For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
Those who trust their wealth to get them through all of their troubles will fall like leaves from a tree in autumn. The righteous, on the other hand will thrive like new growth in spring time.
Earlier psalms told us that everyone will stand before God, sooner or later. This psalm tells us that there are two things we may experience when we come into God’s presence. Those who are God’s enemies will melt like wax. They will be blown away like smoke. But the godly will rejoice when they come into God’s presence. They will sing songs of praise to His name. I know which I would choose to be.
A few verse earlier Jesus said, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you.” In today’s passage He gives a more detailed take on what He means. When Jesus told us not to judge others, He was not telling us that we cannot tell right behavior from wrong. He was telling us that our job was to identify the wrong behavior in our own life…and change it.
When Jesus tells me “Do not judge others,” He is not telling me that I should their behaviors are right. He is telling me that I should worry more about the sins I commit than the sins someone else commits. As we read on in this passage Jesus tells us how to judge our behavior. We are to judge our behavior by the results, not by our intentions (or more likely, what we tell ourselves our intentions are). The thing to remember is that when Jesus addressed the woman caught in adultery, He did not say, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and do as you like.” He said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
We are not called to confront others about their sin. We are called to bring God’s healing to sinners, starting with ourselves. An important part of bringing that healing to others is acknowledging that we need it just as much as they do.
As Moses gets to the end of his summary of the Israelites travel through the wilderness, he tells them to obey the laws and commands which God is giving them. The command was not, “Make sure the other guy obeys these commands.” The command was “You obey these commands.”