Everything Isn't Right.

Peruse any batch of news headlines. Whether here in the homeland or abroad in the other lands, it's unmistakeable.

Everything isn't right.

I'm not the most faithful news follower. Even so, the briefest of glances at the world scene tells you. Things are bonkers. Things are unsettled. Things are volatile. Things are complex. Things are ridiculous. Things are accelerating. Everything out there isn't right.

And then we turn towards us. You and me. When we're just living from thing to thing, appointment to appointment, event to event, we're not regularly stopping to assess what is happening inside of us. In there. At first glance, ok seems to be a decent description. And it may be. But when I pass bonkers, unsettled, volatile, complex, ridiculous and accelerating through the inner grid as well, some of them stick. They do. Everything in there isn't right.

Everything out there and everything in there isn't right. What do we do? How do we proceed?

Of course this isn't new. We know this plot is ancient. Bible book of Psalm, chapter 102. Here is a quick run down of the first eight verses.

I'm crying for help to You God.

It seems like You're turning Your face from me.

I'm feeling burnt out.

My inner life is withering away.

My physical body is weak.

I feel weird and alone.

My enemies are taunting me.

Everything isn't right in him.

Then verse 14. The city's dust moves them to pity. Everything isn't right in the city at large.

Everything isn't right around him.

It is out of this personal and public awareness that everything isn't right that the cry for reviving is blurted out. It feels like a blurting out because the "everything isn't right" description is so full and occupying much of the page to this point.

"But You, O Lord, sit enthroned forever; Your renown endures through all generations. You will rise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come."

Right in the thick of the "everything isn't right" rundown, the everlasting through line is declared. He is King on the throne forever. Every generation will know He is King.

The first eight verses kind of had us faked out. It seemed like he might disintegrate down into an Eeyore vortex of pessimism and never make it back out. But it was the necessary contrast of declared need giving way to declaring that the King is indeed the King. And once he gets started, he's on a roll!

YOU will rebuild (v16)

YOU will respond (v17)

YOU will preserve a remnant (v18)

And the contrast keeps being important. He isn't living an out of sight, out of mind existence from the "everything isn't right" reality. He isn't ignoring that everything isn't right. He knows that's real and right in the midst of his groaning the hope of reviving and release is announced. "The Lord looked down from His sanctuary on high, from heaven He viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death."

Keep blurting it out right in the middle of everything not being right, out there and in here. "The name of the Lord WILL BE DECLARED in Zion." My friend TM tells me, "We might be one confession of need away from generations experiencing the reviving of God."

There's more.