Put Not Your Trust in Princes

I am shamelessly stealing the title for my Sunday post from my pastor's sermon today. His timeless message, based on Psalm 146 applies especially today as well:

3 Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish.
5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the LORD his God,

I think the founders understood this principle when they deliberately put checks on the powers of each branch of government. But more importantly, we are called to believe that neither government nor politics can solve our ills, nor should they be our ultimate focus in life. Most Tea Partiers support me on this. Most Tea Partiers are ordinary people who don't especially want to be involved in politics or rallies, but the bad behavior of those who call themselves public servants has forced us to take action.

In the coalition for limited government that forms the basis for the Tea Party there are many Christians like myself. This is not a coincidence. In our founding document, the Declaration of Independence we state:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These rights do not come from the king, the Republic, or even the Constitution itself, but from God to mankind. This belief informs a vision of the limits of government, that we believe is true to Biblical principles.

I am not saying that the Tea Party is exclusively or even primarily the province of Christians. The message of limited government and a belief in freedom resonate with Biblical principle. Just as the Founding Fathers were a coalition that included devout Christians and Deists, all of whom could not tolerate the usurpation of rights by King George and the elected Parliament of England, so our coalition is comprised of all of us who know that our current government has exceeded both its constitutional and moral bounds.

Happy Sunday, hope you are enjoying the day off, even with the Chargers blacked out.