Passage Read: Psalm 7-10
Meditation Verses: 10:3-11
Thought
The trouble with discerning wickedness is that even the evil man prospers. The Lord promises to bless the righteous with good things and by prospering all he does. But if the wicked also enjoys prosperity and gets away with all kinds of evil, how can people see that it is bad to be evil? The righteous are often victims of the wicked, and the wicked get away with it for a whole lifetime. How then can unbelievers see that it is wrong to do evil? Even believers can be led astray into half-heartedness, because they see that it apparently doesn't matter whether you're a little good and a little bad or all good or all bad.
Application
How can I call a congregation to fully devoted righteousness when we're surrounded by a lukewarm Christianity where everyone seems to be doing fine, even prospering? I have to. I have to remain committed to seeking the highest righteousness, even though so many around me who profess faith in Christ seem to care more for getting ahead in the world than getting ahead in spiritual matters. Yes, ultimately, it is God who must do a work in a person's heart to draw them after Himself. He has done such a work in my heart that I want to get closer and closer to Him, rather than settle for some of Him and some of worldliness. I wish that Job and his friends were right, that the wicked suffers rebuke quickly so the righteous see and are warned and the foolish see the importance of changing their ways. But that's not how it is. Rather, a man's faith is revealed by his actions, by what he chooses to live for.