Passage Read: 2 Chronicles 6-9
Meditation Verses: 6:28-31
Thought
This is a frightening prayer, but it is just a restatement of all the other prayers. When trouble comes in whatever form it takes, because of the unfaithfulness of the people, when they humble themselves and repent and pray for relief, forgive them and grant them relief and blessing. But here he adds, "render to each according to his ways," which is a frightening thought, because the point of this prayer is that trouble comes as discipline for their sin, which means their ways have not been good. Who wants to be treated according to their ways? Who's ways are so pleasing to the Lord that He should pour out good things on them? But Solomon continues: The thought of being treated according to our ways should lead us to fear the Lord and learn His ways and walk according to them. Solomon's prayer is not meant to terrify people, but to encourage them to look to their ways and be diligent to know and obey the Lord so that He can treat us generously because we have trained ourselves to do what pleases Him. There is hope there that we could be so transformed that being treated according to our own ways would not be frightening but delightful.
Application
I don't want to be treated as my sins deserve, and the psalmist confirms that the Lord graciously does not treat us as badly as we deserve. But does that assurance make me lazy or careless in my efforts to change and grow in God's ways? Do I believe that I could in fact grow so much in God's ways that I could not fear being treated according to my ways? That is what Solomon is saying here! It is both a word of hope, that I could know and walk in God's ways so that He treats me wonderfully because of my devotion, and a word of challenge, that I fear the Lord and take pains to know and walk in His ways so that He can pour out blessing on me. That's David's own experience and the basis for many of his prayers. And it remains a promise in the New Testament, that Jesus will repay me according to my deeds, according to how I've lived, either in the obedience that comes from faith or in the sinful ways of the world. How I live matters, and that is both hope that I can indeed gain victory over sin and a spur to drive me to apply all diligence to root out sin and build in godly behavior.