Cool links

Posted on November 11, 2007 by Barbara Harper

A conglomeration of links I found interesting this week — some funny, some serious, some contests or carnivals.

25 photographs taken at the exact right time. HT to Amy.

Peace is a Person at new-to-me Holy Experience (HT to Shannon)

A darling advent calendar garland — and pattern!

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home is hosting a “Giving Thanks” event this week with “sharing decorating ideas, crafts, poems, songs, prayers, ‘after dinner’ games, table settings, activities for children, and a daily cleaning schedule (with before and after pictures!)” and a Mr. Linky so others can join in. And prizes!

Mrs. B. at Cherish the Home had a link to a post earlier this week that was very convicting from Growing In Truth (also new to me): What If Your Husband Isn’t “On Board?” There are many points for conviction there no matter where your husband is spiritually.

Finally, there are some hilarious signs posted at ivman’s sign language post.

Veteran’s Day

Posted on November 11, 2007 by Barbara Harper

“It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died; they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for their county, for us.

All we can do is remember.”

~ Ronald Wilson Reagan
Remarks at Veteran’s Day ceremony, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, November 11, 1985

Veterans Day (2001) Message from the Secretary of Defense

Eighty-three years ago, an armistice was signed between the Allies and the Central Powers. As the guns of both the victors and the vanquished fell silent, World War I — “The War to End All Wars” — slipped into history.

For the next twenty years, “Armistice Day” was celebrated with parades and speeches, simple ceremonies and sacred observances. For many years, buglers played “Taps” at 11 o’clock at the main intersections of towns across America or the village greens — I was one of them. And for two minutes, all the traffic and daily transactions ceased as citizens stopped to honor those who had fallen in the defense of liberty.

Today, we celebrate “Veterans Day,” but while the name has changed, its meaning and purpose remain the same. It is a day to honor and to remember those who died and those we are blessed to still have with us.

Their collective experience — from the gas-filled trenches of World War I to the deserts of the Persian Gulf — covers much of the turmoil and change of the 20th century. Their stories are the story of our history, for America rose to greatness on their shoulders.

But Veterans Day is also a day to honor and to recognize not just the Greatest Generation, but the latest generation — those who today wear the uniform and bear the responsibility for defending freedom and protecting our American way of life. And while this is true even when the country is at peace, it is particularly so when America is — as it is now — at war.

Like the thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who went before, you have dedicated yourselves to the strength and survival of our nation, and willingly placed yourselves in danger to secure peace and freedom. In so doing, you have assumed the highest responsibility of citizenship, and your country is grateful. Never forget that you serve in the finest military in the greatest nation on Earth, a military and a nation dedicated not to oppression, but to freedom.

Today we celebrate and salute the men and women who have served so gallantly over the decades to keep us free. We offer them our love, our thanks and our promise that we will never forget their valor or their sacrifice.

We offer the same to you, as you voluntarily put your lives at risk so that we may all live in freedom.

God bless you and God bless America.

Donald H. Rumsfeld

Book Review: The Restorer’s Son

Posted on November 10, 2007 by Barbara Harper

The Restorer’s Son wasn’t originally on my Fall Reading List simply because I forgot it was coming out in that time frame. How could I have forgotten? Sharon Hinck is one author whose books I eagerly anticipate.

The Restorer’s Son is a sequel to The Restorer (previously reviewed here), second in The Sword of Lyric trilogy. In the first book, Susan, an average “soccer mom,” is suddenly pulled into another reality where she discovers she is the Restorer, one whose purpose is to help the people heart’s return to the One who made them. Feeling overwhelmed and dismayed, she learns to rely on the One for strength for the task to which He has called her. She is startled to find that her husband is originally from this world. At the end of the book, the Restorer gifts are transferred to probably the most unlikely person, Kieran, who is distrustful and antagonistic, who is not even sure what he believes or if he believes, and Susan and husband Mark return to their world thinking that adventure is over only to discover that their son Jake has disappeared through the portal, and they have to go back to find him.

