Consider Source or Blame the Water?

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago." Psalm 44:1

"All this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you..." Psalm 44:17-19

"When drinking water, consider the source." Chinese saying

The media is full of global firms toppling, stock markets crashing, and billionaires losing fortunes, but it doesn't dwell much upon the individual families who lost homes, jobs and life savings because of those large firms and billionaires playing Monopoly on Wall Street. It is tempting for us common folk caught up in the financial tsunami to feel like David, who in Psalm 77:1,2 wrote at length about his distress and fear, about sleepless nights and arms outstretched to a God who appeared to have forgotten him. But David's thoughts of God did not comfort him, but only made him more miserable! "I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint." Psalm 77:3

Soured Source? David felt hopeless because he blamed God, not himself, for his problems. In Psalm 44:17-19, David complained, "All this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant. Our hearts had not turned back, our feet had not strayed from your path. But you crushed us..."

Had God failed David, or David failed God?

Why Dark Paths? The same David who claimed God had failed him wrote in Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path." Now David complains that the light has gone out. But if our path darkens, it is not because the Light has dimmed but because we are no longer walking with that Light. No lamp illuminates the entire path but only that part upon which we are walking. If our way is dark, it is because we are walking ahead of the light, or behind it, or have left the Light and the Path altogether. Or, tragically, we may be on the right Path but walking it in our own wisdom, ignoring the Light, as a captain ignores a lighthouse to his own peril and then blames the lighthouse keeper for sinking his ship.

Consider the Source. David's solution to his problems was to examine not himself but God. He promised to meditate day and night upon God's past great works. He did this to change not himself but God, to remind God, who had "forgotten" David, to get His act together and to again take care of Israel.

David did well to look to God's past faithfulness (Psalm 77: 11, 12). As ancient Chinese said, "When drinking water, consider the source." I often review my old journals and marvel at the many seeming coincidences over the years, and I marvel at the clear indications of the Source's presence in my life. But I also see that when I drank bitter water, it was not because the well had soured but because I had chosen, by my actions or inactions, to drink from a different well.

My own spiritual walk is not going to have any impact upon the global outlook in 2009, but it will most definitely influence my own path. If I choose to walk the right path, and to drink from the right source, I can trust my Father to continue to care for me, regardless of the games played on Wall Street, as He cared for those long ago, or even for me in the days of my own youth.

And if, perchance, I do drink of bitter waters, I'll consider the source rather than blame the water.
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