November 12, 2024 -- Psalm 34:14 -- What are you chasing after?

Turn away from evil and do good;
    seek peace and pursue it.
Psalm 34:14 ESV
 
Funny, how when you are flying you can peek over the shoulder of the man in the seat in front of you and catch a glimpse of his little TV screen. I went from Moncton to Kansas City yesterday, lots of flying time and lots of fragmented TV from the screens around me. There is one guy, glued to his set. Whatever movie the guy was watching was an action flick. I could just see bits and pieces of it, but whenever I happened to glance over, and of course have no sound, it is jarring and disconnected, there were car chases etc. The dramatic ending was something big blowing up and the hero of the movie stoically walking away from the inferno and blasts while debris falling all around him. I thought of that as I read this text this morning.
 
For many of us our entertainment is violent. There is a celebration of evil. Murder mysteries. Video games. Horror flicks. Music that is inappropriate and the words, whoa now, if you really stopped and considered them, you’d be embarrassed by them in polite company. Even around not so polite company you’d realize how vile they are.
 
David, the psalm-writer, had put himself into a right, proper mess. He’d gone to a foreign king for help and realized he’d put himself into the hands of a wicked man. He’d blown up his life and he’d inappropriately trusted in people rather than in God. Isn’t that like so many people in our world who blow up their lives?  Adultery. Children by different dads. The necessary intervention of Child Protective Services. Abuse. Gossip. Abusers. Malice. Addictions. Inwardly cheering over the failures of others. The list is endless.
 
The point of this Psalm is that God brings order out of chaos. When David realized his wrongdoing and escaped, he turned to God Who is his boast and help. As Christians, it is our duty and our purpose to walk with people who have blown up their lives. (I mean, what other result could there be but destruction and chaos and infernos when we think we are in charge of our lives and then act on our impulses and feelings and wobbly moral codes?)
 
Believers meet with those who are standing in the post-destruction ruin of their lives and bring the good word and work of Jesus. Believers help such folks find peace. Peace with God the Compassionate One. This peace comes through the reconciling work of Jesus. Peace within their own hearts, conquering the realization that their mess is of their own making and the only rescue possible will have to be divine—the All-Mighty Power of the LORD—so that true healing and reconstruction can begin. Peace with other people. Where sin reigned, there will be a trail of brokenness and malice and twisted, smoldering lives. The peace of Christ will rule on the heart of believers and that peace is meant to be extended, shared, so that the reign of Christ overturns the works of the Devil. It is possible. It is why believers preach the Gospel.
 
Pursue it. I don’t know about you, but I easily, all too easily, give up. I am easily overwhelmed by the messes I can make in my life—let alone be confronted with the epic disasters of the people around me. But isn’t that why Jesus came to this earth? We were utterly, are completely, will be astoundingly unable to fix our lives. We don’t even know where to begin. But God, rich in mercy, gave His Son Jesus to destroy the work of the Devil and the wickedness of the world, and the warped nature in us that always led us astray.
 
Jesus is the Rescue Story. His Spirit draws us away from evil, so that we confess it, know what it is and learn to hate it. The Spirit plants the Word deep in us so that we can recognize the traps of the Deceiver and the wiles of the world. The Spirit applies the reconciling peace of Jesus into the most tender, ruined, destroyed places of our lives and out of the wreckage forges a new life beyond our present ability to understand.
 
Ah, fellow believer, do not give up. Today, seek the peace of Jesus Christ, pursue it in your own life and the Father in heaven will bring to you others who can identify with you, are drawn to you and your circumstances and will wonder, “Can I have that sort of transformation in my life?” Oh yes you can! It is the free gift of God.
 
Prayer
 
The Bible proves You are the LORD Who delivers people out of all their afflictions and troubles. You redeem the life of Your servants. In fact, Jesus taught that You no longer call us servants, but friends, and then sons and daughters, adopted by God! Precious Jesus rescue me from all my fears, sins, and failures. Spirit of God as the peace of Christ takes hold of me and I am strengthened to do good and pursue God, then make me aware of those You bring into my life who are themselves in need of Jesus’s rescue. I pray that last bit with some fear, knowing how small and weak I really am—for this to happen You really have to be all my strength and hope all day and every day. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/6WtV1XtqsW0?si=pD-PY-i6TqVmExIS Chain Breaker — Zach Williams
 

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