Daily Thought for Thursday 10th April 2025
“I am….a horror to my neighbours, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me….. But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand.
Psalm 31: 11, 14, 15 (NRSV)
My times are in your hand
Murdo Macdonald
A little over 150 years ago Irishman Wellesley Bailey, visiting Ambala in Punjab, North India, first came face to face with people affected by leprosy. Having only previously heard about leprosy from Bible stories, Bailey was shocked when he saw the people’s clawed hands and disfigured faces. Afterwards, he wrote: “I felt that if there was ever a Christlike work in the world it was to go amongst these poor sufferers and bring them the consolation of the gospel”. Out of this encounter grew the Leprosy Mission, which continues to this day to work in the name of Christ with those affected by leprosy.
The verses above from Psalm 31 paint a graphic picture. Fortunately, for most of us, being an object of dread to our neighbours, or those from whom people in the street flee, is not something that we experience on a day to day basis. However, while we may not routinely encounter those with leprosy on our streets, we are all too aware there are still those we might term “social lepers”. People who are outcasts, those who are marginalised by society: people who might cause the respectable people to look away, or even to cross the street to avoid contact with them. Dare we say it, the kind of people who might not be welcomed in our church services?
And then we realise that, in describing the person in this desperate and unattractive state, the Psalmist isn’t speaking of somebody else – they are talking about themselves: “I am a horror to my neighbours”! As Paul puts it in writing to the Christians in Rome: “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7: 24)
What do we do when we come to the realisation that, respectable though we think we are, our lives are irreparably scarred by sin? The beauty of the Gospel is that Christ has come, to bring healing, hope and wholeness.
Shall we pray?:
My times are in Your hand;
my God, I wish them there!
My life, my friends, my soul,
I leave, entirely to Your care.
(William Freeman Lloyd, 1791-1853)
Murdo Macdonald is a molecular biologist who since 2008 has had the privilege to lead the Church of Scotland’s Society, Religion and Technology (SRT) Project. He is an elder in Tranent Parish Church.