A Contemporary Psalm by a Contemporary David

              Psalm 3  

O beloved Father; Lord of heaven and earth;

You, who are the same from age to age …is our money all you really need in this hour? Is that what we should be sacrificing our lives and the lives of our children for? Is this how you desire us to advance the Kingdom of Your beloved Son in this wretched materialistic age?  Should we make it our chief ambition to chase after “good paying careers”?  If I were to listen to the voices of the so called “shepherds” of this age I would believe it so.

 Yet, if that is so; why did You initially choose the poor of this earth to be rich in faith and heirs of your Kingdom? Weren’t they, and not the rich, who You chose to turn this world upside down? Didn’t they do that with a devout faith and a shared life; and not “silver and gold”?

Have things so changed when you moved your beloved apostle James to speak…

   

“Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?  (James 2:5)

Has Bill Gates, Hugh Heffner, Madonna and Oprah become our new role models for saving the world?  If our gift to the world is the same as these “do whatever it takes to make money” people, where does the glory for Your work go? Mammon?, Fame?, Prestige?  If you still choose the poor of this earth; should they then go out and get “financially secure” to advance that same Kingdom ?  Wasn’t it you who said … “Not by might or by power but by my Spirit”?  Shouldn’t your Kingdom be different?  

 Isn’t it still by faith not finance that your Kingdom grows?

When I consider the history of your chosen ones throughout the last 2000 years, they seem to validate the principals and ideals which were first written to the gathered people in Corinth. Remember what You spoke to Your beloved “nothings” in the city of Corinth….

    

“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” (1 Corinthians25-29)

It wasn’t the rich and powerful you used to topple men’s arrogance and bring them to heaven, …. it was the shared Life of the “nothings”.

The Kingdom's powerful advances that shook the world two thousand years ago were accomplished by the scorned poor of this world; not the favored rich.

If the love of money is the root of all evil, does wanting it for the right reasons sanctify the pursuit of it? Should we now pray to You to become rich and powerful… for the “right  reasons” ? Haven’t you always chosen the weak, the base, even the despised to bring down the proud, rich, powerful, noble men of this earth? Isn’t that still how You do things? 

Have we exchanged the “foolishness of God” for the foolishness of men?

O Lord you put the rich and powerful in their place by doing extraordinary things Your own way….the way of faith and sacrifice by your people. When Your people moved in Your “foolishness” the world saw clearly Your hand in everything your people did. The earth was blessed by sharing in the shared Life of our faith, not our checkbooks.

It presently could be said that “Madonna”, has the same ministry as most contemporary churches. But building hospitals, orphanages, schools, just takes money…not faith.

And aren’t we supposed to make disciples of the surrounding nations?  And doesn’t that take someone demonstrating the Life of Jesus Christ not just writing a check. We should be careful not to just make the world a better place to go to hell from. Nothing good has ever come of us replicating the way the world accomplishes its goals. Even if those intentions are good and successful. 

Your Kingdom is advanced by the sacrificial deeds of your people…. not the bank accounts of “wealthy Christians”. The rich were humbled by the glory of those sacrifices. The noble were bowed by the love of the ignoble and no flesh ever gloried in your presence. 

Why now are those sacrifices being replaced with financial planning and money brokering?  Those precious poor, base and despised people, shook the whole earth by the sacred shared, Life they offered mankind. The power of mammon waned as the your wisdom grew evident. The problems of the earth could be eased and the soul prepared for eternity by love and sharing; not investments and financial planning.

It’s not as though I don’t rejoice to see the poor helped. I have felt the longings of the sick needy. I have seen their needs and heard their desperate cries for help. I have been with them when death tried to steal their family members for not having medicine costing less than one American fast food lunch. I cannot but hope that each and every one of those needs will be met; no matter how or where it comes from.

Yet meeting those physical requirements cannot meet the needs of their eternal soul. The needs of their soul cannot be met by the most charitable acts of unbelievers or even by half hearted financially well off Christians.  Those needs cannot truly be touched unless they are touched by the sacrificial giving of the lives of those who live inside Christ and can say with Peter..."silver and gold have I none but such as I have I give you."

Lord; I pray you bless those who have no other way to give of themselves except financially. Yet teach them to give out of their life and not their excess. Teach them to give their lives away as they give of their resources. May they see that you do not need their money but their lives. That you are not impressed by how much money they gave, but how much of their lives went in to the offering. Like the beloved widow in the temple that day.…

Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."       (Mark 12:41-44)

Lord of heaven and earth; may in these last hours You raise up a people who are willing to become poor enough to be chosen to become rich in faith. Let them hasten the complete return your Kingdom …not by influence or wealth …but by your Spirit in your devoted disciples.  May the wisdom of a sincere faith and a shared Life appear once again and shake the earth one last time before you return.

And let us be named among those blessed ones who get to do the shaking. Dear Lord of all; may your Kingdom come to this earth in its fullness as it has so fully come into our hearts.