Published
2001-03
Bud Powell
Trinity
Covenant RCUS, Colorado Springs
Regarding Not His Hands
Because they
regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy
them, and not build them up. –Psalm 28:5
What a heritage to leave behind! Shortly before Timothy McVey was executed for
bombing the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he distributed a copy of Invictus, a poem by a minor American author, William
Ernest Henley. It is short, but packed
with arrogance and blasphemy.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my
unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody,
but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall
find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul. 1875
The poem, wicked though it is, pretty much
captures the thinking of a great many Americans. It is often commended in school literature
classes as the work of a liberated soul.
Instead, it is a work of a soul in bondage to sin. How do teachers live with themselves, when
their students follow the logical consequences of their teaching?
Henley knew about Christ’s teaching regarding
the “strait gate,” and he knew that the Bible [the scroll] was charged with
warnings against the wicked. But he
chose to defy all of these in terms of his “unconquerable soul.” Neither he nor McVey conquered death,
however. [See Romans 5:14]
It is impossible to be neutral. This must be so if God is the Creator and
Sustainer of all things. The fault here
is a simple one: the wicked do not
regard “the works of the Lord, nor the operation of
His hands.” The penalty is severe and
spiritual, because God is a Spirit, and His most severe punishments are
spiritual ones.
Men resist
the idea of a God who rules all things because they want to leave some wiggle
room for themselves.
They are willing to debase God in order to exalt themselves, and they
reserve their worst invective against those who point out the lie. They do not want to deal with such a God, for
such a concept requires that salvation be of grace and man wants to believe the
fiction that he is “master of his fate.”
