According to Psalm 24 in tomorrow’s lectionary;-
“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation.” (3-5). And yet our experience is that people who lie and cheat do have vindication. Since we’re thinking about football, ‘the hand of God’ has played a part in several important matches. So what does this verse mean? Is it;-
(1) The ramblings of an optimist
(2) The truthful receive vindication because the winners write the most widely read histories, so that liars have become ‘truthful’.
(3) There is a deeper kind of vindication, maybe not so immediate.
I’d like to think it was the last of those.
One thing that is particularly toxic is the allegation that because you have lost out, you must be in the wrong. It must be obvious to anyone that b*****ds do in fact win, often because they are what they are.
When all this is going on, just keep faith.