I think that one of the most challenging decisions that public authorities have to make is over finances and budgets: without an infinite amount of money, decisions have to be made about how much to allocate to x, y and z. And of course spending more on x necessarily means there is less to spend on y and z.
I was reminded of this quandary when I was listening to a debate over government defence spending. There was a general, although not unanimous, agreement that defence spending should go up, but the question then was where should that extra money come from. Should it come from decreasing spending on welfare, or the NHS, or HS2, or net zero projects, or foreign aid or... ? well you get the idea! As is often the case with these debates, each suggestion, whatever it was, was not given careful consideration, but instead was lambasted as being cruel or stupid and then dismissed.
In essence it was a debate about priorities: the more important the area, the greater share of the pot it should have. But as it was a debate about defence spending, I wonder how the debate might have gone if Psalm 33 had been read out?
“No king is saved by the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.”
In our context we might say that tanks, or battleships, or fighter planes, or drones are vain hopes for deliverance, but the idea is the same.
The Psalm reminds us that victory does not ultimately depend on who has got the largest or most advanced military capabilities.
"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
he puts the deep into storehouses...
For he spoke, and it came to be;he commanded, and it stood firm."
Human strength is no match for God's power.
This is not an argument to say that we should not have any armed forces at all; but it is saying that we shouldn't think that we would be safe if we only had x amount of tanks, planes, boats or drones, or so many military personnel. Our reliance shouldn't be on our own strength and capabilities, but instead we should be prioritising listening to God and following his ways.
The Psalmist says “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” and in the original Hebrew, the word translated here as 'Lord' is YHWH: the personal name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the Almighty Creator who revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush and who continued to reveal himself and his word in what we now call the Old Testament. The God who reveals himself as the Triune Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the Son became human in Jesus Christ.
Blessed is the nation whose God is this God!
But we need to be careful that we don't claim too quickly that this God is our God. We shouldn't rush to say: “Of course he is our God: we are a Christian nation” or to say “we don't believe in any God, but if we did believe in a God it would be the one that has the Christian values.” Nor should we get the wrong idea of what it means to have this God as our God. It's too easy to see the caption “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” under a picture of a soldier from the Crusades – a symbol of trying to achieve your purposes through might and force. Wherever you are on the political spectrum the temptation is to use force rather than persuasion to get your way, or to see those with a different position as the wicked enemy who should be silenced and whose views are not worth engaging with.
In contrast to this, the ones whose God is the biblical one respect him by listening to and following his word, which is right and true as the Pslamist says. And they model themselves not on the Crusader knight who uses force but on Jesus, who is the exact image of God.
In our reading from Matthew's gospel, there is a description of how Jesus uses his power:
“He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets.”
That means he doesn't proclaim the truth by shouting the loudest or angrily shouting down those who disagree.
“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out”
This means that Jesus doesn't use his power to crush the hurting and most vulnerable.
“till he has brought justice through to victory.”
That means he does what is right however unpopular it is. And Matthew tells us that Jesus was unpopular – those in authority were so threatened by the idea that power should be used to serve others not for self-promotion, that they plotted to kill him, which they did. Though of course he conquered death by rising to life again.
“In his name the nations will put their hope.”
Jesus didn't act in his own self-interest, nor did he act for his own inner circle, or his tribe, but he is the hope for all the nations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, is not a triumphalistic, nationalistic boast, but it is an invitation: if any nation wants to be blessed they should follow God's word, which is right and true, which has the power to create all things, and which became flesh in Jesus. Indeed, if anyone wants to be blessed they should have the Jesus-God as their Lord.
Those that do will have an inheritance that will never perish, spoil or fade, as Peter says in our second reading. This is an inheritance that cannot be won no matter how big an army you have, and neither can it be destroyed, even by all the nuclear weapons in the world. This inheritance is the salvation of our souls, the eternal life that gives to those who have it an inexpressible and glorious joy.
In a world where there are so many things that compete for our attention and urge us to prioritise them – let us hold on to what is truly important: learning to know the God who loves righteousness and justice, who fills the earth with his unfailing love, and who reveals himself to us in his word and in Jesus.
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