God’s heart

https://odb.org/2025/08/22/seeing-with-gods-heart

Psalm 146
1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, 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 human beings, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day, their plans come to nothing. 5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. 6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he 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 foreigner 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.

It is sad to read about people displaced by war, like the case of Chantale Zuzi Leader highlighted in today’s ODB. See her personal account here: https://singjupost.com/dear-fellow-refugees-heres-how-i-found-resilience-chantale-zuzi-leader-transcript/

In the present Israel-Hamas conflict, many in Gaza have been killed and displaced. A war against Israel financed and supported by Iran but putting the 2 million plus Palestinians in jeopardy where the general population is powerless to act against the armed “freedom fighters” or militants, while the Israeli troops and bombs advance and destroy their homes and infrastructure.

The road to peace is fraught with difficulties as the most realistic way to peace is for Hamas to lay down their arms, but that would make them totally at the mercy of Israel. Similarly, most Ukrainians have fled the Donbass region, overrun by Russian troops. In the peace effort initiated by President Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is resisting attempts to cede territories Ukraine has lost to Russia, while Putin is determined to entrench a buffer zone against Nato in the west. In the process, many have perished from both sides.

We may be tempted to ask – where is God in all these human infractions? Many lives are lost. Yet we know human beings are not robots or animals driven purely by instinct. We have reasoning power and the will to do as we wished. The natural world must run its course.

All I can say is that God’s heart is always for the oppressed, as demonstrated by His Word and actions since ancient times. The widows, orphans, and foreigners always have a special place in Yahweh’s heart. As many have perished due to perils of men, I believe many have also been saved and rescued like Chantale Zuzi Leader.

What can we do? We can probably only pray that God will save and rescue more even as the bombs fall and the bullets fly, even as the machetes cut and maim or kill. Pray for those going through wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan. Pray that more will be rescued and saved even as many are killed. At the same time, be thankful that we are enjoying peace where we may earn a living, raise families, and attend church to worship God! Thank the Lord that most of the world is living in peace while enjoying the glory of His creation, from the mountains to the sea, from the north pole to the south, from he rising of the sun to its rest. Amen! We praise You, O Lord my God, my Rock and my Salvation!