The Lord Will Speak Peace

Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,

for he will speak peace to his people,

to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.

(from Psalm 83)

Friday, July 12, was a day in which I felt a sense of deep peace gently surrounding me. 

One place was sitting on a bench alongside a quiet pond surrounded by trees a view of nearby mountains with billowing clouds above.

Another was the peaceful singing of Psalms by a small group accompanied by acoustic guitars.

Psalm 85:8–13, portrays the abundant life that God wills for all people in all times and in all places.

Later, into this pastoral scene of deep inner peace burst the exterior scene of violence at a political rally leaving physical and spiritual wounds.

In Psalm 83, the Lord speaks peace to his people by summoning and challenging his people “to look for and pray for” the abundant life that God wills and to work toward that abundant life for all.

The basic challenge is to shape a world where everyone is fed, clothed, and cured. 

That challenge has been around a long time Amos, for example says;

 “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:21-24)

From Matthew comes ‘

 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

There is food enough to feed everyone, yet 10 percent of the world’s population is daily plagued by hunger. 

The first United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to end poverty and hunger, and Psalm 85:8–13, Amos, and Matthew summons us to do precisely that.