The Faithful Master

The Faithful Master
Psalm 119:121-144

One of my former colleagues used to delight to talk about her first appointment with her boss. His opening words to her were “How can I serve you?” “What can I do for you?” “How can I help you do your job?” In a way the questions seem smarmy (the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of smarmy: “ingratiating and wheedling in a way that is perceived as insincere or excessive”). But I know the boss in question, and I know he meant it. From time to time he had to make or recommend authoritative decisions that were tough for staff, faculty, and students (in hard times it might issue in people losing their jobs), but I knew that he was seeking to serve when he did so. The boss, the master, had a servant’s heart, and the employees, the servants, could know the nature of his heart and know that they could appeal to it...