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FINDING CONSOLATION AND HOPE: Psalm 76:10
By Ted Schroder,
August 3, 2014
On August 3, 1914 Germany declared war on France. The following day German troops invaded neutral Belgium triggering the entry of Great Britain into the war in accordance with its treaties to defend its allies. World War I, the Great War it was called at the time, the War to end all wars, had begun. It would end with an Armistice on November 11, 1918 after ten million casualties and the collapse of four imperial dynasties in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The map of Europe and the Middle East was redrawn by the victors. The seeds of fascism and communism were sown to eventually produce the horrors of famine, the Great Depression, World War II and the Holocaust. The present turmoil in the Ukraine and the Middle East is the result of what began one hundred years ago. The unintended consequences of World War I are to be seen in Syria, Iraq, and Palestine today.
On August 17, 1914 my grandfather enlisted in the Canterbury Regiment. He was 22 years old and left behind his wife, my grandmother, and their baby girl of seven months, my mother. He went on to serve in Egypt, in the Gallipoli campaign, and then in France before returning home and being discharged in January 1919. In Egypt he might have attended the YMCA lectures given by Oswald Chambers at Zeitoun. I like to think so. Oswald Chambers had quite a ministry to all the Australian and New Zealand troops in Egypt. Chambers contracted appendicitis in October 1917 and delayed seeking medical help because he did not want to take up room in the hospital from wounded soldiers who were returning from the Third Battle of Gaza. The Turkish troops commanded by a German general had heavily fortified Gaza and the Allied troops had failed to capture it on two previous occasions. Beginning on October 27 the allies began a heavy and almost continuous bombardment of the modern fortress. History is now repeating itself one hundred years later! Oswald Chambers died of complications from surgery on November 15, 1917 and was buried in Cairo with full military honors. His famous book of talks, Our Utmost for His Highest, edited by his wife, has never been out of print and has been translated into 39 languages.
World War I produced a remarkable number of poets. My favorite is Studdert Kennedy, who was a chaplain. I have a copy of his Rough Rhymes of a Padre which contains poems that strive to make sense of all the sorrow of what Abraham Lincoln called “this mighty scourge of war”.
How do we make sense of all the seeming waste of war and the suffering that is caused by it? Jesus said, in his Mount of Olives discourse, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to the nations.” (Matthew 24:6-14).
War is a constant in human history. Peace is rare. As long as the human race rebels against God and his rule, and seeks to take power into its own hands for its own glory, there will be sorrow and destruction (Romans 2:8,9). The world will continue to experience conflict, trouble and distress because it opposes the kingdom of God. How can we find consolation and hope in the midst of such turmoil?
The Psalmist reminds us: “Surely the wrath of man shall praise you” or “Human wrath serves only to praise you” (Psalm 76:10). God is sovereign and he can use even the wrath of man to praise him. God can use even the evil intentions of our hearts for his glory. In the midst of the worst of times we are called to believe that God can use them for his purposes. This was the message of Abraham Lincoln’s pastor, Phineas D. Gurley, in his funeral service in the East Room of the White House on April 19, 1865.
AS WE STAND HERE TODAY, MOURNERS AROUND THIS COFFIN AND AROUND THE LIFELESS REMAINS OF OUR BELOVED CHIEF MAGISTRATE, WE RECOGNIZE AND WE ADORE THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD……
Surely the wrath of man shall praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain. In the light of a clearer day we may yet see that the wrath which planned and perpetuated the death of the President, was overruled by Him whose judgements are unsearchable, and His ways are past finding out…… Let us not be faithless, but believing.
"Blind unbelief is prone to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And He will make it plain."
We will wait for his interpretation, and we will wait in faith, nothing doubting. He who has led us so well, and defended and prospered us so wonderfully during the last four years of toil, and struggle, and sorrow, will not forsake us now. He may chasten, but He will not destroy. He may purify us more and more in the furnace of trial, but He will not consume us... Let our principal anxiety now be that this new sorrow may be a sanctified sorrow; that it may lead us to deeper repentance, to a more humbling sense of our dependence upon God, and to the more unreserved consecration of ourselves and all that we have to the cause of truth and justice, of law and order, of liberty and good government, of pure and undefiled religion. Then, though weeping may endure for a night, joy will come in the morning.
God can use even the evil intentions of our hearts for his glory. He takes the long view in executing his purposes. We see this in the Cross where God’s grace is greater than our sin. The act of wicked men in putting Jesus to death by nailing him to the cross was used by God for our redemption. In Christ, God took upon himself the judgment of the world. The judgment we deserve is borne by the sinless Son of God. In him our rebellion has been overcome. The Gospel is a message of peace. Where the gospel is proclaimed the wrath of man and of God is ended and the war between us is over.
Studdert Kennedy expressed his consolation and hope in these words in his poem Faith:
So through the clouds of Calvary – there shines
His face, and I believe Evil dies,
And Good lives on, loves on, and conquers all –
All War must end in Peace. These clouds are lies,
They cannot last. The blue sky is the Truth.
For God is Love. Such is my Faith, and such
My reasons for it, and I find them strong
Enough. And you? You want to argue? Well,
I can’t. It is a choice. I choose the Christ.
(Ted’s blog is found at www.tedschroder.com His books are found on www.amazon.com. SOUL FOOD: DAILY DEVOTIONS FOR THE HUNGRY, Vol.3, July, August and September is now available. You can order by replying to tschroder@ameliachapel.com.)
