Les Mis and Psalm 10

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to the PCA's Global Missions Conference and the Mercy Ministry Pre-Conference. The GMC is hosted by Mission to the World, which is the missions agency of the PCA. They primarily work through church planting; but out of this church-planting mission they are also involved in a wide range of ministries including medical, ESL, seminary training, street child, and other mercy and justice ministries.

The conference is held every 3 years, and I first went back in 2010. God used it to really change my awareness of His work around the world and to peak my interest in it; particularly in regards to praying for and supporting those on the field. I was really excited to go back this year and signed up back in the summer. Long story short I almost backed out, but I'm so glad I didn't! There were a lot of different moments where I could clearly see God working to provide for me in different ways and I also learned a lot, met some great people, and enjoyed spending quality time with friends.

Back to the title of this post: "Les Mis and Psalm 10". The pre-conference was excellent, and was probably my favorite part of the whole thing.  Phillip Langford, who is the Director of Operations, Africa for IJM was the main speaker and did a fabulous job. He spoke on justice; specifically "The Work of Justice: What is Possible:" And in three sessions looked at Our Neighbor, Ourselves, and then the World.

In the initial session we spent a lot of time in Psalm 10. The psalmist is essentially lamenting the evil and injustice he sees and the seeming ability for the evil-doers to act at will and without consequence. He cries out to the Lord to act, to do something, and ends by proclaiming the Lord is a God who sees and hears and will bring about justice.

• Verse 1: He opens by asking the Lord why He seems to be far off; basically asking why the gross injustices the psalmist writes about are allowed to persist
• Verses 2-6: The "wicked's" outlook on life and view of God; basically he is untouchable, laughs at and frightens those who would stand in his way
• Vs 8-10: The victims are often caught without even being aware they were pursued. They are caught and crushed. 

This is where Les Mis comes into play. Particularly the song "I dreamed a dream". It, as I'm sure you know, is sung by Fantine. She is a women who has been separated from her child, and driven from her job into prostitution in an effort to provide for this child. In the song, she hints at events that occurred earlier in her life. Part of the song goes "But the tigers come at night; with their voices soft as thunder. As they tear your hope apart; as they turn your dream to shame". The tiger is an apex predator. It has no natural enemies, stalks its prey silently in the dark, seeks out the vulnerable, and attacks without warning. 

•  This is how the psalmist describes the wicked: "sits in the lurking places of the villages; in the hiding places he kills the innocent; his eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate. He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; he lurks to catch the afflicted; he catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net. He crouches, he bows down, and the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. He says to himself, 'God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it'." (NASB)

So, what can be done? Where do we start? First, we lament. This allows us to draw close to hurt and pain; seeing it as Jesus does and seeing how it hurts the victim and ourselves. This leads us towards seeing how God responds. Ecclesiastes 4:1 "Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them."

• Phillip defined injustice as "the abuse of power". Basically anyone who has power to protect or provide but misuses it. We see throughout the Scriptures that God hates injustice. 

There is a cure. In Ecclesiastes 4, Solomon is lamenting that the oppressed have no comforter. The cure for injustice is the coming of a comforter. The Latin for comfort is comfortare, which is a verb meaning "to strengthen much". Comfort is not just about what the comforter does (comfort) but how he does it (much, or greatly). The Holy Spirit is called a Comforter/Helper (depending on your translation) in John 14:26. This word in the Greek means an advocate or defender. He has been sent by the Father as our comforter, the one who advocates/strengthens us. 

Throughout Scripture we are actively called to seek justice. Micah 6:8 and Matthew 22 just to name a few. One way we can fulfill the "greatest commandment" in Matthew 22 to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is to fulfill the "second" commandment of loving our neighbor as ourselves. 

• What would I want someone to do for me?
• We are necessary because God chooses to work through His people, but we are not sufficient in our own strength and abilities. 
• It does often matter what/how we do and don't do
• We will often come to the end of our own abilities; this forces us to remember who our God is 

God is a God who sees and hears. He has not forgotten the afflicted and will bring about justice. Sometimes on this earth, but ultimately in eternity. This is what we see in Psalm 10 verses 12-18. 

• Verse 18: The Lord hears the cry of the oppressed So That "man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror". The oppressor may be strong and powerful, seemingly without match, but he is still a man of the earth. He is a broken sinner. He is not God. 

Phillip left us with this question: "As we move into the Great Commission, are we building churches and disciples who fearlessly love their neighbor and strengthen them greatly? 

Throughout the night he interwove Mala's story with Psalm 10. You can click the link to go to the IJM website and read it for yourself...I would re-tell it here but this is already long enough. And I'm only on night one of a 3-day conference. :)