta get out of this slump… starting now.
Thank You, Lord, for the reading of Your Word.
Psalm 14
Folly of the Godless, and God’s Final Triumph (Ps. 53:1–6)
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
Well now. Let’s draw that reference up now, shall we?
Psalm 53
Folly of the Godless, and the Restoration of Israel (Ps. 14:1–7)
To the Chief Musician. Set to “Mahalath.” A Contemplation of David.
It’s Psalm-ception, folks! Here, apparently, are observations that good king David made, things that left enough impact for him to not only write but compose songs about… at least twice.
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity; There is none who does good.
I suppose the godless and foolish find themselves in a slippery slope, and a downward spiral. Let’s not forget that we were all born in this Christless state, corrupt and iniquitous. And not only was there none who does good… everyone does no good.
You know, I’m looking at both Psalms right now and it looks like David wrote almost the same words up until we see variations in Psalm 53:5 and Psalm 14:5-6. It’s like David had what was written from verses 1-4 of both Psalms in mind, between the events when Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 were composed.
And I could see where he’s coming from. I mean, if you look long enough, and trust me, it doesn’t take too much time, you’ll see how individuals, families, societies, nations, and tribes denying God and affirming themselves are altogether corrupt, born for abominable iniquity, and certainly not built for good.
The verses continue:
2 God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 Every one of them has turned aside; They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon God?
In Christ’s speech known as the Sermon on the Mount (beginning in Matthew 5) one of His many notable lines to the audience (of whom the majority were His fellow Jews) was found in chapter 6, verse 33: Seek first the Kingdom of God. Based on the ‘common’ verses between Psalms 14 and 53, to seek His kingdom is to seek Him, to strive to understand, and to attain knowledge, unlike the corrupt workers of iniquity.
But it does help to read the verses preceding, if only for a fuller context. See, before Christ told those within the sound of His voice not to worry, and to seek God and His Kingdom first, we read what He says, in Matthew 6:22-24:
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Needless to say, mankind was in such a sorry, hopeless state. David writes, we were corrupt. We were not fixated on the good, much less doing any of it… Instead of calling upon God, our eyes were set on each other, and actually, consuming or otherwise stealing, killing and destroying God’s people.
Generations later, Christ speaks more into our corruption – our eyes as bad lamps, our bodies filled with great darkness, hating God and loving mammon (‘riches‘ in Aramaic). I suppose, given enough power, we too would easily order the summary executions, the instant beheadings of those who would offend us.
And there’s more… for although I mentioned that Psalms 14 and 53 vary from verse 5, it still speaks of the fate of the foolish:
5 There they are in great fear Where no fear was, For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you; You have put them to shame, Because God has despised them.
5 There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous.
6 You shame the counsel of the poor, But the LORD is his refuge.
The Godless are corrupt and incapable of good because they are filled with darkness, and they ultimately serve themselves. They say ‘there is no God’ because of what they aren’t saying: ‘I am God’.
Their bodies may appear glorious on the outside but nothing could hide the great darkness that is in them – And with this darkness is fear; dark within, and so surrounded outside by a great fear, ‘because God has despised them‘ and, rather, ‘for God is with the generation of the righteous‘
They say ‘I am God‘ because God is not with them, and God is with the righteous.
It’s a (great) fear naturally accompanied by shame and condemnation… and by that shame, they shame ‘the counsel of the poor‘, perhaps even if they know that the Lord is with them.
Out of all the wonderful landscape photographs I’ve taken (rather, the landscape photographs that people have called wonderful), one thing I’ve noticed is what makes it wonderful has nothing to do with composition, more than it is the actual location.
So far, Taira Denki is illustrated throughout the Nippon Sangoku anime and manga, as a smiling, smug man, seemingly unmovable but obviously unhindered, a result of all of his politicking. If there was a live-action adaptation for this IP, it’ll probably have nothing much to do with the interpreting actor, more than it is how the character actually is. He’s that easy to hate.
But, see, that’s the thing. You can go deeper and actually see that, beneath the hate is simply a corrupt person who just happens to have a lot of power.
And if Uncle Ben told Peter Parker that ‘with great power comes great responsibility‘, our readings would have us also see, with clarity: ‘with great corruption comes great fear‘.
I don’t know how to end this. I know I should be getting out of my slump. I know there’s a lot for me to do. I know I don’t have anything. I know there’s a lot in and around me that needs serious help…
But, Lord, right now, I don’t want to go any further into who I used to be – filled with darkness, surrounded by fear. As my trust is in You, oh, send some light my way, Lord; You ARE the Light.
Thank You, because You hear (and read) the prayers of Your people; Indeed, I’m only Your child because of Christ, and it is in His name that I pray, in His name that I write.
You’re the great Power who took great responsibility over a penalty I deserved.
You’re the perfect love that casts out the great fear. You became great corruption, that we would become Your progression.
Indeed, I am not alone. You are with me.. and because You are with me, all that is corrupt fades; In its place is righteousness unto eternal life, and eternal life unto temporal growth, miraculous breakthrough, progression according to Your power, wisdom and love;
By Your Word came life and light;
By Your Word we pray, and take the first step.
Thank You, Father, for the reading of Your Word. Amen.
Psalm 14:6 Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of His people, Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
Psalm 53:7 Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD brings back the captivity of His people, Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
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