But you do see

Psalm 10

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?

    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;

    let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.

For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,

    and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.

In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;

    all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

His ways prosper at all times;

    your judgments are on high, out of his sight;

    as for all his foes, he puffs at them.

He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;

    throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”

His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;

    under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

He sits in ambush in the villages;

    in hiding places he murders the innocent.

His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;

    he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;

he lurks that he may seize the poor;

    he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.

The helpless are crushed, sink down,

    and fall by his might.

He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,

    he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;

    forget not the afflicted.

Why does the wicked renounce God

    and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?

But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,

    that you may take it into your hands;

to you the helpless commits himself;

    you have been the helper of the fatherless.

Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;

    call his wickedness to account till you find none.

The Lord is king forever and ever;

    the nations perish from his land.

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;

    you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear

to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,

    so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

1 John 2:1

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Psalm 10 is a cry to God for justice.  The Psalmist draws a portrait of the wicked man that oppresses the poor, seeks his own way, and scoffs at God.  It is all too easy to call up the memory of people who fit the description, to put faces to every characteristic described.  Sin is still rampant in the world, and the poor still cry out for mercy.  With the Psalmist we can cry out for God to see, and with him we can declare with confidence that God does see and will do good for those in need.

While that could be a lengthy blog post in itself, and most likely will be at some point, I am inclined rather to focus on a different aspect tonight.  In today’s readings we also have a reading from 1 John.  Reading these two together cast a different light for me.

Too often I am drawn to examine myself in view of a psalm about the unrighteous and to find that I would fit in well with them.  I am attracted to sin, I lose sight of righteousness in favor of my desires in the moment.  I am weak, I am judgmental, I am prone to bouts of frustration and an utter lack of mercy.  I fail to exercise self-control.  I do not show kindness.  I am rude or proud or self-loathing.  I look to myself for answers and do not seek God.  I fail to trust God’s provision or to truly believe in his kindness.  Although I am a son, I act as if I were still an enemy of God.

This is no surprise to anyone.

But there are two things that stand out to me from these passages tonight.  The first is from the psalm.  We have a list of actions committed by the unrighteous, but we have more than that.  We are also given an insight into the mind of the wicked man.  He is not going on sinning out of weakness or a simple failure to be entirely righteous.  He has set himself against God in his mind and in his heart.  He justifies his actions by saying “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it” and “You will not call to account.”  He has renounced God.

This is important.  It isn’t the mindset of one who fails, but of one who is in utter rebellion.  Even when shown the truth, he will still go on in rebellion because he does not believe that God judges sin.  As far as he is concerned, there will be no ultimate consequences for his actions.  And the most important bit: There will be no consequences because God doesn’t care.

The second:  In 1 John we have two wonderful statements.  The first is that the apostle was indeed writing with the purpose of leading people away from sin.  Righteousness is important.  We should not go on sinning as if God doesn’t care what we do.  But immediately after this statement is this promise and assurance:  “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  When we fail to measure up, Jesus is on our side.

So on to a comparison.  On the one hand we have a man in utter rebellion, doing as he pleases because God isn’t watching.  On the other we have a man repeatedly failing, but assured of forgiveness because God is watching.

It is good to strive for righteousness.  It is essential.  John goes on to say that we ought to walk in the same way that Jesus walked.  It is good to root out unrighteousness in our own lives.  I might pray with the psalmist “call his wickedness to account until you find none,” speaking only of myself, praying that God might bring to light all the ways in which I do not live as Jesus lived.

What is not good is to find the ways in which I fail and then to stop.  That leads only to a sense of despair, in which I see my sin and cannot see past it to what God has done.  Self-examination in this area is good, because it can bring to light those hidden sins or repeated sins that plague our lives.  And once God has brought them out, we can bring them to God to forgive.  We can accept his forgiveness, being assured of the righteousness of his Son.  We can find healing as we continue to walk with him.

We must not hate ourselves simply for being weak.  We are not lined up with the wicked simply because we fail.  We have already been forgiven, and we are guaranteed forgiveness in Christ.  Only let us not slip into rebellion, using our liberty as an excuse to sin.  But let us humbly seek out the Righteous One, living as he lived, and confessing our failures to the God who sees and loves.