A Psalm for Teachers

One thing I like about the Book of Psalms in the Bible is that there seems to be a Psalm for every situation. There is even one for teachers who brave the worst that our culture has to throw at us. Believe me, I treasure the good students I have. I point out their good deeds every day. I go around the classroom pointing out the positive, graciously acknowledging those students who are doing the right thing, who are following my instructions, who have gotten out their book and pencil and paper.

And then there are the disruptive students who dress like they aspire to be in prison, who blurt out whatever comes to their mind no matter how inappropriate the subject matter, who laugh and yawn and burp at purposefully and ridiculously loud levels, who yell across the classroom to another student while I am teaching, who loudly use the word Nigga with abandon, who destroy school property, write on desks, and mercilessly tease weaker students on campus. And they do all this in the classroom while I am trying to teach them and their fellow students.

With these disruptive students in mind, I have posted in a partially hidden area of the wall next to my desk, the 12th Psalm. When I am having a bad day at work, I will sometimes sit at my desk and read that Psalm. You decide if it applies to not just my ill-mannered students, but to our current culture as a whole:

Help, O LORD, for there is no longer anyone who is godly;
the faithful have disappeared from humankind.
They utter lies to each other;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
those who say, "With our tongues we will prevail;
our lips are our own--who is our master?"

"Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,
I will now rise up," says the LORD;
"I will place them in the safety for which they long."
The promises of the LORD are promises that are pure,
silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.

You, O LORD, will protect us;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among humankind.

That is from the New Revised Standard Edition of the Bible. If you are after something a little more reader-friendly, I will reprint the Psalm from my paraphrased Living Bible that my grandmother gave me for Christmas in 1984 when I was but a young lad:

Help, Lord! Godly men are fast disappearing. Where in all the world can dependable men be found? Everyone deceives and flatters and lies. There is no sincerity left.
But the Lord will not deal gently with people who act like that; he will destroy those proud liars who say, "We will lie to our hearts' content. Our lips are our own; who can stop us?" The Lord replies, "I will arise and defend the oppressed, the poor, the needy. I will rescue them as they have longed for me to do."
The Lord's promise is sure. he speaks no careless word; all he says is purest truth, like silver seven times refined. O Lord, we know that you will forever preserve your own from the reach of evil men, although they prowl on every side and vileness is praised throughout the land.

Vileness is exalted among humankind. Vileness is praised throughout the land. Does that strike a chord? It has often been observed by the punditry out there that in our society, goodness and virtue have become deemed as evil, while vice and outrageousness have been deemed as desirable. Just look at the worship of train-wreck celebrities, the torture porn movies that have come out lately, the misogynistic, crime-glorifying hip-hop that still rules the Top 40 charts, and on a more local note, the hand-wringing and attention-giving to the disruptive students in school that blogger Mamacita recently wrote about with such emotion. Slowly, tentatively, I have seen small signs of a backlash against some of this societal degradation. However, by and large, wickedness continues to rule the day. For the sake of my children, I hope that this small backlash someday becomes a full-fledged rebellion that will save us from this generation forever.

Good Day to You, Sir