It’s been a little bit longer than “Friday”, since the post was last week. In fact, it’s been a week since I wrote about Psalm 4, and nothing about 5, 6, or 7. For shame, Chris!
I’ve gotten through Psalm 7 as of this morning, and let me tell you, it’s actually more powerful after confessing one’s sins. Look at verses 3-5. “O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust” Hard, hard words for we who are sinners, although we must remember that grace abounds in the New Testament such that this punishment, although rightly deserved for God’s people who have sinned intentionally, has been laid upon He who was wounded for our transgressions, the Lord Jesus Christ. Still, we need to be reminded that judgment has been withheld only by grace and love, and by nothing of our own doing.
One need also consider that we take much upon ourselves in this life, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Look at verses 8-11, and honestly ask yourselves if we dare pray this in faith and integrity: “The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous – you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God! My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” A God who feels indignation every day. The creator of the universe, the holy and righteous one. This God feels indignation every day. Do we remember this? I know for myself that I am guilty of judgment on a number of occasions, and fall into the pattern all to easily. Should I not be condemned for this? Yes. Yes, I should, but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I am not. Romans declares it to be so. Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
One final thought…Verses 12 to the end. “If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends. I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.”
If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword. This is the God who will wage war on sin, and whose champion will engage in battle, and has engaged in battle. Christ is a pretty awesome guy, when it comes to it. I also wanted to comment on the raw imagery here…”gives birth to lies”; “God will whet his sword”; “on his own skull his violence descends”. This is serious stuff. This is good, good stuff, and should give us cause for right faith and right relationship, in joy and excitement…Anticipation, even.
Anticipate away.
