The Glad City
From Psalm 46 – 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its water roaring from and the mountains quake with their surging. 4 there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fail; God will help her at break of day.
In my adult Sunday school class, we are studying the book of Romans. My friend Ryan was substituting for the regular teacher and took the opportunity to summarize. He issued an interesting caution when he said we might be better off reading the ALL, as in all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God as BOTH, as Paul's contemporary reminder that both groups, Jews and Gentiles, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
I wouldn't go in for anything that would dilute responsibility before God into a vague sociological phenomenon. We will each be individually responsible before Him. Nevertheless, pausing for the broader application is valid. That very morning, I had rejoiced in the opening of Psalm 46, the gladness available in God's metaphorical river when compared to the possible disasters the psalmist envisions in the first few verses. I immediately applied God's peace and promises to myself as an individual, but I spent no time on the group implications.
Does the psalmist not say that the river makes glad the CITY of God? The what-if calamities he is considering, after all, are disasters on a scale that is bigger than individual. If the mountains fall, more than his personal real estate is going to be impacted. If the rivers slip their banks, more than just his view or his drinking water is going to be impacted. Thus, if the reverse is true and God blesses and protects instead, the city of God is going to be glad.
I'll be the last to come along with the notion that God will save an entire demographic slice of the culture, or an entire ZIP Code. I will, however, begin to buy into the reminder that those glad in Him will have different relationships, and that those relationships are found to be influential. Those relationships will prosper in ways that will overflow into the culture even more pervasively than the river would have except for God's protection. The city of God will be glad because His people prosper. His people will be so convinced of His ongoing goodness that we needn't hoard what He gives us. His people will, by both conviction and celebration, bless the city around them and make it glad.
In my adult Sunday school class, we are studying the book of Romans. My friend Ryan was substituting for the regular teacher and took the opportunity to summarize. He issued an interesting caution when he said we might be better off reading the ALL, as in all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God as BOTH, as Paul's contemporary reminder that both groups, Jews and Gentiles, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
I wouldn't go in for anything that would dilute responsibility before God into a vague sociological phenomenon. We will each be individually responsible before Him. Nevertheless, pausing for the broader application is valid. That very morning, I had rejoiced in the opening of Psalm 46, the gladness available in God's metaphorical river when compared to the possible disasters the psalmist envisions in the first few verses. I immediately applied God's peace and promises to myself as an individual, but I spent no time on the group implications.
Does the psalmist not say that the river makes glad the CITY of God? The what-if calamities he is considering, after all, are disasters on a scale that is bigger than individual. If the mountains fall, more than his personal real estate is going to be impacted. If the rivers slip their banks, more than just his view or his drinking water is going to be impacted. Thus, if the reverse is true and God blesses and protects instead, the city of God is going to be glad.
I'll be the last to come along with the notion that God will save an entire demographic slice of the culture, or an entire ZIP Code. I will, however, begin to buy into the reminder that those glad in Him will have different relationships, and that those relationships are found to be influential. Those relationships will prosper in ways that will overflow into the culture even more pervasively than the river would have except for God's protection. The city of God will be glad because His people prosper. His people will be so convinced of His ongoing goodness that we needn't hoard what He gives us. His people will, by both conviction and celebration, bless the city around them and make it glad.
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