Psalm 146

1 Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, O my soul!

2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;

  I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3 Put not your trust in princes,

  in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;

  on that very day his plans perish.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

  whose hope is in the Lord his God,

"Death by Lightning" was a surprisingly good movie about the rise, election and assassination of James Garfield. He was replaced by Chester Aruther, his vice-president. His assassin was a diagnosable mental case who sought fame and glory, and when the president disappointed him, he turned that into vengeance against Garfield.

Although the very use of this as a topic for a devotion may appear untimely, thankfully we are not offering up a prayer for our nation this morning after the third attempt on our president's life on Saturday. For that, we are grateful. 

The use of the movie does point to the promise we hold in each election, and the party that wins in the election finds hope in its candidate winning. I knew nothing of Garfield before watching the movie, but his platform was on reform. Corruption ran deep in government, and blacks were legally segregated in our nation. Garfield was a man of faith and had served the Union in the Civil War as a soldier. He brought the ideals of his faith and his service as a soldier into office, only to find his time in office brief. The promise in a "son of man" was extinguished in his death. Arthur was presented as the polar opposite of Garfield and his time in office was brief too, having served to complete Garfield's term.

We give hope each election cycle to "our man." He's going to set things straight and help our nation by rectifying the "sins of its past" (whatever those may be depending on party and individual beliefs). And yet, after a decade has past, we see the nation continues along its path. The writer of today's psalm, the first in the "Hallelujah Psalms" (Praise the Lord!), notes the fragility of putting our hope in "sons of men."

Christ will use the phrase to describe himself, the Son of Man. In Christ do we find hope and in Christ is where we place our hope. He is fully man and God at the same time. Christ is our hope and our true hope is found in him.

Pray with me: Gracious God, We give thanks today that our president was protected and our nation did not fall victim to the violent acts of a man. We give thanks for the protection that surrounds him and the ability to subdue the violence this man sought to use. We know our hope is found in you alone, the hope of removing the stain of sin, death and impact of evil from Satan. We ask you to guide our leaders and to light the path they take. In Your Son's Name, Amen.