That's Enough!
How do you signal, “That’s enough.”? When someone is preparing your plate, pouring your beverage, or about to cut a slice of cake for you; how do you communicate, “That’s enough.”? At some point in each of our lives, particularly in relation to life’s weightier matters, we have had occasion to think or say to ourselves, “That’s enough.” The rise in crime across the nation… “That’s enough.” The inequities in healthcare for people of color, versus others… “That’s enough.” The discrimination against people because of their religion… “Enough,” or their skin color… “Enough.” The demonization of “certain people”… the criminalization of “certain people” when they are engaged in everyday activities, the kinds of activities that when practiced by “others,” are viewed as their irrevocable right, a basic right to be freely enjoyed. I say, “Enough already!” “Enough is Enough!”
This, I imagine, is the feeling and sentiment expressed in Psalm 94 as the psalmist reviews the record of the wicked. While the psalmist does not slip into unhealthy ideations over what the wicked have done, he is clearly and deeply angered by the evils they have and continue to perpetrate against the weak, the widowed, the fatherless, and the foreigner. He is further angered by God’s apparent silence in the face of their boastfulness. The psalmist’s outcry to God is a prayer of intercession. In his appeal to God, the psalmist is essentially saying, “Lord, that’s enough! There’s a limit to what I can endure, and there ought to be a limit to what the evil can do.”
On today and throughout the week, Let Us consider the following: As we hear reports of all manner of wrong an evil, how do we respond? At what point, if at all (and for how long), do we pray to God for the vulnerable, for the victims, and concerning the victimizers?
Let Us Pray
Lord God, I pray (We pray) that your presence would be tangible and visible in the lives of all those who are hurting. We pray for all those who have been and continue to be victimized, abused, and destroyed as targets of another’s sinful intentions and hateful acts. Lord, help me (help us), that in our hearing and seeing we would not be mere onlookers, but that we would be prayer warriors and activist… that we would be those who both give voice to our opposition and actively stand against evil in all its forms.