A Test - Peace or Violence?

My readings this morning included Psalm 11; I was struck by verses 4 & 5:

 

“Yahweh is in His holy temple; Yahweh’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. Yahweh tests the righteousness and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.”

 

What does God find within us regarding violence? Are we, professing Christians, a violent people? Are our hearts violent? Do we have violent minds? Are we feeding off the perpetual anger of the world, and have we become propagators of that anger?

 

In Psalm 11, the testing of the sons of men is with respect to violence – what are the results of God testing our hearts?

 

Isaiah (59:8) writes of people who “do not know the way of peace”, certainly a dimension of this is the Prince of Peace, who is the Way of Peace; if we are Christ’s Body, if we are His brothers and sisters, then might we ask ourselves, “Are we displaying the Prince of Peace to the world.” How are our souls responding to the present testing, a testing filled with the temptation to anger and violence? (I am not thinking about physical violence, I am thinking about the violence of our souls, our thoughts, words, emotions – the physical goes without saying – what is going on within us and through us?)

 

Are we a violent and angry people? Are we choosing sides? Is it “us against them”? Have we forgotten that our calling is to cry, “Be reconciled to God!” (2 Cor. 5:20).

 

I fear that we are “eating the bread of wickedness and drinking the wine of violence” (Proverbs 4:17) – this is not the Communion Table to which we are called, this is not the Eucharist of Christ. This is demonic (James 3:15), and yet we think that we are immune from these temptations, that we are immune from the influence and poison of demonic violence, anger, discourse, and action.

 

Solomon wrote concerning those who reject God, “But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; it takes away the life of its possessors” (Proverbs 1:18 – 19). Gaining by violence is not limited to physical violence, it is violence in any form – anger, bullying, belittling, mocking, slander, libel, lying. Is this not what we see in the world today? Is this not what our society is drinking from day after day? Have we not seen religious leaders stand in the spotlight and justify violent rhetoric by saying, in effect, “The means justifies the ends”? Are we mimicking these “leaders”? Are they giving us what we crave?

 

We are called to be peacemakers so that we shall indeed be called the sons of God (Matthew 5:9). Are we “making peace”? Do we even know how to make peace? Have we become so enmeshed in the world, so captured by political and economic and social agendas – that we have forgotten who our Father is? Who our Lord Jesus Christ is? Where God the Holy Spirit dwells?

 

God is testing both the righteousness and the wicked – how are we measuring up? Are we loving violence or peace?

 

“Too long has my soul had it dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.” Psalm 120:6 – 7.

 

“Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is near.” Philippians 4:5.

 

“…malign no one, be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.” Titus 3:2.

 

“Search ME, O God, and know MY heart; try ME and know MY thoughts; and see if there be any way of pain in ME, and lead ME in the Everlasting Way” [our Lord Jesus Christ]. Psalm 139:23 – 24.