Jitterbugging for Jesus

Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.

2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.

4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,

6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,

8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.

9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.

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It’s built in to the human condition, I think, to put our trust and faith into “princes” rather than the “Prince of Peace,” he who was born and reared in conditions unbecoming of royalty or political blue blood.

Politicians thrive on exploiting and manipulating this human weakness in us all. They are forever promising to fix us and our problems and smooth the paths for us–and to a great extent they do. We have to have political leaders if there’s to be any progress.

But in promising peace, our politicians — “princes,” if you will (be they male or female)– become over-aggressive and over-reach in war. In promising prosperity, the princes become over-aggressive and over-reach again, while often giving in to the temptation of feathering their own nests. (And in politics, that’s a huge temptation, and anybody who says he or should would never take care of himself first is lying to himself or herself or doesn’t understand the sinful human condition.)

Politicians–our princes–are always trying to hang the moon, and they’re skilled at persuading us that they have to the ways and means and power to hang it. Whether it’s Barack or Sarah, Hillary or Bill, W. or whomever–we invest a lot of faith in all these political “messiahs.” So much so that we develop blind spots that blind us to the mistakes and foibles of the ones we’ve invested so much faith and trust and emotion in.

In political science, it’s called “the true believer” syndrome. And it’s powerful.

But, inevitably, our political heroes let us down if we’re honest and dispassionate about them, and then we get angry at their human weakness–and at the same sinful nature we have in common with them all.

“Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men (and women) who cannot save,” the Psalmist had warned. And yet the people in the time of Jesus thought their Messiah was going to come galloping in on a big White Steed, wielding his sword and chopping off the heads of all those many oppressors.

What the people got was a strong and powerful savior and a prince indeed, but not at all the one they had envisioned and imagined.
They got one born and reared in less than royal conditions; one not of this world, but very much involved in saving it, and saving you and me too.