March 3, 2022
[1]
Psalm 73 Good News Translation
2 I had
nearly lost confidence;
my faith
was almost gone
3 because I was jealous of the proud
when I saw
that things go well for the wicked. …
16 I tried to
think this problem through,
but it was
too difficult for me
17 until I went into your
Temple.
Then I understood what will happen to the wicked.
18 You will
put them in slippery places
and make
them fall to destruction!
28 But as for me, how wonderful to be
near God,
to find
protection with the Sovereign Lord
and to
proclaim all that he has done!
During the late 1960s I taught at a rural boarding high
school in Tanzania. The main support of the small village that had grown up near
the school was poaching from the nearby Serengeti Game Reserve. Several
villagers owned Land Rovers that they would use to drive out into the reserve
at night and bring home animals that they sold for their meat and hides.
In order to avoid suspicion the Land Rover owners would
strip the wheels, seats, and engine which would be kept by other villagers.
They parked the stripped vehicles next to their homes. They were all old and
showed no signs of having been used within the last several years. However, in
the late afternoon a group of men would cluster around the vehicle. They would
bring the missing parts and reassemble them. About five o’clock they would pull
into the school gas station for gas. By the next morning they would have
finished their hunting trip. The dusty vehicle would again be lying next to
their home, wheels, seats, and engine all missing. It would appear to have not
been used for a long time.
Several hunters would climb into the reassembled vehicle and
drive out across a river that harbored both crocodiles and hippos. They were
very careful to take a slightly different route each time so that no track
appeared for rangers to follow them. They would mainly shoot large antelope,
hack the carcass into liftable size pieces, and load them into the back of the
landrover. When It was full they would head home and sell the meat to the
villagers, including some of the staff of the school. Sometimes the Land Rover
would break under the heavy load; then they would come on campus and seek me
out to weld the break.
One of these poachers was much more prosperous than the
others. His Land rover was practically new, a pretty green color. He dressed
well, spoke passable English, and was much revered amongst all the villagers.
We became friends. While he was making a delivery to one of the staff on campus
late one night, I asked him if he had official permission to shoot the game. He
smiled and assured me he did and produced an official looking requisition that
had several animals listed on it.
One night he was out in the reserve loading the animals they
had shot into his Land Rover when the rangers came upon him. Instead of jumping
into the vehicle and fleeing like was usually done, he decided to have a
shootout with them. During the fight he was killed. The rangers brought the
vehicle back to the village with his body in it. The other hunters were carted
off to jail. This time I saw his blood mingled with the blood of the animals. Of
course, this did not put an end to the poaching.
There was a huge outdoor funeral for him. I joined hundreds
of people who came to it, not only from that village, but many of the
surrounding villages. Our school chaplain preached the sermon. He preached for
several hours, while everyone stood or sat around patiently and listened. He
covered the grand themes of Christianity in detail, including salvation, grace,
the state of the dead, and the Sabbath. He told me later that he knew that this
was the only time many of these people would hear the whole Gospel. He felt
compelled to use the occasion to the best advantage for the Lord.
Oh Lord, thank You that You look after Your followers so well, even though we might not be as prosperous as the world’s tycoons.
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