Read Psalm 50:16-23. 16But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? 17For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. 18If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. 19 You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. 20You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. 21These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. 22“Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! 23The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”
It’s not godless pagans that Asaph is calling out here. It’s the religious “church goer” if you will. Today these people would recite memory verses and take communion. Yet they are equal parts worship and wickedness. And the wickedness goes deep into the heart level. They hate discipline. They don’t want to listen to wisdom. Sin pleases them. And worst of all, they reduce God to being just like them (v.21).
The double mindedness described here should be a wake-up call for all of us. When left alone, what do you become? When you think no one cares, where does your heart go? When God is silent, what deeper part of yourself is revealed? Can any of us survive these accusations? Have any of us avoided such hypocrisy? Have any of us truly ordered our way rightly? I haven’t, have you?
Thankfully Jesus has.
And he has taken our punishment for us. He was torn apart. He was left on the cross with none to deliver him. All the charges against us were laid on him. And now to live is Christ should produce in us a heart of gratitude with offerings of thanksgiving for we have seen the salvation of God.
Prayer. Jesus, you alone have ordered your way rightly and shown us the salvation of our God. Fill my heart with thanksgiving in place of my hypocrisy. Amen.
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To Live is Christ 