Psalm 145
My study this morning points out the repetition of the words "all" and "every" in this psalm. The instructions are to think about who all might include that I've never considered before.
Verses:
9 - God is good and has compassion to all He made
10 - All will praise Him
12 - So all men will know of His mighty acts
13 - God's dominion endures through all generations; God is faithful to all His promises; He is loving towards all He made
14 - God upholds all who fall and all who are bowed down
15 - The eyes of all look to God
16 - God satisfies the desires of every living thing
17 - The Lord is righteous in all His ways; loving toward all He made
18 - The Lord is near to all who call Him
20 - God watches over all who love Him; destroys all the wicked
I think it's easy to imagine that God is compassionate and loving towards "good christians." It's much more difficult to imagine God loving the bad... It's much harder for me to imagine God loving people who hurt children, people who murder, people who steal, people who have turned their back on Him.
The hard truth is, though, I'm not better than those people. James 2:10 says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." My haughty, self-rightous, pious attitude so often tells me that I am better than those people. It's a tough pill to swallow when I realize I am one of those people. We all are. If we could just wake up and realize we aren't any better. Wouldn't we show more compassion instead of judgment?
We Christians today love to hear the sound of our own voices. We love to tout Bible verses to all the sinners out there. You can't turn on the TV or read your facebook news feed without one of us Christians condemning the sins of another. We mask it with politics or righteousness, but really, it's sin and pride. Remember the Chick-fil-A scandal? I purposely kept quiet, but I was totally saddened at the reactions of my brothers and sisters in Christ... Instead of sharing God's love, grace, or compassion, we literally lined up and persecuted people. And people's disrespect towards our president is shameful. I'm not saying you have to agree with President Obama, but Romans 13:1-2 (emphasis mine) says, "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves." When we react in a volatile way to various social and political issues, we are indicating fear - that we don't trust that God really does have all of this under control!
Humility...
The second part of today's lesson asks which phrases stand out most about God's goodness. Verses 4-6 resonate with me because I want to be a part of getting God's story out. I want to tell others about the glorious splendor of His majesty. I would be honored to have someone hear my story as a testament to God's awesome works and great deeds. Jesus' great commission is really important to me (Matthew 28:18-20). To make disciples of all nations...and to teach others to obey everything He commanded us - I want to be a part of that.
From my study bible:
ReplyDeleteChristians must not use James 2:10 to justify sinning. We dare not say, "Because I can't keep every demand of God, why even try?" James reminds us that if we've broken just one law, we are sinners. We can't decide to keep part of God's law and ignore the rest. You can't break the law a little bit; if you have broken it at all, you need Christ to pay for your sin. Measure yourself, not someone else, against God's standards. Ask for forgiveness where you need it, and then renew your effort to put your faith into action.