Psalm Tuesday again… we’re looking at chapters 12-14.
Today’s notes:
Psalm 13 (NIV)
1How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?2How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?3Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;4my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.5But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.6I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
Ever feel like the Psalmist here? Like God is nowhere to be found?
David (the Psalmist) simply cries out to God expressing his distress while continuing to hold fast to his faith. David reflects upon the past, recognizing that God has been good to him before, gaining reassurance that He will be there for him again in His time.
How do you cope with such times?
Psalm 14:1-3 (NIV)
1The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.2The LORD looks down from heaven
on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.3All have turned aside,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.
If this portion of Psalm 14 seems familiar, it’s because it’s quoted by Paul in Romans 3.
The depravity of man, so clearly described here by the Psalmist (David again), is both fascinating and extremely depressing to me. Have you ever really just thought about it for a while? Have you considered the depths of sin to which we humans are capable of immersing ourselves? And the utter hopelessness which those caught up in such sin must experience? If you need a good lesson, it’s not hard to find examples… just flip on your TV for a while.
I found myself having that “opportunity” while I was in California last week. Sitting in my hotel room after the day’s activities, there really wasn’t a lot to do… so I flipped on the TV and began channel surfing. Having seen just about every episode of every show airing on Discovery (hey, I’m a geek, I freely admit)… I found myself settling on Court TV. You guessed it… COPS was on.
It’s been on the air for years, but I guess I’ve never really just sat down and watched. It wasn’t really the specific sins these criminals were involved in that amazed me (I’m aware of what goes on in this world), but how utterly immersed in their sin… how utterly and completely lost these people were. Drug addicts… alcoholics… prostitutes… suicidal individuals… domestic disputes and abuse… watching the police intervene and arrest people involved in all of these was such an eye-opener to the depravity of man.
I expected to find myself sickened by the sin these people were involved in, but strangely, I really didn’t get that. I was moved to sadness and pity by their states of hopelessness and by their complete lostness.
I believe that I experienced a brief glimpse of how God sees us.
It was a needed lesson… one I’d recommend for just about every Christian. We need to understand that sinners are not people that need to be shunned, looked down upon, criticized, or ostracized, but people deeply in need of the love, hope, and forgiveness that only Christ can provide.
And then we need to do something about it.
(I’m still trying to figure out that one!)
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