SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 2006



Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise. Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you. All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name.’ (Psalm 66: 1-4)

In this triumphant song of praise the psalmist has sounded a minor chord.

God has enemies. The enemies are clever. Above the translator has used "cringe." The Hebrew is kachash. Cringe is accurate, but this is a forced and feigned groveling. The enemies have not truly submitted to God. Rather, they are going through the motions, waiting for an opportunity to assert themselves.

God is the ultimate reality. The enemies of God seek to twist reality and confuse our understanding. The enemies of God are deceptive. M. Scott Peck has suggested that evil is, at its source, the manipulation of reality to hurt others as a way of helping ones self. When Satan encountered Jesus in the wilderness the temptations were all self-serving and were fortified by quoting scripture.

Satan tried to use scripture in a way that would push Jesus to self-assertion and self-satisfaction. Jesus consistently responded with restraint. Even at the beginning of his ministry Jesus was sufficiently at one with God - and confident of his understanding of reality - to recognize his enemy's twisting of reality.

Jesus knew that fulfillment is the result of authentic submission to God, rather than assertion of a separate self.

Above is The Ascension of Christ by Salvador Dali.