The Restorer’s Son picks up the story right where The Restorer left off. I’ll try not to reveal much more of the plot than the back of the book reveals so as not to spoil it for those who haven’t read it. Kieran is running from his destiny and stumbles upon Jake, who he realizes is Susan’s son. He can’t really afford the time and energy to care for him, but he knows he can’t leave him alone. Susan and Mark return and panic in the unfruitful search for Jake. All are drawn into the events occurring in Lyric and its enemy Hazor.

Whereas Susan’s story was inspired by that of Deborah in the Old Testament book of Judges, Kieran has a very Jacob-like encounter with the One. Parts of his story also remind me of Jonah. He’s not running from the One’s call for the same reasons, but he is running.

Sharon portrays the alternate world as very real, and readers will readily identify with struggles, wrestlings, and feelings the characters have. There are some surprises along the way. The title has at least a double, if not a triple meaning. Gentle humor throughout keeps the book from being too “heavy,” and the spiritual truth is convicting and inspiring.

I can’t wait til The Restorer’s Journey, due out next February.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Flexible

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Barbara Harper

PhotoHunt

Theme: Flexible | Become a Photo Hunter | View Blogroll

The first thing I thought of when I saw this week’s theme was this little flexible tripod we got my oldest son to use with his digital camera. I can’t take the credit for being hip and knowing about it — he told us about it. 🙂 You can bend the legs, wrap them around something, and move the part that holds the camera to different angles.

It gives you a lot of versatility in being able to use your camera in different places and at different angles.

My second thought for flexibility was Jesse, the most flexible member of our family. I often see him playing or doing homework in what would seem to me to be very uncomfortable poses! The first picture I call “pretzel mode,” the second “vulture mode.” I’ve used these previously in Wordless Wednesday photos, but they fit here. 🙂

Show and Tell Friday: Grandpa’s cabins

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Barbara Harper

My husband’s father was partially disabled the last several years of his life after a fall from a ladder resulting in a torn hamstring. Later heart health issues further drained his energy. He had always been an active man and it was very hard for him to sit back and take it easy for very long.

At one point, just for something creative to do, he began making small log cabins. If I remember correctly, he gave several away. My husband gave him the idea of selling some on ebay. He didn’t have a computer, so he shipped some to us and my husband took the pictures and set it all up, explaining that he was a WWII vet in his retirement years. To his dad’s surprise and delight, they sold. He was excited and made several more and shipped them to us. They sold very well for a time, and then interest dropped off. But it was amazing to see the joy and energy that came about just as a result of having something useful and profitable to do.

We had enough leftover cabins to keep a couple on display and to keep one in the attic for each of the boys to take with them, if they want to, to remember Grandpa by. He passed away several years ago, and now these cabins are a remembrance of him.

We keep our two at the top of the bookcases that came with this house.

I took one down to get some close-up pictures.

I always especially liked the chimney. I am not sure what kind of rocks these are.

I’ve wished that the roof came off or the back could be removed and I could place some small furniture and rugs and such in there, but it is all very firmly attached. I’ve thought about placing a rocking chair on the little front porch, a welcome mat. etc. Where we have them now those kinds of things wouldn’t be seen. But maybe some day I’ll do that. But they are nice just as they are in all their rustic simplicity.

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.“

Work, work, work

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Jen tagged me for a meme about our work history a while back and I am just now getting to it. (Sorry, Jen! 🙂 )

Well, let’s see. Since I was the oldest of six and the oldest among my mom’s friends’ children, most of my early work was baby-sitting.

I worked for one whole week in a fast food place when I was a teenager. Couldn’t stand it. A while later I worked in the bakery department of a grocery store. I just sold things: I have no skill at cake decorating. I was afraid I would really gain weight with all the donuts and cookies, but they had the opposite effect: I got kind of sick of the overly-sweet smell (maybe I should go back to work there…….)

