Fred

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Psalm 72:1-7

Ok -- I'm switchin' it up. Here is a Psalm (from yesterday's readings) that illustrates what the Hebrew people anticipated in a Messiah. How does it connect with what we find in the Gospels about Jesus? How does is depart from those accounts?



Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king’s son.
2May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice. 3May the mountains yield
prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness.
4May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor.
5May he live* while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
6May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth. 7In his days may righteousness flourish
and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

Split Personalities

The thing that struck me about this passage is that too often I have the attitude of the theif on the cross who mocks Jesus. I'm in the mess I'm in because of ME and my attitude and my choices, and yet I yell, "Get me out of this! You're God, aren't you? Why aren't you doing anything!?!" I'm reminded of the verse in Proverbs 19:3, "A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord."
What was it about the other thief on the cross, the one who asks Jesus to remember him when He is in His kingdom, that causes him to have such a different perspective? His heart is believing, he is humble and hopeful that Christ will grant him something he knows he doesn't deserve. It's such an opposite perspective, which we, as Christians are supposed to have.
What is it that makes some harden their hearts like the one thief, and makes others be humble of heart and opposite-thinking like the other?