A central theme running throughout Scripture’s story is that of a war between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. The attempt to rebuild the city of God runs into problems from a number of sources. The first is the surrounding inhabitants who resent the work.

After working on the walls and completing the task, Nehemiah becomes aware of the need to work on hearts – his own and his people’s. There are more than broken walls to mend; there are broken hearts to heal. His people are not living like those who have been redeemed.

When the work of restoration was all but finished, Nehemiah received an offer to meet with his enemies for consultation. But Nehemiah was not distracted from finishing his work. He had to see his work through to the end. He saw through his enemies’ strategy to delay the work and he responded, “How can I give up this task to meet with you?

Every once in a while, a new innovation emerges that completely changes how things are done. The horse drawn plow has been replaced by mechanised farm equipment. Flip phones have been replaced by smart phones. In Canada, our paper currency has been replaced by polymer bills.

Access is all important. What use is there in a fat bank account if you can’t access the funds? We may draw a vague measure of comfort from knowing there is money stored up in our account, but if we can’t access the funds to pay for urgent daily needs how useful is that bank account?

In Psalm 3, we reflected on why we can sleep well at night. Psalm 4 brings us to the place of understanding how we can sleep well at night.

Psalm 4 begins with David praying and crying out for vindication from God.

I confess that there are days I chose to pick up my spy novel rather than sit and read my Bible. Surely there is someone who shares my guilt! Clearly wisdom and understanding of any real value is pretty scarce in that kind of morning reading! Yet in this passage we are challenged to embrace wisdom and understanding as we would a dear sister and or friend.