At college I worked in the university library for four years. I enjoyed it. It was more involved than I would have thought. One fringe benefit was that I met my husband there. 🙂

A couple of summers during my college years I baby-sat my siblings again. My folks paid me the same amount they would have paid day care, but it helped everyone not to have to get all the kids up and out early in the morning during the summer. One summer I worked in the office at my church: the church secretary was diagnosed with encephalitis right at the beginning of the summer. First I just answered phones but gradually took over the bookkeeping, Sunday bulletins, letters. That was before computers and copying machines (boy that makes me sound so old!!) but we had those old mimeograph machines that turned out copies in purplish ink. It caught fire one day while I was there — thankfully it was noticed before it got too far. That was a very enjoyable summer. It was fun, too, to help visiting missionaries and speakers with any office needs they might have. The secretary was out the whole summer and was able to come back to the office just as I needed to go back to school. Another summer I worked with my mom. She was the assistant head bookkeeper at a local bank and I worked in the bookkeeping department with her and a room full of other ladies. Each of us had what they called a “drawer” of accounts we checked every day. I don’t know if they still do it this way, but we would take out the drawer, look at the checks that came in, check dates, compare the signatures to the signature card they filled out when they first opened the account, and pull out anything that looked “off” for someone over us to check out. You got to know somewhat the handwriting of the people in your drawer and could tell the difference between when they were paying bills at their table or desk or when they were writing hurriedly at a store. I think my worst mistake was that I didn’t know then that the British way of writing dates was different than ours, so when one customer always wrote his dates with the month and day reversed, I thought they were post-dated and pulled them. 😳 We also had to answer phone calls. Sometimes it was very easy to help a customer with whatever they had a a question about, but sometimes they could be irate.

A few months before getting married I worked in the home of a lady in town doing various chores around her home. I continued that for some time after we got married, plus my husband and I worked together cleaning five banks five nights a week. That was a great job for students because it was flexible: we could do it any time from the time the bank closed til the time it opened again. Plus all the cleaning equipment was in a van that we could use for ourselves in-between cleaning jobs, so it gave us access to an extra vehicle. The only problem with so many cleaning jobs was that then I got tired of cleaning and didn’t want to do all the same things at my own place. We didn’t have any mishaps at the banks (except that the people at one of them kept missing food and accusing us of taking it. Somebody was making out like a bandit there), but the people who took the job after us found a bunch of money somewhere it wasn’t supposed to be (seems like it was a trash can) and another time found a man hiding in a trash can. I’m glad our time there was relatively uneventful!!

Then for a few years I worked at a fabric store. The fun side of that was seeing all the new things, being stimulated creatively by the other people who worked there and the things they would sew or make, and the fact that we’d take turns making items for display at the store, and then we were able to bring them home and keep them after they were taken down. The down side of working retail sales is that you end up working when other people are off, so you miss out on some family times, plus the general public can be very….not nice at times. One of my worst experiences was my first night in charge after being promoted to third assistant manager when a lady got irate when the fabric that she thought was on sale wasn’t, and she followed me back to the stock room and swung open the door and started yelling at me. I really don’t handle that kind of thing well — I crumple and cry. And she called me stupid for crying.

I also tried my hand at sales and discovered that is definitely not my talent. I sold Avon for about six months and worked with a home party system that sold craft kits and taught craft stitches at the parties. I enjoyed teaching the crafts: I didn’t enjoy selling. I don’t like salespeople pressuring me, so I wasn’t about to do that to anyone else. And even though they tell you when they’re recruiting you that you can work as many or as few hours as you want and make as much or as little as you want, you always have a manager and sales meetings pressuring you to do more.

Then I worked for several months as an inventory counter in a department store at the mall. This is probably all done by computer now, but a few of us would count stock items in the different departments every month — not the seasonal things, but the regular items that they stocked year round. We weren’t supposed to help customers because we weren’t trained on the registers and we’d never get our work done if we did, but we had to wear name tags, so the poor customers would see us and ask questions and then get frustrated when we couldn’t help. We tried to point them to one of the associates who worked in that department if one was in sight, but sometimes the easiest thing was just to go ahead and help them if we could. I had to quit that job after I became pregnant with Jeremy because my doctor didn’t want me climbing ladders and the department wasn’t willing to work around that.

The stint with Avon occurred when Jeremy was a toddler, but other than that I’ve been privileged to be a stay at home mom ever since — both the hardest and most rewarding job I’ve experienced. 🙂

I’ve also done a lot of unpaid volunteer work at church or my kids’ school.

As my boys have gotten older I have considered working again to help with their college expenses. I think our home life would be a lot less peaceful if I worked outside the home, but I’d love to find something I could do from home. I have sold a few magazine articles and have thought about expanding on that, and I have a couple of ideas of things I could make and sell on ebay or Etsy. I keep thinking after this project or that event or deadline, I’ll look into that more.

