A high-profile Northern Ireland economist has revealed that the Psalms provide his security during times of tremendous financial uncertainty.Alan Bridle, a well-known commentator in the financial sector, was speaking as part of a project being led by the Bible Society in Northern Ireland, which is featuring Northern Ireland personalities.
For his passage, he chose Psalm 61:2: “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
He said: “As we live through times of tremendous financial and economic uncertainty, the consequences of excess and over-indulgence, and now face into a period of austerity, to whom do we turn?”
Mr Bridle asks. “The economic recession has been both deep and wide, confidence has been shaken, and the delusion of ‘self-sufficiency’ laid bare again.
“The spiritual recession in our land seems relentless yet God remains sovereign and Jesus is Lord.”
An elder at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in north Belfast, Mr Bridle said that Israel’s King David was likely to have penned this Psalm during the period when he was driven out or banished by either Saul or Absalom. “In this verse I find a wonderful reminder of why the Scriptures are ‘the Living Word’, timeless and without end,” he said.
“In just a few words, we see again the profound contrast between the weakness and frailty of man – of the inevitability of troubles and pressures in the Christian life – and something of the character of God in Christ – the position of pre-eminence, that higher place of security, stability and refuge. The anchor for our souls in the storms of life.”
John Doherty, general secretary of the Bible Society in Northern Ireland, said the aim of this project is to counter the fact that Bible reading is declining. “We are trying to make the Bible more relevant to people’s lives by helping them read it over the shoulder of someone they know in public life, and hearing their thoughts about it. Then they might see it as relevant for themselves,” he said.
Participants so far have included Harold Miller, Bishop of Down and Dromore, followed by Ballymena United football manager Roy Walker and broadcaster Lynda Bryans. The Bible Society’s aim is to stimulate Bible reading among the general public by having local personalities speak about their favourite passage of scripture.
The Bible Society unveil its personalities with their Bible passages every Monday at www.bsni.co.uk/articles/ 39-scripture-insight.
Report in “The Newsletter”
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