Yesterday in my daily scripture reading I read Psalms 72 , which says it is a “Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King” written by Solomon.
The Psalm made me think of the wonderful hymn, “America the Beautiful“, for a couple of reasons. First, in verse 8 the Psalm says, “May he have dominion from sea to sea” which is paralleled by the songs “with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.” Second, the Psalm verse 16 says, ”May there be abundance of grain in the land; may it wave on the tops of the mountains” which is paralleled in the songs “For amber waves of grain.” Third, verse 3 says “May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness” which is paralleled in the songs “Purple mountain majesty.” I have no idea whether the songs composer, Katherine Lee Bates, had Psalm 72 in mind (or any other Psalm for that matter), but the Psalm verses did remind me of the song verses.
This made me also think about the claims that America is a Christian nation. For in Psalm 72 we are given a very particular image of what godly leadership consists. And while the Psalms are Old Testamental, thus pre-Christian, many Christian Patristic writers believed the Psalms represented the mind of Christ.
So how does Psalm 72 envision godly leadership in a godly nation?
[72:1] Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.
[2] May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
[4] May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
[7] In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
[12] For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.
[13] He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
[14] From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight. (The Septuagint according to the Orthodox Study Bible reads “He shall redeem their souls from usury and injustice.“)
One thing which is clear in Psalm 72 is that the ruler of a godly nation provides justice to the poor and helps secure that the poor benefit from the righteousness of the nation. The godly nation – the Christian nation – is to care for and provide for its poor. The godly ruler takes up the cause of the poor and defends them, has pity for them, and delivers them in time of trouble.
Another thing made clear in the Psalm is the hope that peace will abound for the godly ruler and the godly nation. The poor often suffer the worst of all citizens in the time of war as they already live on the edge of not being able to support themselves. If there is such a thing as a peace dividend, it ought to be used to help the poor.
Finall the godly nation and the godly rulers protect the poor from usury – the demands of interest charged by lenders. There is a financial burden the godly nation must bear to help its poor. The godly nation is not to just make lending to the poor easy, or even to make lending cheap. Rather the godly nation relies on generosity from its prospering citizens to provide for the needs of the poor and the disabled. A godly ruler is one who cares about the poor and insures that they are treated well by the nation and by the people.
We who have been blessed by living in America owe God our heart felt thanksgiving for the blessings we have received. Asking God’s blessing for our country also means for believers that we are willing to humble ourselves before God and His will and His judgment. We are reminded of St. Maria Skobtsova’s comment written at a time when Fascism was being spread by invasion and war from Germany into her adopted homeland, France. She saw first hand love of country going awry.
Orthodox Christian in thanksgiving for our country and our freedom to practice our faith without government interference, here is one from the
One surprising mystery to me is how rarely any of the first disciples quote Jesus in the
Another point in Acts at which the Matt 15/Mark 7 words of Jesus seem relevant is the discussion regarding circumcision in Acts 15 where the main question is whether Gentile converts to Christianity must first become Torah-observant Jews before they can be accepted as Christians. Both
Some historians have said that since Jesus left no writings we know virtually nothing about him – we only know what the apostles attempted to do in His Name and what they said about Jesus. Thus some historians claim the Apostles are the real founders of Christianity for they shape the message about Jesus. However, what one has to note is that in Acts from the very beginning of the Apostolic preaching
One of the effects of the 18th Century
Traditionally, according to Smith, art was understood as drawing people together for it gave us a shared way of looking at the world and ourselves. The very thing which differentiates humans from all other life forms on earth is the ability of humans to communicate meaningfully in abstract forms. This shared understanding and ability to communicate abstractly defines what it is to be human and prevents humanity from devolving into 6 billion absolute isolated and alienated individuals. Art was seen as a way of helping us to become more human by giving us an interconnection and interdependency with our fellow humans and with humanity throughout history. Smith argues that in a modern democracy shaped by the values of the Enlightenment it is important for people not to be reduced to solely self-centered individuals; it is necessary to remind people that we all belong to a greater whole – that we are social and relational beings from the time we are conceived. As independent as we like to be, no one is an autonomous island but always exists related to some other humans.
The question raised by Smith is whether art is about “I” or “we” – is it merely a personal expression or does it in fact have some broader social context and construct? Is art merely the personal expression of an individual or can it in fact be judged by society as to whether it benefits society or conveys meaning or is detrimental to the ideals and values of the society to which the artists belongs?
“The street etiquette of
3rd Sunday After Pentecost 2009 Gospel: Matthew 6:22-33
words: “or else he will hold to the one and despise the other”. If a man holds to God, he cannot also hold to God’s enemy. And love for this world is hatred for God. God seeks our whole heart, and to this end He offers us all His help and all His gifts. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (II Chronicles 16:9): perfect, whole, pure; emptied of faith in the world, and filled with faith, hope and love for God the living and immortal.
A blessed
St. Paul was edifying people which also was establishing and building up the edifice of the Church. Paul was doing what Christ called him to do.
The Vatican is reporting that a scientific analysis of the bone fragments in what was believed to be St. Paul’s sarcophagus has confirmed they are the bones of someone who died in the first or second century. Pope Benedict announced that the scientific tests confirm what pilgrims have believed for centuries to be true.
As I continue reading through Doris Kearns Goodwin’s
Slavery was abhorrent to Lincoln and his Republican cohorts, but they were only advocating that blacks be treated as humans, not as citizens. Basically the main argument was being fought between the pro-slavery people who framed the argument in terms of state rights (and thus could appeal to the War for Independence and Constitution as the basis of their convictions) and the anti-slavery folk who were pushing for human rights for blacks not the rights of full citizenship for them. The anti-slavery Republicans wanted “all men” to be treated as “equals” meaning as human beings, but that didn’t mean to them that blacks should be given full citizenship or seen as equal to the whites in terms of voting or political power.
One black American I know always told his children, “you can be anything you want in America, except for President of the United States.” Though he is a pro-life, Republican voting conservative, he told me that the election of Barack Obama has truly shattered the shackles of slavery for all people of color in this country. That is something for conservative Americans and Republicans to think about. It is not the policies of Obama they need to embrace, but they need to consider he does represent symbolically the end to the limits slavery imposed on every black American. Argue against his policies, but give recognition to the fact that he does represent what the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, sweated and “slaved” over to save these United States from tyrannizing over anyone.