Whew! That ended up being longer than I thought it would. If you’d like to share your work history, please feel free to do so in the comments or let me know if you do a post on it on your blog.

Three abortion stories

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Over the last few days three very different abortion stories have come to my attention.

I saw the first one linked to from Crystal’s about a woman who found she was expecting triplets and decided to abort two because,

“I worked freelance; and I would have to go on bed rest in March. I lecture at colleges, and my biggest months are March and April. I would have to give up my main income for the rest of the year. There was a part of me that was sure I could work around that. But it was a matter of, Do I want to?…When I found out about the triplets, I felt like: It’s not the back of a pickup at 16, but now I’m going to have to move to Staten Island. I’ll never leave my house because I’ll have to care for these children. I’ll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise. Even in my moments of thinking about having three, I don’t think that deep down I was ever considering it.”

She went on to say she is afraid of getting pregnant again because of the possibility of conceiving multiples again, and that if she was pregnant again with triplets she would again abort one or more of them. A note at the end of the article says this woman is an abortion rights advocate who has no regrets over her decision.

I felt both sick and sad after reading this article. Any honest parent would admit that yes, babies don’t always come at convenient times, and, yes, they do change your life — especially when they come three at one time. This mother didn’t feel as if she couldn’t handle it. She didn’t want to. Aside from the religious and moral implications, how sad that two lives with all their potential for who they could have been and what they could have accomplished were snuffed out with a shot of potassium chloride to the heart — an act that would be legally murder done to someone outside the womb — just because they were an inconvenience to the one who gave them life. How sad that life is only valued if it is wanted. There used to be some measure of self-sacrifice, of putting aside one’s own wants and pleasures for the sake of another’s life, even among non-Christians. Those are foreign concepts these days.

I have to admit the thought of triplets would be jarring. The thought of such a sudden and drastic life change would be unsettling. When I found out I was pregnant with my third, I’ll have to admit there were mixed emotions, just for a little while — my other two were older, and though we hadn’t decided on a certain number of children or a certain time frame for having them, there was a feeling as if we had moved past the baby stage of life, and entering it again was daunting. Maybe that’s part of the problem — we as Christians never talk about these things and we make it seem like parenthood is all bliss. It’s not. It’s wondrous, it’s fun, it’s beautiful. But it is hard. But there is help. By God’s grace I knew that He is the author of life, His timing is perfect, He has a plan for every soul (Psalm 139:13-17), and He gives grace to help in time of need, and therefore I would never have considered abortion. I wish this mother knew these things as well, and I hope she would have been accepting of them if she knew them. I am so glad He brought Jesse along when He did. he’s the sunshine of our family. I can’t imagine life without him.

The second story was one I saw linked to at Amy’s. For the past day or so I had been thinking about blogging about this one under the title “Doctor’s aren’t always right.” “When doctors found that Gabriel was weaker than his brother, with an enlarged heart,and believed he was going to die in the womb, his mother Rebecca Jones had to make a heartbreaking decision. Doctors told her his death could cause his twin brother to die too before they were born, and that it would be better to end Gabriel’s suffering sooner rather than later.” ”

Mrs Jones said: “They told us that if he died, it could be life threatening for his brother. We had to decide whether to end his life and let his brother live, or risk them both. They said it would be impossible to keep him alive afterwards as he was so poorly. It would be kinder to let him die in the womb with his brother by his side than to die alone after being born.” (That’s rather strange logic to me). “That made my mind up for me. I wanted the best thing for him.” (The best thing?)

Mrs Jones decided to let doctors operate to terminate Gabriel’s life.

Firstly they tried to sever his umbilical cord to cut off his blood supply, but the cord was too strong.

They then cut Mrs Jones’s placenta in half so that when Gabriel died, it would not affect his twin brother.

But after the operation which was meant to end his life, tiny Gabriel had other ideas.

Although he weighed less than a pound, he put up such a fight for survival that doctors called him Rocky.

Astonishingly, he managed to carry on living in his mother’s womb for another five weeks – until the babies were delivered by caesarean section.

Now he and Ieuan are back at home in Stoke – and are so close they are always holding each other’s hand.

