INDEPENDENCE DAY

The Lord reigns, let the peoples rage;” (Ps 98/99: 1, Septuagint-translation) As we Americans celebrate Independence Day today, I’m thinking, just how empowering and truly “independent” this Psalm-verse is. I mean, it’s independent of a concern for what “the peoples” in our world and personal surroundings happen to be “raging” about, and focuses instead on the one, reliable fact that remains constant, both in our own lives and throughout history: that the Lord is the King above all of it, Who ultimately will judge it all. And it is His opinion, His evaluation of our ever-changing “rages,” that will stand eternally. So today, as I celebrate Independence Day with my beloved, fellow Americans, let me let God liberate me from a burdensome dependency on merely-human opinions, and let me re-focus on His judgment and kingship. “Depend not on princes and on the sons of man, in whom there is no salvation.” Let freedom ring, O Lord, in my life, and save us all by Your grace.