"Put not your trust in princes" the psalmist tells us. (Psalm 146:3) In the modern world, "princes" applies to presidents and governors, members of the US Congress and state legislatures. The Bible tells us to obey the government and the Book of Common Prayer encourages us to pray for government leaders, but neither says we should "trust" them, at least not in the final, ultimate sense we are invited to trust in God.
The Psalmist reminds us that our final and lasting hope is in God and God's goodness alone - all else falls far short. As Winston Churchill once said "Democracy is the worst form of government humanity has ever devised; except every other form we have created." The last several year's sharp political divisions in this country are frustrating to all of us, liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans and Libertarians and whatnot alike, and they are a reminder of the truth of Churchill's observation.
Whatever else we can learn from these past few decades in our nation's history, we can at least all agree that they serve to teach us that there is nothing new under the sun (check out Ecclesiastes 1:9 on that one), and that whoever is in charge of the governing of others - be they emperors, kings, tsars, princes, presidents or members of congress - they are all human, and therefore they are all fallible, sinful human beings.
Notice, I didn't say they are evil, I said they are sinful. There is a difference. One can be sinful without being intentionally evil. To be evil is to set out to harm others for one's own pleasure or benefit and to feel no pity for those whom you might hurt in the process. Being sinful is often much more complicated. We may set out to do good, but some combination of an inability to control the outcomes of our actions, mixed in with a lack of humility about either the limits of our knowledge or the self-centeredness of our desires creates a recipe for disaster. So we see posturing, and the drawing of lines in the sand, and finger-pointing from grownups acting like first-graders arguing over the slide at recess.
As I write this in late September 2022, I hope and pray that somewhere in the leadership of our governments there are people with the wisdom to lead us safely through these perilous times. In the meantime, I am reminded that while I will vote for, pray for, and to some extent hope for, the goodness and wisdom of politicians; I will always and only put my eternal trust in God and God alone.
Peace,
Delmer