Today we continue with a the subject of blessings found in the psalms, for In Psalm 29:11 we read, “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.”
The beautiful Hebrew word for peace, Shalom, is a word full of blessings - such as completeness, welfare, well-being, safety, even prosperity. But here the word prosperity is more to do with the riches of grace.
The sad fact is that the Society of International Law, in London, states that during the last 4,000 years there have been only 268 years of peace in spite of good peace treaties. In the last 3 centuries there have been 286 wars on the continent of Europe alone. And still today we find little peace or desire for reconciliation or harmony.
In one Peanuts cartoon Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!”
Charlie says, “But I thought you had inner peace.”
Lucy replies, “I do have inner peace. But I still have outer obnoxiousness.”
Amy Carmichael, missionary to India wrote, “Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace…If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you know what His will is.”
O God of all hope and peace, we bring to you the needs of our broken and hurting world. Our hearts are breaking with images of lives lost and torn apart by grief in Israel and Palestine. We pray for an end to violence and warfare so that the challenging work of rebuilding may begin. Help us, O Lord, to affirm our common humanity so that in our differences we may build together for justice and peace. In Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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