Oh how I love Southern Baptists! Oh how I thank God for them! How good they have been to me. It was from them that I was told about Jesus. It was from them that I was taught that I was a sinner and offered the gospel of Jesus Christ. They gave me a Bible and told me it was the Word of Almighty God. From them I learned of the Great Commission of our Lord and was habituated to concern for the billions who have not yet heard His name. They, the millions of Southern Baptists, many of them poor dropped their smallish but still sacrificial tithes into offering plates from Spartanburg South Carolina to Sacramento California and I used to get an education to serve on the mission field in Bangkok, Thailand and now to teach theology in one of her seminaries. I could say much, much more. Through the benefits enjoyed from people of God called Southern Baptists I have incurred a debt that can never be fully repaid.

I wonder now, though, if we Southern Baptists have become proud and find ourselves set for divine correction. I wonder and I tremble.  The Psalm of the day is number 12:

Save us, Yahweh! There are no devout men left,
Fidelity has vanished from mankind.
All they do is lie to one another,
Flattering lips, talk from a double heart.

May Yahweh slice off every flattering lip,
Each tongue so glib with boasts,
Those who say, “In our tongue lies our strength,
Our lips have the advantage; who can master us?

“For the plundered poor, for the needy who groan,
now I will act” says Yahweh.
“I will grant them the safety they sigh for.”

The words of Yahweh are without alloy,
Nature’s silver coming from the earth seven times refined.
And you, Yahweh, hold us in your keeping,
Against that breed protect us always.
The wicked prowl on every side,
Baseness stands high among the sons of men.