The following was preached in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, September 11th 2001.

How can we begin to grasp the enormity, the horror of what has taken place?
Wives husbands, children bereaved; the unbelievable torment of those on board the four planes; the terror of those trapped in the twin 110-storey towers. The futility of their screams and their begging for rescue; haunting images of city business-people hurling themselves to their deaths, rather than be consumed in the conflagration. Then there is the incalculable effect to the world economy...threats of world-wide recession, with far-reaching and spiralling consequences for the airline and other industries. Now there is the seemingly open-ended commitment to an international "war against terrorism."

Psalm 79 speaks of destruction, of carnage, bloodshed, horror and dismay. It records the triumph of evil men.

There are, of course, some distinct differences between what has happened in America and the tragedy that had befallen the Old Testament Hebrews as they were snatched from their promised land and frog-marched into Babylon and exile.

v1 O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance.
We will want to avoid the hackneyed description of America, (or, Lord forbid us, of the UK) as "God's Own Country". Neither New York, Washington nor London are Biblical Jerusalem. As Erroll Hulse wrote in the November 2001 issue of the British periodical, Evangelical Times: "The tragedy humbles us. It is not as though America and Britain are 'righteous nations' and those who harbour terrorists 'evil nations'. There is much in Western society that provokes the wrath of God against us.... Our society is post-Christian, philosophically post-modern, materialist, pagan, secular and largely degenerate."

And yet amongst the dead and injured, there would have been many servants of the Lord, many who would have dedicated their lives to telling the good news - members of local churches, elders, deacons, home group leaders, youth leaders - ordinary men and women whose lives had been transformed by the power of the Gospel. And beyond this, surely God is concerned for all people, the whole world - for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son..

So what light can we possibly draw from this ancient psalm to guide us in the aftermath of history-shaping events?