This morning I was reading a Psalm written by King David and a blinding light…sort of, hit me.
The Psalm was 131 and in this Psalm, King David, who is arguably the most powerful human on earth at the time, is pouring his heart out in a prayer of humility to the Lord.
My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.
(Psalm 131, NIV)
That’s it! That’s the entire Psalm.
Does it strike you as an immense contrast of most of the world’s leaders nowadays who appear to know nothing whatsoever of humility? Well, me too!
And this chasm separating David from most of the world’s leaders was my blinding light feeling.
While I was meditating on this Psalm, a song began to play in my head. It was from the British rock band, Tears for Fears off their 1985 album, Songs for the Big Chair.
You may have heard the song on the radio. The title is Everybody Wants to Rule the World.
Check out verse #2:
It’s my own design
It’s my own remorse
Help me to decide
Help me make the most
Of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world.
The central motif of that verse is my, my and me, me. And, the focus does not come off self for the entire song!
But, then again if you want to rule the world I suspect a wee bit of narcissism is necessary.
But, there is old King David and his urgent prayer is for Israel to look towards the Lord rather than to him!
By his example, I am guessing that if we want to rule the world, the first place to start is to get our own hearts in order.
I ran across an interesting quote from an anonymous Hasidic rabbi that seems to hit the nail on the head:
When I was young, I set out to change the world. When I grew a little older, I perceived that this was too ambitious, so I set out to change my state. This too, I realized as I grew older, was too ambitious, so I set out to change my town. When I realized I could not even do this, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I know that I should have started by changing myself. If I had started with myself, maybe then I would have succeeded in changing my family, the town, or even the state—and who knows, maybe even the world.
(Richard W. Richardson, Family Ties that Bind: A Self-help Guide to Change through Family of Origin Therapy, 1995, p. 35.)
Funny thing…the majority of people that want to have me counsel them regarding a problem, have at the heart of their problem the issue that the world is not treating them as they desire to be treated.
The answer is always the same. First give them Jesus and second, the only person we stand a snowball’s chance of changing is ourselves.
And, start there! Change the self and we change the world, through Christ’s sake.