Doing Good in the Face of Evil
Psalm 119:20-24 My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times. You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments; take away from me their scorn and contempt, for I have kept your decrees. Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. Your decrees are my delight, they are my counsellors.
These days, it’s a bit unpopular for someone like me to be talking about obedience to God’s Word. It’s not something most of us want to hear.
Teach me about grace, tell me about God’s blessings, I want to know more about God’s love.
That’s the stuff that people want to hear about and sure, they’re all good things. Very good things. But what about these particular verses of Scripture:
If you love me, you will obey my commandments, and (John 14:15)
For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. (1 John 5:3)
No, obedience to God’s Word is not a particularly popular concept these days. But the whole point of obeying God, is that the only things He tells us not to do, are the things that are going to bring harm to us and the people around us. So paradoxically, obedience brings freedom. Obedience sets us free from the consequences of our sin – and sin always has consequences, right?
Okay that’s great. But what about when the going gets tough? What about when other people are doing the wrong thing, and we’re hurting? What about obedience to God’s Word in that place when the degree of difficulty gets ratcheted up to a 9.9?
My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times. You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments; take away from me their scorn and contempt, for I have kept your decrees. Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. Your decrees are my delight, they are my counsellors. (Psalm 119:20-24)
That’s amazing, because the man writing this Psalm, the man speaking to God here, is under a lot of pressure. But he’s taken a stand. He’s made a decision that he will long for God’s will, God’s Word, God’s ways, when? Just in the good times? No! At all times! Even when evil people are heaping scorn and contempt on him, and when princes are plotting against him. That’s a tough decision, but it’s the right one.
Many centuries later, the Apostle Paul put it like this:
So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
The time when God’s Word is most important, when God’s wisdom is most important, when God’s ways are most important, is when the going gets tough. Right in that moment when we want to give up on honouring God by living His way, right in that instant, that’s when obedience to His Word is most important.
Because in that moment, the enemy wants to snatch your inheritance from you. But don’t give up. Because there’s a harvest coming. When? Well, at harvest time of course!
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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