Today’s reading is Psalm 36.
David speaks of Transgression’s first deceitful counsel. “You don’t need to fear God.” Notice, Transgression doesn’t advise, “You don’t need to believe in God.” Rather, he counsels, “You don’t need to believe God matters.” David says that for the person who listens, “There is no fear of god before his eyes.”
Did that statement sound familiar to you? It might. Paul quotes it in his dissertation on sin in Romans 3:18. For David, this lack of fear is the foundation for a life that sinks deeper and deeper into sin. For Paul, it is the culmination of sinful attitudes and behaviors. Either way we recognize the entire package of sin and its deceitful schemes.
Sin doesn’t have to convince us God doesn’t exist. Sin only has to convince us God doesn’t matter to our lives today. He isn’t watching. He doesn’t care. We can hide our sin from Him. We can always repent tomorrow. Everybody does it.
Ooh! Let’s stop and think about that last justification. Because that is actually part of Paul’s declaration on sin. His whole point in Romans 3 is that both Jews and Gentiles sin. The passages he quotes, including Psalm 36:1, stop every mouth and make the whole world accountable to God (Romans 3:19-20). Hold on, Sin told me my iniquity cannot be found out. Sin told me I’d never be held accountable. Sin lied.
In fact, consider one of Sin’s most insidious lies. “Don’t worry about me being in your life,” Sin says. “That’s why Jesus died.” Can you tell why that one is so insidious? Because it contains more than a kernel of truth. Your sin is the reason Jesus died. But Sin, Transgression, Satan want you to believe Jesus died so you would never be held accountable for your sins. They want you to believe Jesus died so you can keep living in sin. To Sin, Jesus’s death means sin doesn’t matter. But that isn’t what Paul teaches, and that isn’t what David was teaching.
Jesus did die because you sin. However, He didn’t die to let you continue in sin. He died to let you repent of your sin. He died to strengthen you to abandon your sin. He died to empower you to overcome your sin. Paul explains in Romans 6:1-4, that when we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into His death. When we are raised, we have died to sin. We must not continue to live in it. Rather, we live a new life by the power of Jesus’s resurrection.
But understand this. After you are baptized, Sin and Satan are going to pull out all the stops trying to convince you to come back into their arms. Don’t listen. Jesus died to set you free from sin. Don’t let His death be in vain for you. Hang on to Jesus. He will set you free.
Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 36.
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A Word for Our Kids
Hey kids, Psalm 36 presents an Eden-like choice. The serpent got Eve focused on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of all the trees God had given her. Sin does the same thing to us. Sin gets us to focus on all the momentary pleasures it offers instead of the delights God has to offer.
Notice Psalm 36:8-9. When we choose the Lord, we get to feast on the abundance of His house. When we choose the Lord, we get to drink from the river of His delights. By the way, that word translated “delights” is actually the same word as “Eden.” David is consciously and purposefully reminding us of the Garden.
The difficulty comes when we understand that much of what God promises is coming later. Right now, we struggle. The wicked surround us. They persecute us. They corrupt the world. They make this a place of suffering. Satan comes along and promises us some pleasure right now. He says, “Look at this tree over here. I know God told you to stay away from it. But it’s fun. Doesn’t it look like fun? It will make you feel good right now. Don’t you want to feel good right now? It will make you smarter. Don’t you want to be smarter? You can always obey God tomorrow.”
I’ll be honest. It’s tough to choose correctly in this situation. Satan offers us pleasures we can experience right now. God says we’ll likely suffer for a while now, but we’ll get delights later if we do. I know that is hard. In fact, Satan will try to convince us that God won’t pay off in the end. But remember, God loves us so much He sacrificed His only Son for us. Does that sound like a God who reneges on His promises? Does that sound like a God who won’t provide His rewards, His delights, His feasts in the end? You can trust God. His steadfast love is precious. We can take refuge in Him. He will deliver.
Don’t trust Transgression. Trust God. He has the fountain of life. He is the light. He is salvation. Hang on to Him no matter what. I promise, in the end, you’ll be glad you did.
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