This week I talked with pastor's wife about their families plans for serving the Lord. She asked how things were going and congratulated us on the progress that has been made here in Central Ohio. She told me that there are few places harder to assemble the Lord's own than here in Franklin County. And yet, as we look around our state and count Reformed noses, we may well feel a certain loneliness. No wonder, I regularly hear from the lonely scattered families from the surrounding counties. The Reformed orthodoxy is difficult to find in the growing smogasboard of "christian alternatives".

Whenever we begin to feel lonely, we would do well to remember the great prophet Elijah who fled Israel to God's holy mountain in the Sinai. There he poured out his heart before the Lord. The Lord encouraged Elijah with the knowledge that He had kept for Himself seven thousand faithful in the midst of a paganized Israel. That same loneliness afflicted David as we see in this particular psalm. Thus, we who are Reformed and lonely in Central Ohio may learn an essential lesson from David the King.

The pattern of David's psalm for the lonely is one of prayer, promise and prayer. David is assured of relief, but at the end the worldly conditions are still unchanged. Spurgeon notes that this psalm was probably composed after the murder of friendly priests when David was still in hiding. One by one honest men were driven from public honor into the caves of the desert. There they had to lie low while the wickedness of Saul's servants reigned supreme in the land of Israel.

That situation is becoming all too familiar in our own time. One Christian commentator noted last year that at Washington parties, gays are more welcome than Christians. We have only to consider the rulings of our "conservative" court to realize that there is a growing public unfriendliness towards Christian values and ethics. In another court case announced this year, a school teacher who merely kept a Bible on his desk was ordered to remove it from the public sector. The courts upheld that order.

Certainly we undestand that biblical content has been separated from all subject areas taught in the public schools in the last fifty years. This is the main reason that the great classic writers have been removed from the list worthy of consideration in contemporary literature classes. Instead of literature, science and history filled with theological insight, we have a whole body of myths creatively conceived and modeled for public consumption.

Beyond the areas of intellect, in social relationships, even trust is breaking down. As David observes: "Everyone lies to his neighbor." Derek Kidner remarks that these words here include empty talk, smooth talk, and double talk.

This week a bright shiney pick-up truck pulled into the driveway. The salesman opened with a line that his workers had fifteen tons of excess asphalt from a driveway project down the road. He was looking for someone to take it off his hands at a reduced price. I confronted him with some inside knowledge that I had about his operation. After all, he had pulled a fast one on one of the ladies we mow for. She had fallen for the offer, hook line and sinker. An initial offer to pave her driveway for eighteen hundred dollars turned into a bill for almost five thousand instead.

A mere week later, dandilions were pushing their way through the "two inch" layer of asphalt. The company was right in using the word cheap, but its reality was not in the price, but in the product! The salesman said that that project was none of my business. I told him that even if I could afford a paved driveway, his would be the last company I would ever consider to clean out my bank account. If you have participated in any business deals in the last few years you probably realize that the old phrase "let the buyer beware" is certainly sound advice. If the deal is too good to be true, it probably is!

Well does David understand our common experience. David in his hiding place, wishes that flattering lips and boastful tongues would be cut off. Publically the worldly have announced "We will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips _ who is our master?"

More and more the powerful are circumscribing the freedom of people to speak. In Tennessee a few years ago, one lady wrote an article critical of the Educational Union. She was slapped with a libel suite which was soon canceled, but anyone in that area who had second thoughts about the wonderful educational opportunities available in Tennessee felt they needed expensive legal protection. Again in many places, employees are being made to understand that company policy is also their public policy as well.

Our lesson today is to be found in the Lord's answer to David's prayer in verse five. "Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the Lord. "I will protect them from those who malign them." Oh the promise of those words, and how earnestly we might wish for the Lord's speedy action in our own day and age. Well, the Lord does indeed have his way.

In the Old Testament the Lord encouraged Israel to redistribute the land wealth every fifty years in what became known as the Year of Jubilee. I am certain that this idea would prove very unpopular in our day and age. However, one economist observed that about every fifty years there occurs some economic, social or political event which causes some evening out and sharing of hoarded wealth. In the eastern states of Europe, people are returning from exile and filing in court for the return of lands confiscated earlier in this century.

The Lord has promised and David observes that his words are flawless like silver refined and purified. The implication here is that an honest currency must continually be refined from the tampered coins of the realm. Spurgeon notes that this process may be equally applied to the spiritual truths taught from God's revealed word. In spite of literary criticism, philosophic doubt and scientific discovery, the essential truths of the revelation record maintain their integrity.

David closes this psalm with a prayer that just as the Lord's word is kept flawless so too may He keep His own saints safe and protected from the worldly wise who doubt the fact and faithfulness of our God in heaven. And yet, David still has some time to spend in his caves. The worldly wicked will continue to strut about for a time. And what was good will be pronounced bad and what was once bad will be decreed "good".

Like David, we wait upon the Lord. Like David, may we learn patience as we wait for the Lord to make His will made known in our day and age. Amen.