But

Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21

I'm not sure if I learned this in high-school English or if this concept was introduced to me through life experiences: the conjuction but is a word which cancels the statements made before it. Let's take these phrases as an example - "I know you're a smart person, but...", "That's a great idea, but...", "As a Christian I accept everyone, but...".

But is a wonderful word, when used correctly it can really help in winning arguments. However, when used wrongly it can unknowingly sometimes cause pain. Put yourself on the receiving end of the afore mentioned statements and think about how you might feel having been told you're smart but not smart enough, or how you would feel that you really aren't accepted. 

It's within the buts of our language we tend to focus. The bible is no exception. The word but can be found 3994 times in the King James Version, and 4509 times in the New Living Translation. In most translations the first time we're introduced to the word is in Genesis 2:6 when we are being told there was no water for the land God created nor were there people to work it, but a mist came up from the ground. Almost saying that it didn't matter that there wasn't any rain or people to give and sustain life, there was still God, and God was going to do what was needed to ensure life on God's creation happened.

Our passage today has one of the thousands of buts we find in the bible. After this long list of how great God is - how just and kind and how God is always near us - in verse 20 we are told that "The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy." I don't know about you but I don't think I want to be wicked, I rather like the God who is kind and just, not the one who is going to destroy me.

That's the point of this Psalm. Remember, please, that in the time this Psalm was written it was truly believed that there was a God who ruled every aspect of one's life. The god each nation believed in was a god that chose who got to live and die. How well each king served their god determined whether or not a particular battle would be won.

It was deeply believed that how we lived our lives and treated our God, each other, and ourselves was directly related to the blessings we would receive - and in my opinion rightly so. I don't believe that God is a God of vengeance - I used to, but I never again will. I know deep within my soul that when we venture away from the love of God, when we begin to treat others as outsiders, when we treat ourselves as less than, that is when we feel as though God has left us.

Nothing could be further from the truth. God has always been with us, traveling each path on our journeys of life. God's hope is that we realize and remember that God is there, wanting nothing more than to be in our lives and to be in relationship with us.

The but in today's passage is nothing more than a reminder that there is a God who loves you and that you have an obligation to live as God wants you to: love God, love others, and love yourself.