Today's Reading:
- Psalm 92
- Psalm 93
- Psalm 94
Psalm 92-94
The three Psalms I read today together teach one complete lesson. In Psalm 92, we are told "It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High" (92:1). The Psalm continues to tell us how the Lord deserves our praise for everything. Even when we're in the midst of hardship and battles, our Lord has seen the destruction of our enemies. No matter what is happening in lives - be it times of plenty or times of peril - the Lord deserves our praise and our thanks.
Psalm 93 is very short - only 5 verses. The first four verses give praise to the Lord, and remind us that He is everlasting and just. Verses 93:5, however, leaves us with a very important message for today's time: "Your royal laws cannot be changed. Your reign, O Lord, is holy forever and ever." Your royal laws cannot be changed - we cannot rewrite God's word for today's times. His laws cannot be changed. He is always just, He is our sovereign Lord, and He made the rules that teach us right from wrong. If God calls something an abomination unto Him - whether it is in the Old Testament or the New Testament - it is and always will be sin. Not just sin, but an abomination! A word that says how much the Lord truly despises something. We cannot cherry pick verses about love and forgiveness and apply them haphazardly to our lives. We must apply God's word as a whole to our lives. Our Lord is just and willing to forgive all our sins - once we truly repent of them. After Jesus said "Let him without sin cast the first stone" (John 8:7), he then said "now go forth and sin no more." How often do you hear that verse quoted? How often is that verse applied haphazardly to a situation? Now ask yourself how often do the words "now go forth and sin no more" follow? The Lord is very just to forgive us our unrighteousness - IF we repent. IF we go forth and change our ways.
I am thrilled that as a society we have a handle on God's love and his forgiveness. The is a very important concept, and it is the core foundation of our beliefs. After all, loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and loving our neighbors as ourselves are the two most important commandments (Matthew 22:36 - 40). Upon those commandments lay the foundation of Christianity. Perhaps we need to think, if we love our neighbors as ourselves, then don't we have an obligation to let them know that their actions have eternal consequences? If we truly love them, we want them to rejoice in Heaven with us. This does not mean that we snub our noses at their faults, that we treat them as heathens. Only God truly knows a person's heart. This just means that we lovingly guide them, and at all times, remember that we too are sinners. Some sin is less visible than others, but we all have sin. The penalty of all sin - no matter how severe one might perceive it to be - is death. Death is what is waiting for every single one of us.
Furthermore, God does not tell us not to judge others. He tells us not to judge others for the same sins we commit. That is an important distinction. Once again, people haphazardly quote from the bible: "Judge not lest ye be judged" (Matthew 7:1) while ignoring the rest of the relevant passages. We are called hypocrites when we judge others for the same things we do (Matthew 7:5). We are then told to clear our own sin before dealing with the sin of another (Matthew 7-5). This is referring to sin of the same type. Let's suppose you are committing a sexual sin - you are having sex outside of marriage. It is not your place, then, to try to clear sexual sin from someone else's life. You must deal with the log in your eye before you can help someone else. In the end, however, we should help others overcome their sins. Take Galatians 6:1 for example:
"Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself."We should gently and humbly guide others - never thinking we are above someone else, and not treating them harshly because of it. Just because we do not sin the same as someone else does not mean we do not sin. Deal with someone as gently and humbly as you would like to be dealt with.
Psalm 94 is a fitting end to today's reading. It tells us that God's justice will come forth upon the world. No matter how surrounded we are by unbelievers and by those who do evil, the Lord will prevail. Sinners and wickedness has its season, but in the end, God's justice will come upon every soul who has ever lived. While we cannot assume that someone who has a visible sin is not saved, we are told that God is on the side of the righteous. How do we know what is righteous to the Lord? The answer is that we must study the Word of God. We must study the entire Word of God, write it in our hearts, and then we will know.
We cannot base our lives on cherry picked verses that do not convict us of our eternal sin - our eternal separation from the Lord. Knowing the true meaning of righteousness is just the first step. We must also remember that as a country, we are responsible for picking the leaders whom represent our entire nation before the Lord. How do we know whom to pick? We choose those are the most righteous to the Word of the Lord. Anyone can and will claim to be a Christian, but the proof is in their actions and beliefs -- in how their lives match up to the Word of God. If they are still cherry picking, if they are defending sin with partial haphazard quotes, then they likely have not laid the entire Word onto their hearts. They do not have a conviction of how much our sin truly separates us from the will of God. I will leave you with excerpt from today's reading that gives some wisdom on choosing our leaders, Psalm 94:20-23:
"Can unjust leaders claim that God is on their side -- leaders whose decrees permit injustice? They gang up against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the Lord is my fortress; my God is the mighty rock where I hide. God will turn the sins of evil people back on them. He will destroy them for their sins. The Lord our God will destroy them."Let us not be part of the "them" - part of the people who permit injustice and gang up against the righteous. Have you been ganging up against the righteous? Have you been cherry picking verses to defend your sins or the sins of others, while arguing against those who are condemning sin? Do you truly know the Word of God? The Word of God gives life. The Word of God is embedded into our souls. We are always a work in progress, for we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). That is why we have the blood of Jesus Christ our savior. If you do not truly know the Word of God, however, you make yourself susceptible to corruption, to propagating evil, and even to going to Hell. Please don't make that fatal mistake. The bible is the most accessible book ever written, and if you are reading this, then you most certainly have access to study it. Know your bible, know God's Word. Be a part of those called righteous, and not of those who will be destroyed.
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