Yesterday the news was all over the internet in what I consider “main sources.” It was the first thing you saw when the news page would come up. When newspapers were actually printed, it would be called “above the fold.” It was front and center.

I thought there was yet another shooting at yet another college campus. Seven dead.

And today? I couldn’t find it on several “major” news sites. Not in obvious places.

A small Christian college… catering mainly to Korean Americans…

Seven dead.

Are we just numb to those kinds of things now? Let’s get back to other things in the news cycle?

Probably it is something that is still being talked about on the morning news shows. Since I don’t watch them, I am not sure.

These are days when things really seem to be coming apart. Gun violence. Rampages. Anger and bitterness that seriously divides our nation and world.

There are days when events overwhelm us. It happens. It happened in the Psalms.

The news of the day would overwhelm David or another writer and their prayers were prayers of desperation. Prayers that said, “Lord, what in the world is going on?”

We can be given to extremes in thought, but Psalms help us realize we’re not alone in those extreme thoughts.

¹ Help, LORD,
because the godly are all gone;
the faithful have completely disappeared
from the human race!
² Everyone tells lies to everyone else;
they talk with slick speech
and divided hearts.  (Psalm 12:1-2, CEB)

In times of desperation we also need times of radical trust. The world is heading for destruction it seems, but we need our eyes fixed on God.

⁶ The LORD’s promises are pure,
like silver that’s been refined
in an oven,
purified seven times over!

⁷ You, LORD, will keep us,
protecting us
from this generation forever.

Death. Racism. War. Crazy politics. The economy wobbling around. Lord, in these days help us keep our eyes on you!