Scene: A government departmental meeting allocating funding to respond to a global crisis

Jock Stein August 13, 2025 2 0

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Psalm 33: 12-22 (NRSVA)

12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

13 The Lord looks down from heaven;
    he sees all humankind.
14 From where he sits enthroned he watches
    all the inhabitants of the earth—
15 he who fashions the hearts of them all,
    and observes all their deeds.
16 A king is not saved by his great army;
    a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 The war horse is a vain hope for victory,
    and by its great might it cannot save.

18 Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
    on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 to deliver their soul from death,
    and to keep them alive in famine.

20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
    he is our help and shield.
21 Our heart is glad in him,
    because we trust in his holy name.
22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
    even as we hope in you.

Let us imagine two Prime Ministers – premiers of old, lest Sanctuary First be accused of getting too ‘political’. After Benjamin Disraeli became Prime Minister in 1874, in place of William Gladstone, a situation developed in the Balkans (‘the Eastern Crisis’), and Gladstone attacked Disraeli publicly over his failure to respond. Then Gladstone goes one day privately to talk to the PM, aware that he is more at home than Disraeli in handling the Bible. He reads him this text:

Psalm 33:12-22…

“Prime Minister, God sees what we do and what we don’t do. Are you going to do something about Turkish brutality in the Balkans?”

Gladstone, however, in his confidence had forgotten that Disraeli was a Jew, and well at home in the Psalms, drawing attention to verse 12, and its primary application to Israel.

“Yes, yes, Prime Minister, but God is looking down on all humankind, and the British Empire cannot condone injustice. Can you not do something about the Balkans?”

“Charity begins at home, Gladstone, and we have enough to do without interfering abroad.”

So Gladstone lost that encounter. But in 1880 he became Prime Minister for the second time. Disraeli died in 1881, so it was others who attacked Gladstone over his failure to rescue General Gordon at Khartoum. We imagine him reading this passage again, especially verses 16 and 17, and taking a humbler view of the might of Empire.

How do we, well over a century later, think our Governments at Holyrood and Westminster could respond better to the violence in the world today?

PRAY:

Lord, grant wisdom and courage to those who have been elected to lead our nations, and the insight to recognize that a greater eye is open to their doings than the eye of the electorate. And hear us as we pray in the words our Lord taught us,

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever.

Amen.

And remember in prayer national and local politicians.