by Tim Westergren
On September 11, 2001, I watched with horror the heinous crime against humanity in New York City. I witnessed the second 747 slam into the south tower, and after the World Trade Towers collapsed, I stood for hours, glued to the TV in a crowded café near the Alliance mission office in Madrid, Spain. Disbelief and horror were the only tonic that anyone drank that day.
A few weeks later I was cut to the core by the revelation that some of the terrorists conceived this century-changing cataclysm while seated along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Cambrils, Cataluña. I’m a permanent resident in Spain, and it seared my soul that some of the infamous terrorists of 9/11 planned the attacks in Spain.
Sixteen years later, I was sickened yet again. In August 2017, radical Islamic terrorists chose to create chaos in the same quiet Catalonian coastal town. Five accomplices of the young man who ran down hundreds and killed 13 on La Rambla in Barcelona attempted to run down many more in Cambrils. Police say the attackers plowed an Audi into pedestrians, injuring six civilians and one police officer. Blind hate once again conceived violence and victimized innocent persons on the shores of Spain.
Strategic Kingdom Plans
Nevertheless, this same year God healed my hurting heart through strategic Kingdom plans for blessing on the shores of the Mediterranean.
- In June, Alliance marketplace ministries workers gathered from around the globe on the south coast in Málaga.
- In September, Segovia hosted Europe-wide church-planting training.
- In October, the presidents of the national churches in Europe and the Middle East gathered in Alicante. That same month, 23 workers trained in Al Massira (an evangelism course) in Málaga.
- In December, the pastors and spouses of the Alliance churches in Spain met in Alicante for their national retreat.
- And then the sweetest one of all: worldwide field and team leaders of Alliance International Ministries gathered for a Global Leadership Conference in Málaga, the first one in 12 years.
Some 80 million tourists come to Spain each year. It blesses my soul that several thousand of them were not tourists at all—neither deliberate nor accidental—but agents of the Kingdom who gathered on Spain’s shores to pray and to plan blessing on the nations.
Confident in God’s Mercy
This evil that was planned while sipping coffee reminds me of another dastardly deed done by Doeg the Edomite in 1 Samuel 21–22. Psalm 52 gives voice to King David’s reaction to the ruthless massacre of Ahimelec and the priests of God in Nob at the hands of Doeg after his tipoff to Saul about David’s presence at Ahimelec’s house.
David sings his indignation, preserved for us in Psalm 52 (ESV, emphasis added):
For the director of music. A maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: “David has gone to the house of Ahimelec.”
Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
You love evil rather than good,
And lying more than speaking what is right.
You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.
But God will break you down forever:
he will snatch you and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
The righteous shall see and fear,
And shall laugh at him, saying,
“See the man who would not make
God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and sought refuge in his own destruction!”
But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
forever and ever.
I will thank you forever,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.
The structure of this unique psalm flows from the first words of each stanza:
- Accusation of the perpetrator: Why do you boast of evil? (v. 1)
- Judgment by God: But God will break you down (v. 5)
- Confidence of the believer: But I am like a green olive tree (v. 8)
David is righteously indignant at the ruthlessness of Doeg and Saul. (He does not call him out by name, so he could be alluding to either of them.) Like those who plot terror, his boasting, lying tongue plots evil.
Yet David is confident in God’s mercy (vv. 1, 8) and His sure justice of the evil one (v. 5). He affirms that He is eternal, powerful, and good, despite the circumstances. David finishes with a firm flourish: “I am like an olive tree in the house of God!” (v. 8).
His Unfailing Love
For those of us who live in the Mediterranean basin, this stout, hardy tree is ubiquitous and synonymous with longevity, hardiness, and fruitfulness. Not far from where our field celebrates its annal field forum there are groves of trees more than 1,000 years old—and they still produce olives for oil!
David takes the long view on dastardly evil. God sees evil; God executes justice on evil, and God’s covenant love cannot be thwarted. Though evil men plot destruction and it may touch me or you, we can be confident in the long view that God will fulfill His loving purposes for His own namesake. His love toward us is unfailing.
As I reflect on the evil plotted on the shores of Spain, my heart now bursts with confidence in God’s unfailing love to redeem all those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what the series of gatherings this year have served: to overcome evil with good!
Father, I thank You that despite the evil that has entered the world and still wages war in our own souls, Your goodness is undiminished. I thank You that, despite the plans for evil, Your people embrace
honor that is bolder than shame;
mercy that is wider than cruelty;
truth that is straighter than deception;
faith that is stronger than treachery;
hope that is deeper than desperation.
May Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.