“But to the wicked person, God says:
‘What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers. You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son. When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you.'”
Psalm 50:16-21
God’s Word is full of warnings to the wise. Take heed. God does not desire that anyone perish, but a day is coming when your life will end. A day is coming when this world as we know it will cease to exist. There will be a day of judgment for all of us.
God does not force us to love Him. He doesn’t require that we submit to Him. He gives us the terrible choice of determining how we will live. He will give us over to our desires on that day when we die, on that day when the earth ceases to be as we know it, and we will face the consequences of our choices – the way we chose to live – whether it be with Him or with our own selves at the center of our orbit.
These verses indicate that even a wicked person can recite God’s laws and claim to be in covenant relationship with God. Even a wicked person can claim to know Him. Jesus echoed the words of the Psalmist when he said,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.'”
Matthew 7:7:21-23
This word of warning applied to the religious. We can prophesy in God’s name. We can even drive out demons and perform miracles in God’s name. These signs do not make the person who performs them a child of God. Even false prophets are able to perform great signs and wonders. (Matt. 24:4; Mark 13:22)
Only the one who actually does the will of the Father is a child of God. (Matt. 7:21) Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matt. 7:24) Any other way to live is like “sinking sand” as the hymn goes.
The danger we all face is our own self deception. Perhaps, this is why the Prophet said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” (Jeremiah 17:9) We cannot trust our own hearts.
Skeptics say that people have created God in their own image. That is true of the person who thinks God is just like them.
According to the writer of Psalm 50, wicked people who act wickedly can feel justified in their wicked actions, and God allows them to be deluded.
“When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you.”
Psalm 50:21
They are encouraged by God’s silence that they are right in in what they think and do, but God’s silence is not a sign of acquiescence. God’s arraignment and accusations hang over their heads.
I am struck by the need to know God, to know His character, and to yield our assumptions about God to the truth of who God really is. God’s silence in our lives is not approval. God often remains silent. God is often hidden. He is like a treasure to be found. God urges us to seek Him because in seeking Him, we must set aside ourselves to learn who He is.
These verses remind me of Hebrews 4:12: “The word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword.” It pierces. It divides. It discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. If the word of God is doing its job, it cuts, it penetrates, it divides. If we yield ourselves to the word of God, it does its surgical work in us. Bur, only if we truly yield ourselves to that process.
I have often thought that Scripture does this kind of work. I felt it when I first began reading scripture before I was even a believer. I recognized in that time that scripture was exposing me to myself, and that I had a choice. I could allow it to do its surgical work, or I could harden my heart and choose to see in Scripture what I wanted to see.
Many people have said in derision of Scripture that people can make it say whatever they want. They are right, of course. Like the wicked person who acts wickedly and embraces wicked thoughts, while thinking that God is just like them.
The height of pride is to think God is like us. God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.
My prayer today is that God would rebuke me as He needs to; that He would soften my heart and do His surgical work in me; that I would not be deceived by my own thoughts and think that God is like me. I pray that God would reveal Himself to me and that I would know God for who He actually is.
“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love“
Ephesians 3:17
Navigating by Faith 