When Mrs Jones reached 31 weeks doctors carried out a caesarian to deliver the twins. Ieuan weighed 3lb 8oz and Gabriel 1lb 15oz. Both were kept in hospital, but since going home they have thrived. At seven months, Ieuan weighs 15lb and Gabriel 12lb 6oz.

Mrs Jones said: “The boys are so healthy, they have huge appetites too. Ieuan is the noisy one, while Gabriel is always laughing, it’s like he’s just so happy to be here.

“There is such a strong bond between them.

“They are always holding hands and if one cries, the other reaches out to comfort him.”

“Doctors tried to break their bond in the womb, but they just proved it couldn’t be broken.”

I am so thankful for the outcome, thankful this little one lived and is thriving. And I can sympathize with the mother’s thought that she was sacrificing one child to help the other survive rather than lose both. But I wish the mindset among people in general and the medical community in particular was geared toward giving life a chance rather than thinking a fatal intervention is needed.

The last story was one I read just this morning about God’s amazing grace to a woman who had had three abortions. I don’t want to just quote pieces from it — go on over and read the whole thing. I pray that anyone reading this who is considering abortion or who has had an abortion would read this story and find the same amazing grace.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: “Backwards” Day

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Today’s edition of WFMW is another “backward” day in which we ask a question of readers rather than supplying our own tip.

My question of the day: how do you reduce static electricity, especially in hair?

I must be the most statically electrical person I know. Even taking my jacket off this morning jolted me. And with today being the first day we turned the heat on, it’s only going to get worse.

I know Shannon mentioned on a previous WFMW that she sprayed Static Guard on her brush and that helped. But I usually use a comb when styling my hair, and the Static Guard didn’t seem to do anything. I had also read that you could rub a dryer sheet over your hair. That actually does work. But then I smell like a dryer sheet. And it doesn’t last.

I know that spraying static guard on your legs can help keep your hemline from sticking, and even rubbing a bit of lotion on my legs will do the same. But, again, it doesn’t last long.

So, short of keeping a can of Static Cling or a dryer sheet on hand and applying several times a day, do you have any other ideas?

If you have a question you’d like some help with or you have some answers you might be able to give others, see today’s WFMW post at Rocks In My Dryer.

Those little church mice aren’t so cute after all….

Posted on November 5, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Years ago when Jesse was small, we had a series of books about Christopher Churchmouse, a mischievous little rodent who lived, I believe, in the church basement with his family and learned about right and wrong and spiritual truths.

We enjoyed those books, but those mice were evidently better behaved than the usual run of the mill mice.

I walked into our missions closet the other day to assess what was needed to stock up for our missions conference and discovered one set of shelves had been visited by mice. They left their little calling cards all over the place. I had just been in there two days before, and there had been no sign of them.

I thought at first a squirrel had been in there as we’d been having problems with them in other parts of the church (scurrying above the ceiling, peeking a head out the AC vent during choir practice, choosing some hidden corner as a final resting place and smelling up the whole facility). Some of the men have been diligent to climb around up there and remove the dead one (after a lot of work trying to find it), repairing holes, setting humane traps, etc. But a couple of the men said they felt like the missions closet visitors were mice rather than squirrels. So they set a trap and my husband and I went about cleaning things up.

I have to say, it was very disheartening! Thankfully the droppings were primarily on one set of bookcase-type shelves rather than all four. There were four bars of homemade soap that one of our ladies makes, and the mice really liked that stuff. They gnawed corners off all four bars. They also gnawed across several towels (looking for nesting material, maybe? I don’t know).

We vacuumed up all the droppings, took the towels home and washed them in hot water and disinfectant, and cleaned everything else off with disinfecting wipes. The towels above actually look better there after having been washed than when we first brought them home — here they just look like a few threads have been pulled, but before it did look like actual gnaw marks on them.

And we found out some of the towels weren’t very good quality: they burst into little fuzz balls after washing. It’s not unusual for new towels to give off more lint at first, but this was ridiculous. So I am glad some missionary family didn’t get those.

