The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
I am not guilty of turning from my God.
All his laws are before me;
I have not turned away from his decrees.
I have been blameless before him
and have kept myself from sin.
The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
Here is an interesting matter.
We have been praying through the Psalms for those we know who are desperately wounded, down deep lost in sin and deception, and here we read the words of one who defends his own righteousness, and who recites the reward of it!
The part that arrests our attention is this, that while we have been praying for those who cannot lift up their heads, we ourselves will seldom – if ever – pray with this degree of boldness and affirmation.
Do we not hope for others that they might be able to confess and to attest to these things? Steadfast! Guiltless! Blameless before God! Righteous and rewarded!
Yet we often demur … “Just a sinner saved by grace ….” “Nobody’s perfect, least of all me.” Is it possible that we might need a little more spiritual gumption in order to obtain a more widespread victory? The next words of Psalm 18 are these:
To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
You save the humble
but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
With your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall.
Let us consider today, for ourselves, for the Church, and for those still suffering and intimidated, that we need to be able to speak the whole truth concerning the finished work of Christ, and we need to be righteous in Him and to know we are. It would seem that bold righteousness and humility exist together in a pure heart! We do not turn away from our God, we keep our hands and our hearts pure, and we must continue to advance against troops of spiritual enemies and scale walls that enclose prisoners and victims of wicked schemes and powers.
No slacking, and certainly never using imperfections as an excuse to wait or hang back.
For whom will your righteous soul fight and prevail this day?
photo: Screenshot/YouTube
Marketplace Monastics 