Wisdom of the Ages

It is difficult not to be discouraged when we in the United States feel hemmed in on all sides from wildfires, hurricanes, the COVID-19 virus, and a tense racial and political environment. Now is the time to turn to people who have also lived in difficult times and share their wisdom across the ages.

One such person is Ethan the Ezrahite, who is thought to have written Psalm 89 at the time of David. Charles H. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David says of this psalm, “It is the utterance of a believer, in presence of great national disaster, pleading with his God, urging the grand argument of covenant engagements, and expecting deliverance and help, because of the faithfulness of Jehovah.” Although “troubles were coming thick and heavy upon the dynasty of David,” Ethan proclaims,

“I will sing of your faithful love, O Lord, forever; 
through all ages my mouth will proclaim your fidelity.
How blessed the people who know your praise,
who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,
who find their joy every day in your name,
who make your righteousness their joyful acclaim.”

Like Ethan, we who live in times of trouble can take comfort in God’s faithful love, fidelity, and righteousness and can walk through dark times in the light of God’s face.

We also can draw comfort from the words of St. Hildegard of Bingen, a Benedictine mystic who lived from 1098-1179. In one of her visions, she heard God say, “I, God am in your midst. Whoever knows me can never fall, not in the heights, nor in the depths, nor in the breadths. For I am love, which the vast expanses of evil can never still.”

God is faithful; God is righteous; God is love; and God is in our midst. Of what should we be afraid?