What’s funny is that the mice passed up boxed macaroni and cheese and jello for soap and towels. We don’t usually keep food in there for just such reasons, but one class gathered up some mostly canned and a few boxed goods for the closet without checking with me first. I decided to go ahead and put them in for a few months to see if anyone wanted them, but no one even looked at them, and some of the expiration dates have already passed. So between that and the critters, I am making it official policy: no food in the missions closet!

The trap did catch one mouse, I waited a couple of weeks before restocking the closet just to make sure we didn’t have any more unwanted “visitors.” I think they caught a couple more in other places, but so far the closet has been clear. Our missions conference started last night, so I restocked on Saturday. I put the new towels in big Ziploc bags so hopefully this won’t happen again. I hope as we take the various missionaries through there we don’t face any “surprises!!”

I’d like to hear if your church has a missions closet and how they organize it. I can always use new ideas. We don’t do a “points” system as I have heard that some do — the different families have different needs, different numbers of supporting churches and kids, etc., so we leave it open. Most lean more toward being reluctant to take too much than overdoing it — we sometimes have to encourage them to feel free to take whatever they might need. Most are on the road and can’t take a whole lot.

I was surprised that the most often chosen thing was queen sized sheet sets. Next would be towels and dish towels. We have some small tools and tools sets that are popular with the men, and sport balls of any kind are taken often as well. We have a bin of boys’ toys and girls’ toys, and most families will let their children pick one of two items out of there. Christian books and CDs are also popular as are travel irons. We have several toiletries, regular and sample sized, that I thought would be taken often, but I was surprised that they’re not.

It’s a fun ministry. It’s almost like playing Santa’s helper. 🙂 And every now and then there will be an unusual item someone donated (most of the items I purchase from our mission’s budget, but we’re open to new donated items as well) that turns out to be just what a particular missionary needed. It’s neat to participate in a ministry where you get to be a conduit for the Lord to work.

Psalm Sunday: Psalm 52

Posted on November 4, 2007 by Barbara Harper

1 Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually.

2 The tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

3 Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.

4 Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.

5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.

6 The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him:

7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.

8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.

The NASB heading of this Psalm says it was written “when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, ‘David has come to the house of Ahimelech.'” This incident is recorded in I Samuel 21-22. King Saul had grown increasingly unstable and had tried to kill David. David fled from Saul and stopped in to ask the priest for provisions and a weapon. He did not tell the priest he was fleeing for his life; he told him he was on the king’s business. Doeg the Edomite saw him there, and later when King Saul asked for information about David, Doeg told him all he knew. Saul confronted the priest and, though the priest confessed he knew nothing about the trouble between David and Saul, Saul commanded his servants to kill the priests, but they refused. Then Saul commanded Doeg to kill them, and he did — 85 of them plus “Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep” (I Samuel 22:19). One son of the priest escaped and came to David, who was deeply grieved at the loss of life his situation had caused and took the man into his protection.

Knowing the background lends weight to David’s comparing the tongue to a sharp razor, working deceitfully and devising mischief and speaking devouring words. This man, and others like him, ” lovest evil more than good” and “made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”

Yet David had faith that “the goodness of God endureth continually” and that this man had no reason to boast because “God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living.”

Verses 6-7 say, “The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him: Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.” I honestly have a little trouble with the idea of laughing at the fate of the wicked, but I don’t think this is talking about laughing at his fate. I don’t know if this is exactly the right perspective, but I think of it similarly to when I hear ferocious barking, turn to see where it is coming from, and see it is some little tiny yapping dog, and I smile and think, “Who do you think you are?!” Sure, a little dog can still cause harm, but he’s not nearly as big and mighty as he seems to think he is. And the wicked are the same. Yes, they can cause harm. But their power is limited, and their reward is coming.

We are instructed in the New Testament to “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). I have heard testimony of some who have come to the Lord as a result of being loved and prayed for in the face of hatred and perecution. God “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9). But if a person will not repent, they will have to face God’s judgment.

So God will take care of the wicked one way or another. This reminds me of Psalm 37:7: “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”

By contrast to the characteristics and fate of the wicked, David says he is “like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.” He will not be cut down: he will be growing and fruitful in the house of God, trusting in His mercy forever, praising Him forever.

We can wait on God’s good name as well, trusting and resting in Him.

For more meditations on this Psalm or to join in with your own, see Butterfly Kisses.