Count on it! (Day 1)

 Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure, in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.

Psalm 73:13

Years ago when our children were in their teens and I volunteered in our high-school youth group, I used to refer to Psalm 73 as “The High School Psalm.” You might remember the gist of it: a good, god-fearing individual looks around and sees a world in which the wicked prosper and doing the right thing seems to count for absolutely nothing. Those sentiments seemed to fit with the experiences of all the nameless “nerds” who did their homework, minded their parents and tried to live their faith in a culture where beauty, athletic ability and “cool” were the keys to the kingdom of high school popularity.

 Nowhere is it documented that Asaph, the author, composed Psalm 73 in a three-ring binder the week before prom. It is just that, for most of us anyway, the high school years represent one’s initial immersion into the superficialities and inequities of the world system.

Maybe you, though far from your teens, agonize over the injustices in this world and man’s inhumanity to man. Or maybe you are trying your best to live a pure and God-honoring life, to be a joyful witness in the midst of a perverse generation, but you secretly struggle with bitterness, and Asaph’s confession, “…I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked,” (v.3)  could be yours also. Perhaps as you read this, you are being squeezed by any one of the world’s circumstantial molds, and your current experience doesn’t at all mirror the promises of Scripture or the power of God.

 If any of this is true for you right now, then take heart. God is “near to the broken-hearted.” (Ps. 34:18) From the truth of His Word we can find both comfort and strength.

 Nancy Shirah