Psalm 12:8 Illustrated Yet Once Again

11/08/2012 - James White

The light Tuesday's election cast on the degradation of Western culture's expression in the United States should not have surprised us. But we still hope for some restraint, some sign that God will restrain the madness of men rushing to destroy everything that is good and holy and just. But what did we see? An open lesbian elected to the United States Senate. A trans-sexual elected to office in the Northeast. A bisexual here in my own state of Arizona. The profaning of marriage in multiple states, for the first time by popular vote. It was truly an amazing revelation.

I have avoided watching much media since Tuesday evening. I know too well that Psalm 12:8 is being played out repeatedly:

The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.

Yesterday I was thinking about how quickly things have changed in the United States. There has literally been a revolution in worldview, a degradation of ethics and morals that is stunning in its openness and bravado. But I think my generation has trouble with this kind of change. We want to hold on to how things have been. We still see signs of stability from the past and so we struggle to realize how much the ground is shifting under our feet.

I was riding along a trail I ride all the time when I noticed something that struck me as an illustration of how some of us middle-aged/older folks are feeling. I have ridden this section hundreds of times. But I happened to notice something I had not noticed before. I stopped and took a picture. Notice the sign. It is warning about the severe dip ahead. But, if you look past it...well, they have put in a bridge. Now, I rode that section before they put in the bridge, and yep, it was a pretty severe dip. You had to get out of the saddle just to navigate it. It was a bit of a challenge. But, last year they closed the route for a while and put in a bridge. It's been there quite a while now, in fact. But, for some reason, they forgot about this sign. Well, there's one on the other side, too. They just left them there. I have no idea why. Maybe it wasn't on the work order, I don't know. But there stands the sign, pointing to a reality that is now in the past. The sign is now a lie.

There are many artifacts left in our society of how things used to be, echoes of a day when openly immoral men and women knew the meaning of the word "shame." But those signs are pointing to a reality that does not exist anymore. Someday someone will come along and remove those signs along the pathway. And someday, unless God grants repentance, they will come along and banish the last vestiges of our past when God's hand of restraint held back the public display of man's depravity. Till then, they still stand there, reminding some of us of the world we once knew, but pointing to nothing anymore. 

And, of course, I wonder what folks think who come upon that sign for the first time today. Do they stand there and wonder what it is talking about? Wonder if maybe some confused government worker put it in the wrong place? Are they as bemused as many young people today when they encounter Christian morality and ethics (over against the materialistic worldview they have been spoon fed by government indoctrination)? I can only wonder...and keep pedaling.