Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article See no, hear no, speak no evil Wednesday, December 19, 2001 Psalm 71:3-6 Be my rock of refuge to which I can always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, fom the grasp of evil and cruel men. For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. From birth I have relied on you. You brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you. Who better than God to deliver us from evil? Who could know evil's heart better than the one who tolerated its creation? So we ask, with sincere hearts, for God to fight with us, against the evil we see, we hear, we feel around us, the evil we cannot tolerate. Bob Dylan, circa 1963, wrote a song expressing his own confusion about God's role in the struggles of his children. Here are some of the verses: Oh my name it is nothin' My age it means less The country I come from Is called the Midwest I's taught and brought up there The laws to abide And that land that I live in Has God on its side. Oh the history books tell it They tell it so well The cavalries charged The Indians fell The cavalries charged The Indians died Oh the country was young With God on its side. I've learned to hate Russians All through my whole life If another war starts It's them we must fight To hate them and fear them To run and to hide And accept it all bravely With God on my side. In a many dark hour I've been thinkin' about this That Jesus Christ Was betrayed by a kiss But I can't think for you You'll have to decide Whether Judas Iscariot Had God on his side. So now as I'm leavin' I'm weary as Hell The confusion I'm feelin' Ain't no tongue can tell The words fill my head And fall to the floor If God's on our side He'll stop the next war. If I can't be sure about what is evil, I can at least be sure about what is good. God is good. There may be few other certainties in the moral life, but I can rely on that one. In the goodness that is God I find refuge. In that fortress, hiding in that rock - I rest, pray for direction, discover the goodness within me, learn to distinguish it from the evil that lies so close at hand. Jesus, you are the way, the truth, the life. You are good. Come, Lord Jesus. Illuminate the shadows in my life. "; Add      Edit    Delete