That’s Just Not Right!
Have you ever seen the bad guy win? Like when you know someone cheated on a test and they got an A and you didn’t but got a B-. It seems so often we look at our world and see things that just don’t seem right. Psalm 137 was written from one of these places. Either while in exile or reflecting on their time there, this Psalmist expresses the feeling we have all felt at times.
This prayer in the face of injustice should challenge us. When we face the broken, ugly, disjointed, and messed-up stuff in our world, we can have faith. We can engage those areas in our petition to God and be inspired to take them on headfirst, filed with the Holy Spirit.
I think the prayers against injustice begin with two prayers for ourselves. First, let us pray, “Lord, give me ‘Wide Eyes’.” In Psalm 137, the author laments what is a messed-up situation. They are pining for the restoration of their homeland and sorrowful about the brokenness of their situation. They are mocked by their oppressors and wishing their downfall.
This is in no means turning a blind eye. Sometimes we feel the temptation to ignore the injustice in our world. It’s easier to do that. I don’t believe God wants us to bury our heads in the sand; instead, I believe he wants us to see the injustice around us and pray for its resolution through God’s power.
We should be aware of injustice! We should be bothered that, on a single night in January 2023, 653,104 people experienced homelessness across the United States according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. We need to be aware that, according to the United Nations’ International Labour Organization, human traffickers victimize an estimated 27.6 million people worldwide. Of those victims, 77% of all victims are in forced labor and 23% (approx. 6.2 million people) are victims of sex trafficking. The Center for Disease Control found that 42% of teenagers experience “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness”. We need to open our eyes in a country where nearly 14 million children were faced with hunger in 2023 according to the USDA.
All these things and more, horrible injustices that should bring us to our knees before God in prayer. We should call on God to intervene in these circumstances and pray to be filled by the Holy Spirit to step in and effect change. It’s when we get uncomfortable that we grow.
We need more than just eyes to see injustice. If all we have is that, we will have a pretty depressing existence. We also must have hearts anchored to heaven. The psalmist finds himself longing for their homeland when faced with the injustice around him. We too should have a longing not for an earthly city but for the place where our citizenship lies. Heaven. Earth’s brokenness is only temporary and we will never find solutions for all of the injustices in the world if we look to culture.
Our world may be broken, messy, and unjust, but we are not without hope. This is temporary and that which is eternal is ruled perfectly by a just Judge. This is not a time to tuck-tail and run, but it is our time to rise up and charge the darkness. Let us not become afraid and immobilized by our fear of the evil we see. Let us instead be emboldened by the truth that we have a future that is full of hope in Jesus.
The world is dark, and Jesus is the Light. The world is broken, and Jesus is the Healer. The world is sad, and Jesus brings true joy. The world is walking in bondage, and Jesus came to set us free!
It was June 6, 1944, when Allied forces launched the largest amphibious invasion in military history. Over 156,000 troops took to the beaches of Normandy, France, in what is remembered as D-Day. This was the turning point of World War II. Historians agree that while the war didn’t end on this day, this battle was the beginning of the end for Hitler’s Nazi reign. It wouldn’t be until almost a full year later that V-E (Victory in Europe) Day would officially end the war, but June 6th was the day it all changed for the good guys.
Our D-Day happened 2,000 years ago outside of Jerusalem, when Jesus charged death, hell, and the grave and won victory over them once and for all. While there are still battles to be fought and everything hasn’t been resolved, we can live in confidence because the war is already over. So when you see the headline, when the news disheartens you, when you face injustice, don’t lean out but lean in armed with the same power that gave us the victory on the first Easter Sunday.
