May the mumbling commence!
Jesus spoke of the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five and in Luke chapter six – and after the beatitudes in Luke there are the woes. The fertile ground of the Old Testament is the source of the wisdom of Jesus, the wisdom of the Word of God. Read now a passage from Psalm eighteen:
With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
With the pure You will show Yourself pure;
And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.
For You will save the humble people,
But will bring down haughty looks. (Verses 25-27)
Where does wisdom come from? True wisdom comes from God alone. We can see it in this passage. Did you notice the parallelism in the first three lines? The merciful will find God merciful. Those who are merciful will receive mercy.
Our mercy is only a poor reflection of the mercy of God. In much the same way, our blamelessness is only a poor reflection of the blamelessness of the Lord; and our purity is only a poor reflection of the purity of God. It’s a humbling thought, isn’t it? Yet, remember: the humble people are who God saves!
If we decide to be devious – doing only what we think we absolutely have to do – then we will find God a shrewd Lord. We may be able to fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but we will never fool God. If we become enamored with ourselves and look down on other people in haughtiness, then we look down on Christ himself, who is in the least of these people.
These actions will lead to destruction and separation with God eventually. And that will be a sad end. God made us for relationship with Him and with all of Creation. How painful this separation will be! As many popular songs remind us, we don’t know what we got till it’s gone.
So, let’s seek to be a poor reflection of our living Lord. Let us sing of the Lord’s Almighty nature. And Psalm eighteen makes me want to burst into song. It is the seed of some of the hymns and spiritual songs that we sing today. Read a verse from later in Psalm eighteen:
The Lord lives!
Blessed be my Rock!
Let the God of my salvation be exalted. (Verse 46)
Can’t you hear the song in your head? “The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rock. Let the God of my salvation be exalted!” May that song saturate our Saturday!
Know that these are words from the Lord. Know that these words are pure. Know that these words held close to the attitudes of our hearts will be a source of the greatest security of earth. And let us do our best not to add to the words of God. Read from Proverbs thirty:
Every word of God is pure:
He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him.
Do not add to His words,
Lest He reprove thee, and you be found a liar. (Verses 5-6)
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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