Mauled?!?

"O Lord my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me, or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue."

(Psalm 7:1-2)

I'm in the midst of a sermon series on shepherds and sheep. I recently discovered that the wild animals int eh Middle East that shepherds in "biblical times" would have had to watch out for included: wolves, lions, panthers, bears and leopards! Animals that I normally think of only in terms of "the jungles of Africa" or in the local zoo.

Today I was reading Psalm 7, written by David, a former shepherd. He's looking to God for protection from his enemies, "or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away with no one to rescue." David would have seen, first-hand, lions who attacked and devoured their prey.

Suddenly I remembered the 1996 film, "The Ghost and the Darkness," starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. It was based on the true story from 1896 where 2 lions in African killed over 130 people in just a couple of months, as a railroad was being built nearby. I don't remember a lot of the plot details... but I do remember watching people being dragged away in the night by the lions. What a frightening & traumatic experience.

THAT is what it feels like to be "attacked" and persecuted by others, says David. So what's the remedy? Fight back? Get a bigger gun? Hire the famed "Great White Hunter" from America (that was the approach in "The Ghost and the Darkness")? Nope. Trust in God. Allow God to protect and defend you... like the Good Shepherd does for his sheep.

Too often we want to lash out when others "hunt us down." We may even think we have the situation under control. But as Ghandi said, 'An eye for an eye makes the whole wold blind.' So instead of going lion hunting, let's draw closer to God. Let the Good Shepherd do his thing.