For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
It is natural for us to experience pleasure when others suffer, even when those others have acted against us or are our enemies. However, it is a mistake, and a sin, to take joy in their misfortune. God does not deal out punishment on evildoers because He enjoys seeing them suffer. He does so out of the desire to see them turn from their sin. We, likewise, should desire to see our enemies and those who have harmed us turn to God more than we desire to see them suffer.
In a way this psalm seems to be counter to the proverb we just read. The psalmist seems to be rejoicing in the fact that God will bring judgement against the wicked, and indeed he is. However, the psalmist is not rejoicing in the suffering of the wicked, rather he is rejoicing that God will bring justice. Let us rejoice in the knowledge that God will not allow the wicked to prosper indefinitely. He will break their power to cause others to suffer and strengthen the ability of the godly to alleviate suffering. Let us praise God and use the strength He gives us to help those who are suffering.
Paul makes it a point in his letter to beg two women who had worked with him to spread the Gospel to resolve their differences. This is a message to us if we are at odds with any of our fellow believers. Let us seek to put aside our differences and work together to further the Kingdom of God. I think that what follows is in part advice for how we can overcome our disagreements. We should put aside worry and pray. If something causes us to worry, rather than let it fill our minds with worry, let us pray about it. Our prayers should not just be about what is worrying us. They should be about everything. Let us tell God in prayer what we need and thank Him for what He has done. If we follow that advice carefully, we will experience God’s peace. He will take our worries from us.
Paul then gives us some of the most important advice about how we can most successfully serve God and avoid sin (and perhaps further advice for avoiding worry). He tells us to fix our thoughts, to focus on, what is true, honorable, right,, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise. If our mind is full of such things, we will not have time to be worrying about what might go wrong. In addition, while we are thinking about such things, we will not be thinking about sinful things, nor will we be tempted to do that which is wrong. If we fill our thoughts with those things and our time with doing those things, we will not have time to give in to our sinful desires (easier said than done).
God knew us before we were born. He had already decided what He had planned for us before we were conceived. Knowing this is both comforting and frightening at the same time. God has put His words in our mouths and sent us to the place we are to be. The situations we find ourselves in did not come about by accident. God put us there to accomplish His purposes. He has given us words to speak to people. Some people we are to build up and help grow. Others need to be uprooted and torn down. Let us not be afraid to speak the words which the Spirit gives us just because they are not “nice” (although, let us be careful that when we speak words which are not nice that they are words which come from the Spirit and not from ourselves).
This passage goes on to speak against society as a whole. God brought the people into a bountiful land. Yet, instead of seeking God and praising Him, they defiled the land. Rather than serve the Living God they chose to seek out and worship idols of various sorts. Time and again God called them back to Him. The people responded for a time, but soon began worshiping those idols again. All the while claiming to worship God, while in reality they were serving greed and their own pleasure rather than God.