4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. (NIV)
I slept with my head under the covers until I was sixteen years old. With three older brothers whose favorite game was “Let’s Scare Jeff”, I had good reasons to fear the dark! When they weren’t scaring me, I was busy terrifying myself. Moonlight peeking through the curtains and wind-bounced branches combined with my imagination to create the scariest monsters since Dracula. In the light of day or under the glare of a flashlight, these creatures were revealed for the innocent objects they were and it was easy to laugh at them, and myself. The only power my nighttime marauders really had was the power I gave them, in my own mind. It’s interesting to note the imagery the psalmist uses to describe the wicked in verse 4 of today’s reading. Does he describe them as horrible warriors mounted on thunder-pounding steeds or towering giants wielding bloody clubs? In the words of the psalmists, the wicked are chaff. That’s right - chaff. That stuff that covers the seeds of grain that gets blown away in the afternoon breeze and nobody ever sees again. Webster’s also defines chaff as “something comparatively worthless.” Yet when we think of the wicked, of our enemies, of those marshalling their forces against us don’t we envision them as hulking monsters, bigger than us, more powerful and intimidating? The psalmist reminds us that the only power they have is the power we give them, in our minds. In reality, they are nothing more than seedpods, husks, kindling for the hearth. It’s time to stop hiding under the covers. God has turned on the light.
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