“Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” Psalm 37:5-6.
Commit your way and trust, now when push comes to shove, this is a hard statement. You can write failure in big bold letters across this verse for much of the human race.
All of history reflects the fact that people do not trust each other, nation against nation, race against race, husbands against wives, and children against parents. How will you trust someone you cannot see?
Worse yet, hatred among this nation’s citizens have been ramped up in these last days.
Stoked by the fires of hell this country has been divided by being called homophobic (whether we are or not), Islamophobic, racist (an overused and meaningless expletive now), toxic males, old white men, misogynists, and anti-feminists to name a few divisive words.
This is demonic. Division is Satan’s best weapon and is generally the first one he uses in his warfare against God and men. For more on division see “Long Division” posted here on 12-7-15.
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…” 1 Timothy 4:1-2.
The fact is we have been trained by life not to trust, this makes it so much more difficult to obey these words from God. Naïve prayers are sent up to God and the petition is not answered.
The devil then comes and says, “See it doesn’t work just give it up; why waste your time? You are the only one you can trust to care for you”. This is the broad path of unbelief that many Christians take.
For those of us who find ourselves in this mindset it is time to break this training in our lives.
Beginning now, turn to God, confess this spirit of unbelief, and ask God’s Holy Spirit in our hearts to break down the wall of unbelief and mistrust.
If anyone is not serious about this, do not bother, for that is a lack of trust in itself. God can be trusted, see it in the life of Christ, He trusted completely in His Father for everything, and remember not just as the Son of God, but as a man, as one of us.
This was intended as an example for men and women through the ages, Christ trusted the Father, and we can too.
Look at the many lives written about in the Bible, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, also in the faith chapter, Hebrews eleven.
These were not perfect lives, but they were lives lived on the Rock.
“Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to [Jesus] the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah.” Psalm 61:1-4.
Study the lives of these men and women and see the thread of the Lord’s faithfulness throughout. Study your own life, look for God in it, as you see Him you will become more thankful and more trusting.
Just think of all your prayers that were not answered. Looking back there is a good chance that you are thankful that many of them were not answered.
How many times has the Lord shoved you aside to dodge a bullet, when you were insistent on standing in front of it? Thank Him for your unanswered prayers too.
To commit your way unto the Lord and trust in Him means though, that if you have done that, you can’t manipulate Him to get what you feel the results should be.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6.
Honestly letting go of our expectations is going to be a very hard thing to do. Let’s face it we are manipulators through and through.
Psalm 37:6 is very difficult to see working out in your life.
“He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light.” Psalm 37:6.
The first thought here is, in heaven, and that makes sense because that is where the crowns and rewards are given out, this is an unalterable fact, it will happen.
Is this possible in the here and now though? Quite possibly, you see a person like this will become known for their righteousness.
This translates into wisdom; as a result, people will come to this sort of Christian for counsel and teaching. And there will be a reputation among both Christians and the worldly that they can be trusted.
Take this a little further and you realize that a righteous person can talk about the Lord and people will be more likely to listen.
You see this in the Lord Jesus, He was young (in His thirties) and yet young and old listened to Him, Jesus was either hated or loved, but He was not ignored.
“He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” Psalm 37:6.
All of these things may be said for the latter part of verse six, “And your justice as the noonday”. The word “and” is between these two thoughts and so you can see that they are connected together.
It’s almost funny, you see people wringing their hands and crying out for justice, yet you see them dispensing precious little themselves. Justice is bent in whatever direction it is convenient for at the moment.
This has already been pointed out, but Christians, what about us; justice is rendered by God’s people too. One will say, “But I am such an insignificant little fish in a big pond!”
Not so, we are children of the living God, if anyone has received Christ as their savior His eye is upon them. God’s expectation of us is to do justice in the same way His Son is just.
The good news here is that we have the Holy Spirit to guide us in these matters. God takes His word in the Bible and by His Spirit, points out the righteous answer to our questions.
We as His servants have to respond in the manner He dictates. Our response is not to be affected by whether it is convenient for us or not to do the right thing.
That is not how the world thinks, if someone is a great artist of some sort and they molest children or are accused of sodomy and statutory rape, the fact that they are great or exceedingly rich militates against justice.
The perpetrator is more important than the victim in this case.
As a result injustice after injustice is piled up and soon men are encouraged to do whatever they wish, which of course creates more injustice.
The world did not become the sick diseased place that it is today because of God’s negligence. It became this way because men who rejected God chose to perpetrate one little evil piled upon other evils until we are nearly suffocating in an avalanche of chaotic horror.
“The faithful man has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net. That they may successfully do evil with both hands – the prince [civic or federal official] asks for gifts, the Judge seeks a bribe, and the great man utters his evil desire; so they scheme together. The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge; the day of your watchman and your punishment comes; now shall be their perplexity [judgment is near].” Micah 7:2-4.
Is there any question that your justice will shine forth as the noonday? The smallest light in an exceedingly dark cave will draw people to it. Even so, do not only live life in a just manner, but pray that God establishes it in our nation.
“If you have understanding, hear this; listen to the sound of my words: Should one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn Him [God] who is most just? Is it fitting to say to a king, ‘You are worthless,’ and to nobles, ‘You are wicked’? Yet He [God] is not partial to princes, nor does He regard the rich more than the poor; for they are all the work of His hands. In a moment they die, in the middle of the night; the people are shaken and pass away; the mighty are taken away without a hand. For His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. For He need not further consider a man, that he should go before God in judgment. He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, and sets others in their place. Therefore He knows their works; He overthrows them in the night, and they are crushed.” Job 34:16-25.
We live in perilous and uncertain times where justice and righteousness should be the mark of every Christian, and prayer is not an option, it is a necessity.
Justice Walled Out, Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 7-24-15, updated on 3-27-19.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.