Global Tumult

I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me (Psalm 23:4).
 
These days it feels like we are headed for the abyss. Terrorism is on the rise, the Middle East is in a state of open revolt, and there is no knowing if the global economy will be in one piece tomorrow.
 
We have been here before. King David points out so eloquently that times like these have been confronting mankind since the very beginning. Chaos is an integral part of the order of things.
 
It is part of the world Hashem places us in.
 
King David had that problem when Saul tried to kill him. He had that problem when he was anointed the next King of Israel and had to literally fight to assume his Divinely ordained role. He had that problem when he was forced to flee his kingdom not in the face of brazen terrorists, but from his own son.
 
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. King David writes this right after he talks about not fearing evil. Why put the two together? In realizing that his particular chaos was hard, but not random, King David transforms a seemingly dark world and restores its Divine order.
 
He accepts that what was happening all around him was part of a plan. His tribulations were G-d's messages that He cared about David and was leading him somewhere special.
 
This is the lesson for King David's descendants – Israel! The world around us is closing in fast. Revolutions that were once happening hundreds of miles away are now pounding at our doorstep. They even broke in the house! All of this started not with the radical declaration of notable political dissidents, but out of the desperation of a fruit peddler who just couldn't take it anymore.
 
Could there be a more random beginning to a 400 million man revolt than this?
 
King David's great strength was in knowing where it all came from. Our great strength will be in understanding why it's all happening. The rod and the staff will soon become our comfort as well.
 
Is Hashem really turning the whole world on its side for us? Is He going through all this trouble, transforming the lives of billions of people just to bring His children closer?
 
It wouldn't be the first time.
 
Psalm 105 is a 450 year chronicle of how many times Hashem shook the world to its core to give birth to His nation. Centuries of unexpected turmoil came to the regimes for the sake of the Jewish people.
 
What exactly did He do for us?
 
In Avraham's time He reproved kings and warned entire peoples:
 
And they walked from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. He let no man oppress them, and He reproved kings on their account. Do not touch My anointed ones, and do not harm My prophets( Psalm 105:13-15).
 
In Yosef's time He appointed a 30 year old prisoner as ruler of the biggest kingdom on earth.
 
A king sent and released him, a ruler of peoples [sent] and loosed his bonds. He made him the master of his household and the ruler over all his possessions (ibid, 20-21).
 
In Moshe's time, this mighty empire fell to pieces in a matter of months so His people could escape the yoke of its harsh bondage.
 
He sent darkness and it darkened. . . . He turned their water into blood, and it killed their fish. Their land swarmed with frogs in the rooms of their monarchs. He commanded and a mixture of noxious beasts came, lice throughout their boundary. He made their rains into hail, flaming fire in their land. And it struck their vines and their fig trees, and it broke the trees of their boundary. He spoke and locusts came, and nibbling locusts without number. And they consumed all grass in their land, and they consumed the produce of their soil. And He smote every firstborn in their land, the first of all their strength (ibid , 28-36).
 
He uprooted the seven greatest empires on earth to enable a tiny wandering nation to settle in the Land He promised.
 
To you I shall give the land of Canaan, the portion of your heritage… when they were few in number, hardly dwelling in it(Psalms 105:11-12).
 
Why did G-d do all this? What was the point in overturning Heaven and Earth? Why all the chaos? What was the purpose?
 
In order that they keep His statutes and observe His laws(Psalms 105:45).
 
We live in complicated times. Baruch Hashem, the answer is still that simple.
 
 
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Dovber Halevi is the author of the financial book, How to Survive the Coming Decade of Anxiety. He writes for Breslev Israel and The Middle East Magazine. He lives with his wife and two children in Eretz Yisrael.