Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
O LORD, make haste to help me!
Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life!
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt!
Let them turn back because of their shame who say, "Aha, Aha!"May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you!
May those who love your salvation say evermore, "God is great!"
But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O LORD, do not delay!--Psalm 70
Proverbs 24:3-4, 15-21, 28-29
Ah, my favorite passage from Proverbs...we have this posted in several different places in our house.
It takes wisdom to build a house, and understanding to set it on a firm foundation;
It takes knowledge to furnish its rooms with fine furniture and beautiful draperies.
And it introduces us to the value of wisdom in our lives. Then the rest of the passage that's marked for today proceeds to give examples of how to live out this wisdom.
"Don't interfere with good people's lives; don't try to get the best of them."--Verse 15
"Don't laught when your enemy falls; don't crow over his collapse."--Verse 17
"Don't bother your head with braggarts or wish you could succeed like the wicked."--Verse 19
"Fear God, dear child--respect your leaders; don't be defiant or mutinous."--Verse 21
"Don't talk about your neighbors behind their backs--no slander or gossip, please.
Don't say to anyone, 'I'll get back at you for what you did to me. I'll make you pay for what you did!"--Verses 28-29
All of these make up very good advice for us to live by. which one resonates with you the most?
For me it was "Don't laugh when your enemy falls; don't crow over his collapse." This is really difficult, isn't it? We want to celebrate when our "enemy" fails or trips up. How many people are rejoicing today because the governor of New York was caught dealing with a prostitution ring? I bet some people are...that's just wrong. And as the verse continues, here is why we are admonished not to do that..."God might see, and become very provoked, and then take pity on his plight." Very interesting.
You see, Jesus told us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. That means we don't celebrate when bad things happen to them. We just aren't supposed to live that way.
There's another one that I believe God has been speaking to me a long time. "Fear God, dear child--respect your leaders; don't be defiant or mutinous." Ouch. Ok, the hard part here is not fearing God. That part is pretty easy. It's the respecting your leaders part. That isn't always easy. I've lost so much respect for our current president that it's sad. But I'm still supposed to respect him by God's command, because he is our leader. God has placed him there. Here will be the really hard part for a lot of Christians. No matter who winds up being our president after November's election, we, as Christians are to respect them! If you think it's impossible to respect Hillary Clinton, you might ought to get yourself spiritually prepared. Likewise for Obama. Or McCain...no matter who it is, we are commanded by God to respect them. (I'm preaching to myself, as well, by the way...and there shouldn't be any hint in this writing as to who I'm backing, because, currently, I'm not backing any of them.)
But it even goes closer to home than just national politics. What about our bosses at work? "...don't be defiant or mutinous."
Ow. I just stepped on my own toes.
There's a lot to be learned about wisdom here.
"Don't talk about your neighbors behind their backs???" What will I talk about, then??
"Let your yes be yes and your no be no..."
The point of all this is that we are supposed to be people of grace. Dispensers of grace as Philip Yancey has put it, I believe. But so often, we are dispensers of "un-grace." And we wonder why the world has grown to hate us so...
Being wise doesn't mean you're a know-it-all or superior to other people so they don't like to hang out with you. Jesus was wise, but plenty of people liked to hang out with him.
More like Jesus...
Grace and peace, friends.