Read Psalm 58:1-5. 1Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly? 2No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth. 3The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies. 4They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear, 5so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.
The psalmist’s heightened sense of justice is again on display here as the gods (or rulers) of this world are condemned for their wickedness alongside the serpent. But it is not just their environment that turned them astray, or their rise to power that corrupted them, they have been wicked since birth, estranged from the womb. The heart that now devises wrongs has always done so.
This is the nature of man. All men. David must also see himself in verse 2, and so must we. These verses are a mirror for all of us to look into. It is only the grace of God that has changed our evil hearts into the new heart of Christ himself. It is only by the love of Christ that we are able to be devenomized, and by the Spirit of Christ that our ears have been unstopped and opened to the word of God.
Our hands always reveal our hearts, and in Christ our hands of justice reveal the indwelling heart of Jesus’ mercy and love. To live is Christ allows us to look in the mirror of man’s wickedness and still choose God’s righteousness instead.
Prayer. Jesus, I know that I still have the capacity for evil, but I also know that in you I have a new heart and the new hands of your love. Help me to do your acts of justice today. Amen.
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