It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.--Psalm 92:1-4
Isaiah 37:9-11,14-20
Well.
I had just typed in the whole passage, here, when, by a miracle of technology, somehow I touched a single key that erased the entire thing. Pft. I'm still not sure what happened.
Oh, well. In this passage, the king of Assyria learns that he is about to be attacked by the king of Ethiopia. His reaction? He starts verbally harrassing Hezekiah, king of Judah, ridiculing him for his trust in God.
This is kind of like when the husband yells at the wife, the wife yells at the kid, and the kid kicks the dog. I guess it makes Sennacherib (king of Assyria) fell big and strong.
But note Hezekiah's reaction. Instead of "kicking the dog," he takes the letter he has just received to God and lays it out before God. He acknowledges the terror that is the Assyrian empire, but then asks God to step in and show his power. At one point, he uses the phrase that is the title of this reading, "the only God there is."
We can learn a lot from Hezekiah, here. Rather than taking out our frustrations on someone apparently weaker than ourselves, we should take them to God and let him handle them.
At church, my position is even more sensitive. The way I act each Sunday morning could influence people in ways I'm not even aware of. Help me to set any frustrations aside the moment I walk in the door. If something is not right, let me take it to you instead of lashing out at others.
Whatever the situation, let all of us who call ourselves brothers of Christ be dispensers of grace, daily.
Grace and peace, friends.